Motivation

In class, both on Monday and today, we talked about motivation.  Monday we talked a lot about Maslow's hierarchy of needs and all that entails.  The bottom of the pyramid starts off with physiological needs such as food, air, clothing, etc.  Next is the level of safety and security. This is one's structure and order in life.  Continuing up the pyramid comes loving and belonging. Friends, family, and group identity are all part of this level.  Next, second to the top, is esteem.  This is one's recognition, status, or acceptance.  It includes one's feelings of adequacy, competence and confidence, and where one's sense of self-efficacy.  All these levels just described are deficiency needs, but the top of the pyramid changes this, being a growth need.  This top level represents self-actualization.  Self-actualization is the instinctual need to make the most of unique abilities and strive to be the best you can be.  So after discussing this pyramid and ideas, we realize that this hierarchy doesn't really predict behaviors.  If we actually acted by what the pyramid tells us, we would be willing to sell our parents or children, whatever it might be, in order to eat or have shelter.  This is not realistic because most people would do anything just to make sure their children or family is safe and healthy.  The other two needs that I thought were interesting were the aesthetic and cognitive needs.  Cognitive being the need to acquire knowledge and be able to understand it.  Aesthetic being able to see the beauty and balance in anything.  I liked the example Dr. Goates gave for this about a school project.  When putting together a project, you want it to look "beautiful" in your opinion when it's finished.  I never thought about this as being an aesthetic need.  But this, just like all of these other ideas are all part of what makes us motivated each and every day.  I think we look past this, not taking time out to realize what motivates each of our steps or decisions.