Two theories of motivation Essay Example for Free

Two theories of motivation Essay The subject of motivation can be approached from a number of perspectives. Some theories approach motivation as coming from within a person (Drive Theory), whereas other theories approach motivation as coming from within the person (Incentive Theory). Compare and contrast two theories of motivation explaining how the two approaches may differ and how they may be similar. Does one theory seem to explain motivation better than the other? Support your argument with examples from each theory. Motives are reasons people hold for initiating and performing voluntary behaviour. They indicate the meaning of human behaviour, and they may reveal a persons values. Motives often affect a persons perception, cognition, emotion and behaviour. A person who is highly motivated to gain social status, for example, may be observant of marks of social distinction, may think often about issues that pertain to wealth, may especially enjoy the feeling of self-importance, and may behave in ways associated with upper-class status . By defining motives as reasons, we do not imply that motives are primarily cognitive; any more than establishing a motive for crime in a court of law requires conscious premeditation. A person can have a reason to behave, and thus a motive, without necessarily being aware of it. Aristotle (330BCE/1953) divided motives into ends versus means on the basis of the individuals purpose for performing the behaviour. Ends are indicated when a person engages in a behaviour for no apparent reason other than that is what the person desires to do. Examples include a child playing with a ball for physical exercise and a student reading a book out of curiosity. In each of these examples, the goal is desired for its own sake. In contrast, means are indicated when a person performs an act for its instrumental value. Examples include a professional athlete who plays football for a salary and a student who studies to improve a grade. In each of these examples, the goal (salary, grade) is desired because it produces something else. A person might seek a salary, for example, as a means of enhancing social status, or high grades as a means of pleasing a parent. An analysis of a persons behaviour may identify a series of instrumental acts followed by one or more end goals that complete a behaviour chain.  For example, a person may take a second job for the extra salary (instrumental motive), desire the extra salary to purchase health insurance (instrumental motive), and desire the health insurance to benefit their family (end goal). This example of a behaviour chain shows three behaviours, two motivated by instrumental goals and a third by an end goal. Logically, only goals that are desired for their own sake can serve as the end of a purposeful explanation of a series of human acts (Reiss, 2003). The number of instrumental motives is, for all practical purposes, unlimited. Only imagination limits how may different ways individuals can pursue the end goal of, say, power. In contrast, the number of ends is limited by human nature (Reiss, 2003). Two theoretical perspectives have been advanced concerning end goals. Multifaceted theory holds that the various end goals are largely unrelated to each other, perhaps to the point where they are genetically distant sources of motivation with different evolutionary histories. Multifaceted theorist include philosophers who have suggested lists of the most fundamental motives of human nature (Eg Spinoza, 1675/1949), psychologists who have put forth evolutionary theories of motivation (Eg McDougall, 1926) and psychologists who have suggested theories of human needs (Eg Murray, 1938). In contrast, unitary or global theorists hold that end goals can be profitably reduced to a small number of categories based on common characteristics. Unitary theorists seek the underlying psychological principles that are expressed by diverse motivational events. The ancient Greek philosophers, for example, reduced end goals into categories expressing the needs of the body, mind and soul (Eg Plato, 375 BCE/1966). Hedonists distinguished between end goals associated with the pleasures enhanced and those related to pain reduction (Russell, 1945). Freud (1916/1963) reduced motives to sexual and aggressive instincts. Today, some social psychologists classify end goals into two global categories, called drives (or extrinsic motivation) and intrinsic motives  (IMs). The distinction has been influential 1,921 scholarly publications on intrinsic motivation (IM) appeared during January 1967 and the present day (source: PsycINFO). IM has been investigated in social psychology (eg Ryan Deci, 2000), developmental psychology (eg, Harter, 1981), clinical psychology (eg Eisenberger Cameron, 1996), organisational psychology (eg, Houkes, Janssen, de Jonge, Nijhuis, 2001), and eduational psychology (eg, Kohn, 1993). Drive Theory Thorndikes (1911) law of effect reduced human motivation to categories of reward and punishment. This law holds that responses are strengthened when they lead to satisfaction and weakened when they lead to punishment. Psychologists studying learning soon realised Thorndikes law is a tautology or a proposition that is circular (true by definition). The following statements, for example, are circular with respect to each other: Rewards strengthen behaviour and Any event that strengthens behaviour is a reward. The concept of drive was introduced to escape from the circularity of the law of effect (Brown, 1961). Instead of identifying reward as any stimulus or satisfying event that strengthens behaviour, drive theorists defined it as a reduction in a state of deprivation. The statements Drive reduction strengthens behaviour and Drive reduction occurs when a state of deprivation is lessened are not circular to each other. Hull (1943) recognised four types of drives: hunger, thirst, sex and escape from pain. In many animal learning experiments, investigators have induced drives by depriving animals of an important need prior to the experiment. The deprivation of food, for example, establishes food as a powerful reward, increasing the animals motivation to learn responses that produce food (Skinner, 1938). Much of animal learning theory is based on the results of psychological studies with food-deprived or water-deprived animals. Unitary Intrinsic Motivation Theory The unitary construct of IM was put forth as an alternative to drive theory. The initial insight was that many of the motives not explained well by drive theory motives such as exploration (curiosity), autonomy, and play have common properties. To a large extent, unitary IM theory initially represented an attempt to show the essential differences between drives and what psychodynamic theorists have called ego motives. In the past, the distinction between drives and IMs has been thought to have a physiological basis, at least according to some published remarks. The general idea was that drives such as hunger and thirst arise from tissue needs involving peripheral components of the nervous system, where as IMs arise from psychological or cognitive processes involving primary central neural activity. Deci (1975), for example, wrote that the primary effects of IM are in the tissues of the central nervous system rather than in the non-nervous system tissues (pg 61). The physiological paradigm for distinguishing drives from IMs always lacked scientific support; indeed, we now know that it is physiological nonsense. Motives such as hunger and thirst, for example, involve significant central nervous system or cognitive activity (Berntson Cacioppo, 2000). Both the behaviourist concept of drive and the concept of IM as nondrive have no precise physiological meaning and originally were put forth at a time when little was know about the physiology of motivation. Conclusion Since antiquity, scholars have debated whether human motives can be reduced to a few global categories. Ancient Greek philosophers, for example, distinguish between motives associated with the body (such as hunger and thirst) and those associated with the intellect (such as curiosity, morality and friendship). In the early part of the 20th century, Freud (1916/1963) argued that all motives are ultimately linked to sex. Hedonists, on the other hand, reduced all motives to pleasure seeking versus pain avoidance. The concept of IM can be viewed as a modern example of the effort in motivation reductionism. IM theorists divide motives into two global  categories: drives (as called extrinsic motivation) and intrinsic motivation. Drives are about biologic survival needs, whereas IMs pertain to what some have called ego motives. Hunger, thirst, and pain avoidance are paradigm examples of drives, whereas curiosity, autonomy, and play are paradigm examples of IMs.

Big Cats in Asia Essay -- Animal Research

The relationship between human beings and the environment has always been in conflict. Our world these days is based on the economy and the ambitious interest people have in leaving nature behind. Nowadays, business is growing and so is the population, people’s priority is to make as much money as possible, but do they really care about the environment around them? Our greediness for money has led us to destroy forests and animal niches. However, there might still be hope for animals that were taken from their habitat to start over again, in a very slow process by stopping deforestation and increasing conservation areas. This essay is focused on the conflicts between the Siberian tigers human modified environment they now live in, and how this has been affecting them periodically to the point of becoming endangered, and how people around the world are trying to help by restoring their habitat. Tigers in crisis news write â€Å"almost all wild Siberian tigers live in the Southeast corner of Russia in the Sikhote-Alin mountain range east of the Amur River. Their range also includes northeastern of China and the Korean peninsula, and as far west as Mongolia. It is consider critically endangered species with the primary threats to its survival in the wild being poaching and habitat loss from intensive logging and development. It is estimated that the wild population of Siberian tigers at around 350-450 tigers†. (Introduction). Like Ruth Ashby said, â€Å"Once there were eight sub species of tigers today there are three of them†(22) Tigers occupy just 7% of their historic range due to the increase of population over the average global rate across the majority of the tiger’s habitat, therefore current tiger habitat extents through one of the mo... ...rticles/Killed%20for%20Cure%20-%20Trade%20in%20Tiger%20Bone.pdf>. O'Brien, T. G., Kinnaird, M. F. and Wibisono, H. T. (2003), Crouching tigers, hidden prey: Sumatran tiger and prey populations in a tropical forest landscape. Animal Conservation, 6: 131–139. doi: 10.1017/S1367943003003172 Sandberg, L. Anders, and Tor Sandberg. A Practical Environmental Education. Climate Change: Who's Carrying the Burden? : the Chilly Climates of the Global Environment Dilemma. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2010. 195-96. Print. Siberian Tiger at Tigers in Crisis." Tigers in Crisis - Information About Earth's Endangered Tigers. Web. . Wittier, John Greenleaf. "The Worship of Nature." The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier. H.E.S ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1894. 141. Print. Reprinted

Motorola Failure

Motorola Mobility, the ailing cellphone maker that Google bought in May, told employees Sunday that it would lay off 20 percent of its work force and close a third of its 94 offices worldwide. The cuts are the first step in Google's plan to reinvent Motorola, which has fallen far behind its biggest competitors, Apple and Samsung, and to shore up its Android mobile business and expand beyond search and software into the manufacture of hardware. The turnaround effort will also be a referendum on the management of Larry Page, Google's chief executive, whose boldest move has been the $12. billion acquisition. Though Google bought Motorola partly because of its more than 17,000 patents, which can help defend against challenges to the Android operating system, it also planned to use Motorola to make its own, better smartphones and tablets. One-third of the 4,000 jobs lost will be in the United States. The company plans to leave unprofitable markets, stop making low-end devices and focus on a few cellphones instead of dozens, said Dennis Woodside, Motorola's new chief executive, in a rare interview. We're excited about the smartphone business,† said Mr. Woodside, who previously led Google's sales and operations for the Americas. â€Å"The Google business is built on a wired model, and as the world moves to a pretty much completely wireless model over time, it's really going to be important for Google to understand everything about the mobile consumer. † But some analysts wonder whether Google can succeed in the brutally competitive, low-margin cellphone business. Ninety percent of the profits in the smartphone space are going to Apple and Samsung, and everyone else from Motorola to RIM to LG to Nokia are picking up the scraps of that 10 percent,† said Charlie Kindel, a former manager at Microsoft who writes about the mobile industry. â€Å"There's no real sign that's changing anytime soon. † It was not always this way. Motorola executives lik e to talk about its glory days. The company, started in 1928 in Chicago, unveiled the first commercial cellphone in 1973.By 2004, it looked as if Motorola could again lead the cellphone industry when it introduced the popular Razr. But Apple and Samsung won consumers' hearts with the more exciting iPhone and Galaxy phones. Motorola Mobility – which split last year from Motorola Solutions, the division that makes devices like police radios – lost $233 million in its first six weeks under Google. The phone business has been unprofitable for 14 of the last 16 quarters. â€Å"It got left in the dust by the competition and kind of missed the smartphone transition,† said Charles S. Golvin, a mobile analyst at Forrester Research.In addition to the coming cuts, Google has gutted Motorola management, letting go 40 percent of its vice presidents. It also hired new senior executives. It will shrink operations in Asia and India, and center research and development in Chicag o, Sunnyvale and Beijing. Mr. Woodside also plans to cut the number of devices Motorola makes from the 27 it introduced last year to just a few. He wants to make the company's products cool again by loading them with things like sensors that recognize who is in a room based on their voices, cameras that take crisper photos and batteries that last for days.Many of these new ideas will come from a group of just a few dozen people within the company that has the unassuming name of Advanced Technology and Projects. To foster innovation, Google created the group to drop a Silicon Valley-style start-up into a lumbering Midwestern company and recruited Regina Dugan from the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, to run it. Ms. Dugan, though coming from Washington, already speaks the language of Silicon Valley. â€Å"It's a small, lean and agile group that is unafraid of failure,† she said, and it will â€Å"celebrate impatience. She is hiring metal scientis ts, acoustics engineers and artificial intelligence experts. They will work for her for only two years so they feel a sense of urgency, she said, an idea she borrowed from Darpa, where people wear their resignation date on their name tags. Motorola has been spending too much money on too many different cellphone components, said Mark Randall, whom Google recruited to run Motorola's supply chain from Amazon. com, where he did that for the Kindle. He said he planned to jettison suppliers and buy 50 percent fewer components.How to get people excited about Motorola phones when shiny iPhones are on the next shelf? Gary Briggs, who ran consumer marketing at Google and now does so at Motorola, is working on advertisements that he said would be more like Google's – simple and emotional. They will focus on Motorola's storied past and the ways the products are better than the competition's, like battery life. â€Å"We have a right to compete in this market,† Mr. Briggs said, â⠂¬Å"and I think we've got to prove why we're going to build and bring devices to people that are worth talking about again. † Competitors like Sony, LG and HTC will be watching losely to see how the Motorola-Google relationship develops, especially whether Motorola receives special treatment from Google. Like Motorola, they use the Android mobile operating system, for which Google receives no payment. â€Å"They certainly don't believe Google's going to keep a Chinese wall in place,† Mr. Kindel, the former Microsoft manager, said of the other cellphone makers. â€Å"The reality is people work together, they can pick up the phones and talk. There is going to be an advantage. † There is, for instance, a program for Google software engineers to work at Motorola for a year or two. But Mr.Woodside said Google benefited from many manufacturers' using Android, and repeated Google's promise that Motorola would have no advantages. He said Motorola would also compete equal ly with others to build Google-branded Nexus devices, which Google makes with a hardware partner when it introduces new versions of Android. A Motorola Mobility executive who recently left the company and would speak only on the condition of anonymity because he was uncomfortable talking to the news media, said that if anything, it had become more difficult than before for Motorola to have impromptu collaboration with the Android team.But still, because of the relationship, Motorola could get priority on Google products, like a mobile version of desktop software. And, people familiar with the companies say, Google could decide to follow Apple's lead and build a phone from silicon to software, perhaps by creating a separate operating system for Motorola that other phone makers cannot use. Google and Motorola seem to have a mutually beneficial marriage of hardware and software, Mr. Golvin said.Motorola needs software smarts and Google, which has struggled with Chrome laptops, Google T V and most recently the Nexus Q, needs help with hardware. Motorola's set-top boxes, which it sells to cable operators, could also help Google make the leap to TV screens, if it does not sell that business. In the meantime, Motorola's cellphone expertise has already been useful. Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder, called to see whether the sky divers he had hired to perform at a recent conference could get cell reception a mile in the sky.

An Assignment On The Freelance Business Essay - 1564 Words

The Freelance Business The most timeless and versatile business models are the freelance, the solution, the specialization, the debt, and the first to market business model. Of course, when developing business ideas, you can blend any of these common models, or do an entirely new version of them. Theoretically you could have separate business lines with different models operating as one unit. However, this chapter and each of the subsequent ones will be dedicated to focusing on just one of these models. Within each chapter, there will also be examples of legacy incumbents, some business theory, as well as disruptors who have done something different to reframe the norm. Obviously, this chapter is dedicated to the freelance model. Whether there is a good or service involved, the freelance business is basically the owner selling their time. Nearly anyone can set up this relatively inexpensive kind of business. 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Discussion: Main point 1 Technical