The Three Main Approaches to Explaining Motivation

Introduction

It is quite amazing how the evasiveness of Motivation as a subject matter roused my curiosity. My curiosity to first of all understand what Motivation actually means as regards to human, and my passionate inquisitiveness on “what motivates us as human.” For the preceding ten years of my academic life, I have been working endlessly with my spirit of inquiry and curiosity to find out what motivates my fellow human beings. During this period, my understanding of the processes involved in this subject matter has skyrocketed dramatically. In common usage, the term motivation is frequently used to explain why a person does something. According to Cherry, Motivation is defined as the “process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain knowledge” (Cherry, 2016). For instance, one might want to say that a pupil is so motivated to get into a nursing program that she kills every night studying for the nursing entrance exam.

From my extensive reading and reviewing various kinds of literature, inclusive of my studies up till this time, it seems that three significant components act, and more fundamentally, interrelate, to generate motivated behavior. Motivated behavior is very dynamic and collaborating in nature, and it is known to be a continually changing product of these components.  The idea that Motivation is collaborating in nature has long been proposed. According to Petri, “Lewin (1936) proposed a dynamic view of behavior, and Birch, Atkinson, and Bangor (1974) also conceived of behavior as a constant behavioral stream changed from one moment to the next by the conditions of the situation in which one finds herself/himself” (Petri, “n.d.).  There are several suggestions which bring to our understanding that motivated behavior results from a multifarious interaction between at least three currently most recognizable components.  Those three components are biology, learning, and cognition.  Each of these components provides significantly to the construction of behavior in its own distinctive way and, each can intermingle with one or more of the others to be the source of motivated behavior. In common usage, the term motivation is regularly used to explain why a person does something. If Motivation is said to involve biological, learning, and cognitive forces that shape behavior, then it will be beneficial to a closer look at Motivation. Behavior is caused by an interaction of biological, learned, and cognitive processes: brain circuits are activated, learned responses are triggered, and control is taken by making plans. Throughout the rest of this article, we will be studying and discussing the human Motivation using these three components. I will also be detailing what I think is the most critical components (out of three major components) to explain Motivation. I will like to open the floor by first discussing the biological component of Motivation.

The Biological Component of Motivation

In my own opinion, I think the most critical component of Motivation among the three, is the biological component. I see biology as the bedrock of life itself, and it is what explains most of the internality of human. This is the component that uses what is known as the Intuition Theory. A theory that suggests that neural pattern recognition events regulate motivation levels. Instinctual drives induce people to achieve excellence or to spend extraordinary energies on services to humanity. There have been five popular theories of Motivation, which endeavor to explain the rationalizations why some people consume more energy than others just to achieve their goals. All these theories essentially outline the mattering impact of neural activities on Motivation.

The Instinct Theory insinuates that motivated behavior is a biological instinct. The Instinct Theory of Motivation observes genetic programming as the instigator of Motivation. This avowal means that all humans have the same motivations due to our related genetic programming. This theory says that the root of all motivations is the Motivation for survival. From our Motivation for survival, all other sources of motivations developed. Moreover, as we act or behave with this kind of Motivation, all our actions are therefore considered as intuitions. The Drive Reduction Theory suggests that motivated behavior seeks to reduce the tautness of drives sparked by awareness such as hunger or pain. The Arousal Theory suggests that motivated behavior is the result of a search for an optimum level of arousal. The Psychoanalytic Theory suggests that motivated behaviors follow fundamental drives to survive and avoid death. The Humanistic Theory presents the Maslow Hierarchy, where people strive to achieve their maximum potential. Instinctual responses, drive reduction, arousal, psychological, and humanistic drives are the varied aspects of the powerful neural drives, which ultimately motivate people. The Intuition Theory suggests that the intuitive choices of the mind power these drives. What if we have to shift our primary focus to the structure/design of the brain. According to Raymond Tallis, “evolutionary psychology assumes that the human behavior is being shaped, indeed determined, by processes of natural selection: those modes of behavior that favor the replication of the genome will preferentially survive” (Tallis. 2009).  The brain is made up of several systems that work together with the body to produce our actions.

The Learned Component of Motivation

It is quite clear that learned components can have a large impact in their own respective way.  According to Lieberman, “volumes of literature are available outlining the processes involved in behaviors learned via classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning, and observational learning” (Lieberman, 2004). In most situations, these learned behaviors are not manifested unless there is some influence (Motivation) for their production.  Thus, Motivation often appears to select several learned rejoinders based on the previous motivational consequences of those responses. External cues are also quintessential in the decisions made about which learned behavior to choose.  For example, the visual cues of a particular product store in which one has been captivated by a good product and customer service are enough, i.e. classical conditioning, to motivate me to stop there again.  The reinforcement, i.e. instrumental conditioning provided by excellent customer service, also produces incentive motivation for future stops.  For one to push further in this country, there is the belief that many vehicles parked in front of a particular store mean the product and customer services will be excellent.  One may halt at such a place because we have observed a considerable number of cars parked there and try the product as a result, and that will be as an outcome of observational learning. The three types of learning just discussed, not only are capable of accentuating our behavior as they occur but can present individual motives in their various ways.  Lots of scholars have proved that lots of our human behaviors today are learned.

The Cognitive Component of Motivation

Biology and learning are processes that impact Motivation.  However, in the past years, researchers have begun to investigate the role of cognition in Motivation as well. Most of this research has focused on human behavior, but some have attempted the idea in animal studies as well. The idea that how we decipher the available information around us affects our Motivation has been studied in several unconventional ways.  One approach has been to investigate how one’s anticipations influence anticipated behavior.  This approach has proven beneficial in helping researchers make headway in understanding complicated or puzzling human behaviors such as achievement motivation. One’s expectation of future accomplishment should depend, in part, on expectancies developed as a result of past accomplishments, and frustrations. Atkinson’s achievement motivation model emphasizes the role of past successes and failures, present expectations, about success in a particular situation, and the value of the goals we are trying to achieve in determining whether we will attempt a particular task” (Atkinson & Birch, 1978).

Summary

In summary, this article recommends that the Motivation that strengthens behavior is the result of a multifaceted interaction among at least three components: biology, learned, and cognition. Each component makes self-sufficient benefactions to the Motivation of an individual, but in an addendum, each component is proficient enough and typically does, cooperate with the other factors to allow various blends of behavior.

References

Atkinson, J. W., & Birch, D. (1978). An introduction to motivation (2nd ed.). New York:

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Cherry, K. (2016, June 16). Motivation: The Psychological Factors That Guide Behavior.

Retrieved August 27, 2016, from https://www.verywell.com/what-is-motivation-2795378

Lieberman, D. A., (2004). Learning and memory: An integrative approach, Belmont,

CA.: Wadsworth/Thompson Learning.

Petri, H. (n.d.). Four Motivational Components of Behavior, 8(20). Retrieved August 27, 2016,

from http://reercme.ujoi.es/articulos/numero20/5-petri/texto.html

Tallis, R. (2009, September 28). Does Evolution Explain Our Behavior? Retrieved August 27,

2016, from http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/09/does-evolution-

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