Sleep tips

So many of us can have difficulty sleeping. But how do I help myself fall asleep? What can I do to stop myself waking up in the night? What can I do to avoid disrupted sleep?

Here are some tips that are widely recognised as the best ‘sleep hygiene tips’ by doctors, psychologists and therapists, worldwide.

  • Keep a consistent sleep schedule. Get up at the same time every day, even on weekends or during vacations.
  • Set a bedtime that is early enough for you to get at least 7 hours of sleep.
  • Don’t go to bed unless you are sleepy.
  • If you don’t fall asleep after 20 minutes, get out of bed.
  • Establish relaxing bedtime rituals.
  • Use your bed only for sleep and sex.
  • Make your bedroom quiet and relaxing. Keep the room at a comfortable, cool temperature.
  • Limit exposure to light in the evenings.
  • Don’t eat a large meal before bedtime. If you are hungry at night, eat a light, healthy snack.
  • Exercise regularly and maintain a healthy diet.
  • Avoid consuming caffeine in the late afternoon or evening.
  • Avoid consuming alcohol before bedtime.
  • Reduce your fluid intake before bedtime.
  • No screens (that means phones, computers and TV) for at least an hour before bed

Particularly with depression and anxiety, distressing thoughts can make it hard for sufferers to fall or stay asleep. In this case, try Worry Time to help settle your mind.

Again, those with Anxiety and Depression can find that residual levels of tension prevent us from relaxing and falling asleep. In this case, Progressive Muscular Relaxation can help you relax.

Of course, disrupted sleep is often a side effect of physical and mental disorders, as well as the medication used to treat them. Make sure, by consulting your doctor, that you are getting the best support for treating the underlying problem as this will have a more beneficial effect on your sleep in the long run.

Don’t forget, if it’s insomnia you’re dealing with, there’s a great free app available here.

www.happii.uk is a website providing information about mental health and wellbeing.
Happii.uk is provided by Anna Batho, a therapist working in High Wycombe and providing therapy in Amersham and the wider Buckinghamshire (Bucks) region.
You can contact her here.

Different Therapy Types

There are so many different types of therapies, but what do they each do? Here I’ve written a comprehensive (but not exhaustive) list of the different kinds of therapies on offer, what the different therapies treat, how they work and what to expect from each therapy.  If I’ve missed one, then let me know and I’ll add it to the list!

ACT / Acceptance & Commitment Therapy

Theory: What we think and do can have a negative impact on how we feel, but also some situations are difficult and will not improve so we must learn psychological flexibility to accept what is out of our control and commit to living life to the fullest within such limitations
Works on: long-term conditions such as pain and fatigue, depression and anxiety
What will they do? Behaviour change, mindfulness

Behavioural Therapy

Theory: The things we do are often a learnt response to certain situations and we can stop doing unhelpful things once we retrain ourselves.
Works on: phobias, compulsions, obsessions, brain injury, addiction
What will they do?
Exposure to feared situations, analysis of past behaviours, repetition of new behaviours, behavioural experiments

CAT / Cognitive Analytic Therapy

Looks at the way a person thinks, feels and acts, and the events and relationships that underlie these experiences (often from childhood or earlier in life). It brings together ideas and understanding from different therapies into one.

It is a time-limited therapy – between 4 and 24 weeks, but typically 16. It is available in many parts of the NHS.

CBT / Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave.

It is most commonly used to treat anxiety and depression, but can be useful for other mental and physical health problems.

CBT cannot remove your problems, but it can help you deal with them in a more positive way. It is based on the concept that your thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and actions are interconnected, and that negative thoughts and feelings can trap you in a vicious cycle.

CBT aims to help you crack this cycle by breaking down overwhelming problems into smaller parts and showing you how to change these negative patterns to improve the way you feel.

Unlike some other talking treatments, CBT deals with your current problems, rather than focusing on issues from your past. It looks for practical ways to improve your state of mind on a daily basis.

Couples Therapy / Relationship Therapy

Relationship counseling is the process of counseling the parties of a human relationship in an effort to recognize, and to better manage or reconcile, troublesome differences and repeating patterns of stress upon the relationship. The relationship involved may be between members of a family or a couple, employees or employers in a workplace, or between a professional and a client.

Couple’s therapy (or relationship therapy) is a subset of relationship therapy. It may differ from other forms of relationship counseling in various regards including its duration. Short term counseling may be between 1 to 3 sessions whereas long-term couples may be between 12 and 24 sessions. An exception is “Solution focused brief therapy” couples therapy. In addition, counseling tends to be more ‘here and now’ and new coping strategies the outcome. Couples therapy is more about seemingly intractable problems with a relationship history, where emotions are the target and the agent of change.

Marriage counseling or marital therapy can refer to either or some combination of the above.

Cognitive Hypnotherapy

Trance states are part of everyday life, and include daydreaming and fantasising. Science indicates that we are in these kinds of states 90% of the time. For example, have you ever driven somewhere and not remembered anything of the journey?

Cognitive Hypnotherapy also suggests that all behaviours have a positive purpose, so the problems we experience are just the result of unconscious thought processes based on miscalculations, like misinterpretations of childhood experiences, or significant emotional events which lead to actions designed to bring a benefit, even though they often don’t.

Cognitive Hypnotherapy is about waking the person up so they remain in control of their actions, not hijacked into smoking, eating or running from spiders.

Counselling

Counselling is a type of talking therapy that allows a person to talk about their problems and feelings in a confidential and dependable environment.

A counsellor is trained to listen with empathy (by putting themselves in your shoes). They can help you deal with any negative thoughts and feelings you have.

Sometimes the term “counselling” is used to refer to talking therapies in general, but counselling is also a type of therapy in its own right.

Counselling aims to help you deal with and overcome issues that are causing emotional pain or making you feel uncomfortable.

It can provide a safe and regular space for you to talk and explore difficult feelings. The counsellor is there to support you and respect your views. They won’t usually give advice, but will help you find your own insights into and understanding of your problems.

DBT / Dialectal Behaviour Therapy

A specific type of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy developed to help better treat borderline personality disorder. Since its development, it has also been used for the treatment of other kinds of mental health disorders. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) treatment is a cognitive-behavioral approach that emphasizes the psychosocial aspects of treatment. The theory behind the approach is that some people are prone to react in a more intense and out-of-the-ordinary manner toward certain emotional situations, primarily those found in romantic, family and friend relationships. DBT theory suggests that some people’s arousal levels in such situations can increase far more quickly than the average person’s, attain a higher level of emotional stimulation, and take a significant amount of time to return to baseline arousal levels. Because few people understand such reactions, most of all their own family and a childhood that emphasized invalidation, they don’t have any methods for coping with these sudden, intense surges of emotion. DBT is a method for teaching skills that will help in this task.

ECT / Electro-Convulsive Therapy

A procedure, done under general anesthesia, in which small electric currents are passed through the brain, intentionally triggering a brief seizure. ECT seems to cause changes in brain chemistry that can quickly reverse symptoms of certain mental illnesses.

EMDR / Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing

If something traumatic has happened to you (whether it be a car accident, abuse or something seemingly less significant like being humiliated), the memory of your experience may come crashing back into your mind, forcing you to relive the original event with the same intensity of feeling – like it is taking place in the present moment.

These experiences that pop into your awareness may present themselves as either flashbacks or nightmares, and are thought to occur because the mind was simply too overwhelmed during the event to process what was going on.

As a result, these unprocessed memories and the accompanying sights, sounds, thoughts and feelings are stored in the brain in ‘raw’ form, where they can be accessed each time we experience something that triggers a recollection of the original event.

While it isn’t possible to erase these memories, the process of Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR) can alter the way these traumatic memories are stored within the brain – making them easier to manage and causing you less distress.

During EMDR therapy the client attends to emotionally disturbing material in brief sequential doses while simultaneously focusing on an external stimulus. Therapist directed lateral eye movements are the most commonly used external stimulus but a variety of other stimuli including hand-tapping and audio stimulation are often used

Family therapy

Is also referred to as systemic therapy, is an approach that works with families and those who are in close relationships to foster change. These changes are viewed in terms of the systems of interaction between each person in the family or relationship

Humanistic Therapy

In humanistic therapy, there are two widely practiced techniques: gestalt therapy (which focuses on thoughts and feelings here and now, instead of root causes) and client-centered therapy (which provides a supportive environment in which clients can reestablish their true identity).

Interpersonal therapy

A time limited treatment that encourages the patient to regain control of mood and functioning typically lasting 12 – 16 weeks. IPT is based on the principle that there is a relationship between the way people communicate and interact with others and their mental health.

Life coach

A life coach is someone who aims to help and empower others to make, meet and exceed personal and professional goals – including excelling in the workplace, becoming happy and fulfilled in the home, exploring the self and the world, and achieving ambitions.

Mindfulness Therapy

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a psychological therapy designed to aid in preventing the relapse of depression, specifically in individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD).  Cognitive methods can include educating the participant about depression. Mindfulness and mindfulness meditation, focus on becoming aware of all incoming thoughts and feelings and accepting them, but not attaching or reacting to them. The goal of MBCT is to interrupt these automatic processes and teach the participants to focus less on reacting to incoming stimuli, and instead accepting and observing them without judgment.

NLP / Neurolinguistic Programming

Encompasses three components involved in producing human experience: neurology, language and programing. The neurological system regulates how our bodies function, language determines how we interface and communicate with other people and our programming determines the kinds of models of the world we create. Neuro-Linguistic Programming describes the fundamental dynamics between mind (neuro) and language (linguistic) and how their interplay affects our body and behavior (programming).  In the belief system of NLP it is not possible for human beings to know objective reality. Wisdom, ethics and ecology do not derive from having the one ‘right’ or ‘correct’ map of the world, because human beings would not be capable of making one. Rather, the goal is to create the richest map possible that respects the systemic nature and ecology of ourselves and the world we live in. The people who are most effective are the ones who have a map of the world that allows them to perceive the greatest number of available choices and perspectives. NLP is a way of enriching the choices that you have and perceive as available in the world around you. Excellence comes from having many choices. Wisdom comes from having multiple perspectives.

Person-Centred or Client-Centred Therapy

Person-centred therapy – also known as person-centred counselling or client-centred counselling – is a humanistic approach that deals with the ways in which individuals perceive themselves consciously rather than how a counsellor can interpret their unconscious thoughts or ideas.  If there are any techniques they are listening, accepting, understanding and sharing, which seem more attitude-orientated than skills-orientated.

Psychoanalysis / Psychodynamic Therapy

Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a form of depth psychology, the primary focus of which is to reveal the unconscious content of a client’s psyche in an effort to alleviate psychic tension. In this way, it is similar to psychoanalysis. It is a therapeutic process which helps patients understand and resolve their problems by increasing awareness of their inner world and its influence over relationships both past and present. It differs from most other therapies in aiming for deep seated change in personality and emotional development. Psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy aim to help people with serious psychological disorders to understand and change complex, deep-seated and often unconsciously based emotional and relationship problems thereby reducing symptoms and alleviating distress. However, their role is not limited only to those with mental health problems. Many people who experience a loss of meaning in their lives or who are seeking a greater sense of fulfilment may be helped by psychoanalytic or psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is a type of therapy used to treat emotional problems and mental health conditions.

It involves talking to a trained therapist, either one-to-one, in a group or with your wife, husband or partner. It allows you to look deeper into your problems and worries, and deal with troublesome habits and a wide range of mental disorders, such as schizophrenia .

Psychotherapy usually involves talking, but sometimes other methods may be used for example, art, music, drama and movement.

Psychotherapy can help you discuss feelings you have about yourself and other people, particularly family and those close to you. In some cases, couples or families are offered joint therapy sessions together.

Re-birth Therapy

Not something we’d recommend but if you’d like more info http://www.rebirthingbreathwork.co.uk/

Solution Focussed Brief Therapy

A goal-directed collaborative approach to psychotherapeutic change that is conducted through direct observation of clients’ responses to a series of precisely constructed questions. Based upon social constructionist thinking and philosophy. SFBT focuses on addressing what clients want to achieve exploring the history and provenance of problem(s). Therapy sessions typically focus on the present and future, focusing on the past only to the degree necessary for communicating empathy and accurate understanding of the client’s concerns

Systemic Therapy

Family therapy, also referred to as systemic therapy, is an approach that works with families and those who are in close relationships to foster change. These changes are viewed in terms of the systems of interaction between each person in the family or relationship

Once you’ve chosen your therapy, use this post to help you choose which therapist.

www.happii.uk is a website providing information about mental health and wellbeing.
Happii.uk is provided by Anna Batho, a therapist working in High Wycombe and providing therapy in Amersham and the wider Buckinghamshire (Bucks) region.
You can contact her here.

Worry Time

Do you find yourself spending a vast amount of your time worrying? Do you spend too much time worrying? Do you worry about a huge variety of things, from ‘what will happen if?’ scenarios, to very real situations, to your health, to your family’s safety, to money, to work, to your appearance? Do you worry that you’re worrying too much? Do you want to stop worrying?

Here’s how to stop worrying excessively .

Worry is a very normal thing. Worry is a natural skill (and yes it’s a skill which we learn and develop), which protects us from harm. If we didn’t worry about our health we wouldn’t go to the doctor and we might get ill. If we didn’t worry about our exams, then we wouldn’t prepare for them and we might fail. It’s useful in helping survive and thrive and because of this we will never be able to get rid of it entirely.
But! We can learn to control it in 4 steps.

Step 1:
Identify what it is that you’re worrying about, and be as specific as possible. Write. It. Down.

Step 2:
Schedule some ‘worry time’ for later in the day and leave your worry until then. Worry time can be any time when you’ve got up to 30 minutes to devote to worrying. (Right before bed isn’t the best time because it might stop you thinking). It might help to distract yourself, or keep busy, or do something relaxing, but keep reminding yourself, “I’ll worry at worry time”

Step 3:
At worry time, get your pieces of paper out on which you’ve written your worries, and for each one, answer this question, is this a problem which is happening right now and which I need to do something about right now? In other words is it a hypothetical worry or is it a real worry? Hypothetical worries are things like, “what if I lose my job? ” or “do they like me?”. Real worries are things like “my car is broken down, what can I do?” or “I can’t pay this bill in time”.

Step 4:
If it’s a real worry, then problem solve it (I’ll add in some how to tips on how to do this at a later date).
If it’s not a real worry, then have a think about it if you like, but let it go, remembering that it’s natural to worry, but that if it isn’t something you can actually do something about, or if it’s something which might never happen, then it is futile to spend too much time thinking about it.
After 30 mins of worry time, stop, and do something else.

Repeat this every day, and often people find that they simply worry less and less because their brain realises that some worrying is pointless.

Which therapist should I choose?

So you’re feeling, low, anxious, scared, obsessive, self-critical, you’ve got low self esteem or maybe your relationship needs a fix.
You’d like some help.
You need a therapist.
But where to start looking?
What do you look for?
What qualifications should they have? How do I know they’re any good?

Here’s a step by step guide to choosing the right therapist. Some of the stages are quite complex so this page will link to further pages with more details.

Firstly, please understand that there are thousands of types of therapy out there, from hypnotherapy to cognitive behavioural therapy, solution focused therapy to crystal therapy. You name it, there’s a therapy named after it.
But just because it’s called a therapy, doesn’t mean it’s going to do you some good. Many therapies have very little scientific evidence to prove that they are in any way beneficial.

So.
Rule no. 1: Choose an effective therapy

Choose a therapy which has been shown to be scientifically effective. Generally, in treating clinical mental health and physical difficulties, follow the advice of the NHS (who check these things). Their advice can be found here, just search for the condition you’re dealing with.

Sometimes you’ll be dealing with a problem, issue or difficulty which hasn’t been reviewed by the NHS, might not have a name, or isn’t severe enough to require a clinical professional. So if you’re thinking “what kind of therapy do I need?” then click here.

And then of course, even if the therapy has been shown to be effective, if it is carried out by a therapist without the necessary skills it’s also unlikely to have a positive effect on you. Hence Rule no. 2…

Rule no. 2: Choose a therapist who has been accredited by their governing body.

Many health care professionals, are a member of HCPC which regulates professions such as art therapists, chiropodists / podiatrists, dietitians, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists and speech and language therapists. If your therapist is a member of HCPC (which you can check here) then you’re in safe hands.

However, some professions aren’t covered by HCPC. For these, check that they’re accredited members of the following organisations by clicking on their links:

Massage Therapy – voluntary regulation is made under CNHC
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy – accredited by BABCP and BACP
Psychotherapist – accredited by BACP
Counsellor / Counselling – accredited by BACP
Hypnotherapist – accredited by GHSC
Relationship Counselling / Counsellor – accredited by COSRT
Sexual Relationship Therapist / Counsellor – accredited by COSRT
Acupuncturist – accredited by BMASAACPBacCBAWMABRCP and AcuC
(Many non-medical acupuncture practitioners are also required to register with their local authority who check their premises and practices for safety. Please check with you local council for more information).

Rule no. 3: Don’t judge a book by its cover.

Ignore references, testimonials and the flashiness of their website. Many great therapists are useless at websites, but great at therapy. In a similar vein, it’s easy to create false testimonials, and actually quite difficult to get permission from real clients for good references, so don’t rely on these. If a therapist is properly validated (see above) then their supervisor will have checked the quality of their work and they will have had to submit evidence of the quality of their work, which is much more impartial than the quotes you can see on the website.

Rule no. 4: Talk to them and then go with your gut

Most therapists will be happy to talk over the phone with you before you commit to a first session. Some will even offer free first consultations.
And this is when you should consider… Can I work with this person? It is so important for there to be a positive relationship between you both so if you’re not feeling it, be brave and say no thank you.
They should be listening to you, not just talking.
They should be empathising with you so that you feel understood.
Each stage of treatment they should be explaining to you, and talking you through how they work so that you understand.
You should have choices too, of how to progress and how quickly to progress.
You should feel empowered as part of the journey, you shouldn’t feel that therapy is being done to you but with you.

Rule no. 5: Pricing is negotiable so agree this up front

Prices for therapy can range hugely from a voluntary fee (sometimes charities providing therapy will ask you to prove that you are receiving benefits first and then ask you to contribute whatever you can afford) to, well, the sky is the limit! A good average price of therapy at the moment is from £40 to £60 a session.
It can be quite a big financial commitment so don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions like :
How much is a session?
How long is a session normally?
Do I have to commit to a certain number of sessions?
If I cancel, is there a fee?
How late can I cancel?

Rule no. 6: A good therapist will encourage you to stop therapy.

What I mean by this is that you will know a therapist has done a good job if they can get you to the point where you feel able to go it alone and work independently, without their support. So ask upfront, how many sessions have your current clients received from you? How long it takes to recover is like asking how long is a piece of string, but as a rule of thumb, if working with CBT, on mild to moderate depression or anxiety, it might only take 6 sessions to teach you the techniques to get you on your feet again.

Fatigue & Concentration Tips

Neurons (the cells which make up our brain) are like other cells – they are living with their own metabolism.  They need oxygen and glucose to work and survive and when they’ve been working hard (thinking, concentrating, remembering, coping) they experience fatigue. When our neurons are fatigued, we will feel it too, our brain will work slower, make mistakes and struggle to keep up.  So this might mean we can’t find the right word, we don’t have the energy to control our temper and we might be irritable, we lack motivation and importantly we go for easy options such as cake not fruit (to get that glucose), bed not a book (to restore our reserves) and we start yawning (to get more oxygen).

All this sounds quite common sense doesn’t it? So, why, then are we so poor at recognising when our brain is fatigued? We are quick to notice when we’re physically exhausted, and we would often adjust our activities to suit; we might have a nap, take the weight off our legs, choose not to drive and other sensible decisions. I think, like everything to do with the brain, we just don’t understand it well enough. And because we (normal people) don’t understand it, we don’t think about it, don’t notice it and rarely make allowances for it. We just assume it will keep going regardless. Until it lets us down, and we fall asleep at the wheel, we say something nasty we didn’t mean to a loved one, or we stay up all night working inefficiently, ruining a piece of work because we can’t see that taking some time to recover might be provide a better return on time investment.

So what can we do to fight fatigue? Here I’ve written my 9 top tips for beating fatigue:

1. Avoid multi-tasking – if we ask our brain to concentrate on multiple things at once it simply does both tasks to a poorer level and runs out of resources quicker. So turn off the TV if you’re studying, don’t call your mum while you’re cooking and don’t have the music on when you’re parking.

2. Become more aware of your brain’s energy levels. I talk about mindfulness below as a way to relax but psychologists believe the true value of mindfulness is in becoming aware of your body and your mind. Taking time to notice your mind racing, and when it’s settled means that you become skilled at that, and when you notice is racing again you can quickly adjust your actions to help your brain and body out.

3. Help teach your mind to switch off. You can do this with mindfulness, or meditation, even yoga, which allows you to ground your mind and stay in the present. Ultimately, this is relaxation, and you can find your own way to do that, but thousands of people all over the world have found the practices above the most useful, and you don’t have to spend money to do it thanks to apps, YouTube and the rest of the internet.

4. Drink water, your brain needs it.

5. Eat slow release carbs, your brain needs them.

6. Avoid stimulants like caffeine, drugs and sugar because whilst they might give your brain cells a bit of a lift short term, the levels quickly drop and often to even lower levels than at the start.

7. Get some fresh, outdoor air, your brain needs the oxygen.

8. Instead of multi-tasking try change-tasking. Switch your tasks. This is because if your brain has been concentrating on one type of task, it will be using only certain regions of the brain, and they are the ones which are fatigued. By changing the nature of the task, (i.e from essay writing to cooking), you’re likely to be using different areas of the brain which are less fatigued and this then gives the rest of the brain time to recover.

9. Sleep

Motivation Tips

This is one of the most common difficulties reported by clients with depression. We all know how it feels too, there can be so many things to do, and what there is to do just doesn’t appeal to us. Even worse, what there is can be so overwhelming, we don’t even know where to start or if we can cope. People who don’t have depression can often mistake it for laziness, but it’s very different, because in reality, a lack of motivation can be so debilitating, it can prevent people from going to work, getting up, washed, dressed, eating, even paying bills.

So, how do you fix it?

Well, the way motivation works is a bit like a car battery, to keep you and your life going, you can’t leave it unused for any length of time, you’ve got to take it for a run around on a regular basis. That means keeping on keeping on! Simply doing something can give it a boost to keep it going the next day, and the next, and so on.

And what to do if you have no motivation at all? There is no easy answer, you just have to force yourself to push on through, and do something. You can’t wait for motivation to come along, because it won’t.

Sometimes people find antidepressant medication useful for a short time, because it can lift your mood for long enough for you to find the will to do something, and then once you’ve got the momentum, and are living more actively, people may find that, with guidance from their GP, they can reduce their medication because the motivation has returned.

But! If you want to boost your motivation, here are some motivation tips (the last one is the best):

  • Make a plan, and write it down
  • Tell someone about your plan
  • Make your plan realistic and achievable, it may help to break your plan down into small steps
  • When it comes to it, go with the plan, not the feeling
  • Follow the 5 minute rule: tell yourself that you’ll do it for 5 minutes, and if you hate it then you can stop after 5 minutes, but most people find that once started, they want to continue

Motivation – the theory

Attempts to define motivation are varied, but it can be understood as a dynamic state which drives us to act and behave in a particular way. Here we will detail and critically analyse the principal theories of motivation to understand, in more depth, this complex concept.

If we think of a human, stripped back to the basic need for survival, and question why he acts in a certain way, it’s natural to look at how theories of instinct explain his behaviour.  Cannon (1939, cited in Beck, 2000) states that instinct is an imbalance (such as hunger) which motivates us to act to return the body to homeostasis or balance. Hess (1962, cited in Chamorro-Premuzic, 2011) goes further and explains that instinct provides “fixed action patterns” which allow us to react to biological objectives which are encoded in us all. This has been criticised by others, however, who note that we are actually motivated by prevention of imbalance, because in most cases we eat to avoid the feeling of hunger, not because we are actually hungry (Collier, Hirsch & Hamlin, 1972, cited in Beck, 2000).

Hull’s Drive Reduction theory (1952) is similar to instinct theory but Hull specifies that the absence of something (such as food) creates an internal drive and that it is our natural response to reduce the drive until we achieve homeostasis again. However, as Beck (2000) says, the generalization that drive increases activity is subject to so many qualifications as to be almost useless.  In addition, it has been shown that we sometimes act not because of a need to reduce a drive but for enjoyment and pleasure; for example when people eat food when they’re already satiated (Herman, 1996).  Psychodynamic theories of motivation also speak of internal, instinctive drives which motivate our actions.  Freud (1938, cited in Beck, 2000) claimed that humans experience life (Eros) and death (Thanatos) drives and that these are motivating forces which govern our behaviour.  However, Freud’s theories have been criticised for their lack of logic, empirical evidence and case study inconsistencies (Crews, 1999).

The idea that our needs determine our motivation has been extensively explored by numerous psychologists such as Maslow, Alderfer and McClelland and offers a view of motivation which expands on and complements instinct and drive theories.

Maslow (1954) detailed a Hierarchy of Needs, and suggested that our actions are determined by motivation to satisfy each need in this hierarchy, one after another, starting with physiological needs, then safety needs, followed by the need to belong, then the need to experience a strengthened self-esteem and through to the final need which is for self-actualization, or the fulfilment of one”s potential. Alderfer’s Existence, Relatedness and Growth (ERG) Theory (1969) simplified Maslow’s theory by condensing five needs into three whilst keeping the hierarchy but also noted that if we fail to attain higher goals, we experience frustration regression and this motivates us to apply ourselves to needs lower in the hierarchy, rather than moving our way upwards. This means that dissatisfaction can change our motivations.  However Wahba & Bridwell (1976) analysed multiple studies of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (including Alderfer’s) and found that none of the studies illustrated all five needs as autonomous factors.

Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory (1968) claimed that a need for satisfaction and lack of dissatisfaction determined our motivation, particularly in a working environment, stating that they are not at either ends of a spectrum but that they are distinct. We are either dissatisfied or not dissatisfied with mundane needs such as shelter or warmth (what he called hygiene); at the same time we can be either satisfied or not satisfied with higher level objectives such as recognition and reward (what he called motivators).  We need both satisfaction and no-dissatisfaction in place to be highly motivated to work. However, amongst other criticisms, Evans & Olumide-Aluko (2010) found that this theory did not necessarily hold true in non-western cultures and individual differences were not taken into account (Hackman & Oldham, 1976).

McClelland et al (1993, cited in Chamorro-Premuzic, 2011) also investigated the needs-based theory of motivation but in a much more social context.They found that motivation occurs when we experience the need for achievement, power and affiliation; they clarified that individual differences in personality traits determine differing levels in all three needs and therefore personality influences an individual’s motivation. However, McClelland et al used Thematic Apperception Tests to measure these needs and recent studies looked at how language and the act of narration in the TAT itself constructs a story about motivation, and is not necessarily a direct representative of the underlying motivational mechanisms (Cramer, 1999). In addition, our social identity, regardless of individual differences, has also been shown to impact on motivation; Knigge & Hannover (2011) found that the differing types of schools into which students in Germany were streamed impacted on motivation to learn and perform. In this way it has been shown that needs theories don’t seem to work alone.

In contrast with Needs theories of motivation, Arousal theories avoided attempts to categorise causes of motivation.  Initiated by Yerkes & Dodson (1908, cited in Beck, 2000) they revealed that motivation is simply dependent on energy levels within the individual.  The Yerkes-Dodson law states that if someone is minimally aroused then no action will occur, however there is a point of optimal arousal which motivates action and drives performance; too much arousal however and motivation decreases. This law was criticised by Brown (1965) who wrote that their studies lacked statistical significance due to small sample sizes and were neither precise nor reliable enough to be justified.

Duffy (1934) however developed an activation theory which she called energy mobilization. She found, through experiments measuring arousal with EEGs, that if stimulated or aroused, the reticular activating system in the mid-brain played a large part in mobilising energy and therefore driving motivation to act (1962, cited in Beck, 2000).  Duffy’s studies lend support to Yerkes & Dodson’s ideas, yet both stop short of understanding individual differences.

As one might expect, the Behaviourist strand of psychology also developed its own theory of motivation which has been dubbed Reinforcement Theory.  Spencer (1872, cited in Chamorro-Premuzic, 2011) showed that behaviour and therefore motivation to act is developed through conditioning via reward and punishment.  This was refined by Skinner (1938)  when he illustrated four ways in which individuals can be motivated via operant conditioning; positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, avoidance learning (getting rid of the negative reinforcer) and extinction (getting rid of the positive reinforcer).  However, Locke (1977) tested four different behaviour modification techniques and found that the behaviourist model did not influence motivation as it had claimed to do.  Deci (1971) refined the reinforcement model somewhat, finding that money or awards didn’t motivate people, in fact verbal praise was the most motivating extrinsic reward, and that extrinsic rewards can actually impair performance.  These findings themselves have been criticised by many however including Cameron & Pierce (1994) who found that reward had no negative effect on motivation.

 

Instinct, Needs, Arousal and Reinforcement theories have all come under criticism so it remains to examine some evaluative theories of motivation such as Attitude, Emotion, Expectancy, Equity and Attributional theories.

Many theorists have studied attitudes as motivators and predictors of behaviour however Beck (2000) suggests that analysis of attitudes is not a reliable forecasting tool.  People carry out actions which seem to entirely contradict their attitudes, and the role motivation plays in this becomes blurred.  Festinger (1957, cited in Beck, 2000) called this Cognitive Dissonance and noted that individuals change their attitude to fit or justify their prior behaviour so as to avoid the uncomfortable feeling of dissonance.  Here, then, motivation cannot be seen to be derived directly from attitude.  Bem (1970, cited in Beck, 2000) however, did not believe that it was dissonance which caused attitude change, but that it is our behaviour which determines our attitudes; we act and then alter attitudes to match our actions; attitudes are therefore not a motivating factor in behaviour.

Emotion has been studied as a factor influencing motivation but few agree on their relationship; indeed most studies limit their focus to one emotion at a time.  For example, emotions such as frustration have been used to explain the motivation for aggressive behaviour.  Amsel (1958) found that frustration itself has motivational drive properties. In contrast, motivation to be aggressive has been shown to be caused by biological factors (Berman & Corcaro, 1998, cited in Beck), environmental factors (Ulrich & Azrin, 1962) and social factors (Milgram, 1974).
So the emotion-motivation-aggression connection is by no means clear.

Bandura’s research took an altogether more cognitive approach to motivation.  He built on the foundations of Vroom’s Expectancy Theory (1964, cited in Behling & Starke, 1973) which found that motivation was driven by the expectancy of the outcome.  Bandura (1977) established that an individual’s subjective prediction and valuation of an action’s consequence would determine the individual’s motivation; as such he believed that we could use these subjective beliefs to predict behaviour. Bandura also found that rewards are not the only factors in determining motivation levels, illustrating that individuals with perceptions of high-control over a situation (self-efficacy) are more likely to choose difficult challenges and this also leads to a more effective problem solving approach (1989, cited in Skinner, 1995). Bandura felt that self-efficacy was independent of expectancy of outcomes yet Williams (2010) and others found this to be contradictory and felt that there was a disproportionate emphasis on self-efficacy at the expense of expectancy theories.  Nevertheless, many studies reinforced Bandura’s self-efficacy approach to motivation, and his approach was further strengthened with the discovery of learned-helplessness (where continued attempts to improve the situation fail). In such a situation, researchers found that individuals become entirely demotivated and give up all together (Hiroto, 1974).  Learned Helplessness has been criticised by Barber and Winefield (1986) however because they thought that the experiments actually showed participants selectively ignoring uncomfortable stimuli; they were switching off rather than accepting it. Self-efficacy and expectancy theories were one of the first approaches to motivation which started to account for the individual differences observed.

Adams (1963, cited in Chamorro-Premuzic, 2011) developed his Equity Theory as a theory of motivation which sits comfortably between Vroomâs Expectancy Theory and Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory and which has often been applied to work-performance situations. Adams found that we compare the ratio of effort we put in versus what we get out, to the ratio of those around us, and if we see a discrepancy (our colleague works less but receives more pay) then this will de-motivate us.  Adamsâ theory is called a Two-Process theory because whilst equity is one factor, expectancy (again), acts as the second factor determining motivation. His findings have been criticised however because they were conducted in experimental test conditions and people have queried whether they still apply in the ‘real world’ (Huseman, Hatfield & Miles, 1987).

Weiner (1985) countered that it is the attribution that an individual makes about the cause of a situation which influences motivation.  Weiner suggests that there are three factors; whether the success or failure was stable, controllable and whether it was an internal or external cause, which determine how an individual attributes causality and therefore reacts to the outcome.  The resulting emotion and expectancy will determine motivation.  However, understanding these factors has been shown to be little use in predicting behaviour; Heckhausen (1975, cited in Beck, 2000) found that students who perceived their failure as due to their own lack of effort (internal) still showed little effort or motivation to increase effort even when they were shown to be highly motivated by achievement.

As previously discussed, few of these theories take into account individual differences between people and their motivation.  Personality is a key factor in understanding the level of motivation someone will have; in a stressful situation, personality types have been found to determine individuals’ perceived control (Kaiseler & Polman, 2012), emotion (Schneider, 2011), appraisal of a situation (Penley &Tomaka, 2002) and behaviours afterwards (Carver & Connor Smith, 2010) all of which, we have seen, have been shown to have an influence on motivation.  Another individual difference, Emotional Intelligence (EI) also serves as a motivator during stress, providing both a “cheering section” and a guide to keep us “moving towards our goals in life” (Goleman, 1996).  In a similar way, those with high self-efficacy also “choose to perform more challenging tasks, set themselves higher goals, are more persistent, and recover more quickly in the face of setbacks” (Ebstrup & al, 2011).  However, work on self-efficacy has been criticised by Marzillier &amp Eastman (1984) because it cannot be seen as independent of outcome expectations and with regards to EI, Conte (2005) has queried the validity of measurement tools; suggesting that EI overlaps with personality.

In conclusion, it would be easy to assert that internal drives, needs, rewards, cognition, society, culture, biology and individual differences all have an impact on motivation. However, further study remains to be carried out in all of these areas and in particular the idea of motivation as constructed by language and narration in order to fully develop our understanding of this psychological force.