Chapter 1
Introduction
Chapter Outline
What Is Motivation? Why Is It Important?
Motivational Science
Two Perennial Questions
What Causes Behavior?
Why Does Behavior Vary in Its Intensity?
Subject Matter
Internal Motives
External Events and Social Contexts
Motivation versus Influence
Expressions of Motivation
Behavior
Engagement
Psychophysiology
Brain Activations
Self-Report
Framework to Understand Motivation and Emotion
Ten Unifying Themes
Motivation and Emotion Benefit Adaptation and Functioning
Motivation and Emotion Direct Attention
Motivation and Emotion Are “Intervening Variables”
Motives Vary over Time and Contribute into the Ongoing Stream of Behavior
Types of Motivation Exist
We Are Not Always Consciously Aware of the Motivational Basis of Our Behavior
Motivation Study Reveals What People Want
To Flourish, Motivation Needs Supportive Conditions
When Trying to Motivate Others, What Is Easy to Do Is Rarely What Works
There Is Nothing So Practical As a Good Theory
Summary
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Problem of the Day
Why study human motivation? Why is it a worthwhile and satisfying thing to do?
When looking at another person in action, what cues do you use to infer that person’s
motivation? In other words, when a person is motivated, how do you know it?
Activities
Define motivation.
Ask each student to construct a personal, one-sentence definition. Then ask the students
to exchange and share their written definitions with the person sitting next to them.
Define emotion.
Ask each student to construct a personal, one-sentence definition (if possible). Then, ask
the students to exchange and share their written definitions with the person sitting next to them.
Discussion Questions
Theory
1. Imagine that a guest speaker, named Dr. Motivation, pays a visit to your class.
He wonders if you might have one burning question to ask. What might that question be?
2. From a motivational point of view, what causes behavior?
3. From a motivational point of view, why does behavior vary in its intensity?
4. Are people primarily motivated by internal motives or by external events,
or are people motivated about equally by internal motives and external events?
Application
1. Think about a serious motivational problem you had. What was it?
What do you think caused the problem? How might you solve it?
2. Think about a serious motivational problem someone else had (e.g., a friend or
teammate). What was it? What do you think caused the problem?
How might you solve it?
3. Why did you come to class today? Provide a motivational answer to explain:
Initiation: What motivated you to come to class in the first place?
Persistence: Why do you continue to stay minute after minute?
Why come back tomorrow?
Goal directedness: Why go to class today rather than do something else?
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Multiple-Choice Test Questions
__ 1. Motivation study concerns itself with those processes that give behavior its:
(a) benefits and costs.
(b) energy and direction.
(c) feedforward and feedback.
(d) success and personal authenticity.
__ 2. A theory is a(n):
(a) construction of facts with successive layers of complexity.
(b) intellectual forecast to estimate the value of a psychological principle.
(c) project requiring some action or some set of actions.
(d) intellectual framework that organizes a vast amount of information about a
phenomenon as to describe, understand, and explain it.
__ 3. Pairing “science” and “motivation” in the phrase “motivational science” means that
answers to motivational questions require:
(a) that one’s personal beliefs about motivation are confirmed by cultural norms.
(b) opportunities to reflect on one’s personal experiences so as to gain personal
insights about the nature of motivation.
(c) objective, data-based, empirical evidence from well-conducted research.
(d) that one recognizes that most motivational states cannot be studied scientifically.
__ 4. Which of the following statements is most true?
(a) A motive is an internal process that energizes and directs behavior.
(b) Cognitions are short-lived physiological-functional-expressive phenomena.
(c) External motives (incentives) predict behavior better than do internal motives
(needs).
(d) Internal motives (needs) predict behavior better than do external motives
(incentives).
__ 5. Which of the following statements best defines motivation? Motivation is:
(a) an intense desire to succeed.
(b) a force that energizes and directs behavior.
(c) a system of rewards and punishments to influence behavior.
(d) positive beliefs about oneself, such as high self-esteem.
__ 6. Among the following questions, which is considered to be a core, perennial question
within motivation study?
(a) Is human behavior mostly conscious or mostly unconscious?
(b) Under what conditions do people learn best?
(c) What causes behavior?
(d) Why are people happy?
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__ 7. People often say that the best way to motivate others is to increase their self-esteem, as in
“Find a way to make people feel good about themselves, and then all sorts of good things
start to happen.” In response to this approach to motivation, the textbook concluded that:
(a) no research exists on self-esteem because it is best studied through personal
experience.
(b) a great deal of evidence supports this approach to motivation.
(c) practically no evidence supports this approach to motivation.
(d) while not perfect, increasing self-esteem is still the most effective approach to
motivating other people.
__ 8. Which of the following questions is not a key part of understanding motivation study’s
basic question, “What causes behavior?”
(a) Once begun, why is a behavior sustained over time?
(b) What is the difference between one type of behavior and another?
(c) Why does behavior start?
(d) Why does behavior stop?
__ 9. A motivation researcher interested in understanding why a person eats a meal needs to
answer all of the following questions, except:
(a) How is food digested?
(b) Why did the eating begin?
(c) Why did the eating end?
(d) Why did the person eat quickly at first but eat much slower after several bites?
(e) Why is the person eating a meal rather than doing something else?
__10. _________ are conditions within the individual that are essential and necessary for the
maintenance of life and for the nurturance of growth and well-being.
(a) Cognitions
(b) Emotions
(c) Motives
(d) Needs
(e) Presses
__11. __________ are short-lived subjective-physiological-functional-expressive phenomena
that orchestrate how a person reacts to significant life events.
(a) Cognitions
(b) Emotions
(c) Motivations
(d) Motives
(e) Needs
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