Motivation and Personality - Short Summary - Personality Psychology

When studying the conduct From a dynamic interactive approach, or "transactional" we consider the intervention of Factors personal, situational, the Interrelation Between them, the resulting behavior (let's call it 1), its consequences and how they would affect future behavior, the perception and assessment of the situation and its interaction and the resulting behavior (let's call it 2). The motivation also comes into play at the level of personal, situational characteristics, and the resulting behavior.

Introduction

Any explanation of the behavior would be incomplete if it does not consider the motivation towards a type of goals, the feelings of satisfaction that derive from facing challenges and overcoming obstacles, the value assigned to a goal and the evaluation that the subject makes of its probability to obtain a goal, evaluation that includes beliefs on conduct-consequences contingencies on personal capacity. The study of motivation analyzes why a behavior begins, what keeps it, where it is directed and why it ends; I would explain why behavior. Bandura Difference three kinds of motivators:

1. Biological motivators: From cellular deficits to aversive external events that activate a consumer and protective set against physical discomfort.
2. The motivators that act through social incentives: In development, positive experiences occur in conjunction with the approval of others and negatives with disapproval. These type of social reactions become predictors of positive or negative consequences, in Incentives.
3. The cognitive motivators: People motivate themselves, choose goals, define courses of action, anticipate their possible results, value these results, plan changes for the future, etc. Theorists who have highlighted more dynamic and motivational aspects, than structural ones, share a vision of man as an active organism that seeks to increase their abilities and interact with their environment effectively.

Geen It suggests that motivation is a complex process that includes 3 steps:

1. Define a goal that Perosone aspires to achieve. May arise from a need that the person experiences, or from some external demand in interaction with the needs of the person.
2. Choose an action course that leads to get the goal. It implies the person's intention or commitment to said goal.
3. Act According to the chosen plan, establishing a strategy that allows you to make your actions more flexible by making continuous evaluations of your achievements (or failures) when facing submetas on your way to the great goal or final objective.

Explaining the dynamics of behavior

The approach of goals the word goal It is used to define a desirable state for a person who can one day be achieved. It would be an attainable objective, not without some difficulty, being the effort invested contingent with its achievement, on whose way there would be many other partial objectives. To know the motivation of a person to achieve a goal, obstacles are put to prove it, as in the "initiation rituals". Goals energize and direct people's behavior. The behavior is motivational: it is aimed at achieving established objectives. Once a goal is established, the person will carry out various procedures on the way to their achievement: it will develop a certain level of effort, prepare action strategies and establish a commitment to the proposed objective.

He effort and persistence In obtaining a goal, it will be greater when it is clearly defined, and implies a certain level of challenge or difficulty, which will affect the attractive assessment, seeing more positively the most difficult goals. It is important for the person to obtain information about how partial objectives are being able to overcome. The Action strategies They will be affected by the complexity of the goal. When they are simple, the action will be affected by motivational aspects (effort/persistence), when they are complex, cognitive aspects (preparation of plans/strategies) will predominate. A goal motivates a person to the extent that he accepts it and feels committed to her: if the commitment is great, it will mobilize more effort. The one that other people know the goal, the presence of rewards or perceive with the necessary skills to achieve it, will increase the degree to which one feels engaged With your achievement.

He effort For reaching the goals, it will depend on the expectation that the person has to be able to achieve it, and the value that the goal has for her. The expectation and value would be combined multiplyingly to determine the subjective utility of a goal for the person. If one of them is zero, the goal would not be useful, and would not strive to get it. Sometimes. The person faces with goals incompatible with each other. This conflict between goals implies feelings of acceptance and rejection. This can cause people to inhibit certain behaviors, think excessively of conflict goals and experience psychological discomfort.

Although the establishment of goals and the path to their achievement are motivational elements, in the process cognitive aspects intervene: after the success or failure in overcoming the minor objectives, the person makes attributions to analyze the causes. Are attributions They affect the training of expectations about future performance, and elicite affective responses. The affective component of the motivated behavior would be defined by the attributive dimensions of causality and controlling locus, while the dimension of stability contributes to the cognitive component. The goals have 3 types of properties:

• He cognitive component of a goal: includes representations or mental images of the goal, a hierarchy (from lower objectives to the final goal) and plans that lead to the final objective; Cognitive processes would be relevant when analyzing the information available before deciding or not a certain plan to get a goal.
• He Affective component Includes the degree to which behaviors linked to the goal are associated with affective reactions of approximation, fear, anger, etc.
• He Behavioral component Includes the actions associated with the plan to obtain a goal.

These three elements are related to each other and can vary in their degree of significance. A goal with a strong and affective cognitive component can be considered as an attitude or value and a goal with a strong and cognitive weak affective component can be considered as an impulse or desire. A goal with a well -developed strategy expresses an intention and a goal without an elaborate plan can be a fantasy or illusion. Behaviors aimed at a goal are maintained for long periods of time.

In this stability they intervene different factors: the images stored in memory (imagining the goal produces the positive affective reaction associated with it); Organize the goal in a hierarchy (overcome submets active positive reactions that help maintain the path to the final objective); Although the person does not receive positive external reinforcement for overcoming submetas, he can develop their own strategies, using as motivating elements, internal reinforcement sources.

Pervin It presents a theory of goals that emphasizes the prouitive nature of human behavior and recognizes the interdependent functioning of cognitive, emotional and behavioral characteristics. Personality is seen as an integrative concept, emphasizing its dynamic nature as a system aimed at achieving goals. The establishment of goals creates a discrepancy between the current state and a desired state, initiating, to reduce that discrepancy, a propositive or intentional action. The approaches to motivation based on the concept of discrepancy describe a process with the following steps:

1. The intention to strive to achieve a chosen goal is established, developing a strategy.
2. Specific actions (submetas) are being carried out
3. The results are compared in these actions with the final goal, to detect discrepancies.
4. Causal powers are made about possible discrepancies perceived. Based on these powers, the person performs readjustments in their behavior, such as increasing their efforts, changing strategy, denying discrepancy, etc.

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