Implicit motives: Current topics and future directions

Abstract

Implicit motives are capacities to experience specific types of incentives as rewarding and specific types of disincentives as aversive (Atkinson, 1957; Schultheiss, 2008). Because implicit motives determine which stimuli are affectively “hot”, they also orient the person's behavior toward those stimuli, energize behavior aimed at attaining (or avoiding) them, and select stimuli that predict their proximity and behaviors that are instrumental for attaining (or avoiding) them (McClelland, 1987).

Citation

Schultheiss, O.C., Rösch, A.G., Rawolle, M., Kordik, A. and Graham, S. (2010), "Implicit motives: Current topics and future directions", Urdan, T.C. and Karabenick, S.A. (Ed.) The Decade Ahead: Theoretical Perspectives on Motivation and Achievement (Advances in Motivation and Achievement, Vol. 16 Part A), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 199-233. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0749-7423(2010)000016A009