What motivates a person? What makes us act a certain way? What makes us feel alive? These are feelings, this is the leading force that determines our aspirations. However, the question of what motivates a person, reason or love, is still open. The modern world requires the individual to “turn on” his head. But what is more important from this? What moves a person forward?
Influence of the mind
We live in an era of technological progress that hardens people, dulls the senses and challenges the idea that man is driven by desire. The theory of motivation for human behavior is taught in a separate course at institutes and is studied by the scientific community. But there is no consensus on what motivates a person. Reason is defined by two concepts - fear and pride. It is these components that provoke and motivate a person to action. Events in life, no matter whether good or bad, are perceived by a person as inhibiting or provoking urges to act in the future. In turn, pride can be defined as the desire to be ahead, to achieve more than others, to prove that you are worth something and can be higher than others. Here, both failures and disappointments can serve as a motivating signal to action just to please your pride. Any society functions in accordance with some rules or foundations. However, pride, being the best motivation, often forces us to act contrary to the established rules of behavior. It turns out that in such situations the action itself is important.
What does love mean?
And if reason is a rational motivation, then feelings are an irrational motivation for behavior for an individual; these are dangerous desires that drive a person. People love to justify their actions with the words “I want it that way,” “I love it so much,” and so on. Giving in to such impulses, many act thoughtlessly, impulsively, and often do not even try to think about the consequences, succumbing to momentary emotions. You can often encounter the fact that, while satisfying your little joys or acting in a certain situation the way you want, an individual’s actions are absolutely beyond logic and for others such actions may be simply inexplicable. This can affect any area of life: travel, choosing partners, hobbies, professions, and so on. You can study architecture all your life, and then give up everything and go sing in a restaurant just because you’ve dreamed about it for a long time. No one will understand, but we want it, like it, and so on. Many people believe that it is love that moves a person.
What's the result?
It turns out that both criteria occupy an important place in the life of every person. Thanks to both love and reason, a person can balance his entire life. Often a person is driven by an idea. Scientists have long proven that a person gets the real joy and feeling of “flow” first of all by doing what he likes, what he likes, and according to reason and logic. The actions that we perform “out of emotion” dictate to us inexplicable desires, which we strive to fulfill contrary to accepted norms, foundations and logic.
Reason or love?
Not a single person will voluntarily act throughout his life only based on what his mind dictates to him. And for some, betrayal of their heartfelt feelings and love is akin to a crime and is possible only under violent influence from the outside. An example is marriage at the insistence of parents, without love. Both ancient thinkers and modern philosophers adhere to the position, the essence of which is that reason will never defeat feelings and love. And here we are not talking about physical attractions, but about the most sincere deep love that comes from the heart. Reason and motivation have no meaning when there is love in a person’s life, which occupies all thoughts, which tears you apart from the inside, for which you want to move mountains. When thoughts do not give rest either day or night, then what kind of mind can we talk about? Philosophers of all times and peoples have been interested in this question. Let's look at the most significant theories.
What did Plato write about?
For Plato, the driving force not only for the development of a particular individual, but also for society as a whole, was the desire for knowledge, research, and truth. True pleasure is not following feelings, only wisdom determines all actions and only through it can true pleasure be obtained. Plato wrote that there is no alternative to the power of joy than the joy of knowledge. We can conclude that Plato gave preference to reason, moral duty, and service to society over feelings and emotions.
Freud's theory
Sigmund Freud held a different point of view; he believed that the force that makes a person act is nothing more than the sexual desires of people. And this motivational force does not let go of a person from birth to death. Sexual desires that are not at least half realized lead to aggressive behavior. What motivates a person according to Freud? He believed that most people act only based on their “base” instincts and their actions are not subject to either reason or logic. Freud attached great importance to a person's sexual life, considering it the basis of everything.
Followers of the philosopher's theory to this day urge everyone around to take care of their sex life, since thanks to this, manifestations of aggression, neuroses, health problems and even trouble in communicating with people can be avoided. However, this theory has long been under the shadow of doubt, because many years of observations tell us that libido is not the ultimate truth. Sigmund Freud's theory was that the leading instinct and motivational force is the libido instinct. The theory is still popular today. For example, many psychotherapists develop their own techniques based on Freud's theory to identify problems in the behavior of spouses, for example. To give them the correct “diagnosis,” the psychotherapist first asks questions about their intimate life, believing that the marriage can only be saved by restoring the partners’ sexual life. In many cases, such techniques work. But not everyone agrees with this. In particular, the famous Australian psychotherapist Alfred Langley. And when asked what motivates a person, Langle answered that, first of all, these are sensations and feelings.
Motivation from negativity
Often a person is driven by instincts, namely negative situations, various troubles, inconveniences, difficulties that do not so much motivate as force them to act. The simplest example, which is familiar to everyone, is the fear of children to bring a bad grade from school for unfinished homework or bad behavior. Not only the fear of a bad grade works here, but also condemnation from teachers, fear of parental control and subsequent punishment. However, negative motivation is most often short-term and not intended to last for a long time. For example, for schoolchildren this motivation ends exactly at the moment when the punishment is canceled. The incentive to action immediately disappears. Negative motivation is caused by the following factors: verbal, material or physical punishment, restrictions on freedom or other deprivations that are of a social nature. With age, a person’s resistance to negative motivation also increases, while for children and adolescents who are directly dependent on parents or other people, a permissive attitude towards negativity is quite difficult.
What motivates you to develop yourself?
What forces drive a person in his activities? The first and most important thing that motivates us to take care of ourselves and develop is the desire to realize ourselves in life, which, to one degree or another, is inherent in every person. Here we are talking about the fact that a person must constantly study, learn something new. Some people attend courses, improve their skills, and learn something new throughout their lives. If you believe Maslow's theory, then the best source of motivation is a passionate desire to prove to yourself and others your competence in professional matters, as well as full self-realization in certain areas of life. The scientist believed that the main motivating force is the movement towards learning something new.
At the same time, fear of uncertainty can inhibit this motivation. A person’s greatest joy comes from his own new achievements, preferably with a positive outcome. As for failures, mistakes, criticism, active motivation is inhibited here, which can affect a person’s future activities. The example of other successful and talented people also encourages action, which can even be compared with the internal satisfaction of one’s achievements. This is due not only to achieving goals, fame, but also recognition from other people. Only the anticipation of new victories, especially after a series of successful results, motivates a person to do impossible things.
Basics of Motivation
This theory is not about factors that are directly related to specific activities. They are defined as motivation that influences the external content, and not the process of execution. This can include a sense of responsibility to other people, and it doesn’t matter at all whether they are relatives, colleagues or anyone else. It is also impossible not to mention the desire to be recognized and to receive approval from others. Nowhere without self-improvement, motivation to gain a certain status and social position. And even the most banal motive is the desire to avoid unpleasant consequences and the fear of getting a negative result due to one’s own actions and actions.
Extrinsic motivation
As for external motivation, we are not talking about the content of the activity; this factor does not arouse any interest. First of all, this is external attractiveness; here we are talking about material wealth, recognition, social status, and so on. It turns out that in external motivation, evaluation of activities, behavior, and actions by other people is of great importance. In this case, it is most important for a person to hear and realize that his activities have weight among others. Fame and recognition are what everyone craves.
What's the conclusion?
Effective activity is possible only if it is based on several motivational aspects at once. The more motives a person is driven by, the more effective his activities will be. Therefore, our desire for self-development includes each of the listed theories in varying quantities.
I began to wonder, if our behavior is not driven by pleasure and pain, then what is? What really matters to us?
Plato's theory
According to Plato (427-347 BC), the pursuit of truth (curiosity) is one of the most important engines of life, and wisdom is one of the greatest true pleasures. Plato further developed the idea of an eternal world of ideals that determine the essence of all things; when we discover such eternal ideals, we experience the joy of knowledge. Plato also placed a high value on reason, moral duty, and service to society.
Freud's theory
A completely different point of view about the motivation of human behavior was put forward by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). He said that from birth to death, people want sex, sex and more sex. The reason we don't fully realize this desire is, according to Freud, that many of our sexual urges are subconscious, which means that acknowledging them entails overwhelming feelings of guilt, anxiety and embarrassment. Freud later changed his views somewhat, adding that our behavior is controlled not only by sex, but also by aggressiveness.
Unless you have read Freud or had the pleasure of personally knowing some of the psychoanalysts of the past, you probably simply have no idea how important they considered the importance of sex from a psychological perspective. Freud was so amazed by the importance of sex that he even invented a new name for it - libido. He wrote that in the subconscious, a pencil is a symbol of the penis, and a box is a symbol of the vagina. He formulated the Oedipus complex: the theory that boys between 4 and 5 years old desire to have sexual relations with their mothers. He believed that young girls develop an inferiority complex, which is based on envy of males because they are endowed with a penis. When I was a graduate student in psychology at Yale University, I heard a lecture by John Dollard, one of the world's leading psychoanalysts at that time. “Whatever we do in life, we must make sure we get enough sex,” he advised. He encouraged us to follow his advice to avoid developing neuroses. Speaking to a group of young college students, Dollard had no trouble convincing his audience of the importance of his message.
Freud's contemporaries
Many psychologists of Freud's contemporaries, or those who came after him, accepted much of what Freud said, but disagreed with him about the importance of sexual motivation. For example, Carl Jung (1875-1961) believed that the will to live, the general life force, is the most important motivator of human behavior. Alfred Adler (1870-1937) wrote about the desire for superiority and power. Erik Erikson (1902-1994) developed a theory of the development of the self (ego), or what can simply be called the human developmental drive.
Various schools of behaviorism (the science of human behavior - translator's note) expressed different views on the question of what controls human behavior.
Clark Hull (1884-1952) and Kenneth Spence (1907-1967) developed an influential model of behavior that viewed human motivation in terms of a range of known and unknown drives, such as the drive to eat when hungry or the drive to relieve anxiety. This approach pays more attention to the activating function of motives than to the role of specific motives that determine people’s desire to achieve certain goals rather than others. The Hull-Spence theory was enormously influential between 1950 and 1975.
What drives human behavior. B. F. Skinner (1904-1990), another leading behaviorist, who urged psychologists to pay less attention to the search for the underlying motives that control our lives. Skinner believed that all motives, thoughts and feelings (including pleasure and pain) are personal. Only you know what motivates you, and if you don't tell us about it, then we can only guess about them. Since personal motives cannot be determined with scientific certainty, Skinner concluded that psychologists should not pay attention to them. (If your spouse stops paying attention to your motives, thoughts and feelings, then he/she may have become a behaviorist).
What drives human behavior. Carl Rogers (1902-1987) stated that people are driven to varying degrees by two desires: the desire to grow, called self-actualization, and the desire for self-recognition. According to this view, the key to happiness is living in accordance with your value system. If people do something that goes against their own ideas about life, they lose self-respect, stop growing and become unhappy. In fact, Rogers's theory represents an initial attempt to reduce much of what is meaningful to us into a few overlapping motivations.
James' theory
William James (1842-1910), the great American psychologist, philosopher and educator, and William McDougall (1871 -1938), a brilliant social psychologist at Harvard, believed that instinctual desires motivate behavior. In his epic Principles of Psychology, James presents the following list of basic instinctual desires:
thrift desire to store and collect
creation the desire to build and achieve
curiosity desire to explore and learn
narcissism, desire to be the center of attention
family desire to raise their children
hunting desire to obtain writing
order the desire for cleanliness and organization
game desire to have fun
sex desire to procreate
shame the desire not to be singled out
pain desire to avoid painful sensations
gregariousness the desire to establish social contacts revenge the desire for aggressiveness McDougall expanded and improved this list.
James and McDougall realized together that human desires are multifaceted. They resisted attempts to reduce everything to one or two supermotives, such as sex and aggression (Freud) or the desire for superiority (Adler). James and McDougall were the first influential psychologists to develop a comprehensive theory of basic human desires.
After James' death in 1910, MacDougall was opposed by both behaviorists and psychoanalysts. Behaviorists rejected McDougall's idea that desires are inherited, arguing that they are acquired through the process of cognition. Viewing human behavior in terms of primarily sexual motivation, psychoanalysts argued that James and McDougall emphasized too many instinctual desires. The influence of James and McDougall might have been completely lost, however, Harvard psychologist Henry A. Murray (1893-1988) reformulated McDougall's list and presented it as a list of psychological needs. Murray's work received widespread attention, partly because he developed a popular technique for assessing the motivation of human behavior.
Maslow's theory
Another psychologist who made important contributions to the study of human motivation was Abraham Maslow (1908-1970). Maslow was one of the few psychologists who viewed human nature primarily from a motivational perspective. He made an important point that we are creatures of desire who constantly want something. In this sense, Maslow analyzed human behavior in a completely different way than many psychologists did. I accept and even expand on Maslow's thoughts, arguing that a motivational approach to human behavior has the potential to explain much more about human behavior than is commonly believed.
© Igor Yurov, psychotherapist
HOW TO UNDERSTAND WHAT MOVES A PERSON
"THE STORY OF ONE CHILDHOOD or SURVIVAL GAMES"
(Journal "Our Psychology", No. 6, /63/, 2012)
As a child, your friend “played” completely different “games” than with you, and the rules that you easily learned are unknown to him, hence all the problems and misunderstandings. Do not create illusions - he is mocking (although not consciously) you in the same way as he was bullied in childhood. Perhaps he also “masters” other “techniques” of bullying that are incomprehensible to you, which he will try in the future... I hope that not on you. He will meet a partner with a similar fate, to whom bullying games will also be familiar from childhood and will not seem like something out of the ordinary. They will try to love each other, but mostly they will suffer from each other, periodically changing roles according to the game script.
Question: “I dated a young man for about 3 months, one day he asked me out as usual, we went to the cinema, and then he told me that he no longer wanted to date me, that he was no longer interested in me , and he doesn't see me as a woman. He said that we should break up and never see each other again. I left, didn’t call and didn’t look for a meeting. Literally a week later, I went with my friends to a nightclub that I always went to. I told my boyfriend about my favorite place, but he refused to go there with me, saying that he doesn’t go to clubs and won’t go. And suddenly I meet him there, alone. He said that he was there by accident and left. This happened almost every Saturday and I thought that since he goes there alone, then gives me and my friend a ride home, that this is how he wants to return. I invited him to my place, we talked, but he told me to look for someone else and there could only be friendship between us. Then we started meeting there again, each time he said that he ended up by accident and had no intention of joining the club at all. In the end, I told him that I still have feelings for him and I can’t see him so often, especially since the girls there flirt with him all the time. He said that we would go to different clubs. But this apparently applied to me, because he didn’t stop going there. As a result, I gave up my favorite place to him and am relaxing in another nightclub; we haven’t seen each other for 1.5 months since then... When suddenly I met him in my sports club! He said that he would come here now, that he was looking for sports. the club and he likes it here (even though it’s a 30-minute drive from his house). I try to communicate with him in a friendly manner, but, of course, I want more. And he behaves like this, I just don’t understand why he needs this friendship, I don’t believe in friendship between a man and a woman who were just recently lovers. And then, he continues to call me and himself those diminutive names that he came up with while we were dating. I would like to understand what motivates him, why he pulls me out of the places where I “live”, why this friendship? And I don’t understand how to behave, ignore him and erase him from your life, or be friends and wait for something to come out of this friendship? I am 26 years old and the young man is also 26 years old.
P .S.: the young man has a difficult story, he is an orphan, there was no father, his mother died very early, he was raised by his grandparents, and they also died 6 years ago.”
Answer I.Yu.:
Your postscript alone actually answers all the questions. The “difficult history” of childhood traumatizes the personality, distorts reactions to others, and does not allow one to be predictable for those who have acquired the experience of harmonious communication and mutual understanding. Difficult childhood stories are filled with fear, guilt, feelings of inferiority, various manipulations, the need to cope with insincerity, humiliation, deception, resentment, lack of love and attention. As a result, the child simply does not learn correctly, i.e. behave openly, understandably and predictably with others. Such “science” is not given on its own; it is learned throughout childhood. They learn like any game, starting small, mastering its basic rules and further improving their skills.
Any contact - business, intimate, friendly, casual - is like a game that is played according to its own rules. Moreover, these rules are not universal; they have their own characteristics in each culture, subculture, religion, social stratum, and professional community. Even in a metropolis and a province, these rules can vary significantly. What's going on between you? - A game. The rules by which you need to play are clear to you. You expect that they are also familiar to your partner. At the very least, you would really like him to accept your rules, because they are not that complicated. But they are not difficult for you and for everyone who had more or less adequate relationships similar to yours in childhood. But the whole drama lies in the fact that in childhood they “played” completely different “games” with your friend than with you. I think I even know which ones - these are “Survival Games”. Those games and rules that you easily learned are unknown to him. Look - he is playing with you, and his rules are incomprehensible - and not only to you. They are distorted and pretentious. Hence all the problems and misunderstandings. Don't be under any illusions - he is bullying (although perhaps not consciously) you in the same way he was bullied as a child. Perhaps he also “masters” other, again incomprehensible to you, “techniques” of bullying that he will experience in the future... I hope not on you. He will meet a partner with a similar fate, for whom bullying games will also be familiar from childhood and will not seem like something out of the ordinary. They will try to love each other, but mostly they will suffer from each other, periodically changing roles according to the game script.
You can do this too. In fact, right now you are experiencing love mixed with suffering. You begin to support his game without even noticing it, for example, every time you allow him to give you a ride home from the club, or invite him over to talk, despite the obvious inadequacy he demonstrates. Be extremely careful. Many people “play around” in such situations and do not notice how their whole life goes by. No one completely avoids childhood trauma; therefore, every person, including you, has vulnerable points, the so-called. places of least resistance, where obvious mockery is perceived as some insignificant, fickle rule of the great and magnificent game called love. Don’t get your hopes up, in any important matter, and especially in love, there are no trifles. If you want to have reliable insurance against this kind of situation, carefully study the psychology of sadomasochistic relationships.
Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung
Dangerous desires. What motivates a person?
© Publishing House "Algorithm" LLC, 2014
3. Freud. How desires are born
Oedipus complex
When examining the first mental formations of sexual life in a child, we usually take as an object a male child, a little boy. We believed that for a little girl things should be the same, but somehow different. At what point in development this difference should be sought has not been established with certainty.
The situation of the Oedipus complex is the first stage that we can confidently recognize in a boy. It is easily understandable to us, since in it the boy is fixed on the very object to which in the previous periods of infancy and care he was already attached with the help of his libido, which did not yet have a genital character. The fact that he takes into account the personality of his father as a rival standing in his way, whom he wants to eliminate and whose place he wants to take, follows directly from real relationships. The boy's Oedipal attitude belongs to the phallic phase and dies due to the fear of castration, that is, due to a narcissistic attitude towards the genitals. The difficulty of understanding arises from the complicating circumstance that the boy’s Oedipus complex itself has a dual attitude, active and passive, corresponding to the bisexual disposition. The boy also wants to replace his mother as his father's love object; we call this the feminine attitude.
Regarding the prehistoric period of the boy's Oedipus complex, not everything is clear to us. We know from him an identification with the father, associated with tender motives and still devoid of the nature of competition in relation to the mother. Another element of this previous period is, in my opinion, masturbatory manipulation of the genitals, masturbation in early childhood, which is not absent in any case; more or less violent suppression on the part of educators activates the castration complex. We assume that this masturbation is associated with the Oedipus complex and means a reaction to his sexual arousal. It is not known whether it originates in these relationships or whether it arises spontaneously, as an activity associated with certain organs, and only subsequently joins the Oedipus complex; the second possibility is much more likely. Another question arises about the role of bedwetting and about weaning from it due to educational intervention. We prefer a simple synthesis, according to which bedwetting is the result of masturbation, and its suppression is assessed by the boy as inhibition of his genital activity, i.e., in the sense of a threat of castration; but it is not known whether we will be right in each individual case. Finally, analysis gives us the opportunity to vaguely learn that eavesdropping on coitus between parents in very early childhood can cause the first sexual excitement and become, by virtue of its subsequent influence, the starting point for all sexual development. Masturbation, as well as both attitudes of the Oedipus complex, are subsequently added to the impression resulting from eavesdropping. However, we cannot assume that such eavesdropping of coitus always takes place, and here we are faced with the problem of “first fantasies.” If, therefore, in the prehistoric period of the boy's Oedipus complex there is so much that is not clear, then it is necessary to check and decide whether the same path always exists and whether the most different preliminary stages do not lead to the central point of the same final situation.
Sigmund Freud
* * *The little girl's Oedipus complex hides a deeper problem than the boy's Oedipus complex. Initially, the mother was the first object for both; we should not be surprised if the boy retains this object in the Oedipus complex. But how does the girl refuse him and choose her father as an object? In resolving this question, I was able to establish certain provisions that can shed light specifically on the prehistoric period of the Oedipus relationship in the girl.
Each analyst had the opportunity to study women who, with particular intensity and tenacity, maintained their attachment to the father and the desire to receive a child from the father - a desire in which this attachment received its highest expression. One can reasonably assume that this fantastic desire was also the driving force behind their infantile masturbation, and then one easily gets the impression that we are here faced with an elementary fact of children’s sexual life that cannot be further decomposed. However, a detailed analysis of these particular cases shows something else, namely, that the Oedipus complex in this case has a long prehistoric period and is to some extent a secondary formation.
According to the old pediatrician Lindner, the child opens the pleasurable genital area - the penis or clitoris - during voluptuous sucking. I want to leave open the question of whether the child actually uses this newfound source of pleasure to replace the recently lost mother's breast, as later fantasies may indicate. In short, the genital zone opens up someday, and we apparently have no reason to subsume the first manipulations with it under psychic content. However, the immediate moment in the phallic phase that thus begins is not the connection of this onanism with the object attachments of the Oedipus complex, but the discovery that befalls the little girl, fraught with grave consequences. She accidentally discovers a large, easily visible penis on a brother or peer, recognizes it as an exaggerated analogue of her own small and hidden organ, and is overcome by penis envy.
The contrast in the behavior of both sexes is interesting: in a similar case, when a little boy sees the genital area of a girl for the first time, he behaves hesitantly, above all, he shows little interest; he sees nothing or denies his perception, weakens it, seeks confirmation that would bring this perception into line with his expectation. Only later, when the threat of castration has its effect on him, does this observation become significant for him: the memory of it or a new observation causes an explosion of frightening affect in him and forces him to believe in the reality of the threat, which he had hitherto treated ironically. From this relationship follow two reactions that can be fixed, and then each of them separately or both together or in combination with other moments can determine his attitude towards a woman for a long time: fear of a mutilated creature or contempt for him, caused by a feeling of superiority. But this development is already taking place in the future, although not very distant.
The little girl behaves differently. Her judgment and decision instantly matures. She sees a penis, knows she doesn't have one, and wants one.
Here the so-called masculinity complex characteristic of women branches off, which sometimes causes great difficulties in the destined development towards femininity if it is not quickly overcome. The hope of one day getting a penis and thus becoming equal to a man can persist for a very long time and become a motive for strange, sometimes incomprehensible actions. Or a process begins that I would call denial; This process often occurs in a child’s mental life and, apparently, is not fraught with danger; in an adult it would signify psychosis. The girl refuses to acknowledge the fact of her castration, is firmly convinced that she has a penis and, as a result, is forced to behave as if she were a man.
* * *The psychic consequences of penis envy, so long as it is not dissolved in the reactive formation of a masculinity complex, are varied and significant. With the recognition of her narcissistic wound, a woman develops - like a scar - a feeling of unworthiness. After she overcomes the first attempt to explain the absence of her penis as a punishment suffered by her personally and learns about the general prevalence of this characteristic sexual characteristic, she begins to share the man's disdain for a sex that has a defect in such an important part of the body, and continues, at least in this evaluation to equate oneself with a man.
Even if she does not experience penis envy in relation to herself, this envy does not disappear: with the help of a little transference, it receives its expression in the characteristic feature of jealousy. Of course, jealousy is not limited to just one gender; it has a broader basis, but I believe that in a woman’s mental life it still plays a much larger role, since she receives enormous reinforcement from the source of suppressed penis envy. Even before I could draw such a conclusion regarding jealousy, I identified the first phase of the onanistic fantasy so common in girls, which was called “the child is beaten.” The meaning of this fantasy boils down to the fact that they beat another child, whom the girl is jealous of as a rival. This fantasy is apparently a remnant of the phallic period in the girl; the peculiar stubbornness that struck me in the monotonous formula “the child is being beaten”, in all likelihood, allows for a special interpretation. The child who is beaten, that is, loved, is in essence nothing more than the clitoris, so that this expression contains in its depths a recognition of masturbation, which is connected with the content of this formula, from the phallic phase until later times.
The undoubted priority and leading, even “pushing” force of development or aspiration for each of us is feelings. However, for modern man, the prevailing and determining factor is the mind. There are millions of reasons for this, but the main one is that life has become very expensive. In the dilemma of what, reason or love, there are many questions. Let's try to find out what is more important below.
Intelligence
The great “technical progress” has hardened people, making the majority categorical consumers and rude “devourers” of other people’s feelings. The theory of motivation for human behavior is taught in institutions, and a large number of books have been written about it. However, there is still no consensus on it. However, as he is now not about so many important things.
Two components of our mind: fear and pride, conscious of each person, serve as “provocateurs” for motivation to action. fear of loss, suffering, pain, failure prompts you to act by any means to avoid this feeling. Experiences of moral or material losses provoke quick and long-term motivation, even on a subconscious level. Unconsciously perceiving bad or good events in life, a person develops inhibitory or provoking impulses to act for the future.
Pride represents the desire or desire to be ahead, better than others and “above” others. Even failures and falls do not prevent you from acting in order to “appease” your pride. It's no secret that every society has its own specific rules. Sometimes they are unspoken, sometimes they are clearly established for everyone. Pride, as the best motivation, forces you to act contrary to the rules and foundations. In this situation, it is important to act in order to possess.
Love
The heart, or in other words, feelings, most likely can be attributed to the “irrational” motivation of behavior for a person. Quite often, justifying their actions by saying that “I want it this way,” “I love it,” “I like it,” many act impulsively and absolutely, without thinking about the consequences. When doing something simply for joy or because you want to, such actions are sometimes simply inexplicable to the logic of the mind. This can apply to everything: your favorite hobby, the choice of profession, the object of love, and the choice of a country for travel and permanent residence. We like it that way, we want it that way, simply because it’s “to our hearts.”
So these two criteria prevail in life, according to which a person can balance throughout his life. A person receives unconditional joy and a feeling of “flight”, this fact has been proven by scientists, primarily from acting according to the heart, and not according to the mind. “Hearty” actions are dictated by inexplicable desires, often contrary to norms, values and morals. Voluntarily, not a single person will constantly act only according to reason in his life. After all, for the majority, betraying your heart and love is possible only under violent influence from outside. A striking example of this would be marriage under parental orders.
According to philosophers and thinkers, both ancient and modern, the mind will never defeat true love. This, of course, is not about physical attraction, but about that same true love. Motivation, when there is a place for love, does not matter. After all, everything is washed away in the opposite half, which occupies all thoughts, feelings and for whose sake one wants to move mountains. A person constantly thinks. Thoughts haunt me day and night. Thoughts that can be changed by willpower into others, or that can be used to drive oneself to the point of insanity.
Which is according to some famous philosophers.
Plato's theory
Planot considered the engine of development of people and society as a whole to be the desire for knowledge and identification of truth. Wisdom determines all actions and thanks to it, it is possible to receive and receive true pleasure. To discover eternal ideals means to feel the joy of knowledge, which has no other joy. His theory is based on the primacy of reason, moral duty and service to society.
Freud's theory
Sigmund Freud put forward his point of view about what makes a person act. Motivation is hidden in people's sexual desires. And from birth to death. Sexual desires that are not fully realized provoke aggressiveness. The recognition that many people are driven by their “base” instincts and act this way and not otherwise is not subject to reason and logic. Irresistible feelings of guilt, embarrassment, anxiety prompt action or inaction, causing suffering throughout almost the entire adult life.
The importance of sex in human psychology was so great that Freud came up with a name - libido. His followers still encourage people today to make sure they get enough sex in their lives. And supposedly this way you can avoid neuroses, health problems and in relationships with other people. But personal experience and observations of others suggest that this is not the ultimate truth (the phenomenon of sex and the impact on health is discussed here in more detail). The leading instinct is the libido instinct. It provokes people to take action and encourages them to take action.
By the way, among modern psychologists, this theory is quite widely accepted. Most of the current modern methods for identifying deviations in the behavior of married couples are based on it. Initially, the level of family relationships regarding intimate life is clarified. After all, dissatisfaction with sex provokes chronic stagnation not only in love. Saving a couple's relationship means restoring their sex life. If the latter is impossible, then the relationship is doomed.
Negative motivation
Troubles of various kinds, anticipated inconveniences or possible difficulties, force and encourage action. A particularly striking example of this theory is a student’s fear of getting a bad grade for unfinished homework. The fear of parental control and subsequent punishment cannot be excluded here. Negative motivation is mostly short-term. When the punishment is canceled, then the incentive to action disappears.
- Forms of sanctions that cause negative motivation:
- Punishment with words.
- Infringement of the material plane.
- Physical punishment.
- Restrictions on freedom.
- Social deprivation.
It is much easier for an adult to ignore that factor as negative motivation. For children and adolescents who depend on parents and other people, an objective attitude to this issue is more difficult. Especially when the punishment is immediate. The influence of this motivation is reduced to zero if punishment or the expectation of negative consequences ceases to be relevant.
Motives for self-development
The desire to realize oneself in life provokes the process of self-improvement and development. Many people study, attend courses, and improve their skills almost all their lives. According to A. Maslow's theory, full realization and the desire to prove one's competence are the best key to motivation. The movement towards learning new things encourages, and the fear of the unknown somewhat slows down. According to Maslow, new achievements with positive results bring more joy. Negative results, mistakes and possible criticism are upsetting and hinder active motivation next time.
Internal satisfaction with one’s achievements or results of work, based on the example of other talented people, actualizes motivation. This is due not only to fame, for example, athletes, politicians, winners of various awards, but also recognition. Even for the sake of one person, another is able to “move mountains” or do the impossible. The anticipation of new victories and the associated pleasant sensations encourages you to work hard and constantly develop.
External (extreme motivation)
We are talking about factors not directly related to a specific activity. They are, first of all, predetermined as motives influencing the external content, and not the process itself. The most important of them:
- A sense of responsibility and duty to society, relatives, colleagues and other people.
- The desire to be recognized and approved.
- The desire for self-improvement and self-development.
- Prestigious motivation, that is, the motive to obtain the desired social position.
- The motive to avoid troubles or an undesirable course of events, the fear of getting a negative result in the process of one’s actions.
So, as for this motivation, the content of the activity itself is of no importance and does not arouse interest. The first and leading aspect is the aspect of external attractiveness. Namely, material well-being, fame, prestige, recognition in certain circles. Simply put, it is important to evaluate the activities, behavior, and actions of the immediate environment. It is very important for an individual to hear and understand this. The more often the better.
As a result, I would like to note that activity will be effective and efficient only if it is dictated by several motives at once. The more motives, the more active the person and the more active the motivating force. It is this pattern that contributes to the dynamic and desire of each individual to act and live. “Inhibiting” results and refusal to act actively haunt people who lack any motivation. Even one motive forces you to strive for something. Otherwise, life may lose any meaning at all.