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Psychological theories of motivation are not. Theories of motivation in psychology. Psychoanalytic motivational method

Theories of motivation analyze the factors influencing . Much of their subject matter is focused on the analysis of needs and their impact on motivation. These theories describe the structure of needs, their content, and how these needs are related to a person's motivation to act. In these theories, an attempt is made to understand what motivates a person to act. The most famous theories of motivation of this group are: the theory of the hierarchy of needs by A. Maslow, the theory of ERG (needs for the existence of growth and connections), developed by C. Alderfer, the theory of acquired needs by D. McClelland, the theory of two factors by F. Herzberg, the theory of expectations by V. Vroom, Porter-Lowler model.

Maslow's needs motivation theory

Includes the following basic ideas and premises of motivation:

a person constantly feels some kind of need;
a person experiences a certain set of strongly expressed needs that can be combined into certain groups;
groups of needs are hierarchically arranged in relation to each other;
needs, if they are not satisfied, induce a person to action; Satisfied needs do not motivate people;
if one need is satisfied, then another unsatisfied need takes its place;
usually a person feels several different needs at the same time, complexly interacting with each other;
needs that are closer to the base of the "pyramid" require primary satisfaction; higher-level needs begin to actively act on a person after the lower-level needs are basically satisfied;
Higher level needs can be satisfied in more ways than lower level needs.

In Towards a Psychology of Being, Maslow later added a list of higher needs, which he labeled as growth needs (being values). However, Maslow notes that they are difficult to describe, since they are all interconnected and cannot be completely separated from each other, therefore, defining one of them, it is necessary to refer to the other. The list of existential values, according to Maslow, includes: integrity, perfection, completeness, justice, vitality, richness of manifestations, simplicity, beauty, kindness, individual originality, truth, ease, propensity to play, honesty, self-sufficiency. According to Maslow, existential values are often a powerful motive for human activity and are part of the structure of personal growth.

Alderfer's ERG theory

Just like Maslow, Clayton Alderfer in his theory proceeds from the fact that human needs can be combined into separate groups. But he believes that there are three groups of needs: 1) the needs of existence, 2) the needs of communication, 3) the needs of growth.

The groups of needs in this theory are quite clearly correlated with the groups of needs of Maslow's theory.

The needs of existence, as it were, include two groups of needs in Maslow's pyramid - the needs of security, with the exception of group security, and physiological needs. The group of communication needs clearly corresponds to the group of needs of belonging and belonging.

The need for communication, according to Alderfer, reflects the social nature of a person, his desire to be a family member, to have colleagues, friends, enemies, bosses and subordinates. Therefore, this group can also include part of the needs for recognition and self-affirmation from Maslow's pyramid, which are associated with a person's desire to occupy a certain position in the world around him, as well as that part of the security needs of Maslow's pyramid that are associated with group security. Growth needs are similar to the self-expression needs of Maslow's pyramid and also include those needs of the recognition and self-affirmation group that are associated with the desire to develop confidence, self-improvement, etc. These three groups of needs, as well as in Maslow's concept, are hierarchical. However, there is one fundamental difference between the theories of Maslow and Alderfer: if Maslow believes that there is a movement from need to need mainly from the bottom up - from lower needs to higher ones, then, according to Alderfer, the movement occurs in both directions - up, if the need is not satisfied lower level, and down if the need of a higher level is not satisfied; at the same time, in case of dissatisfaction of the need of the upper level, the degree of action of the need of a lower level increases, which switches the person's attention to this level.

According to Alderfer's theory, the hierarchy of needs reflects the ascent from more specific needs to less specific ones, and each time a need is not satisfied, a switch to a simpler need occurs. The process of moving up the levels of needs Alderfer calls the process of satisfaction of needs, and the process of moving down - the process of frustration. The presence of two directions of movement in meeting needs opens up additional opportunities for motivating a person. Alderfer's theory of needs is relatively "young" and lacks sufficient empirical support for its correctness. However, knowledge of this theory is useful for management practice, as it opens up prospects for managers to search for effective forms of motivation that correspond to a lower level of needs, if it is not possible to create conditions for satisfying higher level needs.

McClelland's theory of acquired needs

Determines a person's motivation for activity and is associated with the study and description of the influence of complicity and the need to rule. According to McClelland, the needs of the lower levels (vital) in the modern world, as a rule, have already been satisfied, so attention should be paid to satisfying the highest human needs. These needs, if they are sufficiently clearly manifested in a person, have a noticeable effect on his behavior, forcing him to make efforts and take actions that should lead to the satisfaction of these needs. At the same time, McClelland considers these needs as acquired under the influence of life circumstances, experience and training.

Need for Achievement It is manifested in the desire of a person to achieve his goals more effectively than he did before. A person with a high need for achievement prefers to set goals for himself and usually chooses moderately difficult goals and objectives based on what he can achieve and what he can do. Such people like to make decisions and be responsible for them, they are obsessed with the tasks they solve and take personal responsibility.

On the basis of his research, McClelland came to the conclusion that this need can characterize not only individuals, but also individual societies. Those societies where the need for achievement is high usually have developed economies. On the contrary, in societies characterized by a weak need for achievement, the economy develops at a slow pace or does not develop at all.

The Need for Participation manifests itself in the form of a desire for friendly relations with others. People with a high need for empathy strive to establish and maintain good relationships, gain the approval and support of others, and are concerned about what others think of them. For them, the fact that someone needs them is very important.

The need to rule just like the two previous ones, it is acquired, develops on the basis of learning, life experience and lies in the fact that a person seeks to control the resources and processes occurring in his environment. The main focus of this need is the desire to control the actions of others, to influence their behavior, to take responsibility for their actions and behavior. The need to rule has two poles: firstly, the desire to have as much power as possible, to control everything and everyone, and secondly, the desire to completely renounce any claims to power, the desire to avoid such situations and actions that are associated with the need to fulfill powerful functions.

The needs of achievement, participation and domination in McClelland's theory are not mutually exclusive and are not arranged hierarchically, like Maslow's concepts and Alderfer's theories. Moreover, the manifestation of the influence of these needs on human behavior depends on their mutual influence. For example, if an individual is in a leadership position and has a high need for power, then for the successful implementation of managerial activities in accordance with the desire to satisfy this need, it is desirable that the need for participation be relatively weakly expressed in him. A combination of a strong need for achievement and a strong need for domination can also lead to a negative influence, from the point of view of the manager's performance of his work, since the first need will always orient dominance towards the achievement of the manager's personal interests. Apparently, it is impossible to draw unambiguous conclusions about the direction in which the three named needs affect each other. However, it is quite obvious that it is necessary to take into account their mutual influence when analyzing motivation and human behavior and developing methods for managing the process of formation and satisfaction of needs.

Herzberg's two-factor theory

It lies in the fact that all needs are divided into hygiene factors and motivations. The presence of hygienic factors only prevents the development of dissatisfaction with the conditions of life (work, place of residence, etc.). Motivations that roughly correspond to the higher-level needs described by Maslow and McClelland actively influence human behavior.

Vroom's expectancy theory

It is based on the position that the presence of an active need is not the only necessary condition for motivating a person to achieve a specific goal. A person must also hope that the type of behavior he has chosen will actually lead to satisfaction or the acquisition of the desired, “... employees will be able to achieve the level of performance required to receive a valuable reward (the value for each person is only his, i.e. individual, value - praise, work that you like, position in society, satisfaction of the need for self-expression), if the level of authority delegated to them, their professional skills are sufficient to complete the task,” notes V. Vroom.

Porter-Lauler Model

Leiman Porter and Edward Lauler developed a comprehensive process theory of motivation that includes elements of expectation theory and . Five variables appear in their model: effort expended, perception, results obtained, reward, degree of satisfaction.

According to the Porter-Lowler model, the results achieved depend on the efforts, abilities and characteristics of the individual, as well as on his awareness of his role. The level of effort expended is determined by the value of the reward and the degree of confidence that a given level of effort will actually result in a well-defined level of reward. Moreover, in this theory, a correspondence is established between reward and results, i.e. a person satisfies his needs through rewards for the results achieved. Thus, productive work gives satisfaction. Porter and Lauler believe that a sense of accomplishment leads to satisfaction and enhances performance, so high performance is the cause of overall satisfaction, not the consequence of it.

hedonic motivational theory

Hedonic motivational theory believes that a person strives to maximize pleasure, enjoyment and minimize displeasure, discomfort, pain, suffering. One of the developers of this theory is the American psychologist P. Jung. He believes that pleasure is the main factor that determines the activity, orientation and organization of the behavior of workers. In Jung's theory, behavior is determined by the emotion that follows the behavior. If this emotion is positive, the action is repeated, if it is negative, it stops. Proponents of the hedonic theory believe that emotional sensations are perceived as pleasure only up to a certain level. Then satiety sets in and the same feeling is perceived as displeasure.

Recently, the hedonic theory has been called "two-dimensional" in connection with the identification of two significant factors: the level of stimulation; hedonistic tone that has to do with subjective pleasure.

Psychoanalytic motivational theory

Psychoanalytic motivational theory was created and developed by the Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. It is an example of a psychodynamic approach to the study of human behavior. Freud's theory is based on the recognition of the existence of certain psychological forces that shape human behavior and are not always aware of it. This can be interpreted as a response to the actions of various stimuli. Freud argued that the driving forces of human behavior are instincts:

Eros - the instinct of life;
Thanatos - the instinct of aggression, destruction, death.

Instinct, according to Freud, has four main parameters - source, goal, object and stimulus.

Psychoanalytic theory considers a person as a unity of three structural components:

"Ego" (I) - consciousness of oneself, personal certainty;
"Id" (It) - a reservoir of instincts and impulses;
"Superego" - the moral aspects of human behavior surrounding the personality - the unconscious.

Drive theory

The theory of drives (attraction) is considered a kind of behaviorist model S- R, where S - stimulus, R- reaction. The creator of the motivational theory of drives is the American psychologist Carl Hull. According to this theory, a person tends to independently maintain his internal state, any change in the inner world of a person leads to a certain reaction. First of all, a person tries to negate any changes. The elements of neutralization are drives (desires). The new attempts that follow the reaction and reinforce the forces of this reaction are called reinforcement. Behavior reinforced by something is firmly fixed in the psyche of the worker. In organizations of countries with developed market economies, this system is used in the process of stimulating employees for labor activity through monetary rewards and various incentives. However, at the same time, a mood is created in the employee’s psyche to expect a reward: if the employee’s not very productive work is reinforced several times, he gets used to it and no longer thinks of work without additional remuneration.

Theory of conditioned reflexes

The theory of conditioned reflexes was developed by the great Russian scientist IP Pavlov. The basis of his theory is the reaction of the body to external stimuli - conditioned and unconditioned reflexes, recognized as the foundation of motivation. Pavlov paid special attention to conditioned reflexes. The stereotype of thinking and behavior serves as the psychophysiological basis of the attitude, which is the central component of the individual's motivational system.

McGregor's Theories "X" and "Y"

The scientist, known for his work in the field of leadership, called the prerequisites of an authoritarian leader in relation to employees as Theory X.

The ideas of a democratic leader about employees are different from those of an authoritarian leader. McGregor called them Theory Y.

These theories create very different guidelines for the implementation of the function of motivation. They appeal to different categories of human needs and motives.

As you can see, with different approaches to the issue of motivation, all authors agree on one thing: the motive is the cause, the stimulus of human activity. Due to the fact that the motives of each person are individual, due to the characteristics of his personality, the established system of value orientations, the social environment, emerging situations, etc., then the ways to satisfy needs are different. The motivational sphere is dynamic and depends on many circumstances. But some motives are relatively stable and, subordinating other motives, become, as it were, the core of the entire sphere.

Differences in the actions of different people in the same conditions while achieving the same goals are explained by the fact that people differ in the degree of energy and perseverance, some respond to various situations with a variety of actions, while others act in the same situations in the same way.

At the heart of any activity is a motive that induces a person to it, but not always the activity can fully satisfy the motive. In this case, a person, having completed one activity, turns to another. If the activity is long, then in its process the motive may change. So, good pencils, paints induce the desire to draw with them. However, after a while, this activity can bore the draftsman. Sometimes, on the contrary, while maintaining the motive, the activity performed may change. For example, being carried away at first by drawing with watercolors, a person then begins to work in oils. Between the development of a motive and the development of an activity, “disagreements” often arise: the development of motives can be ahead of the formation of an activity, or it can lag behind it, which affects the result of the activity.

Motivation determines the choice between various possible actions, regulating, directing the action to achieve specific target states for this motive and supporting this direction. In short, motivation explains the purposefulness of action.

Motivation is not a single process, uniformly penetrating behavior from beginning to end. It consists of heterogeneous processes that regulate behavior, primarily before and after the action. So, in the beginning there is a process of weighing the possible outcomes of an action, evaluating their consequences. Despite the fact that the activity is motivated, i.e. aimed at achieving the goal of the motive, it should not be confused with motivation. Activity consists of such components as skills, abilities, knowledge. Motivation determines how and in what direction various functional abilities will be used. Motivation explains the choice between different possible actions, different perceptions and possible ways of thinking, as well as the intensity and persistence in the implementation of the chosen action and the achievement of its results.

1.1 Psychological theories of motivation

The origins of modern theories of motivation should be sought where psychological knowledge itself first arose. Views on the essence and origin of human motivation have changed many times throughout the study of this problem, but have always been located between two philosophical currents - rationalism and irrationalism. According to the rationalist position, and it was especially pronounced in the works of ancient philosophers and theologians up to the middle of the 19th century, man is a unique being of a special kind that has nothing to do with animals. It was believed that he, and only he, endowed with reason, thinking and consciousness, has the will and freedom to choose actions. The motivational source of human behavior is seen exclusively in the mind, consciousness and will of man.

Irrationalism as a doctrine applies mainly to animals. It argued that the behavior of an animal, unlike a person, is not free, unreasonable, controlled by dark, unconscious forces of the biological plan, which have their origins in organic needs.

The first actually motivational, psychological theories that absorbed rationalistic and irrationalist ideas should be considered those that arose in the 17th-18th centuries. decision-making theory, which explains human behavior on a rationalistic basis, and automaton theory, which explains animal behavior on an irrational basis. The first appeared in economics and was associated with the introduction of mathematical knowledge in explaining human behavior associated with economic choice. Then it was transferred to the understanding of human actions in other areas of its activity, other than economics.

The development of the automaton theory, stimulated by the successes of mechanics in the 17th-18th centuries, was further connected with the idea of a reflex as a mechanical, automatic, innate response of a living organism to external influences. The separate, independent existence of two motivational theories, one for humans and the other for animals, supported by theology and the division of philosophies into two opposing camps - materialism and idealism - continued until the end of the 19th century.

Second half of the 19th century was marked by a number of outstanding discoveries in various sciences, including biology - the emergence of the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin. It had a significant impact not only on natural history, but also on medicine, psychology and other humanities. With his teaching, Charles Darwin, as it were, threw a bridge over the abyss, which for many centuries divided man and animal into two camps that are incompatible in anatomical, physiological and psychological terms. He also made the first decisive step forward in the behavioral and motivational convergence of these living beings, showing that humans and animals have many common forms of behavior, in particular, emotionally expressive expressions, needs and instincts.

Under the influence of Ch. Darwin's theory of evolution in psychology, an intensive study of intelligent forms of behavior in animals (W. Koehler, E. Thorndike) and instincts in humans (Z. Freud, W. McDougall, IP Pavlov, etc.) began.

If earlier the concept of need, associated with the needs of the organism, was used only to explain the behavior of animals, now it has been used to explain human behavior, accordingly changing and expanding the composition of the needs themselves in relation to it. At this stage in the development of psychological knowledge and motivational theory, they tried to minimize the fundamental differences between humans and animals.

The same organic needs that were previously endowed only with animals, including instincts, began to be rewritten as motivational factors for a person. One of the first manifestations of such an extreme, irrational, essentially biologizing point of view on human behavior was the theory of instincts by Z. Freud and W. McDougall, proposed at the end of the 19th century. and developed in the early twentieth century.

Trying to understand the social graying of a person by analogy with the behavior of animals, to reconcile this understanding with the discoveries that attracted many scientists at that time in the field of comparative studies of the intellect of humans and great apes, Z. Freud and W. McDougall made attempts to reduce all forms of human behavior to innate instincts.

The controversy that began around the theory of instincts in the early twentieth century. this concept did not lead to anything positive for the further fate of this concept. Its supporters could not give a scientifically satisfactory answer to any of the questions posed. In the end, discussions around the theory of instincts ended with the fact that the very concept of “instinct” in relation to a person began to be used less and less, replacing it with such concepts as need, reflex, attraction (drive) and others, which were included in the analysis of mental phenomena.

In the 1920s, the theory of instincts was replaced by a concept based on biological needs in explaining human behavior. This concept argued that humans and animals have common organic needs that have the same effect on their behavior. Periodically arising organic needs cause a state of excitation and tension in the body, and satisfaction of the need leads to a decrease (reduction) of tension.

In addition to theories of human biological needs, instincts and drives, in the same years (the beginning of the 20th century) two more new directions arose, stimulated not only by the evolutionary scientist C. Darwin, but also by the discoveries of I.P. Pavlova. These are the behavioral (behavioristic) theory of motivation and the theory of higher nervous activity. The behavioral concept of motivation developed as a logical continuation of the ideas of D. Watson and E. Tolman, among the representatives of this direction, who received the greatest fame, are K. Hull and B. Skinner. All of them attempted to explain behavior deterministically within the framework of the original stimulus-reactive schema. In its more modern version (this theory continues to be developed until now almost in the same form in which it was proposed at the beginning and middle of the century by E. Tolman and K. Hull), the concept under consideration includes the latest achievements in the field of physiology of the body, cybernetics and psychology of behavior. Research initiated by I.P. Pavlov, were continued, deepened and expanded not only by his immediate students and followers, but also by other physiologists and psychologists. Among them are N.A. Bernstein, the author of the original theory of psychophysiological regulation of movements, P.K. Anokhin, who proposed a model of a functional system that describes and explains the dynamics of a behavioral act at the modern level, and E.I. Sokolova, who discovered and studied the orienting reflex, which is of great importance for understanding the psychophysiological mechanisms of perception, attention and motivation, proposed a model of conceptual reflex souls.

Finally, the last of the theories that already existed at the beginning of our century and continue to be developed now is the theory of the organic needs of animals. It developed under the strong influence of the earlier irrationalist traditions in understanding the behavior of the animal. Its modern representatives see their task as a purely physiological explanation of the mechanism of work and functioning of biological needs.

Since the 30s of the XX century. special concepts of motivation appear and stand out, related only to a person. One of the first such concepts was the theory of motivation proposed by K. Levin. Following her, the works of representatives of humanistic psychology such as A. Maslow, G. Allport, K. Rogers and others were published.

In Russian psychology after the 1917 revolution, attempts were also made to pose and solve the problems of human motivation. But for many years, until the mid-1960s, an unjustified tradition established for decades, psychological research was mainly focused on the study of cognitive processes. Of the completed concepts of motivation created over the years, more or less thought out and brought to a certain level, one can, perhaps, name only the theory of the activity origin of the motivational sphere of a person, created by A.N. Leontiev and continued in the works of his students and researchers.

According to the concept of A.N. Leontiev, the motivational sphere of a person, like his other psychological characteristics, has its sources in practical activities. In the activity itself, you can find those components that are associated with them. Behavior in general, for example, correspond to the needs of the person; the system of activities from which it is composed - a variety of motives; to the set of actions that form the activity - an ordered set of goals. Thus, between the structure of activity and the structure of the motivational sphere of a person, there are relations of isomorphism, i.e. mutual correspondence.

The basis of the dynamic changes that occur with the motivational sphere of a person is the development of a system of activities, which, in turn, is subject to objective social laws.

Thus, this concept is an explanation of the origin and dynamics of the human motivational sphere. It shows how the system of activities can change, how its hierarchization is transformed, how certain types of activities and operations arise and disappear, what modifications occur with actions. From this picture of the development of activities, laws are further deduced, according to which changes occur in the motivational sphere of a person, the acquisition of new needs, motives and goals by him.

So, by the middle of the current century, at least nine theories of motivation emerged in the psychology of motivation and still continue to be developed as relatively independent ones. Each of them has its own achievements and at the same time its own shortcomings. The main one is that all these theories, if considered separately, are able to explain only some of the phenomena of motivation, to answer only a small part of the questions that arise in this area of psychological research. Only the integration of all theories with a deep analysis and calculation of all that is positive that they contain can give us a more or less complete picture of the determination of human behavior. However, such convergence is seriously hampered by the inconsistency of initial positions, differences in research methods, terminology, and the lack of firmly established facts about human motivation.

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The problem of motivation and motives of behavior and activity is one of the core problems in psychology. B.F. Lomov, for example, notes that in the psychological studies of activity, the issues of motivation and goal setting play a leading role. “The difficulty here lies in the fact,” he writes, “that the systemic nature of the mental is most clearly manifested in the motives and goals; they act as integral forms of mental reflection. Where do the motives and goals of individual activity come from and how do they arise? What are they? Development of these questions is of great importance not only for the development of the theory of psychology, but also for the solution of many practical problems. (6, p.205)

It is not surprising that a large number of monographs as domestic ones are devoted to motivation and motives (V.G. Aseev, V.K. Vilyunas, A.N. Leontiev, V.S. Merlin, D.N. Uznadze, P.M. Yakobson), and foreign authors (J. Atkinson, G. Hall, K. Madsen, A. Maslow, H. Heckhausen, etc.).

Numerous theories of motivation began to appear in the works of ancient philosophers. Currently, there are more than a dozen such theories.

The first actual motivational, psychological theories that absorbed rationalistic and irrationalist ideas should be considered those that arose in the 17th-18th centuries. decision-making theory, which explains human behavior on a rationalistic basis, and automaton theory, which explains animal behavior on an irrational basis.

The second half of the 19th century was marked by a number of outstanding discoveries in various sciences, including biology - the emergence of Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory. It influenced not only natural history, but also medicine, psychology and other humanities. With his teaching, Darwin, as it were, threw a bridge over the abyss, which for many centuries divided man and animals into two groups that are incompatible in anatomical, physiological and psychological terms. He also made the first decisive step forward in the behavioral and motivational convergence of these living beings, showing that humans and animals have many common forms of behavior, in particular, emotionally expressive expressions, needs and instincts.

Under the influence of Darwin's theory of evolution in psychology, an intensive study of intelligent forms of behavior in animals (W.Kehler, E. Thorndike and others) and instincts in humans (Z.Freud, W.McDougall, I.P.Pavlov and others) began.

The same organic needs that were previously assigned only to animals, including instincts, began to be attributed to man as motivational factors. One of the first manifestations of such an extreme, irrational, essentially biologizing point of view on human behavior was the theories of instincts by Z. Freud and W. McDougall, proposed at the end of the 19th century. and developed in the early 20th century.

According to Freud's theory, human motivation is entirely based on the energy of excitation produced by bodily needs. According to him, the main amount of mental energy produced by the body is directed to mental activity, which allows you to reduce the level of excitation caused by need. According to Freud, mental images of bodily needs, expressed in the form of desires, are called instincts. The instincts manifest innate states of excitation at the level of the organism, requiring an exit and discharge. Although the number of instincts can be unlimited, Freud recognized the existence of two main groups: life and death instincts.

W. McDougall expanded the framework set by Freud regarding the number of basic instincts, and proposed a set of ten instincts: the instinct of invention, the instinct of construction, the instinct of curiosity, the instinct of flight, the herd instinct, the instinct of pugnacity, the reproductive (parental) instinct, the instinct of disgust, the instinct of self-humiliation, instinct for self-assertion. In later works, W. McDougall added eight more instincts to those listed, mainly related to organic needs.

Both concepts - "instinct" and "need" - had one significant drawback: their use did not imply the presence of psychological cognitive factors associated with consciousness, with the subjective states of the body, which are called mental. Due to this circumstance, these two concepts were replaced by the concept of attraction - drive. Attraction is the body's desire for some end result, subjectively presented in the form of some goal, expectation, intention, accompanied by appropriate emotional experiences.

The American researcher of motivation G. Murray proposed a list of secondary (psychogenic) needs that arise on the basis of instinctual drives as a result of education and training. These are the needs to achieve success, affiliation, aggression, the needs of independence, opposition, respect, humiliation, protection, dominance, attracting attention, avoiding harmful influences, avoiding failures, patronage, order, play, rejection, understanding, sexual relations, help, mutual understanding. In addition to these two dozen needs, the author attributed the following six needs to a person: acquisitions, rejection of accusations, knowledge, creation, explanations of recognition and thrift.

In addition to theories of human biological needs, instincts and drives, in the same years, two more new directions arose, stimulated not only by the evolutionary teachings of Darwin, but also by Pavlov's discoveries. These are the behavioral (behavioristic) theory of motivation and the theory of higher nervous activity. The behavioral concept of motivation developed as a logical continuation of the ideas of D. Watson in the theory that explains behavior. In addition to D. Watson and E. Tolman, among the most famous representatives of this trend, one can name K. Hull and B. Skinner. When considering the behaviorist approach to personality, two types of behavior should be distinguished: respondent and operant. Responsive behavior implies a characteristic response caused by a known stimulus, the latter always precedes the former in time. Also, respondent behavior entails reflexes that include the autonomic nervous system. However, respondent behavior can be taught.

Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, was the first to discover in the study of the physiology of digestion that respondent behavior can be classically conditioned. The research initiated by IP Pavlov was proposed, deepened, expanded not only by his direct students and followers, but also by other physiologists and psychologists. Among them are N.A. Bernstein, the author of the original theory of psychophysiological regulation of movements, P.K. Anokhin, who proposed a model of a functional system that describes and explains the dynamics of a behavioral act at the modern level, and E.N. Sokolova, who discovered and studied the orienting reflex, which is of great importance for understanding the psychophysiological mechanisms of perception, attention and motivation, proposed a model of the conceptual reflex arc.

Responsive behavior is Skinner's version of Pavlovian or classical conditioning. However, Skinner believed that, in general, animal and human behavior cannot be explained in terms of classical conditioning. On the contrary, he emphasized behavior not associated with any known stimuli. The type of behavior that suggests that the organism actively influences the environment in order to change events in some way, Skinner defined as operant behavior. Operant behavior (caused by operant learning) is determined by the events that follow the response. That is, behavior is followed by an effect, and the nature of that effect changes the organism's tendency to repeat that behavior in the future. These are voluntary learned responses for which there is no recognizable stimulus.

If the consequences are favorable for the organism, then the probability of repeating the operant in the future increases. When this happens, the consequences are said to be reinforced, and the operant responses resulting from the reinforcement (in the sense of the high probability of its occurrence) are conditioned. Conversely, if the consequences of the response are not favorable and reinforced, then the likelihood of getting the operant decreases. Skinner believed that, therefore, operant behavior is controlled by negative consequences. By definition, negative or aversive consequences weaken the behavior that generates them and reinforce the behavior that eliminates them. The essence of operant learning is that reinforced behavior tends to be repeated, while behavior that is not reinforced or punished tends not to be repeated or suppressed. Hence, the concept of reinforcement plays a key role in Skinner's theory. Skinner argued that virtually any neutral stimulus can become reinforcing if it is associated with other stimuli that previously had reinforcing properties.

Another area of personality research is known as the "third force", along with psychoanalytic theory and behaviorism, and is called "Growth Theory" or (in domestic psychology) this area was called "humanistic psychology". This direction is represented by such psychologists as Maslow, Rogers and Goldstein. Growth theory emphasizes a person's desire for improvement, realization of one's potential, self-expression.

The creator of the theory of self-actualization Kurt Goldstein considered self-actualization as a fundamental process in every organism, which can have both positive and negative consequences for the individual. For Goldstein (as for Maslow), self-actualization does not mean the end of problems and difficulties, on the contrary, growth can often bring a certain amount of pain and suffering. Goldstein wrote that the abilities of an organism determine its needs.

In the second half of the 20th century, theories of human needs were supplemented by a number of special motivational concepts presented in the works of D. McClelland, D. Atkinson, G. Heckhausen, G. Kelly, J. Rotter and others.

In domestic psychology, one can single out the theory of the activity of the origin of the motivational sphere of a person, created by A.N. Leontiev and continued in the works of his students and followers.

According to the concept of A.N. Leontiev, the motivational sphere of a person, like his other psychological characteristics, has its sources in practical activities. In the activity itself, one can find those components that correspond to the elements of the motivational sphere, are functionally and genetically related to them. Behavior in general, for example, corresponds to a person's needs; in the system of activities of which it is composed, there is a variety of motives; set of actions, forming activities - an ordered set of goals. Thus, there is an isomorphism relation between the structure of activity and the structure of the motivational sphere of a person, i.e. mutual correspondence.

In the latest psychological concepts of motivation, which claim to explain human behavior, the cognitive approach to motivation is currently predominant, in line with which special importance is attached to phenomena associated with human consciousness and knowledge. The most frequently used in the relevant theories are the concepts of cognitive dissonance, expectations of success, value (attractiveness) of success, fear of possible failure, level of claims.

An impulse to action can arise in a person not only under the influence of emotions, but also under the influence of knowledge (cognitions), in particular, consistency or inconsistency. L. Festinger was one of the first who drew his attention to this factor and studied it by developing the corresponding theory. The main postulate of his theory of cognitive dissonance is the assertion that the system of human knowledge about the world and about oneself tends to harmonize. When a mismatch or imbalance occurs, the individual seeks to remove or reduce it, and such a desire in itself can become a strong motive for his behavior.

The American scientist D. Atkinson was one of the first to propose a general theory of motivation that explains human behavior aimed at achieving a specific goal. His theory reflects the moments of initiation, orientation and support of human behavioral activity at a certain level. The same theory was one of the first examples of the symbolic representation of motivation.

So, by the middle of the current century, at least 10 theories of motivation emerged in psychology and still continue to be developed as relatively independent ones. Only the integration of all theories with a deep analysis and isolation of all that is positive that they contain can give us a more or less complete picture of the determination of human behavior. However, such a convergence is seriously hampered by the inconsistency of starting positions, differ in research methods, terminology, and because of the lack of firmly established facts about human motivation.

The first, actually motivational psychological theories should be considered those that arose in the 17th - 18th centuries. decision theory, which explains human behavior; and automaton theory, which explains animal behavior.

The development of the automaton theory was connected with the idea of a reflex as a mechanical, automatic, innate response of a living organism to external influences. The separate, independent existence of two motivational theories: one for humans, the other for animals, supported by theology and the division of philosophies into two opposing camps - materialism and idealism - continued until the end of the 19th century.

Theories of instincts. Under the influence of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, an intensive study of rational forms of behavior in animals (W. Koehler, E. Thorndike) and instincts in humans (Z. Freud, W. McDougall, IP Pavlov, and others) began in psychology.

The same organic needs that were previously assigned only to animals, including instincts, began to be attributed to man as motivational factors. At this stage in the development of psychological knowledge and motivational theory, they tried to minimize the fundamental differences between humans and animals.

One of the first manifestations of such an extreme biologizing point of view on human behavior was the theories of instincts by Z. Freud and W. McDougall, proposed at the end of the 19th century and developed at the beginning of the 20th century.

In an attempt to understand human social behavior in terms of animal behavior, Freud and McDougall attempted to reduce all forms of human behavior to innate instincts. In Freud's theory, there were three such instincts: the life instinct, the death instinct and the aggressiveness instinct. W. McDougall proposed a set of ten instincts: the instinct of invention, the instinct of construction, the instinct of curiosity, the instinct of flight, the herd instinct, the instinct of pugnacity, the reproductive (parental) instinct, the instinct of disgust, the instinct of self-humiliation, the instinct of self-affirmation.

The controversy that began around the theory of instincts at the beginning of the 20th century boiled down to the following questions:

How to prove the existence of these instincts in humans?
To what extent can those forms of behavior that a person acquires during his lifetime under the influence of experience and social conditions be reduced to or derived from them?
How to separate between themselves the behavior that is actually instinctive in these forms and the behavior acquired as a result of learning during life?
How, using only instincts, to explain the actions of a cultured, civilized person?

In the end, discussions around the theory of instincts ended with the fact that the very concept of “instinct” in relation to a person began to be used less and less, replacing it with such concepts as need, reflex, attraction (drive) and others, which were included in the analysis of mental phenomena.

Biological needs theory. In the 1920s, the theory of instincts was replaced by a concept that explains human behavior based on biological needs. This concept argued that humans and animals have common organic needs that have the same effect on their behavior. Periodically arising organic needs cause a state of excitation and tension in the body, and the satisfaction of the need leads to the removal (reduction) of tension.

There were no fundamental differences between the concepts of instinct and need, except that instincts are innate, unchangeable, and needs can be acquired and changed throughout life, especially in humans. Both concepts are instinct" And " need” - had one significant drawback: their use did not imply the presence of psychological cognitive factors associated with consciousness, with the subjective states of the body, which are called mental.

Behavioral theory of motivation. At the beginning of the XX century. in motivational psychology, a new direction arose, stimulated by the discoveries of I. P. Pavlov. This is a behavioral (behavioral) theory of motivation. The behavioral concept of motivation was developed by D. Watson, E. Tolman, K. Hull and B. Skinner. All of them tried to explain the behavior within the framework of the original stimulus-reactive scheme.

Theory of higher nervous activity. The research started by IP Pavlov was continued by other physiologists and psychologists. Among them are P.K. Anokhin, who proposed a model of a functional system that describes and explains the dynamics of a behavioral act; E. N. Sokolova, who discovered and studied the orienting reflex, which is of great importance for understanding the psychophysiological mechanisms of attention and motivation.

Since the 30s of the XX century. there are concepts of motivation that apply only to a person. These concepts were developed by representatives of humanistic psychology - A. Maslow, G. Allport, K. Rogers and others.

Theories of psychogenic needs. The American researcher of motivation G. Murray, along with a list of organic, or primary, needs, proposed a list of secondary (psychogenic) needs that arise as a result of education and training. These are the needs to achieve success, affiliation, aggression, the need for independence, opposition, respect, humiliation, protection, dominance, attracting attention, avoiding harmful influences, avoiding failures, patronage, sexual relations, help, mutual understanding, etc. (about two dozen needs in total). ).

A different classification of human needs was proposed by A. Maslow. His concept is built on a hierarchical principle, the sequence of which indicates the order in which needs appear in the process of individual development. A. Maslow identified the following seven classes of needs:

Physiological (organic) needs.
security needs.
Needs for belonging and love.
Respect (respect) needs.
cognitive needs.
aesthetic needs.
The need for self-actualization.

In the second half of the XX century. theories of human needs were supplemented by the motivational concepts of D. McClelland, D. Atkinson, G. Hekhausen, G. Kelly, J. Rotter. The following provisions are common to them:

Denial of the possibility of creating a unified theory of motivation that explains both the behavior of animals and humans.
The belief that stress reduction is not the main motivational principle for a person.
The assertion, instead of reducing tension, of the principle of activity, according to which a person is initially active in his behavior, that the sources of his motivation are in himself, in his psychology.
Recognition of the essential role of human consciousness (along with unconscious factors) in the determination of his behavior.
The desire to introduce into scientific circulation specific concepts that reflect the characteristics of human motivation. Such concepts are, for example, social needs, motives (D. McClelland, D. Atkinson, G. Heckhausen), life goals (K. Rogers, R. May), cognitive factors (Y. Rotter, G. Kelly, etc.) .

The theory of the activity origin of the human motivational sphere. In domestic motivational psychology, one can name the theory of the activity origin of the motivational sphere of a person, created by A. N. Leontiev.

According to the concept of A. N. Leontiev, the motivational sphere of a person has its sources in practical activities. Between the structure of activity and the structure of the motivational sphere of a person, there are relations of isomorphism, that is, mutual correspondence. Behavior in general, for example, correspond to the needs of a person; the system of activities of which it is composed - a variety of motives; to the set of actions that form the activity - an ordered set of goals.

The development of a system of activities underlies the dynamic changes that occur with the motivational sphere of a person.

Cognitive theories of motivation. In the latest psychological concepts of motivation, the cognitive approach to motivation is predominant. In line with this approach, special importance is attached to phenomena associated with human consciousness and knowledge. The most commonly used in these theories are the concepts of the strength of motivation, the expectation of success, the probability of achieving the goal, the value of the activity, the level of claims, etc.

Dependencies are established between these variables, expressed using symbolic records and arithmetic operations.

The American scientist D. Atkinson was one of the first to propose a general theory of motivation that explains human behavior aimed at achieving a specific goal. This theory is an example of the symbolic representation of motivation.

The strength of a person's desire to achieve the goal (M) according to Atkinson, can be established using the following formula:

M = Pdu Vdts Zdts

where M is the strength of motivation (aspiration); Pdu - the strength of the motive for achieving success as a personal disposition; Vdts - subjectively assessed probability of achieving the set goal; Zdts - personal value of achieving this goal for a person.

If you somehow measure the listed variables and substitute their values in the right side of the formula, then you can calculate the strength of a person’s inner desire to achieve the corresponding goal.

So, by the middle of this century, at least ten theories have emerged in the psychology of motivation. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. The main one is that all these theories taken separately are able to explain only some of the phenomena of motivation. Only the integration of all theories with a deep analysis and isolation of all that is positive that they contain can give us a more or less complete picture of the determination of human behavior.

Numerous theories of motivation began to appear in the works of ancient philosophers. Currently, there are more than a dozen such theories. To understand them, it is important to know the background and history of their occurrence.
The first, actually motivational psychological theories should be considered those that arose in the 17th-18th centuries. decision theory, which explains human behavior; and automaton theory, which explains animal behavior.
The development of the automaton theory was connected with the idea of a reflex as a mechanical, automatic, innate response of a living organism to external influences. The separate, independent existence of two motivational theories: one for humans, the other for animals, supported by theology and the division of philosophies into two opposing camps - materialism and idealism - continued until the end of the 19th century.
Second half of the 19th century was marked by a number of outstanding discoveries in various sciences, including biology - the emergence of the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin. It had a significant impact not only on natural history,
but also medicine, psychology and other humanities. C. Darwin made the first decisive step forward in the behavioral and motivational convergence of man and animals, showing that they have many common forms of behavior, in particular, emotionally expressive expressions, needs and instincts.
Theories of instincts. Under the influence of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, an intensive study of rational forms of behavior in animals (W. Koehler, E. Thorndike) and instincts in humans (Z. Freud, W. McDougall, IP Pavlov, and others) began in psychology.
The same organic needs that were previously assigned only to animals, including instincts, began to be attributed to man as motivational factors. At this stage in the development of psychological knowledge and motivational theory, they tried to minimize the fundamental differences between humans and animals.
One of the first manifestations of such an extreme biologizing point of view on human behavior was the theory of instincts by Z. Freud and W. McDougall, proposed at the end of the 19th century and developed at the beginning of the 20th century.
In an attempt to understand human social behavior in terms of animal behavior, Freud and McDougall attempted to reduce all forms of human behavior to innate instincts. In Freud's theory, there were three such instincts: the life instinct, the death instinct and the aggressiveness instinct. W. McDougall proposed a set of ten instincts: the instinct of invention, the instinct of construction, the instinct of curiosity, the instinct of flight, the herd instinct, the instinct of pugnacity, the reproductive (parental) instinct, the instinct of disgust, the instinct of self-humiliation, the instinct of self-affirmation.
The controversy that began around the theory of instincts at the beginning of the 20th century boiled down to the following questions:
How to prove the existence of these instincts in humans?
To what extent can those forms of behavior that a person acquires during his lifetime under the influence of experience and social conditions be reduced to or derived from them?
How to separate between themselves the behavior that is actually instinctive in these forms and the behavior acquired as a result of learning during life?
How, using only instincts, to explain the actions of a cultured, civilized person?
In the end, discussions around the theory of instincts ended with the fact that the very concept of “instinct” in relation to a person began to be used less and less, replacing it with such concepts as need, reflex, attraction (drive) and others, which were included in the analysis of mental phenomena.
Theory of biological needs. In the 1920s, the theory of instincts was replaced by a concept that explains human behavior based on biological needs. This concept argued that humans and animals have common organic needs that have the same effect on their behavior. Periodically arising organic needs cause a state of excitation and tension in the body, and the satisfaction of the need leads to the removal (reduction) of tension.
There were no fundamental differences between the concepts of instinct and need, except that instincts are innate, unchangeable, and needs can be acquired and changed throughout life, especially in humans. Both concepts - "instinct" and "need" - had one significant drawback: their use did not imply the presence of psychological cognitive factors associated with consciousness, with the subjective states of the body, which are called mental.
Behavioral theory of motivation. At the beginning of the XX century. in motivational psychology, a new direction arose, stimulated by the discoveries of I. P. Pavlov. This is a behavioral (behavioral) theory of motivation. The behavioral concept of motivation was developed by D. Watson, E. Tolman, K. Hull and B. Skinner. All of them tried to explain the behavior within the framework of the original stimulus-reactive scheme.
The theory of higher nervous activity. The research started by IP Pavlov was continued by other physiologists and psychologists. Among them are P.K. Anokhin, who proposed a model of a functional system that describes and explains the dynamics of a behavioral act; E.N. Sokolova, who discovered and studied the orienting reflex, which is of great importance for understanding the psychophysiological mechanisms of attention and motivation.
Since the 30s of the XX century. there are concepts of motivation that apply only to a person. These concepts were developed by representatives of humanistic psychology - A. Maslow, G. Allport, K. Rogers and others.
Theories of psychogenic needs. The American researcher of motivation G. Murray, along with a list of organic, or primary, needs, proposed a list of secondary (psychogenic) needs that arise as a result of education and training. These are the needs to achieve success, affiliation, aggression, the need for independence, opposition, respect, humiliation, protection, dominance, attraction.
attention, avoidance of harmful influences, avoidance of failures, patronage, sexual relations, help, mutual understanding, etc. (only about two dozen needs).
A different classification of human needs was proposed by A. Maslow. His concept is built on a hierarchical principle, the sequence of which indicates the order in which needs appear in the process of individual development. A. Maslow identified the following seven classes of needs:
Physiological (organic) needs.
security needs.
Needs for belonging and love.
Respect (respect) needs.
cognitive needs.
aesthetic needs.
The need for self-actualization.
In the second half of the XX century. theories of human needs were supplemented by the motivational concepts of D. McClelland, D. Atkinson, G. Hekhausen, G. Kelly, J. Rotter. The following provisions are common to them:
Denial of the possibility of creating a unified theory of motivation that explains both the behavior of animals and humans.
The belief that stress reduction is not the main motivational principle for a person.
The assertion, instead of reducing tension, of the principle of activity, according to which a person is initially active in his behavior, that the sources of his motivation are in himself, in his psychology.
Recognition of the essential role of human consciousness (along with unconscious factors) in the determination of his behavior.
The desire to introduce into scientific circulation specific concepts that reflect the characteristics of human motivation. Such concepts are, for example, social needs, motives (D. McClelland, D. Atkinson, G. Heckhausen), life goals (K. Rogers, R. May), cognitive factors (Y. Rotter, G. Kelly, etc.) .
The theory of the activity origin of the human motivational sphere. In domestic motivational psychology, one can call
the theory of the activity origin of the human motivational sphere, created by A.N. Leontiev.
According to the concept of A. N. Leontiev, the motivational sphere of a person has its sources in practical activities. Between the structure of activity and the structure of the motivational sphere of a person, there are relations of isomorphism, that is, mutual correspondence. Behavior in general, for example, correspond to the needs of a person; system of activities,
which it develops - a variety of motives; to the set of actions that form the activity - an ordered set of goals.
The development of a system of activities underlies the dynamic changes that occur with the motivational sphere of a person.
Cognitive theories of motivation. In the latest psychological concepts of motivation, the cognitive approach to motivation is predominant. In line with this approach, special importance is attached to phenomena associated with human consciousness and knowledge. The most commonly used in these theories are the concepts of the strength of motivation, the expectation of success, the probability of achieving the goal, the value of the activity, the level of claims, etc.
Dependencies are established between these variables, expressed using symbolic records and arithmetic operations.
The American scientist D. Atkinson was one of the first to propose a general theory of motivation that explains human behavior aimed at achieving a specific goal. This theory is an example of the symbolic representation of motivation.
The strength of a person's desire to achieve the goal (M) according to Atkinson, can be established using the following formula:
M = Pdu Vdts Zdts
where M is the strength of motivation (aspiration); Pdu - the strength of the motive for achieving success as a personal disposition; Vdts - subjectively assessed probability of achieving the set goal; Zdts - personal value of achieving this goal for a person.
If you somehow measure the listed variables and substitute their values in the right side of the formula, then you can calculate the strength of a person’s inner desire to achieve the corresponding goal.
So, by the middle of this century, at least ten theories have emerged in the psychology of motivation. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. The main one is that all these theories taken separately are able to explain only some of the phenomena of motivation. Only the integration of all theories with a deep analysis and isolation of all that is positive that they contain can give us a more or less complete picture of the determination of human behavior.