Why do people participate? How does socialization happen online?
Social Computing 2009 Julita Vassileva
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Overview of theories of motivation
• Maslow’s Theory• Alderfer’S ERG Theory• Acquired Needs Theory• Cognitive Evaluation Theory• Two Factor Theory• Equity Theory• Reinforcement Theory• Expectancy Theory
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and other related theories
Physiological
Safety
Belongingness
Esteem
Self-actualization
Home: education, religion, hobbies, personal growth Job: training, advancement, growth, creativity
Home: approval of family, friends, community Job: recognition, high status, responsibilities
Home: family, friends, clubs Job: teams, coworkers, clients, supervisors, subordinates
Home: freedom from war, poison, violence Job: work safety, job security, health insurance
Home: food water sex Job: heat, air, base salary
Lower needs take priority. They must be fulfilled before the others are activated.
Alderfer classifies needs into 3 categories, also ordered hierarchically: - Existence (physical well-being) - Relatedness (satisfactory relations with others) - Growth (development of competence and realization of potential)His ERG theory is more general than Maslow, he also believed that as you start satisfying higher needs, they become more intense, like an addiction.
One more “needs” theory
• Acquired Needs Theory (McClellan) focuses on the upper 3 levels of Maslow. It suggests that these needs are acquired as a result of life experiences:
- Need for achievement, accomplish something difficult (kids are encouraged to do things themselves, e.g. tie their shoes)
- Need for affiliation, form close personal relationships (kids are encouraged to make friends)
- Need for power, to control others (kids learn that they can get what they want by crying, exerting power over their parents).
Cognitive Evaluation Theory
• Two motivation systems: intrinsic and extrinsic– Intrinsic motivators: achievement, responsibility
and competence; motivators come from actual performance on the task or job
– Extrinsic motivators: marks, pay, promotion, feedback, working conditions; rewards come from the person’s environment, controlled by others.
• Intrinsically motivated people perform for their own satisfaction. Adding extrinsic incentives actually reduces their motivation.
Equity Theory• Suppose employee A gets a 20% raise and B gets a 10% raise. • Will both be motivated as a result? Will A be twice as motivated?
Will B be demotivated?• It is not the actual reward that motivates, but the perception, and
the perception is based on the comparison with the efforts that went into getting the reward and the reward and efforts of others.
• But it is hard to predict how a person will react: – People do not have information about how others are rewarded
(perceptions, rumours, inferences)– Some people are more sensitive to equity than others– Some people are willing to ignore short-term inequalities for a long-
term equity.
Two Factor Theory (Herzberg)
• Two kinds of factors that affect motivation– Hygiene factors – their absence motivates, but
their presence has no effect (people would act to get them back if they lose them)… determine dissatisfaction
– Motivators – factors whose presence motivates (people will act to gain them)… determine satisfaction
Reinforcement Theory
• Skinner’s Operant Conditioning – the effects of the consequences of a particular behaviour on the future occurrence of that behaviour
• Four types of Operant Conditioning:– Positive reinforcement– Negative reinforcement– Punishment– Extinction
To strengthen behaviour
To weaken behaviour
a matter of perspective…
Reinforcement TheoryApply Withhold
Reward positive reinforcement (raise above baseline)
negative reinforcement (raise up to baseline)
Stressor punishment (bring down below baseline) extinction (stay at baseline)
Fixed Variable
Interval
give reward after first proper response following a specified time period (yearly raise)[short term]
give reward after a certain amt of time w/ the amt changing before the next reward (unexpected bonus based on merit)[medium term]
Ratiopunishment (subtract from baseline) (commissions or piecework pay)[medium term]
give reward after a number of responses, w/ that no. changing before the next reward (team-based bonus)[long term]
Expectancy Theory• Vroom: combines the perceptual aspects of equity theory with the
behavioural aspects of the other theories.• M=E*I*V • Motivation=Expectancy*Instrumentality*Valence• M (motivation) is the amount a person will be motivated by the situation they find
themselves in. It is a function of the following.• E (expectancy) = The person's perception that effort will result in performance. In
other words, the person's assessment of the degree to which effort actually correlates with performance.
• I (instrumentality) = The person's perception that performance will be rewarded/punished. I.e., the person's assessment of how well the amount of reward correlates with the quality of performance. (Note here that the model is phrased in terms of extrinsic motivation, in that it asks 'what are the chances I'm going to get rewarded if I do good job?'. But for intrinsic situations, we can think of this as asking 'how good will I feel if I can pull this off?').
• V(valence) = The perceived strength of the reward or punishment that will result from the performance. If the reward is small, the motivation will be small, even if expectancy and instrumentality are both perfect (high).
Overview of theories of motivation
• Maslow’s Theory• Alderfer’S ERG Theory• Acquired Needs Theory• Cognitive Evaluation Theory• Two Factor Theory• Equity Theory• Reinforcement Theory• Expectancy Theory
Based on a hierarchy of needs(internal for the individual)
Based on factors influencing motivation:
internal, external,social
Development of needs
Focusing on extrinsic motivation onlybased on rewards/punishments
Two more theories
• More general theories in Social Psychology, which have implications to motivation – Attitude change, – Relationships change, – An individual’s wellbeing in a group…
Cognitive Coherence Theory
– People try to keep their mental models consistent (less effort). Inconsistency evokes uncomfortable emotions (uncertainty, embarrassment, confusion)
– Cognitive dissonance: self-explanations to reconsile– Keeping commitments– Balance theory (Haider)
Symmetry theory (Newcomb) -+
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Social Comparison• Festinger, 1954: People tend to compare themselves with others
who they perceive as similar to them in order to evaluate or enhance some aspects of the self
• Whether social comparison serves a self-enhancement function depends on whether the comparer assimilates or contrasts his or her self relative to superior or inferior others.
• Complications:– Measure of similarity depends on the question– Upward and downward comparison?
• Assimilation and contrast in social comparison– Assimilation – facilitated by the belief that one can obtain the same
status as the target– Contrast – facilitated by the personal relevance of the attributes that
one has in common with the other person, by one’s extremity on those attributes and by the salience of the individual self (“I”)
The Collective Effort Model(Karau & Williams 1982)
The Collective Effort Model(Karau & Williams 1982)
Common Identity and Common Bond Theories
• An individual would be motivated to contribute if she identifies with the community as a whole
• Or if she feels connected with other members of the community
Persuasion• May appeal to reason with rhetoric• May appeal to emotions (perceived scarcity, etc.)
• May appeal to the collective / social (liking, authority, etc.)
• May manipulate (bait & switch; get you to commit)
• Is there theory in the creative strategies of advertising?
Example: The classic AVIS campaign
Theories
• It seems that all of these are descriptive theories – pick particular features from a complex reality and
paint a picture that “makes sense”– but predicting the future is hard…
