Set Your Motivation On Fire
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Behaviorists, cognitive and trait theorists, psychologists and health experts have come up with several theories pertaining to behavior, thought and action and how they are ignited and controlled by motivation.

There are a number that are specifically related to the process of learning while others deal with the individual’s capability, perception and reason. The bottom line is that the source of motivation probably comes from different areas in the person.

The Hierarchy of Human Needs

According to Abraham Maslow, human beings have needs and wants which greatly influence their behavior. These demands influence behavior only while they are unsatisfied. If they are satisfied, change in behavior will not result. He categorized the needs of people from simple to complex.

1. Physiological needs. This refers to the basic needs of food, water, shelter, clothing, etc. If the person feels hungry, thirsty, deprived of sleep, deprived of comfort, etc., it is very likely that he will do whatever is necessary to satisfy his needs, resulting in behavioral and cognitive changes.

2. Safety and security needs. The person needs to feel safe and protected. Children hold on to their parents and adults find a job that pays well with added benefits. If the person lacks security, he will feel threatened or in the midst of danger and possibly become fearful or overly cautious.

3. Love and belongingness needs. The person needs to feel accepted by other people. Family life and romantic relationships matter most in this area. The person needs to constantly communicate and relate with another individual and feel cared for and loved.

4. Self-esteem needs. The person constantly tries to do things to the best of his abilities and updates and enhances his skills and knowledge in order to gain recognition and feel successful.

5. Self-actualization needs. The person needs to have a sense of fulfillment in his life. Looking back and looking forward, he knows the valuable things he has done and he sets future goals.

What Maslow Says

It is important to know that you accomplish each of the five stages in chronological order. You can only advance to the next level after you have successfully satisfied the needs of the previous one. Maslow defines human beings as “perpetually wanting animals”. However, the motivation theory should be human-centered rather than animal-centered, which means that it aims for the deeper needs and understanding of human beings, beginning with animalistic physiological needs.

In each of the five stages, human beings will behave, think and act as necessary in order to fulfill their needs and wants. Any motivated behavior can be the driving force toward satisfying or expressing a need. On the other hand, it can also be the result of a satisfied or expressed need. It is possible that the behavior is triggered and controlled by several motivations. Generally, Maslow suggests that all states of behavior, thought or action should be considered as motivating and motivated.

The ERG Categories

The ERG theory was derived from and influenced by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Clayton Alderfer theorized ERG which stands for Existence, Relatedness and Growth. He divided the hierarchy of needs further into the three categories.

1. Existence category – Physiological and safety and security needs

2. Relatedness category – Love and belongingness and self-esteem needs

3. Growth category – Self-esteem and self-actualization needs

Similarly, the Existence category refers to the basic human needs of food, shelter, sex, etc. The Relatedness category refers to social involvement, relationships and communication. The Growth category refers to personal achievements and feelings of worth. The three categories are also arranged in hierarchal order.

What Alderfer Says

1. The satisfaction of needs in the lower categories is important to fully achieve higher needs. However, a person may try to satisfy needs belonging to different categories simultaneously.

2. A satisfied need in any category can still continue to recur and dominate.

The ERG theory states that every human being might consider a category more important than the other. This means that there is a hierarchal arrangement but people still have a subjective view and experience of what they consider more meaningful or vital to them at the moment. It is possible that a person has needs in two or three categories at one time, which is why these needs have to be attended to in order to successfully motivate the individual.

For example, a hungry person just lost his wife. He may try to attend to both physiological needs and the need for love and belongingness. The drawback is, if he tries to overcome his grief over the death and does not satisfy his hunger first, satisfaction of the higher need will be more difficult. The ERG theory allows simultaneous satisfaction of needs from different categories but Alderfer states that it will be much easier to satisfy higher needs if the lower needs are met first.

Frustration-Regression Principle

The Frustration-Regression Principle is highly related to the ERG theory in the case of unsatisfied needs. If a person fails to satisfy the needs in a higher category, he may regress by satisfying the needs in a lower category with more effort. Of course, the lower-category needs are much easier to satisfy so the person tends to excel in this area more to compensate.

The Alderfer-Maslow Differences

1. Alderfer says that people can satisfy their needs simultaneously while Maslow says it should only be done in the proper order.

2. Alderfer says people have different needs on different occasions while Maslow says people’s needs follow a single similar pattern.

3. Alderfer says that people can regress if higher needs are unsatisfied while Maslow says that once the needs of one level are satisfied people can only move forward.

The Cognitive Dissonance theory was made by Leon Festinger. Cognitive dissonance is described as the incompatibility of two cognitions. Cognition may refer to knowledge, belief, thought, personality, emotion or behavior. It defines the pressure resulting from the conflict of the two cognitions such as two contradicting thoughts, a thought contradicting with a behavior or a belief contradicting with a behavior.

When these conflicts arise, the person will be motivated to adjust by creating new beliefs or thoughts or changing behavior or personality in order to reduce the pressure. The person will attempt to harmonize his knowledge, belief, thought, personality, emotion and behavior.

For example, a non-smoking teenager knows that smoking is bad for his health. When he turned 20 years old, he started smoking. He looks back and realizes that his smoking behavior contradicts his past belief that smoking is unhealthy which causes him pressure. He then invents a number of reasons saying that he’s only smoking two cigarettes a day, he doesn’t inhale the smoke, etc. He rationalizes and changes his manner of thinking in order to match his present behavior to reduce the pressure.

This is cognitive dissonance.

Reducing the Pressure

Motivation comes in once the person decides to reduce the pressure by trying to reconcile the opposite cognitions. There are a number of ways in which he can achieve this.

1. Change cognitions. Since two cognitions are driving in opposite directions, the best solution is to substitute one cognition with a new one to match the other. For example, the smoker can rationalize and find a reason for his smoking or quit smoking altogether.

2. Adding cognitions. If the conflict between two cognitions is so severe and creates a great amount of pressure, you can add one or more cognitions in order to balance the force and reduce the pressure.

3. Change the importance of a cognition. The conflict and differences of cognitions create pressure depending on their importance. You may consider other cognitions unimportant or irrelevant to reduce the pressure that they make on the others.

The 3 Hypotheses

Here are three ways in which people try to handle dissonant cognitions.

1. Selective Exposure Prevents Dissonance. People avoid circumstances and information that aggravates the conflict. They are motivated to stay with people, materials and situations that coincide with their beliefs.

2. Postdecision Dissonance Creates a Need for Reassurance. People experience tremendous pressure after making a huge decision since they consider the issue important, there is the presence of an equally good alternative and the decision made is final. They are then motivated to seek support and reassurance that they made the right decision.

3. Minimal Justification for Action Induces a Shift in Attitude. People will value minimum incentives more, causing a change in attitude. A person who only experiences a small taste of the expected outcome will be more motivated to behave accordingly in order to fully experience the benefits of the accomplished goal.

The Self-Determination theory or SDT, developed from the works of Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci, describes how human beings behave, act and function with regards to their society. It implies that every act, thought and response is determined by choice. Through volition or self-determination, there are varying degrees of response according to how the person was motivated by his environment or other people.

Organismic-Dialectical Meta-Theory

This foundation of SDT means that human beings are natural organisms striving to develop using their innate potentials through challenges. As they overcome stress, they gain a better understanding of their natural self. The need to develop is spurred by the environment, and the individual may grow or deviate depending on the outcome. Overall, the behavior and action of human beings are highly dependent on the motivators set by their environment and society.

Four Mini-Theories of SDT

1. Cognitive evaluation. Intrinsic motivation occurs when the person feels in control and capable.

2. Organismic integration. Internalization of behavior is connected with extrinsic motivation.

3. Causality orientations theory. People respond to the environment depending on their abilities.

4. Basic needs. People function in order to satisfy competence, control and relatedness needs.

SDT Motivational Views

1. Cognitive view. This defines the person’s understanding of his environment. There are standards that should be followed, values that should be nurtured and expectations that must be met. Thus the person creates these worldly ideas based on experience, learning and opinion.

2. Humanistic view. Since people develop their own standards, values and expectations on the environment, they try to develop themselves through learning and gaining knowledge and skills. They aim to function at the optimum level according to the demands of the environment.

With these two views, people are then assumed to be extrinsically motivated at the start, then transform their motivation into an intrinsic one during the process until the end. The external factors presented by the environment motivate them until they realize their potential and find the need and pleasure to develop as unique individuals.

Three Psychological Needs of SDT

1. Competence. People are expected to function according to the demands and standards of their environment. All individuals aim to be successful and become achievers in their own areas, which explains why you have specific fields of interest and things which you’re good at. You are then motivated by obstacles and challenges and driven by the passion and pleasure of it all.

2. Control. People are more motivated to act and behave if they know that they have the ability to manipulate the environment and outcome of a challenge. Intrinsic motivation usually occurs at this stage since you derive pleasure from gaining control and do things because you know that you are capable of being successful.

3. Relatedness. You are very much interconnected with your environment. You perform according to the standards set by the world in order to be accepted and recognized by other people. You then derive pleasure and feelings of self-worth by belonging to a group.

The Goal-setting theory defines how human beings act or behave due to a specific purpose. Basically, people have needs so they set objectives and goals for themselves in order to meet those needs. There can be various skills involved when trying to achieve a number of goals in which the outcomes also differ.

How does goal-setting work?

1. A person who accomplishes his goal feels successful, competent and useful in society. In relation to motivation, he feels motivated to continue improving and developing his skills.

2. A person who doesn’t accomplish his goal feels unsuccessful and unsatisfied. However, he feels motivated to improve and develop his skills so as not to fail again.

Qualities of a Goal

To properly motivate yourself toward a goal, you also have to define your goal. A goal must be:

1. Specific. The goal should be clear and understandable. All details before, during and upon achievement of the goal must be indicated, including the advantages and disadvantages of failure and success.

2. Challenging. There should be enough obstacles and challenges to make a goal worth achieving. A person will only be driven to put effort into an activity if his abilities are faced with the type of stress that proves to be difficult to overcome.

3. Attainable. In conjunction with being challenging, the goal must be realistically attainable. A person will only continue to act and behave if he believes that the goal and needs can be met.

Performance and Goal

The performance of the person depends on the nature and characteristic of the goal. The harder the goal, the more likely the person will perform to the fullest of his potential. There are three ways in which goals can affect performance.

1. The performance focuses on the goal. A person with a set goal will be motivated to direct all his efforts and creativity toward achieving it, putting aside other unimportant matters.

2. Setting goals requires more specific effort. You have to perform according to the details set by the determined goal. This refers to time, quality and efficiency.

3. Goals encourage persistence. On the road to achieving your goal, you will be encountering difficulties and setbacks. However, motivation will allow you to continue working to succeed.

How is goal-setting related to motivation?

When people set goals for themselves, motivation enters the picture by initiating a behavior or action required for accomplishment of the goal. Motivation continues to direct the behavior and makes the appropriate adjustments in type and level of performance to ensure that the person focuses on the goal. Motivation maintains the appropriate behavior until the goal is met. In other words, goal-setting is an important motivational process.