Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T15:07:39.047Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

15 - Motivation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2019

By
Richard M. Ryan ,
Emma L. Bradshaw  and
Edward L. Deci
Edited by
Robert J. Sternberg  and
Wade E. Pickren
Robert J. Sternberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Wade E. Pickren
Affiliation:
Ithaca College, New York
Get access

Summary

This history of the scientific field of human motivation is demarcated by several distinct phases, each of which evolved toward a new general hypothesis. We begin that history with the speculations of Darwin on the adaptive nature of certain propensities and emotional reactions. Early work by Karl Groos, Robert Woodworth, and others explored play and interest as important natural tendencies in primates and humans. Yet the advent of behaviorism, through both drive theory (Hullian) and operant (Skinnerian) schools, crowded out these ideas, instead focusing the field on how external reinforcements shape and maintain behaviors. The significance of cognitive mediators, especially people's expectancies and value for reinforcements soon became the focus of psychology’s cognitive revolution, as exemplified in work by Julian Rotter and Albert Bandura. Simultaneously, especially spawned by the work of Robert White, interest grew in the intrinsic motivations underlying much learning and development, leading to today’s focus on topics such as achievement motivation, personal goals, self-determination, and volition. Across this history we see the important role played by normal science and advancements in methods in both developing and ultimately revealing the limitations of preceding paradigms, leading to systematic growth, as well as ongoing debates within the field.

Keywords

motivationevolutiondrive theoryoperant behaviorismintrinsic motivationcognitive revolutionachievement motivationself-determinationpersonal goals
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of the Intellectual History of Psychology , pp. 391 - 411
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allport, G. W. (1937). The functional autonomy of motives. In Chalmers, S. & Manfred, D. (Eds.), Understanding Human Motivation (pp. 69–81). Cleveland, OH: Howard Allen.Google Scholar
Atkinson, J. W. (1964). An Introduction to Motivation. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: Freeman.Google Scholar
Bandura, A., & Walters, R. H. (1963). Social Learning and Personality Development. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497–529. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497.Google Scholar
Biglan, A. (2015). The Nurture Effect. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger.Google Scholar
Breland, K., & Breland, M. (1961). The misbehavior of organisms. American Psychologist, 16, 681–684.Google Scholar
Brown, J. S. (1961). The Motivation of Behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Buss, D. M. (2016). The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating. New York: Basic Books. (Original work published 1994)Google Scholar
Butler, R. A. (1953). Discrimination learning by rhesus monkeys to visual-exploration motivation. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 46, 95–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carton, J. S. (1996). The differential effects of tangible rewards and praise on intrinsic motivation: A comparison of cognitive evaluation theory and operant theory. Behavior Analyst, 19, 237–255.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1959). Reviews: Verbal behavior by B. F. Skinner. Language, 35, 26–58.Google Scholar
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975). Beyond Boredom and Anxiety. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. (1998). The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1872).Google Scholar
de Charms, R. (1968). Personal Causation: The Internal Affective Determinants of Behavior. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Deci, E. L. (1971). Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 18, 105–115.Google Scholar
Deci, E. L. (1972). Effects of contingent and non-contingent rewards and controls on intrinsic motivation. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 8, 217–229.Google Scholar
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and Education. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Di Domenico, S. I., & Ryan, R. M. (2017). The emerging neuroscience of intrinsic motivation: A new frontier in self-determination research. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11, 145. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Ekman, P. (1972). Universals and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion. In Cole, J. (Ed.) Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 1971, (pp. 207–283). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Elliot, A. J., McGregor, H. A., & Thrash, T. M. (2002). The need for competence. In Deci, E. L. & Ryan, R. M. (Eds.), Handbook of Self-Determination Theory (pp. 361–387). Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.Google Scholar
Flora, S. R. (1990). Undermining intrinsic interest from the standpoint of a behaviorist. Psychological Record, 40, 323–346.Google Scholar
Garcia, J., & Koelling, R. A. (1966). The relation of cue to consequence in avoidance learning. Psychonomic Science, 4, 123–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J. A. (1971). The Psychology of Fear and Stress. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1986). The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: A terror management theory. In Baumeister, R. F. (Ed.), Public Self and Private Self (pp. 189–212). New York: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Groos, K. (1898). The Play of Animals. New York: Appleton.Google Scholar
Harlow, H. F. (1950). Learning and satiation of response in intrinsically motivated complex puzzle performance by monkeys. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 43, 289–294. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0058114.Google Scholar
Harlow, H. F. (1953). Motivation as a factor in the acquisition of new responses. In Brown, J. S., Harlow, H. F., Postman, L. J., Nowlis, V. N. T. M., & Mowrer, O. H. (Eds.), Current Theory and Research on Motivation (pp. 24–49). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Harter, S. (1978). Effectance motivation reconsidered: Toward a developmental model. Human Development, 21, 661–669. https://doi.org/10.1159/000271574.Google Scholar
Hartmann, H. (1958). Ego Psychology and the Problem of Adaptation. Translated by Rapaport, D.. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Hebb, D. O. (1961). The Organization of Behavior: A Neuropsychological Approach. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Heckhausen, H. (1991). Motivation and Action. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Heider, F. (1958). The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Hendrick, I. (1942). Instinct and the ego during infancy. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 11, 33–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/21674086.1942.11925485.Google Scholar
Hilgard, E. R. (1987). Psychology in America: A Historical Survey. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Hull, C. L. (1943). Principles of Behavior: An Introduction to Behavior Theory. Oxford: Appleton-Century.Google Scholar
Isaac, W. (1962). Evidence for a sensory drive in monkeys. Psychological Reports, 11, 175–181. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1962.11.1.175.Google Scholar
Izard, C. E. (1977). Human Emotions. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Kuhl, J., Quirin, M., & Koole, S. L. (2015). Being someone: The integrated self as a neuropsychological system. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 9, 115–132. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12162.Google Scholar
Lepper, M. R., & Greene, D. (1978). Overjustification research and beyond: Toward a means-end analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In Lepper, M. R. & Greene, D. (Eds.) The Hidden Costs of Reward (pp. 109–148). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Mahoney, M. J. (1974). Cognition and Behavior Modification. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.Google Scholar
Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and Personality (2nd ed.). New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
McAdams, D. P. (1993). The Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self. New York: Morrow.Google Scholar
McCall, R. B. (1977). Challenges to a science of developmental psychology. Child Development, 48, 333–344. https://doi.org/10.2307/1128626.Google Scholar
McClelland, D. C. (1961). The Achieving Society. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
McClelland, D. C. (1975). Power: The Inner Experience. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
McDougall, W. (1923). An Outline of Psychology. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Montgomery, K. C. (1952). A test of two explanations of spontaneous alternation. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 45, 287–293. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0058118.Google Scholar
Montgomery, K. C. (1955). The relation between fear induced by novel stimulation and exploratory drive. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 48, 254–260. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0043788.Google Scholar
Muraven, M. (2012). Ego depletion: Theory and evidence. In Ryan, R. M. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation (pp. 111–126). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Murayama, K., & Elliot, A. J. (in press). Achievement goals. In Ryan, R. M. (Ed.) Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Murray, H. A. (1938). Explorations in Personality. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nakamura, J., Tse, D. C. K., & Shankland, S. (in press). Flow: The experience of intrinsic motivation. In Ryan, R. M. (Ed.) Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nissen, H. W. (1930). A study of exploratory behavior in the white rat by means of the obstruction method. Pedagogical Seminary and Journal of Genetic Psychology, 37, 361–376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeve, J., & Lee, W. (in press). Motivational neuroscience. In Ryan, R. M. (Ed.) Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rotter, J. B. (1954). Social Learning and Clinical Psychology. New York: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Ryan, R. M., & Hawley, P. (2016). Naturally good? Basic psychological needs and the proximal and evolutionary bases of human benevolence. In Brown, K. W. & Leary, M. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Hypo-Egoic Phenomena (pp. 205–222). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schwartz, B., & Lacey, H. (1982). Behaviorism, Science, and Human Nature. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Seligman, M. E. P. (1975). Helplessness: On Depression, Development, and Death. San Francisco: Freeman.Google Scholar
Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and Human Behavior. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Skinner, B. F. (2003). The Technology of Teaching. Acton, MA: Copley.Google Scholar
Thorndike, E. L. (1913). The Psychology of Learning. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.Google Scholar
Tooby, J., & Cosmides, L. (1992). The psychological foundations of culture. In Barkow, J., Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (Eds.), The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture (pp. 19–136). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Vroom, V. H. (1964). Work and Motivation. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Warneken, F., & Tomasello, M. (2008). Extrinsic rewards undermine altruistic tendencies in 20-month-olds. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1785–1788.Google Scholar
Watson, J. B. (1913). Psychology as the behaviorist views it. Psychological Review, 20, 158–177.Google Scholar
Weiner, B. (1986). An Attributional Theory of Motivation and Emotion. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
White, R. W. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 66, 297–333.Google Scholar
White, R. W. (1963). Ego and Reality in Psychoanalytic Theory: A Proposal Regarding Independent Ego Energies. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. S (2000). Expectancy‐value theory of achievement motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 68–81. https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.1999.1015.Google Scholar
Wilson, D. S. (2003). Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion and the Nature of Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Woodworth, R. S. (1918). Dynamic Psychology. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Woodworth, R. S. (1958). Dynamics of Behavior. New York: Holt.Google Scholar
Young, P. T. (1936). Motivation of Behavior. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×