Motivation is considered a process that regulates behaviour, in that it encourages a person to work. After all, any act or inaction hides a motive, even if not always conscious. The first mention of motivation was mentioned by the famous German thinker A. Schopenhauer. Motivation refers to complex psychological phenomena, studied by many scientists and around which many theories were formed. In order to learn how to better manage your time and come to an understanding of how to achieve your goals, you need to understand what kinds of motivation exist and how to successfully apply them.
Motivation of human activities: the main components
If a person does not fully understand what motivation means, then explain what it is in simple words easily enough. First, you need to find out the origin of this word and its meaning. The term “motivation” comes from the word “movere”, which in Latin translates as “move.” Having learned the origin of the term it is already possible to conclude that motivation drives the actions of the personality, pushes it to perform certain actions or, conversely, to inaction.
Motivation is one of the abilities of a person, which helps him achieve the desired. The developed theories of motivation show the person her enormous influence on the way of his life, the degree of activity and organization. That is, the more the person is motivated, the more efforts she makes to achieve her goals. Some scientists understand human motivation as a process of regulation of activity, whereas other specialists mean by this term a certain set of motives.
The motive in psychology is that it helps to direct the active actions of a person in a certain direction, is a generalized image of what a person wants to achieve in the course of his activity. It can manifest itself in the form of positive emotions from the achievement of a goal or negative emotions in those cases when the goals could not be achieved. The motive is not the same as the need or purpose. In theories of motivation for a person, a need is an unconscious desire to eliminate physical or psychological discomfort, while the goal is set consciously in the process of working on one’s desires and information coming from outside. Motives are formed on the basis of various needs and are an incentive to achieve the goal. They are considered in detail in the theories of motivation developed for man.
Types of motivation and their features
The person’s motivation can be divided into positive and negative, stable and unstable. There is also external and internal motivation, which has its own characteristics. A positive motivation for any person should be supported by pleasant emotions, whereas negative motivation is aimed at avoiding negative experiences. Stable motivation extends to the basic physiological needs of a person and is permanent, and unstable motivation depends on the needs of the individual (for example, combating bad habits).
Additionally, individual, group and cognitive motivation are singled out. The individual type of motivation for each person is to maintain the physiological state of the organism, and group motivation is directly related to the construction of social ties. Cognitive motivation is aimed at studying the new and manifests itself in the form of games, research activities.
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Of all that motivated people to work, the most common motives were also chosen. Most often in their actions people are guided by the motives of power, self-affirmation, identification, accession, self-development, and also external and socially significant motives. Other motives can also be components of the main motivation for a person. You can be motivated by a wide variety of things and processes, it depends on your character, lifestyle and professional environment. The significance of each of the varieties of motivation is detailed in the theories of motivation developed by leading specialists in the field of psychology.
External and internal motivation in human life
An important role in everyday life of a person is played by both external and internal motivation. External motivation is characterized by the receipt of a stimulus from the outside, that is, a person primarily engages in any work in order to receive compensation, praise or recognition in society. A vivid example of the external motivation of a working person is wages, provided that the work itself does not arouse his interest and does not bring much pleasure.
According to the theories of human motivation, its internal form is not related to external circumstances and the person chooses a certain activity primarily because it brings him pleasure. For example, he draws not in order to win the competition, but to get positive emotions. These two types of motivation in the life of an ordinary person are closely related to each other and often the same activity is supported by several motivations.
The variety of theories of human motivation
Theories of motivation are studied in psychology in order to better understand what motivates a person to act and how his behaviour is formed. The theories of motivation were worked by such famous psychologists as Maslow, Alderfer, Herzberg, Adams, Vroom and many others. A detailed analysis of human needs made it possible to identify two main areas in the field of theories of motivation:
- Procedural;
- Informative;
Each of these theories of motivation attracted many supporters. Having studied the basic theories, one can better understand the types of motivation of an individual, analyze the nature of human actions in different life situations.
Theory of motivation: features of the content direction
The emphasis in this direction of motivation for a person is made on the analysis of human needs and methods of their systematization. The influence of internal emotional-volitional impulses on the formation of features of personality behavior is studied. Such principles of the theory of motivation were held by Maslow, Herzberg, McClelland, Alderfer.
- The Maslow theory. The most important in this theory of motivation for any person is that the needs are formed into groups, between which a strict hierarchy is observed. In order to illustrate this theory of human motivation, one can use a pyramid based on basic physiological needs, and the top of the pyramid is the achievement of self-actualization.
- The theory of ERG Alderfer. According to this theory of human motivation, all needs can be attributed to one of the 3 groups (existence, connections and growth). The difference between this theory of motivation of a person from Maslow’s theory is that Maslow recognized only one-way movement from lower to higher needs;
- The McClelland theory. If you study this theory of motivation, you can see that throughout life a person can acquire the needs of achievement, complicity and domination and one of them has a strong influence on his character and behaviour;
- The theory of Herzberg. In this theory, the influence of material and non-material factors on the formation of the personality and its activities are considered. This theory of human motivation is widely used by managers of firms and enterprises to optimize the work of employees;
Motivation of a person: procedural direction
The following theories of human motivation analyze not only the needs, but also the efforts, the nature of the activities aimed at achieving the desired goal. The most well-known procedural theories include:
- The theory of expectations Vroom. The level of motivation for a particular person depends not only on the availability of needs, but also on how much he is willing to try to satisfy these needs. It is necessary to be firmly confident that the approach chosen by you will be effective and will help achieve the goal;
- The Adams Equality Theory. The essence of this theory of motivation for a person is that he is inclined to compare the result of certain actions with the result of other people who have fallen into similar life circumstances. Since this theory of human motivation is subjective, in addition to a fair assessment, a person can underestimate or overestimate the result obtained by others;
- The Porter-Lawler model. This theory of human motivation combines elements of the works of Vroom and Adams;
Methods of development
Theories of motivation play an important role for a person, because understanding how motivation is formed, you can use this information to achieve your goals. A successful person must successfully use various types of useful motivation and be able to motivate others when necessary. Having studied the theoretical material, you can choose the most useful approach for yourself and stick to it in everyday life.
However, not everyone knows what it means to motivate oneself and others. Different methods of motivation are used by specialists for workers and students. There are also methods of self-motivation, which include:
- Reading and repeating affirmations;
- Self-expression;
- Studying the life path of great people;
- Visualization;
Studying theories of motivation for a person helps to better understand their own behaviour and the behaviour of other people, to develop a plan for increasing productivity. Once you decide what it means to motivate yourself to action, solving many problems over time will cease to be a problem for you.
Achievement of success in life is conditioned not only by motivation, but also by some other skills, for example, non-standard approaches to problem-solving. The necessary brain functions allow the development of individually designed trainings on the BrainApps resource, which takes into account the strengths and weaknesses of the brain.
