Change For Life

By David Johne


Several psychological theories exist, such as rational motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, push and pull, self-control, drives, need theories, incentive theory, escape-seeking dichotomy, cognitive dissonance theory, drive-reduction theory, self-determination theory, temporal theory, achievement theory, and other cognitive theories like goal-setting theory, basic desires theory, attribution theory, and approach versus avoidance theory. Some of the major theories are analyzed here.

Intrinsic or internal and extrinsic or external motivations are two major theories in motivating people. People having intrinsic motivating attitude have internal interest or enjoyment in performing each task, without any pressure or influence from external factors, such as desire for name, fame, power, position, money, or other types of rewards. This intrinsic motivating approach is highly useful to students.

According to Plato, the individual justice gets achieved through maintenance of these three separate parts in correct hierarchy. The logical part rules the actions of human beings aided by the spirited rules. The appetitive part obeys the logical part and executes the actions. The logistikon or the logical part of soul is the thinking part that loves truth as its motivation and yearns to learn it.

It is the inner drive in every organism to act or behave in a specific manner. If you have enough motivation, you might get up early in the morning and continue with your daily activities in a vigorous manner. If you do not have any motivation at all, you might be loitering around the house throughout the day in a lazy manner, doing nothing.

Drive is a very powerful motivation for most of our actions, since drive stems from desire to fulfill a need or compensate a deficiency. This drive activates behavior in humans to achieve goals as mere incentives. The drive is usually a part of intrinsic motivator, without the requirement of any external stimuli to encourage specific behavior in an individual.

The theory of Machiavelli states that human beings have the motivation to seek status and power over other things. Modern research confirms that people with such traits usually go after money and power, using others as mere instruments to achieve their ends.




About the Author: