Discovering Motivational Theories - Essay Example

Ans Motivation is a psychological process that causes the arousal, direction and persistence of voluntary actions that are goal directed. Motivation leads to the choice of behavior that results in some level of job performance (“Motivation…”, n.d.). There are different theories explaining human motivation, namely instinct theories, needs theories, learning theories, humanistic theories, and cognitive theories. Instinct theory is derived from the biological make up of human body. There are some innate tendencies rooted in the genes, which help survive newborn babies without any specific learned communication techniques. The instinct theory deals with inborn, automatic, involuntary and unlearned processes that control and direct human behavior and has been developed by drawing up a list of human instincts. This theory sets important perspective of evolution and has been adopted by socio-biologists considering a wide range of human behavior, from aggression to interpersonal attraction, from the standpoint of natural selection and the survival of humans as a species. But the theory has been abandoned as an explanation of human motivation as human beings are not driven by instincts only to act in a certain manner (“Motivation”, 2008). The need theories of human motivation include Murray’s theory of human personality, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, ERG theory, McClelland’s achievement motivation theory and Herzberg’s motivator-hygiene theory. All these theories focus basically on need as a motivator for human behavior. Murray’s theory of human personality assumes human ability of learning from environment and hypothesises an invisible link between stimulus and reaction to the stimulus. The theory focused on physical and psychological needs as the motivations of human behavior. The theory tried to explain the complexities of multiple psychological needs but did not focus much on the physical needs. Maslow’s theory on the other hand placed the physiological needs at the base of his pyramid of hierarchy of needs followed by safety, love/ belonging, esteem and self-actualization. According to him satisfaction of lower level of needs only can stimulate concentration towards the higher level. He explained that growth needs can be met only after meeting the deficiency needs of survival, safety, love and esteem. Growth needs were thought to be enduring motivators after neutralzation of deficiency needs. This theory is more universal than Murray’s theory but there is no evidence of need hierarchy and it is not possible to maintain such hierarchy in the everchanging society. ERG theory is an extension of Maslow’s theory. It deals with existence needs of physical and material requirement, relatedness needs of love and belongingness and growth needs of self-actualization and esteem. McClelland studied needs of achievement, power and affiliation as the motivating forces and Herzberg found achievement, recognition and work itself to the motivators. As a whole the need theories are more universal than instinct theory and cover a wider range of human psychology while explaining motivation (“Motivation…”, n.d.). According to the learning theories observation, imitation and vicarious learning can act as important motivators of behavior. Observing surrounding people to behave in a certain manner regularly can motivate humans to learn susch behavior. Modelling or imitating somebody can induece certain learning. Watching others to have some desired consequences from certain behavior can motivate to learn that behavior. Thus motivation can be stated to have siginificant influence in learning as well as applying certain behavior. It is stated that learned responses may not occur unless it is energized or stimulated, i.e., motivated (Huitt, 2001). Humansitic theory is the most discussed theory of motivation. It is a more detailed approach to Maslow’s needs theory. According to the theory humans are driven to achieve their maximum potential and will always do so unless obstacles like hunger, thirst, financial problems, safety issues, or anything else that takes the focus away from maximum psychological growth are placed in their way. According to Maslow, human beings always strive to achieve the highest segment of the pyramid, i.e., the self-actualization but are often pulled backwards by the needs placed at the lower levels of the pyramid. Self-actualization means complete understanding of one’s self. This sense of completeness can not be achieved without full concentration which is often broken by other needs (“Psychology 101”, 2004). The cognitive theories of motivation are the other very important and complex theories to explain motivation. Cognitive theories include equity theory, goal setting theory and expectancy theory. Equity theory focuses on the individual perception of fairness based on the assumptions like similar process of assessment of social relationships and economic transactions and comparison of own situations with others. Different aspects of equity theory deal with exchange relevant to input and outcome, relative inequity, the consequences and resolution of inequity and its implications for management. The goal setting theory focuses on the cognitions of values and intentions. The theory studies goal specificity, goal difficulty, participation in goal-setting, feedback on goal-effort, peer competition for goal attainment and goal acceptance through empirical research. It also provides the implications of goal setting for management. Expectancy theory deals with the belief on certain efforts to draw specific outcome based on self-esteem, past experience, perception of situation, etc. According to the theory, clear link between reward and performance enhances the performance (“Cognitive Theories…”, n.d.). Thus to compare all the theories it can said that instinct, need and humanistic theories concentrate on motivation as a function of species based on situational differences in achievements. These theories could not provide any empirical evidence. Learning and cognitive theories on the other hand focuses on effects of surroundings and desire to compare with the peers, fixed goals and rewards as motivators. Fixed goals, future rewards, interaction with situational differences were shown to motivate behavior through some empirical evidences in these theories. Ans. 2: Obesity is the single most important problem faced by the modern human society. Different attempts have been made to explain the causes of obesity and different theories have been generated regarding this. The theories developed are both biological and psychological. With the increase in occurrence of obesity, scientists are increasingly encouraged to find the psychological and behavioral aspects of the problem. The main theories of obesity from biological perspective are the adipocyte hypertrophy theory, adipocyte hyperplasia theory, the set point theory and the energy balance theory. The psychological theories include psychoanalytic theory, behavioral theory, externality hypothesis and restrained eater hypothesis. Biological Theories: Adipocyte hypertrophy theory Adipocyte hyperplasia theory Set point theory Energy balance theory Genetic theory. Individuals having large sized adipocytes eat more. Due to the large size the adipocyte cells need more food to reach size limitation to signal to stop eating. This may be the cause of adult onset of obesity. Therapeutic treatment is not helpful. Genetic theory. Obesity is attributed to large quantity of adipocytes. It explains child onset of obesity. Therapeutic treatment is not helpful. Metabolic theory. Obese individuals have body weight thermostat set to maintain the body weight range higher than normal. Therapeutic treatment is little helpful. Metabolic theory. Obese individuals ingest more calorie than required and the calorie is stored as fat. Therapeutic treatment is helpful. (Sheikh and Allman, 2002). Psychological Theories: Psychoanalytic theory Behavioral theory Externality Hypothesis Restrained Eater Hypothesis Obesity is a basic personality problem. Overeating is a means of coping with conflicts, depression and negative feelings. Therapeutic treatment can be helpful. Obesity is a learned disorder where overeating results from principles of conditioning. Therapeutic treatment can be helpful. Obese people tend to be more sensitive to external cues and less sensitive to internal cues related to eating, than normal people. Therapeutic treatment can be helpful. Obese people tend to restrain their food intake by dieting. However, once started, they eat much more than normal people. Therapeutic treatment can be helpful. (Blackburn and Kanders, 1994). The biological theories take genetic and metabolic approach to explain obesity. The genetic theories related to adipocyte find obesity to be caused by enlarged size of the cells or increased quantity of them which make the individuals eat more. These theories do not find therapeutic treatments to be much helpful. The set point theory explains the utility of metabolic agents to lower set points and achieve weight loss. According to the theory the absence of metabolic agent increases set point to the previous level. The energy balance theory attributes obesity to the increased calorie intake and finds exercise and dieting to be helpful to control obesity. Thus possibility of therapeutic intervention is suggested by the theory. In contrast to the biological theories the psychological ones show more dependence on human behavior and motivation to explain obesity. The psychoanalytic theory finds obesity to be a personality problem and overeating as a means to cope with conflicts. The behavioral theory on the other hand states it to be learned behavior. Externality hypothesis finds obese people to be driven more by external cues than internal ones for eating. The restrained eater hypothesis finds obese people to restrain eating but to eat more when get started. Thus human behavior and motivation can be stated to have significant influence on managing obesity. The main components of motivation are direction, effort and persistence. The direction is the goal which a person is trying to achieve, i.e., in cases of the obese persons the goal of weight loss. The effort is the hard work the person is putting in achieving the goal, i.e., how hard the obese persons are trying to lose weight. Finally persistence means how long the person keeps on trying, i.e., how long the obese persons keep on exercising or dieting. These three components often face obstacles while obese people try diet control. The obese people set the goal of weight loss but often they try to achieve more all of a sudden and when fail they lose motivation. Thus they fail to set proper direction for their behavior. While putting on effort, i.e., trying to exercise or diet they face various psychological obstacles like food cravings, frustration, irritability, feeling of isolation, self doubt, self-criticism, fear, etc. The negative feelings tend to demotivate them from trying harder to achieve the goals. These obstacles generally result from psychological or behavioral problems and need proper care to be removed. Sometimes persistence of the efforts is also lacking. After trying hard for sometime the person may lose motivation or focus to continue with the routine to achieve the goal or maintain the results achieved (Adamson and Horning, 2003). Thus it is evident that motivation has an important role to play while dealing with obesity. Motivation can drive a person to put more effort and thus incorrect training program may also provide good result with good motivation. The therapists can motivate a person to accept self and reduce self-criticism. Thus the person can accept failure and focus on positive efforts with more vigor. Realistic goal setting and its achievement motivates people and encourages them for better result (“Weight Loss…”, 2003). Ans. 4: Loss of sleep causes several problems to human bodies. The sleep deprivation causes five basic changes in the human body and thereby behavior. Deprivation of sleep reduces the ability to metabolize glucose causing diabetes. Sleep deprivation is found to affect rejuvenation of brain cells and neuron affecting brain functions. It may cause depression, anxiety, inability to cope with emotional stimuli, etc. Adverse effect on memory, increase in stress hormone, brain damage, etc. are the direct consequences of sleep deprivation (Ledoux, 2001). Sleep deprivation can suppress growth hormones thereby affecting growth of human body. The hormones regulating body functions are secreted in fewer amounts hampering the physiological functions. Sleep deprivation seriously impairs ability to perform certain tasks like driving. Health problems like muscle cramp, muscle fascia tear, decrease in motor skills, etc. are quite common in sleep deprived persons. Sleep deprivation is also found to cause obesity as a result of disruption of hormones regulating glucose metabolism and appetite. Thus from the above discussion it is evident that lack of sleep creates several negative implications for our body and brain and brain being the center to regulate our behavior and learning, sleep deprivation interferes negatively with these functions also. Serotonin is the hormone secreted in human body to improve quality of sleep in them. The hormone is termed as feel-good hormone due to its ability to combat stress and emotional misbalance. Serotonin is also said to be involved with learning and memory. A study conducted on the people working in shifts, showed significant lack of serotonin and disturbed sleep pattern in the subjects. They also showed several symptoms caused by lack of sleep including obesity, high cholesterol, insulin, blood pressure and triglyceride. These people showed increased anger, depression and anxiety and also decreased alertness and job performance. Lack of sleep caused lack of learning and performing ability in them causing lack of motivation. Lack of motivation due to sleep deprivation also caused lack of performance. Thus as a whole it can be said that shift-work is not a good option to choose as a career as it may interfere not only with body functionalities but also with the career advancement itself (“Shift workers…”, 2007). References Adamson, E. and Horning, L., (2003). The complete idiot’s guide to fasting. USA: Alpha Books. Blackburn, G.L. and Kanders, B.S., (1994). Obesity: Pathophysiology, psychology, and treatment. 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