Lesson 9: Motivation


Attention

What really motivates you?  Maybe you remember your school guidance counselor or your boss asking this question.  And yet, for such a simple question, there isn’t always a simple answer. Yes, we are all motivated by basic needs, such as food, shelter, sex.  But beyond those basics, why does it seem that some people are constantly driven and others are referred to as “slackers.”  In this lesson, we will explore the biological, cognitive and behavioral factors involved in motivation.

Motivation

As always, I look forward to hearing from all of you in the class discussion boards!


Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:

  • Explore the relationship between achievement and motivation in your own successes and failures
  • Define the concepts of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
  • Define "self-actualization"
  • Explore the barriers to achieving self-actualization

Teaching

Studying motivation is one of the most important areas of modern psychology...we seek to understand WHY people do things. Why do people achieve goals? Why do terrorists blow themselves up? These are critical questions for this modern day.

Sources of Motivation

  • Instincts
    • Freud contended that humans still had instincts...the drive to survive, the drive to procreate...but unlike other animals, we seem to all find our own unique way to do even these things.
  • Brain
    • There is a "reward/pleasure" center in the brain.
    • Some people are thrill seekers...needing a lot of stimulation to this area of the brain
  • Incentives
    • What do we get out of our actions?
    • Money
    • Fame
    • Accomplishment
  • Cognitive Factors
    • Extrinsic motivation
    • Intrinsic motivation
    • How do we conceptualize what motivates us...rewards outside ourselves (extrinsic such as money and recognition) or rewards inside our selves (intrinsic such as satisfaction and well-being)

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

One of the more famous analyses of Motivation was accomplished by Maslow. He conceptualized a hierarchy of needs that must be satisfied, in hierarchical order, and go far to explain why people act the way they do.

Later in life he distanced himself from the concept that they needed to be done in a specific order (such that physiological needs had to be satisfied before safety needs)

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's theory has been a useful tool for me in my own clinical work. I have often used it to assess an individuals psychosocial situation when working with them in a rehabilitation capacity. Although we are not stuck to achieving these needs in this order, we can understand the idea that feeling "safe" may have to precede feeling "belonging"

However, consider the individual who feels trapped in a dangerous relationship (abusive/neglectful). It seems that the strong sense of "belonging" may out-weigh the sense of safety...in addition, the "esteem" gained from keeping a marriage together against all odds may be more important that there being any love in that relationship.

The Self Actualized Person

A self-actualizer is a person who is living creatively and fully using his or her potentials. In his studies, Maslow found that self-actualizers share similarities. Whether famous or unknown, educated or not, rich or poor, self-actualizers tend to fit the following profile.

  • Efficient perceptions of reality.
    • Self-actualizers are able to judge situations correctly and honestly. They are very sensitive to the fake and dishonest.
  • Comfortable acceptance of self, others, nature.
    • Self-actualizers accept their own human nature with all its flaws. The shortcomings of others and the contradictions of the human condition are accepted with humor and tolerance.
  • Spontaneity.
    • Maslow's subjects extended their creativity into everyday activities. Actualizers tend to be unusually alive, engaged, and spontaneous.
  • Task centering.
    • Most of Maslow's subjects had a mission to fulfill in life or some task or problem outside of themselves to pursue. Humanitarians such as Albert Schweitzer and Mother Teresa are considered to have possessed this quality.
  • Autonomy.
    • Self-actualizers are free from reliance on external authorities or other people. They tend to be resourceful and independent.
  • Continued freshness of appreciation.
    • The self-actualizer seems to constantly renew appreciation of life's basic goods. A sunset or a flower will be experienced as intensely time after time as it was at first. There is an "innocence of vision", like that of an artist or child.
  • Fellowship with humanity.
    • Maslow's subjects felt a deep identification with others and the human situation in general.
  • Profound interpersonal relationships.
    • The interpersonal relationships of self-actualizers are marked by deep loving bonds.
  • Comfort with solitude.
    • Despite their satisfying relationships with others, self-actualizing persons value solitude and are comfortable being alone.[13]
  • Non-hostile sense of humor.
    • This refers to the wonderful capacity to laugh at oneself. It also describes the kind of humor a man like Abraham Lincoln had. Lincoln probably never made a joke that hurt anybody. His wry comments were gentle proddings of human shortcomings.[citation needed]
  • Peak experiences.
    • All of Maslow's subjects reported the frequent occurrence of peak experiences (temporary moments of self-actualization). These occasions were marked by feelings of ecstasy, harmony, and deep meaning. Self-actualizers reported feeling at one with the universe, stronger and calmer than ever before, filled with light, beautiful and good, and so forth.

Achievement and Motivation

  • Achievement
  • Learned Motives
    • Social Motives: acquired in complex ways through socialization and cultural conditioning
    • Need for achievement
    • Power
  • Achievement
    • Social Needs
    • Achievement Needs
  • Fear of Failure
    • Self-handicapping
    • Underachievement
    • Rehabilitation Crisis
  • Components of Success
    • Need for Achievement
    • Fear of Failure
    • Psychological Factors

David Mcclelland's Motivational Needs Theory

American David Clarence McClelland (1917-98) achieved his doctorate in psychology at Yale in 1941 and became professor at Wesleyan University. He then taught and lectured, including a spell at Harvard from 1956, where with colleagues for twenty years he studied particularly motivation and the achievement need. He began his McBer consultancy in 1963, helping industry assess and train staff, and later taught at Boston University, from 1987 until his death. McClelland is chiefly known for his work on achievement motivation, but his research interests extended to personality and consciousness.

David McClelland pioneered workplace motivational thinking, developing achievement-based motivational theory and models, and promoted improvements in employee assessment methods, advocating competency-based assessments and tests, arguing them to be better than traditional IQ and personality-based tests. His ideas have since been widely adopted in many organizations, and relate closely to the theory of Frederick Herzberg.

David McClelland is most noted for describing three types of motivational need, which he identified in his 1961 book, The Achieving Society:

Achievement Motivation (n-ach)
Authority/Power Motivation (n-pow)
Affiliation Motivation (n-affil)

David Mcclelland's Needs-based Motivational Model

These needs are found to varying degrees in all workers and managers, and this mix of motivational needs characterizes a person's or manager's style and behavior, both in terms of being motivated, and in the management and motivation others.

Need for Achievement (n-ach)

The n-ach person is 'achievement motivated' and therefore seeks achievement, attainment of realistic but challenging goals, and advancement in the job. There is a strong need for feedback as to achievement and progress, and a need for a sense of accomplishment.

Need for Authority and Power (n-pow)

The n-pow person is 'authority motivated'. This driver produces a need to be influential, effective and to make an impact. There is a strong need to lead and for their ideas to prevail. There is also motivation and need towards increasing personal status and prestige.

Need for Affiliation (n-affil)

The n-affil person is 'affiliation motivated', and has a need for friendly relationships and is motivated towards interaction with other people. The affiliation driver produces motivation and need to be liked and held in popular regard. These people are team players.

McClelland said that most people possess and exhibit a combination of these characteristics. Some people exhibit a strong bias to a particular motivational need, and this motivational or needs 'mix' consequently affects their behavior and working/managing style. Mcclelland suggested that a strong n-affil 'affiliation-motivation' undermines a manager's objectivity, because of their need to be liked, and that this affects a manager's decision-making capability. A strong n-pow 'authority-motivation' will produce a determined work ethic and commitment to the organization, and while n-pow people are attracted to the leadership role, they may not possess the required flexibility and people-centred skills. McClelland argues that n-ach people with strong 'achievement motivation' make the best leaders, although there can be a tendency to demand too much of their staff in the belief that they are all similarly and highly achievement-focused and results driven, which of course most people are not.

McClelland's particular fascination was for achievement motivation, and this laboratory experiment illustrates one aspect of his theory about the affect of achievement on people's motivation. McClelland asserted via this experiment that while most people do not possess a strong achievement-based motivation, those who do, display a consistent behavior in setting goals:

Volunteers were asked to throw rings over pegs rather like the fairground game; no distance was stipulated, and most people seemed to throw from arbitrary, random distances, sometimes close, sometimes farther away. However a small group of volunteers, whom McClelland suggested were strongly achievement-motivated, took some care to measure and test distances to produce an ideal challenge - not too easy, and not impossible. Interestingly a parallel exists in biology, known as the 'overload principle', which is commonly applied to fitness and exercising, ie., in order to develop fitness and/or strength the exercise must be sufficiently demanding to increase existing levels, but not so demanding as to cause damage or strain. McClelland identified the same need for a 'balanced challenge' in the approach of achievement-motivated people.

McClelland contrasted achievement-motivated people with gamblers, and dispelled a common pre-conception that n-ach 'achievement-motivated' people are big risk takers. On the contrary - typically, achievement-motivated individuals set goals which they can influence with their effort and ability, and as such the goal is considered to be achievable. This determined results-driven approach is almost invariably present in the character make-up of all successful business people and entrepreneurs.

McClelland suggested other characteristics and attitudes of achievement-motivated people:

  • achievement is more important than material or financial reward.
  • achieving the aim or task gives greater personal satisfaction than receiving praise or recognition.
  • financial reward is regarded as a measurement of success, not an end in itself.
  • security is not prime motivator, nor is status.
  • feedback is essential, because it enables measurement of success, not for reasons of praise or recognition (the implication here is that feedback must be reliable, quantifiable and factual).
  • achievement-motivated people constantly seek improvements and ways of doing things better.
  • achievement-motivated people will logically favour jobs and responsibilities that naturally satisfy their needs, ie offer flexibility and opportunity to set and achieve goals, eg., sales and business management, and entrepreneurial roles.

McClelland firmly believed that achievement-motivated people are generally the ones who make things happen and get results, and that this extends to getting results through the organization of other people and resources, although as stated earlier, they often demand too much of their staff because they prioritize achieving the goal above the many varied interests and needs of their people.

Interesting comparisons and relationships can be drawn between McClelland's motivation types, and the characteristics defined in other behavioral models, eg:

John Adair's Action-Centred Leadership model: Achievement-motivated managers are firmly focused on the Task, often to the detriment of the Individual and the Team. Affiliation-motivation people are Team and Individual centred. (Note that John Adair's Action-Centred leadership model is ©John Adair.)

Katherine Benziger'sThinking Styles model: Achievement-motivation is a double-frontal brain mode style; affiliation-motivation is right basal (rear); authority-motivation is arguably left basal (rear).

DISC (Inscape, Thomas International, etc) system: Achievement-motivated people are 'D' profiles - results-driven, decisive, dominant, etc. Affiliation-motivated people are I (proactive) and S (reactive) profiles. Authority-motivated people are S and C profiles.

Hersey/Blanchard's Situational Leadership® model: Achievement-motivated people tend to favour the styles of the first and second modes ('telling' and 'selling'); affiliation-motivated people tend to favour the third mode ('participating'); and the authority-motivated people tend to favour the style of mode four ('delegating'). Please note that Situational Leadership® is protected intellectual property: Situational Leadership® is a trademark of the Centre for Leadership Studies. Situational Leadership II® is a trademark of The Ken Blanchard Companies. Use of material relating to Situational Leadership® and/or Situational Leadership II® requires licence and agreement from the respective companies.

McGregor XY Theory: Achievement-motivated people tend towards X-Theory style, due to their high task focus; there are plenty of exceptions however, and training definitely helps the n-ach manager to see the value of employing Theory Y style. n-pow managers are definitely Theory X. n-affil are typically Theory Y and if not can relatively easily be trained to be so.

Herzberg motivators and hygiene factors: n-ach people are more responsive to the Herzberg motivators (especially achievement obviously) than n-affil and n-pow people.

Due to our achievement needs, our fear of failure, and our desires for success we are under STRESS to manage our time and do more with the time we are given. Two of the major tasks of college students...and most people in general...are Time Management and Stress Management


Assessment

Lesson 9 Discussion

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is one of the most well-known and popular models in Psychology. One perspective on human development is that we are all striving toward Self-Actualization. Based on the list of characteristics of a Self-Actualized person select one trait that you feel you excel in and one that needs work. Describe how each of these contributes to (or keeps you from) your own personal Self-Actualization.

Lesson 9 Quiz

Please provide a short and concise answer (1-2 paragraphs) for each question below.

  1. What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?  Please give examples of EACH from your own experience.
  2. Review the concepts related to Achievement and Motivation. Write a brief essay describing how these concepts relate to your academic goals and habits.