Motivating Humans : Goals, Emotions, and Personal Agency Beliefs

Motivating Humans represents an excellent integration of different motivational constructs. . . . The main purpose of Ford′s book and his theory, motivational systems theory (MST), is to provide an integrative and coherent model of motivation that synthesizes the various constructs from the different theories into one comprehensive framework. . . . It represents an important addition to the knowledge base on motivation and will be generative of much future research. Moreover, the book presents the framework in a scholarly, yet readable, fashion that makes the book accessible to professional psychologists as well as graduate and undergraduate students. --Paul R. Pintrich in Contemporary Psychology Why do people do the things they do? In Motivating Humans, Ford answers this age-old question and offers the reader a precise and comprehensive description of the basic substance of human motivation--what it is, how it works, and how it impacts what people do and how well they do it. He also shows how classic and contemporary motivation theory in education, management, and psychology can be integrated into a coherent and unified framework called Motivational Systems Theory, from which he derives 17 principles for motivating humans. Different from any other motivation book, Motivating Humans presents numerous unique features: a variety of concrete examples to bridge the gap between abstract theory and the world of practical human affairs; an applications chapter that explores such issues as ways to promote social responsibility in youth, ways to increase work productivity and job satisfaction, and ways to increase learning and school achievement; the most up-to-date coverage of recent studies in motivation; and, pedagogical devices, including summary tables to help the reader digest and remember key information. Unique, comprehensive, and accessibly written, Motivating Humans will inspire a wide readership, including professors and students in psychology, management, educati