Conclusion

Having studied this course you should be able to discuss what is meant by the term ‘motivation’ and the situational and trait-centred views of motivation. You have examined two of the theories of motivation to develop your understanding more deeply.

The main learning points for this course are:

• People will be motivated by a range of factors and these are different for everyone.
• Personality and the environment both need to be considered when motivating people.
• Need achievement theory explains why high achievers choose difficult or challenging tasks and why low achievers choose easier tasks at which they are less likely to fail.
• Attribution theory shows that what we attribute our success or failure to will have an effect on our motivation.