Session 6

• Motivation


  An urge to behave or act in a way that will satisfy certain conditions, such as wishes, desires, or goals
• Motivation


  • Psychologists believe it is rooted in a basic impulse to optimize well-being, minimize physical pain, and maximize pleasure
  • Motivations are commonly separated into drives (which are primarily biological, like thirst or hunger) and motives (which are primarily driven by social and psychological mechanisms)
  • Motivations can be intrinsic (arising from internal factors) or extrinsic (arising from external factors)

  
• Drive


  The motivational tension that energizes behaviour in order to fulfill a need
• Primary drives


  • Hunger
  • Thirst
  • Pain avoidance
  • Need for air
  • Sleep
  • Elimination of waste
  • Regulation of body temperature
• Secondary drives


  • Power
  • Affiliation
  • Approval
  • Status
  • Security
  • Achievement
• Homeostasis


  The principle by which an organism tries to maintain an optimal level of internal biological functioning by making up for any deviations from its usual state
• Approaches to motivation


  • Drive-reduction
  • Arousal
  • Incentive
  • Cognitive

  
• Motivation cannot be directly observed, therefore there are no accurate or valid measures; it must be inferred</b>
• Expressions of motivation


  • Behavioural manifestations (attention, effort, latency, persistence, choice, probability of response, facial expressions, bodily gestures)
  • Brain activation & physiology (brain activity, hormonal activity, cardiovascular activity, ocular activity, electrodermal activity, skeletal activity)
  • Extent of engagement (behavioural, cognitive, emotional, voice)

  
• Motivation (alternative definition)


  Internal and external factors that stimulate one's desire and energy to be continually committed to a job, or a subject, or to make an effort to attain a specific goal
• Motivation is a qualitative value, not a quantitative one, so it is difficult to measure
• Ways to measure motivation

  • Performance measures (sales targets, incentives)
  • Employee surveys
  • Customer satisfaction surveys
• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

  A projective test that involves describing ambiguous scenes, used to reveal a person's dominant motivations, emotions, and core personality conflicts
• How the TAT works


  1. Show a series of picture cards depicting ambiguous characters, scenes, and situations

  2. Ask the person to tell a dramatic story for each picture, including what is happening, who the characters are, what led up to the situation, the thoughts and feelings of the characters, what they want, and what will happen next

  3. Use a standard scoring system to determine the amount of achievement imagery in the stories, which indicates the person's level of achievement motivation
• Why the TAT is used

  • To learn more about a person
  • To help people express their feelings
  • To explore themes related to the person's life experiences
• Achievement imagery


  Indication of the overall level of achievement motivation in a particular society
• Assessing achievement imagery in children stories or folk tales

  Researchers have found correlations between the amount of such imagery in the books and the economic activity in the society over the next few decades
• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)


  A test used to learn more about a person, help people express their feelings, and explore themes related to the person's life experiences
• TAT


  • It is often criticized for not being standardized, with clinicians varying in how they administer the test and rely on subjective interpretation
• Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS)

  A forced choice, objective, non-projective personality inventory that measures the rating of individuals in 15 normal needs or motives
• 15 needs or motives measured by the EPPS

  • Achievement
  • Deference
  • Order
  • Exhibition
  • Autonomy
  • Affiliation
  • Intraception
  • Succorance
  • Dominance
  • Abasement
  • Nuturance
  • Change
  • Endurance
  • Heterosexuality
  • Aggression
• Forced choice format of the EPPS

  Respondent must choose between two questions that have been previously matched for equality in respect of social desirability
• EPPS


  • Designed primarily for personal counselling, but has found its way into recruitment as well
  • Provides researchers with a convenient measure of several relatively independent personality variables, also known as needs
• Academic Motivation Scale (AMS)


  Measures extrinsic and intrinsic motivation toward education, mostly used among high school students
• Seven sub-scores reported by the AMS

  • Intrinsic motivation to know and learn
  • Intrinsic motivation towards achievement and accomplishment
  • Intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation and engagement
  • Extrinsic motivation through rewards and constraints
  • Introjected regulation (self-regulation)
  • Internalization of extrinsic motives
  • Amotivation (failure to connect consequences with actions)

  
• Motivation is widely researched, in both sport psychology and other fields, and rigorous measurement is essential to understanding this latent construct
• Six most highly cited motivation measures in sport

  • Sport Motivation Scale (SMS)
  • Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI)
  • Situational Motivational Scale (SIMS)
  • Perceptions of Success Questionnaire (POSQ)
  • Behavioural Regulation in Sport Questionnaire (BRSQ)
  • Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ)
• Motives are forces that guide a person's behaviour in a certain direction
• Instincts


  Biologically determined, inborn patterns of behaviour
• Intrinsic Motivation


  Motivation that comes from within, such as the desire to do a good deed
• Drive Reduction


  Approach to motivation that sees behaviour as driven by the need to reduce biological drives
• Homeostasis


  The process of keeping the body at an optimal level of functioning
• Extrinsic Motivation


  Motivation that comes from external rewards or punishments, such as being paid to help someone
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs states that a person with no job, no home, and no friends cannot become self-actualized
• Extrinsic rewards can decrease intrinsic motivation by reducing perceived autonomy
• Need for achievement


  The desire to strive for excellence and master new tasks
• Self-handicapping can protect people against reductions in intrinsic motivation by providing external factors to explain poor performance