Motivation And Action

This third edition provides translations of all chapters of the most recent fifth German edition of Motivation and Action, including several entirely new chapters. It provides comprehensive coverage of the history of motivation, and introduces up-to-date theories and new research findings. Early sections provide a broad introduction to, and deep understanding of, the field of motivation psychology, mapping out different perspectives and research traditions. Subsequent chapters examine major themes of human motivation, including achievement, affiliation, and power motivation as well as the fundamentals of motivation psychology, such as motivated and goal oriented behaviors, implicit and explicit motives, and the regulation of development. In addition, the book discusses the roles of motivation in three practical fields: school and college, the workplace, and sports. Topics featured in this text include: Social Relationships and its effects on sexual or intimacy motivation. Conscious and unconscious motivators of behavior. Drives and incentives in the fields of achievement, intimacy, sociability and power. How the biochemistry and structures of our brain shapes motivated behavior. How to engage in intentional goal-directed behavior. The potential and limits of motivation and self-direction in shaping our lives. Motivation and Action, Third Edition, is a must-have resource for undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers in the fields of motivation psychology, cognitive psychology, and social psychology, as well as personality psychology and agency. About the Editor: Jutta Heckhausen is the daughter of Heinz Heckhausen, who published "Motivation and Action” as a monograph in 1980 and who died in 1988 just before the 2nd edition came out. Dr. Heckhausen received her Ph.D. in 1985 from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow with a dissertation about early mother-child interaction, and did her Habilitation in 1996 at the Free University of Berlin with a monograph about developmental regulation in adulthood. Dr. Heckhausen worked for many years at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, conducting research about the role of motivation in lifespan development. She is currently a professor of psychology at the University of California, Irvine.

Sustainable Action and Motivation proposes individual competencies and institutional policies that can help overcome the motivational hurdles that hamper sustainable action. Following the Paris Agreement of 2015 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the political momentum urgently to begin the drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions has increased significantly. Affluent, high-income OECD countries are expected to take the lead in the global transition to a low carbon society. Given this, we need a better understanding of the motivational problems that people in affluent countries face with acting sustainably. This book investigates the above questions by analysing three fundamentally different perspectives: individuals and their motivation to act sustainably; institutions who take responsibility for issuing policies that steer us towards taking sustainable action; and humanity, each individual member of which ought to understand his or her non-sustainable behaviour in relation to the continued existence of the collective of human beings. Using theories from empirical psychology and a phenomenological approach to the research, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of practical philosophy, psychology of motivation and environmental psychology, as well as policymakers looking for ways to implement effective policies that encourage pro-environmental behaviour.

Moving beyond the traditional, and unproductive, rivalry between the fields of motivation and cognition, this book integrates the two domains to shed new light on the control of goal-directed action. Renowned social and motivational psychologists present concise formulations of the latest research programs which are effectively mapping the territory, providing new findings, and suggesting innovative strategies for future research. Ideally structured for classroom use, this book will effectively familiarize readers with important theories in the psychology of action.

The book examines how the underprivileged become motivated to participate in politics even though they lack the educational, financial, and civic resources commonly assumed to be necessary for participation.

This book presents the contributions of the members of an Advanced Research Workshop on Cogni ti ve Science Perspectives on Emotion, Motivation and Cognition. The Workshop, funded mainly by the NATO Scientific Affairs Division, together with a contribution from the (British) Economic and Social Research Council, was conducted at II Ciocco, Tuscany, Italy, 21-27 June 1987. The venue for our discussions was ideal: a quiet holiday hotel, 500m high in the Apennine mountain range, approached by a mile of perilously steep, winding narrow road. The isolation was conducive to concentrated discussions on the topics of the Workshop. The reason for the Workshop was a felt need for researchers from disparate but related approaches to cognition, emotion, and motivation to communicate their perspectives and arguments to one another. To take just one example, the framework of information processing and the metaphor of mind as a computer has wrought a major revolution in psychological theories of cogni tion. That framework has radically altered the way psychologists conceptualize perception, memory, language, thought, and action. Those advances have formed the intellectual substrate for the "cognitive science" perspective on mental life.

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.

Motivation is that which moves us to action. Human motivation is thus a complex issue, as people are moved to action by both their evolved natures and by myriad familial, social and cultural influences. The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation collects the top theorists and researchers of human motivation into a single volume, capturing the current state-of-the-art in this fast developing field. The book includes theoretical overviews from some of the best-known thinkers in this area, including chapters on Social Learning Theory, Control Theory, Self-determination theory, Terror Management theory, and the Promotion and Prevention perspective. Topical chapters appear on phenomena such as ego-depletion, flow, curiosity, implicit motives, and personal interests. A section specifically highlights goal research, including chapters on goal regulation, achievement goals, the dynamics of choice, unconscious goals and process versus outcome focus. Still other chapters focus on evolutionary and biological underpinnings of motivation, including chapters on cardiovascular dynamics, mood, and neuropsychology. Finally, chapters bring motivation down to earth in reviewing its impact within relationships, and in applied areas such as psychotherapy, work, education, sport, and physical activity. By providing reviews of the most advanced work by the very best scholars in this field, The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation represents an invaluable resource for both researchers and practitioners, as well as any student of human nature.

"The idea that motivation is largely an internally generated desire is sometimes new to individuals. Traditional thinking held by a large portion of the population is that leaders motivate others within organizations, and motivation is impacted predominantly by external incentives that are created to encourage others to conform and comply with desired performance standards. Although many leaders, managers, and supervisors may believe that it is part of their job description to motivate their followers, the opinion of many experts is that motivation is largely an internally-generated choice made by each individual. If it is true that motivation is primarily internally generated, perhaps this book should then be accompanied by a "Warning Label" that reads, "Caution! This book may influence your thinking and change your assumptions about yourself!" In fact, the primary purpose of this book is to "hold up a mirror" so that readers may, if they so choose, reflect on themselves and the factors which motivate them individually. If motivation is both individual and highly personal, then it behooves each one of us to thoughtfully undertake a self-assessment process to understand more fully how we are motivated, inspired, and influenced in our daily lives. Throughout this book, we cheerfully admit that we challenge assumptions of "conventional wisdom" that are often held by the average person. Much of what we think we know needs to be confirmed or disconfirmed in this world and there is no better place to validate what we actually know than with our efforts to understand ourselves. The theme of this book is clear and straight forward. "Each individual is far more capable of accomplishing great things than he or she can even imagine - and understanding our own identity can enable us to more completely honor our potential." That's the main idea of this book - and we think it's both a powerful message and a worthy subject to study and understand for every person who picks up this book or who accesses it online. There are very few simple issues in life, and certainly the complex nature of each person's world is no exception. The effort that individuals make to understand what matters most in their lives is rarely consciously undertaken - or compared with how those individuals actually invest their time each day. In this book we address why individuals make so many of the errors associated with self-deception, cognitive dissonance, and downright personal dishonest or lying to oneself. More importantly, we also address how readers can reflect on those common practices and make the decision to change dysfunctional patterns and self-defeating behaviors that cause so many people to underperform in life. If you wish to gain a clearer understanding of yourself and the degree to which your actions are inconsistent with what you think matters most, then perhaps this book is just what you have been looking for. We encourage each reader to make the personal investment to examine each chapter of this book and determine how its contents can change their life. Our promise to you is that this book and its contents can help you to have a clearer understanding of yourself, your habits, your inconsistencies, and your values. The contents of this book contain principles, guidelines, and concepts that you can ponder, test, and evaluate - and our commitment to you is that you will become a more enlightened and insightful person if you incorporate the ideas suggested herein. So . . . . we hope that you choose to be motivated - that you make the affirmative choice to read the pages of this book, to contemplate its message, and apply its insights. That decision to invest in yourself can enable you to live a more fulfilling life, have more meaningful relationships with others, and be more successful in accomplishing your personal and professional goals. The decision to be motivated to read this book is yours. We hope you will find this book to be a useful resource and that its contents will bless your life"--