Motivational Theories And Goal Setting

Motivational Theories And Goal Setting

Motivation is basically a psychological factor or feature that induces any organism to take necessary actions to achieve certain objectives or goals. It brings out, controls, and maintains all the behaviors of any organism to achieve its goals. It is actually the driving force of the universe and organisms living in it.

The tripartite theory of soul expounded by Plato, the Greek philosopher of yore, is contained in his treatise, 'The Republic'. The theory of Plato is based on psyche, in which he divides the human soul into three parts, namely, the logical, the spirited, and the appetitive. He believes that these three parts correspond to the three different classes that could exist in a just society.

According to Plato, the individual justice gets achieved through maintenance of these three separate parts in correct hierarchy. The logical part rules the actions of human beings aided by the spirited rules. The appetitive part obeys the logical part and executes the actions. The logistikon or the logical part of soul is the thinking part that loves truth as its motivation and yearns to learn it.

Push and pull motivations also work on several occasions. A typical example is the tourism industry, where push motives are purely internal, such as rest and recuperation, relaxation, or even escapism. On the other hand, the pull motivations are climate of a tourist destination, such as a summer place in winter or a cooler place in summer. Cultural images, landscapes, scenic beauties, and other attractions also act as pull motivators.

Drive is a very powerful motivation for most of our actions, since drive stems from desire to fulfill a need or compensate a deficiency. This drive activates behavior in humans to achieve goals as mere incentives. The drive is usually a part of intrinsic motivator, without the requirement of any external stimuli to encourage specific behavior in an individual.

Most of our motivations are basically from such internal drives, such as eating food to survive, the secretion of certain hormones that induce sexual desire, etc. However, the drive or the motivation could arise from external stimuli, such as the desire to gain power and position to prove one's superiority or amass money with a desire to earn more respect in the society.