Plural of motivation, referring to the reasons, desires, or psychological forces that drive people to act or behave in certain ways. The underlying factors that explain why someone does something.
From Latin 'movere' meaning 'to move', with the suffix '-ation' indicating the process or result of an action. The psychological sense developed in the 19th century alongside the emergence of psychology as a scientific discipline.
Understanding motivations is central to psychology, but what's fascinating is how often people are wrong about their own motivations - we're surprisingly good at creating logical-sounding explanations for behaviors driven by unconscious factors. Motivation research has revolutionized everything from education to marketing.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.