thinking critically
14
Motivation, a force that initiates, guides and upholds goal-oriented behaviours. It is the cause to take action, whether to exercise to maintain a healthy body or enrol in university to earn a degree. The forces that lie beneath motivation can be social, biological, emotional or cognitive in nature. ‘Toward a Sociological Theory of Motivation’, written by Jonathan Turner, is an in depth analysis of the incorporation of functional and behaviourist theories through the research of Durkheim’s structuralism with ethno-methodology and interactionism, Freud’s psychoanalytic approach with fundamentals of interactionism and phenomenology models in structuration theory, the adaptation of Mead’s social behaviourism into internationalist theory and the evolution of Schutz’s phenomenology into ethno-methodological theory. For each of the five theorists, the underlying and largely implicit theory of motivation is revealed, and then translated into a combination of all models in an effort to bring forth a provisional theory of interpersonal motivation.
Motivation stems from the internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested and committed to a job, task or role, which drives the psychological effort of a persons mental capability to overcome a goal. Exposed in the content of the article, motivation is found to be more than just a desire and aspiration to strive towards a goal. It is found to
result from the interaction of both conscious and unconscious factors. These include the intensity of aspiration or need, incentive or reward value of the goal, and expectations proposed by the individual’s frame of mind. Through the research and experimental encounters of the previously stated theorists, it has been recognised that motivation stipulates reasons as to why behaviour and self-inflicted impulse reflect the way a person acts. Few would disagree with the idea that there are forces mobilising, driving and activating individuals to act, interact and organise. Nathan Brody emphasises on the idea that there is always a model of motivation in the analysis of cognitive processes, “There is typically an implicit theory of motivation in most sociological approaches to the study of interactionism.” This in turn produces problems that can be compounded by the selective extraction of concepts and propositions from the larger quantity of theoretical work in which they were originally developed, but with such discrimination, this constructs threats of generalising theories that so far highlight only those elements agreeable to motive theories.
Toward a Sociological Theory of Motivation
Jonathan Tuner
American Sociological Review Vol. 52
American Sociological Association
February 1987