Motivation and Personality: A Neuropsychological Perspective

Personality is strongly influenced by motivation systems that organise responses to rewards and punishments and that drive approach and avoidance behavior. Neuropsychological research has identified: (a) two avoidance systems, one related to pure active avoidance and escape, and one to passive avoidance and behavioral inhibition produced by goal‐conflict; and (b) two approach systems, one related to the actions of reward seeking and one to experience and behavior related to pleasure on receiving reward. These systems mediate fluid moment‐by‐moment reactions to changing stimuli, with relatively stable person‐specific sensitivities to these stimuli manifested in personality traits. We review what is known about these motivational traits, integrating the theory‐driven approach based on animal learning paradigms with the empirical tradition of the Big Five personality model.     

Parental Support and Adolescent Motivation for Dieting: The Self-Determination Theory Perspective

This article focuses on parents’ role in overweight adolescents’ motivation to diet and successful weight loss. The study employed Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as the theoretical framework (Deci & Ryan, 2000, 2011). Ninety-nine participants (ages 20–30) who had been overweight during adolescence according to their Body Mass Index (BMI mean = 25, SD = 1.6), completed retrospective questionnaires about their motivation to diet and their parents’ behavior in the context of dieting. Findings from a structural equation modeling analysis suggested that participants who viewed their parents’ as more need-supportive demonstrated more autonomous motivation to diet, which, in turn, contributed to their successful weight loss. The findings highlight the importance of parental support of adolescents’ psychological needs in the quality of their motivation to diet. This is an important insight for parents and professionals who aim to encourage more constructive parent involvement in adolescents’ dieting and well-being.     

Work Motivation and Performance: A Social Identity Perspective

Work motivation and performance were analysed from the perspective of social identity theory and self-categorisation theory. Central in this analysis is the relation of organisational identification with the motivation to exert effort on behalf of the collective. A theoretical analysis as well as a review of empirical studies of the relationship of organisational identification with motivation and performance leads to the conclusion that identification is positively related to work motivation, task performance, and contextual performance to the extent that (a) social identity is salient, and (b) high performance is perceived to be in the group's or organisation's interest.     

促进工作动机的有效路径:自我决定理论的观点

自我决定理论是关于人类行为的动机理论。本文通过分析阐述了自我决定理论的哲学基础,从有机辩证的视角梳理了自我决定理论的基本思想,并对组织背景中以自我决定理论为指导框架的工作动机研究进行了综述,结论认为满足胜任、关系和自主三种心理需要的组织环境因素是增加内部动机并促进外部动机的内化,进而促进员工的工作绩效与心理健康的有效路径。     

Emotions,Motivation, and Character: A Phenomenological Perspective

In this paper, I wish to explore whether and how emotions build on a state of being motivated that is linked to character and requires the positive contribution of habit. Drawing on phenomenological accounts of motivation (most notably Husserl’s and Merleau-Ponty’s), I argue that the relation between emotions and character depends on the institution of an emotional space, which is responsible for our sensitivity to the values of the felt situation and yet it is open to changes and revisions.     

Proximal and Distal Defense: A New Perspective on Unconscious Motivation

Death-related thoughts produce different effects on thought and behavior when they are in current focal attention and when they are on the fringes of consciousness. When such thoughts are conscious, people attempt to either remove them from consciousness or push death into the distant future by distorting their beliefs to logically imply that they have many remaining years to live. When such thoughts are highly accessible but outside current focal attention, people increase efforts to view themselves as persons of value living in a meaningful universe. In this way, awareness of the inevitability of death produces diverse effects on human thought and behavior that bear little obvious resemblance to the problem of death.     

Motivation in Personal Construct Theory: A Conceptual Critique

Kelly's attempt to derive apparently motiwtional phenomena (hostility, guilt, etc.) solely from the confirmation or disconfirmation of personal constructs cannot adequately explain such phenomena. His account of hostility assumes that some beliefs are so resistant to change that the person seeks to compel confirmation of them; however, this resistance is incompatible with Kelly's own Choice Corollary. Anxiety is said to derive from the fact that disconfirmation would leave one's world in chaos, but “chaos” is shown to be an illogical concept. Humor, in turn, cannot be explained just by cognitive incongruity, since incongruity may as well lead to anxiety or hostility. Finally, guilt cannot be explained without reference to underlying fears of punishment and their rationalization in terms of supposedly objective moral concepts. Nevertheless, Kelly's Repertory Grid technique, supplemented by laddering, may be useful in indicating primary needs, moral convictions, and sources of anxiety.     

安全动机在安全绩效模型中的作用：自我决定理论的视角

在日常工作中, 安全动机是员工保持安全行为的重要决定因素。安全动机对安全绩效的影响虽然已引起研究者的关注, 但相关的实证研究缺少清晰的理论界定和有效的测量工具。本项目拟在安全绩效模型的基础上, 借鉴自我决定理论对动机的分类, 将安全动机的类型进行扩展, 并在多层次模型中探讨安全动机在变革型领导、个体特征和安全绩效之间的中介作用, 以及在中国管理背景下可能存在的边界条件。研究将结合访谈、问卷和情境实验等方法对上述变量间关系进行相关和因果关系的探讨。本项目将自我决定理论与安全绩效模型相结合, 可以为安全研究的动机理论发展做出贡献; 研究结果亦可为安全管理实践提供评价工具和有效指导。     

Beyond Theory and Practice: A Postmodern Perspective

The insights of chaos theory and postmodernism can be applied by therapists to resolve the apparent conflict between theory and practice. Using the example of the modern scientist, the argument is made that for therapy to have integrity the therapist needs a theoretical foundation. This theoretical orientation, however, is tempered by a postmodern perspective that recognizes the finite nature of all theories. The therapist is encouraged to have a theoretical orientation, but not to become that orientation.     

Intersubjective-Systems Theory: A Phenomenological-Contextualist Psychoanalytic Perspective

In this article I outline the essentials of my phenomenological-contextualist psychoanalytic perspective as it has been applied to a wide range of clinical phenomena, including development and pathogenesis, transference and resistance, forms of unconsciousness, emotional trauma, and therapeutic change. I characterize the therapeutic comportment entailed by these formulations as a kind of emotional dwelling.     

Salesperson Motivation to Perform and Job Satisfaction: A Sales Contest Participant Perspective

Salespeople's perceptions of a program of sales contests offered by several organizations over time are empirically assessed, and related to both sales performance and job satisfaction. The results suggest variability in attitudes toward contest benefits, goals, rewards, budget, themes, timing and frequency, and outcomes. Conclusions and managerial implications are discussed. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Direct Selling Education Foundation in this project. Special thanks to Marlene Futterman.     

The Dual Moral Self: Moral Centrality and Internal Moral Motivation

In this study, the relationship between two aspects of the moral self, moral centrality and internal moral motivation, was analyzed. It is argued that these 2 aspects are conceptually distinct but nonetheless empirically related. Based on a cross-sectional study of 205 adolescents (M age = 14.83 years, SD = 2.21 years) it was found that moral centrality and internal moral motivation, even though substantially correlated, interacted in predicting moral emotion expectancies. Even though moral centrality was unrelated to adolescents’ age it predicted a longitudinal increase in internal moral motivation over a 1-year interval. Overall, the findings call for a differentiation of moral centrality and internal moral motivation as 2 distinct but interrelated aspects of moral self-development that follow different developmental trajectories and are differentially related to age. At the same time, the study points out that adolescence may be less important for the development of the moral self than commonly assumed.     

A Meta-Analysis of Research on Protection Motivation Theory

This article reports the first meta-analysis of the literature on protection motivation theory (Rogers, 1975, 1983; Rogers & Prentice-Dunn, 1997), a model of disease prevention and health promotion that has generated research for over two decades. The literature review included 65 relevant studies ( N = approximately 30,000) that represented over 20 health issues. The mean overall effect size ( d += 0.52) was of moderate magnitude. In general, increases in threat severity, threat vulnerability, response efficacy, and self-efficacy facilitated adaptive intentions or behaviors. Conversely, decreases in maladaptive response rewards and adaptive response costs increased adaptive intentions or behaviors. This held true whether the measures were based on intentions or behaviors, and suggests that PMT components may be useful for individual and community interventions.     

Achievement Motivation among High School Basketball and Cross-Country Athletes: A Personal Investment Perspective

Abstract

Goal perspective research in the sport setting has primarily focused on task and ego goal orientations, while failing to address the influence of social goals (e.g., Urdan & Maehr, 1995). Maehr and Braskamp's (1986) personal investment theory allows researchers to examine achievement motivation from a multidimensional perspective that incorporates social factors of motivation. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the nature of the personal incentives, sense of self, and perceived options (Maehr & Braskamp, 1986) of basketball and cross-country athletes via semi-structured interviews. Results from content analyses revealed that athletes defined positive and negative experiences through task-, ego-, and socially-oriented personal incentives as well as sense of self and perceived options components. Socially-oriented personal incentives and sense of self components were more prevalent for the basketball athletes than for the cross-country athletes. Notable sport group differences suggest the need to further examine social factors of motivation with a broader representation of individual and team sport athletes.     

从双重关系的角度重新理解马克思的社会形式论

马克思将青年黑格尔派及其他激进批判理论对现实社会弊端的批判指向由人们的思想、道德、观念等等意识形式领域转向现实的社会关系领域,而对社会关系的认识又分为两个方面:即人与人之间的关系和人与物之间的关系,前者是交往关系,后者是交换关系.马克思在"1857-1858年政治经济学批判手稿"中对社会发展形式的阐述就是对这一社会关系的横向维度在社会历史纵向维度中一般进程的认识.本文通过对这一纵向维度中人一物双重关系的横向维度分析,尝试着说明这样一个问题:即无论我们将马克思的社会形式理论理解为三阶段说、还是五阶段说,实际上不同社会形式的变化从双重关系的意义上来说,包含着两种基本的不同性质的双重关系.     

情绪调节理论：心理健康角度的考察

以情绪调节与心理健康的关系为切入口,对情绪调节理论进行了阐述：早期精神分析理论,把情绪调节看作被动防御机制,情绪调节困难导致心理问题;情境观把情绪调节看作为应对情绪情境即时的心理反应,策略使用情况与心理健康相关;过程观认为情绪调节在情绪发生过程中展开,不同阶段所采用的调节策略与心理健康相关,后又把调节过程扩展到情绪恢复到正常状态所持续时间,时间与心理健康相关;结构观认为情绪调节结构的差异影响心理健康     

Marital Relationships: A Social Exchange Theory Perspective

The central thesis of this article is the treatment of the marital relationship within the context of social exchange theory. This article opens with a discussion of marital solidarity and marital power from a social exchange perspective. Next, the article addresses the differences between social exchange and economic exchange in order to provide insight in delineating marital relationships in a social exchange context. The conceptualization of couple therapy in terms of social exchange theory is next discussed. Finally, the article closes with a discussion of the deficiencies of social exchange theory as an attempt to delimit the scope of treating marital relationships as a social exchange system.