Studies found that behind every human action motivation works as a tool to help the individuals reach their target desire.
।। Alaul Alam ।।
The word ‘motivation’ comes from the Latin word ‘movere’ meaning ‘to move’. In the early twentieth century psychologists across the globe used the term motivation and found that it is the driving force in regard to changing human behaviours. It leads the individuals towards the journey of goal-centric behaviours. According to psychologists, motivation influences the biological, emotional, social, and cognitive forces of human beings.
Abraham Maslow introduced five tiers hierarchy of needs that motivate human beings. He first set physiological needs in his hierarchy model that began from the bottom. Psychological needs refer to the necessities of air, food, drink, shelter, clothes, warmth, sex, and sleep. Maslow claimed that these needs are the most essential and until they are met, there is no presence of other needs.
Then comes the need for safety. In this stage people expect to have safe environment. In the Maslow’s model it is shown that when the individuals are met with psychological needs, they think of security and safety in their life. The third level of the hierarchy is love and belongingness. In this stage, the individuals are motivated to have the feelings of belongingness. They desire for emotional connections such as friendship, closeness, trust, and acceptance. In the fourth stage of hierarchy the esteem needs become apparent as people are motivated to be rewarded with esteem.
Maslow claimed that esteem needs include two components; one is feeling self-confident while the second one is feeling valued by others. When someone is able to fulfill esteem needs, they feel confident and see their contributions and achievements as valuable and important. Then comes the sense of self-actualization of the individuals. It is considered the top level of Maslow’s needs hierarchy model. Maslow claimed that only a few people can reach the level of self-actualization. However, those who reach are content with themselves and can achieve the best they are capable of. Again, such individuals are well aware of their personal development and see the opportunity to materialize their full potentials.
Studies found that behind every human action motivation works as a tool to help the individuals reach their target desire. They also claimed that how much motivation contributes to the individuals’ actions is based on their activation, persistence and intensity.
There is a saying that the dream of any person is much bigger than he/she is. If someone sets their target with the essence of motivation, they see more outcomes in their activities than the others who are not motivated. But are people motivated by their self? In some cases it may be. There are many people who are visionary, set their strategies to fulfill their target with the essence of motivation.
Different stories, videos, books and write-ups influence people to be motivated in their life. On top of that, more often we see that companies hire motivational speakers to train up their employees on motivation. It is evident that trainings not only help the individuals develop skills but also motivate them to work efficiently.
Again, theorists found that people are mainly influenced by two types of motivation. They are extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation exposes a sort of behaviour where people aim at attaining the short -term incentives. In most cases, the expectations of people are to attain rewards, money, fame and career. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation refers to the behaviours driven by internal rewards and happiness. It is obvious that the people who are intrinsically motivated have greater possibility to perform their responsibilities smoothly.
In one of my studies I found that learning outcomes of English language were influenced by motivation. Students who were motivated, despite facing many challenges, could improve their proficiency in English. But it is frustrating that in case of language learning students were mostly driven by short-term incentives. Most of the students were instrumentally motivated and found short-cut ways to attain GPA- 5. Students concentrated more on getting good grades than learning.
The study also found that teaching and learning became easier when teachers and students were intrinsically motivated. But in most cases, teachers became more concentrated on their assigned responsibilities like completing syllabus and taking exams than considering the learning outcomes of the students. However, it is no matter, people are motivated intrinsically or extrinsically, the pivotal issue is that any sort of motivation accelerates human actions which maximize potentials.
Certainly, it is no denial, motivation affects human behaviours positively and it has as many faces as human desires. For the journey towards a goal-oriented life there is no alternative to cherishing the essence of motivation at heart. To this end, where there is motivation, unlocking of potentials happens there.
The writer teaches at Prime University. He is also a research scholar at the IBS. Email: malaulalam@gmail.com
