Research Paper about Causes for Motivation

Have you ever wondered why people are motivated to do what they do or what motivation even is? Motivation is an important topic to all of humanity and influences almost every aspect of society and life. Motivation is behind almost every human action and it’s a huge element to determining a person’s success. It's very important to everyone living in the world today and has been around since the beginning of life. Many people have knowledge of or have heard what motivation is, however they may not know what causes motivation in humans. Some of the most important causes behind motivation that are the most common and impactful include, the desire for rewards as well as the threat of negative consequences, the result of social pressure or the feeling of fear, and the influence of belief.

Rewards and Punishments

One of the many causes for motivation is the hope to gain some form of personal reward or on the other hand the fear of a negative consequence. According to the article, “Incentive Theory: Rewards and Punishment” by Kendra Cherry, it states, “According to one theory of human motivation, our actions are often inspired by a desire to gain outside reinforcement. The incentive there is one of the major theories of motivation and suggests that behavior is motivated by a desire for reinforcement or incentives.” She is talking about the Incentive Theory which supports the claim that motivation can be caused by the desire for a reward. For example this is like school, when you have assignments to complete most of the time you’re reluctant and unwilling to do them. The reason you are motivated to complete them is the guarantee of a better grade. If in return you weren’t getting anything out of doing the work, you would be very unlikely to be motivated to get it done. So the level of motivation a person has can fluctuate depending on the type of reward you are receiving and what it means to you. Some evidence for the claim that motivation can be the result of fear a person has for a punishment is found in the same article, “Incentive Theory: Rewards and Punishments”, by Kendra Cherry. This time it states, “ The incentive theory proposes that people are pulled toward behaviors that lead to rewards and pushed away from actions that might lead to negative consequences.” This excerpt from the article deepens the understanding of Incentive Theory by introducing another theory that people are pushed away from doing things that they are aware they will get a negative punishment from that will negatively affect them. This is like if your parents asked you to clean your room, you might not want to do what they ask of you but you also know that if you don’t clean your room, you will receive a punishment from them. So that fear that you have of receiving a negative consequence motivates you to do what you have to do in order to not receive that punishment.

Fear

Another cause for motivation in humans is fear, which can originate from things such as social pressure/influence, the fear of not being accepted, and the fear of being ridiculed, etc. According to the article, “The Asch Conformity Experiment” by Saul Mcleod it states that, “Solomon Asch (1951) devised what is now regarded as a classic experiment in social psychology, whereby there was an obvious answer to a line judgment task. If the participant gave an incorrect answer it would be clear that this was due to group pressure.” It also stated further along in the article, “Apparently, people conform for two main reasons: because they want to fit in with the group (normative influence) and because they believe the group is better informed than they are (informational influence).” This article supports the claim that people are motivated to conform because of their fear of being judged by their peers. As the evidence explains, if you are in a situation where you are almost positive your answer is right but everyone else’s answer is different you may be motivated to give in to conformity and change your answer for the fear of being judged or humiliated. Think of it this way, say you were hanging out with a group of your friends and they wanted to watch a horror movie about ghosts, you know that you are easily scared and there is a great chance this movie will leave you fearful and sleep deprived because of the paranormal aspect giving you nightmares. Even though you know the result that will come from watching the movie you may be motivated to conform and watch the movie because you don’t want your friends to make fun of you or judge you. Another example of how fear/social pressure motivates the way we act is from the passage “The Bystander Effect” by Kendra Cherry. Summarizing this article, Kitty Genevieve was murdered outside of her home. While numerous people witnessed the incident no one reported it or gave an effort to help her out even though it was very clear she was in distress and needed help, this was because of “The Bystander Effect”. This well known murder supports my claim because it shows the impact people have on what you are motivated to do, like how the people didn’t call the police because there were a great number of other people also witnessing the crime so they assumed someone else had taken that responsibility, and another reason they weren’t motivated to help is because they were scared of going directly into that dangerous situation because they didn’t want to endanger themselves. Which goes along with the claim of fear being a cause for motivation in society.

Belief

The final cause for motivation in humans can be for religious or non religious beliefs. One famous example of this that you might have heard of before is from the article, “The Burning Monk 1963” it states, “Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk Thích Quang Duc burned himself to death at a busy intersection in Saigon. He was attempting to show that to fight all forms of oppression on equal terms, Buddhism too, needed to have its martyrs.” What this article is saying is that he strongly believed in fighting oppression so his beliefs motivated him to go through such extreme lengths to be a martyr for Buddhism and die painfully for his beliefs. This proves that people are motivated by their beliefs to do things to a certain point, some people to a more extreme extent referring to the passage, even setting themselves on fire. Think of it this way, say you truly believed that cats are better than dogs but your friend disagrees, chances are you’d be motivated to spark a debate to try to prove your point that cats are better than dogs because it’s something that you strongly believe. Another notable article that supports this claim is, “Gandhi Starvation Protest 1932” this article states, “Eight months later, Gandhi announced he was beginning a “fast unto death” in order to protest British support of a new Indian constitution, which gave the country’s lowest classes—known as “untouchables”—their own separate political representation for a period of 70 years. Gandhi believed this would permanently and unfairly divide India’s social classes.” This article is talking about a famous man named Gandhi who starved himself for his beliefs. This article helps my claim even more because it gives us another example of how belief can have a huge impact on motivation. He was so motivated he gave up eating for his own beliefs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, motivation is very important in humanity for it can influence many choices you make that can affect your future and maybe even someone else’s. Again, the three most important causes for motivation are, the desire for a reward/the threat of a negative consequence, social pressure or the feeling of fear, and the influence of belief.