What Is Cognitive Theory?

Motivation is a psychological tendency or internal drive that inspires and sustains an organism's actions and directs them towards a certain goal. ^[1] Motivation belongs to psychological state in psychological phenomena. ^[2] American psychologist Wudworth was first applied to psychology in 1918, and is considered to be the intrinsic motivation for determining behavior. Motivation has three functions: (1) stimulating function, which stimulates the individual to produce certain behavior; (2) directional function, which enables the individual's behavior to point to a certain goal. (3) Maintain and regulate the function, maintain the individual's behavior for a certain period of time, and adjust the intensity and direction of the behavior. Can be classified from different perspectives. According to the origin of motivation, it can be divided into physiological motivation and social motivation. The former is linked to the physiological needs of the organism; the latter is linked to the social needs of the organism. According to the cause of motivation, it can be divided into intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. The former is caused by the internal motivations of the organism itself (such as hormones, arousal states, ideals, desires, etc. of the central nervous system); the latter is caused by the external motivations of the organism (such as the opposite sex, food, money, rewards, etc.). ^[1]

Motivation is a psychological tendency or internal drive that inspires and sustains an organism's actions and directs them towards a certain goal. American psychologist Wudworth was first applied to psychology in 1918, and is considered to be the intrinsic motivation for determining behavior. ^[1]

From a philosophical level, human behavior is the relationship between the individual's own interaction with the external environment, and correspondingly from the level of psychological activity: the so-called "individual self" refers to the psychological characteristics of a person, because this is the most stable level of psychological activity. Human beings and their individuals are only representative parts; and the "interaction between individuals and the external environment" is, in terms of psychological activities, the psychological process of individuals' reactions to objective things. Therefore, from the perspective of psychological activity, behavior is the process and result of the interaction between individual psychological characteristics and their psychological processes. As the result of the interaction and reaction of psychological characteristics and psychological processes is formed into a psychological state, from the perspective of psychological activities: behavioral motivation actually belongs to the psychological state in psychological phenomena. ^[2]

Motivation is in

The goal is the specific achievement standard or result that the individual strives to achieve, and the individual is the future state expected by the individual. Motivation must have goals. Goals guide the direction of individual behavior and provide motivation. The individual's understanding of the goal changes from external incentives to internal needs, and then becomes the driving force of behavior and promotes behavior. For example, school is an inducement for children who want to go to school. Under the guidance of adults, children have an awareness of the school, and then have a desire to enter school. This desire is the driving force behind children's behavior. ^[4]

Motivational function

Motivation has three functions: (1) stimulating function, which stimulates the individual to produce certain behavior; (2) directional function, which enables the individual's behavior to point to a certain goal. (3) Maintain and regulate the function, maintain the individual's behavior for a certain period of time, and adjust the intensity and direction of the behavior.

1. Motivation is to stimulate and maintain the internal psychological process or internal motivation of individual activities under the guidance of goals or objects. Motivation is an internal psychological process that cannot be observed directly, but can be inferred through tasks such as task selection, effort level, activity persistence, and speech expression. Motivation must have goals. Goals guide the direction of individual behavior and provide motivation. Motivation requires activity, and activities drive individuals to achieve their goals.

2. Motivation has functions of activation, pointing, maintaining and adjusting. Motivation is one of the main aspects of individual motivation. It has the function of initiating behaviors, and can promote individuals to produce certain activities, so that individuals move from a stationary state to an active state. At the same time, it can direct behavior to certain objects or goals. When an individual activity is generated by motivation, whether or not to persist in the activity is also regulated and dominated by motivation.

Motivation fatigue motivation theory

American psychologist Maier RF put forward a "fatigue motivation theory" based on the results of previous experiments. This theory refers to the potential energy and physical strength that people can use for a certain work as stored work energy. He believes that the total energy of the human body is a constant relative to time and space. Everyone allocates this total energy every day based on their needs and motivation levels, and uses them for work, study, life, entertainment and other aspects. Different people in the same period or the same person in different periods, due to the difference in the strength of motivation of each person or an individual, therefore, the allocation of the potential energy contained in and stored in the relevant behavior is different . When the intensity of an individual's motivation is high, the energy distribution in the corresponding behavior is more; when the intensity of an individual motivation is low, the energy distribution in the corresponding behavior is less. ^[2]

The right picture can be made according to the theory of fatigue motivation:

Fatigue motivation theory

This figure describes the total energy of an individual, the energy allocated to a task, and their relationship to the level of motivation to complete the task. The large circle in the figure represents the total energy stored by the individual, and the small circle represents the energy allocated to a particular job, and their size represents the energy value assigned to the job. The diagram shows that the energy value assigned to an activity by any individual depends on the individual's level of motivation for that activity. Graphs A and B represent two individuals with the same total energy (assuming @, &). Due to the different motivational intensity of engaging in an activity, the energy value assigned to the activity is also different. Figures C and D describe the situation of the two @ and & after completing the task. The small circles and shaded parts in the figure indicate that energy has been consumed. ^[2]

The figure illustrates: Although @, & both consumed 50% of their allocated energy and experienced the same degree of fatigue when completing the task, @actually consumed energy is equivalent to & twice the actual energy consumed by &. But it needs to be further explained that the explanation of behavior by the theory of fatigue motivation is not comprehensive, it is only applicable to the will and behavior that are consistent with motivation and goal, and it is not enough to explain the subconscious behavior and entertainment and recreational behavior. For example, entertainment and recreational behaviors are not only unwilling to accept the domination and supervision of the goal and consciousness, but also often show the characteristics of "untiring, indulging in it" as the behavior progresses; while the subconscious is not clear about the motivation of the action, how to accept the goal It is difficult for the self to understand clearly in the process of consciousness control, so it is even less to mention that the intensity of motivation determines the intensity of behavior. So in general, whether it is subconscious or recreational consciousness, it often suppresses or constrains people's work and life behaviors that tend to the overall long-term goal, but it can also integrate such subconscious or recreational consciousness and the whole long-term behavior in will. The goals are unified. For example, we can sing some passionate songs during marches or labor or anger the enemy with unexplained depression, which is the so-called identification and sublimation defense mechanism in psychoanalytic theory. ^[2]

Motivation and efficiency

Yerkes-Dodson Law (Yerkes-Dodson's Law) is a psychologist RM Yerkes and JD Dodson A rule summarized by experimental research is used to explain the relationship between psychological stress, work difficulty and homework performance. The relationship between motivation level and work efficiency is not a linear relationship, but an inverted U-shaped curve. A moderate level of agitation is most conducive to the completion of the task. The optimal level of motivation is not fixed and will vary depending on the nature of the task. in

Yekes-Dodson's Law

In the simple tasks, the motivation level is high, and the efficiency can reach the best level; in the moderately difficult tasks, the medium motivation level is the most efficient; in the complex and difficult tasks, the low motivation level is the most efficient. (See picture on the right).

The Yerks_Dodson Law (The Yerks_Dodson Law) shows that the more difficult the learning content is, the more susceptible the learning effect is to interference with higher excitement levels. When the excitement level is at a suitable intensity, the work efficiency is the best; when the excitement level is too low, the lack of enthusiasm for participating in the activity can not improve the work efficiency; when the excitement level exceeds the peak, the work efficiency will continue to decrease with increasing intensity, because the The level of excitement puts the body in a state of excessive anxiety and tension, and interferes with normal activities of mental processes such as memory and thinking.

The power of social motivation

The nature of human motivation is various. Motives of different natures can have different meanings to people and have different strengths of driving force. The mode of action, the persistence of the action, and the effect of the action are largely constrained by the nature of the motive.

One experiment examined the effects of different motivations on children's behavior. Preschool children are lively and active, and it is difficult for them to stand still for a long time. But the experimenter arranged a play scenario where the child's role required him to remain in a standing position for a long time. The situation is clearly different. It takes 3 to 4 times longer to stay standing in a game situation than an adult simply asks. Here, in addition to the emotional positive factors brought about by play, children's activity motivation obviously plays an important role. (Experiment of Manuilenko)

Social factors play an important role in motivation. The power of social motivation may be so great that it exceeds and suppresses human biological instincts. For example, some social activists, for the needs of political struggle, can curb the natural need for eating, and have been on a hunger strike for more than ten days.

Similar results were seen in the laboratory. Some people reported that the three participants (university students) were required to use their right index finger to pull up a weight of 3.4 kilograms suspended on the Jiubb dynamometer. No reason was given to the first group of participants; for the second group of participants, they were required to show their highest abilities; for the third group of participants, this activity was directly related to an important social task (The action of pulling the weight is related to the effect of power transmission to factories and houses). The results show that under three different kinds of activity motivations, the most socially rich motivations can show the greatest power. (Fairy's experiment)

War is a social phenomenon that requires a high level of willpower. In war operations, the relationship between the nature of motivation and its driving force for the operation can be clearly seen. Throughout the ages, soldiers engaged in just wars have been driven by lofty motives, have a spirit of indomitable hardship, are good at overcoming difficulties and showing strong will. In the army engaged in unjust war, soldiers fight for war, or fight for money or other personal motives only. They are timid, shaken, and weak-willed in the face of danger and danger. The leaders of revolutionary wars attach great importance to the role of pre-war mobilization. The reason why instigators of unjust wars often make deceptive propaganda to their soldiers in an attempt to speak out their war intentions is sound. The psychological basis is that people are different. Motivation by nature has different incentives for action.