Behavioral view

of Motivation
Presented by:
Amir Hamid Forough Ameri
ahfameri@gmail.com

October 2015
What is Motivation?
• The word motivation derives from the Latin verb
movere meaning ‘to move’.
Motivation is usually defined as an internal state
that arouses, directs, and maintains behaviour.
Psychologists focus on 5 basic questions:
What choices do people make about their behaviour?
→focusing on your homework or watching TV?
2. How long does it take to get started?
→start right away or procrastinate?
3. What is the intensity or level of involvement in the chosen activity?
4. What causes a person to persist or to give up?
→read the entire Shakespeare assignment or just a few pages?
5. What is the individual thinking and feeling while doing the activity?
→enjoying Shakespeare or worrying about an upcoming test?
 Behavioral View of Motivation
 Behaviorists use two concepts:
Reward: an object or event supplied as a consequence of a particular
behaviour that we think is attractive.
Example: a teacher might believe a good grade is a reward for those
who have done their homework well.

Incentive: an object or event that actually motivates a person’s

behavior.
Example: students who value good grades view grades as an incentive.
Understanding student motivation requires probing
students’ views about what they count as incentives and
distinguishing these from what we may think are rewards.
• Theories of motivation have ascribed different emphases
to social context. In behaviourist theories of learning,
external environmental influences on motivation – such as
rewards and punishment – played a prominent role,
leading to common depictions of ‘carrot-and-stick’
methods of motivation.

• However, with the cognitive revolution through the 1970s

the analytical lens became focused on the inner workings
of the human mind that process information and shape
behaviour,
• If we are consistently reinforced for certain
behaviour, we may develop habits or tendencies to
act in certain ways.

• Providing grades for learning or punishment for

misbehavior is an attempt to motivate students by
extrinsic means.

• Whether this works depends on whether grades are

incentives.
 From a behavioural perspective, motivation is simply the
anticipation of reward.
 Driven to acquire positive reinforcement, and driven by previous
experiences of reward, we act accordingly to achieve more
reinforcement.
 Skinner, Pavlov, and Thorndike put motivation at the center of their
theories of human behaviour.
 Performance in tasks and the motivation to do so may be caused by
external forces: parents, teachers, peers, educational requirements,
job specifications, etc.
 Classical conditioning states that biological responses to associated
stimuli energize and direct behavior (Huitt & Hummel, 1997a).
Operant learning states the primary factor is consequences: the
application of reinforcers provides incentives to increase behavior;
the application of punishers provides disincentives that result in a
decrease in behavior (Huitt & Hummel, 1997b).
 Reinforcement Theory of
Motivation
• This theory was proposed by B.F. Skinner and his associates. It
states that individual’s behaviour is a function of its consequences.
It is based on Thorndike’s “law of effect”, i.e, individual’s
behaviour with positive consequences tends to be repeated, but
individual’s behaviour with negative consequences tends not to be
repeated.
• Reinforcement theory of motivation overlooks the internal state of
individual, i.e., the inner feelings and drives of individuals are
ignored by Skinner. This theory focuses totally on what happens to
an individual when he takes some action.
• Example: the external environment of the organization must be
designed effectively and positively so as to motivate the employee.
This theory is a strong tool for analyzing controlling mechanism for
individual’s behaviour. However, it does not focus on the causes of
• Positive Reinforcement- This implies
giving a positive response when an
individual shows positive and required
behaviour. For example - Immediately
praising an employee for coming early for
job.
• Negative Reinforcement- This implies
rewarding an employee by removing
negative / undesirable consequences. Both
positive and negative reinforcement can be
used for increasing desirable / required
behaviour.
• Punishment- It means applying undesirable
consequence for showing undesirable
behaviour so as to lower the probability of
repeating undesirable behaviour in future.
For instance - Suspending an employee for
breaking the organizational rules.
• Extinction- It implies absence of
reinforcements. In other words, extinction
implies lowering the probability of
undesired behaviour by removing reward
for that kind of behaviour. For instance - if
an employee no longer receives praise and
admiration for his good work, he may feel
that his behaviour is generating no fruitful
consequence.
• "We are automatically
reinforced, apart from any
particular deprivation, when
we successfully control the
physical world. This may
explain our tendency to engage
in skilled crafts, in artistic
creation, and in such sports as
bowling, billiards, and tennis"
(Skinner, 1953: 77)
 Incentive theory
• Incentive theory is exactly what it sounds like it is, it is an incentive
or motive to do something. The most common incentive would be a
reward. Rewards can be tangible or intangible, and is presented
generally after the occurrence of the action or behavior that one is
trying to correct or cause to happen again.
• Incentive theory is promoted by behavioral psychologists, such as
B.F. Skinner. Incentive theory is especially supported by Skinner in
his philosophy of Radical behaviorism: a person's actions always
have social ramifications.
• If actions are positively received, people are more likely to act in this
manner, or if negatively received, people are less likely to act in this
manner.
• In incentive theory, stimuli "attract" a person towards them, and
push them towards the stimulus. In terms of behaviorism, incentive
theory involves positive reinforcement: the reinforcing stimulus has
been conditioned to make the person happier.
 Definitions of Incentive Theory
• "According to this view, people are pulled toward behaviors that
offer positive incentives and pushed away from behaviors associated
with negative incentives. In other words, differences in behavior
from one person to another or from one situation to another can be
traced to the incentives available and the value a person places on
those incentives at the time."
(Bernstein, 2011)
• "Building on the base established by drive theories, incentive
theories emerged in the 1940s and 1950s. Incentive theories proposed
that behavior is motivated by the "pull" of external goals, such as
rewards, money, or recognition. It's easy to think of many situations
in which a particular goal, such as a promotion at work, can serve as
an external incentive that helps activate particular behaviors."
(Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2003)
 Important Observations About
Incentive Theory
• Incentives can be used to get people to engage in certain
behaviors, but they can also be used to get people to stop
performing certain actions.
• Incentives only become powerful if the individual places
importance on the reward.
• Rewards have to be obtainable in order to be motivating.
For example, a student will not be motivated to earn a top
grade on an exam if the assignment is so difficult that it is
not realistically achievable.
 Extrinsic Motivation
(Carrot and Stick)
• Extrinsic motivation occurs when we are motivated to
perform a behavior or engage in an activity to earn a
reward or avoid punishment.
• Examples of behaviors that are the result of extrinsic
motivation include:
• Studying because you want to get a good grade
• Cleaning your room to avoid being scolded by your
parents
• Participating in a sport to win awards
• Competing in a contest to win a scholarship
→ In each of these examples, the behavior is motivated by a
desire to gain a reward or avoid an adverse outcome.
• Extrinsic motivation can be beneficial in some
situations:
• External rewards can induce interest and
participation in something in which the individual
had no initial interest.
• Extrinsic rewards can be used to motivate people to
acquire new skills or knowledge. Once these early
skills have been learned, people may then become
more intrinsically motivated to pursue the activity.
• External rewards can also be a source of feedback,
allowing people to know when their performance
has achieved a standard deserving of
• Extrinsic motivators should be avoided in situations where:
• The individual already finds the activity intrinsically
rewarding
• Offering a reward might make a "play" activity seem more
like "work’’.
• Some studies have demonstrated that offering excessive
external rewards for an already internally rewarding
behavior can lead to a reduction in intrinsic motivation, a
phenomenon known as the overjustification effect. In one
study, for example, children who were rewarded for
playing with a toy they had already expressed interest in
playing with became less interested in the item after being
externally rewarded.
• Researchers have arrived at three primary conclusions with regards
to extrinsic rewards and their influence on intrinsic motivation:
• Unexpected external rewards typically do not decrease intrinsic
motivation. For example, if you get a good grade on a test because
you enjoy learning about the subject and the teacher decides to
reward you with a gift card to your favorite pizzeria, your
underlying motivation for learning about the subject will not be
affected.
• Praise can help increase internal motivation. Researchers have
found that offering positive praise and feedback when people do
something better in comparison to others can improve intrinsic
motivation.
• Intrinsic motivation will decrease, however, when external
rewards are given for completing a particular task or only doing
minimal work. For example, if parents praise their child too much
every time he completes a simple task, he will become less
intrinsically motivated to perform that task in the future.
 References
Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching (5th
ed.). New York: Pearson Education, Inc.
Cook, V., & Singleton, D. (2014). Key topics in second language
acquisition. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Dörnyei, Z. & Ushioda. E. (2011). Teaching and Researching
Motivation. (2nd ed.). Edinburgh Gate: Pearson Education Limited.
Woolfolk, A. E., Winne, P. H., & Perry, N. E. (2003). Educational
psychology . (2nd ed.). Toronto: Pearson Education Inc.

Internet References
Thank You