Sources of Motivation

Sources of Motivation

By

LaQuita Maxwell

September 24, 2012

Instructor: Tonie Heath

PSY 355

When people think about motivation, they think of it as gas for sure will. When a person is motivated there is anything that can stop them for accomplishing their goal. Olympic athletes have more motivation then anybody. They are motivated by the love they have for their country and the love they have for their sport. They get more motivated when they know they have their family and their country behind them. It gives them a push which is what motivation is.

Motivation is described as the method that starts, leads and preserves goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is the reason an individual acts. (Cherry, 2012) Motivation is like a push in order to accomplish a goal. If someone is thirsty that thirst is going to motivate that person to get a drink of water. The same is when someone is hungry, that hunger feeling is going to motivate that person to go get something to eat. Just like a student wanting a good grade on a paper would motivate that student to do the paper great. Each one of these samples of motivation was moved into action, which is called motivated, or to be moved into action or to decide on a change in action. When a person is motivated, they are looking to forward to the reward, which can be described as an incentive. An incentive is the anticipated reward or aversive event available in the environment.

When a person thinks about motivation, they usually want to know the source of their motivation. There is an internal and an external source. The internal source, which is sometimes called intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is motivation that is motivated by an activity or the satisfaction in the mission itself, and lives in the person other than depending on any outside pressure. Intrinsic motivation is centered on seizing the desire in an activity rather than working towards an outward prize. (2012) There are also biological variables, which stands for substantial qualities of the body and brain that assist to motivate behavior. Hunger is an example of biological variable. The motivation for getting, cooking, and eating food rises. Psychological variables are linked to the internal source of motivation. "As indicators of a psychological need increase, the motivation for need-relevant incentives, consummatory behaviors, and associated feelings increase." (Deckers 2010)

The external source is just how it sounds. It is also known as the extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation means the accomplishment of an activity in order to reach a result, which