What are the Type of Motivation?

An Introduction

Motivation is concerned with explaining what "moves" behavior. In fact, the term "motivation" is derived from the Latin word "movere," which refers to activity movement. The majority of our everyday explanations for behaviour are based on motives. Why do you attend school or college? There could be a variety of reasons for this behaviour, such as wanting to learn or make friends, needing a diploma or degree to get a good job, wanting to please your parents, and so on. Some combination of these and/or other reasons would explain why you chose to pursue higher education. Motives can also be used to make predictions about behaviour. If a person has a strong desire to succeed, he or she will work hard in school, sports, business, music, and many other situations. As a result, motives are the general states that allow us to predict behaviour in a variety of situations. In other words, motivation is one of the factors that influence behaviour. The broad category of motivation includes instincts, drives, needs, goals, and incentives.

Psychologists now use the concept of need to describe the motivational properties of behaviour in the Motivational Cycle. A lack or deficit of some necessity is referred to as a need. The state of need motivates people to drive. A drive is a state of arousal or tension caused by a need. It energises haphazard activity. When one of the random activities leads to a goal, the organism's drive decreases and it ceases to be active. The organism returns to a state of balance. As a result, the cycle of motivational events can be depicted. Are there different kinds of motivations? Is there any biological basis for different types of motivations? What happens if your motivation isn't fulfilled? These are some of the issues we'll look at in the sections that follow.

Type of Motivation 

There are two kinds of motivations: biological and psychosocial. Biological motives are also known as physiological motives because they are primarily guided by the body's physiological mechanisms. Psychosocial motives, on the other hand, are primarily learned through interactions with various environmental factors. However, both types of motivations are interdependent. That is, in some situations, biological factors may trigger a motive, whereas in others, psychosocial factors may trigger a motive. As a result, keep in mind that no motive is completely biological.

Biological Motivations

The biological or physiological explanation for motivation was the first attempt to understand the causes of behaviour. The influence of the biological approach can be found in the majority of later theories. According to the adaptive act approach, organisms have needs (internal physiological imbalances) that produce drive, which stimulates behaviour leading to certain actions toward achieving certain goals, which reduces drive. 

The concept of instinct was central to the earliest explanations of motivation. The term instinct refers to inborn patterns of behaviour that are determined by biology rather than learned. Curiosity, flight, repulsion, reproduction, parental care, and so on are all common human instincts. Instincts are innate tendencies that exist in all members of a species and guide behaviour in predictable ways. The term instinct most accurately refers to a strong desire to do something. Instinct has a "impetus" that motivates the organism to act in order to reduce that impetus. This approach explains some of the basic biological needs, such as hunger, thirst, and sex, which are necessary for the individual's sustenance.

Hunger

When someone is hungry, the desire for food takes precedence over all other considerations. It encourages people to acquire and consume food. Of course, we need to eat in order to survive. But what is it that makes you hungry? Many events both inside and outside the body have been shown in studies to either trigger or inhibit hunger. Stomach contractions, which indicate that the stomach is empty, a low concentration of glucose in the blood, a low level of protein, and the amount of fats stored in the body are all stimuli for hunger. In response to a lack of bodily fuel, the liver sends nerve impulses to the brain. 

A desire to eat may be triggered by the aroma, taste, or appearance of food. It should be noted that none of these alone will make you feel hungry. All of these factors work together with external factors (such as taste, colour, observing others eating, and the smell of food, among others) to help you understand that you are hungry. As a result, we can say that our food intake is regulated by a complex feedingsatiety system located in the hypothalamus, liver, and other parts of the body, as well as external cues from the environment. 

According to some physiologists, changes in the metabolic functions of the liver cause a feeling of hunger. The liver sends a signal to the hypothalamus, a part of the brain. The lateral hypothalamus (LH) and the ventro-medial hypothalamus (VMH) are the two hypothalamic regions involved in hunger (VMH). The excitatory area is thought to be the LH. When this area is stimulated, animals eat. When it is damaged, animals stop eating and starve to death. The VMH is located in the hypothalamus, which is also known as the hunger-controlling area because it inhibits the hunger drive. Can you make a guess about people who overeat and become obese, as well as people who eat very little or are on a diet?

Thirst

What would happen if you were deprived of water for an extended period of time? What causes you to be thirsty? When we are dehydrated for several hours due to a lack of water, the mouth and throat become dry, resulting in dehydration of body tissues. To quench a dry mouth, drink some water. However, a dry mouth does not always lead to a thirst for water. In fact, processes within the body control thirst and water consumption. Water must penetrate the tissues sufficiently to relieve mouth and throat dryness. The conditions of the body, specifically the loss of water from cells and the reduction of blood volume, are the primary motivators for drinking water. Water leaves the interior of the cells when bodily fluids lose water. The anterior hypothalamus contains nerve cells known as 'osmoreceptors,' which produce nerve impulses when cells become dehydrated. These nerve impulses serve as a signal for thirst and drinking; thirst that is regulated by water loss from the osmoreceptors is known as cellular-dehydration thirst. But what mechanisms prevent people from drinking water? Some researchers believe that the mechanism that explains water intake is also responsible for stopping water intake. Others have pointed out that the role of stimuli resulting from water intake in the stomach must have something to do with the cessation of water consumption. The precise physiological mechanisms underlying the thirst drive, however, remain unknown.

Sex

The sex drive is one of the most powerful drives in both animals and humans. The desire to engage in sexual activity is a powerful motivator that influences human behaviour. Sex, on the other hand, is far more than a biological motivation. It differs from other primary motives (hunger, thirst) in several ways, including the following: 

• Sexual activity is not required for an individual's survival; 
• Homeostasis (the tendency of the organism as a whole to maintain constancy or to attempt to restore equilibrium if constancy is disturbed) is not the goal of sexual activity; and 
• Sex drive develops with age, etc. 

In lower animals, it is influenced by a variety of physiological factors; in humans, the sex drive is so tightly regulated biologically that it can be difficult to classify sex solely as a biological drive. Physiologists believe that the intensity of sexual desire is determined by chemical substances circulating in the blood known as sex hormones. According to animal and human studies, gonads, i.e. the testes in males and the ovaries in females, secrete sex hormones that are responsible for sexual motivation. Other endocrine glands, such as the adrenal and pituitary glands, have an impact on sexual motivation. Human sexual drive is primarily stimulated by external stimuli, and its expression is influenced by cultural learning.

Psychosocial Motivation

Most social motivations are learned or acquired. Social groups such as family, neighbourhood, friends, and relatives all play an important role in developing social motives. These are more complex types of motives that are primarily influenced by the individual's interaction with her or his social environment.

Need for Affiliation

Most of us require company, have friends, or wish to maintain some form of relationship with others. Nobody enjoys being alone all of the time. People form groups when they notice similarities between themselves or when they like each other. The formation of a group or collectivity is a crucial aspect of human life. People frequently make desperate attempts to become close to others, to seek their assistance, and to become members of their group. Affiliation is defined as the desire to be physically and psychologically close to other people. It entails social contact motivation. Individuals feel the need for affiliation when they are threatened or helpless, as well as when they are happy. People who have a high level of this need are motivated to seek out the company of others and to maintain friendly relationships with others.

Need for Power

A person's need for power is the ability to produce desired effects on the behaviour and emotions of another person. The various goals of power motivation include influencing, controlling, persuading, leading, and charming others, as well as improving one's own reputation in the eyes of others.

 David McClelland (1975) defined four broad expressions of the power motive. 

Desire for Success

You may have noticed some students working very hard and competing with others for good marks/grades in the examination, as good marks/grades will open doors to higher education and better job opportunities. It is the achievement motivation, which refers to a person's desire to meet high standards. Need for achievement, also known as n-Ach, energises and directs behaviour while also influencing how people perceive situations. Children develop achievement motivation during their formative years of social development. Parents, other role models, and socio-cultural influences are among the sources from which they learn. Individuals with high achievement motivation prefer tasks that are moderately difficult and challenging.

Exploration and Curiosity

CWsq Xs People frequently engage in activities that have no clear goal or purpose but provide them with some sort of pleasure. It is a motivational tendency to act without a clear goal in mind. Curiosity manifests itself as a desire for new experiences, pleasure from learning, and so on. As a result, curiosity describes behaviour in which the primary motivation appears to be the activities themselves. What happens if the sky falls in on us? Such questions (What will happen if...) compel intellectuals to seek answers. According to studies, this curiosity behaviour is not limited to humans; animals exhibit the same type of behaviour. Curiosity and a desire for sensory stimulation drive us to explore our surroundings. Curiosity is closely related to the need for a variety of sensory stimulations. It is the fundamental motivation, and exploration and curiosity are manifestations of it. Our ignorance about many things around us becomes a powerful motivator to travel around the world. Repetitive experiences quickly bore us. As a result, we're on the lookout for something new.