Many people often wonder why someone
may behave in a certain manner, or what makes a person do things and the most
obvious answer is motivation. Evelyn R.
Oka defined motivation as the “force behind behavior and provides explanation
for why people do things”. She also
stated in her article on motivation that “motivation influences what people
do-meaning their choice of actions, as well as how they act; the intensity,
persistence, and quality of their actions” (Oka, 2005). Motivation is a process that begins with an
unfilled need that causes tension that prompts drive and then behavior that
results in the satisfaction of the original need, consequently reducing or
eliminating the tension ("Motivation," 2003). Motivation is considered to be an important
component not only in learning, but also in carrying out learned
responses. When an individual has
learned the proper response to a situation they will not necessarily produce
this behavior. The incentive to produce
the behavior is motivation. In addition
to defining motivation I plan to identify at least two sources of motivation,
explain the relationship between motivation and behavior and examine how
motivation is exhibited in behavior.
Sources of motivation can be classified
into to two main categories, intrinsic and extrinsic. An individual may set goals that give them
either intrinsic or extrinsic motivation.
An intrinsic source of motivation occurs when you are motivated to use
behavior for its own sake. These sources
include physical, mental, and spiritual because the behavior does not seek a
reward, it is either needed or seen as worthy of doing for the sake of doing. This source of motivation is the drive that
leads an individual to engage in an activity without seeking external reward
for that action ("Intrinsic motivation," 2009). This source of motivation involves
satisfying the needs of the physical body which includes hunger, thirst,
shelter or safety, sexual
Reinforcement and punishment that
results from an individual’s behavior is driven from an extrinsic
motivation. Extrinsic source of
motivation include operant and social conditioning such as achievement of
goals, gaining knowledge, power, self-development, or a meaningful
relationship. This source of motivation comes from outside
an individual, such as the drive to obtain money or rewards, which provides
pleasure that the task that one does to obtain the reward does not provide in
itself. Extrinsic motivation might cause
a person to work on a task even when he or she has no interest in it because
the anticipated reward for doing the task provides satisfaction (e.g., the
paycheck). Companies use extrinsic motivation to obtain customer loyalty by
mechanisms such as reward cards or airline miles programs. The main problem with using extrinsic
motivation to obtain desired behaviors is that the focus is on the reward and
not on the behavior; once the reward is removed, the behavior is usually
extinguished ("Extrinsic motivation," 2009).
Motivation is goal-oriented that is
driven by personal needs and expectations which in turns produces
behavior. The motivation that you have
can explain the direction, effort and persistence that you apply toward achieving
your goals. Setting specific goals helps
direct your behavior by focusing attention and provide more motivation, because
they allow you to measure your progress and take steps to plan your behavior to
meet your goals. Having a specific goal allows for an individual to be able to
evaluate the goal to determine if it is realistically attainable. Setting difficult goals can increase the
amount of effort you put into achieving them.
Goal setting can motivate your persistence by directing your behavior
over an extended period of time (Livestrong, 2011).
Motivation requires an individual to
believe that they have the ability to accomplish the mission. An individual may be less likely to work
toward a goal if it has little or no probability of success. On the other hand if motivation is exhibited
in behavior, an individual will carry out the necessary behaviors to reach the
end result. For example, if money is the
motivation, an individual will go to work every day and perform the functions
of their job effectively, and if a person is hungry or thirsty, they will go
get them something to eat or drink. The
behavior shows motivation, as the motivation is the driving force to act, to
behave accordingly to the corresponding motive chosen. If there was no motivation, an individual may
not work as hard at a job, let alone actually go to work every day on time. People are motivated everyday by something,
some motive or a desired incentive; most people do not usually act without some
sort of reason behind, and the motivation can be exhibited in the behavior that
follows (Deckers, 2004).
No comments:
Post a Comment