Motivation, goals, thinking, and problem solving

Introduction, Problem solving and motivation are closely intertwined, as is indicated by the classic definition of a problem situation from Duncker (1945, p. 1), “A problem arises when a living organism has a goal but does not know how this goal is to be reached.” Before proceeding further, we will briefly discuss some definitional issues and consider the relationships between goals and motives. Austin and Vancouver (1996, p. 338) proposed that goals be defined as “internal representations of desired states.” In a broad sense, a goal reflects a preference for some proposition to be true versus not true (e.g., the goal to have more money tomorrow than today reflects a preference for “having more money tomorrow” to be true rather than false). According to one dictionary definition (Chambers, 1962), “a motive is a consideration that excites to action (from the Latin, movere, to move).” Motives and goals are clearly very closely related concepts in that both involve representations of desired states. Austin and Vancouver made the useful suggestion that goals can vary in degree of specificity or abstractness and that more abstract goals, such as Need for Cognition (Cacioppo et al., 1996) or Achievement Need (Atkinson, 1964), are usefully labelled as motives and more specific representations of desired states should be labelled as goals. If a motive is to lead to action, it would seem that it must ultimately lead to the activation of a specific goal representation, which can then play a role in initiating and controlling behaviour. Research on problem solving tends to theorise at the level of goals rather than at the level of very broad motives (which are dealt with largely in personality and motivational psychology).