Ever given thought to the things you think and the things you do ?
What are your unconscious motives which drive you on and control your life ?
There are whole libraries devoted to this subject, mostly written by learned academics who have only a casual acquaintance with the real world. It is formalised in the study of Human Motivation. Anyone familiar with Business Management studies is already smiling, I just know it. I always thought the best of all jokes were lecturers in management who had never actually been managers. As you can imagine, our staffroom was “quite lively” between the true academics and “old dogs” like me who had been “around the block a few times”.
Anyway, there are numerous theories [ Business Management has theories like a dog has fleas !] and many of them are based on some very dubious studies. The problem is that they are so seductive as they often appear as though they ought to be true. Students love the subject because they can rattle off 5000 words easily full of name-dropping – great fun to mark too.
So, ignoring Freud and his ilk [ Your motivations are the result of poor potty training in infancy! ], the earliest were theories from Maslow, Hertzberg, and others. Hertzberg proposed that there are things which motivate a person and things which demotivate and the lists are not the same i.e. the lack of a particular motivator does not necessarily demotivate you. He did not regard money as a motivator.
Which leads me to propose my own theory :-
Norseman’s Theory of Human Motivation. [ ** see end of piece ]
Scenario – Imagine you go to the loo and, after performing the necessary, you see there is no loo roll. How do you feel ? Happy ? Sad ? Nervous ? Calm ?
Now imagine a White Knight rides in and hands over a loo roll. How do you feel now ? Happy and
calm I guess. So, if one was good, two ought to be even better. Now how do you feel ?
Moral : Man with one loo roll, him feel good. Man with two loo rolls throws spare at White Knight on horse.
There so much that feels as though it ought to be true but is there a way to put a practical framework to it ?
This set me thinking [ OMG, OMG, run away, run away ! He’s starting to think ]
There is one theory which seems to fit well with the history of mankind.
MASLOW’S THEORY OF HUMAN MOTIVATION .
This relies on a staircase-type hierarchy which has a fixed order of ascent just like a normal staircase.
This is based on certain propositions
These are the necessities of life – food, drink, rest, going to the loo, activity. In essence, these are focussed in a particular part of the body. They have much power but only if unsatisfied.
These needs take precedence over all others if left unsatisfied.
The Safety Needs.
If the above were about survival today, these are about survival tomorrow. The need for protection from physical danger, the quest for continuance in terms of food and drink, the quest for the familiar. The desire to know the limits of permitted behaviour – the desire for limited freedom rather than total permissiveness. These only come into play when the Physiological needs are satisfied to some degree.
Social needs.
Man is a pack animal in origin. This was built into our basic make-up before we even came out of the trees. We want to belong, to associate, to gain acceptance from others, to give and receive friendship and affection. Deprived of these, a person will want them as much as a hungry person wants food. It is a very rare human being that can isolate themselves totally from their fellow man.
Esteem needs.
These needs are egotistical – both for self-esteem and the esteem of others. Self-esteem includes
self-confidence, achievement, competence, knowledge, self-respect, independence and freedom.
The second set of esteem needs relate to reputation or the esteem of others, the need for status, the need to seen as a unique individual. The competitive desire to excel. Unlike some of the lower order needs, the esteem need is rarely satisfied, it is like a drug which must be taken over and over.
Potentiality needs
The highest level is the need for self-realisation or self-actualisation. The need for realising your own
potential for your own self-fulfilment, for continuous self-development, for creativity in the broadest sense. In real terms, this is Spirituality.
This is my interpretation of a theory at the beginnings of motivation theory. Now to put my own spin on the rightness of it.
Taking as my proof, the development of man as a species.
My question is : who domesticated who ? Did man tame the wolf or did the wolf tame man ? Who was the dominant partner initially ?
So, in this first level, man was purely concerned with immediate survival as a Hunter-Gatherer.
SafetyNeeds.
About 10000BC there is evidence of agriculture and animal husbandry in the middle-east. From then until about 5000BC, agricultural practices and technology flourished especially water management i.e. irrigation.
Man was now looking beyond the immediate, his orientation was slowly but surely towards the future. Mankind was sure that he had a future. He looked to his descendents to benefit from his efforts. From initial subsistence farming until in the Nile Valley there was large scale “industrial” agriculture and, for the first time, there were food surpluses and storage for the future.
Social Needs.
When the safety angle was partially satisfied, this enabled man to concentrate his populations [thereby
increasing his safety needs also] beyond his immediate family. Extended families, then tribes, then nations became the norm. Mankind learned communal living and built villages, then towns, then cities. In the middle-east there are towns built on the ruins of towns built on layer after layer of preceding
towns. Babylon, Ur, Jericho, Troy, the cities of the Nile and Indus valleys.
We are now in the time of Stonehenge and the Pyramids.
Man was now an accomplished stone worker and a truly social animal. He had learned the supremely subtle skills of community.
in kind became common. Personal wealth and the power afforded by a valued individuality became common. The ultimate end of this chain was mass-production which actually reduced the esteem of specialism. Whereas a craftsman would produce a whole product, now a series of workers only produced one part of it.
The up-side to this was Standardisation.. This reached a peak in Medieval Venice in the 15th century at the Imperial Shipyards employing 2000 men where ships where produced as components, manufactured to specifications and an inventory plus part numbers. Ships were even exported as “flat-packs”.
If you wanted a new grackle pin for your trireme, you only had to “text” the Shipyard with the Part Number.
[This is where the Out-of-stock excuses were probably invented Ha Ha !]
5. Top-of-the-Tree
The final phase involved spirituality. Man began to seek to understand himself. Art in all its forms flourished. Beauty was appreciated in the abstract just for itself. Philosophy flourished as mankind
asked “Is this all that there is ? Self-development became an important part of many people’s lives. The concept of leisure appeared for the first time.
Leisure to pursue self-interests. Leisure to paint, leisure to enjoy music. Leisure to think grand thoughts. Leisure to understand the universe and, perhaps, to understand a little the mind of god.
But [and there’s always a but isn’t there], the whole structure is like a house of cards. Remove or threaten the bottom lower and the whole structure collapses. In times of drought and famine, war and pestilence, man reverts to physiological needs i.e. reverts to an earlier model.
So there you are. A theory in Applied Psychology being backed up by Anthropology.
** [Apologies to the more sensitive readers. We Brits were always fond of “toilet” jokes ! lol]
What are your unconscious motives which drive you on and control your life ?
There are whole libraries devoted to this subject, mostly written by learned academics who have only a casual acquaintance with the real world. It is formalised in the study of Human Motivation. Anyone familiar with Business Management studies is already smiling, I just know it. I always thought the best of all jokes were lecturers in management who had never actually been managers. As you can imagine, our staffroom was “quite lively” between the true academics and “old dogs” like me who had been “around the block a few times”.
Anyway, there are numerous theories [ Business Management has theories like a dog has fleas !] and many of them are based on some very dubious studies. The problem is that they are so seductive as they often appear as though they ought to be true. Students love the subject because they can rattle off 5000 words easily full of name-dropping – great fun to mark too.
So, ignoring Freud and his ilk [ Your motivations are the result of poor potty training in infancy! ], the earliest were theories from Maslow, Hertzberg, and others. Hertzberg proposed that there are things which motivate a person and things which demotivate and the lists are not the same i.e. the lack of a particular motivator does not necessarily demotivate you. He did not regard money as a motivator.
Which leads me to propose my own theory :-
Norseman’s Theory of Human Motivation. [ ** see end of piece ]
Scenario – Imagine you go to the loo and, after performing the necessary, you see there is no loo roll. How do you feel ? Happy ? Sad ? Nervous ? Calm ?
Now imagine a White Knight rides in and hands over a loo roll. How do you feel now ? Happy and
calm I guess. So, if one was good, two ought to be even better. Now how do you feel ?
Moral : Man with one loo roll, him feel good. Man with two loo rolls throws spare at White Knight on horse.
There so much that feels as though it ought to be true but is there a way to put a practical framework to it ?
This set me thinking [ OMG, OMG, run away, run away ! He’s starting to think ]
There is one theory which seems to fit well with the history of mankind.
MASLOW’S THEORY OF HUMAN MOTIVATION .
This relies on a staircase-type hierarchy which has a fixed order of ascent just like a normal staircase.
This is based on certain propositions
- Humans are wanting beings - they always want, and they want more. But what they want depends on what they already have. As soon as one need is satisfied, another takes its place.
- A satisfied need is not a motivator of behaviour. Only an unsatisfied need has power over an individual.
- Human needs are set in a stairway of priorities.
These are the necessities of life – food, drink, rest, going to the loo, activity. In essence, these are focussed in a particular part of the body. They have much power but only if unsatisfied.
These needs take precedence over all others if left unsatisfied.
The Safety Needs.
If the above were about survival today, these are about survival tomorrow. The need for protection from physical danger, the quest for continuance in terms of food and drink, the quest for the familiar. The desire to know the limits of permitted behaviour – the desire for limited freedom rather than total permissiveness. These only come into play when the Physiological needs are satisfied to some degree.
Social needs.
Man is a pack animal in origin. This was built into our basic make-up before we even came out of the trees. We want to belong, to associate, to gain acceptance from others, to give and receive friendship and affection. Deprived of these, a person will want them as much as a hungry person wants food. It is a very rare human being that can isolate themselves totally from their fellow man.
Esteem needs.
These needs are egotistical – both for self-esteem and the esteem of others. Self-esteem includes
self-confidence, achievement, competence, knowledge, self-respect, independence and freedom.
The second set of esteem needs relate to reputation or the esteem of others, the need for status, the need to seen as a unique individual. The competitive desire to excel. Unlike some of the lower order needs, the esteem need is rarely satisfied, it is like a drug which must be taken over and over.
Potentiality needs
The highest level is the need for self-realisation or self-actualisation. The need for realising your own
potential for your own self-fulfilment, for continuous self-development, for creativity in the broadest sense. In real terms, this is Spirituality.
This is my interpretation of a theory at the beginnings of motivation theory. Now to put my own spin on the rightness of it.
Taking as my proof, the development of man as a species.
- Physiological Needs.
My question is : who domesticated who ? Did man tame the wolf or did the wolf tame man ? Who was the dominant partner initially ?
So, in this first level, man was purely concerned with immediate survival as a Hunter-Gatherer.
SafetyNeeds.
About 10000BC there is evidence of agriculture and animal husbandry in the middle-east. From then until about 5000BC, agricultural practices and technology flourished especially water management i.e. irrigation.
Man was now looking beyond the immediate, his orientation was slowly but surely towards the future. Mankind was sure that he had a future. He looked to his descendents to benefit from his efforts. From initial subsistence farming until in the Nile Valley there was large scale “industrial” agriculture and, for the first time, there were food surpluses and storage for the future.
Social Needs.
When the safety angle was partially satisfied, this enabled man to concentrate his populations [thereby
increasing his safety needs also] beyond his immediate family. Extended families, then tribes, then nations became the norm. Mankind learned communal living and built villages, then towns, then cities. In the middle-east there are towns built on the ruins of towns built on layer after layer of preceding
towns. Babylon, Ur, Jericho, Troy, the cities of the Nile and Indus valleys.
We are now in the time of Stonehenge and the Pyramids.
Man was now an accomplished stone worker and a truly social animal. He had learned the supremely subtle skills of community.
- Esteem Needs
in kind became common. Personal wealth and the power afforded by a valued individuality became common. The ultimate end of this chain was mass-production which actually reduced the esteem of specialism. Whereas a craftsman would produce a whole product, now a series of workers only produced one part of it.
The up-side to this was Standardisation.. This reached a peak in Medieval Venice in the 15th century at the Imperial Shipyards employing 2000 men where ships where produced as components, manufactured to specifications and an inventory plus part numbers. Ships were even exported as “flat-packs”.
If you wanted a new grackle pin for your trireme, you only had to “text” the Shipyard with the Part Number.
[This is where the Out-of-stock excuses were probably invented Ha Ha !]
5. Top-of-the-Tree
The final phase involved spirituality. Man began to seek to understand himself. Art in all its forms flourished. Beauty was appreciated in the abstract just for itself. Philosophy flourished as mankind
asked “Is this all that there is ? Self-development became an important part of many people’s lives. The concept of leisure appeared for the first time.
Leisure to pursue self-interests. Leisure to paint, leisure to enjoy music. Leisure to think grand thoughts. Leisure to understand the universe and, perhaps, to understand a little the mind of god.
But [and there’s always a but isn’t there], the whole structure is like a house of cards. Remove or threaten the bottom lower and the whole structure collapses. In times of drought and famine, war and pestilence, man reverts to physiological needs i.e. reverts to an earlier model.
So there you are. A theory in Applied Psychology being backed up by Anthropology.
** [Apologies to the more sensitive readers. We Brits were always fond of “toilet” jokes ! lol]
