Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
the physiological, safety, love, and esteem needs—an individual is essentially free to grati-
fy any unsatisfied goals. The motivation is then to oblige a new dissatisfaction or agitation
that may develop (Maslow 1954). Maslow (1954) described the above as self-actualization
or man's aspiration to be all he is capable of being.
Because motivations vary among individuals, the essence of cognitive theory is the re-
cognition that humans actively search to comprehend the world and are not merely ma-
nipulated by forces and influences beyond their control (Bandura 1977). Maslow (1954)
equated the propensity to acquire understanding, legitimacy, and intelligence regarding
mankind and the universe, including the relentless drive to solve the cosmic mysteries, with
a quest to meet the basic need for safety. According to Maslow (1954), all fundamental
needs are merely steps along the pathway to self-actualization, along which humans em-
brace all of the basic needs: biological, safety, love, and esteem (Maslow 1968).
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
Bandura (1977) does not dispute Maslow's (1954) implications that some behaviors
emerge as a result of corporeal conditions such as thirst, hunger, sexual incentive, pain, or
other adverse stimuli. He alluded to the idea that much of human behavior exists without
the presence of imposing peripheral stimulus. Extensive study exists regarding behavior,
the conditions that provoke it, and the fortifying conditions that sustain it. Bandura (1977)
maintained a change in external influences may serve to provoke, abolish, and then rees-
tablish the response incidences typically recognized as internal causes.
Bandura (1977) indicated a comprehensive theory of behavior serves to explain the ac-
quisition of behavior patterns and how the roles of self-generated and external sources in-
fluence and attach to each other. From a social learning perspective, an array of possibilities
that can take a variety of forms within biological limits distinguishes human nature (Ban-
dura 1977). The level of psychological and physiological development functions to dictate
the boundary of behavior in cognitive human development. Bandura (1977) highlighted
that humanists who contend the regulation of behavior is exclusively external; the notion
is poorly received because it implies a unilateral flow process that weakens individuals to
sharply respond in order to spread environmental influences.
Bandura (1977) purported some behaviors arise from the impetus of environmental
events or bodily conditions. Thirst, hunger, sexual arousal, pain, and various types of avers-
ive external stimuli move people to action. In the social learning view of interaction, called
reciprocal determinism by Bandura, behavior includes the development of both personal
and environmental factors intermingled and working in concert with each other. The energy
put forth by the interdependent aspects differs in a variety of settings for various behaviors.
In some instances, environmental components serve to exercise powerful constraints on be-
havior; alternatively, personal factors at times serve to control the course of environmental
Search WWH ::




Custom Search