Every day, any person overcomes many obstacles on the way to their goals, plans and thinks through ways to solve certain problems and tasks. An active life position, the desire for comprehensive development and personal growth are not expressed to the same extent in people, and the key point for understanding this difference is motivation. Not every person knows what it means to motivate themselves and others and how to properly work on developing motivation. The BrainApps resource will help you improve your personality with the help of useful articles and games developed by professionals. In this case, the motivation will be to record achievements so that a person can clearly see improvements in memory, thinking, and attentiveness.
Motivation is considered a process that regulates behavior, that which motivates a person to act. After all, behind any action or inaction there is a motive, even if it is not always conscious. The famous German thinker A. Schopenhauer first mentioned motivation. Motivation is a complex psychological phenomenon that has been studied by many scientists and around which many theories have emerged. To learn how to better manage your time and come to an understanding of how to achieve your goals, you need to understand what types of motivation exist and how to successfully apply them.
Motivation for human activity: main components
If a person does not fully understand what motivation means, then it is quite easy to explain what it is in simple words. First you need to find out the origin of this word and its meaning. The term “motivation” comes from the word “movere,” which is Latin for “to move.” Having learned the origin of the term, we can already conclude that motivation drives the actions of an individual, pushes him to perform certain actions or, conversely, to inaction.
Motivation is one of the human abilities that helps him achieve what he wants. The developed theories of motivation show a person its enormous influence on his way of life, the degree of activity and organization. That is, the more motivated a person is, the more effort he makes to achieve his goals. Some scientists understand human motivation as a process of activity regulation, while other experts mean by this term a certain set of motives.
A motive in psychology is something that helps direct a person’s active actions in a certain direction; it is a generalized image of what a person wants to achieve in the course of his activities. It can manifest itself in the form of positive emotions from achieving a goal or negative emotions in cases where the goal was not achieved. Motive is not the same thing as need or goal. In theories of motivation for a person, a need is an unconscious desire to eliminate physical or psychological discomfort, while a goal is set consciously in the process of working on one’s desires and information coming from outside. Motives are formed on the basis of various needs and are an incentive to achieve a set goal. They are discussed in detail in theories of motivation developed for humans.
The problem of the struggle of motives
As already mentioned, a person is simultaneously controlled by several motives, often prompting him to different actions. For example, a classic situation. It’s early morning, the alarm clock rings, which you set specifically to get up early and go for a morning run. But that was yesterday, and now I really don’t want to get out from under the warm blanket when I can sleep for another half hour. What will you choose, which motive will win? This depends on many factors, including the importance of motives, willpower, common sense and additional incentives. For example, if you agreed to run with a friend, and he will wait for you.
In the example given, the situation is not so critical, but it happens that a person is faced with a very difficult choice: to save himself or to save other people, to commit a crime and achieve a goal, or not to commit and give up what he wants. The struggle of motives can become a source of very complex and severe internal conflict, leading to the development of neurosis or depression.
Psychologists in a situation of conflict of motives advise relying on the rational sphere, that is, not giving in to emotions, thinking over the arguments for and against, assessing the pros and cons of one or another course of action. And most importantly, focus on the most socially significant motives. After all, having achieved your goal, but lost the trust and respect of society, you will lose more than you gain.
Despite the fact that we are not aware of all motives, it is possible to control the motivational sphere. To do this, you should learn to build a hierarchy of motives, focusing on the most important and significant ones. The hierarchy of motives is associated with social values and the priorities that exist in our lives.
Types of motivation and their features
Human motivation can be divided into positive and negative, stable and unstable. There are also external and internal motivation, which have their own characteristics. Positive motivation for any person should be supported by pleasant emotions, while negative motivation is aimed at avoiding negative experiences. Sustainable motivation extends to the basic physiological needs of a person and is constant, while unstable motivation depends on the needs of a particular person (for example, fighting bad habits).
Additionally, individual, group and cognitive motivation are distinguished. The individual type of motivation for each person is to maintain the physiological state of the body, and group motivation is directly related to the building of social connections. Cognitive motivation is aimed at learning new things and manifests itself in the form of games and research activities.
Of all the things that prompted a person to act, the most common motives were also selected. Most often, in their actions, people are guided by motives of power, self-affirmation, identification, affiliation, self-development, as well as external and socially significant motives. Other motives can also be components of the main motivation for a person. You can be motivated by a wide variety of things and processes, it depends on your character, lifestyle and professional environment. The significance of each type of motivation is depicted in detail in theories of motivation developed by leading experts in the field of psychology.
External and internal motivation in human life
Both external and internal motivation play an important role in a person’s daily life. Extrinsic motivation is characterized by the receipt of a stimulus from the outside, that is, a person primarily engages in some kind of work in order to receive reward, praise or recognition in society. A striking example of the external motivation of a working person is wages, provided that the work itself does not arouse his interest and does not bring much pleasure.
According to theories of human motivation, its internal appearance is in no way connected with external circumstances and a person chooses a certain activity primarily because it brings him pleasure. For example, he draws not to win a competition, but to get positive emotions. These two types of motivation in the life of an ordinary person are closely related and often the same activity is supported by several motives.
Signs of a motivating environment
When organizing any activity, it is important to consider several requirements. They are simply necessary to satisfy needs and form the right motivation:
- Activities should be creative and varied.
- Opportunity to develop while completing tasks.
- A sense of belonging to a group and recognition from it.
- The right to make decisions independently within one’s competence.
- Feeling of support and help.
- The presence of external attributes of success: praise, encouragement, compliment.
- The meaning of the required actions.
- The opportunity to express your own opinion, which will be taken into account.
- Availability and timeliness of information received.
- Feedback after the work done.
If all these signs (or at least the majority) are present in the organization of activities, then we can assume that the formation of internal motivation will be successful.
Variety of theories of human motivation
Theories of motivation are studied in psychology in order to better understand what motivates a person to act and how his behavior is formed. Such famous psychologists as Maslow, Alderfer, Herzberg, Adams, Vroom and many others worked on theories of motivation. A detailed analysis of human needs made it possible to identify two main directions in the field of theories of motivation:
- Procedural;
- Contentful;
Each of these theories of motivation has attracted many adherents. By studying the basic theories, you can better understand the types of personal motivation and analyze the nature of a person’s actions in different life situations.
Theory of motivation: features of the content direction
The emphasis in this direction of motivation for a person is on the analysis of human needs and methods of their systematization. The influence of internal emotional-volitional impulses on the formation of personality behavioral characteristics is studied. These principles of the theory of motivation were adhered to by Maslow, Herzberg, McClelland, and Alderfer.
- Maslow's theory. The most important thing in this theory of motivation for any person is that needs are formed into groups, between which a strict hierarchy is observed. This theory of human motivation can be illustrated using a pyramid, at the base of which are basic physiological needs, and the top of the pyramid is the achievement of self-actualization.
- Alderfer's ERG theory. According to this theory of human motivation, all needs can be classified into one of 3 groups (existence, connections and growth). The difference between this theory of human motivation from Maslow's theory is that Maslow recognized only a unidirectional movement from lower to higher needs;
- McClelland's theory. If you study this theory of motivation, you can see that throughout life a person can acquire the needs of achievement, participation and dominance, and one of them has a strong influence on his character and behavior;
- Herzberg's theory. This theory examines the influence of material and intangible factors on the development of personality and its activities. This theory of human motivation is widely used by managers of firms and enterprises to optimize the work of employees;
Neuroplasticity
Our brain has the property of neuroplasticity, which means its ability to reprogram. This fact is supported by decades of research analyzing different types of brain damage. One of the most impressive stories in recent years is brain surgery on patient Grace Wolberg, who suffers from a severe form of epilepsy. The doctor removed the left hemisphere of the brain, and soon after the operation, the right hemisphere began to restore the functions that had been lost along with the left. The recovery was so successful that Grace soon emerged from her paralyzed state. Here's a picture of her brain after surgery.
It's amazing - the biological hardware of the device that sits on our shoulders has about 100 billion neurons on board (counting neuroglial and satellite cells). Just imagine how many categories and hierarchical structures such a complex system can process. A child's brain is capable of forming up to 700 new brain connections and synapses per second, while tens of thousands of synapses are connected to each neuron. Based on our knowledge, the human brain is the most complex creation in the known universe. And we have to know it by using it.
Human motivation: procedural direction
The following theories of human motivation analyze not only needs, but also efforts and the nature of activity aimed at achieving the desired goal. The most famous procedural theories include:
- Vroom's expectancy theory. The level of motivation for a particular person depends not only on the presence of needs, but also on how hard he is willing to try to satisfy these needs. You need to be firmly confident that the approach you choose will be effective and help you achieve your goal;
- Adams' theory of equality. The essence of this theory of motivation for a person is that he tends to compare the result of certain actions with the result of other people who find themselves in similar life circumstances. Since this theory of human motivation is subjective, in addition to a fair assessment, a person can underestimate or overestimate the result obtained by others;
- Porter-Lawler model. This theory of human motivation combines elements of the work of Vroom and Adams;
Development methods
Theories of motivation play an important role for a person, because by understanding how motivation is formed, you can use this information to achieve your goals. A successful person must successfully use different types of useful motivation and be able to motivate others when necessary. After studying the theoretical material, you can choose the most useful approach for yourself and stick to it in everyday life.
However, not everyone knows what it means to motivate themselves and others. Various motivation methods are used by specialists for employees and students. There are also methods of self-motivation, which include:
- Reading and repeating affirmations;
- Self-hypnosis;
- Studying the life path of great people;
- Visualization;
Studying theories of motivation for a person helps to better understand one's own behavior and the behavior of other people, and develop a plan to increase productivity. Once you decide what it means to motivate yourself to act, solving many problems will no longer be a problem for you over time.
Achieving success in life is determined not only by motivation, but also by some other skills, for example, non-standard approaches to solving problems. The necessary brain functions allow you to develop individually designed workouts on the BrainApps resource, which take into account the strengths and weaknesses of the brain.
About habits
We are our multiple actions. Excellence, then, is not a single act, but a habit.
Aristotle
There is an urban legend about Pablo Picasso. One lady comes to the great artist and asks him to draw her portrait. He quickly sketched something on the canvas and showed it to her. The lady expressed complete delight and reached out to the painting to take it away. However, Picasso stopped her, saying that his work was worth 100 thousand dollars. “How can a two-minute job cost so much?” asked the lady. “To draw you now in two minutes, I worked all my life,” the artist replied.
Now let’s take a little break from dubious stories and show you a great visualization of the signals that are constantly transmitted in our brain. This visualization will help remind you once again of one important thing: how much we do on autopilot - we do not consciously control most of the signals that arise within our hemispheres.
In his book The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg builds an entire concept around habits. When we encounter an unfamiliar situation, our brain enters a high-frequency mode. As soon as the brain determines that it is not encountering a situation for the first time, it begins to build a habit. He needs this for two reasons: speed up the execution of actions by automating them; and save energy.
It takes from 21 to 254 days (from 3 weeks to 9 months) to form a habit, depending on the person’s character and the efforts he puts into it. But once you acquire a habit, it stays with you forever. Habits, whether useful or harmful, are easy to maintain, but not easy to acquire.
A habit is an investment in future performance, with the ability to reinvest at any time.
Let's give an example.
If I get up at 6 am, I will have an extra 2 hours of work per day. These two daily hours equal 18 additional work weeks per year. It is this time that becomes reinvested; it can be spent on exercise, meditation, sports, walking and observing. It is part of a daily routine that forms a habit.
Scott Adams, cartoonist and creator of the famous Dilbert corporate comic book series, talks about his approach to his work:
All my life I have been looking for people who strive not for goals, but for a system. In most cases, in my experience, those who build a system for themselves are more successful. “Systemic” people have found a way to look at familiar things with a new and more effective look.
Here is another excellent Ted Talk by neuroscientist Vileyanur Ramachandran, in which the scientist talks about his research into the neurons in the human brain that shape social behavior; It was thanks to the properties of these neurons that human civilization emerged.
