Motivatie en de Zelfsturende Mens
Chapter 1: Introduction
What is Motivation? Why is it Important?
Motivation: wanting change, a change in the self or a change in the environment.
Motivational Science
A good theory
To understand the nature of motivation and to explain how it works, a theory of motivation needs to
do two things:
- it needs to identify the relations that exist among naturally occurring, observable phenomena. (A
theory needs to identify what causes the phenomenon and also what the phenomenon itself causes:
antecedents and consequences).
- it needs to explain why those relations exist.
Theory > Hypotheses > Data > Recommended Applications
Two Perennial Questions
Two fundamental questions in the study of motivation:
1. What causes behavior?
2. Why does behavior vary in its intensity?
Subject Matter
The study of motivation concerns those internal processes that give behavior its energy, direction,
and persistence:
- Energy: implies that behavior has strength – that it is relatively strong, intense, and hardy or
resilient.
- Direction: implies that behavior has purpose – that it is aimed or guided toward some
particular goal or outcome.
- Persistence: implies that behavior has endurance – that it sustains itself over time and across
different situations.
,Internal Motives
Motive: an internal process that energizes, directs, and sustains behavior.
Needs
Needs: conditions within the individual that are essential and necessary for the maintenance of life
and for nurturance of growth and well-being.
- hunger, thirst, competence, belongingness.
- types of needs: physiological, psychological, implicit.
Cognitions
Cognitions: mental events, such as thoughts, beliefs, expectations, plans, goals, strategies, appraisals,
attributions, and the self-concept.
- cognitive sources of motivation involve the person’s ways of thinking.
- types of cognitive sources of motivation: plans and goals, mindsets, beliefs and expectations, and
the self.
Emotions
Emotions: complex but coordinated feeling-arousal-purposive-expressive reactions to the significant
events in our lives.
→ People have three major mechanisms to generate adaptive motivational states – needs,
cognitions, and emotions, and these three types of internal motives serve as the core subject matter
of contemporary motivation study.
External Events and Social Contexts
External events: environmental, social, and cultural offerings that affect a person’s internal motives.
- money, being praised, foul odor, being yelled at.
Social contexts: general situations.
- classroom, workplace climate, parenting style, culture.
Motivation versus Influence
The study of motivation is not about manipulating (influencing) people; rather, it is about
understanding the conditions under which people can energize and direct (motivate) their own
behavior.
Expressions of Motivation
Motivation is a private and unobservable (internal) experience. Five ways to measure motivation
when you see it, are:
- Behavior
seven aspects of behavior express the presence, intensity, and quality of motivation:
* effort
* persistence
, * latency
* choice
* probability of response
* facial expressions
* bodily gestures
- Engagement
engagement refers to how actively involved a person is in a task.
* behavioral engagement
> effort, persistence
* emotional engagement
> interest, enjoyment
* cognitive engagement
> using sophisticated learning strategies
* agentic engagement
> asking questions, contributing.
- Psychophysiology
psychophysiology: the process by which psychological states (motivation, emotion) produce
downstream changes in one’s physiology (release of neurotransmitters, hormones..).
- Brain activations
- Self-report
a way to infer the presence, intensity, and quality of motivation is simply to ask. Self-reports
can be useful and informative, but they always need to be backed up and verified by the
person’s behavior, engagement, psychophysiology, and brain activity.
Framework to Understand Motivation and Emotion
→ The summary framework illustrates how motivational psychologists answer their perennial
questions (what causes behavior? Why does behavior vary in its intensity?).
Antecedents conditions: what causes motivation and emotion.
Needs, cognitions, and emotions: the subject matter of motivation study.
Behavior, engagement, psychophysiology, brain activations, self-report: how motives express
themselves.
Changes in life outcomes: why the study of motivation and emotion is so important to people’s lives.
Ten Unifying Themes
Ten unifying themes in the study of motivation and emotion:
Motivation and emotion benefit adaptation and functioning.
Motivation and emotion direct attention.
Motivation and emotion are “intervening variables.”
, Motives vary over time and influence the ongoing stream of behavior.
Types of motivations exist.
We are not always consciously aware of the motivational basis of our behavior.
Motivation study reveals what people want.
To flourish, motivation needs supportive conditions.
When trying to motivate others, what is easy to do is rarely what works.
There is nothing so practical as a good theory.
Motivation and Emotion Benefit Adaptation and Functioning
Motivation and emotion change in response to changes in the environment, and this capacity to
change allows people to function as complex adaptive systems. People with high-quality motivation
and emotion generally adapt and thrive, while people with motivational and emotional deficits
generally flounder and suffer.
Motivation and Emotion Direct Attention
Motives prepare us for action by directing attention to select some behaviors and courses of action
over others.
- negative stimuli/environmental events are more attention-getting than positive
stimuli/environmental events.
Motivation and Emotion Are “Intervening Variables”
Motivational and emotional processes arise in response to environmental events and, once aroused,
cause behavior and outcomes. Motivation and emotion are therefore variables that intervene
between these causes (antecedents) and effects (outcomes) to explain the why that underlies these
cause-effect relations. Motivational and emotional states “intervene” between environmental causes
and life-outcome effects to explain why the antecedent affects the outcome.
Environmental causes > motivational and emotional processes > life-outcome effects.
Motives Vary Over Time and Contribute into the Ongoing Stream of Behavior
- Motive strengths change over time.
- People forever harbor a multitude of motives of various intensities, any one of which might
grab attention and participate in the stream of behavior, given appropriate circumstances
(affiliation, hunger, curiosity..)
- Motives are not something a person either does or does not have, but instead, they rise and
fall as circumstances change.
Types of Motivations Exist
Different types of motivation exist and these different types have different antecedents (causes) and
different consequences (outcomes).
We Are Not Always Consciously Aware of the Motivational Basis of Our Behavior
