Besides biological and social motives, human beings as well as animals, also has a desire to know their environment to explore and manipulate the environment and seek sensory stimulation.
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Individuals as well as animals, indulge in these activities not only to satisfy their biological as well as social motives but also because these motives help us to satisfy our curiosity about the natural surroundings or are satisfying in themselves.
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There is no specific term but some call such motives as lucid motives, play motives, non- homeostatic motives or curiosity motives. Morgan et al have called such motives as “motives to know and to be effective”.
Needs to know and to be effective persist throughout life and are difficult, if not impossible, to satisfy. Even when our biological and social need have been met, we continue to seek contact with the environment and to engage in restless and relentless activity.
Following are the different motives “to know and to be effective”:
(a) Stimulation and Exploration Needs.
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(b) Effective Motivation.
(c) Self-actualisation Motivation.
(a) Stimulation and Exploration Needs:
Human beings as well as animals engage in activities that give them sensory stimulation. It is because of this need that we view television and movies or listen to music or indulge in dancing.
Lack of sensory stimulation is unpleasant and leads to abnormal behaviour.
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A wide variety of experiments on human beings as well as animals have clearly demonstrated that human beings have a tendency to seek sensory as well as physical stimulation and are motivated to explore their surrounding and environment in order to know more about their surrounding and satisfy their curiosity.
Human beings as well as animals like to explore their environment. When an organism actively moves about and satisfies curiosity, the motive is said to be exploration.
We spend a great amount of time in exploring novel situations and places than exploring familiar ones. It is this motive that makes us visit different places. In mountaineers and explorers this motive is highly active.-
(b) Effectance Motivation:
The concept of effectance motivation was given by White. It is a general motive to act competently and effectively when interacting with the environment, we try to be effective not only in mastering the environment but also in our social relationship, work and other activities.
A concept somewhat like effectance motivation is intrinsic motivation, defined as “a person’s need for feeling and self determining in dealing with his environment. The concept is so called because the goals are internal feelings of effectiveness, competence and self determination.
In contrast, extrinsic motivation is, directed towards goals external to the person, such as money or grades in school. Extrinsic motivations have their use in guiding behaviour in business and in school, but reliance in them can sometimes stifle intrinsic-motivation and impair performance.
(c) Self-actualisation Motivation:
This motive was put forward by Maslow. It is related to effectance and intrinsic motivation. Self actualisation refers to an individual’s need to develop his or her potentialities, in other words, to do what he or she is capable of doing. “Self-actualised”, then are the people who make the fullest use of their capabilities.
Self actualisation is thought to be the top need in the hierarchy of needs, or motives. For Maslow human needs are organised in a hierarchical order with the basic physiological needs at its, base and other at higher levels. Maslow believed that when the basic needs arc satisfied, other higher needs emerge.
According to Maslow there are four basic needs and one growth need. These need motivate human behaviour. Needs lower in the hierarchy (i.e. physiological need, safety and security need, etc.) must be satisfied first. It is only then that the needs higher in the hierarchy will become motivating. We will briefly describe the above needs.
Physiological needs are:
Basic biological needs like hunger thirst and sex.
Safety and security needs:
Refers to the need for protection, stability and order. In today’s highly structured and organized society, these needs are easily satisfied.
Belongingness need:
Refers to the need for affection, affiliation and acceptance. This need can be satisfied only when the above two needs are fulfilled.
Self-esteem need:
Refers to the need for reputation, success, self-respect and prestige.
Self-actualisation:
Is the highest need in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Very few of us reach at the level of self-actualisation. It refers to the needs for self-fulfilment to realize one’s potentialities and to become what one is capable of becoming.