Theories of Motivation
Frank Summers
Frank Summers writes that we have inborn needs for both relatedness and self-realization. Self-realization refers to our inherent motivation to develop our potential self or to develop our unique configuration of psychological capacities. These psychological capacities include affects.
The child’s ability to develop his psychological capacities is dependent on his caregiver, the caregiver’s role being to facilitate the development of these capacities with the right balance between helping but not helping too much. To use affect regulation as an example, if the mother immediately responds whenever a child experiences bad affects, the child will never learn to regulate these affects himself. However, the mother must intervene when the infant’s affects become too intense for him to regulate on his own lest he become overwhelmed.
Self-realization is supported by the writings of Donald Winnicott, Christopher Bollas, and Heinz Kohut, as well as infant research. Regarding infant research, Summers writes that infants are born with “an impressive array of competencies” that they are continually trying to develop. Piaget, for instance, found that “three-month-olds will repeat behavior for no purpose other than to have an effect on the environment.” Additionally, “toddlers will routinely delay biological gratification to perform independent tasks, such as preferring to use a spoon even though it makes feeding go more slowly.” All of this suggests that the infant “is motivated to realize his potential and thereby become who he is.”
Self-Motivation Theory
Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, the founders of self-determination theory, essentially come to the same conclusion as Summers. Deci and Ryan (2017) write that we are motivated to fulfill three basic psychological needs: relatedness, autonomy, and competence. They describe our need for relatedness as the need to feel connected to others, the need to love and to be loved. Their descriptions of autonomy and competence essentially amount to what Summers means by self-realization.
Deci and Ryan (1995) clarify that the need for autonomy refers to our need to act in accordance with our authentic interests and values. In other words, we are doing the things we’re doing because we want to do them, not because we feel pressured by others to do them. The need for competence refers to our need to overcome optimal challenges. We feel competent, not when we’ve done something “that is trivially easy,” but when we have “worked toward accomplishment.” We don’t need “to be the best or first, or to get an ‘A,’ to feel competent,” but we need to “take on a meaningful personal challenge” that requires us to give it our best.
Blatt and Blass
Rachel Blass and Sidney Blatt also use somewhat different language but more or less make the same point as Summers, writing about our motivations to acquire separation. Blass and Blatt (1990) focus on development and point out that the leading developmental theorists either focused on separation (e.g., Margaret Mahler) or attachment (e.g., Winnicott) but that both separation and attachment are “basic dimensions of the developmental process.” They elaborate: “The two primary developmental tasks that face the individual in the course of the life cycle are: (1) the achievement of a differentiated, consolidated, stable, realistic, and essentially positive identity; and (2) the establishment of the capacity to form stable, enduring, and mutually satisfying interpersonal relationships.”
Blatt and Blass (1992) write that healthy development involves gaining the capacities for both relatedness (“the ability to establish increasingly mature and satisfying interpersonal relationships”) and self-definition (“the development of an increasingly differentiated, integrated, essentially positive concept of the self”). Noting that Erik Erikson emphasized self-definition over relatedness, they reformulate his model to place equal emphasis on both areas. They do this by adding two stages:
We develop the capacities of cooperateion, autonomy, initiative, and industry at the same. The capacity for cooperation includes the ability “to engage with and trust another, to cooperate and collaborate in group activities (e.g., play), to develop a close friendship with a same-sex chum, and to eventually experience and express feelings of mutuality, intimacy, and reciprocity in an intimate, mature relationship.” The American Psychological Association defines the three latter qualities as follows:
Identity is both a stage in the development of self-definition and “a cumulative, integrative stage in which the capacity to cooperate and share with others is coordinated with a sense of individuality that has emerged from a capacity for autonomy, initiative, and industry.” Identity “involves a synthesis and integration of individuality and relatedness — the internality and intentionality that develops as part of autonomy, initiative, and industry as well as the capacity and desire to participate in a social group with an appreciation of what one has to contribute to, and gain from, participating in the collective, without losing one’s individuality within the collective or the relationship.”
Frank Summers writes that we have inborn needs for both relatedness and self-realization. Self-realization refers to our inherent motivation to develop our potential self or to develop our unique configuration of psychological capacities. These psychological capacities include affects.
The child’s ability to develop his psychological capacities is dependent on his caregiver, the caregiver’s role being to facilitate the development of these capacities with the right balance between helping but not helping too much. To use affect regulation as an example, if the mother immediately responds whenever a child experiences bad affects, the child will never learn to regulate these affects himself. However, the mother must intervene when the infant’s affects become too intense for him to regulate on his own lest he become overwhelmed.
Self-realization is supported by the writings of Donald Winnicott, Christopher Bollas, and Heinz Kohut, as well as infant research. Regarding infant research, Summers writes that infants are born with “an impressive array of competencies” that they are continually trying to develop. Piaget, for instance, found that “three-month-olds will repeat behavior for no purpose other than to have an effect on the environment.” Additionally, “toddlers will routinely delay biological gratification to perform independent tasks, such as preferring to use a spoon even though it makes feeding go more slowly.” All of this suggests that the infant “is motivated to realize his potential and thereby become who he is.”
Self-Motivation Theory
Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, the founders of self-determination theory, essentially come to the same conclusion as Summers. Deci and Ryan (2017) write that we are motivated to fulfill three basic psychological needs: relatedness, autonomy, and competence. They describe our need for relatedness as the need to feel connected to others, the need to love and to be loved. Their descriptions of autonomy and competence essentially amount to what Summers means by self-realization.
Deci and Ryan (1995) clarify that the need for autonomy refers to our need to act in accordance with our authentic interests and values. In other words, we are doing the things we’re doing because we want to do them, not because we feel pressured by others to do them. The need for competence refers to our need to overcome optimal challenges. We feel competent, not when we’ve done something “that is trivially easy,” but when we have “worked toward accomplishment.” We don’t need “to be the best or first, or to get an ‘A,’ to feel competent,” but we need to “take on a meaningful personal challenge” that requires us to give it our best.
Blatt and Blass
Rachel Blass and Sidney Blatt also use somewhat different language but more or less make the same point as Summers, writing about our motivations to acquire separation. Blass and Blatt (1990) focus on development and point out that the leading developmental theorists either focused on separation (e.g., Margaret Mahler) or attachment (e.g., Winnicott) but that both separation and attachment are “basic dimensions of the developmental process.” They elaborate: “The two primary developmental tasks that face the individual in the course of the life cycle are: (1) the achievement of a differentiated, consolidated, stable, realistic, and essentially positive identity; and (2) the establishment of the capacity to form stable, enduring, and mutually satisfying interpersonal relationships.”
Blatt and Blass (1992) write that healthy development involves gaining the capacities for both relatedness (“the ability to establish increasingly mature and satisfying interpersonal relationships”) and self-definition (“the development of an increasingly differentiated, integrated, essentially positive concept of the self”). Noting that Erik Erikson emphasized self-definition over relatedness, they reformulate his model to place equal emphasis on both areas. They do this by adding two stages:
- Trust vs. Mistrust (ages 0-1) — Relatedness
- Autonomy vs. Shame — Self-Definition
- Initiative vs. Guilt — Self-Definition
- Cooperation vs. Isolation — Relatedness
- Industry vs. Inferiority — Self-Definition
- Identity vs. Role Confusion (19-29) — Self-Definition
- Intimacy vs. Alienation — Relatedness
- Generativity vs. Stagnation (30-64) — Self-Definition
- Integrity vs. Despair (65-) — Self-Definition
We develop the capacities of cooperateion, autonomy, initiative, and industry at the same. The capacity for cooperation includes the ability “to engage with and trust another, to cooperate and collaborate in group activities (e.g., play), to develop a close friendship with a same-sex chum, and to eventually experience and express feelings of mutuality, intimacy, and reciprocity in an intimate, mature relationship.” The American Psychological Association defines the three latter qualities as follows:
- Autonomy: “During this stage, children acquire a degree of self-reliance and self-confidence.”
- Initiative: “In planning, launching, and initiating fantasy, play, and other activity, the child learns to believe in their ability to successfully pursue goals.”
- Industry: During this stage, “the child learns to be productive and to accept evaluation of their efforts.”
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Blatt, S. J., & Blass, R. B. (1990). Attachment and separateness: A dialectic model of the products and processes of development throughout the life cycle. The psychoanalytic study of the child, 45(1), 107-127.
Blatt, S. J., & Blass, R. B. (1992). Relatedness and self-definition: Two primary dimensions in personality development, psychopathology, and psychotherapy. In J. W. Barron, M. N. Eagle, & D. L. Wolitzky (Eds.), Interface of psychoanalysis and psychology (pp. 399–428). American Psychological Association.
Deci, E.L., & Flaste, R. (1995). Why we do what we do. New York: Penguin Books.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). Self-Determination Theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. New York: Guilford Press.
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