Motivation is required in order to do most human endeavors. If a person is unmotivated to do something be it their goals or job, it is unlikely that the thing in question will get done and certainly unlikely that it will be done as best as it could be done. So an important question for everyone is “How do I stay motivated?” Motivation has been studied rigorously by psychologists and there are various theories competing for what exactly causes motivation in some individuals and not others and what must a person do to retain motivation in their lives. Some of the advice for how to stay motivated does not require an understanding of the psychology behind it, since it is somewhat easy to determine. However, by understanding different psychological theories surrounding motivation one can be given a better understanding of how to stay motivated and what advice is worth following being given by those claiming to have secrets of staying motivated. Motivation is applicable to all areas of human activity, this essay however focuses mainly on college students and their motivation to do what is required of them to be successful and also how things that can lead them to be distracted can also motivate their behavior.
Understanding motivation is critical in all branches of psychology, even for psychologists who do not study about motivation. Motivation is defined as the force that causes us to do things and think about things. It is the inner drive or force that causes a person to take action towards a specific end. It is termed a “driving force” simply because of the fact that a person receiving it makes significant adjustments in relation to meeting what is promised under it. Hunger is a motivating force, which drives a person to it. As is thirst, and other primary inborn drives.
Motivation also comes from other reasons outside of psychological needs. There are social pressures that drive a person to do something. An example of this would be two reasons for going to church. A man might go to church in order to avoid public scrutiny. Another person, a child perhaps, might go to church to avoid being punished by his mother. In this example both child and the man are attending a church service but their motivation comes from different contexts.
There is also internal and external motivation. Internal motivation is driven by a benefit or pleasure a task provides and external motivation is motivation that goes after an outcome. An example of internal motivation is desiring to watch a TV show because it contains the preference of the person to do so. External motivation would be wanting to win a gold medal by placing in the Olympics.
There are number competing theories that explain where motivation comes from and how it is used. These theories, while they may disagree on some points, are important in that they provide different lenses to view motivation with, and an understanding of them give a deeper understand as to what motivates us.
What follows are two of the forefront theories of motivation and lay out how they operate. These theories appear to in contradiction with each other in their explanations of motivation: Incentive theory and Escape-seeking dichotomy model.
Incentive theory is a model developed by behaviorists. It believes that people do things for a reward that they associate as an outcome of the action. A positive outcome is associated with a positive action and this is then repeated due to that. Without a positive outcome, the incentive theory would not apply. Something should encourage the person to do something – it could contain some of his favorite rewards that serve him with great benefits. In incentive theory there are reinforces. An example could be used with drug use. Drug use in some way makes a user feel good by altering the chemical makeup of the brain and seeking this incentive is what motivates a user to continue to use a drug.
The escape-seeking dichotomy model seems to depart from incentive theory in that it seeks to avoid routine, while incentive theory establishes routines based on known positive outcomes. Escape-seeking dichotomy has been used to explain tourist’s motivations to leave the comforts of their homes to travel to other countries. Understandable here is the fact that humans get tired with routine work, and that it is best for them to do different things in order for them to stay away from boredom (Woo, 1)
Though these two theories seem to contradict each other, they are best viewed as noncompetitive as both models could influence a person. One could use the escapist-seeking dichotomy to explain why a person abruptly quit his job and quit his routines and moved to another country, and also if that person were a smoker use the incentive theory as a model to explain his/her smoking.
In looking at how and what a person can do in order to stay motivated in their own life, it is important to keep in mind both of these philosophical theories. The question that a person should ask themselves is “what do I need to stay motivated.” In short, are you doing the things that you want to or should do in life because they are things that you want to do, or are you simply fulfilling your responsibilities because you want to avoid some sort of negative punishment? This is the first question that needs to be asked when looking at the issues. Most “How-to” tips on the Internet understand motivation as such, what can people do to get rewarded, rather than looking at what they can do to avoid punishment.
This is why a lot of the conventional wisdom on motivation, while not flawed, does not paint the entire picture of the issue. Take Big Future, a website that is supposed to help college students with different resources. They have a list of five things to stay motivated that includes the following items: “ Focus on high impact activities, create new challenges, set attainable goals, find a social support network, and acknowledge your accomplishments.” (Big future, 2013).
In looking at these five pieces of advice and seeing them with an eye to what we know about some of the psychology behind motivation, we will look at how well these apply. Creating New Challenges is not necessarily applicable in this instant, since the challenges in place in college are presumably provided by a professor. A student should take off from a professor first in order for him to know whether he could succeed in doing things or not.
Focusing on high impact activities is all about prioritizing things and maintaining everything in a balance. If a student has an important test to study for tomorrow and are neglecting to study for it in order to finish a paper that is due next week, he or she is not focusing on high impact activities but have lost their proper sense or prioritization. This could be demotivating and work against motivation since a bad grade on a test, or feeling anxious or overwhelmed might lead a student to giving up. However, under the other psychological framework, it could also be motivating to get a bad grade on a test because it would lead the student to want to avoid replicating those negative results in the future.
Setting attainable goal is very important in college everywhere from what course load to take to what to major in. If a person struggled throughout math in high school, it is probably going to have a negative effect on motivation if that person decides to major in mathematics. Likewise, if a person struggled through a five-class course load one semester, it would not make much sense for them to take a six-class course load the following semester.
Many students start the semester of school motivated to do well but lose it along the way. Christy Matta, the author of ‘The Stress Response’ writes that “When we want to do something differently, say to save money, stand up for ourselves or exercise more frequently, we often start with enthusiasm. But habits are hard to change. After an initial burst of energy, it’s easy to fall back into old habits.
Personally, there is a parallel in my own life. I tend to feel more motivated about assignments early on in a semester and this wanes with time. A big part of this is college is a long term goal with no tangible reward early on and there are many short term rewards, such as drinking and partying, that can distract a student along the way. Perhaps that is because of the fact that I am still young at this point. I feel the need to experience fun for now before I get older (Woo, 21).
There are some who have researched specifically student motivation and what an institution or teacher can do to keep someone motivational. Karin Kirk in her paper “Motivating Students” writes, “Teacher have a lot to do with their students’ motivation level” (Kirk, 2013). She goes on to quote Barbara Gross Davis a psychologist who stated that “Research has shown that good everyday teaching practices can do more to counter student apathy than special efforts to attack motivation directly” (Davis, 1978).
The overall conclusion to what motivates us is several factors. From wanting rewards, to wanting to avoid punishment, several things are at work in determining a particular person’s motivation to reach for their goals. At the end of the day though, the person who is going to be most affected by their motivation or lack-there-of are people themselves. Nobody can be motivated for you. In order to be successful and stay motivated it is important to be in tune with your self and work consistently to stay motivated. Keeping in touch with yourself could guarantee you happiness, and happiness could enable you to stay motivated in doing a lot of things.
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