UNIT 2 ADDITIONAL NOTES

Motivation has been mainly termed as a factor that drives or pushes one in a certain direction or to
behave in a certain way. Motivation can be termed as a driving force or it can also be stated as a
process that starts and drives various activities, whether physical or psychological (Gerrig and
Zimbardo, 2006). The term motivation has been derived from a Latin word ‘movere’, which means ‘to
move’. It can thus be described in terms of drive, force, desires, needs and wishes that may lead to
individuals behaving in a certain manner. A desire to get praise from the teacher may motivate a
student to perform well in a class activity. A wish to gain more knowledge about a certain subject
may motivate an individual to take up an educational programme in that subject. A hunger drive may
prompt an individual to buy biscuits or snacks. A desire to spend time with his/ her parents, may
encourage a person to travel long distance. Thus any human behaviour can be said to be as a result
of some kind of motivation. The term motivation has been defined in various ways as you can see
below: Feldman defined motivation as “the factors that direct and energize the behaviour of humans
and other organisms”. Feist and Rosenberg define motivation as “the urge to move towards one’s
goals, to accomplish tasks”. Chamorro- Premuzic defined motivation as “an internal state, dynamic
rather than static in nature, that propels action, directs behaviour and is oriented toward satisfying
both instincts and cultural needs and goals”. Quick, Nelson and Khandelwal defined motivation as
“the process of arousing and sustaining goal directed behaviour”. Nolen-Hoeksema et al (2009, p.
419) describe motivation as “a condition that energizes behaviour and givesit direction”. Morgan et al
(1993, p. 268) define motivation as “the driving and pulling forces which result in persistent
behaviour directed toward particular goals”.

Needs: These are related to the biological states of cellular or bodily deficiencies that lead to drives.
For example, individuals need water, food and of course oxygen to survive (Feist & Rosenberg,
2015).These are the biological needs, the needs related to the body. We also have cognitive needs
and social needs. Cognitive needs include such needs as need for achievement and curiosity. Social
needs arise from social situation/ context and include need to conform, cooperate and compete.

Drives: Feist & Rosenberg (2015, p. 397) define drives as “the perceived states of tension that occur
when our bodies are deficient in some need, creating an urge to relieve the tension”. As we
discussed under need, a need leads to or compels drive. Thus when an individual is hungry he/ she
will seek food. Thus the need leads to drive and makes the individual to behave in such a way that
the deficiency created is dealt with.

Incentives: This is external or is from the environment (as opposed to drive that are internal) and
plays a role in motivating behaviours. It could be an object or an event. A trophy won in a game can
be termed as an incentive to do well in that game

TYPES OF MOTIVATION

Primary and Secondary Motivation: Primary motivation can also be termed as basic motivation and
mainly includes the needs related to hunger, thirst, sleep, sex, avoidance of pain and so on. These
mainly influence an individual’s behaviour at a basic level and these needs are also related to the
basic need for preservation of self. Secondary motivation can be termed as learned motivation and
these may differ from individual to individual. They are also related to the priorities and values of the
individual.

Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation: This is yet another way in which motivation can be categorized.
Extrinsic motivation can be defined as “motivation that comes from outside the person and usually
involves rewards and praises” (Feist & Rosenberg, 2015, p. 415). The examples of extrinsic motivation
are reward, praise, money, feedback and so on. Thus it consists of something outside the individual.
Such motivators provide satisfaction/ pleasure that the activities/ tasks may not provide. Thus these
motivators get the individual to do something that they may not do otherwise. Extrinsic motivation
has a number of advantages as it is not only linked with the increase in behaviour but also with
increase in performance. However, it also has limitation in the sense that, if, for instance, the reward
is removed, then the behaviour may also decrease. And at the same time if the reward remains the
same and is not increased, the motivation will also decrease. Further, extrinsic motivation may be
effective with simpler tasks as opposed to tasks that require creative and lateral thinking. Moreover,
it may also affect the intrinsic motivation of the person in carrying out the task. For example, if a
child enjoys keeping his/ her room organized and tidy, but if parents start providing reward for the
same, the child will keep the room tidy not because of the intrinsic motivation, that is the
enjoyment, but will do so because of the reward given by the parents. To take yet another example,
if an employee adequately uses safety devices because he/ she is intrinsically motivated to do so and
if his/ her supervisor provides him/ her with extrinsic motivators for use of the safety devices, the
employee will start using the safety devices due to the extrinsic motivation and not due to the
intrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation can be defined as “motivation that comes from within a person and includes the
elements of challenge, enjoyment, mastery and autonomy” (Feist & Rosenberg, 2015, p. 416). For
example, there could be an activity that an individual enjoys doing. There are four components of
intrinsic motivation (Feist and Rosenberg, 2015) as given below.

Challenge: It relates to the extent to which an individual enjoys the excitement that accompanies a
new challenge.

Enjoyment: It relates to the pleasure that an individual may obtain from carrying out the task.

Mastery: It relates to the sense of pride and accomplishment that an individual may experience
when he/ she carries out a difficult task.

Autonomy and self determination:It relates to the autonomy that an individual enjoys while carrying
out the task, that is, the freedom with which the individual can determine what is to be done and
how is it to be done.

THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

1. Drive Reduction Theory: The drive theory focuses on needs and drives which we have
discussed earlier. It is also called as the push theory of motivation as “the behaviour is
pushed towards goals by driving force within the person or animal” Drive reduction theory
 states that “lack of some basic biological need produces a drive to push an organism to
satisfy that need” (Feldman, 2015 p. 288). You learned about drive earlier in this Unit which
can be explained as a tension or arousal that channelizes behaviour to fulfill a need. Drives
can be of two types, primary and secondary. The examples of primary drives are thirst,
hunger, sleep and sex that are mainly related to the physiological needs of an individual.
Secondary drives are acquired drives arising from previous experience and learning, e.g.,
need for achievement in one’s field of work. Thus, this secondary drive will then channelize
the work related behaviour of the person. An important concept in the Drive theory is
homeostasis, which can be explained as “the process by which all organisms work to
maintain physiological equilibrium or balance around an optimal set point” It can also be
explained as the tendency of the body to maintain an internal state that is balanced or
steady (Feldman, 2015). Thus whenever there is any deviation from the ideal state or the set
point, then the adjustments will be made by the body to reestablish the balanced state or
achieve the set point, thus restoring the balance. For example, when you are thirsty, there is
lack of homeostasis and your primary drive is thirst. So, you want to restore the balance and
take the action to go and drink water. Drive reduction theory adequately explains how
behaviours are channelised by primary drives; however, it does not adequately explain all
human motivations, e.g., arousal-seeking behaviour. It may not help in explaining behaviour
of an adolescent who enjoys a roller coaster ride or rides his/ her bike in full speed. Thus
such behaviour that is thrilling and behaviour related to curiosity cannot be explained with
the help of this theory.

2. The Optimal Arousal Theory: You could see above that the drive reduction theory cannot be
applied to explain behaviours related to curiosity or thrill-seeking behaviours. In such cases
the optimal arousal theory can help us to explain this need for stimulation. The theory states
that when the arousal level is optimal, people perform better and function well. This theory
is based on the work carried out by Yerkes and Dodson in 1908, referred to as the Yerkes-
Dodson law . It explains the relationship between arousal level and task performance in the
following way: “we function best when we are moderately aroused or energized and both
low and high arousal/ energy levels lead to poor performance”
 As you see in the above Figure, when the arousal is low or high, the performance is also low;
however, performance is high when there is an optimal level of arousal. Thus it can be said
that individuals are motivated when certain situation is not very high or low in stimulation.

3. Incentive Theories: These can also be described as ‘pull’ theories (Morgan et al, 1996).
These theories state that the motivation is as a result of desire to achieve external rewards
or incentives. For example, a chocolate could serve as an incentive for a child to do his/ her
homework in time, even though he/ she may not actually be hungry .Thus incentive theories
explain behaviour in terms of external stimuli having rewarding value. Thus it can be said
that both, the drive reduction model and the incentive theories are relevant and can be
considered together to explain what motivates certain behaviours. For example, when
hungry, an individual will seek food (drive reduction model), however, he/ she will seek food
that seems to be more appetizing or appealing. However, incentive theories cannot explain
all human motivation such as when an individual engages in some behaviour even when
there is no incentive.

HUMANISTIC THEORY IS ALREADY IN THE 1st SEM NOTES

McClelland’s Acquired Needs Theory:

This theory was developed by David McClelland and it highlights the three psychological needs:
achievement, affiliation and power.

1. Need for Achievement (nAch) refers to the need to achieve or excel. It is characterized by a
strong need to master skills and achieve success. They want to take up challenges, compete,
overcome obstacles and difficulties.
2. Need for Affiliation (nAff) refers to the need to relate with others. They want to form close
and intimate relationship with others. Such people are very social and liked by others. They
can function very well in a team and collaborative set up.
 3. Need for Power (nPow) relates to the need to have an influence, impact and control others.
People having high need for power want status and positions to be called as influential in
material terms, e.g., they may wear expensive clothes or jewellery etc.

EMOTION
Emotions can also be termed as motivators of human behaviour (Feist and Rosenberg, 2015) and as
such behaviour can be directed and activated by emotions as well (Nolen- Hoeksema et al, 2009).
Though, they do differ from the basic needs that we discussed under motivation (like hunger, thirst
and so on) and are not as such linked to any specific needs, for example, hunger is as a result of need
for food and thirst in similar way as is a need for water. With regard to emotions there are a number
of triggers, for example, sadness can be triggered as a result of number of triggers or needs like
watching a sad movie, listening to a sad song and so on. Further, biological drives can be derailed by
emotions. For example, need for food, which is in a way a powerful drive, but it is possible to
override it with emotions.

THEORIES OF EMOTIONS

The James-Lange Theory

This theory was put forth by William James and Carl Lange. The theory states that emotions are
experienced by individuals due to the physiological changes. Thus, the emotions experienced by an
individual can be termed as reaction or response to the bodily changes that occur as a result of
certain external events and situations (Feldman, 2015). As, an individual is exposed to an external
event or situation, he/ she will experience a physiological reaction. And how this physiological
reaction is interpreted will determine the emotional reaction of the individual. For example, a
teacher catches a student playing game in classroom, the student in this situation will experience
physiological changes like rapid heartbeats. This physiological reaction is interpreted by the student
as fear (“My heart is beating fast, so I must be scared)

The theory has been criticised because in certain situations, emotions may be experienced even
before the physiological reactions are experienced. Also with the slow rate of visceral changes, it may
be difficult to interpret how they are the source of the emotions experienced. Further, some of the
emotional experiences may not occur as a result of physiological arousal. For example, an individual
who is exercising may experience rapid heartbeat but this may not be termed as fear. Thus, it can be
said that physiological changes are not as such sufficient in order to elicit emotional reaction. Also
varied emotions may be linked with visceral changes that are similar in nature, which again
contradicts the assumptions of this theory. For example, an individual may cry when he/ she is happy
and also when he/ she is sad.

The Cannon Bard Theory

This theory was proposed by Walter Cannon and Philip Bard. This theory assumes that same nerve
stimulus (that emerges from Thalamus) produces physiological arousal and emotional experiences at
the same time.
Thus, when an emotion producing stimulus is perceived by an individual, a signal is sent by thalamus
simultaneously to the autonomic nervous system that produces the visceral reaction and to cerebral
cortex regarding the emotional experience. Though the theory rejects the view that physiological
arousal leads to emotional experience, recent research has highlighted the role of hypothalamus and
limbic system (rather than thalamus) in emotional experience.

The Schachter- Singer Theory

The theory, also called as two factor theory, was proposed by Stanley Schachter and Jerome E.
Singer and is based on “the belief that emotions are determined jointly by a nonspecific kind of
physiological arousal and its interpretation, based on environmental cues” (Feldman, 2015, pg. 316).
Thus, the theory states that emotions experienced are identified by the individuals based on their
observation of the environment and by comparing themselves with others. This hypothesis was also
tested by Schachter and Singer in their experiment. As experiment was carried out in 1962 on a
sample of 184 participants (male college students), who were informed that they were receiving an
injection of a vitamin to observe its effect on visual skills. The participants were then given either
placebo (a saline solution having no side effects) or epinephrine (adrenalin) by a doctor. Epinephrine
is a drug that produces responses that are similar to those that occur when intense emotional
reactions are experienced (for example, increase in heart rate, blood sugar levels, increased
breathing, increase in the blood flow to brain and muscles and so on). The individual injected with
epinephrine may experience trembling, rapid heart beats, flushing and so on.

Opponent Process Theory

The focus of this theory is that “an emotional reaction to a stimulus is followed automatically by an
opposite reaction, repeated exposure to a stimulus causes the initial reaction to weaken and the
opponent process (opposite reaction) to strengthen” (Baron, 2005 pg. 398). Thus, the theory states
that the law of physics that every action is followed by a reaction, is also applicable to emotion. The
theory has found its application to understand drug addiction. As an individual starts using drugs he/
she may initially experience intense pleasure. However, with repeated use of drugs, there is a
decrease in the intensity of pleasure and the reactions related to withdrawal become stronger. Thus
the individual now consumes drugs in order to avoid the negative feelings he/ she may experience as
a result of not consuming drugs rather than for feelings of pleasure.