Question

Within the scope of human behavior in regards to motivation and affect what part does Conceptualizing Involvement play. Explain(Chapter 5, pp. 163-165)

Answer 1

Motivation is an internal process that makes a person to head towards a goal. Motivation, like intelligence, can’t be directly observed. Instead, motivation can only be inferred by noting a person’s behavior.

There are many factors that influence human behavior and it is always evolving based on personal experiences. The common factors that influence human behavior are age, race, religion, gender, occupation, temperament, environment, heredity, background, law, traditions, societal norms, ethics and morals, culture, attitudes and personality, persuasion, coercion, authority, rapport, motivation, abilities and skills, perception, etc. Individual behavior is predictable for the most part but there could be occasional outbursts of deviant behavior depending on a given situation.

Mainly five factors that influence the human behavior are :1) The demographic factors which includes socio economic background, education, race, age, sex etc. Normally, people from good socio economic background are well educated, professionals, have good communication skills.

2) The abilities and skills; ability is the physical ability to do a task while skill is the ability to do a task efficiently and effectively. An individual’s behavior and performance is primarily influence by his ability and skills.

3)Perception which is the cognitive process of interpretation of environmental stimuli in a meaningful manner. There are many factors that form the perception of an individual. Positive perception helps employee performance.

4) Attitude which is defined as the tendency to respond favorably or unfavorably to certain objects, persons or situations. Attitude is influenced by family, society, culture, peers and organizational factors. Employees perform better in an organization if they form a positive attitude.

5) Personality is the characteristics and distinctive traits of an individual, the inter-relations and how a person responds and adjusts to other people and situations. Many things influence an individual’s personality like hereditary, family, society, culture and situation. Personality is the most complex aspect of an individual and has profound impact on human behavior.

Motivation is a goal-oriented behavior that is initiated, guided and maintained by certain forces which could be biological, social, emotional or cognitive in nature. There are many theories that try to explain motivation and we will discuss a few of them to get a better understanding.

There are many theories to explain motivation & very briefly describe each theory :

A)Maslow’s Theory of Hierarchy or Humanistic Theory of Motivation: The needs from lower to higher where lower are top priority are physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem and self-actualization. Physiological needs are food, water and sex.

B) Alderfer’s ERG Theory: He stated & classified needs hierarchically into three categories: growth needs ie development of personal competence and realization of one’s potential relatedness needs ie satisfactory relations with others existence needs The higher needs once satisfied become more intensified. Not everyone is motivated by the same things.

c) McClellan Theory : He states every thing is aquired by life experinceslike the need to achieve and accomplish something substantial; need to form affiliations and close personal relationships and the need for power or control.

D) Conginitive Evalution Theory : This theory is based on two sets of motivators Intrinsic and Extrinsic. Intrinsic motivators are achievement, responsibility, competence motivators that   result of actually performing a task & show the real interest in the work. Extrinsic motivators exhibits salary, promotion, feedback and working conditions, these are the environmental of working people which is controlled by others. It is possible either extrinsic or intrinsic motivators is more powerful. People motivated intrinsically achive their own achievement and job satisfaction. Powerful extrinsic motivators normally reduce the intrinsic motivation as they are controlled by other people. People who are motivated by intrinsic factors are higher on the Maslow hierarchy.

E) Herzberg Theory :This theory is based on the concept of two types of factors. Hygiene factors are those factors whose absence motivates people but the presence has no effect

F) Equity theory :This theory is based on the concept that the actual reward amount is not the motivator but the perception that is based on comparison performance. People normally compare the ratio of reward with a comparable ratio.

G) Reinforcement Theory :operant conditioning is described as the consequence of a particular behavior and the future reoccurrence of that behavior. There are four type of operant conditioning: Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Punishment and Extinction. The first two strengthen behavior while the last two weaken behavior. Positive Reinforcement is the result of a positive behavior and is accompanied with some kind of reward. Negative reinforcement is the process of removal of stressors as a result of a good behavior. Extinction is behavior that is not positively received and not encouraged. Punishment is getting punished for a negative behavior and serves as a warning of bigger negative consequences if a particular behavior is repeated.

H) Vroom Theory :This has a combination of different elements from previous theories. The equation is motivation = expectancy instrumentality Valence. Motivation is defined by the amount of motivation a person finds themselves based on a given situation.Expectancy is defined as the perception of how the effort put in will result in performance or the degree of correlation between effort and performance. Instrumentality is defined as the perception of a person of how a performance will be rewarded or the correlation between good performance and reward. Valence is defined as the perceived strength of reward or punishment based on performance.

Thereforehuman behavior can be motivated to change provide the right motivational stimuli is provided and the appropriate rewards for change in behavior are apparent. There are certain motivational stimuli that may apply universally and some that need to be customized to meet individual needs. Motivation in different settings works differently. Personal motivation criteria are customized while in a group setting the motivational needs and methods will be different on an organizational level the criteria changes again. Motivation methods need to be modified based on intended audience. One just needs to work out the right combination to get the desired results.

Affect of Conceptualizing Involment play : Many scholars are working, in which students are engaged in comp, ulsory activities and because the work involved is largely intellectual rather than physical, concepts & measures developed for studying motivation in free choice play situations have limited application to the study of student motivation for engaging in academic activities. More attention is needed to the cognitive aspects of motivation (not just its affective aspects) and to the value that students place on academic activity , to learn motivation in school meansseeking to acquire the knowledge or skill that an academic activity is designed to develop, not merely getting the activity finished or doing the minimum necessary to meet requirements.