Motivation • Definition: That which gives the impetus to behaviour by arousing, sustaining and directing it towards the successful attainment of goals • So, motivation: – energises people to act – moves you from a resting state to an active state – directs behaviour & organises it towards a particular goal-state – maintains behaviour until the goal is achieved Biological Explanations • Where does the energy to engage in behaviour come from? • Instincts and motivation: – Instincts are automatic, involuntary and unlearned patterns of behaviour triggered by the presence of particular stimuli – For example babies are born with a unique ability that allows them to survive: they are born with the instinct to cry – Buss (1999) suggested that the desire to pass on our genes may provide the motivational forces for such things as love, romantic relationships, attraction and marriage Drive Theory • Based on the concept of our body’s homeostasis • Homeostasis is the natural tendency to keep the body in a state of equilibrium • Clark Hull (1943) suggested that physiological disruptions to homeostasis produce drives (internal tensions that motivate an organism to engage in behaviour to reduce this tension) • Drawbacks: dieting for example flies in the face of the drive to eat, while taking a trip on a roller- coaster runs contrary to the drive for safety Thirst: the Need to Drink • Two types of thirst: extracellular and intracellular – Losing water to exercise or lack of drinking results in extracellular thirst – Loss of the water levels in the blood results in the loss of blood volume, which in turn signals reduced blood pressure – Under such conditions the brain sends a neural signal to the kidneys that makes them release the hormone renin. Renin reacts with another substance in the blood to produce another hormone called angiotensin – Angiotensin triggers neurons in the brain which produce the desire to want to drink – maintaining homeostasis • Osmosis (the tendency of water to migrate from areas where it is abundant to areas where it is scarce) causes intracellular thirst – As we lose water the concentration of salt levels in the blood rise. This rise in salt concentration of the blood causes water from areas where it is more abundant to move into the blood system – Neurons in the hypothalamus activate when water is pulled away from them, such activation results in the experience of thirst – So, intracellular thirst does not necessarily have to result from water loss – indeed eating lots of salty food can have the same effect by raising salt concentration homeostasis Arousal Theory (Hebb, 1955) • A third biologically based theory of motivation maintains that people are motivated to act in ways that keep them at their optimum levels of arousal • Optimum level is obviously different for different people • So motivation to behave is induced by individual sets of positive and negative reinforcers in terms of maintaining this optimum level of arousal • We learn what keeps our own arousal levels at the optimum level Criticisms of Biological Approaches • Biological theories fail to take into account cognitive influences on what motivates us – Why is it that money can motivate some people while for others it is not important? – For example, why do some people work as volunteers for no wages and other people seek highly paid jobs? – So, there must be something else other than pure biological energy, that motivates different people for different reasons Cognitive Influences on Motivation • The contemporary view of motivation emphasises the importance of cognitive processes – How important something is to you – How confident you are in your ability to succeed are two cognitive factors that will influence motivation • So if passing your driving test is essential in gaining that ideal job you might become too stressed and not perform as well Incentive Theory of Motivation • Incentive theory maintains that external stimuli motivate behaviour • Individuals are attracted to behaviours that offer positive incentives and discouraged from those behaviours that they associate with negative behaviours • The value of an incentive is influenced by both cognitive and biological factors. So drug-taking behaviour might be motivated by both biological addiction (craving) and cognitive evaluations (taking the drug in the past has made the person feel relaxed and happy) Expectancy Theory • Based on cognitive processes, and motivation here is provided by our thoughts about engaging in behaviour • Expectancies refer to beliefs about how we will do if we engage in a certain behaviour • So if we expect to do well then we will be more likely to engage in the behaviour • If we feel that the chance of succeeding is poor we will be less likely to become involved Cognitive X Value Theory • The cognitive x value theory states that goal- directed behaviour is motivated by two cognitive judgements: – Firstly, the strength of an individual’s expectation that engagement in a particular behaviour will lead to goal obtainment (expectation value) – Secondly, the value that the individual places on the goal (incentive value) • e.g. successful promotion Hunger: the Need to Eat • There are a number of social and biological mechanisms that underlie hunger (the state of wanting to eat) and satiety (the state of no longer wanting food) • From a biological perspective there are two sets of signals that are associated with hunger: – Empty stomachs might increase appetite and produce hunger ‘pangs’ and a full stomach usually results in a decrease in appetite through bloating – Perhaps more precise signals come from the brain’s monitoring of blood-borne nutrients such as glucose (sugar used by body cells), amino acids and fatty acids Social Theories of Hunger • Appetite is the motivation to seek pleasure from food – e.g. chocolate cravings • If people who crave chocolate are given substances that have the same chemical composition as chocolate but do not taste like it, they will go on craving chocolate (Michener & Rozin, 1994) • This suggests that flavour also acts as a motivational force in some kings of eating • Social environments can influence our eating too Heckhausen’s Expectancy-Value Model Four different types of expectancies influence motivation: – situation-outcome (subjective probability of attaining an outcome in a specific situation without acting) – action-outcome (subjective probability of attaining an outcome by one's actions) – action-by-situation-outcome (subjective probability that situational factors facilitate or impede one's action-outcome expectancy) – outcome-consequence (subjective probability of an outcome to be associated with a specific consequence) Therefore, the motivation to act depends mainly on the value attached to the consequences of one's behaviour Self-Efficacy and Motivation (Bandura) • A social cognitive model of motivation focused on the role of perceptions of efficacy • Bandura defined self-efficacy as: ‘individuals' confidence in their ability to organise and execute a given course of action to solve a problem or accomplish a task’ • He distinguishes between two kinds of expectancy beliefs – Firstly, outcome expectations, which are beliefs that certain behaviours will lead to certain outcomes – Secondly, efficacy expectations, which are beliefs about whether one can effectively perform the behaviours necessary to produce the outcome Research Evidence for Self-Efficacy • St Charles (2002) reported a significant correlation between self-reported self efficacy scores of lecturers and their subsequent teaching performance. Those academics that reported high self-efficacy in being able to teach were those rated as the best teachers • D'Amico & Cardaci (2003) investigated self- efficacy and scholastic achievement as measured in 151 schoolchildren (mean age 13.4 yrs). They reported that all self-efficacy scores were significantly correlated with scholastic achievement Attribution and Motivation • Attribution theory proposes that every individual tries to explain success or failure of self and others by offering certain ‘attributions’ • Weiner's attribution theory (1992) identified ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck as the most important achievement attributions that serve to motivate action • He classified these attributions into three factors: locus of control, stability and controllability This table shows the four attributions that result from a combination of internal or external locus of control and whether or not control is possible when faced with a maths exam Internal locus External locus of control of control No control Own natural ability Pure luck (how I am feeling with maths on the day, if I get a lucky break with getting the right questions)
Control The amount of effort Task difficulty (how hard
I put into studying the questions are going to maths be) Goal Theory of Motivation • Goal theories assume that all actions are given meaning, direction and purpose by the goals that individuals seek out. • The work on goal theory (Ames, 1992; Urdan & Maehr, 1995) has differentiated three separate types of goals: 1. mastery goals (also called learning goals) 2. performance goals (also called ego involvement goals) 3. social goals Goal Theory Continued… • Other research has suggested the existence of other goals • Nicholls et al. (1990) defined two major kinds of motivationally relevant goal patterns or orientations: ego-involved goals and task-involved goals. – Questions like ‘Will I look intelligent?’ and ‘Can I outperform others?’ reflect ego-involved goals – In contrast, questions such as ‘How can I do this task?’ and ‘What will I learn?’ reflect task-involved goals Self-Development and Motivation • Humanistic theory is perhaps the most well known theory of motivation. According to this theory, humans are driven to achieve their maximum potential and will always do so unless obstacles are placed in their way • According to Maslow’s (1970) hierarchy of needs we are motivated to seek basic needs such as food and shelter and move up to higher, more psychological needs (such as self-development) Maslow’s Work Continued… • Maslow's work has led to additional attempts to develop a grand theory of motivation. • Leonard, Beauvais & Scholl (1995) propose five factors as the sources of motivation: 1. Instrumental Motivation (rewards and punishers) 2. Intrinsic Process Motivation (enjoyment, fun) 3. Goal Internalisation (values and goals) 4. Internal Self-Concept-based Motivation 5. External Self-Concept-based Motivation Model has two sources of motivation – internally driven and externally driven motivation Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation • Two kinds of motivational forces: – Those that are internally generated (intrinsic) and those that are externally generated (extrinsic) – So examples of intrinsic motivation are feeling good about doing something (ego boosts), gaining knowledge or competence as a result of engaging in a behaviour • In contrast, examples of extrinsic motivation include money, materialistic gains (new car, bigger office, more friends) and basically engaging in a task merely to obtain rewards or avoid punishments Increasing motivation in the classroom using intrinsic and extrinsic factors: there are a variety of specific actions that teachers can take to increase motivation on classroom tasks. In general, these fall into the two categories: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation Intrinsic Extrinsic Explain or show why learning a Provide clear expectations particular content or skill is important Give corrective feedback Create and/or maintain curiosity Provide valuable rewards and interest Make rewards available Provide a variety of activities and sensory stimulations, reading, stories, video Provide games and simulations Set clear goals for learning Relate learning to student needs and examples from their daily lives Help student develop plan of action Sexual Motivation • Distinction between hunger/thirst and sexual motivation: – When a hungry or thirsty animal ingests a sufficient quantity of food or water, and this restoration of energy or fluid returns the organism to a state of homeostatic balance. Sexual activity, however, depletes the organism's energy stores and the sex drive is satiated only when fatigue and exhaustion override it – Sexual motivation is largely elicited by environmental cues, whereas hunger and thirst largely reflect internal changes Sexual Motivation Continued… • Despite the fact that sexual behaviour in humans is controlled and driven by our brain, at the same time it is strongly influenced by learned experience from interaction with our environment • So that social, ethnic and cultural experience regulates such things as our sexual preference and habits • Learning must be an important factor in sexual motivation as what is considered ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ in human sexual behaviour is highly variable across cultures and times • Sexual motivation is therefore a unique blend of physiological and psychological stimulation Sensation Seeking • Sensation seeking is the motivation to seek out stimulation and novelty • Sensation seekers seem less reactive to stimulation and therefore require stronger levels of it than low sensation seekers (Zuckerman, 1991) • So people who have high sensation seeking tend to be motivated to engage in more risky behaviour, more high-risk jobs (fire-fighting, pilots) and more extreme sports (Jack & Ronan, 1998) Achievement Motivation • The need for achievement is the desire to accomplish tasks/goals and excel (McClelland et al., 1953; Atkinson, 1981) • There may be two reasons people strive to succeed: motivation for success and fear of failure – The motive of success reflects intrinsic motivational forces, the desire to master skills or goals – Fear of failure produces motivation that drives us to outperform peers. Such motivation is not always conducive to better performance – It has been shown that fear of failure seems to develop in children whose parents take for granted success but punish failure (Weiner, 1992)