Motivation, Emotional Responses, Maturation, Intelligence, and Individual Differences

Abstract

THE PROBLEM of motivation involves definite theory whether explicit or implicit. Illustrative of the building of a theoretical position by experimental procedure is the report by Coghill (269). Summarizing work on the correlation of structure and function in the development of behavior, he discussed the implications of the concepts of individuation and integration for the problem of motivation as it operates in connection with instinct, psychopathology, and personality growth. A symposium on the Law of Effect, participated in by Carr, Dashiell, Thorndike, and others (307), presented the viewpoints of leading workers in this field (see Chapter I). The influence of Lewin's work is to be found in experimentation on the incompleted task by Marrow (315), in the relation of this view to the goalgradient hypothesis by Hull (292), and in the work on the influence of barriers by Wright (381). Lewin himself expounded the importance of the relation of expectation and aspiration to success and failure as a neglected factor in motivation, and, in collaboration with Lippitt (308), described the observational procedures employed in investigating autocratically and democratically controlled child groups in which individual and group motivation were significant factors.