How does motivation work? Scientific research shows that people are motivated to be effective in different ways that go beyond the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. In this text, E. Tory Higgins provides a new theory of motivation that argues that people are motivated by the pursuit of value, truth, and control.

• Part I: Introduction and Background


• Chapter 1: Motivation Beyond Pleasure and Pain


• Chapter 2: What is Motivation?


• Chapter 3: Value, Truth and Control: Ways of Being Effective


• Part II: Ways of Being Effective


• Chapter 4: Value: Having Desired Results


• Chapter 5: Truth: Establishing What's Real


• Chapter 6: Control: Managing What Happens


• Part III: Motivations Working Together


• Chapter 7: Value-Truth Relations: Creating Commitment


• Chapter 8: Value-Control Relations: It's the Fit that Counts


• Chapter 9: Truth-Control Relations: Going in the Right Direction


• Chapter 10: Value-Truth-Control Relations: Organization of Motives


• Part IV: Implications of Motivations Working Together


• Chapter 11: Personality and Culture: Ways of Seeing and Coping With the World


• Chapter 12: Managing Motives Effectively: Working Backwards from What You Want


• Chapter 13: What is the Good Life?: Well-Being from Being Effective

E. Tory Higgins is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He has received the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, the William James Fellow Award for Distinguished Achievements in Psychological Science (from the American Psychological Society), and the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions. He is also a recipient of Columbia's Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching.