In Teach for America’s Teaching as Leadership (TAL) Rubric, motivation is called “I want.” In order to achieve or create, one must first want to achieve or create. Games research points to motivation as something games are excellent at cultivating, therefore, the exploration of creativity, motivation, and games prior to building an early concept or project idea is essential.
First, for there are the obvious motivation breakdowns of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivations. In my experience, the best creatives are primarily intrinsically motivated, as somehow the act of creating is motivating. Reflecting with my adviser, I told her that there is something extremely gratifying about feeling and watching a creation take shape, then holding it in your hands and reflecting upon it once it has been birthed. How does that motivation develop? What is needed? Why do have I had it over the course of my life and, say, my mother has developed it only since my graduation from high school (and its still a work in progress), and some folks never get there? There are a couple of theories of motivation I will discuss here that seem to provide some level of explanation for this.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Perhaps one of the oldest theories of motivations Maslow's Hierarchy of Human needs, (1943) is a pyramid shaped view of what is required to be motivated. At the first level are physiological needs (food, water, shelter), followed by safety, love, then self esteem and finally self actualization. Creativity and creative acts fall into the top of this pyramid. In particular, the issue of self esteem, broken into achievement, recognition, mastery, and respect seems vital to creating.
