What is motivation in psychology pdf

The human psyche is determined by what it associates things with. So if someone associates pleasure by taking a certain action or behavior, they will continue to do so until the behavior is no longer rewarding.

There are several different types of motivation to consider. The main types are internal intrinsic and external extrinsic.

Internal motivation is something that is driven by a desire within, whether that is a basic necessity to get food and shelter, social approval, acceptance, or a sense of accomplishment.

External motivation is driven by what others may think of us or achieving a goal like earning a paycheck. Persistence is about continuing on a specific task until it is completed. Classical and Operant Conditioning focuses on which stimuli, either environmental or physical, will cause the greatest motivation for an individual. Incentive Motivation is most focused on reinforcement. When a person has positive or negative reinforcement, it will affect how motivated they are to continue with a task or do something different the next time.

With Expectancy Theory, there are three essential components, including expectancy, instrumentality, and balance, that help to determine how a person might behave in a given situation based on past experiences.

Being that there are many different theories about motivation, a common question that is brought up is what, exactly, is a motivation theory? The human brain is a complicated organ. Scientists are still trying to figure out how everything works, and they may not have all the answers anytime in the near future.

But in fact, Management by direction and control may not be effective for motivating people whose physiological and safety needs are reasonably satisfied and whose social, esteem and self actualization needs are becoming predominant.

For having a more realistic and accurate understanding of human nature and motivation, MC gregor developed an alternative theory of human behavior called Theory Y.

Theory Y is positive, participating and democratic. This theory assumes that, people are not, by nature, lazy and unreliable. It postulates that people can be basically self directed and creative at work, if properly motivated.

Employees can view work as natural as play or rest. People are not by nature passive or resistant to organizational needs. They can exercise self-direction and self control, if they are properly motivated. Employees have creative capacity in solving organizational problems. An average employee learns, under proper conditions, not only to accept but also to seek responsibility. Self control is often indispensable in achieving organizational goals.

Thus Theory Y assumptions present a high degree of faith in the capacity and potentiality of people. Theory Y assumes that higher order needs dominate individuals. Unfortunately there is no conclusive evidence to confirm that either set of assumptions are valid. Both Theory X and Theory Y assumptions may be appropriate in a particular situation. He has examined various industrial organizations to determine the effect of management practices on individual behavior and their personal growth in work environment.

They are as follows: - 2. People in work organizations will have a tendency to grow from an infant to a matured state. But many organizations are structured and organized in such a way that the management practices they follow will keep away the employees from maturing. Employees are given minimal control over their environment.

They are expected to be passive, dependent and subordinate. In between a mature personality and a highly structured organization, an employee has options like escape, fight or adaptN. When the structure of the organization is too formal, where employee has no control over their environment, he may escape by quitting the job, being absent from work or getting promotion to higher levels.

One can fight the system by exerting pressure on the organization by means of informal groups or through labor unions. Another way is to adapt to situations by developing an attitude of apathy or indifference. This is the most unhealthy option that an employee chooses - according to Argyris. He argues that management should provide a good work climate in which every one has a chance to grow and mature as individuals".

Since employees can move from the state of immature behavior to mature behavior, he supports Theory Y, propounded by MC gregor, and both MC gregor and Argyris found that broadening individual's responsibility is beneficial to both workers and the organization.

A change in the organization is essential so that individuals grow and mature in it. Thus Argyris proposes that the existing bureaucratic - pyramidal organization structure the organizational counterpart to Theory X assumptions about people should give way to humanistic - democratic value system the organizational counterpart to Theory Y assumptions about people'2. Vroom proposed his expectancy theory in 's as an alternative to the content models. Vroom explains that motivation is a product of three factors, viz, Valence how much one wants a reward , Expectancy one's estimate of the probability that effort will result in successful performance and Instrumentality one's estimate that performance will result in receiving the reward.

This motivational relationship is expressed in the form of a formula. It is the personal value workers place on the rewards they believe they will receive for performance. When valence is high, motivation is also high. Expectancy refers to a person's perception of the probability that effort will lead to performance. Instrumentality is a person's perception of the probability that certain outcomes are attached to performance.

Thus an individual is motivated by the perceived reward available to him for accomplishing a goal. For example, an employee who feels that his promotion depends upon his excellent performance, then there are two outcomes, namely, first level outcome, i. Here his valence should be considered. Valence for a reward is unique to each employee. His valence, i. If his desire for promotion is high, his valence will be positive.

If he is indifferent to promotion, valence will be zero and if he dislikes promotion, then it will be negative. Here the employee would be motivated towards excellent performance because of his preference to be promoted. The excellent performance, i. Thus according to Vroom, motivation is the product of valence, expectancy and instrumentality. This theory represents a comprehensive, valid and useful approach to understanding motivation". Porter and E.

This theory states the relationship between efforts, performance, rewards and satisfaction. The individual effort of an employee is basically dependant upon the value of expected reward. Thus in anticipation of the expected reward, employee effort leads to better performance. But for better performance, a person must have the necessary abilities and skills. Efforts and performance cannot be equated.

In between them, traits and abilities have a play. The performance leads to rewards - either intrinsic rewards which is one built in by oneself for his good performance or extrinsic rewards like pay, promotion etc. Satisfaction is invariably connected with rewards. If the actual rewards are greater than the perceived reward, employee gets satisfaction and vice versa.

This satisfaction will have an influence on the future personal values. Although this theory is proved to be quite complex and difficult to measure, it is more applications oriented model. Model developed by B. F Skinner is quite different from the cognitive theories of motivation. While cognitive theories like Maslow's need hierarchy argues that internal needs lead to behaviour, reinforcement theory states that external consequences tend to determine behaviour.

It ignores the inner state of needs of the individual. Reinforcement theory reveals that human behaviour can be explained in terms of the previous positive or negative outcomes of that behaviour. This is truly a behaviouristic approach where one can see that reinforcement conditions behaviour. The repeating behaviors that people have learned will produce pleasant outcomes.

Those behaviors, which are rewarded, tend to be repeated and those behaviors, which are either not rewarded or punished, tend to disappear.

Thus goal directed behaviour is a continuous process. However if the need is not satisfies because of some reasons, the person may feel frustration which can be defined as accumulation of tension due to non fulfillment of needs.

At this stage the individual will try to modify his behavior to eliminate factors for non fulfillment of his needs. For example, putting more force need satisfactions. Maslow developed the hierarchy of needs consisting of five hierarchic classes. According to Maslow, people are motivated by unsatisfied needs. If there are deficits on this level, all behavior will be oriented to satisfy this deficit. Essentially, if you have not slept or eaten adequately, you won't be interested in your self-esteem desires.

Subsequently we have the second level, which awakens a need for security. After securing those two levels, the motives shift to the social sphere, the third level. Psychological requirements comprise the fourth level, while the top of the hierarchy consists of self-realization and self-actualization. Only unsatisfied needs influence behavior, satisfied needs do not. The further the progress up the hierarchy, the more individuality, humanness and psychological health a person will show.

Herzberg's two-factor Hygiene —Motivation theory Frederick Herzberg's two-factor theory concludes that certain factors in the workplace result in job satisfaction, but if absent, they don't lead to dissatisfaction but no satisfaction. Herzberg concluded that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction were the products of two separate factors: motivating factors satisfiers and hygiene factors dissatisfiers. Some motivating factors satisfiers were: Achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, advancement, and growth.

Some hygiene factors dissatisfiers were: company policy, supervision, working conditions, interpersonal relations, salary, status, job security, and personal life. The traditional view, known as Theory X holds people have inherent dislike of work. Although workers may view it as a necessity, they will avoid it whenever possible. In this view most people prefer to be directed and to avoid responsibility.

As a result, the work is of secondary importance, and managers should push employees to work. Theory Y is more optimistic. It assumes that work is as natural as play or rest. In theory Y people want to work and can derive a great of satisfaction from work.

In this view people have the capacity to accept- even seek- responsibility and to apply imagination, inequality, ingenuity, and creativity to organizational problems. This theory posits that there are three groups of core need — existence, relatedness, and growth, hence the label: ERG theory.

The existence group is concerned with providing our basic material existence requirements. They include the items that Maslow considered to be physiological and safety needs. The second group of needs is those of relatedness- the desire we have for maintaining important personal relationships. These social and status desires require interaction with others if they are to be satisfied, and they align with Maslow's social need and the external component of Maslow's esteem classification.

Finally, Alderfer isolates growth needs as an intrinsic desire for personal development. Maslow's categories are broken down into many different parts and there are a lot of needs. The ERG categories are broader and cover more than just certain areas. As a person grows, the existence, relatedness, and growth for all desires continue to grow. All these needs should be fulfilled to greater wholeness as a human being.

These include the intrinsic component from Maslow's esteem category and the characteristics included under self- actualization.

Self-Determination theory Propounded by Edward L. Deci and Richard M. SDT identifies three needs that, if satisfied, allow optimal function and growth: competence, relatedness, and autonomy. These three psychological needs motivate the self to initiate specific behaviour and mental nutriments that are essential for psychological health and well-being. When these needs are satisfied, there are positive consequences, such as well-being and growth, leading people to be motivated, productive and happy.

Goal-Setting Theory Goal setting theory focuses on the process of setting goals themselves. According to psychologist Edwin Locke the natural human inclination to set and strive for goals is useful only if the individual both understands and accepts a particular goal.

Furthermore workers will not be motivated if they do not possess goal and the skills needed to achieve a goal. According to goal setting theory, individual are motivated when they behave in ways that move them to certain clear goals, that they accept and can reasonably expect to attain.

Research shows that when goals are specific and challenging, they function more effectively as motivating factors in both individual and group performance Research also indicate that motivation and commitment are higher when employees participate in the setting goals. Vroom in According to Vroom people will be motivated to do thing to achieve some goals to the extent they expect that certain actions on their part will help them to achieve the goal. Which is based from the following hence the equation.

In other words, it's the person assessment of how well and what kind of effort will relate in better performance. I Instrumentality is the person's perception that performance will be rewarded or punished.