Understanding Human Motivation

Understanding Human Motivation is a lively presentation of how factors such as biological nature, instinct, past experience, and society determine what we do. Draws on many different domains of human behavior and links together many motivational factors such as fear, sex, consciousness, and rage. Illustrates the theoretical bases of motivation through real-life examples and case studies. Written in accessible manner for use in courses.

This volume covers the current status of research in the neurobiology of motivated behaviors in humans and other animals in healthy condition. This includes consideration of the psychological processes that drive motivated behavior and the anatomical, electrophysiological and neurochemical mechanisms which drive these processes and regulate behavioural output. The volume also includes chapters on pathological disturbances in motivation including apathy, or motivational deficit as well as addictions, the pathological misdirection of motivated behavior. As with the chapters on healthy motivational processes, the chapters on disease provide a comprehensive up to date review of the neurobiological abnormalities that underlie motivation, as determined by studies of patient populations as well as animal models of disease. The book closes with a section on recent developments in treatments for motivational disorders.

Human Motivation, originally published in 1987, offers a broad overview of theory and research from the perspective of a distinguished psychologist whose creative empirical studies of human motives span forty years. David McClelland describes methods for measuring motives, the development of motives out of natural incentives and the relationship of motives to emotions, to values and to performance under a variety of conditions. He examines four major motive systems - achievement, power, affiliation and avoidance - reviewing and evaluating research on how these motive systems affect behaviour. Scientific understanding of motives and their interaction, he argues, contributes to understanding of such diverse and important phenomena as the rise and fall of civilisations, the underlying causes of war, the rate of economic development, the nature of leadership, the reasons for authoritarian or democratic governing styles, the determinants of success in management and the factors responsible for health and illness. Students and instructors alike will find this book an exciting and readable presentation of the psychology of human motivation.

The past ten years have seen an explosion of useful research surrounding human motivation and emotion; new insights allow researchers to answer the perennial questions, including "What do people want?" and "Why do they want what they want?" By delving into the roots of motivation, the emotional processes at work, and the impacts on learning, performance, and well-being, this book provides a toolbox of practical interventions and approaches for use in a wide variety of settings. In the midst of the field's "golden age," there has never been a better time to merge new understanding and practical application to improve people’s lives. Useful in schools, the workplace, clinical settings, health care, sports, industry, business, and even interpersonal relationships, these concepts are profoundly powerful; incorporated into the state-of-the-art intervention programs detailed here, they can enhance people's motivation, emotion, and outlook while answering the core questions of any human interaction.

Integrates classical and contemporary Motivation theory into a framework the author calls Motivational Systems Theory, from which he derives 17 principles for motivating humans. Shows how this can be applied to promote social responsibility in youth, and increase work productivity and learning achievement.

In this groundbreaking book, author David Forbes explains human motivation and provides ways that marketers can effectively reach the consumer. The book uses decades of psychology research and the author's own tool, the Forbes Matrix that identifies, organizes, and explains the nine core motivations.

"US psychologist Abraham Maslow's A Theory of Human Motivation is a classic of psychological research that helped change the field for good. Like many field-changing thinkers, Maslow was not just a talented researcher, he was also a creative thinker - able to see things from a new perspective and show them in a different light. At a time when psychology was dominated by two major schools of thought, Maslow was able to forge a new, third paradigm, that remains influential today. Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis had developed the idea of understanding the mind through dialogue between patient and analyst. The behaviorism of Ivan Pavlov and John Watson had focused on comprehending the mind through behaviors that could be measured, trained, and changed. Maslow, however, generated new ideas, forging what he called "positive" or "humanistic psychology". His argument was that humans are psychologically motivated by a series of hierarchical needs, starting with the most essential first. Maslow thought it important for the advancement of psychology to identify, group and rank these needs in terms of priority. HIs belief in the value of this third way was important in leading those who studied psychology to redefine the discipline, and so see it in new ways."--Provided by publisher.