MOTIVATION IN LEARNING

Hedonic motive – Considerations regarding intrinsic motivation for performers

Why do people do what they do? Where does the drive come from in order to pursue a goal, to achieve something?

Any human behaviour has an aim: to accomplish, to achieve something, to get somewhere and the reasons behind it sets the rules of the whole process.

Every human being is like an active system, not only a reactive one which responds to the stimuli of the surroundings – external stimuli. One can act independently from the external influences in order to express certain requests from the outer environment and assimilate it according to ones internal dynamic. The main role is played here by an ensemble of internal stimuli.

Psychologists named the interest or enthusiasm that creates a specific action or behaviour, motivation based on its Latin significance: motivus[1] – which causes movement, urges to act.

Various definitions of motivation emphasize its primal role behind all actions of an organism and its strong bond with emotions. Where an organism is in search for positive emotional experiences, avoiding the negative one, as true motivational forces connected with situational and cognitive operations (family and culture influences, individual thoughts).

The factors which influence our active state, which orientates it towards our goals, allow reaching them sooner or later or stop it at some point, can be divided into two categories:

• Quantity factors represented by the effects of the external stimuli with variations of intensity, which bring the whole being in a state of action and support it throughout a period of time, despite the obstacles encountered (extrinsic motivation);
• Quality factors – determine the human being to pursue a goal and create an hierarchy of possible goals (intrinsic motivation).

Psychologists stated that motivation includes needs, tendencies, intentions, desires, convictions, aspirations characterized by intensity and direction and the interaction between them as attraction and rejection.

This is why motivation has an essential role in the psychological activity and development of human personality. It is the first element, chronologically, of any activity, its inner cause.

Motivation also emphasizes the lack of balance in the physical and psychological structures (e.g. hunger points out the levels of blood sugar under/above the normal amount; while the exaggerated need of belonging to a group emphasizes loneliness). Moreover it selects and urges specific activities of own satisfaction and supports them through high levels of stamina (e.g. the need of affirmation of a student can unleash complex learning activities, participation in competitions) and leads, through repetition of certain activities, to the shaping and consolidation of ones personality (e.g. the interest for music develops the capacity to perform a piece of music after sustained practice).

There are several distinct theories of motivation which are based on biological factors such as the Instinct theory, the Drive Reduction theory (Clark Hull 1943, 1952), the Arousal theory, the Psychoanalytic theory (Sigmund Freud) , but also the Humanistic theory (developed by Abraham Maslow) which presents the specific human needs as our ground for aspiring towards higher level needs.

At the peak of Maslow’s pyramid[2] there is the need of self-fulfilment, when one can expand into ones full potential, can accomplish emotional, intellectual and spiritual growth, can transcend egocentric-orientated goals.

As musicians we aim towards realizing our full potential in order to be able to understand and communicate the content of any piece of music in a convincing, original manner. My interest is concentrated on the performer’s motivation of clearly communicating emotions, feelings and affects as paramount issues to musicians from the early beginnings of music and as a kaleidoscopic process of self actualization.

According to Motte-Haber[3](1984) ‘achievement motivation, curiosity, self-actualization, the conquering of failure anxiety, fear of success’ are the basis of motivation specific to learning and mastering an instrument and they can be related to the majority of musicians (performers, composers, teachers). The process of learning, conceptualization and construction of musical meaning has as initial basis the subjective realm of any performer where self-determination in embracing the expressive aspects of performance should prevail.

Roland S. Persson brought into the limelight the interest for various reasons existing amongst musicians related to musical performance and its prior process of preparation (learning the piece of music, memorizing it, interpretation of structure, communication of the musical content).The types of motivation offered by Persson after interviewing a sample of musicians were:

• Hedonic motive (the search for positive emotional experience)
• Social motive (the significance of group identity and belonging)
• Achievement motives: exhibitionism, independence, dependence, aesthetics, support

The hedonic motive characterised, according to Persson’s research[4], the majority of musicians interviewed and reflects the general tendency amongst performers. Its result is always a positive emotional experience which has an intrinsic cause directed towards own satisfaction, which later on irradiates and aims to communicate this personal experience. C.P.E. Bach strongly stated in his treatise[5]:

‘A musician cannot move others unless he too is moved…He must of necessity feel all of the affects that he hopes to arouse in his audience.’

This enhances the pursuit of understanding how to manipulate the tempo, timbre, dynamics, articulation, harmony, structure of a piece of music in order to induce an emotional experience in the listener, which starts as an individual experience.

In my opinion the hedonic motive has a crucial role in communicating emotions since many performers organise their performance based on emotions, moods, scenarios. It increases the interest for how a performer can communicate to listeners and why it is so rewarding to set this goal in any performance.

‘With regard to musical performance, experience has shown that the imagination of the hearer is in general so much at the disposal of the (performer) that by the help of variation, intervals and modulation he may stamp what impression on the mind he pleases’.

                                                            Francesco Gemininani cited by Meyer[6]

The first target of a hedonistic approach to musical performance would be, as Geminiani stated, the mastery of various musical features, the technical aspects of conceiving a performance .They occupied and important place in music education since antiquity, especially in ancient Greece where specific musical features were associated to specific emotions.

Sound, rhythm and words were attuned to some corresponding moral principles, feelings or spiritual states in order to heal, entertain or uplift the listener. Thus the Greeks built their ideas on the concept of mimesis where music is focused mainly on evoking emotions and expressing them.

Later on the ancient theory was incorporated within the Affektenlehre or the doctrine of affections, widely accepted in the Baroque period. In the centre of the doctrine lies the belief that by making use of the proper standard musical procedure or device  (a set of musical figures) the performer could create the correspondence between dance forms, instruments (timbre, tone), keys and affections which were meant to evoke specific emotions in his audience.

This facet of hedonic motive triggers the rise of various trends in performing practice from early beginnings till nowadays: from mimesis to catharsis (the state of ethos and expanded human awareness) in Antiquity, from the “nature of the words” to extreme affections (Renaissance), from exclamatio to musica poetica (the art of persuasion through harmony, rhythm and melody) in Baroque, from reason to emotion (18^th century), from personal to impersonal (started in the 20^th century). It also reflects the intentionof composers and performers to use music as a medium for emotional communication, to send a message to the receiver (audience) who will react with a feedback for the communicator (performer).

Reaching high standards of technical abilities for a hedonic orientated performer is a sine qua non condition on pursuing his/her performance goals. Apart from the technical aspects of a composed structure, performers are concerned about “speaking directly” to the listener’s perception, but only “through their own emotional reactions to their performance”[7]. This motivates them to awaken within themselves a series of emotions, either through a personal interaction with the piece or their knowledge about it (external influences from teachers, books, other people’s opinions) and create an overall emotional structure of it. Furthermore performers can push the concentration from the self-conscious approach (usually determined by external factors: scrutiny, judgements, expectations) to the area of free flowing creativity, intuitive emotional communication as cellist Frans Helmerson once said:

‘....it takes a creative process to fit the minute parts of a composition together...later in concert I want to – to put it rather solemnly – transcend into a different dimension; one which makes me one with the music. It is a dimension where boundaries between consciousness and intuition are vague and evanescent.’[8]

Moreover these are strongly connected to the aesthetics and expressive aspects. This synthesis represents the core of an expressive performance, but also a goal in teaching music interpretation and an ever lasting intrinsic reason to explore emotional communication through musical communication.

Blues guitarist B.B. King describes his connection with the empirical and emotional realms of performance:

 “If I was feeling lonely, I’d pick up the guitar, if something’s bugging me, just grab the guitar and play out the anger; happy, horny, mad or sad, the guitar was right there. It was incredible luxury to have this instrument to stroke whenever passion overcame me. I started experimenting with sounds that expressed my emotions, whether happy or sad, bouncy or bluesy. I was looking for ways to let my guitar sing.”[9]

Above all, the arousal of specific emotions characterizes the inner drive (intrinsic motivation) of a performer which sets his/her goals towards self expression and personal satisfaction. The intrinsic hedonic criteria is an important determinant of any generation of musicians, especially in the early stage of their musical education because it not only triggers responses inherent in musical structures, but also, by being constantly orientated towards positive performance experiences, can incorporate the external motivation (rewards, expectations, evaluation, social integration) and transform the musical communication into a wonderful sharing experience (not self orientated).

Bibliography:

Budd, Malcolm. Music and the Emotions. London: Routledge (1980)

Freud, Sigmund. Psychoanalysis of Art. Iassy: Trei (1996)

Juslin,P.N. Emotional Communication in Music Performance. Music Perception. New York: Oxford University Press (1997)

Juslin,P.N. and Sloboda, J.A. Music and Emotion. New York: Oxford University Press (2001)

Meyer, L.B. Emotion and Meaning in Music.Chicago: Chicago University Press (1956)

Persson, R.S. Studying with a musical maestro. A case study of commonsense teaching in artistic training. Creativity research Journal (p.33-46)

Persson, R.S. and Robson, C. The limits of experimentation: On researching music and musical settings. Psychology of Music (1995)

Sloboda, John. Exploring the musical mind. New York: Oxford University Press (2005)

Swanswick, Keith. Music, Mind and Education. London: Routledge (1995

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Motivation accessed November 25th 2010