2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43
"Motivation" is now a word in the top headlines of various articles. Social networks are full of pictures and inspiring phrases, and everyone is engaged in reposting this beauty on their wall, as if it can help in some way. All possible trainings promise to reveal the secrets of motivation and increase it to unprecedented levels
What is motivation really? What is it like, as a psychological concept? What is its essence and how does it work? When I glorified myself for the thought that I was becoming an ardent opponent of motivation, I realized that you just need to understand the issue as a specialist. To do this, I did a simple thing, took a textbook on the psychology of motivation and read it, and it turned out that under this concept there is a very simple theory that few people know. Therefore, this article is for everyone who wants to understand the theory and does not want to read the entire book.
And so, let's start with a simple formula that, in a first approximation, explains the whole essence of motivation: Motivation = Motive + Situational factors, where situational factors can be the complexity of the task, pressure, requirements, in general, any features of the situation.
The picture begins to emerge, it is not enough to set goals and run to the barricades, taking weapons in battle, you need to take into account the specifics of the situation. Even not, the situation will be taken into account by itself, regardless of whether you understand it or not.
What the tutorial writes: Motivation - this is a set of motivating factors that determine the activity of a person, they include motives, needs, incentives, situational factors that determine (condition) human behavior. Turns out that the more motives determine the activity, the higher the overall level of motivation … By the way, a high level of motivation is not always good, but more on that later.
The general level of motivation depends on: the number of motives that stimulate the activity; from the actualization of situational factors; from the motivating force of each individual motive.
Let's see what is motive, everything is simple, - it is a motivation for action … It differs from the need in that the need prompts for activity, and the motive for directed activity. Moreover, each motive has its own strength and intensity. And if we figured it out, and we have enough motives to move mountains, there may be various situational factors that can both weaken and increase motivation. It is very important to be able to analyze the environment in order to achieve goals effectively.
And now the most interesting thing to know about motivation and motives, thanks to which we act.
Motivation is internal and external, or rather motives are like this.
Internal motives - procedural and substantive motives, they cause pleasure from the process and the content of the activity, and not factors not related to the activity. What does this mean that motivation is internal, then when you anticipate pleasure from the activity, not from the result, but from the process.
External (extremal) motives - the motivating factors lie outside the activity (the motive of duty and responsibility to society or individuals, the motives of self-determination and self-improvement, the desire to gain approval, the desire to obtain a high status, the desire for power and rewards, the motives for avoiding punishment and achievement). In other words, extrinsic motivation is always aimed at a goal, we do something not because we like to do it, but because the result will bring us certain bonuses, so to speak.
External motives without internal ones, in the process of activity, do not provide the maximum effect. If you do not get pleasure from the process of activity, firstly, the path to the goal will be thorny and tense, the energy will dry out even when setting the goal, and secondly, the result will not bring proper satisfaction. Working without intrinsic motivation leads to decreased productivity, chronic fatigue, loss of interest in life, increased stress, etc.
Procedural and substantive motive - it is always a state of joy, pleasure in what you do. It is by these feelings that you can determine what motive guides you. But it should be noted that this does not mean at all that the internal motivation is “good”, and the external one is “bad”, no. This is not why I am writing all this; in order to be able to set goals and achieve maximum results, we need to clearly understand what drives us, what motive, and if something is missing, we need to add.
And now a few more words, about internal motives, Mihai Csikszentmihalyi introduced the concept of "flow", which is a complete dedication to the cause, a joyful feeling of activity when the individual completely dissolves in the subject of activity. But there is one thing but, in order for the experience of the "flow" to arise, the complexity of the task must slightly exceed the possibilities. Tobezh, the state of "flow" is possible only when the goal is high, but adequate, that is, such that you have the ability and resources to cope with it.
Here are 5 characteristics of the "flow" state:
- Feeling of full involvement in the activity;
- Full concentration of attention, thoughts and feelings in practice;
- The feeling that you clearly know how to act, a clear awareness of goals;
- Lack of fear of possible mistakes and failures;
- Loss of the usual feeling of a clear awareness of oneself, one's surroundings, as if "dissolving" in one's business.
D. de Cherms singles out the procedural-meaningful motivation to feel their effectiveness, to feel themselves as a source of changes in the world around them, and seeks to be the cause of their own actions (1976).
“The activity turns out to be, the more intrinsically motivated (internally), the more it is connected with the verification of its capabilities and does not need reinforcement. Extrinsic (external) motivation becomes when the subject ascribes the achieved result to external reasons and when he acts not at will, but as a result of external influences. - What is important here, when our activities are aimed at increasing competence, which is important for us, then this is an intrinsic motivation, which is internal. External motivation, extrinsic, directions to achieve a result that we like, but is not our desire. We go to work, do some actions there, we don't like them, for example, we write a report, we do it because this is our job, and not because it is our desire, while we receive a reward, our salary is the cause of our actions - this is how extrinsic motivation works.
The combination of positive emotions with activity increases motivation (interest) in this activity. And then, motivation is an incentive to activity due to the anticipation of the pleasure associated with this very activity. Once again, I will repeat that for the activity to be effective, it is necessary that there be both internal and external motivation, and there should be more internal motivation. Therefore, it is so important to do something that brings pleasure, or find joyful moments in routine work.
The process of finding something in the activity that makes you feel joy from the process is one of the moments of self-reinforcement. Self-reinforcement is a process in which people improve and maintain their own behavior by rewarding themselves and having some kind of control over these rewards. (J. Frager, J. Feydimen, p.705) The transition from external reinforcements to self-reinforcement is a sign of personality development.
When a person, performing an activity, asserts himself or enjoys the content or process of the work, this is a strong self-reinforcement.
Motives, which are "understood" and do not induce actions, are devoid of personal meaning. Consequently, endowing them with a personal meaning promotes transformation into really acting motives. (A. Leontev, 1975).
What I wanted to say by this, but the fact that external motivation can go into internal, when a person begins to enjoy the activity. And this process, with the help of self-reinforcement, he can regulate himself. To start enjoying the process, you need to give your actions personal meaning. And ogly, instead of work, to which you are at least indifferent, there appears, by simple manipulations, work that has a personal meaning for you, and the activity takes on colors.
Intrinsic motivation has one nuance. The pressure and demands of the environment, the promised reward and possible punishment can all reduce the level of intrinsic motivation. Like this, but like this, for example, you drew, you liked it, then they started paying you for what you paint, and then one day they stopped paying. So at this very moment, your level of intrinsic motivation for drawing will drop. This happens often in athletes who stop playing in professional sports. Is it possible to do something about this, I'm afraid not, it will be necessary to look for new meanings for activity, the old ones will not work.
It should be noted that knowing what motives determine a person's striving, one can successfully manage his activities. In our society, the most popular motives that are driven are money, power and achievement.
It is interesting that the masters of increasing the motivation of employees, perhaps, do not take into account one fact, a high level of motivation causes unwanted emotional reactions (tension, excitement, stress, etc.), which leads to a deterioration in performance. So for performing easy tasks, stronger motivation will be optimal; weak motivation is adequate for difficult tasks. (Erks and Dodson, 1908). What is light and weak motivation, it all depends on how many motives are involved in motivation and what intensity they have.
Here is such an article, if something was not enough for you, S. Zanyuk's book "The Psychology of Motivation" was used, read and share your discoveries, I could have missed something.
Psychologist, Miroslava Miroshnik, miroslavamiroshnik.com
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