We need to consider in more detail the general question of the role of motive in the psychological structure of objective activity. We will start with it, although in the future our main focus will be on consideration of the direct impact of motivation features on work safety.
The term “motive” in the psychological literature is used to identify the most diverse phenomena and conditions that cause the activity of the subject. And since these phenomena and states can have a different nature, motives are often viewed as the equivalent of very different psychological concepts: needs, desires, attitudes, instincts, etc. . The motive is a psychological characteristic of a person, but sometimes it is also used to determine the motivators of animal behavior.
Under the motive they understand that objective (in one way or another reflected in consciousness), for the sake of it an activity is performed. Moreover, since the concept of “activity” we apply only to the person, then the motivation should be associated only with the mental processes of the person.
The need, which we regard as a disagreement in the body, as its need for something (it can be of a physiological or psychological nature), is only a push, an agent of activity. Motives act as the guiding and controlling force of this activity. They set and regulate the direction of its development, just as the steering wheel controls the movement of the car. The needs in this example can be compared with the energy that sets the car in motion. As the movement of a car is impossible without energy, so an activity cannot arise without a need. At the same time, activity is possible without motives, but to the same extent as the movement of a car without a rudder is possible. This comparison already gives an idea of what is unmotivated (i.e., unmanaged) behavior. Similar manifestations, driven only by needs,
Motives and those needs that are not inborn, arise as a result of the previous objective human activity in which he has known himself, his capabilities. Under the influence of objective activity, on the basis of individual characteristics, a person forms the corresponding personal qualities, including his orientation, value criteria, from which new needs and motives are born. Thus, the needs and motives, arising from the activities, become factors that are ahead of it, that is, determine the formation and direction of subsequent new manifestations of man.
Personality motives are divided into semantic, defining its general direction, its motivational sphere and operating relatively stable, and situational (incentive motives) associated with current activities, solving its specific tasks, and therefore, naturally, more variable. In this review we will discuss only the second category of motives.
People tend to be guided not by individual but by several motives, to act under the influence of not individual, but a number of needs, and all these motivators together create a complex set of factors that drive and direct human activity. These are the most general considerations about the role of motives in the structure of objective activity.
Thus, it is precisely the motives that are the psychological factor, on the basis of which one can probably most likely find the answer to the question of why a person in a given situation acts this way and not otherwise. Therefore, to understand the reasons that motivate sensible people to deliberately sometimes violate the rules, exposing themselves to high danger, it is necessary first of all to disclose the motives for such behavior. Having identified these motives and those objective motivators behind them, we can already look for practical ways to eliminate or reduce the impact of factors causing unwanted motivation, as well as ways of educational influences contributing to the rejection of such motives.
