Cognitive Approaches to Motivation

Research of Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) in the subjective tension systems that
work toward resolution of problems in humans, along with his research
done in collaboration with Edward C. Tolman (1886-1959) that emphasizes
expectancies and the subjective value of the results of actions, has led to a
cognitive approach to motivation. Related to this research is that of Leon
Festinger (1919-1989), whose theory of cognitive dissonance stipulates that
if a person’s beliefs are not in harmony with one another, the person will experience
a discomfort that he or she will attempt to eliminate by altering his
or her beliefs.
People ultimately realize that certain specific behaviors will lead to anticipated
results. Behavior, therefore, has a purpose, but the number of goals
related to specific behaviors is virtually infinite. People learn to behave in
ways that make it most likely to achieve expected results.
Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson demonstrated that teacher expectations
have a great deal to do with the success of the students with whom
they work. Their experiment, detailed fully in Pygmalion in the Classroom
(1968), relates how they selected preadolescent and adolescent students
randomly and then told the teachers of those students that they had devised
a way of determining which students were likely to show spurts of unusual
mental growth in the coming year.
Each teacher was given the names of two or three students who were identified
as being on the brink of rapid intellectual development. The researchers
tested the students at the end of the school year and found that those
who had been designated as poised on the brink of unusual mental development
tested above the norm, even though they had been selected randomly
from all the students in the classes involved. In this experiment, teacher motivation
to help certain students succeed appears to have been central to
those students’ achieving goals beyond those of other students in the class.

Sources for Further Study
Boekaerts, Monique, Paul R. Pintrich, and Moshe Zeidner. Handbook of Self-
Regulation. San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press, 2000. Chapters 5 and 15
deal specifically with motivation, offering unique perspectives that are
both physiological and social. The approach of this volume is essentially
humanistic.
Ferguson, Eva Dreikurs. Motivation: A Biosocial and Cognitive Integration of Motivation
and Emotion. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. This book
requires some background in the field of motivation. It is carefully researched
and accurately presented. Its focus is more on the physiological
aspects of motivation than on the social.
Glover, John A., Royce R. Ronning, and Cecil R. Reynolds, eds. Handbook of
Creativity. New York: Plenum Press, 1989. Of special interest to those seeking
information about motivation will be chapter 7, “Cognitive Processes
in Creativity,” and those parts of chapter 5, “The Nature-Nurture Problem
in Creativity,” that deal with cognitive and motivational processes.
Greenwood, Gordon E., and H. Thompson Fillmer. Educational Psychology:
Cases for Teacher Decision-Making. Columbus, Ohio: Merrill, 1999. Of particular
value in this book of case studies is part 5, which deals with motivation
and classroom management. In this section, chapter 25, “Motivation
or Control?,” is particularly relevant to readers interested in motivation.
The approach in this book is eminently practical. The writing is easily accessible
to beginners in the field.
Kendrick, Douglas T., Steven L. Neuberg, and Robert B. Cialdini. Social Psychology:
Unraveling the Mystery. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1999. This is one of
the best-written, most accessible books in introductory psychology. It is
replete with examples to illustrate what is being said. The prose style is enticing,
and the intellectual content is exceptional. The chapter titled
“The Motivational Systems: Motives and Goals” is particularly relevant to
those studying motivation. Strongly recommended for those unfamiliar
with the field.
Lawler, Edward E., III. Rewarding Excellence: Pay Strategies for the New Economy.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000. Approached from the standpoint of a
professor of management, this book discusses various motivational protocols
employed by industry. Some of them are easily transferable to
broader contexts. The tactics suggested are largely behavioral. They deal
extensively with reward/punishment scenarios.
Lesko,Wayne A., ed. Readings in Social Psychology: General, Classic, and Contemporary
Selections. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2000. This entire collection is
worth reading. Nearly every selection in it relates in some way to motivation.
Rosenthal, Robert, and Lenore Jacobson. Pygmalion in the Classroom. 1968.
Reprint. New York: Irvington, 1992. This report of an experiment that
deals with teacher expectations and their relation to student achievement
is compelling and provocative.
Wagner, Hugh. The Psychobiology of Human Motivation. New York: Routledge,
1999. Demonstrates how humans can adapt to complex social environments
by controlling and channeling their basic physiological drives.
Wagner points out the fallacy of attempting to explain human motivation
in terms of models based on animal physiology. He also questions Abraham
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Wagner’s skepticism is at once challenging,
thought-provoking, and refreshing.
Wong, Roderick. Motivation: A Biobehavioural Approach. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2000.Wong’s focus is sharply on behaviorism and
on the physiological aspects of motivation, although chapter 9, “Social
Motivation: Attachment and Altruism,” moves into the area of social psychology.
This in not a book for beginners, although its ideas are well presented,
often with cogent examples.
R. Baird Shuman
See also: Behaviorism; Conditioning; Drives; Pavlovian Conditioning; S-R
Theory: Neal E. Miller and John Dollard.
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