Can motivation be measured?

Motivation is the want to change thoughts, desires, and behaviors.  When we think of being motivated to do something, we often correlate it with something.  Perhaps you think of school, work or even exercise.  Many people seek counseling to increase motivation in one of these areas.  For instance, one may want to improve their motivation to do schoolwork to improve their grades and graduate on time.  But, how can one know how motivated they are right now?  How can one know how if motivation has improved? 

Before we move into how we measure motivation, let us look at what we know about the human brain and motivation.  Reeve (2018) was able to find seven dominant themes about the brain and motivation in his research.  Motivation and emotion are what dominate our attention.  Motivation and emotion also assist adaptation and function.  Motivation and emotion are not observable but aid in illuminating human behavior.  Humans' motivations change over time.  There are different kinds of motivation.  Humans may not always be consciously aware of the reasons for our motivation, even when acting upon it—the environment for our motivation matters for it to increase.  If we are trying to motivate other people, the easiest thing is probably not what will be best to motivate them.  A good theory for motivation is the most realistic. 

To learn more about these, you may want to measure your motivation.  Motivation can be measured by looking at the number of emotional responses to questions.  Researchers can also measure motivation with cognitive responses, such as quickness attributes when responding.  Motivation can also be determined in relative terms.  This can be done by comparing one’s previous motivation to their current motivation. An example of this could be comparing one’s motivation to eat healthy in March and their motivation to eat healthy in April after being assisted by a dietician with menu options. 

If you are interested in having your motivation assessed, you can speak with a counselor.  They may use the following assessments:

• Motivation Assessment Scale (MAS) designed to help identify the motivation behind a target problem behavior (Durand & Crimmins, 1988; 1992)

• The Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS) is used for the Assessment of Situational Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation. The SIMS is designed to assess the constructs of intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, and external regulation (Guay, Vallerand, & Blanchard, 2000)
• The Sports Motivation Scale (SMS) is a new measure of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and motivation in sports (Pelletier, Tuson, & Fortier, 1995)
• General Procrastination Scale (Lay, 1986)
• Achievement Motives Scale is a short questionnaire revised by Lang and Fries (2006)

If motivation is something you’d like to talk with a counselor about, reach out.  A counselor on Betterhelp would love to help you increase your motivation today!