`Accessible and engaging, ... introducing students directly to the research literature [and] encouraging them to develop considerable theoretical sophistication.'---Katherine Arbuthnott, University of Regina --

Motivational science is one of the fastest-growing areas of research in social psychology, incorporating multiple perspectives from social-personality research. This volume provides students and researchers with a comprehensive overview of major topics in social motivation. All contributors are renowned specialists in their field who provide in-depth and integrated coverage of the major empirical and theoretical contributions in their area. Social Motivation is essential reading for all social psychologists with an interest in social-motivational processes, and will also be of interest to people working in political science and cultural studies looking for a psychological perspective to work in their field.

As I begin to write this Preface, I feel a rush of excitement. I have now finished the book; my gestalt is coming into completion. Throughout the months that I have been writing this, I have, indeed, been intrinsically motivated. Now that it is finished I feel quite competent and self-determining (see Chapter 2). Whether or not those who read the book will perceive me that way is also a concern of mine (an extrinsic one), but it is a wholly separate issue from the intrinsic rewards I have been experiencing. This book presents a theoretical perspective. It reviews an enormous amount of research which establishes unequivocally that intrinsic motivation exists. Also considered herein are various approaches to the conceptualizing of intrinsic motivation. The book concentrates on the approach which has developed out of the work of Robert White (1959), namely, that intrinsically motivated behaviors are ones which a person engages in so that he may feel competent and self-determining in relation to his environment. The book then considers the development of intrinsic motiva tion, how behaviors are motivated intrinsically, how they relate to and how intrinsic motivation is extrinsically motivated behaviors, affected by extrinsic rewards and controls. It also considers how changes in intrinsic motivation relate to changes in attitudes, how people attribute motivation to each other, how the attribution process is motivated, and how the process of perceiving motivation (and other internal states) in oneself relates to perceiving them in others.

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This innovative text sheds light on how people work -- why they sometimes function well and, at other times, behave in ways that are self-defeating or destructive. The author presents her groundbreaking research on adaptive and maladaptive cognitive-motivational patterns and shows: * How these patterns originate in people's self-theories * Their consequences for the person -- for achievement, social relationships, and emotional well-being * Their consequences for society, from issues of human potential to stereotyping and intergroup relations * The experiences that create them This outstanding text is a must-read for researchers in social psychology, child development, and education, and is appropriate for both graduate and senior undergraduate students in these areas.

Moving beyond the traditional, and unproductive, rivalry between the fields of motivation and cognition, this book integrates the two domains to shed new light on the control of goal-directed action. Renowned social and motivational psychologists present concise formulations of the latest research programs which are effectively mapping the territory, providing new findings, and suggesting innovative strategies for future research. Ideally structured for classroom use, this book will effectively familiarize readers with important theories in the psychology of action.

This volume covers the current status of research in the neurobiology of motivated behaviors in humans and other animals in healthy condition. This includes consideration of the psychological processes that drive motivated behavior and the anatomical, electrophysiological and neurochemical mechanisms which drive these processes and regulate behavioural output. The volume also includes chapters on pathological disturbances in motivation including apathy, or motivational deficit as well as addictions, the pathological misdirection of motivated behavior. As with the chapters on healthy motivational processes, the chapters on disease provide a comprehensive up to date review of the neurobiological abnormalities that underlie motivation, as determined by studies of patient populations as well as animal models of disease. The book closes with a section on recent developments in treatments for motivational disorders.

For a long time I have had the gnawing desire to convey the broad motivational sig nificance of the attributional conception that I have espoused and to present fully the argument that this framework has earned a rightful place alongside other leading theories of motivation. Furthermore, recent investigations have yielded insights into the attributional determinants of affect, thus providing the impetus to embark upon a detailed discussion of emotion and to elucidate the relation between emotion and motivation from an attributional perspective. The presentation of a unified theory of motivation and emotion is the goal of this book. My more specific aims in the chapters to follow are to: 1) Outline the basic princi ples that I believe characterize an adequate theory of motivation; 2) Convey what I perceive to be the conceptual contributions of the perspective advocated by my col leagues and me; 3) Summarize the empirical relations, reach some definitive con clusions, and point out the more equivocal empirical associations based on hypotheses derived from our particular attribution theory; and 4) Clarify questions that have been raised about this conception and provide new material for still further scrutiny. In so doing, the building blocks (if any) laid down by the attributional con ception will be readily identified and unknown juries of present and future peers can then better determine the value of this scientific product.

Why is one person motivated to create a business empire whilst another is inspired to produce a beautiful work of art? Why do some people prefer a quiet life? The Psychobiology of Human Motivation explores what directs our behaviour, from basic physiological needs like hunger and thirst to more complex aspects of social behaviour like altruism. Hugh Wagner explores the limits of biological explanations and shows how humans can influence `basic' physiological drives in order to adapt to a complex social environment.

The study of motivation has been experiencing a renaissance of research activity recently. This book discusses the psychology, strategies and impact on performance of motivation. Some of the topics included in this book are testing motivational processes in commercial weight-loss program users; the relationship between internal marketing, motivation and satisfaction at work; the effects of gender differences on motivation to learn English; the influence of strategies and motivation on achievement; and person-centred approach as a part of the humanistic paradigm for motivation in sport settings.