Motivation is an impulse to action that controls human behavior, predetermines its direction, organization, activity and stability.
Will is the ability to act in the direction of consciously set goals with overcoming external and internal obstacles.
The essence of the concept of "will"
Will is one of the most complex concepts in psychological knowledge. It is considered as an independent mental process, as well as as an aspect of other major mental phenomena. Also, the will is considered the unique ability of the individual to arbitrarily control their own behavior.
Will is a mental function. It can literally permeate all aspects of human life. The composition of the content of volitional action, as a rule, includes several features. Will provides purposefulness and orderliness of actions.
S. R. Rubinshtein considered volitional action as a conscious and purposeful action. Thanks to him, people achieve their goals by subordinating their impulses to conscious control and changing the surrounding reality in accordance with their own plan.
Will also becomes a person's ability to self-regulate. She is able to make him relatively free from external circumstances, truly turning him into an active subject. It consists in consciously overcoming difficulties on the way to the set goals. Faced with an obstacle, an individual may refuse to act in the chosen direction or begin to increase efforts to deal with the difficulties that have arisen.
Functions of the will and act of will
Volitional processes are designed to perform several functions:
📍Initiating function (incentive), which ensures the start of the appropriate action in order to overcome the emerging obstacle;
📍Stabilizing function, which is associated with volitional efforts in the field of maintaining activity at the required level in the event of external and internal interference;
📍The inhibitory function, which consists in restraining other, often strong desires that are not consistent with the main goals of the activity.
The most important role in the problem of will is played by such a category as "volitional act". Each volitional act has a certain content. Its most important components are decision making and its implementation. The considered elements of the volitional act, as a rule, are capable of causing significant mental stress. It is similar in nature to a state of stress.
The structure of the act of will includes several main components. First of all, this is an impulse to perform a volitional action, which is caused by a corresponding need. In this situation, the degree of awareness of a particular need can become different, ranging from vaguely aware of drives and ending with a clear awareness of the goal.
In the structure of a volitional act, it is also customary to single out the presence of one or more motives, as well as setting the order of their implementation. As a result, there may be a "struggle of motives", which is inherent in the process of choosing one or another conflicting motivation. Then the person makes a decision (the choice of one or another variant of behavior). At this stage, there is a feeling of relief or anxiety, which is associated with a lack of confidence in the correctness of the decision made.
At each stage of the volitional act, the individual manifests will, controls and corrects his own activity. At every moment, he can compare the results obtained with the ideal image of the goal, which was created initially. Within the framework of volitional actions, the personality and its basic features are more clearly manifested.
We can talk about will when the following personality traits appear:
📍Purposefulness;
📍Independence;
📍Decisiveness;
📍Endurance and perseverance;
📍Self-control.
The development of the volitional properties of the personality is predetermined, first of all, by the purposeful education of the will. This should be inseparable from the education of the senses.
Human motivation and personality motive
A motive is what induces an individual to carry out a certain activity by directing him to satisfy the necessary need. The category implies a reflection of a need that acts as an objective regularity or necessity. For example, hard work with enthusiasm and enthusiasm can be considered as a motive, as well as avoiding work in protest.
Motives are represented by needs, thoughts, feelings and other mental formations. However, for the implementation of activities, it will not be enough to have internal motivations. Here it is important to have an object of activity to correlate the motivation with the goals that a person wants to achieve as a result of the activity. In the motivational sphere, the social conditionality of activity begins to manifest itself especially clearly.
Motivation includes a system of internal and external driving forces that induce a person to act specifically and purposefully. It is the process of motivating oneself and others to act, which helps to achieve the goals of the organization or the personal goals of an individual.
The category "motivation" is broader than the concept of "motive". The motive differs from motivation in that it belongs to the subject of behavior and becomes his stable personal property, which prompts him to take actions from the inside. The category "motivation" has a double meaning. First, it consists of a system of factors affecting human behavior (needs, motives, goals, intentions, etc.). Secondly, motivation is a characteristic of a process that stimulates and maintains behavioral activity at a certain level.
In the motivational sphere, it is customary to consider the motivational system of the individual, achievement motivation, self-actualization. Any worthy goals, long-term plans, good organization will not be effective without ensuring the interest of performers in implementation. It is for this that motivation is required that can compensate for the many shortcomings of other functions.