Motivation
Motivation from a Christian Perspective
Biological Motivation
Hunger
Sexual Motivation
Other Biological Motives
Cognitive Motivation
Hierarchy of Motives
Love and Loneliness
Sins of the Spirit
Fruit of the Spirit
Parts 1, 2, and 3 of Chapter 9 in Dewey’s introductory text are relevant.
(Chapter 12—Motivation and Work, in Myers 8th edition is also relevant.)
Previous chapters have considered persons, how they develop, how they become aware of the world around them, and what their intellectual processes are. This chapter is about their motivation which arouses and directs their behavior. Motives get people going and direct them toward a particular goal. For example, the thirstier people get, the more likely they are to get up (arousal) and get a drink (direction). Psychologists usually divide motivation into two sections that go by different terms, such as primary and secondary, biological and cognitive, or physiological and psychological. These fit well into our Christian perspective.
Motivation from a Christian Perspective
Biological motivation fits into our Christian perspective as shown in the lower left part of Figure 6:1 (Biological- Motivation). Animals as well as humans have these biological motives, and humans are quite animal-like in many of these motives. In fact, much of what we know about such motives comes from the study of animals.
Cognitive motivation also fits into our Christian perspective but on the other side of Figure 6:1 (Motivation-Cognitive). In addition to having physiological needs similar to animals, some psychologists have pointed out that human beings also have higher needs, God-like needs. Although most agree about the biological needs for survival (hunger, thirst, and so forth), they often disagree on the exact cognitive needs, needs such as needs to know, love needs, and needs to realize potential.