The concept of motivation and motive. General structure of a person’s motivational environment

THE CONCEPT OF THE TERM “MOTIVATION”

There are a large number of motivational tendencies, from which the concept of motivation is formed, and which, to one degree or another, are characteristic of every person. Unfortunately, there is no clear and generally accepted definition of the concept of motivation. But scientists, based on human research, give some general explanations of the essence of motivation and divide it conditionally into two categories: substantive and procedural.

Process theories view motivation from a different perspective. They analyze how a person distributes efforts to achieve various goals and how he chooses a specific type of behavior. Process theories do not dispute the existence of needs, but believe that people's behavior is determined not only by them. According to process theories, an individual's behavior is also a function of his perceptions and expectations associated with a given situation, and the possible consequences of his chosen type of behavior.

But let’s return to the very definition of “motivation”; different authors give a definition of motivation based on their point of view.

G. Zaitsev comes across the following definition: “Motivation is an incentive for active activity of individuals, teams, groups, associated with the desire to satisfy certain needs.”

From the point of view of Yu. Serbinsky: “Motivation is encouraging people to act.” However, all definitions of motivation, one way or another, are similar in one thing: motivation refers to the active driving forces that determine the behavior of living beings. On the one hand, there is motivation imposed from the outside, and on the other hand, self-motivation. It should be noted that human behavior is always motivated. Motivating people means touching on their important interests and needs for something.

The concept of motivation is revealed more widely by the following definition by A. Utkin: “Motivation is a state of personality that determines the degree of activity and direction of a person’s actions in a specific situation.”

A motive is always associated with a specific situation. Research shows that the relationship between a person’s activity (or activity) and the results of his work is characterized by a curved line. At first, as activity increases, the results increase; later, at a certain level of activity, the results remain at the same level.

This stage is called by A. Utkin the optimal range of activity, when the best results are achieved. Once activity begins to exceed the optimal range, performance results begin to deteriorate.

It should be borne in mind that activity does not provide the necessary motivation. A person can work diligently and be active, but there may not be positive results if he directs his activities in the wrong direction. A similar situation arises when a person does not understand the final goals of the work. The reason may be lack of awareness, lack of control, poor management of his activities or when the person has no motive for doing the job.

For the most complete disclosure of the phenomenon of motivation, it is necessary to operate with such terms as motive and needs.

In psychological science, need is defined as the internal state of an individual, caused by the need he experiences for objects necessary for his existence and development and acting as the deep source of all forms of his activity.

The concept of motive is closely related to needs - a dynamic process of physiological and psychological nature that governs human behavior, determining its direction, organization, activity and stability. In Russian science it is often defined as “objectified need.”

In other words, we can say that a motive is why a person performs certain actions. The motive may be the desire to satisfy some need, or some object that we want to receive. So, for example, the desire to achieve someone's love can make us do beautiful and spectacular things, and the desire to own a prestigious brand of car can make us try to earn more money. Also, the motive can be a conscious goal underlying the choice of actions and actions - for example, the desire to occupy the presidential post will become a motive for a person to choose a certain strategy of behavior.

At the same time, needs, as a mental process, have some features:

· they are associated with an object that a person strives for, or with some type of activity that should give a person satisfaction, for example, with play or work;
· more or less clear awareness of this need, accompanied by a certain emotional state of readiness for specific actions;
· emotional-volitional state that accompanies the search for ways and means to satisfy a need and its implementation;
· weakening of these states when needs are satisfied.

Human needs are diverse. They are divided into intangible or natural (in food, clothing, housing) and cultural or social, associated with the acquisition of knowledge, the study of sciences, familiarization with religious and artistic values, as well as with the need for work, communication, public recognition, etc.

Natural needs reflect a person’s dependence on natural, material conditions necessary to support his life. Cultural needs reflect a person’s dependence on the products of human culture.

When the need is realized, it is “objectified”, concretized, it takes the form of a motive. A motive is a conscious need, enriched with ideas about ways to satisfy it and the goals of behavior that ensures its satisfaction.

The difficulty of identifying the motives of activity is due to the fact that any activity is stimulated not by one, but by several motives. The totality of all motives for a given activity is called the motivation of the activity of a given subject.

student of the specialty “Organization Management” Tomasheva K.A.

Far Eastern Federal University, Russia

Essential aspects of the concept of motivation

A large number of scientific works, both domestic ones, are devoted to the issues of motivation (V.G. Aseev; V.K. Vilyunas; E.P. Ilyin; V.I. Kovalev; A.N. Leontiev; M.Sh. Magomed-Eminov; V. S. Merlin; P. V. Simonov; D. N. Uznadze; A. A. Faizullaev; P. M. Yakobson), and foreign (A. Adler; J. Atkinson; K. Levin; K. Madsen; A. Maslow; J. Rotter; X. Heckhausen; G. Hall, etc.) authors. The abundance of literature on the problem of motivation and motives is accompanied by a variety of points of view on their nature. To date, there has not been a consistent and generally accepted theory of motivation and, accordingly, a system of its basic concepts. In this regard, the problem of analyzing and generalizing existing motivational theories becomes particularly relevant. In foreign psychology, three directions of research into personal motivation have historically developed: psychoanalytic, cognitive and humanistic. Recently, steps have been taken towards a synthesis of these approaches. Domestic scientists dealing with motivation issues form several directions, according to their views. The first direction was developed by L.S. Vygotsky, A.N. Leontyev and their student, V.K. Viliunas; second – S.L. Rubinstein, B.G. Ananyev; third – V.N. Myasishchev; fourth – D.N. Uznadze and his students - A.S. Prangishvili, I.V. Imedadze.

The term “motivation” was first used by A. Schopenhauer in his article. Today, scientists interpret this concept differently (Table 1).

Thus, as a result of the analysis of Table 1, we can conclude that in the most general form, motivation can be defined as the process of motivating oneself and other people to act through the formation of motives for behavior to achieve personal goals and organizational goals.

Motivation as a phenomenon has three aspects, presented in Figure 1.

Table 1 - Definitions of the concept of motivation given by various authors

	Motivation concept
H. Heckhausen	just a construct of thinking, and not a really existing psychological phenomenon
A.S. Afonin	the process of stimulating a specific person or group of people to perform activities aimed at achieving the goals of the organization
M. Albert, M. Meskon, F. Khedouri	the process of motivating oneself and others to act to achieve personal or organizational goals
VC. Viliunas	the total system of processes responsible for motivation and activity
K.K. Platonov	as a mental phenomenon, there is a set of motives
G.G. Zaitseva	encouragement to active activity of individuals, teams, groups associated with the desire to satisfy certain needs
V.G. Zolotarev	a motivating reason, a reason for any action, an active state of a person (his brain structures), prompting him to perform hereditarily fixed or acquired actions aimed at satisfying individual (for example, thirst, hunger, etc.) or group (caring for children and etc.) needs
B.Yu Serbinovsky	encouraging people to take action
E.A. Utkina	a state of personality that determines the degree of activity and direction of a person’s actions in a specific situation

Figure 1 - Aspects of motivation

Motivation consists of certain components, which usually include: motive; needs; stimulus; reward. Motive is (from the Latin “I move”) a material or ideal object that encourages and directs the activity or action for which they are carried out. Motives are presented to consciousness, and a person can influence them, enhancing or dampening their effect, and in some cases eliminating them. Human behavior is usually determined not by one motive, but by a combination of them, in which the motives can be in a certain relationship to each other according to the degree of their impact on human behavior. Therefore, a person’s motivational structure can be considered as the basis for his implementation of certain actions. The motivational structure of a person has a certain stability. However, it can change, in particular, consciously, in the process of raising a person, his education. Motivation is the process of influencing a person in order to encourage him to take certain actions by awakening certain motives in him. Motivation is the basis of human management. Depending on what motivation pursues and what problems it solves, two main types of motivation can be distinguished. The first type is that, through external influences on a person, certain motives are called into action, which induce a person to carry out certain actions leading to a desired result for the motivating subject. The second type of motivation has as its main task the formation of a certain motivational structure of a person. This type of motivation is in the nature of educational work and is often not associated with any specific actions or results that are expected to be obtained from a person as a result of his activities. The first and second types of motivation should not be opposed, since in modern management practice progressively managed organizations strive to combine both of these types of motivation. The next, most important element of the motivational process is needs—a person’s feeling of a physiological or psychological lack of something. Needs can be classified according to a variety of criteria. We propose to classify needs into primary and secondary. Primary needs are genetically determined: the need for food, sleep, water, etc. Secondary needs are acquired with experience (psychological needs for success, communication, affection, respect, power). Needs are the main motivator that forces people to take certain actions. If these actions lead to the satisfaction of needs, then the person strives to repeat them in the future. This behavior is called the law of result. Incentives are of great importance in satisfying needs. The word stimulus, translated from Latin, literally means: a stick with which animals and gladiators were stabbed in the arena, forcing them to fight. Therefore, incentive means the motivation to act or the reason for human behavior. Stimulus, stimulation, stimulation is something external to a person. An incentive may or may not become a motive. It will become a motive when it encounters an “internal” need, a system of needs, or an already established system of motives. The motive in this case turns out to be the product of a meeting between external (stimulus) and internal (need), Figure 1.3.

Figure 2 - Motive as a result of the interaction of needs and incentives

Incentives act as levers of influence or carriers of “irritation” that cause the action of certain motives. Incentives can be individual objects, the actions of other people, promises, and much more that can be offered to a person in compensation for his actions or that he would like to receive as a result of certain actions. There are four main forms of incentives: coercion, material encouragement, moral encouragement, and self-affirmation. The process of using various incentives to motivate people is called the incentive process. Incentives have various forms (one of the most common forms is financial incentives). Stimulation is fundamentally different from motivation (stimulation is one of the means by which motivation can be achieved). The higher the level of development of relationships in an organization, the less often incentives are used as a means of managing people. This is due to the fact that education and training as one of the methods of motivating people lead to the fact that members of the organization themselves show an interested participation in the affairs of the organization, carrying out the necessary actions without waiting, or without receiving the corresponding stimulating influence at all. Another element of motivation is reward - this is that positive result, everything valuable for a person that he receives by taking any action. Rewards are individual for each person; they are distinguished as internal and external. Internal rewards are satisfaction from the work itself, a sense of self-affirmation, self-esteem, and pleasure from communication. External reward depends on work indirectly (recognition and respect of colleagues, employee status, bonuses, wages, praise from the boss, promotion).

Literature:

1. Bovykin, V.I. New management: enterprise management at the highest standards; theory and practice of effective management / V.I. Bovykin // Economics - 2005. - No. 7 – 56-78 p.

2. Bogdanov, Yu. N. Personnel motivation: textbook / Bogdanov Yu. N., Zorin Yu. V., Shmonin D. A., Yarygin V. T. - M.: INFRA, 2006. – 436 p.

3. Burmistrov, A. What methods of increasing staff motivation are the most effective? / A. Burmistrov, N. Gazenko // Personnel management. - 2006. – No. 2 – 156-167 p.

4. Gutgarz, R.D. Evolution of approaches to the problem of enterprise personnel management / R.D. Gutharz // Management in Russia and abroad - 2005. - No. 5 _ 36-45 p.

5. Zaitseva, O.A. Fundamentals of management: textbook / Zaitseva O.A., Radugin A.A., Radugin K.A., Rogacheva N.I. - M.: INFRA, 2006. – 507 p.

6. Meskon, M. Fundamentals of management: textbook / M. Meskon, M. Albert, F. Khedouri. – 3rd ed. - M: Williams, 2008. – 672 p.

7. Serbinovsky, B.Yu. Personnel management: textbook / Serbinovsky B.Yu., Samygina S.M. – M.: Prior, 1999. - p. 343

8. Utkin, E.A. Motivational management: textbook / Utkin E.A. – M.: EKMOS, 2002.- 256 p.

a set of needs and motives that encourage a person to be active in a certain direction. Professional M. is only part of a person’s motivational sphere.

Excellent definition

Incomplete definition ↓

Motivation

something that forces a person to do something. It is not difficult to give a general definition of motivation; it is much more difficult to identify individual motivational factors that, in fact, encourage a person to take certain actions.

A well-known theory of motivation is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, according to which all human needs can be ranked - from basic (hunger, thirst) to higher (the need for self-actualization). According to this theory, a need occupying a higher place in the hierarchy becomes significant (i.e., motivating) only after lower needs are satisfied. Indeed, behavior can be explained in different ways, at different levels. At a basic level, some behaviors, such as blinking, are a reflex response to a stimulus, such as a blowing wind. However, reflexes can be overcome; holding a precious dish, even a very hot one, a person will try to carefully place it without dropping it. At the next level, biological instincts operate, such as hunger, which are the motivators of behavior. Again, therapeutic fasting and various diets prove the possibility of replacing some motivators with others, i.e. Maslow’s hierarchy is not always applicable. Reasons for behavior other than reflexes and instincts are much more difficult to identify. Behaviorists are trying to discover secondary instincts, the satisfaction of which also allows the primary (biological) instincts to be satisfied. For example, money can be classified as a secondary instinct; with its help you can satisfy your hunger. At the same time, in the absence of obvious connections between behavior and primary instinct, reasoning reaches a dead end. For example, it is hardly worth talking about the exploratory instinct of a child who studies his environment.

The complexity of such a phenomenon as motivation is obvious if we think about attempts to motivate people to work. Previously, researchers believed that demonstration of effective performance and increased pay for increased productivity were sufficient incentives to work productively. Subsequently, it became clear that all people are different; some actually respond to better working conditions, others need job satisfaction, and still others value stability above all else. The main task of social work is to try to find out the degree of motivation of clients to change their behavior or life circumstances that can be changed. The key questions are: is a person able to change, does he want to? You can find the answer to these questions by discussing with the client the entire range of his problems and possible solutions. It is much easier to motivate a person to change if he considers these changes to be timely and appropriate, and the goals are achievable.

Excellent definition

Incomplete definition ↓

From the expectation of achieving these items, or negative ones caused by the incompleteness of the present situation. Understanding the motive requires inner work. The term “motivation” was first used by A. Schopenhauer in his article.

Today this term is understood differently by different scientists. For example, motivation according to V.K. Vilyunas is a total system of processes responsible for motivation and activity. And K.K. Platonov believes that motivation as a mental phenomenon is a set of motives.

Motive is one of the key concepts of the psychological theory of activity, developed by leading Soviet psychologists A. N. Leontiev and S. L. Rubinstein. The simplest definition of motive within the framework of this theory is: “Motive is a materialized need.” Motive is often confused with need and goal, however, need is, in fact, an unconscious desire to eliminate discomfort, and goal is the result of conscious goal setting, the choice of an object (object) that satisfies the requirements of the motive. For example: thirst is a need, the desire to quench thirst is a goal, and a bottle of water that a person reaches for is a motive. You can also understand thirst as a feeling, sensation (of thirst), and need as the need to have a certain amount of water in the body (in the blood), then the goal of behavior is to quench thirst, that is, to optimize the amount of water in the body (but not a bottle of water). In this context, “a motive is a resource (water), the desire to obtain or preserve which determines the behavior of the subject.”

Types of motivation

Extrinsic motivation(extreme) - motivation that is not related to the content of a certain activity, but is conditioned by circumstances external to the subject.

Intrinsic motivation(intrinsic) - motivation associated not with external circumstances, but with the very content of the activity.

Positive and negative motivation. Motivation based on positive incentives is called positive. Motivation based on negative incentives is called negative.

Example: the construction “if I clean up the table, I will get candy” or “if I don’t play around, I will get candy” is a positive motivation. The construction “if I don’t put things in order on the table, I will be punished” or “if I misbehave, I will be punished” is a negative motivation.

Sustainable and unstable motivation. Motivation that is based on human needs is considered sustainable, since it does not require additional reinforcement.

There are two main types of motivation: “from” and “to”, or the “carrot and stick method”. Also distinguished:

individual motivations aimed at maintaining homeostasis
- pain avoidance
- desire for temperature optimum
- etc.
group
- caring for offspring
- finding a place in the group hierarchy
- maintaining the community structure inherent to a given species
- and so on.
educational

Motivation and law

Mechanisms of formation of biological motivations

The leading role in the formation of biological motivations is played by the hypothalamic region of the brain, which produces hormones. Here the processes of transformation of biological (metabolic) needs into motivational arousal take place. The hypothalamic structures of the brain, based on their influences on other parts of the brain, determine the formation of motivation-driven behavior.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

In his work Motivation and Personality (), Maslow proposed that all human needs are innate, or instinctive, and that they are organized into a hierarchical system of priority or dominance. This work was continued by other scientists.

Needs in order of priority:

Physiological needs

They consist of basic, primary human needs, sometimes even unconscious. Sometimes, in the works of modern researchers, they are called biological needs.

Need for security

After satisfying physiological needs, their place in the motivational life of an individual is taken by needs of another level, which in the most general form can be combined into the category of security (the need for security; for stability; for dependence; for protection; for freedom from fear, anxiety and chaos; the need for structure, order, law, restrictions; other needs).

Need for belonging and love

A person craves warm, friendly relationships, he needs a social group that would provide him with such relationships, a family that would accept him as one of their own.

Need for recognition

Each person (with rare exceptions associated with pathology) constantly needs recognition, a stable and, as a rule, high assessment of his own merits; each of us needs both the respect of the people around us and the opportunity to respect ourselves. Satisfying the need for evaluation and respect gives an individual a sense of self-confidence, a sense of self-worth, strength, adequacy, a feeling that he is useful and necessary in this world. The needs at this level are divided into two classes.

The first includes desires and aspirations associated with the concept of “achievement”. A person needs a feeling of his own power, adequacy, competence, he needs a feeling of confidence, independence and freedom.

In the second class of needs we include the need for reputation or prestige (we define these concepts as respect from others), the need to gain status, attention, recognition, fame.

Need for self-actualization

It is clear that a musician should make music, an artist should paint pictures, and a poet should write poetry, if, of course, they want to live in peace with themselves. A person must be who he can be. Man feels that he must conform to his own nature. This need can be called the need for self-actualization. Obviously, this need is expressed differently in different people. One person wants to become an ideal parent, another strives to achieve athletic heights, a third tries to create or invent. It seems that at this level of motivation it is almost impossible to delineate the limits of individual differences.

One can name a number of social conditions necessary to satisfy basic needs; Improper implementation of these conditions can directly impede the satisfaction of basic needs. These include cognitive and aesthetic needs.

Need for knowledge and understanding Aesthetic needs

Aesthetic needs are closely intertwined with both conative and cognitive needs, and therefore their clear differentiation is impossible. Needs such as the need for order, for symmetry, for completeness, for completeness, for system, for structure.

Needs of one type must be fully satisfied before another need, of a higher level, manifests itself and becomes active.

A. Maslow’s theory is quite clearly combined with the theory of the motivational complex, which also assumes the presence of five groups of needs. However, these needs are interconnected by cyclical rather than hierarchical connections like the 5-element scheme in Chinese philosophy, they require primary satisfaction, and the movement of needs comes from the bottom up (T) - Alderfer, unlike Maslow, believes that the movement of needs comes from the bottom up and top down(); he called the upward movement through the levels the process of satisfying needs, and the downward movement - frustration - the process of failure in the desire to satisfy the need.

Optimal motivation

It is known that in order for activities to be carried out, sufficient motivation is necessary. However, if the motivation is too strong, the level of activity and tension increases, as a result of which certain disorders occur in activity (and behavior), that is, work efficiency deteriorates. In this case, a high level of motivation causes undesirable emotional reactions (tension, anxiety, stress, etc.), which leads to deterioration in performance.

It has been experimentally established that there is a certain optimum (optimal level) of motivation at which the activity is performed best (for a given person, in a specific situation). A subsequent increase in motivation will lead not to improvement, but to deterioration in performance. Thus, a very high level of motivation is not always the best. There is a certain limit beyond which a further increase in motivation leads to worse results.

This relationship is called the Yerkes-Dodson law. These scientists established back in 1908 that in order to teach animals to go through a maze, the most favorable is the average intensity of motivation (it was set by the intensity of the electric shocks).

Write a review about the article "Motivation"

Notes

Excerpt describing Motivation

“Chere comtesse, il y a si longtemps... elle a ete alitee la pauvre enfant... au bal des Razoumowsky... et la comtesse Apraksine... j"ai ete si heureuse..." [Dear Countess, how long ago... she should have been in bed, poor child... at the Razumovskys' ball... and Countess Apraksina... was so happy...] animated women's voices were heard, interrupting one another and merging with the rustle of dresses and the moving of chairs. That conversation began, which is started just enough so that at the first pause you get up and rustle with dresses , say: "Je suis bien charmee; la sante de maman... et la comtesse Apraksine" [I am in admiration; mother's health... and Countess Apraksina] and, again rustling with dresses, go into the hallway, put on a fur coat or cloak and leave. about the main city news of that time - about the illness of the famous rich and handsome man of Catherine's time, old Count Bezukhy, and about his illegitimate son Pierre, who behaved so indecently at an evening with Anna Pavlovna Scherer.
“I really feel sorry for the poor count,” said the guest, “his health is already bad, and now this grief from his son will kill him!”
- What's happened? - asked the countess, as if not knowing what the guest was talking about, although she had already heard the reason for Count Bezukhy’s grief fifteen times.
- This is the current upbringing! “Even abroad,” said the guest, “this young man was left to his own devices, and now in St. Petersburg, they say, he did such horrors that he was expelled from there with the police.
- Tell! - said the countess.
“He chose his acquaintances poorly,” Princess Anna Mikhailovna intervened. - The son of Prince Vasily, he and Dolokhov alone, they say, God knows what they were doing. And both were hurt. Dolokhov was demoted to the ranks of soldiers, and Bezukhy’s son was exiled to Moscow. Anatoly Kuragin - his father somehow hushed him up. But they did deport me from St. Petersburg.
- What the hell did they do? – asked the Countess.
“These are perfect robbers, especially Dolokhov,” said the guest. - He is the son of Marya Ivanovna Dolokhova, such a respectable lady, so what? You can imagine: the three of them found a bear somewhere, put it in a carriage and took it to the actresses. The police came running to calm them down. They caught the policeman and tied him back to back to the bear and let the bear into the Moika; the bear is swimming, and the policeman is on him.
“The policeman’s figure is good, ma chere,” shouted the count, dying of laughter.
- Oh, what a horror! What's there to laugh about, Count?
But the ladies couldn’t help but laugh themselves.
“They saved this unfortunate man by force,” the guest continued. “And it’s the son of Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhov who is playing so cleverly!” – she added. “They said he was so well-mannered and smart.” This is where all my upbringing abroad has led me. I hope that no one will accept him here, despite his wealth. They wanted to introduce him to me. I resolutely refused: I have daughters.
- Why do you say that this young man is so rich? - asked the countess, bending down from the girls, who immediately pretended not to listen. - After all, he only has illegitimate children. It seems... Pierre is also illegal.
The guest waved her hand.
“He has twenty illegal ones, I think.”
Princess Anna Mikhailovna intervened in the conversation, apparently wanting to show off her connections and her knowledge of all social circumstances.
“That’s the thing,” she said significantly and also in a half-whisper. – The reputation of Count Kirill Vladimirovich is known... He lost count of his children, but this Pierre was beloved.
“How good the old man was,” said the countess, “even last year!” I have never seen a more beautiful man.
“Now he’s changed a lot,” said Anna Mikhailovna. “So I wanted to say,” she continued, “through his wife, Prince Vasily is the direct heir to the entire estate, but his father loved Pierre very much, was involved in his upbringing and wrote to the sovereign... so no one knows if he dies (he is so bad that they are waiting for it) every minute, and Lorrain came from St. Petersburg), who will get this huge fortune, Pierre or Prince Vasily. Forty thousand souls and millions. I know this very well, because Prince Vasily himself told me this. And Kirill Vladimirovich is my second cousin on my mother’s side. “He baptized Borya,” she added, as if not attributing any significance to this circumstance.
– Prince Vasily arrived in Moscow yesterday. He’s going for an inspection, they told me,” the guest said.
“Yes, but, entre nous, [between us],” said the princess, “this is an excuse, he actually came to Count Kirill Vladimirovich, having learned that he was so bad.”
“However, ma chere, this is a nice thing,” said the count and, noticing that the eldest guest was not listening to him, he turned to the young ladies. – The policeman had a good figure, I imagine.
And he, imagining how the policeman waved his arms, laughed again with a sonorous and bassy laugh that shook his entire plump body, as people laugh who have always eaten well and especially drunk. “So, please, come and have dinner with us,” he said.

There was silence. The Countess looked at the guest, smiling pleasantly, however, without hiding the fact that she would not be at all upset now if the guest got up and left. The guest's daughter was already straightening her dress, looking questioningly at her mother, when suddenly from the next room several men's and women's feet were heard running towards the door, the crash of a chair being snagged and knocked over, and a thirteen-year-old girl ran into the room, wrapping something in her short muslin skirt, and stopped in the middle rooms. It was obvious that she accidentally, with an uncalculated run, ran so far. At the same moment a student with a crimson collar, a guards officer, a fifteen-year-old girl and a fat, ruddy boy in a children's jacket appeared at the door.
The count jumped up and, swaying, spread his arms wide around the running girl.
- Oh, here she is! – he shouted laughing. - Birthday girl! Ma chere, birthday girl!
“Ma chere, il y a un temps pour tout, [Darling, there is time for everything,” said the countess, pretending to be stern. “You keep spoiling her, Elie,” she added to her husband.
“Bonjour, ma chere, je vous felicite, [Hello, my dear, I congratulate you,” said the guest. – Quelle delicuse enfant! “What a lovely child!” she added, turning to her mother.
A dark-eyed, big-mouthed, ugly, but lively girl, with her childish open shoulders, which, shrinking, moved in her bodice from fast running, with her black curls bunched back, thin bare arms and small legs in lace pantaloons and open shoes, I was at that sweet age when a girl is no longer a child, and a child is not yet a girl. Turning away from her father, she ran up to her mother and, not paying any attention to her stern remark, hid her flushed face in the lace of her mother’s mantilla and laughed. She was laughing at something, talking abruptly about a doll that she had taken out from under her skirt.
– See?... Doll... Mimi... See.
And Natasha could no longer speak (everything seemed funny to her). She fell on top of her mother and laughed so loudly and loudly that everyone, even the prim guest, laughed against their will.
- Well, go, go with your freak! - said the mother, feigning angrily pushing her daughter away. “This is my youngest,” she turned to the guest.
Natasha, taking her face away from her mother’s lace scarf for a minute, looked at her from below through tears of laughter and hid her face again.
The guest, forced to admire the family scene, considered it necessary to take some part in it.
“Tell me, my dear,” she said, turning to Natasha, “how do you feel about this Mimi?” Daughter, right?
Natasha did not like the tone of condescension to childish conversation with which the guest addressed her. She did not answer and looked at her guest seriously.
Meanwhile, all this young generation: Boris - an officer, the son of Princess Anna Mikhailovna, Nikolai - a student, the eldest son of the count, Sonya - the count's fifteen-year-old niece, and little Petrusha - the youngest son, all settled in the living room and, apparently, tried to keep within the boundaries of decency the animation and gaiety that still breathed from every feature of them. It was clear that there, in the back rooms, from where they all ran so quickly, they were having more fun conversations than here about city gossip, the weather and Comtesse Apraksine. [about Countess Apraksina.] Occasionally they glanced at each other and could hardly restrain themselves from laughing.
Two young men, a student and an officer, friends since childhood, were the same age and both were handsome, but did not look alike. Boris was a tall, fair-haired young man with regular, delicate features of a calm and handsome face; Nikolai was a short, curly-haired young man with an open expression on his face. Black hairs were already showing on his upper lip, and his whole face expressed impetuosity and enthusiasm.
Nikolai blushed as soon as he entered the living room. It was clear that he was searching and could not find anything to say; Boris, on the contrary, immediately found himself and told him calmly, jokingly, how he had known this Mimi doll as a young girl with an undamaged nose, how she had grown old in his memory at the age of five and how her head was cracked all over her skull. Having said this, he looked at Natasha. Natasha turned away from him, looked at her younger brother, who, with his eyes closed, was shaking with silent laughter, and, unable to hold on any longer, jumped and ran out of the room as quickly as her fast legs could carry her. Boris didn't laugh.
- You seemed to want to go too, maman? Do you need a carriage? – he said, turning to his mother with a smile.
“Yes, go, go, tell me to cook,” she said, pouring out.
Boris quietly walked out the door and followed Natasha, the fat boy angrily ran after them, as if annoyed at the frustration that had occurred in his studies.

Of the young people, not counting the countess's eldest daughter (who was four years older than her sister and already behaved like a grown-up) and the young lady's guest, Nikolai and Sonya's niece remained in the living room. Sonya was a thin, petite brunette with a soft gaze, shaded by long eyelashes, a thick black braid that wrapped around her head twice, and a yellowish tint to the skin on her face and especially on her bare, thin, but graceful, muscular arms and neck. With the smoothness of her movements, the softness and flexibility of her small limbs, and her somewhat cunning and reserved manner, she resembled a beautiful, but not yet fully formed kitten, which would become a lovely little cat. She apparently considered it decent to show participation in the general conversation with a smile; but against her will, from under her long thick eyelashes, she looked at her cousin [cousin] who was leaving for the army with such girlish passionate adoration that her smile could not deceive anyone for a moment, and it was clear that the cat sat down only to jump more energetically and play with your sauce as soon as they, like Boris and Natasha, get out of this living room.
“Yes, ma chere,” said the old count, turning to his guest and pointing to his Nicholas. - His friend Boris was promoted to officer, and out of friendship he does not want to lag behind him; he leaves both the university and me as an old man: he goes into military service, ma chere. And his place in the archive was ready, and that was it. Is that friendship? - said the count questioningly.
“But they say war has been declared,” said the guest.

Motivation

Today this term is understood differently by different scientists. For example, motivation according to V.K. Viliunas is a total system of processes responsible for motivation and activity. And K.K. Platonov believes that motivation, as a mental phenomenon, is a set of motives.

Types of motivation

Extrinsic motivation(extreme) - motivation that is not related to the content of a certain activity, but is conditioned by circumstances external to the subject.

Intrinsic motivation(intrinsic) - motivation associated not with external circumstances, but with the very content of the activity.

Positive and negative motivation. Motivation based on positive incentives is called positive. Motivation based on negative incentives is called negative.

Example: the construction “if I clean up the table, I will get candy” or “if I don’t play around, I will get candy” is a positive motivation. The construction “if I clean up the table, then I won’t be punished” or “if I don’t play around, then I won’t be punished” is a negative motivation.

Sustainable and unstable motivation. Motivation that is based on human needs is considered sustainable, since it does not require additional reinforcement.

There are two main types of motivation: “from” and “to”, or the “carrot and stick method”. Also distinguished:

individual motivations aimed at maintaining homeostasis
- pain avoidance
- desire for temperature optimum
- etc.
group
- caring for offspring
- finding a place in the group hierarchy
- maintaining the community structure inherent to a given species
- and so on.
educational

Self-affirmation motive- the desire to establish oneself in society; associated with self-esteem, ambition, self-love. A person tries to prove to others that he is worth something, strives to obtain a certain status in society, wants to be respected and appreciated. Sometimes the desire for self-affirmation is referred to as prestige motivation (the desire to obtain or maintain a high social status).

Thus, the desire for self-affirmation, for increasing one’s formal and informal status, for a positive assessment of one’s personality is a significant motivational factor that encourages a person to work intensively and develop.

Motive for identification with another person- the desire to be like a hero, idol, authoritative person (father, teacher, etc.). This motive encourages you to work and develop. It is especially relevant for teenagers who try to copy the behavior of other people.

The desire to be like an idol is an essential motive of behavior, under the influence of which a person develops and improves. Identification with another person leads to an increase in the individual’s energy potential due to the symbolic “borrowing” of energy from the idol (object of identification): strength, inspiration, and the desire to work and act as the hero (idol, father, etc.) did. By identifying with the hero, the teenager becomes bolder. Having a model, an idol with whom young people would strive to identify themselves and whom they would try to copy, from whom they would learn to live and work, is an important condition for an effective socialization process.

Optimal motivation

It is known that in order for activities to be carried out, sufficient motivation is necessary. However, if the motivation is too strong, the level of activity and tension increases, as a result of which certain discord occurs in activity (and behavior), i.e., work efficiency deteriorates. In this case, a high level of motivation causes undesirable emotional reactions (tension, anxiety, stress, etc.), which leads to deterioration in performance.