motivationn.
/ˌməʊtᵻˈveɪʃn/, U.S. /ˌmoʊdəˈveɪʃ(ə)n/ 1.
a. The fact of having a motive; (Literary Criticism) the structure of cause and effect in the plot of a play or other literary work, esp. as accounting for the motives of the characters' actions. Cf. motive v. 2, Motivierung n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > fiction > [noun] > creation or description of characters > motivation of character
Motivierung1850
motivation1873
1873 Contemp. Rev. 21 446 He [sc. Schopenhauer] distinguishes the sufficient reason of Becoming, of Knowledge, of Being, and of Action... The fourth is the law of motivation.
1881 W. H. White tr. J. W. von Goethe in Appletons' Jrnl. Oct. 337/1 The motivation of the scene in which Abel perishes is of the rarest excellence.
1902 Edinb. Rev. July 203 Still less are we referring to the structure of the Robertsonian drama, the ‘motivation’ of its plot.
1907 Atlantic Monthly Dec. 822/2 In the main part of the volume Professor Baker's method is to derive, by elaborate analysis of structure and motivation, materials for tracing Shakespeare's gradual mastery of his art.
1989 N. Smith Essent. A–Z Creative Writing 177 Motivation (from the Latin verb movere, to move) causes all action; without it nothing at all would happen.
b. Originally Psychology. The (conscious or unconscious) stimulus for action towards a desired goal, esp. as resulting from psychological or social factors; the factors giving purpose or direction to human or animal behaviour. Now also more generally (as a count noun): the reason a person has for acting in a particular way, a motive.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > motivation > [noun]
self-energy1722
motivation1879
drive1918
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > behaviourism > theories of motivation > [noun] > motivation
motivation1879
1879 Princeton Rev. 1 61 Even psychological determinism is displaced by rigid mechanical necessity, and objective motivation is always real physical impulsation.
1904 Psychol. Rev. Monogr. Suppl. 5 ii. 11 (heading) The egoistic and the social in motivation.
1922 R. S. Woodworth Psychol. viii. 137 The instincts are extraordinarily important in the study of motivation.
1937 T. Parsons Struct. Social Action III. xvi. 637 Weber's work necessitated the ideal-typical formulation of systems of ideas which are relevant to concrete motivation.
1954 R. F. C. Hull tr. C. G. Jung Coll. Wks. XVII. vii. 193 The real motivations are sought and real discoveries are made.
1972 Sci. Amer. Feb. 48/1 There are other important motivations for attempting to synthesize speech. One is learning how speech is produced in the human vocal tract.
1980 Amer. Naturalist 116 788 Morton..proposed rules relating motivation of the caller to tone quality and melodic inflection of the calls.
1992 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Feb. 84/3 Ephron's motivation for writing about such episodes is considerably more complex than the simpleminded revenge suggested by her critics.
c. Originally Psychology and Sociology. The general desire or willingness of someone to do something; drive, enthusiasm.
ΚΠ
1947 Sociometry 10 48 Cliques are..often found to be of this formation—lacking motivation or skill for enjoying sociogroup membership.
1968 Brit. Jrnl. Psychiatry 114 1192/2 Familiar factors which predicted successful outcome were the presence of a formulable problem, high motivation, [etc.].
1973 Times 19 Feb. 18/7 People who referred to their head offices as ‘the Kremlin’..were somehow lacking in motivation.
2000 Daily Record (Glasgow) (Electronic ed.) 17 Apr. The strain of decision-making has left them drinking and smoking more, not sleeping, feeling under strain and lacking motivation.
2. A way of moving; means of movement. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > [noun] > manner or means of movement
actuation1713
movement1725
motivation1946
1946 M. Peake Titus Groan 407 There could be no mistaking that nimble, yet shuffling and edgeways-on—that horribly deliberate motivation that was neither walking nor running.
1948 M. H. Nicolson Voy. to Moon v. 195 Swift's flying chariot remains unique in the history of literature..both for its vast size..and for the plausibility of its principle of motivation.
3. Linguistics. The non-arbitrary relationship between form and meaning, in which the linguistic form either corresponds to some non-linguistic factor, as in a case of onomatopoeia, or is transparent in that its meaning is obvious from its formation, e.g. she-goat. Cf. motivated adj. 1.
ΚΠ
1947 Word 3 9 Their motivation consists in the fact that each is related syntagmatically to its components and associatively to the other syntagms having the same pattern.
1959 W. Baskin tr. F. de Saussure Course Gen. Linguistics 132 Motivation varies, being always proportional to the ease of syntagmatic analysis and the obviousness of the meaning of the subunits present.
1994 W. Croft in R. E. Asher & J. M. Y. Simpson Encycl. Lang. & Linguistics IX. 4811/2 A third area in which iconic motivation has been applied with lesser success is in word order.
4. Intellectual justification, rationale; (South African) facts and arguments used to support a proposal or application; (hence) a proposal or application that includes these facts and arguments.
ΚΠ
1953 J. L. Moreno Who shall Survive? iii. 436 There is also in psychogeography in respect to a certain criterion either a yes or a no, whatever the motivation of this yes or no may be.
1964 Harvard Educ. Rev. 34 253 We can provide more motivation for an extension of the notion of grammatical structure to include a whole set of phrase markers for each sentence.
1988 McGill Working Papers in Linguistics May 109 Independent motivation comes from the German–English contrasts as to the case-marking possibilities for NP arguments.
1993 in Dict. S. Afr. Eng. on Hist. Princ. (1996) (at cited word) Submit a motivation. You don't have to have a professional to motivate for you.
2018 D. Lavin Personal email 4 Apr. The question..should be on the Agenda for the May meeting, and will need a motivation from you,..preferably written and circulated in advance.
Compounds
C1. General attributive, chiefly in psychological contexts (cf. motivational adj. Compounds 1).
motivation analyst n.
ΚΠ
1957 Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. A. 120 307 If only the survey and motivation analysts would resolve minor differences.
1958 A. Huxley Let. 15 Feb. (1969) 846 American advertising techniques as perfected by the Motivation Analysts.
motivation department n.
ΚΠ
1957 V. Packard Hidden Persuaders iii. 29 The McCann-Erickson advertising agency in New York had five psychologists manning a special motivation department.
motivation psychology n.
ΚΠ
1961 Daily Tel. 14 Mar. 17/2 The ‘motivation psychology’ that allows a driver to be placid and content at one moment and at the next makes him rush forward ‘like a raging lunatic’.
1961 Daily Tel. 14 Mar. 17/2 He described ‘motivation psychology’ as the study of what makes the individual road user tick.
1996 W. Battman & S. Dutke Processes of Molar Regulation of Behaviour 151 The fundamental question of motivation psychology—why do people act as they do?
motivation study n.
ΚΠ
1954 G. H. Smith Motivation Res. v. xvii. 206 Perhaps the best single person to guide a motivation study is a social psychologist.
1980 N.Y. Times 7 Mar. a27/4 Despite the negative findings of..motivation studies, there are some excellent Guard and Reserve units.
C2.
motivation research n. the psychological or sociological study of motives, esp. those influencing the decisions of consumers, voters, etc.
ΚΠ
1953 Business Week 5 Sept. 40/2 The publication of a..book called ‘An Introductory Bibliography of Motivation Research’.
1967 J. M. Argyle Psychol. Interpersonal Behaviour ix. 153 A number of special methods are used in motivation research interviews to get at genuine feelings.
1982 G. A. Cole Management xxx. 295 Motivation research is one of the newer aspects of marketing research, and since it concentrates on motives and attitudes, it relies heavily on the expertise of psychologists for the design of and interpretation of its surveys.
motivation researcher n. a person engaged in motivation research.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > motivation > [noun] > research into > one who
motivation researcher1954
motivational researcher1958
1954 G. H. Smith Motivation Res. i. ii. 23 In order to do profitable work at this level, the motivation researcher should be familiar with the major concepts of psychiatry and abnormal psychology.
1967 G. Steiner Lang. & Silence 45 ‘Motivation researchers’, those grave~diggers of literate speech, tell us that the perfect advertisement should neither contain words of more than two syllables nor sentences with dependent clauses.
2000 Internat. Jrnl. Market Res. (Nexis) 42 Lack of ability or willingness of motivation researchers to test qualitative responses quantitatively was also a major reason why motivation research failed to become a recognised part of scientific market research.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1873