Sources of Motivation - Research Paper Example

According to Brown (2007), there is a direct affirmative connection between behavior and motivation. Action and behavior do not take place on their own but are initiated by internal intentions and environmental incentives. Motivational sources are derived from a sequence of events that obtain motives found in one’s desires, anticipations, and needs, and then transfer them to a place where they are fulfilled, and their incentives accomplished. Philosophers agree to the fact that motivation comes from an internal inspiration or an external drive.

According to O’Neil (1994), the internal disposition commonly referred to as push motivation, is dependent on a person’s biological variables expressed by the human nervous system. He observes that a person’s psychological variables are expressed in one’s psyche where internal motivations are processed for action. The two variables are interrelated in theory through reductionism and emergence. Reductionism is defined as the concept where motivation is reduced to a thought, in respect to a person’s physiology or brain.

Motivation includes cognitive, biological, social, and emotional forces that set in motion a person’s behavior. Therefore, it is correct to say that motivation causes action, where the intended purposes of achieving one’s goals are exhibited. These reasons are forces that lead to the arousal, continuation, selection, and direction of behavior. Intensity would refer to how hard a person tries to achieve the goal.. Motivation comes from within a person where internal drives to act, for a purposeful course, resides.

However, there are external factors that kindle ones energy and desire to be continually committed and interested in applying effort towards achieving the set goal (Brown 2007). Interactions of both unconscious and conscious factors results to motivation. The intensity of behavior exhibited by desire is factored by various drives; the passion of need or desire, the expectations from those around, and the reward value or incentives after the achievements of the goal. These three forms the foundation upon which one will act in the direction, and the intensity of the action.

Many people exhibit differing behavior while motivated depending on one’s personality, reward value of the goal, and the individual’s inner desire (O’Neil, 1994). There is an undeniable relationship between behavior and motivation, where one is the treasured goal, and the other is the reaction towards the goal. Reaction is primarily the exhibition of motivation in behavior. In like manner, motivation is an imperative component of free will and cognitive thought. Motivation is a psychological process where behavioral intentions are formed to work towards the set goals.

O’Neil (1994) asserts that the act of free will or volition creates the process where a person’s intention is subsequently transformed into behavior suitable to sustain motivation. This process requires an internal self regulatory effort in order to maintain the strength which will determine the outcome of the desired goal. Self-efficacy is an example of volitional construct and motivation, where structuring of behavioral intentions