In attempting to account both for consistency of and change in behaviour, psychologists have found it useful to use certain concepts. We have been able to understand behaviour by determining
(a) The motives, drives, or concerns which are being satisfied by the action, and
(b) The attitudes and information that the person uses to decide what response he should make in a given situation. A motive can be defined as a person’s basic predisposition to reach for or to strive toward a general class of goals.
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Attitude is a more circumscribed concept. It can generally be conceived of as an inner factor predisposing one to react positively or negatively towards particular objects, acts, or institutions. As person’s disposition or attitude towards an object is likely to depend upon
(a) The basic motive with which the object is associated; and
(b) The degree to which the object is received as instrumental for satisfying or blocking these motives.
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In any account of the behaviors of people we start our description with reference to some kind of active driving force: “the individual seeks”, “the individual wants”, “the individual fears”, and so on. In addition, we specify an object or condition towards which that force is directed: “he seeks wealth”, “he wants peace,” “he fears something”.
The study of the relationships between these two variables, the driving force and the object or condition towards which that driving force is directed, is the study of the dynamics of behaviour or motivation.
The basic principles or dynamics accounting for the behaviour of going to a temple, joining a particular association, choosing a mate, etc., are the same no matter how simple or how complex the activity.
Such principles, if they are to be helpful in making accurate predictions of individual behaviour and in increasing our understanding of social phenomenon, must answer questions such as: What induces these driving forces of wanting, seeking, fearing in the individuals? What determines, for different individuals the specific nature of the objects or conditions towards which these driving forces are directed.
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The question of motivation is the question of “why”. Why do some people travel and others not? Why in a particular country do more people engage in tourism than in another? Or for that matter why one member in a family undertakes travel and others do not? The answers to all these questions have been given in the preceding paragraphs.
Various studies of tourism psychology and motivation show that individuals normally travel for more than one reason, and for many, perhaps the majority, tourism is the outcome of a combination of motivations.