{"id":460,"date":"2023-11-17T02:50:10","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T02:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/psychologyandsociety.com\/?p=460"},"modified":"2025-06-19T23:43:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T23:43:26","slug":"meaning-as-a-primary-motive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychologyandsociety.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/17\/meaning-as-a-primary-motive\/","title":{"rendered":"Meaning as a Primary Motive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>By Brad Bell<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What are we striving for? \u00a0What is our most important motivation? \u00a0These are some of the most important questions we could ask. \u00a0It is important to gain\u00a0an understanding of possible primary motives in psychology.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Frankl (1992) suggested that the search for meaning is a primary\u00a0motivation. \u00a0This idea may be convincing for two reasons.\u00a0\u00a0First, for\u00a0something to be a primary motive it should be fairly general.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In other words,\u00a0the primary motive should reflect a number of specific motives. Finding\u00a0meaning in life may reflect specific motives, such as the desire to express\u00a0creativity, be authentic, and have a purpose in life (see Bell, 2007). (1) \u00a0\u00a0Second, for something to be a primary motive it should explain behaviors in\u00a0many situations, including behaviors in difficult and unpleasant situations. \u00a0 Although behaviors in situations that are pleasant can be explained in many ways, it is more difficult to explain why we would persist at something in situations that are unpleasant with few external rewards. \u00a0For example, we may\u00a0persist at a task even though we are experiencing failure and difficulty. \u00a0Moreover, we may keep a job even though the pay is low and the job is very\u00a0stressful. \u00a0\u00a0Some theories of motivation (e.g., based on incentives) may not be\u00a0able to adequately explain these behaviors. \u00a0In contrast, these behaviors may make sense if we consider that finding meaning in life is a primary motivation. \u00a0\u00a0Some jobs and tasks may be highly meaningful even if they are significantly unpleasant, difficult, or have few external rewards. For example, a job as an\u00a0executive director may not be high paying and may be very stressful. \u00a0However, it may be highly meaningful because of the potential to make a\u00a0lasting contribution to society. Moreover, a writer may persist at writing\u00a0articles and books even though he or she has received many rejections. Writing may be very meaningful because it is challenging and fosters\u00a0self-expression.<br><br><strong>Notes<br><br><\/strong>1. \u00a0My book, <em>Finding Meaning<\/em>,\u00a0(3rd edition) has information on seven possible sources of finding meaning in life. This book is available at lulu.com.<br><br><strong>References<br><br><\/strong>Bell, B. \u00a0(2007). \u00a0<em>Finding meaning\u00a0<\/em>(3rd edition). \u00a0Portland, Oregon: \u00a0Blue Fox\u00a0Communications.<br>Frankl, V. E. (1992).\u00a0<em>Man&#8217;s search for meaning: \u00a0\u00a0An introduction to<br>logotheraphy<\/em>\u00a0(4th edition). \u00a0Boston: \u00a0Beacon Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Brad Bell What are we striving for? \u00a0What is our most important motivation? \u00a0These are some of the most important questions we could ask. \u00a0It is important to gain\u00a0an understanding of possible primary motives in psychology.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Frankl (1992) suggested that the search for meaning is a primary\u00a0motivation. \u00a0This idea may be convincing for two reasons.\u00a0\u00a0First, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/psychologyandsociety.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/17\/meaning-as-a-primary-motive\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Meaning as a Primary Motive&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meaning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychologyandsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychologyandsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychologyandsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologyandsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologyandsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/psychologyandsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":591,"href":"https:\/\/psychologyandsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions\/591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychologyandsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologyandsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologyandsociety.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}