Motivation in Design as a Driving Force for Defining Motives of Design - Principia Designae: Pre-Design, Design, and Post-Design - page 76

Fig. 6.1 Motivational
disposition as a combined
product of beliefs
A fundamental principle tenet of the CO theory is that an output is a function of a
motivational disposition and a behavioural program that implements it. The moti-
vational disposition is defined as the combined product of beliefs of a specific form
and particular contents to which the beliefs refer. In terms of form, the beliefs refer
to the following four basic types: (1) beliefs about oneself, which express informa-
tion about oneself, such as one's lifestyles, activities, or feelings (e.g., 'I am
curious', 'I use to play tennis'); (2) beliefs about rules and norms, which denote
ethical, social, aesthetic, and other rules and standards (e.g., 'People should learn to
respect others', 'Ladies first'); (3) beliefs about reality and others (general beliefs),
which are concerned with information about others and the environment (e.g.,
'Buildings should be sustainable', 'Users know what they need'); and (4) beliefs
about goals, which refer to actions or states wished or not by the individual (e.g.,
'I want to be successful', 'My desire is to travel around the world').
Regarding the contents, the beliefs are concerned with themes dealing with the
meanings of the studied behaviour, which was identified and defined by a standard
procedure of in-depth stepwise interviewing validated by empirical testing (Kreitler
and Kreitler 1982 ). Accordingly, the beliefs represent themes that do not refer
directly to the behaviour, but reflect the meanings underlying it. This ensures their
significance for the behaviour under consideration (Kreitler 2004 ).
Further, directionality and strength are the main characteristics of the motiva-
tional disposition. Directionality controls the activity towards which the motiva-
tional disposition is oriented, whereas strength is defined by the number of belief
types and the range of themes within each belief type orienting toward the particular
activity (See Fig. 6.1 ).
The motivational disposition plays an overwhelmingly important role in regard
to creativity. However, for a creative act to occur it is necessary to consider two
further factors: the behavioural program that implements the motivational disposi-
tion in practice, and the trigger which was called above “motive”. A motivational
disposition cannot be activated in a void. Motive is the objective of the act, or the
task that the individual engaged in a potentially creative act undertakes to perform,
such as “designing a park”, “planning an urban area”. Tasks or projects of this kind
trigger the activity of designing, which—depending on the designer's motivational
disposition—may turn out to be more or less creative.