| / English Dictionary |
MOTIVATION
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior
Example:
he acted with the best of motives
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("motivation" is a kind of...):
psychological feature (a feature of the mental life of a living organism)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "motivation"):
life (a motive for living)
rational motive (a motive that can be defended by reasoning or logical argument)
irrational motive (a motivation that is inconsistent with reason or logic)
impulse; urge (an instinctive motive)
ethical motive; ethics; morality; morals (motivation based on ideas of right and wrong)
mental energy; psychic energy (an actuating force or factor)
Derivation:
motivate (give an incentive for action)
motivational (of or relating to motivation)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The act of motivating; providing incentive
Synonyms:
motivating; motivation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("motivation" is a kind of...):
act; deed; human action; human activity (something that people do or cause to happen)
Derivation:
motivate (give an incentive for action)
motivational (of or relating to motivation)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The condition of being motivated
Example:
his motivation was at a high level
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("motivation" is a kind of...):
condition; status (a state at a particular time)
Derivation:
motivate (give an incentive for action)
motivational (of or relating to motivation)
Context examples:
A question about whether an individual's motivation is or was lower when fatigued.
(Motivation Lower When Fatigued, NCI Thesaurus)
However, anhedonia also involves a lack of motivation and lack of excitement in anticipation of events.
(Marmoset study gives insights into loss of pleasure in depression, University of Cambridge)
Previous studies have also reported that greater practitioner empathy is associated with higher patient motivation towards activation, enablement and self-management of disease.
(Patients with an ‘empathic’ GP at reduced risk of early death, University of Cambridge)
In other experiments, they made mice walk in circles by injecting a drug that mimics morphine into the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a region that controls motivation and addiction.
(Futuristic brain probe allows for wireless control of neurons, NIH)
The volunteers reported their mood, motivation and energy levels after both the physical and cognitive tests.
(Mental, Not Physical, Fatigue Affects Seniors' Walking Ability, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
A subdiscipline of psychiatry that is concerned with the study of conditioning, learning, perception, motivation, emotion, language, and thinking; also used in relation to subject-matter areas in which experimental methods are emphasized.
(Experimental Psychiatry, NCI Thesaurus)
For example, abnormalities in the cerebellum have been linked to autism, schizophrenia, and substance use disorders, and brain activation in the cerebellum has been linked to motivation, social and emotional behaviors, and reward learning, each of which can be disrupted in psychiatric disorders.
(New Findings Reveal Surprising Role of the Cerebellum in Reward and Social Behaviors, National Institutes of Health)
This new moon will give you the time and motivation to come up with an answer.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
Using marmosets, a type of non-human primate, the researchers have shown how over-activity in a specific area of the brain’s frontal lobe blunts the excitement seen when anticipating a reward and the motivation to work for that reward.
(Marmoset study gives insights into loss of pleasure in depression, University of Cambridge)
You will be filled with intellectual curiosity and a strong motivation to learn and do well.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
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