2.5 Motivation Essay

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is widely accepted in many social disciplines. However, it still has some weaknesses. Firstly, it is difficult to measure how people are satisfied in every level. There is no methods to measure precisely how satisfied one need is before the next higher need become operative. Secondly, in reality, people may seek different needs simultaneously, for instance, consumer would like to buy the car can offer safety and esteem needs. Thirdly, this theory doesn’t take account of age group consideration. Some old age people concern highest level of security,

Maslow’s theory of motivation is called the “hierarchy of needs”. Maslow believes that people have five main needs in the following order of importance;

“Motivation is the process whereby goal-orientated activity is instigated and sustained” (Schunk, Pintrich & Meece, 2008. As cited in Eggen & Kauchak, 2010, p.284). Motivation comes in many forms and can be divided into two broad categories - extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivators are external

Abraham Maslow’s theory, Theory of Hierarchy Needs, is a motivational theory in psychology that has a tier model of the five things a human needs. Maslow stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs and that some needs take precedence over others. The five stages, from bottom to top, include Physiological needs( food, water, warmth, and rest), the second stage: Safety Needs ( security and safety), third stage: Belongingness and love needs ( intimate relationships and friends), the fourth stage: Esteem Needs (prestige and feeling of accomplishment), and finally the last stage: Self-actualization ( achieving one’s full potential, including creative potential). The five stage model can be divided into

The psychological needs are somatic (i.e. they relate to the body not the mind) and

Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness are needs for safety and for physiological well-being are satisfied; the next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging.

Extrinsic motivation it is the motivation brought about by what a person is getting from a certain task, rather than interest in the task. An example of extrinsic motivation is when a student who is not particularly interested in math works hard in order to attain a good grade, and in a working person’s life, it could be working on a task that is not necessarily interesting to him/her, but that is giving a good amount of financial reward. A good example of intrinsic motivation is working as a volunteer in a children’s home because taking care of children is of personal interest and satisfaction, to the person, despite getting no reward.

Motivation in general is the drive to do something. There are two types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation refers to the action done for the sake of enjoyment (Study.com, n. d.). The action is done simply because we like the activity and not for other outcomes. In intrinsic motivation, people do it just because they find it fun and enjoyable. For instance, Leigh Anne was known for her commitment to the less fortunate. She had been doing charity simply because she wanted to and not because of profit or any other repayment.

Those that are intrinsically motivated have a bit of advantages over workers who are more predominantly extrinsically motivated. For instance, intrinsically motivated people work on job tasks because they find them enjoyable and interesting. Additionally, there is evidence showing that intrinsic motivation is positively correlated with learning, achievement, perception of competence and self-efficacy. At the same time, it is negatively correlated with anxiety, depression, and frustration. An intrinsically motivated individual will be committed to his or her work to the extent to which the job inherently contains tasks that are inherently rewarding to him or her (Lei, 2010).

Gives teachers impression that he/she is working diligently but just gets the answer from a classmate or from copying from someone else’s paper

According to Ryan & Deci (2000), they distinguish between different types of motivation based on the different reasons or goals that drives an individual to move. The simplest distinction is between intrinsic motivation, which refers to doing something because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable, and extrinsic motivation, which refers to doing something because it leads to a separable outcome. While indicated that Intrinsic motivation is doing an activity for its individual own satisfaction rather than for some separable significance. He added that when a person is intrinsically motivated an individual moved for the pleasurable or challenge entailed rather than because of external urges, pressures, or rewards.

We are probably all familiar with Abraham Maslow 's Theory of Hierarchical Needs; Psychological Needs, Safety Needs, Belongingness and Love Needs, Esteem Needs, Need to Know and Understand, Aesthetic Needs, and Self-Actualization Needs. And we probably all remember that according to Maslow 's theory, needs that are in the lower hierarchy must be at least partially met before a person will try to satisfy higher-level needs. Although ultimately our goal is to aid students in self-actualizing or becoming "all that one can be," they must first achieve the level of Need to Know and Understand.

Motivation is defined as the accumulation of different process which influence and direct our behavior to achieve a goal (Negussie, 2012). According to Deci, there are two broad classes of motivation, which are intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. He states: “A person is intrinsically motivated if he performs an activity for no apparent reward except the activity itself. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation refers to the performance of an activity because it leads to external rewards.” (Turnage & Muchinsky, 1976) In other word, intrinsic rewards are intangible rewards or psychological rewards while extrinsic rewards are tangible rewards and these rewards are external to the job or task performed by employee (Negussie, 2012).

A.H. Maslow, a famous social scientist, has given a framework that helps to explain the strength of certain needs. According to him, there seems to a hierarchy into which human needs are arranged as shown in Figure.

In connection to motivation, Maslow identified a hierarchy of needs that needed to be satisfied. He arranged these needs in a hierarchy manner starting from the lowest going to the highest. These needs were arranged in a pyramid where the lowest needs had to be met first before meeting the highest needs. He divided these needs in seven categories where the lowest four comprised of the deficiency needs while the upper three comprised of the growth needs. It is mandatory to meet the deficiency needs before a person is motivated to meet the growth needs. Deficiency needs include emotional desires, self-worth, adoration, and belonging needs and safety and security needs. While the growth needs include, needs to know and