Motivation - Why Do We Do What We Do?

The word motivation is related to words such as motor, motion, and emotion.

Biological Drives: The Need for Food and Water

Biological drives are inborn drives, and their principal feature is that they impel us to attend to our tissue needs, to maintain ourselves as organisms. The basic theme associated with biological drives is survival.

An important physiological process associated with the biological drives is homeostasis. Homeostasis is a physiological process characterized by a tendency for biological drives to maintain themselves at optimal levels of arousal.

Biological drives play a significant role in the learning process. Drive reduction theory states that when an action pays off in such a way that it reduces the tension associated with a biological drive in a state of arousal, then that action is reinforced.

General Drives: Looking for New Experiences

Three general drives of particular interest are the curiosity drive, the activity drive, and the affectional drive.

1. The curiosity drive urges us to seek novel stimulation, to look for new experiences.
2. The activity drive, one that urges us to make motor movements even when our biological drives are satisfied.
3. The affectional drive, the need for the kind of emotional nurturance that helps to sustain a sense of well-being and an optimistic attitude toward life.

Acquired Motives: Exploring the Need to Achieve

Acquired motives are motives in which learning plays a large role. These drives have been modified by experience, and express themselves in ways that are unique to the individual.

1. First, the need for achievement is a motive to reach one’s goals. All social motives can be thought of as ranging from high to low.
2. Second, the need for autonomy is a motive to do what one wants to do without too much regard for what others expect.
3. Third, the need for order is a motive that urges the individual to impose organization on the immediate environment.
4. Fourth, the need for affiliation is a motive to associate with others.
5. Fifth, the need for dominance is a motive to control the behavior of others.
6. Sixth, the need for exhibition is a motive to be noticed by others.
7. Seventh, the need for aggression is a motive to engage in conflict or to hurt others.
8. There are other acquired motives. The list above is representative, not exhaustive.

Unconscious Motives: Hidden Reasons for Our Behavior

Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, believed that motives can be unconscious. Unconscious motives may operate outside of the control of the ego. Freud asserted that there is a force in the mind called repression. Repression is an ego defense mechanism characterized by an involuntary tendency to shove mental information that threatens the integrity and stability of the ego down to an unconscious psychological domain.

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Self-Actualization: Becoming the Person You Were Meant to Be

Abraham Maslow, author of Toward a Psychology of Being and a principal advocate of the humanistic viewpoint in psychology, presented a hierarchy of needs.

1. The first layer of the pyramid represents physiological needs. These are the need for food, water, and so forth.
2. The second layer of the pyramid represents safety needs. These include the need for shelter, protection from injury, and so forth.
3. The third layer of the pyramid represents love and belongingness needs. These include the need for affection, the need to love, and the need to be loved.
4. The fourth layer of the pyramid represents esteem needs. These include the need to be esteemed by others and self-esteem.
5. The fifth layer of the pyramid represents cognitive needs. Cognitive needs include the need for mental stimulation, the need to use one’s intelligence, and the need to exercise creative abilities.
6. The sixth and top layer of the pyramid represents the need for selfactualization. The need to maximize one’s talents and potentialities.

The Search for Meaning: Looking for the Why of Life

Frankl asserts that the will to meaning is inborn, that it is a real psychological and emotional need. If a person lives a meaningful life, then that life will be full and rewarding. If a person lives a meaningless life, then that life will be empty and pointless. Frankl calls this adverse mental and emotional state the existential vacuum. One of its principal characteristics is demoralization, the conviction that nothing has any value and that nothing is worth doing.

How is meaning fulfilled? Frankl argues that the will to meaning orients itself toward values, perceived aspects of the world that seem to have worth or importance to other individuals or to humanity in general.