'MOTIVATION RESEARCH' FROM A RESEARCH VIEWPOINT

In: Public opinion quarterly: journal of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Band 20, Heft 4, S. 663-673

Abstract

A common error is to confine the term motivation research (MR) to specific res instruments. MR is actually much broader; it is 'res aimed at a better understanding of motivation'. Behavior cannot be explained completely by subjective causes. For example, mechanical causes & psychol'al causes other than motives are also important. This helps explain why in res, contrary to daily life, the usefulness of an answer is often independent of the truth of an answer. In predictive res 'answers to questions can no longer be considered as solutions to problems, but rather as responses to specific stimuli'. Such a relationship between experiment & prediction has long been accepted in the physical sci's. The mistaken emphasis on 'truth' in res has led to much use of & regard for the informal semi-directive 'depth' interview (DI) in the belief that the DI taps the unconscious & basic motives. Actually the similarity between DI & a psychoanalytic session are superficial; '(1)...a consumer researcher has to pay a great deal of attention to forces of low intensity. A clinician, on the other hand, is dealing with forces so powerful that they create mental illness in a person. (2) A consumer researcher has to discover forces which so many consumers have in common that the marketer can, with one action, appeal to the millions. On the other hand, the clinician must interest himself with the set of forces which might make his patient diff from all other people in the world. (3) The low intensity of the forces operating in the consumer field makes it necessary to develop refined statistical instruments before the forces can be discovered. The fact that clinical therapy is applied to an individual makes the application of such a statistical instrument unnecessary.' The use of projective techniques in MR can, therefore, play a part in hypo hunting & in pre-res, but not in hypo testing & res. S. F. Fava.