Compare and contrast instinct, pleasure/reward, incentive, and cognitive theories of motivation. Select one and explain how an employer might use it to increase productivity in workers

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In the early 1900s, William McDougall claimed that humans were motivated by a variety of instincts. Instincts are innate tendencies or biological forces that determine behavior. McDougall listed about half a dozen instincts, such as combat, curiosity, sympathy, and self-assertion. Attributing behavior to an instinct is more like labeling than explaining the underlying motivation. At one point, psychologists had proposed over 6,000 instincts to explain every kind of human motivation. Instincts represented an early but failed attempt to explain human motivation.

The reward/pleasure center includes several areas of the brain, such as the nucleus accumbens and the ventral tegmental area, and involves several neurotransmitters, especially dopamine. These components make up a neural circuity that produces rewarding and pleasurable feelings.

Incentives have two common features. First, they can be either thoughts or objects that we learn to value. Second, the value of incentives can change over time. Many of our behaviors are motivated by a variety of incentives, including grades, praise, money, or clothes. You can think of incentives as pulling us or motivating us to obtain them.

Cognitive researchers said that one reason people run marathons, usually for no reward other than a T-shirt, has to do with the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation involves engaging in certain activities or behaviors that either reduce biological needs or help us obtain incentives or external rewards. Intrinsic motivation involves engaging in certain activities or behaviors because the behaviors themselves are personally rewarding or because engaging in these activities fulfills our beliefs or expectations. Intrinsic motivation explains that people volunteer their services, spend hours on hobbies, or run marathons, because these activities are personally rewarding or challenging. Intrinsic motivation emphasizes that we are motivated to engage in many behaviors because of our own personal beliefs, expectations, or goals, rather than external incentives.