Psy 352 – Motivation

Chapter 7 – Implicit Motives – Social Needs

Acquired Needs

• Achievement Needs
• Intimacy Needs
• Power Needs
• Social Needs
  • Preferences gained through experience, socialization and development.
• Quasi Needs
  • Situationally induced wants, have a sense of urgency, and stem from situational demands and pressures.

Achievement

• The desire to do well relative to a standard of excellence.
• Competitions
• People with a high need for achievement
  • Respond with approach-oriented emotions, choose moderately difficult tasks, and show more effort
• People with a low need for achievement
  • Respond with avoidance-oriented emotions
    Achievement, cont.

Origins of the need for achievement:

• Socialization influences
  • Independence training
  • High performance aspirations
  • Realistic standards of excellence
  • Positive valuing
  • Stimulating home environment
  • Variety of experiences

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• Cognitive influences
  • • Perceptions of high ability
    • Mastery orientation
    • High expectations for success
    • Value achievement
    • Optimistic attributional style
• Developmental influences
  • Young children
  • Middle-aged children
  • High-school and adults
• Pride
• Shame

Atkinson’s Model

• Classical view
• Contemporary view
• Atkinson’s model
  • Achievement behavior depends on the individual’s dispositional need for achievement, on their task-specific probability of success, and the incentive value for succeeding at that task
• Four variables
  • Achievement behavior
  • Need for achievement
  • Probability of success
  • Incentive for success
• Tendency to approach success
• Tendency to avoid failure
• Dynamics-of-Action Model
• Achievement behavior occurs within a stream of ongoing behavior that is determined by 3 forces:
  • Instigation
    • Causes an increase in approach tendencies
    • Latency to initiate an achievement task varies with motive strength
  • Inhibition
    • Causes an increase in avoidance tendencies (fear we will fail)
  • Consummation
• Doing an activity causes it to end
• The tendency to pursue achievement and non-achievement tasks rise when we facilitate our emotional and environmental incentives
• The tendency not to pursue is because of consummatory and inhibitory fears.
• Conditions that Involve and Satisfy the Need for Achievement
• Moderately difficult tasks
  • Emotionally
  • Cognitively
• Competition
  • In high need achievers
  • In low need achievers
• Entrepreneurships
  • Taking moderate risks
  • Assuming responsibility for one’s successes and failures

Achievement Goals

• Performance Goals
  • Seek to demonstrate or prove competence
• Mastery Goals
  • Seek to develop or improve competence
  • When you adopt mastery goals:
    • Persist
    • Prefer
    • Relate
    • Increase effort
    • Less susceptible
    • Motivated
    • Perform
    • Ask for help

Integrating Classical and Contemporary Approaches to Achievement Motivation

• Integrated model
  • Mastery goals
  • Performance-approach goals
  • Performance-avoidance goals
• People high in the need for achievement
• People high in the fear of failure
  • Regulate their behavior that interferes with performance, persistence, and emotionality
• People high in the need for competency
• Problems with the classical approach
• Problems with the contemporary approach
• Implicit Theories
  • Entity Theorists
    • Fixed, enduring qualities
    • Performance goals
  • Incremental Theorists
    • Malleable, changing qualities
    • Mastery goals

Affiliation and Intimacy

• Need for affiliation
  • Approval
  • Acceptance
  • Security in interpersonal relationships
• Need for intimacy
  • Experience a warm, close and communicative exchange with another
  • Characteristics
    Affiliation and Intimacy
• Conditions that involve the affiliation and intimacy needs
  • Deprivation from social interaction
  • Conditions that increase a person’s desire to affiliate with others
    • Social isolation
    • Fear-arousing situations
• A person high in the need for intimacy
• A person high in the need for affiliation

Power

• To have impact, control, or influence over another person or group
• Need for dominance, reputation, status or position
• Four conditions that satisfy the need for power:
• Leadership
  • Seek recognition in groups
• Aggressiveness
  • Impulses and societal constraints
  • Behaviors
• Influential Occupations
• Prestige Possessions
  • Collect

Leadership

• Leadership motivation consists of 3 needs:
  • High need for power
  • Low need for intimacy/affiliation
  • High inhibition