Methods of Motivation - Essay Example

There are two types of motivation intrinsic and extrinsic. Extrinsic motivation implies an instrumental relationship between behavioral results and desired outcomes. The person is not vitally interested in his/her very behavior, but in particular in the outcome that results from it. Whoever wants to get a compliment from a specific somebody, in return for which some work has to be done (like completing schoolwork at home), is not focused on those tasks, but on the recognition she or he expects to receive from performing well.

Intrinsic motivation consists of the feelings attached to or resulting from performing specified activities. Thus, intrinsically motivated people would be satisfied, happy, enjoy themselves, favor the things they do, and so forth (Armstrong, 2003). Achievement motivation theory (McClelland) asserts that maximum motivation will occur at moderate levels of difficulty when the incentive value of success is highest. Two problems with that model are the failure to include an explicit goal-setting stage and/or the failure to measure commitment to succeeding.

These factors are crucial to predicting the individual's response to subjective probability estimates. But the value for achievement, a conscious motive that is not correlated with n ach, has been found to be significantly related to goal choice (Fulton, Maddock, 1998).One of the earliest and the most popular theories of motivation was developed by Abraham H. Maslow. His "Hierarchy of needs' theory is based on five needs: (1) psychological (hunger, thirst), (2) safety (protection), (3) social (be accepted, belong to a certain group), (4) esteem (self-confidence, achievements, respect, status, recognition), and (5) self-actualization (realizing one's potential for continued self-development).

Whereas needs and (subconscious) motives are crucial to a full understanding of human action, they are several steps removed from action itself (Robbins, 2002). Goal-setting theory is odds with expectancy theory, which was first introduced into industrial-organizational psychology by Vroom in 1964. This theory asserts that, other things being equal, expectancy of success (which is inversely related to goal difficulty) is positively related to performance. However, as shown later, goal-setting theory and expectancy theory can be fully reconciled.

Goal-setting theory approaches the explanation of performance quite differently from that of motive or need theories such as those of McClelland and Maslow. It then worked backwards from there to determine what causes goals and what makes them effective. In contrast, need and motive theories started with more remote and general (often subconscious) regulators and tried to work forward to action, usually ignoring specific and conscious factors (Fulton, Maddock, 1998).Equity theory (John Stacey Adams, 1963-1965) asserts that pay will bring satisfaction to the degree that it is seen as fair or equitable.

Equity judgments will be based on the judged ratio of the individual's outputs and inputs in comparison to the output/input ratio of people to whom the individual compares himself or herself. If pay is seen as inequitable, thus producing dissatisfaction, people will take steps to restore equity by modifying the quantity or quality of