Psy 352 – Motivation

Chapter 1 – Introduction

What is motivation?

What is emotion?

• Anything that tells us about who we are, why we want what we want, and how to improve our lives is going to be interesting.
• Anything that tells us about what other people want, why they want what they want, etc.
• Motivational reasons to Exercise

Study of motivation revolves around answers for 2 fundamental questions:

   A.  What causes behavior?

• Study how motivation affects behavior’s initiation, persistence, change, goal directedness, and termination.

   B. Why does behavior vary in its intensity?

• Varies both within the individual and between different individuals.
• At one time a person can be actively engaged, yet at another time that same person can be passive and listless
• Motivation varies over time. One day to the next.

   

How can you tell when someone is motivated?

• Observe
• Pay attention to the antecedents or expressions (behavior, physiology, self-report)
• Problem with self-report is what people say & their physiological activity can differ

8 Themes in the study of Motivation

• Motivation Benefits Adaptation
• Motives Direct Attention
• Motives vary over time
• Types of Motivation exist
• Motivation includes both Approach and Avoidance Tendencies
• Motivation study reveals what people want
• Motivation needs supportive conditions

There is nothing so practical as a good theory – a theory is a set of variables and the relationships that are assumed to exist among those variables.

Conclusion

• Antecedent conditions affect the person’s underlying motive status, and a person’s motive status creates a sense of “wanting to” that expresses itself through goal-directed behavior, physiology and self-report.