Mark McGwire Motivation Evaluation Theories of Personality PSY/230 January 16, 2010 Mark McGwire Motivation Evaluation Mark McGwire, from the St. Louis Cardinals, recently came forward and admitted to using steroids during the time that he broke the home run record. He claims that he is sorry and that he did not use steroids to improve his performance but to regain his health after injuries. He is now back with the St. Louis Cardinals as a hitting coach and wanted to come clean with everyone before the season started.
Many people believe he could have still broken the home run record even without the steroids but others think he might not have. All kinds of athletes have taken steroids, mostly to get a head in their career but Mark McGwire’s claims say otherwise but there could be many different reasons he decided to use them. Psychoanalytic View According to Sigmund Freud there are four basic propositions within the psychoanalytic view: determinism, drive, conflict and the unconscious. Mark McGwire’s reasons for taking streroids could be broken down very easily to fit into the psychoanalytic theory.
First, Mark McGwire said he took the steroids to recover from injuries that were not in his control: determinism. Secondly, Mark McGwire showed great determination to the sport of baseball and to his fans; he may have thought the use of steroids would help him further his career and bring excitement to his fans; he was also under pressure to beat a home run record: drive. Third, he must have been in great conflict with what he should and should not do but he may have felt the need to succeed for his teammates, family and fans: conflict.
Finally, the worst contributing factor for Mark McGuire could have been an unconscious one; maybe he had issues from his past that he did not even realize were helping him make decisions, such as: a possible fear of failure or incompetence: unconscious. Humanistic View It is very easy to see how Mark McGwire’s decision towards using steroids fits into the humanistic view, as well. Carl Roger’s theory basically explained is that a person is driven in life to become the best that he or she can be.
Mark McGwire chose to take steroids to better himself; whether he did it to recover more quickly from an injury or to become more powerful for the game, he did it to do better; he wanted to be the best. Diversity View Henry Murray’s theory is that motivation can come from many different places; he developed a theory of needs (as shown in table 1) that become the driving factor for the decisions that people make and Mark McGwire’s are no exception by speculation. Table 1 Need| Definition| Mark McGwire’s Need| Achievement| To accomplish something difficult. Beat the home run record. | Affiliation| Close relationship with a person or group. | Being a member of the team. | Aggression| To overcome opposition forcefully. | To overcome pain and injury. | Autonomy| Personal independence and the capacity to make moral decisions and act on them. | To make his own decisions. | Dominance| Power exerted over others. | Dominate baseball as the best hitter. | Exhibition| To make an impression. To be seen and heard. To excite, amaze, fascinate, entertain, shock, intrigue, amuse, or entice others. He was this definition for his fans, teammates, family and coaches,| Harm avoidance| To avoid pain, physical injury, illness, and death. To escape from a dangerous situation. Totake precautionary measures. | Was trying to heal injuries quicker. | Nurturance| To give sympathy to and gratify the needs of a helpless object. To feed, help, support, console, protect, comfort, nurse, heal. | He was helping his team as well as his family. | Order| To put things in order. To achieve cleanliness, arrangement, balance, neatness, tidiness, and precision. Reaching his goals. | Play| To act for “fun” without further purpose. To like to laugh and make jokes. To seek enjoyable relaxation of stress. To participate in games, sports, dancing, drinking, cards. | Baseball was his game. | Sentience| To seek and enjoy sensuous impressions. | The feeling of accomplishment. | Sex| To form and further an erotic relationship. To have sexual intercourse. | He may have associated his success to lead him to be more attractive. | Succorance| To have one’s needs gratified by the sympathetic aid of an allied object.
To be nursed, supported, sustained, surrounded, protected, loved, advised, guided, forgiven, consoled. To remain close to a devoted protector. To always have a supporter| Success would mean he would always have the support of others. | Understanding| To ask or answer general questions. To be interested in theory. To speculate, formulate, analyze, and generalize. | The understanding to him of what should be done. | Table 1 shows that there were many different reasons that could have driven Mark McGwire to make the decisions he did and the combinations of different needs could make them become even stronger for some.
The greatest thing is that Mark McGwire came forward and admitted he has made bad decisions that he regrets. He is warning others to, please not make the same bad decisions he did and learn by his mistakes. We may never know the real reason he took the steroids and quite possibly he may never know either if it is buried in his subconscious. References ESPN Internet Ventures. (2009). ESPN. Retrieved from http://sports. espn. go. com/mlb/news/story? id=4816607 Lari Bishop. (2005). Filling in the Details: Part III. Retrieved from Lari Bishop, PSY/230 website.
