Psychology Essay: Motivation.

How will you use the material on motivation to improve your own motivation? Discuss some of the ways that you are already using to stay motivated and achieve your goals.

After reading the various motivation theories [Maslow's Eupsychian Management Theory, Herzberg's Two Factor and Expectancy Theory, McGregor's Theories X, Y & Z, the results of the Hawthorne Studies from 1927-1932, Locke & Latham's Goal-Setting Theory, and Holland's Personality-Job Fit Theory], I find myself mostly agreeing with the last two theories I've just mentioned the most.

I'll start off with the Personality Job-Fit Theory, which suggests that people are more satisfied with their jobs when it suits their personalities, and that as a result, there is a higher sense of loyalty, and people are generally more self-motivated. This is something that I have noticed within myself in these past few years of working in retail; the work that I am doing directly bears on how happy and content I feel, and this affects my productivity greatly. As important as money is in making ends meet, my personal job satisfaction does not actually stem from the pay itself. My being aware of this, has greatly influenced my decision towards the career I am now pursuing.

Holland brought out that all people have distinct personality types, and the closer a person is to a congruent occupation, the higher the level of job satisfaction. Incongruous matching can result in profoundly unhappy workers. For example, realistic types who go into the field of accounting are generally dissatisfied with their work, as the field affords few opportunities to apply his or her best personality traits in the workplace. Accounting work can be technical and tedious, and that may not provide the physical satisfaction desired by a realistic personality type. Personally, I'm foremost of the Artistic type [followed by Social at a close second, and lastly, Investigative]. While some people prefer defined rules and order in their work, something tedious, inflexible and unimaginative would not suit my personality type at all, and my lack of satisfaction would greatly affect my desire and motivation to do the work.

I also saw a lot of truth in the Goal-Setting Theory; it's a lot easier to stay motivated when you've given yourself a set of goals to accomplish, and feeling accomplished is directly related to successfully meeting those goals. Personally, I try my best to set myself up for more success than failure by being realistic in my goal setting, so I set small, 'bite-sized' tasks first. The more successes I've met, the more ambitious I'll then become, and seeing just how far I’ve come can be in and of itself an excellent motivational tool.

Of course, everyone is different, and each person will have their own formulas of staying motivated and creative. All I can say is, for me, staying as much as I can within my element [what is best for my personality type], and setting realistic goals for myself, works to keep my motivation strong and my creativity flowing.