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132-401: Motivation is an internal state that propels individuals to engage in goal -directed behavior . It is often understood as a force that explains why people or animals initiate, continue, or terminate a certain behavior at a particular time. It is a complex phenomenon and its precise definition is disputed. It contrasts with amotivation , which is a state of apathy or listlessness. Motivation

264-414: A better world. Buddhists emphasize the practice of loving-kindness toward all sentient beings as a means to eliminate suffering . Many other types of motivation are discussed in the academic literature. Moral motivation is closely related to altruistic motivation. Its motive is to act in tune with moral judgments and it can be characterized as the willingness to "do the right thing". The desire to visit

396-446: A cluster of loosely related ideas. Mental states are usually contrasted with physical or material aspects. This contrast is commonly based on the idea that certain features of mental phenomena are not present in the material universe as described by the natural sciences and may even be incompatible with it. Epistemic approaches emphasize that the subject has privileged access to all or at least some of their mental states. It

528-402: A comprehensive account of all forms of rationality but it is more common to find separate treatments of specific forms of rationality that leave the relation to other forms of rationality open. There are various competing definitions of what constitutes rationality but no universally accepted answer. Some accounts focus on the relation between mental states for determining whether a given state

660-527: A conglomeration of mental representations and propositional attitudes. Several theories in philosophy and psychology try to determine the relationship between the agent's mental state and a proposition. Instead of looking into what a mental state is, in itself, clinical psychology and psychiatry determine a person's mental health through a mental status examination . Mental states also include attitudes towards propositions , of which there are at least two— factive and non-factive, both of which entail

792-577: A feature which non-intentional states lack. A mental state is conscious if it belongs to a phenomenal experience. Unconscious mental states are also part of the mind but they lack this phenomenal dimension. Occurrent mental states are active or causally efficacious within the owner's mind while non-occurrent or standing states exist somewhere in the back of one's mind but do not currently play an active role in any mental processes . Certain mental states are rationally evaluable: they are either rational or irrational depending on whether they obey

924-437: A form of desire while Jackson Beatty and Charles Ransom Gallistel see it as a physical process akin to hunger and thirst. Some definitions stress the continuity between human and animal motivation, but others draw a clear distinction between the two. This is often emphasized by the idea that human agents act for reasons and are not mechanistically driven to follow their strongest impulse. A closely related disagreement concerns

1056-404: A genuine concern for the well-being of others. It is associated with the desire to assist and help others in a non-transactional manner without the goal of obtaining personal gain or rewards in return. According to the controversial thesis of psychological egoism , there is no altruistic motivation: all motivation is egoistic. Proponents of this view hold that even apparently altruistic behavior

1188-470: A given number of options. The response options for a closed-ended question should be exhaustive and mutually exclusive. Four types of response scales for closed-ended questions are distinguished: A respondent's answer to an open-ended question is coded into a response scale afterward. An example of an open-ended question is a question where the testee has to complete a sentence (sentence completion item). In general, questions should flow logically from one to

1320-406: A goal while the second part is about planning how to realize this goal. Many different types of motivation are discussed in the academic literature. They differ from each other based on the underlying mechanisms responsible for their manifestation, what goals are pursued, what temporal horizon they encompass, and who is intended to benefit. The distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

1452-595: A hierarchy of means-end relationships. This implies that several steps or lower-level goals may have to be fulfilled to reach a higher-level goal. For example, to achieve the higher-level goal of writing a complete article, one needs to realize different lower-level goals, like writing different sections of the article. Some goals are specific, like reducing one's weight by 3 kg, while others are non-specific, like losing as much weight as possible. Specific goals often affect motivation and performance positively by making it easier to plan and track progress. The goal belongs to

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1584-577: A judgment that this event happened together with a negative evaluation of it. Brentano's distinction between judgments, phenomena of love and hate, and presentations is closely related to the more recent idea of direction of fit between mental state and world, i.e. mind-to-world direction of fit for judgments, the world-to-mind direction of fit for phenomena of love and hate and null direction of fit for mere presentations. Brentano's tripartite system of classification has been modified in various ways by Brentano's students. Alexius Meinong , for example, divides

1716-545: A key role in the field of economics. In order to predict the behavior of economic actors , it is often assumed that they act rationally. In this field, rational behavior is understood as behavior that is in tune with self-interest while irrational behavior goes against self-interest. For example, based on the assumption that it is in the self-interest of firms to maximize profit, actions that lead to that outcome are considered rational while actions that impede profit maximization are considered irrational. However, when understood in

1848-499: A kind of high-level property that can be understood in terms of fine-grained neural activity. Property dualists , on the other hand, claim that no such reductive explanation is possible. Eliminativists may reject the existence of mental properties, or at least of those corresponding to folk psychological categories such as thought and memory. Mental states play an important role in various fields, including philosophy of mind , epistemology and cognitive science . In psychology ,

1980-419: A mere hypothetical construct. The term "motivation" is closely related to the term "motive" and the two terms are often used as synonyms. However, some theorists distinguish their precise meanings as technical terms. For example, psychologist Andrea Fuchs understands motivation as the "sum of separate motives". According to psychologist Ruth Kanfer , motives are stable dispositional tendencies that contrast with

2112-438: A mind-to-world direction of fit : they represent the world as being a certain way and aim at truth. They contrast with desires , which are conative propositional attitudes that have a world-to-mind direction of fit and aim to change the world by representing how it should be. Desires are closely related to agency : they motivate the agent and are thus involved in the formation of intentions . Intentions are plans to which

2244-406: A moral motivation to follow them. Certain forms of psychopathy and brain damage can inhibit moral motivation. Self-determination theorists, such as Edward Deci and Richard Ryan , distinguish between autonomous and controlled motivation. Autonomous motivation is associated with acting according to one's free will or doing something because one wants to do it. In the case of controlled motivation,

2376-402: A problem without representing it. But some theorists have argued that even these apparent counterexamples should be considered intentional when properly understood. Behaviorist definitions characterize mental states as dispositions to engage in certain publicly observable behavior as a reaction to particular external stimuli. On this view, to ascribe a belief to someone is to describe

2508-404: A scale or index include for instance questions that measure: Usually, a questionnaire consists of a number of questions ( test items ) that the respondent has to answer in a set format. A distinction is made between open-ended and closed-ended questions. An open-ended question asks the respondent to formulate his own answer, whereas a closed-ended question asks the respondent to pick an answer from

2640-431: A screening method to find out early whether or not someone should complete the questionnaire. Warm-ups are simple to answer, help capture interest in the survey, and may not even pertain to research objectives. Transition questions are used to make different areas flow well together. Skips include questions similar to "If yes, then answer question 3. If no, then continue to question 5." Difficult questions are towards

2772-435: A sense of autonomy and positive feedback from others. In the field of education, intrinsic motivation tends to result in high-quality learning. However, there are also certain advantages to extrinsic motivation: it can provide people with motivation to engage in useful or necessary tasks which they do not naturally find interesting or enjoyable. Some theorists understand the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as

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2904-602: A sick friend to keep a promise is an example of moral motivation. It can conflict with other forms of motivation, like the desire to go to the movies instead. An influential debate in moral philosophy centers around the question of whether moral judgments can directly provide moral motivation, as internalists claim. Externalists provide an alternative explanation by holding that additional mental states, like desires or emotions, are needed. Externalists hold that these additional states do not always accompany moral judgments, meaning that it would be possible to have moral judgments without

3036-577: A specific event or object. Imagination is even further removed from the actual world in that it represents things without aiming to show how they actually are. All the aforementioned states can leave traces in memory that make it possible to relive them at a later time in the form of episodic memory. An important distinction among mental states is between sensory and non-sensory states. Sensory states involve some form of sense impressions like visual perceptions, auditory impressions or bodily pains. Non-sensory states, like thought, rational intuition or

3168-448: A spectrum rather than a clear dichotomy. This is linked to the idea that the more autonomous an activity is, the more it is associated with intrinsic motivation. A behavior can be motivated only by intrinsic motives, only by extrinsic motives, or by a combination of both. In the latter case, there are both internal and external reasons why the person engages in the behavior. If both are present, they may work against each other. For example,

3300-491: A survey by questionnaire may not be concretely feasible. One of the earliest questionnaires was Dean Milles' Questionnaire of 1753. A distinction can be made between questionnaires with questions that measure separate variables, and questionnaires with questions that are aggregated into either a scale or index. Questionnaires with questions that measure separate variables, could, for instance, include questions on: Questionnaires with questions that are aggregated into either

3432-467: A sustained dedication over time. The motivational persistence in relation to the chosen goal contrasts with flexibility on the level of the means: individuals may adjust their approach and try different strategies on the level of the means to reach a pursued end. This way, individuals can adapt to changes in the physical and social environment that affect the effectiveness of previously chosen means. The components of motivation can be understood in analogy to

3564-463: A team approach is recommended in the questionnaire translation process to include subject-matter experts and persons helpful to the process. For example, even when project managers and researchers do not speak the language of the translation, they know the study objectives well and the intent behind the questions, and therefore have a key role in improving questionnaire translation. While questionnaires are inexpensive, quick, and easy to analyze, often

3696-418: A tendency to seek positive outcomes. Negative emotions are associated with a more pessimistic outlook and tend to lead to the avoidance of bad outcomes. Some theorists have suggested further phases. For example, psychologist Barry J. Zimmerman includes an additional self-reflection phase after the performance. A further approach is to distinguish two parts of the planning : the first part consists in choosing

3828-504: A that-clause. So believing that it will rain today, for example, is a propositional attitude. It has been argued that the contrast between qualitative states and propositional attitudes is misleading since there is some form of subjective feel to certain propositional states like understanding a sentence or suddenly thinking of something. This would suggest that there are also non-sensory qualitative states and some propositional attitudes may be among them. Another problem with this contrast

3960-582: A wider sense, rational motivation is a broader term that also includes behavior motivated by a desire to benefit others as a form of rational altruism. Biological motivation concerns motives that arise due to physiological needs . Examples are hunger, thirst, sex, and the need for sleep. They are also referred to as primary, physiological, or organic motives. Biological motivation is associated with states of arousal and emotional changes. Its source lies in innate mechanisms that govern stimulus-response patterns. Cognitive motivation concerns motives that arise from

4092-526: A willingness to invest time and effort over an extended period before the intended goal is reached. It is often a more deliberative process that requires goal-setting and planning. Both short-term and long-term motivation are relevant to achieving one's goals. For example, short-term motivation is central when responding to urgent problems while long-term motivation is a key factor in pursuing far-reaching objectives. However, they sometimes conflict with each other by supporting opposing courses of action. An example

Motivation - Misplaced Pages Continue

4224-534: Is a central topic in Sigmund Freud 's psychoanalysis . Early theories of motivation often assumed that conscious motivation is the primary form of motivation. However, this view has been challenged in the subsequent literature and there is no academic consensus on the relative extent of their influence. Closely related to the contrast between conscious and unconscious motivation is the distinction between rational and irrational motivation. A motivational state

4356-585: Is a great variety of types of mental states, which can be classified according to various distinctions. These types include perception , belief , desire , intention , emotion and memory . Many of the proposed distinctions for these types have significant overlaps and some may even be identical. Sensory states involve sense impressions, which are absent in non-sensory states . Propositional attitudes are mental states that have propositional contents, in contrast to non-propositional states . Intentional states refer to or are about objects or states of affairs,

4488-473: Is a married person who is tempted to have a one-night stand. In this case, there may be a clash between the short-term motivation to seek immediate physical gratification and the long-term motivation to preserve and nurture a successful marriage built on trust and commitment. Another example is the long-term motivation to stay healthy in contrast to the short-term motivation to smoke a cigarette. The difference between egoistic and altruistic motivation concerns who

4620-441: Is a mental state to which the subject lacks the forms of privileged epistemic access mentioned. One way to respond to this worry is to ascribe a privileged status to conscious mental states. On such a consciousness-based approach , conscious mental states are non-derivative constituents of the mind while unconscious states somehow depend on their conscious counterparts for their existence. An influential example of this position

4752-527: Is a person in a clothing store who states that they want to buy a shirt and then goes on to buy one. Unconscious motivation involves motives of which the person is not aware. It can be guided by deep-rooted beliefs, desires, and feelings operating beneath the level of consciousness. Examples include the unacknowledged influences of past experiences, unresolved conflicts, hidden fears, and defense mechanisms . These influences can affect decisions, impact behavior, and shape habits. An example of unconscious motivation

4884-480: Is a person who plays basketball during lunch break only because they enjoy it. Extrinsic motivation arises from external factors, such as rewards, punishments, or recognition from others. This occurs when people engage in an activity because they are interested in the effects or the outcome of the activity rather than in the activity itself. For instance, if a student does their homework because they are afraid of being punished by their parents then extrinsic motivation

5016-453: Is a scientist who believes that their research effort is a pure expression of their altruistic desire to benefit science while their true motive is an unacknowledged need for fame. External circumstances can also impact the motivation underlying unconscious behavior. An example is the effect of priming , in which an earlier stimulus influences the response to a later stimulus without the person's awareness of this influence. Unconscious motivation

5148-437: Is always true. For example, it has been suggested that in cases of rational deliberation, it may be possible to act against one's strongest motive. Another problem is that this view may lead to a form of determinism that denies the existence of free will . Persistence is the long-term component of motivation and refers to how long an individual engages in an activity. A high level of motivational persistence manifests itself in

5280-471: Is available for reasoning and guiding behavior, even if it is not associated with any subjective feel characterizing the concurrent phenomenal experience. Being an access-conscious state is similar but not identical to being an occurrent mental state, the topic of the next section. A mental state is occurrent if it is active or causally efficacious within the owner's mind. Non-occurrent states are called standing or dispositional states. They exist somewhere in

5412-470: Is avoided by functionalist approaches, which define mental states through their causal roles but allow both external and internal events in their causal network. On this view, the definition of pain-state may include aspects such as being in a state that "tends to be caused by bodily injury, to produce the belief that something is wrong with the body and ... to cause wincing or moaning". One important aspect of both behaviorist and functionalist approaches

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5544-459: Is based on the source or origin of the motivation. Intrinsic motivation comes from within the individual and is driven by internal factors, like enjoyment, curiosity, or a sense of fulfillment. It occurs when people pursue an activity for its own sake. It can be due to affective factors, when the person engages in the behavior because it feels good, or cognitive factors, when they see it as something good or meaningful. An example of intrinsic motivation

5676-445: Is caused by egoistic motives. For example, they may claim that people feel good about helping other people and that their egoistic desire to feel good is the true internal motivation behind the externally altruistic behavior. Many religions emphasize the importance of altruistic motivation as a component of religious practice. For example, Christianity sees selfless love and compassion as a way of realizing God's will and bringing about

5808-418: Is due to John Searle , who holds that unconscious mental states have to be accessible to consciousness to count as "mental" at all. They can be understood as dispositions to bring about conscious states. This position denies that the so-called "deep unconscious", i.e. mental contents inaccessible to consciousness, exists. Another problem for consciousness-based approaches , besides the issue of accounting for

5940-471: Is engaged in her favorite computer game, she still believes that dogs have four legs and desires to get a pet dog on her next birthday. But these two states play no active role in her current state of mind. Another example comes from dreamless sleep when most or all of our mental states are standing states. Certain mental states, like beliefs and intentions , are rationally evaluable: they are either rational or irrational depending on whether they obey

6072-425: Is further pertinent in the fields of personal development , health, and criminal law. Motivation is often understood as an internal state or force that propels individuals to engage and persist in goal-directed behavior. Motivational states explain why people or animals initiate, continue, or terminate a certain behavior at a particular time. Motivational states are characterized by the goal they aim for, as well as

6204-509: Is given in virtue of the coherence among the different mental states of a subject. This involves an holistic outlook that is less concerned with the rationality of individual mental states and more with the rationality of the person as a whole. Other accounts focus not on the relation between two or several mental states but on responding correctly to external reasons. Reasons are usually understood as facts that count in favor or against something. On this account, Scarlet's aforementioned belief

6336-410: Is integrated in the model TRAPD (Translation, Review, Adjudication, Pretest, and Documentation). A theoretical framework is also provided by sociolinguistics , which states that to achieve the equivalent communicative effect as the source language, the translation must be linguistically appropriate while incorporating the social practices and cultural norms of the target language. Besides translators,

6468-412: Is intended to benefit from the anticipated course of action. Egoistic motivation is driven by self-interest: the person is acting for their own benefit or to fulfill their own needs and desires. This self-interest can take various forms, including immediate pleasure , career advancement, financial rewards, and gaining respect from others. Altruistic motivation is marked by selfless intentions and involves

6600-498: Is interested in consequences. The role of goals in motivation is sometimes paired with the claim that it leads to flexible behavior in contrast to blind reflexes or fixed stimulus-response patterns. This is based on the idea that individuals use means to bring about the goal and are flexible in regard to what means they employ. According to this view, the feeding behavior of rats is based on motivation since they can learn to traverse through complicated mazes to satisfy their hunger, which

6732-557: Is interested in the underlying neurological mechanisms, such as the involved brain areas and neurotransmitters . Philosophy aims to clarify the nature of motivation and understand its relation to other concepts. Motivation is not directly observable but has to be inferred from other characteristics. There are different ways to do so and measure it. The most common approach is to rely on self-reports and use questionnaires . They can include direct questions like "how motivated are you?" but may also inquire about additional factors in relation to

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6864-614: Is not an innate reflex but a flexible response to the available information that is based on past experiences and expected outcomes. It is associated with the explicit formulation of desired outcomes and engagement in goal-directed behavior to realize these outcomes. Some theories of human motivation see biological causes as the source of all motivation. They tend to conceptualize human behavior in analogy to animal behavior. Other theories allow for both biological and cognitive motivation and some put their main emphasis on cognitive motivation. Short-term and long-term motivation differ in regard to

6996-408: Is not the case for the stimulus-bound feeding behavior of flies. Some psychologists define motivation as a temporary and reversible process. For example, Robert A. Hinde and John Alcock see it as a transitory state that affects responsiveness to stimuli. This approach makes it possible to contrast motivation with phenomena like learning which bring about permanent behavioral changes. Another approach

7128-411: Is partly because motivation is a complex phenomenon with many aspects and different definitions often focus on different aspects. Some definitions emphasize internal factors. This can involve psychological aspects in relation to desires and volitions or physiological aspects regarding physical needs. For example, John Dewey and Abraham Maslow use a psychological perspective to understand motivation as

7260-402: Is possible to be motivated while lacking the corresponding ability. Effort is the physical and mental energy invested when exercising an ability. It depends on motivation and high motivation is associated with high effort. The quality of the resulting performance depends on the ability, effort, and motivation. Motivation to perform an action can be present even if the action is not executed. This

7392-422: Is presented but in mode or how it is presented. The most basic kind is presentation , which is involved in every mental state. Pure presentations, as in imagination, just show their object without any additional information about the veridical or evaluative aspects of their object. A judgment , on the other hand, is an attitude directed at a presentation that asserts that its presentation is either true or false, as

7524-473: Is rational because it responds correctly to the external fact that it is raining, which constitutes a reason for holding this belief. An influential classification of mental states is due to Franz Brentano . He argues that there are three basic kinds: presentations , judgments , and phenomena of love and hate . All mental states either belong to one of these kinds or are constituted by combinations of them. These different types differ not in content or what

7656-418: Is rational if it is based on a good reason. This implies that the motive of the behavior explains why the person should engage in the behavior. In this case, the person has an insight into why the behavior is considered valuable. For example, if a person saves a drowning child because they value the child's life then their motivation is rational. Rational motivation contrasts with irrational motivation, in which

7788-482: Is rational. In one view, a state is rational if it is well-grounded in another state that acts as its source of justification. For example, Scarlet's belief that it is raining in Manchester is rational because it is grounded in her perceptual experience of the rain while the same belief would be irrational for Frank since he lacks such a perceptual ground. A different version of such an approach holds that rationality

7920-422: Is responsible. Intrinsic motivation is often more highly regarded than extrinsic motivation. It is associated with genuine passion, creativity , a sense of purpose, and personal autonomy . It also tends to come with stronger commitment and persistence. Intrinsic motivation is a key factor in cognitive, social, and physical development. The degree of intrinsic motivation is affected by various conditions, including

8052-447: Is somehow derivative in relation to the intentionality of mental entities. For example, a map of Addis Ababa may be said to represent Addis Ababa not intrinsically but only extrinsically because people interpret it as a representation. Another difficulty is that not all mental states seem to be intentional. So while beliefs and desires are forms of representation, this seems not to be the case for pains and itches, which may indicate

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8184-402: Is something it is like for a subject to be in these states. Opponents of consciousness-based approaches often point out that despite these attempts, it is still very unclear what the term "phenomenal consciousness" is supposed to mean. This is important because not much would be gained theoretically by defining one ill-understood term in terms of another. Another objection to this type of approach

8316-461: Is sometimes claimed that this access is direct , private and infallible . Direct access refers to non-inferential knowledge. When someone is in pain, for example, they know directly that they are in pain, they do not need to infer it from other indicators like a body part being swollen or their tendency to scream when it is touched. But we arguably also have non-inferential knowledge of external objects, like trees or cats, through perception, which

8448-439: Is sometimes discussed in terms of three main components: direction, intensity, and persistence. Direction refers to the goal people choose. It is the objective in which they decide to invest their energy. For example, if one roommate decides to go to the movies while the other visits a party, they both have motivation but their motivational states differ in regard to the direction they pursue. The pursued objective often forms part of

8580-412: Is sometimes held that all sensory states lack intentionality. But such a view ignores that certain sensory states, like perceptions, can be intentional at the same time. It is usually accepted that all propositional attitudes are intentional. But while the paradigmatic cases of intentionality are all propositional as well, there may be some intentional attitudes that are non-propositional. This could be

8712-434: Is studied in fields like psychology , neuroscience, motivation science, and philosophy . Motivational states are characterized by their direction, intensity , and persistence. The direction of a motivational state is shaped by the goal it aims to achieve. Intensity is the strength of the state and affects whether the state is translated into action and how much effort is employed. Persistence refers to how long an individual

8844-433: Is that minds represent the world around them, which is not the case for regular physical objects. So a person who believes that there is ice cream in the fridge represents the world as being a certain way. The ice cream can be represented but it does not itself represent the world. This is why a mind is ascribed to the person but not to the ice cream, according to the intentional approach. One advantage of it in comparison to

8976-529: Is that often the people who do return the questionnaire are those who have a very positive or a very negative viewpoint and want their opinion heard. The people who are most likely unbiased either way typically do not respond because it is not worth their time. One key concern with questionnaires is that they may contain quite large measurement errors. These errors can be random or systematic. Random errors are caused by unintended mistakes by respondents, interviewers, and/or coders. Systematic error can occur if there

9108-490: Is that some states are both sensory and propositional. This is the case for perception, for example, which involves sensory impressions that represent what the world is like. This representational aspect is usually understood as involving a propositional attitude. Closely related to these distinctions is the concept of intentionality . Intentionality is usually defined as the characteristic of mental states to refer to or be about objects or states of affairs. The belief that

9240-427: Is that, according to them, the mind is multiply realizable . This means that it does not depend on the exact constitution of an entity for whether it has a mind or not. Instead, only its behavioral dispositions or its role in the causal network matter. The entity in question may be a human, an animal, a silicon-based alien or a robot. Functionalists sometimes draw an analogy to the software-hardware distinction where

9372-399: Is the case in regular perception. Phenomena of love and hate involve an evaluative attitude towards their presentation: they show how things ought to be, and the presented object is seen as either good or bad. This happens, for example, in desires. More complex types can be built up through combinations of these basic types. To be disappointed about an event, for example, can be construed as

9504-439: Is the case, for instance, if there is a stronger motivation to engage in a different action at the same time. Motivation is a complex phenomenon that is often analyzed in terms of different components and stages. Components are aspects that different motivational states have in common. Often-discussed components are direction, intensity , and persistence. Stages or phases are temporal parts of how motivation unfolds over time, like

9636-412: Is the phase in which the direction of motivation is determined. It involves considering the reasons for and against different courses of action and then committing oneself to a goal one aims to achieve. The goal-setting process by itself does not ensure that the plan is carried out. This happens in the goal-striving stage, in which the individual tries to implement the plan. It starts with the initiation of

9768-430: Is to be defined but also on which states count as mental. Mental states encompass a diverse group of aspects of an entity, like this entity's beliefs, desires, intentions, or pain experiences. The different approaches often result in a satisfactory characterization of only some of them. This has prompted some philosophers to doubt that there is a unifying mark of the mental and instead see the term "mental" as referring to

9900-435: Is to deny that the conscious mind has a privileged status in relation to the unconscious mind, for example, by insisting that the deep unconscious exists. Intentionality-based approaches see intentionality as the mark of the mental . The originator of this approach is Franz Brentano , who defined intentionality as the characteristic of mental states to refer to or be about objects. One central idea for this approach

10032-412: Is to provide a very broad characterization to cover many different aspects of motivation. This often results in very long definitions by including many of the factors listed above. The multitude of definitions and the lack of consensus have prompted some theorists, like psychologists B. N. Bunnell and Donald A. Dewsbury, to doubt that the concept of motivation is theoretically useful and to see it instead as

10164-578: Is typically a mix of close-ended questions and open-ended questions. Open-ended, long-term questions offer the respondent the ability to elaborate on their thoughts. The Research questionnaire was developed by the Statistical Society of London in 1838. Although questionnaires are often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case. Questionnaires have advantages over some other types of survey tools in that they are cheap, do not require as much effort from

10296-684: Is why this criterion by itself is not sufficient. Another epistemic privilege often mentioned is that mental states are private in contrast to public external facts. For example, the fallen tree lying on a person's leg is directly open to perception by the bystanders while the victim's pain is private: only they know it directly while the bystanders have to infer it from their screams. It was traditionally often claimed that we have infallible knowledge of our own mental states, i.e. that we cannot be wrong about them when we have them. So when someone has an itching sensation, for example, they cannot be wrong about having this sensation. They can only be wrong about

10428-502: Is willing to engage in an activity. Motivation is often divided into two phases: in the first phase, the individual establishes a goal, while in the second phase, they attempt to reach this goal. Many types of motivation are discussed in the academic literature. Intrinsic motivation comes from internal factors like enjoyment and curiosity . It contrasts with extrinsic motivation, which is driven by external factors like obtaining rewards and avoiding punishment . For conscious motivation,

10560-433: The epistemic approach is that it has no problems to account for unconscious mental states: they can be intentional just like conscious mental states and thereby qualify as constituents of the mind. But a problem for this approach is that there are also some non-mental entities that have intentionality, like maps or linguistic expressions. One response to this problem is to hold that the intentionality of non-mental entities

10692-479: The hierarchy of needs , the two-factor theory , and the learned needs theory. They contrast with process theories, which discuss the cognitive, emotional, and decision-making processes that underlie human motivation, like expectancy theory , equity theory , goal-setting theory , self-determination theory , and reinforcement theory . Motivation is relevant to many fields. It affects educational success, work performance , athletic success, and economic behavior . It

10824-496: The act of motivating someone and to a reason or goal for doing something. It comes from the Latin term movere (to move). The traditional discipline studying motivation is psychology. It investigates how motivation arises, which factors influence it, and what effects it has. Motivation science is a more recent field of inquiry focused on an integrative approach that tries to link insights from different subdisciplines. Neurology

10956-546: The action and includes putting in effort and trying different strategies to succeed. Various difficulties can arise in this phase. The individual has to muster the initiative to get started with the goal-directed behavior and stay committed even when faced with obstacles without giving in to distractions . They also need to ensure that the chosen means are effective and that they do not overexert themselves. Goal-setting and goal-striving are usually understood as distinct stages but they can be intertwined in various ways. Depending on

11088-403: The agent is committed and which may guide actions. Intention-formation is sometimes preceded by deliberation and decision , in which the advantages and disadvantages of different courses of action are considered before committing oneself to one course. It is commonly held that pleasure plays a central role in these considerations. "Pleasure" refers to experience that feels good, that involves

11220-460: The agent's behavior while remaining unconscious, which would be an example of an unconscious occurring mental state. The distinction between occurrent and standing is especially relevant for beliefs and desires . At any moment, there seems to be a great number of things we believe or things we want that are not relevant to our current situation. These states remain inactive in the back of one's head even though one has them. For example, while Ann

11352-432: The allocation of limited resources: direction, intensity, and persistence determine where to allocate energy, how much of it, and for how long. For effective action, it is usually relevant to have the right form of motivation on all three levels: to pursue an appropriate goal with the required intensity and persistence. The process of motivation is commonly divided into two stages: goal-setting and goal-striving. Goal-setting

11484-478: The back of one's mind but currently play no active role in any mental processes. This distinction is sometimes identified with the distinction between phenomenally conscious and unconscious mental states. It seems to be the case that the two distinctions overlap but do not fully match despite the fact that all conscious states are occurrent. This is the case because unconscious states may become causally active while remaining unconscious. A repressed desire may affect

11616-482: The belief that the moon is closer to the earth than to the sun. When considered, this belief becomes conscious, but it is unconscious most of the time otherwise. The relation between conscious and unconscious states is a controversial topic. It is often held that conscious states are in some sense more basic with unconscious mental states depending on them. One such approach states that unconscious states have to be accessible to consciousness, that they are dispositions of

11748-474: The case when an intentional attitude is directed only at an object. In this view, Elsie's fear of snakes is a non-propositional intentional attitude while Joseph's fear that he will be bitten by snakes is a propositional intentional attitude. A mental state is conscious if it belongs to phenomenal experience . The subject is aware of the conscious mental states it is in: there is some subjective feeling to having them. Unconscious mental states are also part of

11880-439: The category of phenomena of love and hate into two distinct categories: feelings and desires. Uriah Kriegel is a contemporary defender of Brentano's approach to the classification of mental phenomena. Discussions about mental states can be found in many areas of study. In cognitive psychology and the philosophy of mind , a mental state is a kind of hypothetical state that corresponds to thinking and feeling, and consists of

12012-409: The dynamic nature of motivation as a fluctuating internal state. Motivation is closely related to ability , effort, and action . An ability is a power to perform an action, like the ability to walk or to write. Individuals can have abilities without exercising them. They are more likely to be motivated to do something if they have the ability to do it, but having an ability is not a requirement and it

12144-423: The effort to engage in this activity. However, this view is not generally accepted and it has been suggested that at least in some cases, actions are motivated by other mental phenomena, like beliefs or rational deliberation. For example, a person may be motivated to undergo a painful root canal treatment because they conclude that it is a necessary thing to do even though they do not actively desire it. Motivation

12276-577: The end because the respondent is in "response mode." Also, when completing an online questionnaire, the progress bars lets the respondent know that they are almost done so they are more willing to answer more difficult questions. Classification , or demographic question should be at the end because typically they can feel like personal questions which will make respondents uncomfortable and not willing to finish survey. Within social science research and practice, questionnaires are most frequently used to collect quantitative data using multi-item scales with

12408-468: The enjoyment of something. The topic of emotions is closely intertwined with that of agency and pleasure. Emotions are evaluative responses to external or internal stimuli that are associated with a feeling of pleasure or displeasure and motivate various behavioral reactions. Emotions are quite similar to moods , some differences being that moods tend to arise for longer durations at a time and that moods are usually not clearly triggered by or directed at

12540-488: The feeling of familiarity, lack sensory contents. Sensory states are sometimes equated with qualitative states and contrasted with propositional attitude states . Qualitative states involve qualia , which constitute the subjective feeling of having the state in question or what it is like to be in it. Propositional attitudes, on the other hand, are relations a subject has to a proposition. They are usually expressed by verbs like believe , desire , fear or hope together with

12672-399: The following characteristics: Main modes of questionnaire administration include: Questionnaires are translated from a source language into one or more target languages, such as translating from English into Spanish and German. The process is not a mechanical word placement process. Best practice includes parallel translation, team discussions, and pretesting with real-life people, and

12804-403: The goals, feelings, and effort invested in a particular activity. Another approach is based on external observation of the individual. This can concern studying behavioral changes but may also include additional methods like measuring brain activity and skin conductance. Many academic definitions of motivation have been proposed but there is little consensus on its precise characterization. This

12936-412: The host not to offer it to their guests. But if they are not aware of the poison then politeness may be their motivating reason to offer it. The intensity of motivation corresponds to how much energy someone is willing to invest into a particular task. For instance, two athletes engaging in the same drill have the same direction but differ concerning the motivational intensity if one gives their best while

13068-504: The individual is aware of the motive driving the behavior, which is not the case for unconscious motivation. Other types include rational and irrational motivation, biological and cognitive motivation, short-term and long-term motivation, and egoistic and altruistic motivation. Theories of motivation are conceptual frameworks that seek to explain motivational phenomena. Content theories aim to describe which internal factors motivate people and which goals they commonly follow. Examples are

13200-407: The individual's motivational reason and explains why they favor an action and engage in it. Motivational reasons contrast with normative reasons, which are facts that determine what should be done or why a course of action is objectively good. Motivational reasons can be in tune with normative reasons but this is not always the case. For example, if a cake is poisoned then this is a normative reason for

13332-422: The initial goal-setting stage in contrast to the following goal-striving stage. A closely related issue concerns the different types of mental phenomena that are responsible for motivation, like desires , beliefs , and rational deliberation. Some theorists hold that a desire to do something is an essential part of all motivational states. This view is based on the idea that the desire to do something justifies

13464-405: The intensity and duration of the effort devoted to the goal. Motivational states have different degrees of strength. If a state has a high degree then it is more likely to influence behavior than if it has a low degree. Motivation contrasts with amotivation , which is a lack of interest in a certain activity or a resistance to it. In a slightly different sense, the word "motivation" can also refer to

13596-550: The mental state of acquaintance. To be acquainted with a proposition is to understand its meaning and be able to entertain it. The proposition can be true or false, and acquaintance requires no specific attitude towards that truth or falsity. Factive attitudes include those mental states that are attached to the truth of the proposition—i.e. the proposition entails truth. Some factive mental states include "perceiving that", "remembering that", "regretting that", and (more controversially) "knowing that". Non-factive attitudes do not entail

13728-428: The mind but they lack this phenomenal dimension. So it is possible for a subject to be in an unconscious mental state, like a repressed desire, without knowing about it. It is usually held that some types of mental states, like sensations or pains, can only occur as conscious mental states. But there are also other types, like beliefs and desires, that can be both conscious and unconscious. For example, many people share

13860-436: The mind emphasized by consciousness-based approaches . It may be true that pains are caused by bodily injuries and themselves produce certain beliefs and moaning behavior. But the causal profile of pain remains silent on the intrinsic unpleasantness of the painful experience itself. Some states that are not painful to the subject at all may even fit these characterizations. Theories under the umbrella of externalism emphasize

13992-415: The mind is likened to a certain type of software that can be installed on different forms of hardware. Closely linked to this analogy is the thesis of computationalism , which defines the mind as an information processing system that is physically implemented by the neural activity of the brain. One problem for all of these views is that they seem to be unable to account for the phenomenal consciousness of

14124-555: The mind's dependency on the environment. According to this view, mental states and their contents are at least partially determined by external circumstances. For example, some forms of content externalism hold that it can depend on external circumstances whether a belief refers to one object or another. The extended mind thesis states that external circumstances not only affect the mind but are part of it. The closely related view of enactivism holds that mental processes involve an interaction between organism and environment. There

14256-546: The moon has a circumference of 10921 km, for example, is a mental state that is intentional in virtue of being about the moon and its circumference. It is sometimes held that all mental states are intentional, i.e. that intentionality is the "mark of the mental". This thesis is known as intentionalism . But this view has various opponents, who distinguish between intentional and non-intentional states. Putative examples of non-intentional states include various bodily experiences like pains and itches. Because of this association, it

14388-408: The next. To achieve the best response rates , questions should flow from the least sensitive to the most sensitive, from the factual and behavioural to the attitudinal, and from the more general to the more specific. There typically is a flow that should be followed when constructing a questionnaire in regards to the order that the questions are asked. The order is as follows: Screens are used as

14520-442: The non-mental causes, e.g. whether it is the consequence of bug bites or of a fungal infection. But various counterexamples have been presented to claims of infallibility, which is why this criterion is usually not accepted in contemporary philosophy. One problem for all epistemic approaches to the mark of the mental is that they focus mainly on conscious states but exclude unconscious states. A repressed desire , for example,

14652-473: The norms of rationality. But other states, like urges, experiences of dizziness or hunger, are arational: they are outside the domain of rationality and can be neither rational nor irrational. An important distinction within rationality concerns the difference between theoretical and practical rationality . Theoretical rationality covers beliefs and their degrees while practical rationality focuses on desires, intentions and actions. Some theorists aim to provide

14784-636: The norms of rationality. But other states are arational : they are outside the domain of rationality. A well-known classification is due to Franz Brentano, who distinguishes three basic categories of mental states: presentations , judgments , and phenomena of love and hate . There is a great variety of types of mental states including perception , bodily awareness , thought , belief , desire , motivation , intention , deliberation , decision , pleasure , emotion , mood , imagination and memory . Some of these types are precisely contrasted with each other while other types may overlap. Perception involves

14916-416: The other only puts in minimal effort. Some theorists use the term "effort" rather than "intensity" for this component. The strength of a motivational state also affects whether it is translated into action. One theory states that different motivational states compete with each other and that only the behavior with the highest net force of motivation is put into action. However, it is controversial whether this

15048-539: The perceiver. Perception is usually considered to be reliable but our perceptual experiences may present false information at times and can thereby mislead us. The information received in perception is often further considered in thought , in which information is mentally represented and processed. Both perceptions and thoughts often result in the formation of new or the change of existing beliefs . Beliefs may amount to knowledge if they are justified and true. They are non-sensory cognitive propositional attitudes that have

15180-400: The performance during the striving phase, the individual may adjust their goal. For example, if the performance is worse than expected, they may lower their goals. This can go hand in hand with adjusting the effort invested in the activity. Emotional states affect how goals are set and which goals are prioritized. Positive emotions are associated with optimism about the value of a goal and create

15312-548: The person feels pressured into doing something by external forces. A related contrast is between push and pull motivation. Push motivation arises from unfulfilled internal needs and aims at satisfying them. For example, hunger may push an individual to find something to eat. Pull motivation arises from an external goal and aims at achieving this goal, like the motivation to get a university degree. Mental state Mental states are usually contrasted with physical or material aspects. For (non-eliminative) physicalists , they are

15444-411: The person has no good reason that explains the behavior. In this case, the person lacks a clear understanding of the deeper source of motivation and in what sense the behavior is in tune with their values. This can be the case for impulsive behavior , for example, when a person spontaneously acts out of anger without reflecting on the consequences of their actions. Rational and irrational motivation play

15576-399: The person is aware. It includes the explicit recognition of goals and underlying values. Conscious motivation is associated with the formulation of a goal and a plan to realize it as well as its controlled step-by-step execution. Some theorists emphasize the role of the self in this process as the entity that plans, initiates, regulates, and evaluates behavior. An example of conscious motivation

15708-457: The presence of a strong extrinsic motivation, like a high monetary reward, can decrease intrinsic motivation. Because of this, the individual may be less likely to further engage in the activity if it does not result in an external reward anymore. However, this is not always the case and under the right circumstances, the combined effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation leads to higher performance. Conscious motivation involves motives of which

15840-401: The presumed truth of the proposition (whether or not it is so), making it and other non-factive attitudes different from a mere acquaintance. Questionnaires A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of a set of questions (or other types of prompts) for the purpose of gathering information from respondents through survey or statistical study. A research questionnaire

15972-436: The psychological level. They include affiliation, competition, personal interests, and self-actualization as well as desires for perfection, justice, beauty, and truth. They are also called secondary, psychological, social, or personal motives. They are often seen as a higher or more refined form of motivation. The processing and interpretation of information play a key role in cognitive motivation. Cognitively motivated behavior

16104-426: The questioner as verbal or telephone surveys, and often have standardized answers that make it simple to compile data. However, such standardized answers may frustrate users as the possible answers may not accurately represent their desired responses. Questionnaires are also sharply limited by the fact that respondents must be able to read the questions and respond to them. Thus, for some demographic groups conducting

16236-716: The questionnaire can have more problems than benefits. For example, unlike interviews, the people conducting the research may never know if the respondent understood the question that was being asked. Also, because the questions are so specific to what the researchers are asking, the information gained can be minimal. Often, questionnaires such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator , give too few options to answer; respondents can answer either option but must choose only one response. Questionnaires also produce very low return rates, whether they are mail or online questionnaires. The other problem associated with return rates

16368-599: The role of awareness and rationality . Definitions emphasizing this aspect understand motivation as a mostly conscious process of rationally considering the most appropriate behavior. Another perspective emphasizes the multitude of unconscious and subconscious factors responsible. Other definitions characterize motivation as a form of arousal that provides energy to direct and maintain behavior. For instance, K. B. Madsen sees motivation as "the 'driving force' behind behavior" while Elliott S. Vatenstein and Roderick Wong emphasize that motivation leads to goal-oriented behavior that

16500-403: The subject to enter their corresponding conscious counterparts. On this position there can be no "deep unconscious", i.e. unconscious mental states that can not become conscious. The term "consciousness" is sometimes used not in the sense of phenomenal consciousness , as above, but in the sense of access consciousness . A mental state is conscious in this sense if the information it carries

16632-402: The temporal horizon and the duration of the underlying motivational mechanism. Short-term motivation is focused on achieving rewards immediately or in the near future. It is associated with impulsive behavior. It is a transient and fluctuating phenomenon that may arise and subside spontaneously. Long-term motivation involves a sustained commitment to goals in a more distant future. It encompasses

16764-404: The tendency of this person to behave in certain ways. Such an ascription does not involve any claims about the internal states of this person, it only talks about behavioral tendencies. A strong motivation for such a position comes from empiricist considerations stressing the importance of observation and the lack thereof in the case of private internal mental states. This is sometimes combined with

16896-531: The term is used not just to refer to the individual mental states listed above but also to a more global assessment of a person's mental health. Various competing theories have been proposed about what the essential features of all mental states are, sometimes referred to as the search for the "mark of the mental". These theories can roughly be divided into epistemic approaches , consciousness-based approaches , intentionality-based approaches and functionalism . These approaches disagree not just on how mentality

17028-405: The thesis that we could not even learn how to use mental terms without reference to the behavior associated with them. One problem for behaviorism is that the same entity often behaves differently despite being in the same situation as before. This suggests that explanation needs to make reference to the internal states of the entity that mediate the link between stimulus and response. This problem

17160-442: The truth of the propositions to which they are attached. That is, one can be in one of these mental states and the proposition can be false. An example of a non-factive attitude is believing—people can believe a false proposition and people can believe a true proposition. Since there is the possibility of both, such mental states do not entail truth, and therefore, are not factive. However, belief does entail an attitude of assent toward

17292-411: The unconscious mind, is to elucidate the nature of consciousness itself. Consciousness-based approaches are usually interested in phenomenal consciousness , i.e. in qualitative experience, rather than access consciousness , which refers to information being available for reasoning and guiding behavior. Conscious mental states are normally characterized as qualitative and subjective, i.e. that there

17424-449: The use of senses, like sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste, to acquire information about material objects and events in the external world. It contrasts with bodily awareness in this sense, which is about the internal ongoings in our body and which does not present its contents as independent objects. The objects given in perception, on the other hand, are directly (i.e. non-inferentially) presented as existing out there independently of

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