Motivation

All living organisms have survival needs, and human beings additionally have growth needs. Motivation is a mental as well as a physiological state, which arouses an organism to act for fulfilling the current need. In other words, motivation energises an organism to act vigorously for attaining some goal. Such acts persist until the goal is attained and the need is satisfied. Motivation is a prerequisite for learning. Why does a child forage in the kitchen when the mother is not in the house? S/he does so because s/he needs sweets to eat, for which s/he is trying to locate the jar in which sweets are kept. During the course of foraging, the child learns the location of the jar. A hungry rat placed in a box forages in the box for food; incidentally it presses a lever and food drops in the box; with repeated experience of such activity, the animal learns to press the lever immediately after it is placed there. In the same way, students study and prepare for examinations largely because doing so serves the goal of passing with good marks or grades in the final examination; the more motivated one is, the more hard work one does for learning. …