Definition of Motivation
The ultimate goal of every man in the world is to be happy as possible. The question is, what is it that takes humans to achieve this habit of being happy? Second, it is important to note that there are multiple realities in the world. Every individual sees the world differently and hence gain different reasons for existing and doing something in the world (Li, 2012). The definition of motivation, therefore, is multifaceted based on the multiplicity of realities in the world. Motivation is a prerequisite for happiness, which is solemnly sort after by humans.
Motivation is a process. Motivation is abstract and can not be visibly handled and even manipulated. Motivation is a process that guides, initiates, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is psychological in nature. It happens within the mental processes of an individual. Moreover, motivation can be defined as something that makes one act in a given way, like waking up at night to get a glass of water to reduce thirst. It is what makes a student to read a book, continuously and sustainably at night, to perform well in an examination (Chae et al., 2017).
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What involves motivation?
Motivation is a term that marks a process or a causal agent it can be differentiated further into multiple elements defined. The process of motivation is social, cognitive, emotional, and biological. All these types of motivational process activate behavior. They cause someone to act. In everyday life, the term motivation is used to designate the reason behind someone doing something. For instance, one can say that an athlete is so motivated to get into a world competition that he spends almost half of every night practicing in the field.
Types of Motivation
Motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic depending on the driving factors.
Extrinsic motivation
Extrinsic motivation comes from outside the body of an individual. Extrinsic motivation is directed at external reinforcements and external rewards. Some of the common external reinforcers include awards, praise, and money, among others. Some other examples of external reinforcements include policies and procedures, speeding tickets, disciplinary actions, the setting of boundaries, among others.
Extrinsic motivation is thought to have fewer effects as compared to intrinsic motivation or motivators. Policies and procedures are established to offer internal regulations and control. Rules are set at houses to limit the extent to which members can act or behave. Moreover, such house rules provide consequences for actions and behaviors. In nature, people do not like to be controlled in some way. Once rules are introduced, people feel they are being hit on their heels. They start to become defiant. For this reason, extrinsic motivation does not always serve the rightful purpose in the lives of people. With extrinsic motivators, there are those called “hygiene factors.” For instance, some extrinsic motivators like a good job, salary, benefits, among others do not offer any long-term sort of motivation. This is because, without them, someone easily becomes de-motivated (Li, 2012).
Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is directed at internal reinforcers and rewards. Someone can celebrate success when it comes or when it is achieved, and at the same time, the person can beat oneself for a failed achievement of success. Some of the common examples of intrinsic motivators include a sense of competence, achievement, and enjoyment, among others. The internal reinforcers that are common include musts, should, toxic shame, guilty conscience, among others (Anderman & Anderman, 2014).
Internal rewards are common with high occupational achievement and high academic achievements. It is highly likely that motivation is the strongest when it is done for the sake of fun or pleasure, like for the feeling of accomplishment and happiness. Maybe, this is the purpose in life for the people (Jacobsen & Jensen, 2017).
Addiction Motivation
Motivation does not always lead to something positive in life. Sometimes, motivation just leads someone to do something repeatedly even if it is with negative consequences. Someone can get addicted to something that he or she is driven to do it. Addiction is not a healthy occurrence. A love-and-trust relationship has an activity or an object. Trust and love can be said to be intrinsic rewards that are attached to the neutral networks that are for human survival. Survival needs like the need to eat are internal reinforce since if one fails to eat, someone gets hunger. Someone gets an internal reward when he or she eats. The same thing happens when someone tries to resist something he or she is addicted to it. The pain that someone feels comes in the form of withdrawal symptoms and cravings, with the reward coming when someone becomes engaged to the action. In the end, they become stronger to the extent that one does not feel the reward anymore (Jacobsen & Jensen, 2017).
Subconscious Motivation
The addition is one of the examples of subconscious motivation. Sometimes, one is not able to explain why he or she is doing something. At some point in life, one does not even know how something came to happen like one finding himself in trouble repeatedly. Denial is a defense mechanism that protects someone from the subconscious reality of accepting that something is happening, like one depending on a house servant. Some of the other examples of subconscious motivations include different neutral networks that are developed in the early stage of life and are now part of the implicit memory. Some people use food for comfort, and others become accident-prone within their subconscious desire to engage in an act (Menges et al., 2017).
The subconscious mind makes use of defense mechanisms to fend off anxiety and pain. Such strategies of defense are what are called learned programs that work automatically within the neutral networks intuitively called “parts.” For instance, individuals are aware of something that he or she wants to do, like the feeling to engage in an act X, but another part of them prevents them from doing it. Such happens because of the neutral networks that are conflicting in nature. When such occurs, normally what happens in an engagement of different therapy procedures that serve to reconcile the conflicting parts in the subconscious (Menges et al., 2017).
How Motivation Works
Three basic components in goal, value, and need trigger motivation. People have different needs in life. Scholars say that people are driven, in everything they do, by a particular need. People have different needs. Some needs are basic like food, shelter, and clothing. Man cannot survive without these needs. If someone is engaged in a lifestyle that is rather poor, basic needs can be entirely motivating (Aitamurto et al., 2017). The moment these needs have been provided, one can fail to get out of bed and be motivated to engage in an act that brings these needs to live. One gets motivated to wake up, get downstairs, and pick a bottle of wine in a fridge, simply to cater for the thirst need. The need to be self-actualized, self-esteemed, among other needs, motivate people to engage in something or even make decisions. Thus, motivation is triggered by a certain need in individual life.
The value one holds on something might be stronger in motivating someone unlike or beyond the simple motivation by need. One’s need for a simple cabin might motivate a shelter. A simple supper meal might motivate one’s need for food. To another person, a mansion can only satisfy a need for shelter. Need has to be measured using value. The value of a simple cabin is not the same as the value of a mansion (Bidee et al., 2017). The quantity of a goal, thus, can be ascertained using a value. Money is a universal measure but can be useful in quantifying a goal. Money can be useful when measuring value although not in all cases. One can decide to be fit for many reasons. Being fit gives someone energy and prolongs life. Being fit makes one happy.
Goals are important and necessary in achieving motivation. Goals are specific. They are difficult but with a margin of attaining them. Feedback is an important component in achieving a goal. Evaluation enables a goal to be ascertained. Many things can help a goal to be achieved. When goals are used to evaluate performances, they become effective. Learning goals enable one to achieve higher than just performance goals. Accountability is an important component of goal achievement. When one has the boss holding him or her accountable, the person certain fulfills a particular goal. The first journey to be made to the moon was undertaken with the only hope of its possibility. It was hard and unimagined. Nonetheless, the desire to try to do it because of its hardness led to man's first landing seven years later in 1969.
Components of Motivation
Motivation has three main components in persistence, activation, and intensity. Activation is the process of first initiating the wanted or desired behavior that will bring about the consequent result. For instance, enrolling in a high school is considered as an activation process. Enrolling in a psychology class is the activation that leads to being a psychology expert (Mikkelsen et al., 2017).
Persistence is the second phase of the components of motivation. Persistence is that effort that is continuous even amidst frequent obstacles. For instance, one might enroll in more psychology courses as a way of getting a degree, something that needs additional time, resources, and energy.
The third component is found in intensity. This is the deliberation and the vigor that ensues while one pursues a goal. One student can engage in coast with little effort while another does many extra activities like participating in discussion groups, taking more assignments, and regularly studying. The student with superficial effort lacks intensity while the second student has a greater intensity towards the achievement of the goal at hand.
Theories of Motivation
Many theories have been developed to bring about a better and universal foundation of the concept of motivation. Theories are frameworks of understanding and applying motivation in daily life. Psychologists have tried to use theories to ascertain what motivates people to act in any given way. The three discussed theories are the instinct theory, the drives, needs theory, and the arousal theory (Andres, 2017).
Instincts theory of motivation posits that instincts motivate behaviors. In this case, instinct is defined as an inborn and fixed pattern of behavior. Psychologists like Sigmund Freud, William James, William McDougal, and many others, suggested that there are basic human drives that bring about a motivation of behavior. Some of the instincts they have talked about include biological instincts that enable an organism to survive, like love, fear, and cleanliness.
Needs and drives theories encompass the study of behaviors like drinking, sleeping, eating, all of which are motivated biologically. The need for water, food, sleep, among others, is biological. Thus, human beings and even animals are motivated to eat, sleep, and drink. According to drive theory, people face many biological drives that define individual behaviors and are motivated to fulfill these needs (Andres, 2017).
The arousal theory of motivation holds that people become motivated, and because of this, they act to sustain an optimum level of arousal. Some people are aroused to fulfill low arousal needs, and hence might be attracted to do relaxing activities. High arousal needs motivate other people, hence being pushed to do exciting and thrilling behaviors. Everybody is aroused in a different way hence people are motivated in different ways.
Conclusion
As defined, motivation is a process that influences someone to drive in doing something. In everyday life, people are motivated to achieve or fulfill something. An athlete is motivated to win a match like a football match or race. A student is motivated, in different ways, to attain high or achieve high marks and grades in an examination or a test. A child is motivated to please his or her parent to get something in return, like being taken on a summer camp trip. A drunkard is motivated to travel faster on the road and get to a nearby drinking joint to drink one bottle of beer. Moreover, everyone is biologically motivated to rise in bed and take a cold glass of water to quench the thirst need (Jinprapha & Mahāwitthayālai Thammasāt, 2010). Thus, motivation is a common day occurrence. Psychologists have defined the concept of motivation in different mainstreams and applications. Motivation is a human component that brings about the need for satisfaction, fulfillment, and ultimate happiness, which is the desire for every individual in the world.
References
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