Theories of Motivation

The Importance of Motivation

Motivation plays a significant role in business, education, health, the environment, and the community in general. The individual in the workplace learns to adapt and be productive when motivation drives him to develop competencies, become creative, make plans, and set personal goals.

The motive to take corrective actions is needed when people face fluctuating circumstances in their health and the community or environment. A sick person is motivated to make lifestyle changes to improve their health. People who become aware of society's problems and solutions become involved in community development because they want to improve society.

Factors That Influence Motivation

There are two types of factors that influence our motivation - extrinsic and intrinsic.

Extrinsic Factors

External factors such as avoiding punishment or receiving a reward can affect a person's behavior.

Intrinsic Factors

A person does something because of the satisfying experience and not the desire for external reward.

What is Motivation Theory?

Motivation theory is the understanding of mechanisms that influence a person's behavior to attain an objective. There are many theories of motivation in psychology that explain these mechanisms. Some psychologists attributed internal factors as an explanation for driving certain behaviors. Other researchers described mental processes and external consequences of behavior as the reason for motivation.

Theories of Motivation in Psychology and examples

Some motivation theory examples include Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Alderfer's ERG theory, Goal-setting theory, and Expectancy theory. Researchers have classified them into content and process theories. In a nutshell, content theories explain motivation, and process theories show how "motivation" occurs.

Content Theories of Motivation

The idea behind content theories is that internal factors drive a behavior. These theories think of motivation as the result of such internal factors prompting an action (behavior) to satisfy needs.

The four common content theories of motivation are the following: Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Alderfer's ERG theory, Herzberg's motivator-hygiene theory, and McClelland's learned needs theory.

Maslow's Theory of Motivation

Abraham Maslow, a psychologist, introduced the Maslow theory of motivation, where he suggested that human needs have a specific hierarchy.

Fg. 1 Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, StudySmarter Original

Physiological and safety needs precede social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization. Fulfilling the first two needs activates social needs. After meeting social needs, esteem needs come next.

Esteem desires take the longest for people to satisfy because many get preoccupied when they reach this level. After esteem, a realization of self-actualization needs occurs. It is the uppermost level in the hierarchy. Satisfying self-actualization is continuous, and this warrants perpetual personal growth and improvement.

Alderfer's ERG Theory

Clayton Alderfer's theory matches the identified needs in Maslow's theory. These are categorized into existence, relatedness, and growth needs.

• Existence needs relate to Maslow's physiological, safety, and security needs.

• Relatedness needs are the equivalent of Maslow's social needs level and the need for confidence and safety in one's social environment.

• Growth needs are equivalent to Maslow's esteem and self-actualization.

The first is satisfaction progression, wherein both Alderfer and Maslow agree that there must be increasing satisfaction of prior needs before moving on to upper-level needs. However, unmet needs may cause frustration after multiple failed attempts to satisfy them, leading to frustration regression. Frustration regression means redirecting one's attention to specific and actual fulfilled needs. Lastly, aspiration is associated with growth. Increasing growth activates the desire to grow more, highlighting its importance and the need to satisfy it even more.

Herzberg's Motivator-Hygiene Theory

Frederick Herzberg's work on motivator-hygiene theory became influential in the 1950s and 1960s. His motivation theory described more closely work situations and motivations around them. He proposed two types of needs: motivator and hygiene.

Motivators are associated with a sense of fulfillment resulting from work duties performed. Jobs that give a sense of achievement are therefore considered motivators. Hygiene refers to work situations such as tenure, salary, and working conditions.

Herzberg suggested that hygiene doesn't add to any motivation in the workplace. However, it can prevent dissatisfaction when maintained at a reasonable level. Motivators are what drive high performance in the workplace. It is essential to meet these needs to bring satisfaction, allowing for more achievements at work.

McClelland's Learned Needs Theory

David McClelland's theory suggested three needs learned at a young age, mainly: the need for achievement, the need for affiliation, and the need for power. The need for achievement compels a person to work hard towards his goals and value feedback. The need for affiliation relates to a desire for healthy and positive relationships with other people. The need for power reflects a desire to be in control and to be able to influence people.

Cognitive Theory of Motivation

The picture below shows an example of facial expression.

Fg. 2 Playing chess, understanding mental processes, pexels.com

Process or cognitive theories of motivation aim to explain how mental processes produce motives and direct behavior. The four common examples of cognitive theory of motivation are expectancy, goal setting, reinforcement, and equity theory.

Expectancy Theory of Motivation

Victor Vroom theorized that expectations of performance, outcomes, and rewards determine behavior towards a goal. This theory considers the decision-making process based on the following expectations: effort performance, performance-outcome, and valence.

Effort-performance or E1 reflects the belief that effort can result in performance. When people view high performance as associated with great effort, they exert high effort to accomplish their tasks. It is also closely related to Albert Bandura's self-efficacy, which is the confidence in one's ability to become successful in any given situation. Self-efficacy may explain why there are some people with low E1. Weak faith in one's capabilities influences the effort put in, resulting in poor performance.

Performance-outcome or E2 reflects the belief that performance can lead to outcomes. High-performing people believe that working hard will help them achieve valuable results, while low-performing people think that performance doesn't necessarily lead to good outcomes. They do not pay much attention to their performance.

Valences reflect the perception of outcomes as desirable or not. People place different values on consequences as influenced by their morals, endeavors, and life circumstances. In essence, people determine their level of effort based on outcomes that are most favorable for them.

Another example would be in pursuing different hobbies and interests. A teenager might be initially interested in filmmaking and running their own company. They find that having a business leads to more favorable outcomes rather than filmmaking. The teenager is motivated to exert a lot of effort in knowing how to operate a business and believes that they can succeed.

Goal-Setting Theory

Edwin Locke and Gary Latham conceptualized this theory relating to how goal setting can boost performance. There are five factors in goal setting influencing the degree to which a person is motivated to perform well.

1. The intention to meet the goal should be present. People only work hard toward goals they plan to achieve.

2. The difficulty of goals. The more challenging the goal is, the more likely it will produce better performance.

3. The goals should be specific. Specific goals give more motivation than unclear goals.

4. The acceptance of goals should also be present. People may intend to achieve their objectives but have not accepted them entirely.

5. Goal commitment is also essential in persisting towards achieving goals.

To sum up, setting goals contributes to performance if it is specific and challenging, in addition to a person's intention, acceptance, and commitment to achieving his goals.

Reinforcement Theory

Burrhus Frederic Skinner proposed that people learn behaviors through positive or negative reinforcements. Positive reinforcement involves rewarding good behavior with favorable consequences, while negative reinforcement involves removing anything undesirable to encourage good behaviors and increase the likelihood of being repeated.

Equity Theory

According to this theory, people get motivation by measuring one's performance and outcome against another. People want to ensure that their effort and rewards correspond to what others put in and receive. Inequity happens when a person perceives an imbalance between their effort reward and a referent's effort-reward ratio. The amount of value attributed to the effort and reward influences the fairness perceived.

There are two classifications of inequity: over-reward and under-reward. Over-reward inequity is when the quality or quantity of rewards exceeds the effort—in other words - receiving great rewards for investing less effort.

Meanwhile, under-reward inequity is when rewards fall short as measured against the effort invested. In other words, fewer rewards for more effort. This perceived inequity may drive people to lower their efforts, modify their rewards, adjust their referent's behavior or results, and even escape the situation.