What regulates behavior? There are many theorists who have talked about human motivations regarding social needs, as well as academics who have tried to determine why we behave in a certain way when we have many alternatives.
At the root of any behavior are motivating factors, i. e. certain elements that promote behavior to occur in a certain way or not to follow a specific direction. These motivating factors include social needs.
- Motivational factors are not just goals that people want to achieve.
- In fact.
- In the study of motivation there are two different approaches:.
From the second approach, several authors have studied what instincts and needs human beings have behind the execution of a behavior.
Needs are included in the group of major motivators, which means that meeting (also social) needs is a condition for survival.
Murray (1938) understood needs such as the propensity to act in a certain way, for him the needs are internal (both biological and psychological), in his plan, at this point, those environmental pressures for us to behave in a certain way. at any given time are not included.
Needs also include cognitive, emotional and behavioral processes that incorporate real lines of action for the subject. Thus, the needs would mark what the person does.
Murray devoted much of his theoretical work to the study of needs, from his work we inherited the thematic perception test (TAT), in which the personal needs of each individual are evaluated, while developing the Personality Research Form. (PRF), in which Murray attempted to assess personality based on his needs model.
McClelland, an American psychologist working at Harvard University and Boston, proposes three main needs that he believes would be the basis of our thinking, feelings, and actions: social needs.
McClelland defines the three most important human needs, to which the adjective “social” is added. These needs stem from man’s very nature, which is a social animal and needs a socialization process to develop his skills.
The social needs identified by McClelland are
These needs are not universal, because they are the result of the historical nature of the human being, but also of their social and cultural context, so the list of needs can be relatively variable, albeit consistent.
McClelland identifies the need for satisfaction based on human behavior. Therefore, the person generally wants to optimize their performance, not so much for the material benefits they can bring, but for the satisfaction of having already done it and doing it right.
Starting with a task, the person can increase their sense of personal effectiveness when they feel better, when they feel competent.
Therefore, the need for success is related to achieving something well done simply by satisfying the result achieved and improving and developing personal skills.
The second need mcClelland identifies from some people’s behavior is the need for power, this need for power or prestige leads some people to want to control situations and people, as well as their ability to act.
This need includes the search for status and positions of institutional, social and group control, so the characteristics of these people are related to power, control and domination.
At the same time, people who have a great need for power are also people who do not know how to deal with failure, frustration, and defeat; this need for power, taken to the extreme, can be linked to arterial problems, stress and illness. .
Therefore, when the need for power is high, it is important to work in the person’s sense of responsibility.
The last of the social needs mcClelland is studying is the need to be a member. This seems to be the clearest and probably most common need most people would have in common.
Based on the need for affiliation, the person would seek to maintain emotional and social relationships with a person or group of people.
While this seems obvious, it is not excessive to point out that socialization is a motivation for the development of important skills or abilities, from language to empathy.
So, based on this need, people are afraid to be attractive to others, they want to be accepted and included in the group, the need for belonging illustrates how people prefer relationships with a large group of people, in which they can feel valued. .
The need for affiliation can stem from the need for intimacy, more specific loving affective relationships. McAdams defines the need for intimacy as the pursuit of loving and intimate interaction between them, it was observed that this need was greater in women than in men.
The social needs exposed are not the only ones that are the basis of human behavior, in fact, there are many other elements, such as motivation to control.
From R. W. White’s perspective (1959), it was studied how man sought at all costs to control his environment and balance the existing transactions between the organism and the context.
Deci (2008), for his part, understands that the most important intrinsic motivation of the human being is to exercise his own skills and achieve dominance in different environments (without external rewards).
Finally, the theory of self-determination understands that man’s need lies in learning and obtaining sufficient resources to be independent, this means that man seeks challenges to practice, be skilled and feel competent in the tasks offered to him.
In any case, and by depriving them of all meaning, it seems clear that among our most important needs as behavioral motivators, there would be the need to feel competent, the need to feel in a group and the need for control within that group.
On the other hand, knowing its motivating aspect allows us to explain, understand and intervene in dysfunctional behaviors.