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Current Biology : CB Aug 2016Prosociality refers to behaviours that are intended to benefit others. This definition appears to be so straightforward that it hardly bears mentioning: like certain...
Prosociality refers to behaviours that are intended to benefit others. This definition appears to be so straightforward that it hardly bears mentioning: like certain forms of adult entertainment, we know it when we see it. Yet, determining what counts as prosocial is not as simple as it first appears. There are numerous behaviours that appear prosocial but, on scrutiny, may not have been intended and motivated for the well-being of others. Consider a banal scenario: a seated passenger on a crowded bus stands up and someone takes his seat. Did the person standing up intend that someone else take the seat? Perhaps he was getting off the bus at the next stop and did not care if anyone sat there. But what if he remained standing for several stops, or made an overt gesture such as waving his hand toward the seat? In that case it is more likely that he intended for someone to have his place on the bus. But what about his underlying motives? Maybe he was putting himself in a better position to pick the pocket of the person sitting down. Less sinister possibilities include trying to impress the person who took his seat - trying to improve his reputation, his social standing, as it were. Or maybe, just maybe, he intended for another passenger to sit comfortably, to increase the happiness of a stranger, with no ulterior motives.
Topics: Age Distribution; Animals; Biological Evolution; Humans; Motivation; Social Behavior
PubMed: 27554648
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.07.025 -
Journal of Behavioral Addictions Sep 2022The present systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to synthesize the available literature on the relationship between gaming motivations and gaming disorder symptoms.... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
BACKGROUND AND AIMS
The present systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to synthesize the available literature on the relationship between gaming motivations and gaming disorder symptoms. Specifically, to (1) explore what gaming motivation questionnaires and classifications are used in studies on gaming disorder symptoms and (2) investigate the relationship between motivational factors and symptoms of gaming disorder.
METHOD
An electronic database search was conducted via EBSCO (MEDLINE and PsycINFO) and the Web of Science Core Collection. All studies using validated measurements on gaming disorder symptoms and gaming motivations and available correlation coefficients of the relationship between gaming disorder and gaming motivations were included. The meta-analyses were conducted using a random-effects model.
RESULTS
In total, 49 studies (k = 58 independent sub-samples), including 51,440 participants, out of which 46 studies (k = 55 sub-samples, n = 49,192 participants) provided data for the meta-analysis. The synthesis identified fourteen different gaming motivation instruments, seven unique motivation models, and 26 motivational factors. The meta-analysis showed statistically significant associations between gaming disorder symptoms and 23 out of 26 motivational factors, with the majority of the pooled mean effect sizes ranging from small to moderate. Moreover, large heterogeneity was observed, and the calculated prediction intervals indicated substantial variation in effects across populations and settings. Motivations related to emotional escape were robustly associated with gaming disorder symptoms.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The present meta-analysis reinforces the importance of motivational factors in understanding problematic gaming behavior. The analysis showed significant heterogeneity in most outcomes, warranting further investigation.
REGISTRATION DETAIL
PROSPERO (CRD42020220050).
Topics: Humans; Video Games; Behavior, Addictive; Motivation; Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 36094861
DOI: 10.1556/2006.2022.00053 -
Trends in Cognitive Sciences Apr 2018Motivated control refers to the coordination of behaviour to achieve affectively valenced outcomes or goals. The study of motivated control traditionally assumes a... (Review)
Review
Motivated control refers to the coordination of behaviour to achieve affectively valenced outcomes or goals. The study of motivated control traditionally assumes a distinction between control and motivational processes, which map to distinct (dorsolateral versus ventromedial) brain systems. However, the respective roles and interactions between these processes remain controversial. We offer a novel perspective that casts control and motivational processes as complementary aspects - goal propagation and prioritization, respectively - of active inference and hierarchical goal processing under deep generative models. We propose that the control hierarchy propagates prior preferences or goals, but their precision is informed by the motivational context, inferred at different levels of the motivational hierarchy. The ensuing integration of control and motivational processes underwrites action and policy selection and, ultimately, motivated behaviour, by enabling deep inference to prioritize goals in a context-sensitive way.
Topics: Executive Function; Humans; Motivation; Perception; Prefrontal Cortex; Psychological Theory; Thinking
PubMed: 29475638
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2018.01.009 -
Qualitative Health Research Aug 2022The provision of informal care presents a significant global challenge. To better understand how cultural factors underpin and shape motivations and willingness to... (Review)
Review
The provision of informal care presents a significant global challenge. To better understand how cultural factors underpin and shape motivations and willingness to provide informal care for adults, an in-depth qualitative synthesis was conducted. Six electronic databases and a wide range of additional sources were searched. Following meta-ethnographic guidelines, 37 qualitative studies were synthesised. Six main concepts were identified: cultural self-identity, which appeared as an overarching explanatory concept; cultural duty and obligations; cultural values; love and emotional attachments; repayment and reciprocity; and competing demands and roles. These concepts informed a model of cultural caregiving motivations, offering an inductive-based exploration of key cultural motivators and highlighting implications for theory development, future research, policy and practice. The model holds implications for the actual exchange of care. Caregiver motivations should not be taken for granted by healthcare or social care professionals involved in assessment and support planning, educational endeavours at a population level may support caregiving, and support should be sensitive to cultural caregiving motivations.
Topics: Adult; Anthropology, Cultural; Caregivers; Humans; Motivation; Qualitative Research; Social Support
PubMed: 35737473
DOI: 10.1177/10497323221110356 -
International Journal of Environmental... Oct 2022A new model provides insight into the 'how' and 'why' of wellbeing to better understand the 'what'. Informed by evolutionary psychology and neuroscience, it proposes...
A new model provides insight into the 'how' and 'why' of wellbeing to better understand the 'what'. Informed by evolutionary psychology and neuroscience, it proposes that systems for adaptive motivation underpin experiential and reflective wellbeing. The model proposes that the brain learns to predict situations, and errors arise between the predictions and experience. These prediction errors drive emotional experience, learning, motivation, decision-making, and the formation of wellbeing-relevant memories. The model differentiates four layers of wellbeing: objective, experiential, reflective, and narrative, which relate to the model in different ways. Constituents of wellbeing, human motives, and specific emotions integrate into the model. A simple computational implementation of the model reproduced several established wellbeing phenomena, including: the greater frequency of pleasant to unpleasant emotions, the stronger emotional salience of unpleasant emotions, hedonic adaptation to changes in circumstances, heritable influences on wellbeing, and affective forecasting errors. It highlights the importance of individual differences, and implies that high wellbeing will correlate with the experience of infrequent, routine, and predictable avoidance cues and frequent, varied, and novel approach cues. The model suggests that wellbeing arises directly from a system for adaptive motivation. This system functions like a mental dashboard that calls attention to situational changes and motivates the kinds of behaviours that gave humans a relative advantage in their ancestral environment. The model offers a set of fundamental principles and processes that may underlie diverse conceptualisations of wellbeing.
Topics: Brain; Emotions; Humans; Learning; Motivation
PubMed: 36232083
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph191912784 -
Consciousness and Cognition May 2015Delusions are defined as irrational beliefs that compromise good functioning. However, in the empirical literature, delusions have been found to have some psychological... (Review)
Review
Delusions are defined as irrational beliefs that compromise good functioning. However, in the empirical literature, delusions have been found to have some psychological benefits. One proposal is that some delusions defuse negative emotions and protect one from low self-esteem by allowing motivational influences on belief formation. In this paper I focus on delusions that have been construed as playing a defensive function (motivated delusions) and argue that some of their psychological benefits can convert into epistemic ones. Notwithstanding their epistemic costs, motivated delusions also have potential epistemic benefits for agents who have faced adversities, undergone physical or psychological trauma, or are subject to negative emotions and low self-esteem. To account for the epistemic status of motivated delusions, costly and beneficial at the same time, I introduce the notion of epistemic innocence. A delusion is epistemically innocent when adopting it delivers a significant epistemic benefit, and the benefit could not be attained if the delusion were not adopted. The analysis leads to a novel account of the status of delusions by inviting a reflection on the relationship between psychological and epistemic benefits.
Topics: Defense Mechanisms; Delusions; Humans; Knowledge; Motivation
PubMed: 25459652
DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2014.10.005 -
Brain and Behavior Aug 2021A key distinction in motivational processes is between motivations and the means for pursuing motivations. Despite being a motivated process, existing models of...
A key distinction in motivational processes is between motivations and the means for pursuing motivations. Despite being a motivated process, existing models of acculturation do not make this distinction, neither empirically nor theoretically. A motivational framework that is informed by theories of goal constructs to understand the process of acculturation is proposed. This model is tested in two distinct samples comprising immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Israel (N = 239) as well as immigrants from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh to Britain (N = 236). Results revealed that the motivation to preserve one's heritage culture and the motivation to adopt one's host culture were each uniquely associated with the respective means for doing so. Furthermore, outcomes in acculturation were determined by the match between acculturation motivations and acculturation means. These findings demonstrate the theoretical and practical implications of analyzing the process of acculturation using a motivational framework.
Topics: Acculturation; Emigrants and Immigrants; Humans; India; Motivation; USSR
PubMed: 34165253
DOI: 10.1002/brb3.2267 -
Frontiers in Public Health 2022In general, being unemployed has negative implications for the individual and the mental health of the public as a collective. One way to escape this situation is to...
In general, being unemployed has negative implications for the individual and the mental health of the public as a collective. One way to escape this situation is to search for a job. However, following self-determination theory (SDT), unemployed people's different reasons (i.e., their motivation) for engaging in a job search influence their well-being, attitudes, and behaviors for better or worse. Some research has already supported the associations between different types of motivation and these outcomes, but less is known about how these types of motivation simultaneously associate with these outcomes. The current study addressed this issue by studying how different motivational profiles had different implications for the affective experiences, commitment to employment, and job search behavior of the unemployed. Latent profile analysis, among 865 unemployed individuals from previously disadvantaged communities in South Africa, highlighted four distinct motivational profiles: motivated, ambivalent, amotivated, and unmotivated. The motivated reported some good well-being (i.e., positive experiences) and economic outcomes (i.e., employment commitment and job search), but these came at a cost (i.e., more negative experiences). The same went for the ambivalent, but to a lesser extent. Being unmotivated seemed to have the opposite effect in that it came with psychological benefits, but with economic costs, as these individuals might withdraw from the labor market. This also applied to the amotivated, although they experienced less psychological benefit than their unmotivated counterparts. The findings made several contributions to SDT and unemployment research and could help tailor interventions and policies for particular types of unemployed people.
Topics: Attitude; Employment; Humans; Motivation; Personal Autonomy; Unemployment
PubMed: 35570905
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.870073 -
JPMA. the Journal of the Pakistan... Sep 2023Goal setting is an integral part of rehabilitation and the rehabilitation process. The aim of rehabilitation is to optimize functioning. Therefore, rehabilitation... (Review)
Review
Goal setting is an integral part of rehabilitation and the rehabilitation process. The aim of rehabilitation is to optimize functioning. Therefore, rehabilitation professionals and patients together have to determine mutually which aspects of functioning they should aim at. From a clinical view, a formal procedure for setting goals should help to motivate patients, ensure cooperation of rehabilitation team members, help to identify relevant blind spots and provide a system to monitor patient changes. Applying goalsetting in rehabilitation represents a purpose in its own right, as it serves to strengthen the autonomy of patients and is a valuable tool to integrate personal motives, attitudes, meanings into the rehabilitation process. There is evidence that the introduction of goal setting into rehabilitation practice could enhance health-related quality of life and emotional states, especially self-efficacy. Mixed results have been reported regarding the patient motivation as well as activities and participation outcomes.
Topics: Humans; Goals; Quality of Life; Motivation; Self Efficacy; Patient Participation
PubMed: 37817718
DOI: 10.47391/JPMA.23-68 -
Acta Psychologica Aug 2022Gamification, which refers to the use of game design elements in non-game contexts, provides similar experiences and motivations as games do; this makes gamification a...
Gamification, which refers to the use of game design elements in non-game contexts, provides similar experiences and motivations as games do; this makes gamification a useful approach to promote positive behaviors. As a useful tool for keeping users motivated, engaged and active, there is a wide interest in adopting gamification solutions for supporting and promoting positive behaviors and behavior change (e.g. quit smoking, ecological behaviors, food choices, civic engagement, mental healthcare, sustainability, etc.). In this study, we use the CiteSpace software to examine 984 publications and their 46,609 unique references on gamification applied for behavior change. The corpus of studies was downloaded from the Scopus database and refers to studies published between 2011 and the beginning of 2022. Several methods were used to analyze these data: (1) document co-citation analysis (DCA) was performed to identify the pivotal researches and the research areas; (2) author cocitation analysis (ACA) was performed to identify the main authors; (3) and keyword analysis was performed to detect the most influential keywords and their change over time. The results of the analysis provide an overview of the influential documents, authors and keywords that have given shape to the literature of the field, and how it has evolved, showing an initial interest in motivational and persuasion techniques, and in the gamification design, and subsequently in the development of more rigorous methodologies for both design and use. As the first scientometric review of gamification applied to behavior change, this study will be of interest to junior and senior researchers, graduate students, and professors seeking to identify research trends, topics, major publications, and influential scholars.
Topics: Bibliometrics; Gamification; Humans; Motivation
PubMed: 35767927
DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103657