Transformation of Motivation

Interaction Motives

Before developing the concept of transformation of motivation, prevailing models predicting behavior were based on simple economic assumptions. These models suggested that in interactions with others, people are motivated to maximize their own gains—that is, their sole goal or motive is pursuing their own self-interest. The concept of transformation of motivation allows for the possibility that not all behavior is driven by immediate self-interest and, indeed, interaction motives may vary; a person is likely to have different goals when interacting with a potential relationship partner, a cooperative coworker, a friendly neighbor, or a competitive sibling.

The various motives people have in interacting with others can be understood in terms of different patterns of resources or “outcomes” each person obtains relative to the interaction partner. In studies where people make decisions about their own and another's outcomes (both the benefits and costs), people typically display one of four motives: maximizing one's own outcomes (self-interested motives), maximizing the partner's outcomes (altruistic motives), adopting the action that yields the highest own and partner outcomes (communal motives involving maximizing the pair's joint outcomes), or adopting the action that maximizes the difference favoring one's own outcomes relative to the partner outcomes (competitive motives).

Some interaction motives become more prevalent than others in specific types of relationships. Parents often act in ways to maximize what is best for their children, even when it means they themselves could have obtained better outcomes from alternative actions; friends often act in ways to [Page 1642]maximize their joint outcomes, unless they become involved in a friendly rivalry (e.g., in playing games or sports), in which the aim might become to do better than the other, even if an alternate action would have allowed both to do well. Individuals in well-functioning relationships typically do what is best for both of them or for the partner; those in distressed relationships may behave in more selfish ways (knowingly disregarding the partner's outcomes and instead acting to maximize their own outcomes).

When people face similar situations repeatedly, motive-consistent behavior may become relatively automatic. This is the case when one automatically enacts a social norm, rather than behaving in a purely self-interested manner. For example, when a man in an office setting is rushed and yet is greeted by a coworker (“Hey, how's it going?”), the man is likely to give little thought to greeting the coworker back (“Fine, thanks! How are you?”) as he rushes by.

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