10-10-2012, 05:01 PM
MOTIVATION
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When you come from school, you feel hungry and want to eat something. You
want to eat because there is a force which compels you to have food. Likewise if
a question is asked why do you want to join a college? The answer can be given
in various ways like you want to learn or you need a degree to get a good job. You
may want to join college to have lot of friends. This basic question of the ‘why of
behaviour’ or factors which compel us to do certain activities makes us study the
psychological process called motivation. In this lesson you will study about the
nature of motivation, types of motives, intrinsic and extrinsic types of motivation,
conflict, and frustration. Understanding motivation helps us to have insights into
the dynamics of action.
MEANING OF MOTIVATION
Motivation is one of the most frequently used words in psychology. It refers to the
factors which move or activate the organism. We infer the presence of motivation
when we see that people work toward certain goals. For example, we might
observe that a student works hard at almost every task that comes to him/her;
from this we infer that the person has motive to achieve.
All human behaviour appears to arise in response to some form of internal
(physiological) or external (environmental) stimulation. The behaviours, however,
are not random. They often involve some purpose or goal. It is often held that
behaviours take place as a result of the arousal of certain motives. Thus motivation
can be defined as the process of activating, maintaining and directing behaviour
towards a particular goal. The process is usually terminated once the desired goal
is attained by the person.
The process of initiating action is technically called ‘motivation’. Directing behaviour
towards certain goal is the essence of motivation. Motivation is not always directly
observable. It is inferred and used to explain behaviour. When we ask “What
motivates a person to do a particular task?” We usually mean why does she behave
as she does. In other words, motivation, as popularly used, refers to the cause or
why of behaviour.
Interestingly, we are not aware of all our motives. Behaviour can be governed by
unconscious motives too. If our understanding of motives is correct, we have a
powerful tool for explaining behaviour. We explain our everyday behaviour in
terms of various motives.
Needs and Motives
A need is a condition of lack or deficit of something required by the organism.In
order to maintain homeostasis or balance the organism finds it necessary to satisfy
the needs.
The needs are of different types. The need for food or water is a physiological
need, which arises out of lack or deficit of food or water in the organism. The
needs for excretion and urination are also physiological needs. They are due to
the organism’s necessity to eliminate waste matter from the body. The need for
contact with other persons is a social need. The other social needs include need
for prestige, status, affection, self-esteem, and so on. A person becomes more
aware of his needs when they are not fulfilled. In other words, when you are
hungry, you need food, and, when you are thirsty you need water. In these cases
you are in a state of deprivation and your bodily system suffers from some kind of
imbalance.
The needs may be broadly categorised as, primary or physiological needs and
secondary or social needs. Needs for food, water, sex, sleep and rest, and
elimination are primary needs. Needs for achievement, affiliation, power are
examples of social needs.
HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
Abraham Maslow, who was a humanistic psychologist, argued that needs are
arranged in a ladder-like steps. He proposed a rising order of needs from the level
of physiological to self transcendence. The order of needs starts from basic survival
or lower order needs to higher order needs. As one level of need is satisfied
another higher order need will emerge and assume importance in life. The hierarchy
is shown in Fig. 9.1.
Physiological needs: The most potent and lowest level of all the needs are
physiological needs. Thus the needs of hunger, thirst, sex, temperature regulation
and rest occupy the lowest step in the ladder. According to Maslow, when these
physiological needs are deprived for a long period, all other needs fail to appear
We must eat to live. The bio-chemical processes which sustain life get their energy
and chemical substances from food. Food deprivation results in contractions in
the stomach which are felt by the individual as hunger pangs. When this happens,
the individual spends energy in trying to get food. Factors like habits and social
customs also influence eating behaviour.
We can go without food for weeks but we cannot live without water for more than
a few days. The brain directs the organism to obtain water. Sex need differs in
many respects from hunger and thirst. Sex is not vital to the survival of the organism
but is essential to the survival of the species.