The term motivation refers to the factors that direct and energize the behavior of a human.

These factors of motivation can be internal or external. Internal factors include factors such as the need to eat and drink, to be relieved from pain and so on. External factors include factors such as appreciation from others, to be accepted by others; or some external rewards. Motivation serves as a force that puts a person into activity to move forward in life.

Motivation has its biological, social, and cognitive aspects. Therefore, a number of approaches have been put forward by psychologists to explain the phenomenon of motivation. These approaches provide different perspectives on why and how an individual’s behaviour is energized and directed towards some activity. These approaches are explained as follows.

The term instinct refers to the innate or inborn patterns of behavior in organisms. These patterns of behavior are generally biologically determined. According to this approach, psychologists view motivation as a product of programmed sets of behaviors that are essential to the survival of an organism.
These programmed behaviors are called instinct which motivates an organism to behave in certain ways. As opposed to other approaches of motivation, these instincts are not learnt but the organism is born with it because these instincts are essential for the survival of the organism. Examples of instincts are: need to eat and drink (to survive) and the desire to have sex (to reproduce).

This is an important approach because it has the potential to support other theories in psychology as such Freud psychoanalysis. According to Freud, the instinct of sex and aggression explains a major part of human behaviour.

Criticism: This approach has also received criticism from some psychologists. Firstly, it is criticized for the fact that there is no single number of the instincts, on which, most psychologists agree. For instance, William McDougall has reported the total number of instincts as 18 whereas Bernard, a known sociologist, has claimed that there are total of 5759 different instincts.

Another limitation of this approach is that it cannot explain why some patterns of behaviour are different in different organisms. For instance, much of the behaviors of animals can purely be attributed to instincts, however, the complexity of human behaviour is beyond the explanation provided by the instinct approach. A great deal of human behavior is learned and shaped by their interaction and experience with others in society. 

Because of these limitations, some new explanations have been put forward by psychologists, However, this does not mean that this approach is totally rejected because every approach may explain a phenomenon from a different perspective which helps explain different dimensions of the phenomenon. For instance, this approach is widely used to explain Freud’s psychoanalysis.

This approach states that motivation is a product of drive reduction.

The term drive refers to the state of tension caused by some need or deficiency which ought to be fulfilled by the organism. There are two types of drives: primary and secondary drives. Primary drives are biological needs such as hunger, thirst, sex, sleep and relief from pain. These drives cause a state of tension and arousal to indicate some need that ought to be fulfilled. Thus, to reduce these drives, an organism is motivated to act in certain ways. For instance, if an individual feels hungry, he is motivated by drive reduction to eat something.

Secondary drives include those drives which are learnt through interaction or experience with others in society. For instance, everyone wants to become a successful person. An individual through his interaction or experience with others learns that the desire to become a successful person is a valid need that everybody is supposed to fulfill. Therefore, an unsuccessful person would feel the drive (state of tension) to become successful and thus, work hard to fulfil this need.

The drive reduction approach embeds a biological process known as homeostasis. Homeostasis is the tendency of the body (human or any other organism) to maintain its internal state. When a change occurs in conditions of the body, the receptor cells send signals to the body to regain the optimal (or balanced) condition of the body. For instance, when the human body warms up above the normal body temperature, the body starts sweating to get rid of the excessive heat of the body and retain normal temperature. Similarly, when the human body feels cold below the normal temperature, it starts shivering which means the metabolic rate has increased to warm up the body to its normal temperature. Most of the primary drives operate on principles of homeostasis that is when the body senses a biological need, it gives a signal to fulfil it. For instance, the amount of water in the body decreases below the optimal level, the hypothalamus (within the brain) gets activated to give us a signal such that we feel thirsty and thus, drink some water.

Limitations of drive reduction approach 

Some psychologists believe that the drive reduction approach provides a detailed explanation of primary drives but fails to explain many secondary drives. Similarly, the goal of many behaviours may not be necessary to reduce a drive and the goal may even further enhance the level of excitement. Such behaviours cannot be explained by this approach.

Behaviors in which the goal is not to reduce drive, but goal further enhances the level of excitement cannot be explained by these approaches. Examples of such behaviors are thrill-seeking behaviors and curiosity to know. For example, a man who climbs the top of a mountain to explore is not guided by any deficiency but rather by his curiosity that motivates him. Such behaviors are explained by arousal approaches.

The arousal approach of motivation suggests that people engage in activities that maintain their optimal level of arousal. Arousal means the state of excitement that an organism wants to maintain to the optimal level. The optimal level of arousal is not the same for everyone. Some people may have a higher optimal level of arousal while others may have lower levels of arousal. If the arousal level drops below the optimal level (as different for each person), the individual attempts to bring his arousal level up to the optimal level by engaging in thrilling activities such as going to parties, participate in challenging sports activities, performing in adventures, climbing up a hill and so on. On the other hand, if an individual’s arousal level raises above the optimal level, he attempts to bring his arousal level to optimal level by engaging in calming activities to relax and soothe himself.

The term incentive refers to rewards that an individual expects to receive as a result of engaging in some activity.

According to the incentive approach, individuals are motivated to act in a specific way because of expected incentives for their actions. An incentive can be a material or monetary reward or any other abstract reward such as appreciation.

For example, a company promises bonuses to its employees for better performance. In such a case, the employees would work wholeheartedly to be able to receive the promised bonuses. Similarly, a student works hard by studying his books so that he can get good grades in exams. Likewise, some organizations award some appreciation certificates to their employees for their better performance which serves as a source of motivation for the employees to perform better.

Some psychologists combine the two concepts of drives and incentives and call them push and pulls of behavior or combinedly known as pull and push theory of motivation. Push means the internal drive that pushes an individual to perform an activity. Pull refers to the external factors which an individual feel drawn to; and thus, may act towards it. These two factors can motivate an individual separately as well as in a combined manner.

For instance, if an individual feels hungry (internal drive: push factor), he will eat something. This means that the internal drive pushed the individual to eat something. However, if an individual feels hungry and there are several types of foods (e.g., pizza, burger, meat, vegetables, rice etc) on the table, he may choose the type of food which looks the most delicious to him. Here the pull factor (the type of food which look more appealing to him) motivates him to choose specific food from the available foods.

In the above example, the push factor (hunger stimulating to eat something) and pull factor (the view of food to choose the seemingly delicious one) have been demonstrated in the same situation only to explain these concepts. However, either of these factors can motivate individuals separately in separate situations.

The term cognition refers to the mental process of acquiring and processing knowledge. In simple words, cognition refers to the process of thinking.

According to the cognitive approaches, motivation is caused by underlying cognitions of the individuals. It states that an individual’s behaviour is based on the rational judgement of his expectations, goals and past experiences. The motivation of an individual towards a specific activity is a product of his evaluation of what he needs or wants to do, how he should do it considering various ways and learning from his experience, and that what he may receive at the end. For instance, a student wants to earn money, he may take admission in a university so that he can get a degree that would enable him to get a job.

This approach differs from instinct and drive reduction approaches which merely see an individual as a mechanism having a set of programmed behaviour. This approach sees motivation more as a product of judgement. This approach also differs from the incentive approach because the incentive approach solely focuses on the end product as a cause for motivation whereas the cognitive approach sees the end product as a component in the larger process of judgement. Moreover, in the case of incentives, the motivation generally takes a specified or predetermined course of action whereas in the case cognitive approach, the motivation can take different courses of action based on cognitive judgement.

This approach has added to the typology of motivation by providing grounds for distinguishing between two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation is that which comes from inside of the body. These are the internal motives. For instance, a person reads novels simply for sake of enjoyment. Here the person gets an internal feeling of happiness. No tangible or monetary reward is expected here.

Extrinsic motivation is that which comes from outside of the body. These are external motives such as material or monetary rewards, appreciation, fame, acceptance or affection. For instance, a salesman strives to increase his sales because he would earn more money this way. Similarly, some people may engage in public activities because they want to earn fame among the masses.