Motivation: A Literature Review

Every second of every day we are constantly doing something either physically or mentally, even if it is just sitting down and thinking. Once in awhile, we are constantly bombarded with school work or actual work throughout the week that our schedules are always full, until night time. Someone out there is most likely studying overnight to pass their exams or partying hard until they regret that work is tomorrow morning. Though different paths lead to different roads, we all have a common objective, to accomplish our goals. How will we get there?-Through motivation.

In “Motivation: A Literature Review,” Emily Lai explains about the causes of being motivated and how that leads people to do things for themselves or other reasons. Lai states,

“Attribution Theory (B. Weiner),” by John Cherry, discusses the general idea about how something causes something else to happen and how that affects human behaviors. You may not think much, but simple things such as skipping class or working extra hours will show its effects in the future and will alter the way you perceive that, good and bad intentions. Cherry states, “Attribution has three stages: when the behavior is observed, when the behavior is determined, and whether the behavior causes internal or external ambition” (Cherry, J.). What this quote means is that it is important to mention behavior because it determines one’s self-esteem too. When you are confident in doing something you tend to do it more often, however, when you are unconfident in doing doing something you try to avoid doing it. This idea of attribution leads to talk about similar ideas of

It is interesting to learn about how certain behaviors can cause you to do things you thought you would never do. Motivation is like a subconscious thing in our head and at times we forget about it, but most importantly, we may not know what our motivation may be. Being able to understand the ideas that connect to each other can help you understand why you have trouble finding the drive to accomplish your goals. I believe I have found a few of my answers, but not all of