Therefore, there are other motives in the case. Basic human motives. Stable and unstable
Personal motives in psychology are a certain internal force of a person that motivates him to action, which is important for achieving the goal that the individual has determined for himself. In the scientific world, the definition of personal motives is very diverse. Some researchers believe that these are ideas, as well as a representation of a person, others call them the motives of a person’s thoughts and attitudes, which he adheres to, guided by them in life. Many people often know the feeling of wanting to move mountains and satisfy their need. This feeling and experience gives the individual strength, as well as self-confidence, which encourages the person to form and grow as a personality. Strictly speaking, this experience is the motive of the individual.
Personality motive is a very important attribute in the life of an individual. It is the motives that determine what heights a person will reach. In career growth, employees' aspirations acquire special properties, so management often tries to create external motives. External motives include salary increases or bonuses, sometimes it’s just praise, etc. These things motivate a person to show interest and exert more effort in order to receive external rewards and perform better as a result.
But it is worth noting that internal motives are much stronger than external ones. If an individual, so to speak, is fired up from within with a certain goal and certainly wants to achieve it, then he can overcome all obstacles, since he does it for himself.
Motives of personality behavior
The topic of human behavior has been of interest to psychology since ancient times. Answers to the question “why?” people do this and then behave differently, the greatest minds of our world were looking for. Today, human behavior can be considered to be influenced by many different phenomena. This may be a certain situation, a person’s personal qualities, external pressure on the individual, or the motives of the individual himself.
What do the motives of a person’s behavior influence? Considering the concept of personal motives, we can say that different motives not only influence a person’s behavior in every possible way, but also in certain situations, motives can determine a person’s behavior. The fact is that a motive is a fusion of an individual’s internal experiences, which often becomes an attribute of the individual and is formulated into a personal quality. For example, motives to become better, to help people and to change this world for the benefit of humanity can become characteristic of the person who experiences them and form into a separate trait - altruism.
Motives of individual activity
Depending on what goal a person sees in front of him, he will act accordingly in order to achieve what he wants and get pleasure. If a person is hungry, then he will act in such a way as to find food and have a snack, satisfying this need. Such behavior will be determined by the need for food, and the search for food will be the motive for the individual’s activity.
Depending on the needs or goals of a person, the motives for activity can be very diverse. For example, if needs relate to basic phenomena that ensure the life and development of a person, then the motives of activity that force the satisfaction of such needs will be called organic. To be more specific, these needs include the already mentioned feeling of hunger, the need to breathe, the need to hide from the heat on a summer day, or the need to flee from danger for the purpose of self-preservation. All these needs are basic, and a person strives to satisfy them first of all in order to allow his body to naturally exist and develop.
The motives of an individual's activity are also functional. They relate to the needs that ensure human growth in the cultural sphere. This could be an active holiday on the lake, or playing sports, going to church or the theater. All these needs create motives for activity, which in turn drive a person to satisfy these needs, which ensures the functional growth of the individual.
The motives for an individual’s activity are material. The materialism of these motives implies the creation of material things to satisfy human needs that relate to comfort or everyday necessities.
It's no secret that the need to be respected in society is very important for a person. To have one’s place among other people, to occupy an appropriate status, as well as the opportunity to express one’s social interests - all these are needs that give rise to social motives for human activity. In this case, the individual will act in such a way as to establish himself among the people who make up his society. For example, activities of this kind can be expressed in participation in various social groups, belonging to volunteers, encouragement to take part in various events, organizations, etc.
The motives for an individual’s activity may include spiritual motives. They appear where a person has a need for self-development, as well as self-improvement. To satisfy such needs, a person can read books, pray to God, do yoga or act in some other way to gain spiritual saturation.
Needs and motives of the individual
In psychology, there are various views on determining the needs of the individual, in fact, as well as on the definition of motives. But all views are united by the idea that need is a human condition that is caused by one or another need. These can be material or spiritual objects. This condition causes internal tension in the individual. To relieve tension, or in other words, to satisfy a specific need, a person begins to act accordingly, guided by the motives that this need generates.
A person's needs can be very different. As already mentioned, needs may concern the organic, functional, material, social or spiritual environment of a person. In addition, scientists distinguish individual and group needs, as well as daily and annual, intellectual and psychological needs.
In the same situation, a person may have several needs of different kinds at the same time. Accordingly, internal tension will be very high in this case, and a person must choose which needs to satisfy first. In this context, it is important to note that there is a hierarchy of needs.
The most important are physiological or organic needs. If a person is hungry, it will be difficult for him to concentrate on work, or when it comes to self-preservation, for example, if a person is in pain, he will only think about how to get rid of this pain, and until it disappears, the person will not be able to satisfy your other social needs.
Abraham Maslow developed a hierarchy of needs, which in turn determines the hierarchy of individual motives. In his opinion, motives can be placed on five conventional shelves that form Maslow’s pyramid. At the lowest level are the physiological needs of a person. Moving up to higher levels, the needs for affection, esteem, aesthetic and needs for self-realization are considered. It is important to note that in this hierarchy of motives, A. Maslow believes that it is impossible to rise to a higher level if the needs of the lower level are not satisfied.
Social motives of the individual
As already mentioned, the social motives of an individual are generated from the needs of socialization in society. Abraham Maslow classifies attachment as a social motive. These motives represent the desire to be needed, useful, and to have approval from other people. In addition, social motives are determined by the need for respect, as well as self-esteem, which is no less important.
Every person exists in society and is connected with people. Relationships between people are never simple, so various conflicts, hostility and other unpleasant phenomena arise. But, one way or another, a person is born into society, but sometimes society itself gives birth to a person. For this reason, it is very natural that a person tries to find his place in society and establish his identity among the people he knows.
In this area, a person can act in various ways, guided by social motives. For example, in order to please other people, so as not to violate the ideas of society, a person can show conformity, that is, act like the majority.
Human nature is very complex and mysterious. Relationships between two people can also be very unpredictable. People are driven by social motives in order not to be lonely. Every person is looking for another person who is able to understand, support, and most importantly love him for who he really is. This desire forces people to seek compromises in disagreements, change their behavior, and change for the better. These are the most important social motives of a person.
It is also worth noting submission to authority. Even if people complain about the government in the country and do not consider it constructive, they recognize its legitimacy and are convinced that power is necessary for society. This leads to submission to authority, which is also a social motive for the individual.
Personal motive system
Based on the fact that a person constantly has certain needs, we can say that a person is constantly driven by some motives. In psychological science, it is believed that throughout life people develop stable motives. As mentioned, they can give rise to human behavior, be relatively independent of the situation, or even shape personality traits. It is these stable motives of a person, which determine his activities, that together represent the orientation of the individual.
The orientation of the individual is determined by parental upbringing and society. In his life, a person learns about the world in which he lives and forms his thoughts regarding the things and people that surround him. These thoughts become the individual’s attitudes, which have a very strong influence on the direction of the individual. Attitudes that become personality traits form different forms of personality orientation; they are based on a system of motives.
Among the forms of personality orientation, the following are distinguished: drives, ideals, desires, interests, aspirations, inclinations, worldviews and beliefs, as the highest of forms.
Attraction is an unconscious need for something. This need is not necessary for the individual and soon may simply disappear. This is the simplest form of personality orientation.
But if attraction is realized by a person, it can develop into desire.
Desire is characterized by a person’s need for something specific, for example, some object. Often, desire has a motivating effect that forces a person to act, showing willpower, clearly defining for himself the desire and ways to achieve goals. In this case, desire turns into desire.
An important form of personality orientation is interest. Interest itself determines a person’s desire, and also gives meaning to his activities and the goals themselves.
If a person shows interest in a certain area, uses willpower, and also directs his efforts and actions in this area, then such a phenomenon will be considered as an aspiration.
Throughout life, people build their ideals. Everyone has an opinion about what a person should be, and of course people judge other people based on their own ideals. The orientation of the individual consists of constant actions with the desire to achieve his ideal. This form of orientation gives rise to a worldview.
All of the above forms of personality orientation may not be associated with each other. But the worldview is determined by integrity. It's like a plan for the whole world in a person's head. Worldview allows you to combine thoughts into one picture and build your own, individual idea of the world and people. This allows a person to see his place in the world, as well as predict his future activities, make plans and achieve goals.
The system of personal motives that determine a person’s activities taking into account his principles, interests, and views on the world is called belief. When a person faces a conscious need, he will act depending on his beliefs, which are based on the motives that drive a person and contribute to achieving success.
Nothing in the world is done just like that. Most people are sure of this. Such a belief concerns not only life phenomena and patterns, but also the actions of people. Most often, actions are guided by certain motives. And we ask ourselves why in a certain situation a person acts one way or another. Perhaps by revealing the essence of the concept of motive, we will be able to find answers to this question.
Concept and types of motivesMotivation – This is a person’s internal state associated with his needs. Motives are the driving force that activates physical and mental functions, prompting a person to act and achieve a goal. Motivation and various types of motives make a person purposeful, since the goal in most cases satisfies the need that has arisen for something.
Various types of motives in psychology are considered as phenomena that become the reason for action. A motive gives a person a lot of experiences, characterized either by positive emotions associated with expectations, or negative emotions due to dissatisfaction with the current situation. Some types of personal motives are characterized by the presence of a material or ideal object, the achievement of which is the meaning of activity. In addition to motives, there is such a thing as incentives. These are the levers by which motives are evoked. For example, an incentive for a person may be a bonus, an increase in salary, but for a child the incentive is a good grade at school, for which the parents promised to buy something.
Types of human motives are divided into two levels: conservation motives and achievement motives. Most often in his life, a person uses conservation motives, where the power of emotions lasts for a short time, and activity is aimed mainly at not losing what has already been created. Achievement motives require constant activity from a person in order to get what he wants. To complete the picture, consider the existing functions and types of motives.
Functions and types of motives
The main types of human motives contain six components:
- External motives. They are caused by external components. For example, if your friend bought a new thing, and you saw it, then you will be motivated to earn money and also buy a similar thing.
- Internal motives. They arise within the person himself. For example, it can be expressed in the desire to go somewhere and change the environment. Moreover, if you share this thought with others, then for some it may become an external motive.
- Positive motives. Based on positive reinforcement. For example, such a motive is contained in the attitude - I will work hard, I will get more money.
- Negative motives. They are factors that push a person away from making a mistake. For example, I won’t get up on time and be late for an important meeting.
- Stable motives. Based on human needs and do not require additional reinforcement from outside.
- Unstable motives. They require constant reinforcement from outside.
All these types of motives perform three main functions:
- encouragement to action. That is, identifying those motives that force a person to act;
- direction of activity. The function with which a person determines how he can achieve a goal and satisfy his need;
- control and maintenance of achievement-oriented behavior. Keeping in mind his ultimate goal, a person will adjust his activities taking into account its achievement.
By the way, as for activity, here too there is a set of motives. It depends not only on a person’s internal needs, but also on his interaction with the social environment.
Types of motives for activity and interaction with society
Human activity is the most important life function. Motives for activity are formed on the basis of a person’s needs to achieve certain life goals. A person’s behavior is formed depending on the final outcome of his actions he sees. Since our main activity is work, the motives here are focused on the process of work itself and its result. In the first case, the motives will be determined by certain working conditions, the content of the work, the quality of relationships between employees and the opportunity to develop abilities. In the second case, the result of labor will depend on three main motives:
- material reward is, first of all, monetary income and a person’s confidence in job security and social security;
- the significance of the work - this takes into account the opinion of family, friends and the media about the work, in other words, the prestige of the profession;
- free time is an important motive for creative people, as well as for those who have small children or combine work and study.
Since any activity is inseparable from society, we should not forget that there are different types of motives for interaction. In other words, through their activities, each person pursues the goal of somehow influencing the behavior of other people united in society. The types of social motives can be different. The most important of these is a phenomenon called social comparability. This is a person’s attempt to analyze and evaluate his abilities by comparing them with other people. This gives rise to such types of social motives for interaction as sympathy for another person or attraction to him.
However, above all types of motives that shape human behavior, there is “self-motivation”. This is a person’s inner sense of self, which guides him in every action. For successful activity, a person needs to control himself, to ensure a regime in which any activity will be fruitful. It is from self-motivation that other types of motives are born that contribute to the achievement of goals.
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1. The concept of activity, need, motive and goal
Activity is a social category. Animals have access only to life activity, which manifests itself as a biological adaptation of the body to the demands of the environment. Man is characterized by a conscious separation of himself from nature. He sets goals for himself and is aware of the motives that prompt him to be active and interact with other people. Thus, every living organism, in order to live, needs certain conditions and means provided to it by the external environment. Man, like other living beings, also needs certain conditions and means for his existence and activity. He must have communication with the outside world, food, an individual of a different sex, books, entertainment, etc.
There are two really and functionally interconnected sides in human behavior: incentive and regulatory.
Incentive provides activity and direction of behavior; the regulatory one is responsible for how this behavior develops from beginning to end (until the goal is achieved) under certain conditions. Mental phenomena, states and processes: sensations, perception, attention, memory, thinking, speech, abilities, temperament, character and emotions - mainly provide the regulation of behavior. As for its stimulation, it is associated with the concept of motivation, which includes ideas about interests, motives, needs, goals, objectives, intentions, motives, aspirations, existing v person.
Of all the motivational concepts, the most important is the concept of need. It is called the state of need of a person or animal in certain conditions that they lack for normal existence, difference.
Needs are a person’s need for something.
In contrast to the needs of animals, which are more or less stable in nature and limited mainly by biological needs, human needs constantly multiply and change throughout his life: human society creates everything for its members new needs that were absent from previous generations.
Social production plays a significant role in this constant renewal of needs, producing more and more new consumer goods, it thereby creates and brings to life more and more new needs of people.
According to the point of view of A.N. Leontyev, activity is a form of activity. Activity is driven by need, i.e. a state of need in certain conditions of normal functioning of the individual.
The need is not experienced as such - it is presented as an experience of discomfort, dissatisfaction, tension and manifests itself in search activity. During the latter, identification occurs with its object - fixation on an object that can satisfy it. From the moment of the “meeting”, activity becomes directed, objectified - as a need for something specific - and becomes a motive that can already be recognized. It is in this case that we can talk about activity.
According to S.L. Rubinstein, activity is determined by its object, but not directly, but through its “internal” laws; external causes manifest themselves through internal conditions. When explaining mental phenomena, the personality with its complex multi-level structure acts as a system of internal conditions. Activity must be distinguished from behavior. The success of a subject’s activity depends on three components: knowledge, skills and motivation.
The characteristic features of the needs are:
a) the specific substantive nature of the need, usually either with an object that people strive to possess, or with any activity that should give a person satisfaction (for example, a certain job, game, etc.),
b) more or less clear awareness of a given need, accompanied by characteristic emotional states (attractiveness of an object associated with a given need, displeasure and even suffering from unsatisfaction of the need, etc.),
c) the presence, although often poorly realized, but always present, of an emotional-volitional state, oriented towards finding possible ways to satisfy needs,
d) weakening and sometimes complete disappearance of these states, and in some cases even their transformation into opposite states when previously realized needs are satisfied (feeling of disgust at the sight of food in a state of satiety),
e) re-emergence of a need, when the need underlying it again makes itself felt.
The second most important motivational concept after need is motive. Unlike needs, only humans have motives. The Soviet psychologist A. N. Leontiev contributed a lot of useful information to the theoretical understanding of what a motive is. He defined a motive as an object that, responding to an actual need, that is, acting as a means of satisfying it, organizes and directs behavior in a certain way. With the same need, the motives for observed behavior can be a variety of objects.
A. N. Leontiev noted that need itself cannot be a motive for behavior for the reason that, as a state of need, it is capable of generating only undirected activity of the body and maintaining it at a certain level, increasing or decreasing accordingly the strength of the need that has arisen until , until it is completely eliminated Focus and organization. that is, expediency and reasonableness of behavior can only be ensured by a specific motive - the subject of a given need. Therefore, for full motivation, that is, to stimulate and direct behavior in a certain direction, at least two motivational factors are necessary: need and motive
The difference between needs and motives is seen not only in connection with their different roles in motivating behavior as a process, but also in other ways. Every existing need, the degree of its satisfaction or dissatisfaction, manifests itself subjectively and, as a rule, unconsciously, in emotions. The motive appears in the human mind as an object, or goal, towards which behavior is ultimately directed. It does not necessarily have to be the object itself, capable of satisfying an existing need here and now; there may be some intermediate result leading to it
Motive is always connected in one way or another with cognitive processes:
perception, thinking, memory and speech. That is why we say that only humans have motives as potentially conscious (that is, capable of becoming conscious) stimuli of behavior.
Motives are diverse, but they are usually divided into lower (biological) and higher (social) Biological motives are the drives, desires, and desires of a person, usually reflecting his physiological needs
Social motives are interests, ideals, beliefs that personally play a much more significant role in her life
Goal is the next motivational factor. It refers to the immediate, necessarily conscious result towards which behavior is currently directed. If we imagine the entire sphere of what a person is aware of in the complex motivational dynamics of his behavior in the form of a kind of arena in which the colorful and multifaceted performance of his life unfolds, and we assume that the place that should attract the greatest attention of the viewer is most brightly illuminated at the moment (the subject himself), then this will be the goal. Psychologically, a goal is that motivational content of consciousness that a person perceives as the immediate and immediate expected result of his activity. The goal is the main object of attention and occupies short-term and working memory; the thought process unfolding at a given moment in time and most of all kinds of emotional experiences are associated with it. Unlike the goal associated with short-term memory, needs and motives are stored (until they are fully satisfied) in a person's long-term memory.
The considered motivational formations: needs, motives and goals are the main components of the motivational sphere of a person.
Each of the needs can be realized in many motives (satisfied with the help of various objects), and each of the motives can be satisfied with a different set of interrelated, sequentially achieved goals. In turn, behavior aimed at satisfying a need is divided into separate types of activities (communication) corresponding to private motives, and each type of activity (communication) is divided into a number of actions corresponding to specific goals.
2. The main parameters by which a person’s motivational sphere is assessed
A person’s motivational sphere can be assessed according to the following parameters: development, flexibility, and hierarchy.
By the development of the motivational sphere we mean the qualitative diversity of motivational factors presented at each level. The more diverse needs, motives and goals a person has, the more developed his motivational sphere is.
The flexibility of the motivational sphere characterizes the motivation process as follows. A motivational sphere is considered more flexible in which, to satisfy a motivational impulse of a more general nature (of a higher level), more diverse motivational incentives of a lower level can be used. For example, the motivational sphere of a person is more flexible; depending on the circumstances, he can use more diverse objects to satisfy the same need than another person. Let's say, for one individual the need for knowledge can only be satisfied by television, radio and cinema, while for another the means of satisfying it are also a variety of books, periodicals, and communication with people. The latter's motivational sphere will, by definition, be more flexible.
Let us note that development and flexibility characterize a person’s motivational sphere in different ways. Development is the diversity of the potential range of objects that can serve for a given person as a means of satisfying an actual need, and flexibility is the mobility of connections that exist between different levels of organization of the motivational sphere: between motives and needs, motives and goals, needs and goals.
Finally, hierarchization is a characteristic of the structure of each of the levels of organization of the motivational sphere, taken separately. Needs, motives and goals do not exist as adjacent sets of motivational factors. Some needs (motives, goals) are stronger than others and arise more often than they do: others are weaker and are actualized less frequently. The greater the differences in the strength and frequency of actualization of motivational formations of the same level, the higher the hierarchization of the motivational sphere.
motivation need human behavior
3. Interests, tasks, desires as motivators of human behavior
In addition to needs, motives and goals, interests, tasks, desires and intentions are also considered as drivers of human behavior.
Interest in oneself can be aroused by any unexpected event that involuntarily attracted attention, any new object that appears in the field of vision, any particular, randomly occurring auditory or other stimulus.
As a motivational factor, interest in the animal world is as common as need. There is an innate mechanism for it - an orientation reflex. It, however, represents the lowest level of interest development. In connection with the development of his motivational sphere, a person begins to be interested in everything that could potentially serve as a means of satisfying his needs and motives and achieving his goals.
Interest is understood as a special cognitive motivational state of a cognitive nature, which, as a rule, is not directly related to any one central need at a given time.
Interest is also considered as a motive of a person, expressing his special focus on understanding certain phenomena of the surrounding life (at the same time determining his more or less constant tendency to certain activities
Features of interests are
1) activation of not only cognitive processes, but also creative motivational efforts of a person in various fields of activity,
2) greater than usual specification of the goals and operations of the activity,
3) expansion and deepening of a person’s knowledge in this special area, and the development of relevant practical skills and abilities,
4) a kind of emotional satisfaction that encourages long-term engagement in relevant activities.
The following types of interests are distinguished: effective and ineffective, stable and unstable, direct and indirect, deep and superficial, strong and weak, active and passive.
Interests must be formed in a directional manner. First of all, for this it is necessary to show the significance of the information received from the object of interest for understanding the object itself and obtaining knowledge that is important and necessary in the activities of the individual.
Desires and intentions are momentarily arising and rather quickly replacing each other motivational subjective states that meet the changing conditions for performing actions.
Interests, tasks, desires and intentions, although they are part of the system of motivational factors, participate in the motivation of behavior, however, they play not so much an incentive role as an instrumental one. They are more responsible for the style rather than the direction of behavior.
4. Psychological basis of motivation
Interest in psychology throughout the centuries of development of its problems has invariably been associated with the search for an answer to two main questions: about the nature and essence of mental phenomena and about the explanation of human behavior. There are two sides to behavior: instrumental and motivational, with the latter playing the most important role in understanding it. Accordingly, the attention of psychologists was focused not only on the study of cognitive processes, but also motivation. The practical product of this interest was numerous theories of motivation, which began to appear in the works of ancient philosophers. Currently, there are more than a dozen such theories of motivation.
Views on the essence and origin of human motivation throughout the study of this problem were located between two extremes: rationalism and irrationalism. According to the rationalist position, and it appeared especially clearly in the works of ancient philosophers and those who studied theology until the middle of the 19th century, man is a unique being of a special kind, which has nothing in common with animals. It was believed that he, and only he, was endowed with reason, thinking and consciousness, possessing will and freedom to choose actions. Before taking any action, he necessarily weighs all the circumstances, makes a decision and, based on it, further acts. The motivational source of human behavior was seen exclusively in the mind, consciousness and will of man.
Irrationalism as a doctrine extended mainly to animals, and it argued that the behavior of an animal, unlike a person, is not free, unreasonable, controlled by dark, unconscious forces of a biological plan, which have their origins in organic needs.
The first actual motivational, psychological theories that incorporated rationalistic and irrationalistic ideas should be considered the decision-making theory that arose in the 17th-11th centuries, which explains human behavior on a rationalistic basis, and the theory of the automaton, which explains animal behavior on an irrationalistic basis. The first of these theories appeared in economics and was associated with the introduction of mathematical knowledge into the explanation of human behavior associated with economic choice. It was then transferred to the understanding of human actions in other areas of its activity other than economics.
The development of automaton theory, stimulated by the successes of mechanics in the 17th-18th centuries, was further combined with the idea of a reflex as a mechanical, automatic, innate response of a living organism to external influences. The separate, independent existence of two motivational theories: one for humans, the other for animals, supported by theology and the division of philosophy into two opposing camps - materialism and idealism - continued until the end of the 19th century.
The second half of the 19th century was marked by a number of outstanding discoveries in various sciences, including in biology - the emergence of the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin. She had a significant influence not only on natural history, but also on medicine, psychology and other humanities. Under the influence of Darwin's theory of evolution and psychology, intensive study of intelligent forms of behavior in animals and instincts in humans began. If earlier the concept of need, associated with the needs of the organism, was used only to explain the behavior of animals, now it began to be used to explain human behavior, accordingly changing and expanding the composition of the needs themselves in relation to him. Fundamental differences between humans and animals at this stage of development of psychological knowledge and motivational theory were tried to be kept to a minimum.
In addition to the theories of human biological needs, instincts and drives, at the beginning of the 20th century, two more new directions arose, stimulated not only by the evolutionary teachings of Charles Darwin, but also by the discoveries of I.P. Pavlov. This is a behavioral (behaviorist) theory of motivation and a theory of higher nervous activity. The behavioral concept of motivation developed as a logical continuation of D. Watson's ideas in the theory that explains behavior. In addition to D. Watson and E. Tolman, among the most famous representatives of this trend are K. Hull and B. Skinner. All of them tried to deterministically explain behavior within the framework of the original stimulus-response scheme. In its more modern version (and this theory continues to be developed to this day almost in the same form in which it was proposed at the beginning and middle of the century by E. Tolmes and K. Hull), the concept under consideration includes the latest achievements in the field of physiology of the body, cybernetics and behavioral psychology.
The research begun by I. P. Pavlov was then continued, deepened and expanded not only by his immediate students and followers, but also by other physiologists and psychologists. Finally, the last of the theories that already existed at the beginning of our century and continues to be developed now was the theory of organic animal needs. It developed under the strong influence of previous irrationalistic traditions in understanding animal behavior. Its modern representatives see their task as purely physiologically explaining the mechanisms of work and functioning of biological needs.
Since the 30s of the 20th century, special concepts of motivation that relate only to humans have appeared and been identified. One of the first such concepts was the theory of motivation proposed by K. Lewin. Following it, the works of representatives of the so-called “humanistic psychology” were published, such as A. Maslo, G. Allport, K. Rogers, etc. In the last decades of the 20th century, they were supplemented by a number of special motivational concepts presented in the works of D. McClesland , J. Atkinson, G. Heckhausen, G. Kelly, Y. Rotter.
In Soviet psychology, from the first years of its existence, attempts were also made to pose and solve problems of human motivation. But for many years, until the mid-60s, according to the decades-old tradition, psychological research in our country was mainly focused on the study of cognitive processes.
A. N. Leontiev’s theory of the activity origin of the human motivational sphere - part of this theory concerning the structure of the human motivational sphere has already been considered by us. Its second component is the concept of the origin of the main elements of the motivational sphere: needs, motives and goals.
According to the concept of A. N. Leontyev, the motivational sphere of a person, like his other psychological qualities, has its sources in practical activities. In the activity itself one can find those components that correspond to the elements of the motivational sphere and are functionally and genetically related to them. Behavior in general, for example, corresponds to human needs; the system of activities from which it is composed - a variety of motives, the set of actions that form the activity - an ordered set of goals. Thus, there is a mutual correspondence between the structure of activity and the structure of the motivational sphere of a person.
The dynamic changes that occur in a person’s motivational sphere are based on the development of a system of activities, which in turn is subject to objective social laws.
Thus, this concept is a dialectical materialistic explanation of the origin and dynamics of the human motivational sphere. It shows how a system of activities can change, how its hierarchization is transformed, how individual types of activities and operations appear and disappear, what modifications occur with actions.
Thus, an analysis of the literature showed that the concept of “motive” is
Incentives for activity related to meeting the needs of the subject; a set of external or internal conditions that cause the subject’s activity and determine its direction
The object that motivates and determines the choice of direction of activity, for the sake of which it is carried out
The conscious reason underlying the choice of actions and actions of an individual.
A central pattern can be identified: the development of motives occurs through a change and expansion of the range of activities that transform objective reality.
Used Books
Markova A.K. Formation of learning motivation. M., 1990.
Nemov R.S. Psychology M., 1990
Pavlyuk O.I. Emotional components of motivation. M., 1986.
Psychology. Dictionary, ed. A.V.Petrovsky. M., 1990.
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Theoretical foundations of personnel motivation management. The concept of motivation and motive. Types of motivation. The main links of the motivation mechanism. Theoretical foundations of motivation management. Content theories of motivation. Work motivation in Russia.
course work, added 11/30/2004
Modern theories of motivation: their composition, a model of human behavior through needs. Problems of motivation for highly productive work at LLC "Avto-Orientir". The main directions for improving the moral and material motivation of enterprise personnel.
thesis, added 08/07/2012
Motivation is the process of motivating people to work. Theories of motivation. Carrot and stick policy. Content theory of motivation. Process theory of motivation. Needs according to Maslow. McClelind's theory of needs. Vroom's motivational expectancy theory.
abstract, added 11/07/2002
Study of the concept of need, motive and motivation. Characteristics of the main theories and substantive concepts of motivation. Hierarchy of human needs A. Maslow. Analysis of labor motivation of personnel at the Undorovsky Mineral Water Plant Volzhanka Production Association.
course work, added 10/05/2013
test, added 03/30/2009
Concept and aspects of motivation. Analysis of theories of motivation. Content theories of motivation. Process theories of motivation. Modern theories of motivation. Economic motives of people's activities. Non-economic methods of motivation.
By the concept of motives of a human personality, psychologists mean a certain internal force of an individual that encourages action in order to achieve a set goal. There is no single definition that characterizes this concept.
Some scientists are of the view that it is based on the ideas and perceptions of the individual; some believe that motives are determined by thoughts and basic life attitudes. The desire to achieve a goal gives a person strength and self-confidence, stimulates his growth as an individual. All these are the motives of the human personality.
Motives are very important; they determine the height of an individual’s achievements. To enhance motivation, especially in teams, external incentives are used in the form of bonuses, increased pay, gratitude, etc. to improve work efficiency. But it must be said that a person’s internal motivation is much stronger than external motivation and he overcomes any obstacles to achieve his goal.
Motivation of behavior
Studies of the motivation of people's behavior with the search for an answer to why a person acts this way and not otherwise have been carried out by many psychologists since ancient times. Human behavior is determined by many internal and external factors, which include the type of situation, personal qualities, the presence of external pressure, and the nature of the person’s motives.
What influence do motives of behavior have on a person? Analyzing the idea of the motives of an individual’s behavior, it must be said that different motives not only have different influences on human behavior, but can also be of decisive importance. After all, motives are a fusion of a person’s deep experiences, this becomes his property, and then transforms into personal qualities. Thus, the motive of helping those suffering and improving the world can develop into a character trait - altruism.
Motivation of individual activity
The motives of a person’s behavior depend on the goal that stands before him. He will try to achieve the goal to gain satisfaction. For example, to satisfy the feeling of hunger, a person will search for food. His behavior is determined by the need for food, and the search itself is the motive for the individual’s activity.
The motivation for individual activity can be different, it all depends on the need and goal. To satisfy the basic needs that underlie human life and development (hunger, the need to breathe, a sense of self-preservation, etc.), motives that are organic serve. They allow the individual to satisfy primary needs in order to continue life and development.
Motivation can be functional in nature. These are motives that serve to satisfy the needs of a person’s cultural growth: sports activities, visiting the theater, cinema, museum, outdoor recreation. The need for cultural growth creates motives that encourage a person to satisfy this need and thereby increase his cultural level.
Material motives are those that serve to acquire or create material values. This concerns creating comfort in the home and various household amenities.
Social motives for activity are extremely important, since a person lives in society and strives to occupy a certain place in it, to have a certain social status. These needs create the corresponding motives. An individual will strive to prove himself among a certain society (participation in public organizations, charity events, volunteer movement, etc.)
Spiritual motives include those that are created by the needs to increase a person’s self-awareness and self-improvement. To achieve these goals, a person reads books, prays, or acts in some other way to develop spiritually.
Needs
The essence of definitions of need boils down to the fact that this is a state characterized by the presence of diverse needs in a person, which can include spiritual or material objects. To satisfy a particular need, a person takes a number of actions, while he is guided by the motives generated by the need.
Quite often it is possible for several needs to arise simultaneously at once. In this case, you have to decide which needs should be satisfied first. In connection with the above, a certain hierarchy of needs is being built, which was once characterized in his works by Abraham Maslow. According to a simplified diagram, the connection between a personality, its needs and motives can be described by a configuration consisting of five main levels, forming a so-called pyramid, called Maslow’s pyramid.
The lower level is characterized by physiological needs. Next comes the level of needs for security, then for affection and communication, for prestige, which is directly related to respect, and finally, the highest level is the need for spiritual knowledge.
Social motives
The social motives of an individual are a consequence of his attraction to public socialization. Attachment is the main social motive, which is the desire to be useful and necessary for someone, and to receive approval from others for this. Social motives – self-respect and recognition – are also important.
The human individual is a social being, living in society and depending on society and therefore striving in every possible way to find his own place in it and establish himself in it. That is why, in order to establish himself in society, a person acts following social motives.
Due to the complexity of his own nature, a person is very unpredictable in his relationships with others; it is common for each individual to look for a person who would perceive him as he is. In the context of this, people make compromises and change for the better.
It is impossible not to note the subordination of people to authority, regardless of dissatisfaction with it, people usually recognize its authority and therefore are ready to obey authorities, which also refers to social personal motives.
Personal motive system
Based on the principle of an unceasing series of emerging needs, it can be argued that a person is guided by motives. From the point of view of psychology, it is believed that over the course of human life a stable system of personal motives is formed. It is they who become the reason for the peculiar behavior of people and subsequently determine the direction of their activities.
The orientation of the individual is influenced by parental upbringing and the surrounding society; ultimately, the thoughts generated by these actions become key in the formation of the individual’s personality. There are distinct forms of personal orientation. About them below.
Drives are an unconscious need for something. This is the simplest form in its essence, and when the attraction loses its need, it simply evaporates. At the same time, conscious attraction can be transformed into desire.
Desire is a human need for very specific things. Often it is desire that prompts a person to action, the manifestation of willpower. If a desire is clearly defined and the ways to achieve it are clear, it turns into an aspiration.
Interest is what determines human desires and fills human goals and activities with meaning. Again, showing interest in a certain area with the involvement of willpower and directed efforts becomes an aspiration.
Ideals - each individual builds his own, because everyone has an opinion about what is good and what is bad, what a person should be. The actions of a person are consistent with his ideal and the desire to achieve it, first of all, in himself personally. The consequence of this form is the generated worldview.
The above-mentioned forms of personal orientation may not be related to each other, but the worldview is determined by their integral totality, since it is the worldview that plays a unifying role, when existing thoughts form a single picture that allows you to form your personal vision of the world around you and the people who inhabit it.
It becomes possible for a person to determine his personal place in this world, planning and predicting his future activity in it to achieve certain goals.
The main manifestations of orientation are needs and motives, value orientations, level of aspirations, prospects and goals of the individual.
Motives of behavior and activity
Motives are incentives for activity related to the satisfaction of certain needs. They differ from each other in the type of need that manifests itself in them, the forms they acquire, the breadth or narrowness, and the specific content of the activity in which they are realized.
Complex activities correspond to several motives that form a motivation system. Motives differentiate by their awareness. Unconscious motives are attitudes and trains, conscious ones are interests, beliefs, aspirations.
Unconscious motives. Leadership is an unconscious state of readiness for a certain activity or behavior. For example, an instruction for a first-grade teacher in the form of readiness to fulfill all her requirements. An attitude is often the result of hasty, insufficiently substantiated conclusions from the facts of personal experience or the uncritical assimilation of thinking stereotypes (standardized judgments established in a certain group). Attitudes can be positive
(for example, in relation to doctors) and negative - prejudice (for example, in relation to trade workers). There are also attitudes regarding a person’s perception of a person:
“That man over there, what do you say about him?” the friend answered, shrugging his shoulders: “Am I not familiar with this man? What good do I know about him?” “That man over there, what do you say about him?” I asked another friend. "I Don’t you know this person? What bad thing can I say about him?”
(R. Gamzatov)
The train is an incentive to activity; it is an undifferentiated, insufficiently clearly realized need, an indistinct need for something. It is fleeting: the need either fades away or turns into aspiration. Trains are characteristic of adolescence as harbingers of future aspirations - conscious motives.
Interests as conscious motives
Interest is an emotional manifestation of the cognitive needs of an individual. Subjectively, interests are revealed in a positive emotional desire to know the object more deeply and understand it. The role of interests is that they are a motivating mechanism of cognition, forcing a person to look for ways and means of satisfying one or another desire.
Interests are distinguished by content, purpose, width, depth, stability and effectiveness.
By purpose interests are divided into direct and indirect. Immediate interest is driven by the emotional appeal of the object. For example, interest in solving problems, crossword puzzles, communicating with friends, etc. People whose activity is motivated by immediate interest have a so-called business orientation and enjoy the process of work itself. Indirect interest arises regarding the outcome of an activity, although the process itself does not always interest the subject. The optimal result for the activity is a combination of direct and indirect interests.
By depth interests are divided into superficial and deep. By latitude - to wide and narrow. Broad interests are distributed among many objects; narrow ones are concentrated in one area. A valuable personality trait is a rich focus of interests in several unrelated areas of activity. The rich focus of interests is especially favorable for changing types of activities - the best means of restoring the energy expended during work. So, the narrowness or breadth of interests is assessed by their content.
In terms of stability interests are divided into sustainable And unstable. The persistence of interest is determined by the duration of its intensity. Sustained interest is a signal, an indicator of a person’s abilities. Sometimes interest in something does not go away throughout your life, for example, taking over a profession. The instability of interests, when they acquire the character of passionate but short-term hobbies, is an age-related feature that stimulates the search for a calling and helps to identify abilities.
There are different combinations of interests: in some individuals they are broad, versatile, deep, in others they are broad but superficial, in others they are deep but narrow. In this regard, the optimal type of person is one who, against the backdrop of wide, varied interests, has a central, main one.
Belief
An essential motive for a person’s behavior is his beliefs - this is a system of perceived needs that encourage him to act in accordance with his views, principles, and worldview. Conviction is the motivating force of behavior and makes you experience your actions.
Belief is a system of knowledge passed through the senses. Convinced is the person whose ideas are combined with feeling and will. She is incapable of doing anything contrary to her principles.
Convictions are of great importance in the social characteristics of an individual. It happens that a person criticizes someone, but behaves the same way. This indicates that her beliefs are not a guide to action. If knowledge and beliefs form an orderly and internally organized system of beliefs, they constitute worldview of the individual.
Pursuit
A conscious motive is also aspiration of the individual, that is, motives of behavior in which a need for something that can be achieved through volitional efforts is detected. Since the desire is not satisfied otherwise than through specially organized activities, they are able to maintain the activity of the individual for a long time.
If a person clearly understands the conditions in which he feels the need and the means that he plans to use, then the desire acquires the nature of intentions.
Desire takes on various psychological forms. One of them is a dream as an image of the desired future created by fantasy. A dream supports and enhances a person’s energy. Aspirations also appear in passions, that is, motives and corresponding needs that have an irresistible force that pushes everything into the background, rather than associated with addiction. Passions determine a person’s way of thinking and acting for a long time. Dissatisfied passion gives rise to violent emotions.
The form of aspirations is also ideal as a need to follow an example, is taken by the individual as a model of behavior. An ideal can be a specific person, a collective image or social values. Ideals always reflect life: it is impossible to imagine elements that would not exist in reality.
At the same time, the ideal predicts the future, highlighting the beautiful and perfect. There are two types of attitude towards the ideal: contemplative-enthusiastic, passive and passionately active, when the ideal is the plan of life and gives rise to the desire to self-destruct.
Dreams, passions, ideals, intentions can be high and low and, depending on that, play a different role in people’s activities and in the life of society.
