03 motivation

What is a Motive?

• A stimulus that prompts a person to act in a particular way (Sternberg, 1995, S.522)

• Motives are traits of people and provide the long-term energy for action (Schüler et al., 2023)

• A motive is defined as a nonconscious, nonverbally represented, affect-based preference for certain classes of incentives that orients attention toward specific cue stimuli in the environment and energizes behavior (McClelland, 1987)

→ Incentives promise positive or negative affective states linked to the activity itself

(e.g., enjoying a task or social interaction) or its outcome (e.g., pride in mastering a challenge or forming a friendship).

Implicit motive

• Implicit motives are defined as unconscious, enduring preferences for certain incentive classes (McClelland, 1987)

• Implicit motives serve three functions: orienting attention toward potentially motive-satisfying cues, providing energy for action, and directing behavior toward stimuli relevant to motive satisfaction (McClelland, 1987

Research on motives

• Improving performance

• Being with others

• Demonstrating power

Assessment tools:

TAT – Pictures and picture-based stories

MMG – Picture-based stories with predefined responses

IAT – Reaction times to stimuli and associative links

The three motive themes

1. Achievement: The need to increase or maintain one's own proficiency in an activity in which a personal standard of excellence is considered binding.

2. Affiliation: The need to establish, maintain, or restore positive social relationships with others.

3. Power: The need to exert physical, psychological, or emotional influence over others.

History of motive research

1890: William James instinct theory

1908: William McDougallas instinct theory (instincts→ associated emotions)

1938: Henry Murray´s theory of needs (needs x enviornmental press→ behaviour)

1943: Abraham Maslow´s hierarchy of needs (physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, self-actualization)

What is motivation?

• Motivation explains the direction of goal-directed

behaviour

• It influences the intensity of behaviour

• It affects how long behaviour is maintained

• Desired goal states give behaviour direction

• Incentives determine why a goal appears attractive

Achievement motivation: Intrinsic vs. extrinsic

Intrinsic: Behavior is intrinsically motivated if one engages in the behavior for its own sake. Motivation arises out of the person, and the activity and is independent of external factors or rewards or punishments.

Extrinsic: Behaviour is extrinsically motivated if it is driven by external incentives such as rewards, punishments, and expectations of others.

Self-determination theory as a Meta-Theory

Self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985) considers how self-determined people’s reasons for sport participation are. Intrinsic motivation is the most self-determined form. SDT also predicts its determinants and implications for well-being and personal development.

Cognitive Evaluation Theory

Explains how external events affect intrinsic motivation.

• Intrinsic motivation is supported when people feel autonomous and competent.

Effects depend on how an event is perceived:

• Informational: supports competence → increases intrinsic motivation.

• Controlling: reduces autonomy → decreases intrinsic motivation.

• Amotivating: fosters incompetence → decreases intrinsic motivation.

Undermining effect: rewards can reduce intrinsic motivation when they become the reason for an activity previously performed for its own sake.

Key point: the same reward can support or undermine intrinsic motivation depending on its perceived meaning.

Basic Psychological need Theory

1. autonomy

2. Competence

3. Relatedness

Organismic integration theory

How extrinsic motivation becomes internalised