Motivation Theories

Running head: MOTIVATION THEORIES

Motivation Theories

Vickie Johnson

University of Phoenix

August 16, 2010

Motivation Theories

The motivation of people in reference to their work is stressed with factors involving their decision-making skills, life experiences, and their views are based on them. Motivations focuses on the drive that people receive and what keeps them working. Motivation can be defined as the process of arousing and sustaining goal-directed behaviors. What factors trigger this process, how can one control the factors that arouse motivation? How can a company promote positive motivation on the job? The human brain is a complex machine that still has not been fully explained. Biological forces are one of the things that motivate us, but others can argue that we are in control, and can make conscious decisions on how to act.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs often represented as a pyramid that includes five levels of needs. It is a motivational theory is psychology that explains that people strive to meet the basic needs but they seek to meet higher needs in the form of a hierarchy. Abraham Maslow believed that conditioning theories did not capture the complexity of human behavior. He wrote a paper in 1943 called A Theory of Human Behavior in which he presents the idea that the actions of humans are not directed toward the attainment of goals. He believed that any behavior could satisfy to several functions at the same time. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is often presented in a hierarchy pyramid that includes five levels. The four levels consist of lower-order needs that are psychological needs, and the top level is growth needs. The lower level needs should be met before the higher level needs can influence behavior. The levels are self-actualization, esteem, belongingness, safety, and physiological. The first four levels are the deficiency or deprivation needs or D-Needs, which describes their lack of satisfaction that causes a deficiency that...