Abstract:

This theoretical paper presents arguments for the significance of the location of motivation in the practice of clinical psychology.  Identifying the externality and internality of motivation is argued to be clinically relevant in assessing psychopathology as this can potentially resolve comorbidity issues and improve diagnostic reliability.  Furthermore, psychotherapeutic interventions can be tailored to the location of motivation.  Extrinsically motivated pathological behaviours can be addressed through behaviour-based approaches, while intrinsically motivated behaviours need more long-term and in-depth therapeutic approaches.  Lastly, prognosis can be assumed when the location of motivation has been identified – with extrinsically motivated behaviours having better prognosis than intrinsically motivated behaviours.  Some directions for future research include testing the validity and reliability of motivation-based diagnosis, evaluating the effectiveness of matching the location of motivation with type of psychotherapy intervention, and comparing the effectiveness of motivation-matched interventions and disorder-based interventions.