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IB DP Psychology — Human Relationships | SL & HL | Paper 2
🎯 Learning Intentions By the end of this note, you will be able to:
- Define motivation, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and employee satisfaction using IB-aligned terminology.
- Explain Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and how unmet needs at different levels affect workplace motivation and performance.
- Describe Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory and distinguish between hygiene factors and motivators in organisational settings.
- Evaluate research evidence for motivation theories using supporting and opposing studies in ACAS format.
- Apply motivation concepts to a real-world workplace case study from sociocultural and cognitive perspectives.
- Discuss the extent to which intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation predicts employee performance and satisfaction.
- Analyse motivation research using relevant concept areas: Bias, Causality, Perspective, and Responsibility.
Introduction & Context
Imagine two employees at the same company, doing the same job, earning the same salary. One arrives early, stays late, and speaks enthusiastically about their work. The other does the bare minimum, watches the clock, and seems perpetually disengaged. From the outside, their circumstances look identical — yet their behaviour is strikingly different. What explains this gap? The answer, psychologists argue, lies not in the work itself but in the internal and external forces that drive — or fail to drive — human action.
This question sits at the heart of organisational psychology: what motivates people to work, and how does motivation connect to satisfaction and performance? These are not merely academic questions. Organisations spend enormous resources trying to answer them, because the link between motivated employees and productive, healthy workplaces has profound real-world consequences. Understanding the psychology of motivation allows us to move beyond simplistic assumptions — such as "pay people more and they will work harder" — and engage with the richer, more nuanced picture that research reveals.
The study of motivation in the workplace draws on multiple psychological traditions. Humanistic psychology asks what fundamental human needs must be met before people can flourish. Cognitive psychology asks how people's beliefs about their own competence shape their effort. Sociocultural psychology asks how the social environment — colleagues, managers, organisational culture — shapes what people want and how hard they try. Together, these perspectives build a layered account of why people work the way they do.
🔋 Analogy — The Battery Think of motivation as a battery that powers human behaviour. Some batteries are recharged from within — they are self-sustaining, driven by genuine interest and personal meaning (intrinsic motivation). Others depend on an external charger — they need regular top-ups from outside sources like rewards, praise, or fear of consequences (extrinsic motivation). A battery that relies entirely on external charging will eventually run flat if the charger is removed. Understanding which type of charge powers your employees — and how to sustain it — is the central challenge of workplace motivation.
Core Concepts
Before we can understand what drives employees, we need a clear account of what motivation actually is. When we observe someone working persistently toward a goal — staying focused, resisting distraction, returning to a task after setbacks — we are observing the effects of motivation. But motivation itself is not directly visible. It is an internal state, inferred from behaviour, that energises and directs action toward a goal.
📖 Key Definition — Motivation Motivation refers to the internal processes that initiate, direct, and sustain