2.+Motivation+Theories

=Theories of Motivation=

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow first developed his hierarchy of needs in 1943. He studied the most prominent people of his time, including Einstein. The group that he chose to study was the top 1% of the college population, as he believed that, "the study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a crippled psychology a cripple philosophy." [|1] Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs puts the most basic, essential needs at the bottom of the pyramid. The need of self-actualization is at the top. The bottom four needs are what Maslow referred to as the 'deficiency needs' or 'd-needs'. With the exception of the bottom (physiological) need, if these d-needs are not met, the body gives no physical indication but the person may become anxious and tense.

Self-actualization means becoming what we want to become, or as Maslow stated "... to become everything that one is capable of becoming." The quest for self-actualization will vary from person to person. My dream of self-actualization will be different from yours' (could you imagine if we all wanted the same things in life!!). Some will strive to be the best in their profession, others will strive to be an amazing athlete, while others want to be the best parent that they can be.
 * Self-actualization **

All humans have the basic need to feel good about themselves and to feel appreciated by others. This is also known as the belonging need. There are other factors which can affect this need. For example some people with low self-esteem may need a boost from others to help improve their self-esteem. If a person suffers from depression, this may be a harder topic. A person suffering from depression may not respond to positive/encouraging thought and energy from other people. In this case, they may need to accept themselves first. Maslow noted two basic things here. We need to have good self-esteem or respect for ourselves, as well as a respect or esteem from others.
 * Esteem **

We all want to feel loved and needed. It is nice to know that you are wanted by someone else, whether it be a social group or club or a spouse/partner.
 * Love/Belonging **

Safety is one of the basic needs. Safety and security go hand in hand. We need to feel safe in terms of personal safety, safety for our home and family, and safety with our work/income.
 * Safety **

The physiological need includes things like food, water and clean air to breathe. These are basic needs. We cannot live without food or water, and we need clean air to continue breathing. If we cannot meet these basic needs, than nothing else matters. Even though Maslow first created this Hierachy of Needs over 65 years ago, it is amazing how relevant it still is. When you first look at the pyramid it is very clear and easy to understand. We can live without self-actualization, but cannot live without the physiological needs.
 * Physiological **



Herzberg's Theory
Herzberg found that the things that made people happy, helped to motivate them. The things that made them dissatisfied, made them unmotivated. "He developed the [|motivation-hygiene theory] to explain these results. He called the satisfiers motivators and the dissatisfiers hygiene factors, using the term "hygiene" in the sense that they are considered maintenance factors that are necessary to avoid dissatisfaction but that by themselves do not provide satisfaction."

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Motivators** (Factors Leading to Satisfaction) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Achievement <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Recognition <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Work itself <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Responsibility <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Advancement <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Growth

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Hygiene Factors** (Factors Leading to Dissatisfaction) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Company policy <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Supervision <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Relationship with boss <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Work conditions <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Salary <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Relationship with peers

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Herzberg concluded that his research didn't prove that just because someone was not satisfied, it didn't mean they were dissatisfied. At the same time, someone who is not dissatisfied isn't necessarily satisfied. I think you can not like your job, but not hate it at the same time, leaving you somewhere between satisfied and <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">dissatisfied.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Herzberg's theory is something that I think most of us accept in the 21st Century. We know that there are certain things that make us happy or unhappy in our jobs, and most of us could probably guess most of the things that make us feel either way.



ERG Theory
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Alderfer's ERG theory is based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, but is collapsed into 3 levels. The letters ERG stand for three levels of needs: Existence, Relatedness, and Growth.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">growth needs (development of competence and realization of potential)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">relatedness needs (satisfactory relations with others)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">existence needs (physical well-being)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Like Maslow's model, the ERG theory is hierarchical - existence needs have priority over relatedness needs, which have priority over growth. Alderfer believed that as you start satisfying higher needs, they become more intense.

__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Differences from Maslow's Hierarchy __
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In addition to the reduction in the number of levels, the ERG theory differs from Maslow's in the following three ways:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Unlike Maslow's hierarchy, the ERG theory allows for different levels of needs to be pursued simultaneously.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The ERG theory allows the order of the needs be different for different people.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The ERG theory acknowledges that if a higher level need remains unfulfilled, the person may regress to lower level needs that appear easier to satisfy. This is known as the frustration-regression principle.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Thus, while the ERG theory presents a model of progressive needs, the hierarchical aspect is not rigid. This flexibility allows the ERG theory to account for a wider range of observed behaviours. Not everyone is motivated by the same things. It depends where you are in the hierarchy (think of it as a kind of personal development scale).



Social Cognitive Theory
The <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__[|Social Cognitive Theory]__ covers a number of theories that attempt to understand and explain human behaviour. One of the main theorists is Albert Bandura, whose (1977) work on [|self-efficacy] introduced the key concepts of this theory, which are the individual’s personal attributes, environmental characteristics and behaviours. Students are said to have high efficacy if they believe that they can easily solve a problem, whereas students who have low efficacy get overwhelmed with problems and have doubts about their ability to problem solve (Anderman & Anderman 2010). The social cognitive theory states that people learn by interacting with their environment, observing what others do and regulating their way of thinking (cognition) accordingly. Based on this theory, the educator's role is to model successful problem solving and give feedback to students regarding what they need to do to succeed in achieving their goals.



Expectancy Value Theory
Many theorists, including [|Pintrich] and [|Schunk](1996) have used the concepts of [|Expectancy Value Theory] which postulates that one’s expectations for success at a task and one's perceived value of the task will affect motivation. If an individual perceives that a particular outcome is rewarding or valuable to achieve, the individual will then engage in the planning of efforts and behaviour to take the necessary actions to achieve the outcome they expect and value. This has implications for educators who must work to influence student beliefs, perceived values of learning outcomes and thus stimulate student efforts to engage in planned action to achieve their learning goals.



Goal Setting Theory
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dr Edwin Locke’s [|goal setting theory]is a fairly well accepted theory in industrial and organizational psychology. Locke (1996) postulates that individuals have the drive to achieve goals as a reward in itself. In order for the goal to serve as an incentive for the learner, there must be three features associated with the goal: proximity, difficulty and specificity. The goal should be specific, at the level of difficulty whereby the individuals perceive it as achievable and the time taken to meet the goals should not be that long. Locke also suggested that generally most individuals set goals if they find that the goals are SMART- (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound). These goals also have to be clear, understandable, challenging and yet at the appropriate level of difficulty to be achievable. People are more motivated to meet goals if they are involved in setting them than if they are set by others.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Locke's research showed that there was a relationship between how difficult and specific a goal was and people's performance of a task. He found that specific and difficult goals led to better task performance than vague or easy goals.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">According to Locke, in order to keep individuals motivated there are five principles to goal setting:


 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Clarity** – goals must be clear and specific with specific timeline for completion so that learners are positively reinforced and motivated to strategize and work to achieve the goals.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Challenge** –goals must be selected so that learners feel motivated to achieve the goals. Such goals must be challengeable yet achievable by hard intelligent work.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Commitment** – It is easier to achieve the goal if the individuals involved in working toward the goal have a say in setting the goal
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Feedback** – learners require timely feedback to know how they are doing and, based on the feedback, they can work more effectively toward trying to achieve the goal. Locke also alludes to the need of the learners to give themselves positive feedback to encourage themselves to focus on the tasks to reach goals while avoiding negative talk whether by themselves or others, which can dampen motivation.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Task Complexity** – For goals or assignments that are highly complex, take special care to ensure that the work doesn't become too overwhelming which may affect motivation. It is important to provide necessary time and training for those working to achieve such goals.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Though the goal setting theory is used mainly in business organizations, it seems to have implications for facilitating adult learning. Since adults are autonomous self directed learners, it is important to set goals that are realistic, measurable, challenging and yet achievable for them. Providing timely feedback and specific feedback to keep learners on tasks to achieve their goals is important.



Self Determination Theory
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Self Determination Theory[|], developed by [|Edward Deci] and Richard Ryan, focuses on the role of [|intrinsic motivation] in driving human behaviour. Like Maslow's hierarchical theory, self determination theory stated that individuals naturally want to grow and develop. According to this theory, three primary factors that encourage motivation are autonomy, competence and relatedness. Autonomy refers to sense of self directedness; competence refers to feeling that one is capable of performing certain tasks and relatedness refers to feeling connected and accepted within the larger social network. Deci and Ryan state that when an individual's perceptions of autonomy, competence and relatedness increase, intrinsic self motivation to engage in a task will also increase.



Attribution Theory
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The [|Attribution theory] is a social psychological theory which postulates that individuals seek to understand and explain why certain events have occurred according to three criteria:


 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Locus of causality** – refers to whether the cause is attributed to be internal or external to the individual. For example, if an individual attributes failure in an exam to a lack of personal ability the locus is internal, but if the failure is attributed to the traffic accident that prevented him from writing the exam, the locus is external.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Stability** – refers to whether the cause for the outcome is perceived as being constant across time and situations or is perceived as changing and unstable. An individual shows stable attribution when he attributes his not doing well in an exam to his perceived lack of intelligence; an unstable attribution would occur when the individual believes his exam failure is due to his own lack of study, a factor which can be changed..
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Control** – refers to an individual’s belief about whether he or she has control over the cause of an event. If a student fails an exam and considers the failure due to his own lack of study, he is attributing the situation to an unstable situation which he can control by working harder the next time; whereas if the student considers the failure due to a prejudiced teacher, he is attributing that the failure to a factor that is not under his control.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Thus, Anderman and Anderman (2010) suggest that educators need to pay attention to students' locus of control. Students who have uncaring teachers are more likely to develop external control beliefs which ultimately can affect motivation and achievement. Therefore instructors need to care for and encourage their students so that students will be more likely to perceive that they have control over their situations.

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The following link contains additional information on motivational theories, []