Understanding Human Motivation: Theories and Levels

Understanding Human Motivation

By Pablo Murillo

Motivation is a process or series of processes that initiate, manage, maintain, and finally stop a sequence of goal-directed behavior. It is the process by which stimuli, objects, mental representations, and images, as variables involved in human behavior, acquire causative value. This causative value is exercised over all behavior because motivation has intimate connections with attention, memory, learning, and other cognitive processes.

Memorandum: Conditions that cause, maintain, and regulate behavior.

These motives are not observable variables but hypothetical constructs: we can infer them from observable behaviors.

Levels of Motivation

Primary or Biological Motivation

• It is about the survival of the organism or species.
• They are related to internal states of the organism.
• They can respond to homeostatic mechanisms (regulatory motivated by a deficit), such as thirst.
• They can respond to hormonal changes or states of the body, such as sexual behavior.
• In humans, they are also influenced by expectations, anticipation of consequences, and prior learning.

Secondary Motivation

• They are relevant in humans because they can completely change the primary reasons for the intervention of certain mental processes.
• They exert significant control over behavior.
• They do not answer questions of conservation of the biological organism or the species.

Main Theoretical Orientations

Theories of Impulse

• Its first meaning was intended to explain physiological reasons.
• Woodworth: The urge is understood as the internal force that tends to maintain a homeostatic balance.
• Hull: Motivation is the initiation of learned behavior patterns or habits. Motivated behaviors tend to reduce the body's needs.

This theory works best to explain basic needs for instant gratification but neglects the broad field of human needs.

Psychodynamic Theories

Homeostatic theory proposed by Freud: The thrust is in the unconscious forces of the drive.

Humanistic Theories

Maslow: Motivation is based on the effort of individuals to achieve their full potential. Human behaviors fulfill the function of satisfying needs, which are organized hierarchically. The physiological needs, safety, belonging, and esteem needs of deprivation are: failure to meet them moves the person to reach them. The growth of self are personal.

Cognitive Theories

• Theories of expectancy x value
• Attribution Theory
• Coherence Theory

Expectancy x Value Theory

J. Atkinson: The behavior of individuals depends on how much they value the goal being proposed and what expectations they have that they could achieve it by that behavior. People move toward valued goals and the potential to perform.

Attribution Theory

Attributions are the perceived causes of a certain result. It is each person's response to the question, "Why did what happened happen?"

Attribution has three dimensions:

• Stability: Possible causes are constant over time.
• Controllability: Can the subject control the situation?
• Locus of control

Locus of Control

Concept developed by Rotter: People try to maintain control over important aspects of their lives.

• Internal locus of control: People believe that what is happening is because of what they do.
• External locus of control: People believe that what happens is independent of their behavior.

Coherence Theory

The basic idea is that motivation is the result of the interaction between cognition and behavior.

Homeostatic theories: When there is no matching, the body seeks to diminish the tension that is generated by modifying an item to return to equilibrium.

• Balance (Heider): There is a tendency to balance cognitively relationships between people, situations, and events.
• Cognitive dissonance (Festinger): Tendency to maintain coherent relationships between cognitions and behavior. When there is dissonance, there is motivation for action, as it is uncomfortable and is trying to be solved.