Study on Motivation Theories

Psychology 1
Motivation Theories
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City and State
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Psychology 2
MOTIVATION THEORIES
Introduction
Motivation is a term that means a force within a person that drives him to pursue a certain goal.
Thus, motivation theory describes how and why there is an activation in an individual’s
behaviour. Theories of motivation still remain the most studied and topic have been written
about them in organizational science. The theories are considered as an important area in the
study of organizational behaviours. Although a greater magnitude has been directed towards the
study of these motivation theories, none of the theories that have been accepted universally
(Thornley et al, 2017). This is because there is a lack of unified motivation theory which
indicates both complexity of diversity and the construct of these theories. The 19th and 20th
centuries psychologists argued that human beings we're programmed to behave in a certain
manner depending on the behavioural signal they are subjected to. For example, Sigmund
Freud’s stated an argument; that an individual’s behaviour was determined by unconscious
behaviors. Scheffer and Heckhause (2018) states that internal drive is the reason of motivated
behaviour in an individual. Other researchers explained that individual’s behaviour may be
influenced by past experiences. Others have examined the cognitive processes of individuals’
behaviour to be determined by past events beliefs. Over a period of time, these theoretical
researches about motivation were grouped under two classifications; content theory of
motivation and process theory of motivation. Content theory of motivation describes how an
individual’s behaviour affects their needs while process theory of motivation explains how an
individual’s needs affect their behaviour (Koballa, and Glynn, 2013). Under the content theory of
motivation exist four major theories which are; Maslow’s needs hierarchy theory, Herzberg’s
motivator-hygiene theory, McClelland’s learned needs theory, and Alderfer’s ERG theory.

Psychology 3
Under the process theory of motivation, there are four major theories which include; equity
theory, reinforcement theory, goal-setting theory, and expectancy theory.in this report, two
theories of motivation will be discussed that is Maslow’s need hierarchy theory and the
Expectancy theory (Svoboda et al, 2017).
Concept and constructs of theories of motivation
Maslow’s need hierarchy theory was developed by Abraham Maslow. This theory suggests that
the needs of an individual exists in the hierarchy which consists of psychological needs, safety
needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs in their ascending order of
hierarchy. Psychological needs are basic needs which include water, food and other biological
needs that are needed for survival. For example, when someone is hungry, he feels the urge to
look for food hence all his behavior is directed to looking for food. And after he has eaten, he no
longer looks for food hence the need for food no longer becomes the motivating factor. After the
psychological needs are satisfied, an individual starts to be concerned with their safety needs
(Schmidt, 2019). They care if they are exempt from any threat of pain, uncertain future, and
danger. After safety needs are satisfied, they thirst for social needs, this refers to the sense of
belonging or co-existing with others. The need to be loved and form a long-lasting attachment
with other people. Attachment is a vital thing in an individual’s life because it is associated with
the well-being of humans as well as healthy life. In this case, the urge for interpersonal
attachment is the human motivator. The satisfaction of social needs leads to esteem needs, this is
the urge to be respected by your peers, appreciated and feel like an important being. The highest
need in this hierarchy is the need for self-actualization, this is the desire to achieve the goals you
have set through the acquisition of new skills, being creative and this leads to becoming the best
version of you (Harris, 2017).