Franken's adaptive and maladaptive pathways from hostile feelings

¶ … Motivation

TWO CASES EXAMINED

The work Robert E. Franken entitled: "Human Motivation" describes two paths that follow from hostile feelings: (1) adaptive; and (2) maladaptive. The model presented by Franken illustrates the two paths that might be taken resulting from hostile feelings derived from frustrated needs of an individual. Two cases will be examined in order to understand the progression of each of these pathways. The first case examined is an individual named Elizabeth who has lived a difficult life in a low-income poverty level household. Elizabeth's parents are caring and supportive and are both employed full-time although they are both in low-paying jobs. Elizabeth's mother and father are positive individuals and serve as good role models. Elizabeth's parents do not drink or use drugs and take the responsibility of raising their children seriously and encourage achievement in education. Television viewing is censored by Elizabeth's parents and they keep track of who Elizabeth associates with, where Elizabeth goes with her friends, and have rules concerning bedtime and curfew which are enforced.

The second case examined is a girl named Sally who is also from a low-income poverty level household however, in Sally's case her parents are alcoholics and use drugs and are abusive toward Sally and her siblings. Neither of Sally's parents has a good work ethic and they are constantly changing jobs or unemployed because of losing their jobs relating to problems with alcohol and drugs. Sally's parents do not censor Sally's television viewing, they do not keep track of who Sally is associating with or where Sally is going with her friends and do not encourage Sally in her education. There is no set bedtime at Sally's home and curfews are erratic decisions depending on the mood of the moment. Furthermore, Sally's parents often have friends late into the night making it hard for Sally to study or to even sleep on a regular schedule. The hardest thing for Sally is that her parents tend to become very hostile towards her and toward the world-at-large in their frustration with their difficulties in life.

Psychological control is often a variable in the relationship of parents and children in which maladaptive hostility is the path which has been followed. The work of Soenens et al. (2005) relates that psychological control "refers to parental behaviors that intrude upon children's thoughts and feelings, and has been characterized as typical of parents who excessively use manipulative parenting techniques such as guilt-induction and love withdrawal." Psychological control is believed to "control adolescent's development towards autonomy, infers with the acquisition of a secure sense of self and leads to disturbances in psychosocial functioning." (Soenens, et al., 2005; p,.1) Other negative outcomes of psychological control include depression and low self-esteem. (Soenens, et al., 2005; paraphrased) in terms of the community and individual involvement the work of Michalik, et al. (2007) entitled: "Longitudinal Relations among Parental Emotional Expressivity and Sympathy and Prosocial Behavior in Adolescence" published in the Social Development journal (2007) relates that parental expression of emotion "may also be one of the ways that parents contribute to children's prosocial development. Parental emotional expressivity generally is linked to the quality of the parent-adolescent relationships and adolescent's adjustment." (Machalik et al., 2007; p.1) the study reported in the work of Michalik et al. (2007) reveals:" if the emotions are not directed at the child, the child is relatively unlikely to become over-aroused and experience distress in the situation, and more likely to process relevant information. In contrast, the observed measure of parental negative expressivity reflected emotion observed in the parent-child interaction and likely included frustration with, and disapproval of, the child. Exposure to hostile negative emotion directed at the child may cause overarousal, a self-focus, and failure to process information about others' emotions and needs in evocative contexts."

III. The ROLE of LEARNING in HUMAN MOTIVATION

Motivation has been defined as an "...internal state or conditions that activates behavior and gives it direction...desire or want that energizes and directs goal-oriented behavior...influence of needs and desires on the intensity and direction of behavior..." (Huitt, 2001) Huitt relates that Franken (1994) added a component in the definition of motivation and stated that motivation is: "...the arousal, direction and persistence of behavior." (2001) the assumption is made by most motivation theorist that motivation is involved in the performance of all learned responses..." (Huitt, 2001) in other words, those changes in behavior are explained better through use of principles of environmental/ecological influences, perception, memory, cognitive development, emotion, explanatory style, or personality..." (Huitt, 2001) it has been identified in research that motivation is derived either 'extrinsically' or 'intrinsically', or in others words the individual is motivation due to 'outside' or 'inside' influences. The sources of motivational needs of the individual can be divided into categories of: (1) behavioral; () social; (3) biological; (4) cognitive; (5) affective; (6) conative; and (7) spiritual. Extrinsic motivation and Intrinsic motivation are linked to social cognition motivators however, extrinsic motivation is affected by operant conditioning while intrinsic motivation is affected by cognition, affect and conation motivators. The work of Maslow, in what he has termed the 'hierarchy of needs' in what was an attempt on his part of synthesize a large volume of research relating to human motivation. The hierarchy of human needs is based on two categories: (1) deficiency needs; and (2) growth needs. It is posited by Maslow that each lower needs requires to be met before moving to the higher level needs. There four levels in to hierarchy which are: (1) physiological; (2) safety; (3) belongingness and love; and (4) esteem to achieve. The individual I sonly able to act upon the needs of growth when the deficiency needs have been met. In order for the individual to reach a level of self-actualization the individuals must have their lower level needs met. The self-actualizing individual is one who has an efficient perception of reality and is open to new experiences and can experience without dream. The self-actualizing individual is not bound by conviction, nor rebellious for the sake of being rebellious. The self-actualizing person are internally motivated for growth and development in realizing their own potentialities. The following are three examples of individual's at various levels within Maslow's hierarchy of needs:

Example 1: For the individual who is hungry, anxious, and nervous there is no inner motivation to learn because the basic needs are unmet. In this case one may imagine the student who attending class in school and cannot concentrate on what is being taught because their stomach is rumbling from lack of having eaten and they also have a headache from a general lack of nutrition. Furthermore, this student has no sense of security or safety and is nervous and anxious.

Example 2: The individual in this example is not hungry and they are not tired but they are nervous because their parents fought all night and this resulted in their being awake and scared the neighbors would call the police again and that their parents would wind up in jail by morning. This individual has no inner motivation to learn because they are worried and stressed about their own safety and security in their home life. This individual may very well be extrinsically motivated to learn but have not reached the level within the hierarchy of needs by which to become intrinsically motivated to learn.

Example 3: The individual in this example has good nutrition, a safe and secure home life and because all of their lower levels needs are met as posited in Maslow's theory of motivation, this individual is intrinsically motivated to learn. They are interested in their classes and hold a genuine desire to learn.