ABSTRACT
Although the term ‘motivation’ is used regularly in everyday communication and its understanding does not appear to pose any difficulties for speakers, when it comes to describing precisely what the notion signifies in scholarly discourse, opinions diversify at an alarming rate. Indeed, the meaning of the concept can span such a wide spectrum that one sometimes wonders whether people are talking about the same thing at all. Addressing this issue, this chapter first discusses three fundamental challenges regarding how to define motivation in a scientific manner in the light of the various meanings and uses of the term. Following these challenges, a number of theoretical innovations will be presented on how to conceptualise motivation in a process-oriented manner, how to distinguish motivation from affect and cognition, and how to deal with the thorny issue of unconscious motivation.
