The Difference of Humanistic Theories of Motivation from Other Theories What differentiates humanistic theories of motivation (e.g. Maslow, Rogers) from other theories (e.g. Hull, Instinct)? Many researchers in the humanistic approach to psychology have noted the persistent motive within individuals to become competent in dealing with the environment. Successful completion of a task, however, often seems to cause the task to lose some of its value, and new, more difficult challenges are undertaken. Theorists in this area have described this persistent motive to test and expand one's abilities by a number of terms. Carl Rogers has described this motive state, as an attempt to grow and reach fulfillment, that is to become a fully functioning individual. Abraham Maslow has described the process as a movement towards self-actualization, an attempt to become all that one can possibly become. According to these approaches, all of us strive to reach our potential. Most of the humanistic theories take the point of view that human behaviour cannot be fully understood witho...
Self-actualizing tendency is defined in our lecture notes as a basic hierarchy of needs, an innate drive towards personal goals. People often see this as a pyramid of needs. It is the human motive toward realizing our inner potential (Schreier, November 16, 2014). Joe Benoit is a perfect example of the self-actualizing tendency. Joe, while facing cancer multiple times, didn’t let this stop him. Mid blood transfusion Joe claimed he was going to be around awhile longer and that he was going to sing in the show. Joe was finding his inner potential even when he was on his deathbed. He disregarded his doctors orders to enjoy the life he had left. (Walker & George, 2007)
A researcher in humanistic psychology, Abraham Maslow, stated that, “Basic human needs are organized into a hierarchy of relative prepotency… (The organism’s) behavior organized only by unsatisfied needs.” (A.Maslow, “A Theory of Human Motivation, 1943) This suggests that in order to progress to the next step in the hierarchy (shown on the right) one must fulfill the steps below.
Motive theory is one more way psychologists evaluate personality. The motive theory searches for reasons why people do what they do. It asks questions like what drives people. The underlying idea of the motive theory is that behavior reflects underlying needs. A need represents an unsatisfactory state of being. For instance, primary needs are biological, such as a need for air, water and food. After these basic needs are met, less important needs can be met such as friendship and even love. David McCelland and John Atkinson studied the need for achievement. The need for achievement is the desire to do things well and have pleasure in overcoming obstacles (Clark et al., 1956). The need for achievement varies depending on sex, and childhood
The author believes that goals and desires require an individual to be motivated to move from one state of being to the next. This motivation encompasses the emotional, cognitive, social, and biological drives that trigger behavior (Maslow, 1943). Accordingly, the word motivation befalls the frequently used description of why an individual achieves a goal, and the term motivation originates from the Latin root movere, which means “to move.” Therefore, motivation stands as the state that “moves” an individual to act in a particular way. For instance, when one is lying on the beach on a warm summer day and begins to feel hot, the physical need to cool down might cause one to stand up, go to the water for a dip. If the heat remains too over-bearing,
Humanistic Theory is based on the ability for individuals to be able to separately diverse with our own prospective on life. Maslow’s theory speaks to the potential and to positive outcome of human motivation and believes that every individual can and will strives to be more.
People have long considered general theories of motivation, and the question regarding the specific motives that direct and energize our human behavior has undergone tremendous speculation. To this day the question still stands: what is it that humans seek most in life? In an effort to answer this question, Abraham Maslow proposed what he called the hierarchy of needs. Maslow theorizes that human beings are motivated to fulfill this hierarchy, which consists of needs ranging from those that are basic for survival up to those that promote growth and self-enhancement (Kassin 300).
Depending on how motivated we are, it may further determine the effort we put into our work and therefore increase the standard of the productivity. There have been a wide variety of theories about motivation developed over the years. Several are drive-reduction theory, arousal theory, psychosocial (both incentive and cognitive) theory, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
To start, we are taking a look at Humanism. I drew this mask green because humanistic psychologists believe that people are basically good. humanistic theorists focused on the ways people strive for self-determination and self-realization. They look for the potential for healthy personal growth. According to humanistic psychologists we are searching for self-actualization and self-transcendence. Ultimately, we want to fulfill over full potential with purpose and meaning. They assess people's personalities by having conversations and discussions about intimate subjects. They believe that this leads us to learn more about each other by understanding other's experiences.
Abraham Maslow was a psychologist who was not satisfied with the way things had always been done and he did not like the way other psychologists viewed people. He believed that individuals have great potential and thought that there had to be more to humans than simply rewards, punishments, and subconscious urges. To Maslow, people were full of positive potential. He developed humanistic psychology, which focuses on the potential of people to become all that they can be. Other psychologists helped develop different elements in humanistic psychology, but Maslow is largely considered to be the father of the humanist movement in psychology. Weiten (2013) mentioned that Maslow argued that humans have an innate drive towards personal growth that is, evolution toward a higher state of being (p. 377). Maslow wanted to understand what motivates an individual, believing that individuals possess a motivational system unrelated to rewards or unconscious desires. Maslow (1943) stated that people are motivated to attain certain needs. When one need is fulfilled, an individual seeks to fulfill the next one. Maslow 's greatest
Abraham Manslow, a humanist, developed a hierarchy of needs focused on the study of healthy people and development. Manslow’s theory focused on the development of an individual according to the needs that must be met. An individual has lower level and upper level needs that must be met at each level before the next level is reached on the way to self-actualization; however, if the person does not meet the needs anxiety occurs. The needs must be addressed in a practical manner for self-actualization to be achieved. The humanistic view of personality is based on the belief that an accurate observation of self and the ability reach needs in different stages of development result in self-actualization (Pettijohn, n.d.).
According to Greenberg (1999) motivation is defined "as a process of arousing, directing and maintaining behaviour towards a goal." Where directing' refers to the selection of a particular behaviour; and maintenance' refers to the inclination to behave with consistency in that manner until the desired outcome is met.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs asserts that people strive to self-actualize after meeting their basic needs. Self-actualization is using one’s abilities to contribute to the world and grow as a person. A conscientious person might address their psychological needs, such as the desire to complete a major task. To write an important document, forming a schedule to break the writing process into blocks makes accomplishment more likely. By planning ahead, a conscientious person can contemplate which interests to pursue to reach their full potential. With diligence they can focus on specific goals and reach desired outcomes, such as completing years of medical residency to become a neurosurgeon. By Maslow’s theory, the conscientious person relies on external factors to maximize personal growth. While this theory emphasizes growing through achievement, the self-determination theory focuses on the sources of motivation. Someone with high conscientiousness relies on an internal drive to meet their goals. They do this by finding their way in life, finding something they are skilled at, and relating to others. By exerting self-control they seek happiness from within and tend to avoid hedonistic pursuits. Thus, this theory suggests that the conscientious person relies on intrinsic motives to pursue
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, July 1943. 370-396. Print. 8 Feb. 2014.
Maslow believed that while the individual is striving to achieve his own potential, he has those needs that he finds himself trying to fulfill in order to improve. Murray stressed the importance of these stresses, or motives from the environment that direct us sometimes to behave in certain ways combined with our emotions and needs. Works Cited Hall, Calvin S., and Gardner, Lindzey. Theories of Personality.
Theories of motivation consists two parts. Content and process motivation theories. Content motivation theories focuses mainly on people needs and explains why people have different needs at different times. Content theories of motivation treated as a need or desire, to act for the sake of promoting a certain goal. One most prominent theorist Abraham Maslow (1943) proposed the hierarchy of needs. It states that all the needs of the people can be divided into five categories, aligned incentive effect in descending order: (psychological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization needs). Psychological are the basic needs to survive, e.g. food, clothes, shelter, warmth, sleep, etc. Safety are the needs like security, stability, freedom from fear, etc. Social needs are the feelings of belongingness, acceptance, being part