Understanding Motivation

“What is motivation?” is a question psychologists continue to ask. In their pursuit of an answer, research has revealed a lot about what motivation is and how it influences a person’s behavior. The following three topics related to motivation and motivation theories will be covered:

Motivation in the Brain

Motivation is linked to the neurotransmitter dopamine that is involved in the brain’s reward system. Neurotransmitters transfer messages in the nervous system and dopamine specifically is responsible for sending the message of happiness and pleasure (“What Is Dopamine?”). Whenever you engage in activities that are enjoyable, dopamine gets released in the brain and encourages you to keep doing that task.

An interactive version of the model can be found here

Motivation can be encouraged by reinforcing this release of dopamine. Any experience or activity triggers certain neurons in the prefrontal cortex and other regions of the brain related to processing actions and external stimuli. The prefrontal cortex then releases chemicals to other regions of the brain like the ventral tegmental area and the substantia nigra which are responsible for producing dopamine and sending it to the rest of the brain. The more often you repeat the dopamine-triggering activity the stronger the association between the activity and positive emotions becomes. This strengthened pathway encourages you to continue doing that activity. This can also work in the opposite direction where after experiencing repeated negative emotions, your brain encourages you to avoid those activities. In both positive and negative cases, motivation is linked to your memory and past experiences. The stronger the connection between the dopamine-triggering activity and the emotion, the more motivated you will be.

Motivation Theories

There are many different reasons a person can be motivated to do something or behave in a certain way. Exogenous, or extrinsic, motivation comes from external factors while endogenous, or intrinsic, motivation comes from internal desires. The article “Work motivation: Theory and practice” by Raymond A. Katzell and Donna E. Thompson helps outline both the exogenous and endogenous causes behind motivation that are outlined below (Katzell and Thompson).

Exogenous Theories

Motive/Need Theory:
People act to seek out or avoid certain stimuli and outcomes that they have memory of behaving in a positive or negative way.

Incentive~reward Theory:
Engaging in a certain behavior because of the association of that behavior with a reward. People are also motivated not to do actions that result in the loss of the reward. The more one desires the reward, the more likely they are to continue the behavior to get that reward.

Reinforcement Theory:
People are motivated to repeat actions that have positive consequences and less likely to repeat actions that result in negative consequences.

Goal Theory:
Goals that are specific, difficult, and attractive boost one's motivation to pursue those goals. In exogenous theory, the goal is defined by an outside source.

Group and Norm Theory:
People are motivated to behave in ways that align with the social group that they belong in and often conform to the attitudes and behaviors of said group.

Sociotechnical System Theory:
Work that is meaningful, challenging, diversified, and aligned with a person’s skills and resources makes them more motivated to do that task.

Endogenous Theories

Arousal/Activation Theory:
People are motivated to do or continue actions that bring them mental activation or excitement. The specific tasks that cause this mental activation vary from person to person.

Expectancy-valence Theory:
People are motivated to behave a certain way that they believe their efforts will result in better performance.

Equity Theory:
This mostly applies to the workplace. People’s motivation is determined by how fairly they believe they are compensated for their work.

Attitude Theory:
People are more motivated to continue a behavior or task that they have a favorable attitude towards.

Intention/Goal Theory:
A person is motivated to complete goals that they are committed to. Specific and hard goals serve as stronger and longer sources of motivation than easier or vague goals.

Attribution/Self-efficacy Theory:
A person’s motivation towards a task is determined by how they anticipate they will do at that task. This is often affected by previous success or failure at that task that defines their expectation of future outcomes.

Limitations of Motivation Theories

Despite the many theories of motivation that have been derived over the years, there are common limitations that most motivation studies have that are important to acknowledge when trying to understand this concept.

1) No Clear Definition

Motivation is linked with many other behaviors like drive, need, intention, desire, goal, value, and volition and as a result it is hard to reach a consistent definition of motivation between studies (Kim). Some determine motivation through goal setting and completion (Touré-Tillery and Fishbach). Others link motivation related states such as interest, curiosity, and fun that reflect the increase in dopamine by pursuing a certain activity (Stefano Di Domenico and Ryan). These inconsistent definitions make it harder to compare motivation studies as the idea of motivation that they base their research on are different.

2) No Consistent Theory

Leading on from the last limitation, the lack of a common definition makes it difficult to create a comprehensive theory on motivation (Kim). Like the definitions they are based on, the currently existing theories and models of motivation focus on a specific factor of motivation (the biological, cognitive, and social causes and effects) not the motivation process as a whole.

3) Difficulty Measuring Motivation

It is hard to find a way to measure the duration and intensity of motivation. While it is possible to collect such data “through a long-term observation, due to practical limitations, they are mostly conducted in the form of self-report surveys on psychological constructs that are highly correlated with behavioral measurement” (Kim). Surveys rely on a person’s conscious awareness of their motivation which some may not be able to describe. Moreover, a survey method of collecting data introduces more subjectivity and bias that can possibly skew the results of the study and the theory derived from that study as a result.

Back to Home Page

References

Di Domenico, Stefano I, and Richard M Ryan. “The Emerging Neuroscience of Intrinsic Motivation: A New Frontier in Self-Determination Research.” Frontiers in human neuroscience vol. 11 145. 24 Mar. 2017, doi:10.3389/fnhum.2017.00145

Katzell, R. A., & Thompson, D. E. (1990). Work motivation: Theory and practice. American Psychologist, 45(2), 144–153. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.45.2.144

Kim, Sung-Il. “Neuroscientific model of motivational process.” Frontiers in psychology vol. 4 98. 4 Mar. 2013, doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00098

“The Brain Circuits Underlying Motivation: An Interactive Graphic.” Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 13 July 2023, developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/the-brain-circuits-underlying-motivation-an-interactive-graphic/.

Touré-Tillery, M., & Fishbach, A. (2014). How to Measure Motivation: A Guide for the Experimental Social Psychologist. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 8(7), 328–341. doi:10.1111/spc3.12110

“What Is Dopamine?” Mental Health America, 2013, mhanational.org/what-dopamine.