Incentive Theory
Motivation All creatures are motivated by gaining incentives.
“You can be the smallest, you can be the weakest,
you can be the worst player on the field, but when people tell
you you’re no good, and say you should give it up, you know
what you do? You just keep on swinging.”
Everyone’s Hero, 2006
Motivation is the process by which activities are started,
directed, and continued so that physical or psychological needs
or wants are met.
When you are motivated, you usually show three
characteristics:
1. You are energized to engage in some activity
2. You direct your energies toward a specific goal
3. You have differing intensities of feelings about
reaching that goal
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
Instinct Theory
Human beings are born with specific innate knowledge about
how to survive. These innate tendencies are preprogrammed
at birth.
INSTINCTS: innate tendencies or biological forces that
determine behavior
Does not explain WHY the person engages in a particular
behavior
Biologists who study animal behavior later redefined instincts
as fixed action patterns
FIXED ACTION PATTERN: innate biological force that
predisposes an organism to behave in a fixed way in the
presence of a specific environmental condition
Drive-reduction Theory
Human beings act according to their needs and drives.
NEED: biological state in which the organism lacks something
essential for survival, such as food, water or oxygen
DRIVE: state of tension that motivates the organism to act to
reduce that tension
HOMEOSTASIS: tendency of the body to return to, and
remain in, a more balanced state
A need results in a drive, which is a state of tension that
motivates the organism to act to reduce the tension and return
the body to homeostasis
Drive motivates us to engage in a variety of behaviors to
satisfy biological needs.
Over a period of time, the strength of the drive would
continually increase as long as it is not satisfied.
INCENTIVES: environmental factors, such as external stimuli,
reinforcers, or rewards, that motivate or behavior
Incentives pull us to obtain them, drives push us to reduce
needs.
This push-pull difference between drives and incentives
explains some otherwise perplexing and seemingly
unexplainable behaviors.
Cognitive theory
Human beings are motivated intrinsically and extrinsically.
Extrinsic Motivation results from external rewards
Engaging in certain activities or behaviors that either reduce
biological needs or help us obtain incentives or external
rewards
Intrinsic Motivation comes from within the person
Engaging in certain activities or behaviors because the
behaviors themselves are personally rewarding or because
engaging in these activities fulfils our beliefs or expectations
Biological and Social Needs
Biological needs are physiological requirements that are
critical to our survival and physical well-being.
(food, water, oxygen, sleep, etc)
Social needs are needs that are acquired through learning
and experience
(need to excel, for social bonds, to nourish and protect others,
for independence, for fun and relaxation, etc)
Humanistic Theory
Human beings seek to satisfy successively 'higher needs' that
occupy a set hierarchy.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a theory in psychology that
Abraham Maslow proposed in his 1943 paper, A Theory of
Human Motivation.
The Hierarchy of Needs was conceptualized by
Maslow’s observation of monkeys. If monkeys were given a
choice between play and food, they would most likely choose
food. If monkeys were given a choice between food and water,
they would most likely choose water.
First four components were considered as ‘deficit’ needs, while
the last component (self-actualization) was considered as
‘being’ need.
MOTIVATION 1
Physiological Needs
Consist of needs for oxygen, food, water, and a relatively
constant body temperature
The strongest needs that must be satisfied.
Once the physiological needs are met in sufficient
detail, people move on to address these more complex
needs.
Safety Needs
Consist of needs for safe family environment (children) or
economic stability (adults)
Psychological in nature
Adults have little awareness of their security needs except in
times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social
structure
Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to
be safe
Belongingness and Love Needs
Consist of need to belong on a social level, includes desire for
a romantic partner and close friends
For example: Children: approval from parents; Teens:
acceptance in peer groups; Adults: desire to build relationships
Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of
loneliness and alienation
This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the
sense of belonging
Esteem Needs
These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a
person gets from others
Humans have a need for a stable, firmly based, high level of
self-respect, and respect from others
When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident
and valuable as a person in the world
When these needs are frustrated, the person feels inferior,
weak, helpless and worthless.
Self-actualization
Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be
and do that which the person was "born to do”
Getting to know oneself, while being okay and unconditionally
accepting of whatever it is that he or she discovers
People who are self-actualizers are focused on what matters
most in defining who they are
“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet
must write."
FACTORS AFFECTING MOTIVATION
Rotter’s Locus of Control
People develop preconceived expectations about what will
happen to them in the future.
INTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL: believing that they can
influence what will happen to them
EXTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL: believing that what
happens to them is a result of outside influences or events
Locus of control has a DYNAMIC nature and can shift.
It can range from STRONGLY internal to STRONGLY external.
Bandura’s Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy is belief in one’s capabilities to organize and
execute the courses of action required to produce given
attainments
Belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses
of action required to produce given attainments
Level of self-efficacy is influenced by the person’s:
Successful Performance
The difficulty of the task can be increased as the simpler tasks
are mastered
Vicarious Experiences
Modelling
This may be provided by the instructor, a skilled classmate or a
video of a skilled performer
Verbal Persuasion
Form of encouragement from the parents or peers
Emotional arousal
Human beings must be emotionally ready and optimally
aroused in order to be attentive
Perceived self-efficacy is a strong and consistent predictor of
individual performance.
Individuals with  self-efficacy work harder, persist in tasks
longer and achieve at a higher level.
Self-esteem
Self-esteem describes how individuals feel about themselves.
Social Support
Involves interaction between at least two people which can
enhance well-being.
Shows people that they are loved, cared about, and valued.
EVERYONE’S HERO (2006, IDT Entertainment, Inc)
Yankee: If I don’t swing, how are you gonna know I can hit?
**
Stanley: Here are guys who make a living playing baseball. They play
every day, and even on the day after they lose a game, they’re still
standing at that plate swinging that bat. And you know how they got
to be so good?
Yankee: They just keep swinging?
**
Yankee: My dad says you should never give up something you love.
**
Yankee: I should have just quit.
Screwie: That’s it? You’re laying down your bat? You know, when I
landed in that sandlot, I thought, “That’s it. There’s nothing left to do
but rot.”… But then you came along. You made a believer out of me.
**
Babe: It’s not really the bat. It’s the batter.
**
Louie: There’s always another game tomorrow.
Jack: And the Babe, the Babe always bounces back.
Andy: Oh come on, son. Babe’s got a big old heart. He won’t let us
down. Look, when Babe was a kid, he had nothing.
Then he picks up a bat, he starts swinging, look where it got him.
Jack: If Babe can do it, so can we.
MOTIVATION 2