Last week I spent a lot of time going around in circles with an assignment for my Business Strategy class. We had to write a 2,000-word persuasive essay on why organisations should align their strategy with their mission/vision. I did some preparation but was still looking for answers to the question while I was writing. Determining what I needed to say was very difficult although, on the plus side, my essay structure seems to have improved a little. Determined to improve my writing I showed my essay to a tutor. The tutor made it very clear where my essay needed work, it was really helpful feedback.
So this week I am catching up on last week’s work and in my other class, we have been learning about theories of motivation. It’s an interesting topic, especially when I catch myself (as I did a couple of times last week) wondering why I am putting myself through the mental anguish of study. What creates the state of being motivated?
Every human being has various inbuilt drives. Our drives, such as the classic survival instinct, are hardwired into us through evolution. They are the starting point of motivation because they generate emotions. Emotions are what spur us into action (cognition – logical thought – is what makes us slow down a little with ‘hang on… is this a good idea?’). Drives, channelled by emotions, work in our brains to form needs, which are goal-directed forces. We don’t experience the same intensity of needs because we are unique individuals, with our own personalities and values. Our emotions energise us to act, and with our self-concept, social norms, and past experience, that energy is channelled into goal-directed behaviour.
There are various drive-based motivation theories. The first one I’m learning about is the four-drive theory. The theory states that emotions are the source of human motivation, and these emotions are generated through four drives:
- Drive to acquire produces various needs including achievement, competence, status, and self-esteem. It motivates competition.
- Drive to bond produces the need for belonging and affiliation. It motivates people to cooperate.
- Drive to comprehend produces the need to make sense of our environment and ourselves. It motivates curiosity and knowledge-seeking.
- Drive to defend produces the need to protect ourselves physically, psychologically, and socially. It creates the ‘fight or flight’ response when we are confronted with threats to our safety, our possession, our self-concept, our values and the well-being of others.
These are four broad categories of drives that trigger the emotional responses leading to motivations. During my tussle with the essay, the strongest was the drive to acquire, I had the need for competence in my command of the essay topic and writing the essay. The emotions I experienced were very mixed, to be expected from my Big Five personality measurement, vacillating between positive and negative energies. I took lots of short breaks to help moderate this and stayed motivated to finish the task. I felt good about getting there in the end.
It’s still my goal to write good essays. The feedback I received from the tutor, and the knowledge that my skill is improving, have reinforced my determination to get there. I’m confident it will get easier with more practice.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash.