Motivation: The Functional Autonomy of Motives

Allport believed that whatever happened in the past such as during toilet training, schooling, or some other childhood crisis; this no longer current and does not explain adult behavior unless it exists as a current motivating force.

Functional autonomy of motives
Allport’s concept of functional autonomy proposes that the motives of mature, emotionally healthy adults are not functionally connected to the prior experiences in which they initially appeared. Forces that motivated us early in life become autonomous, or independent, of their original circumstances. Allport proposed two levels of functional autonomy: preservative functional autonomy and propriety functional autonomy.

Preservative functional autonomy
Preservative functional autonomy is concerned with such behaviors as addictions and repetitive physical actions such as habitual ways of performing some everyday task. The behaviors continue or persevere on their own without any external reward. For example; When a rat that has been trained to run a maze for food is given more than enough food, it may still run the maze, but obviously for some purpose other than the food.

Propriety functional autonomy
Propriety functional autonomy is the level of functional autonomy that relates to our values, self-image, and lifestyle. Allport considered propriety functional autonomy more important than perseverative functional autonomy and is essential to the understanding of adult motivation. Out propriate functioning is an organizing process that maintains our sense of self. This determines how we perceive our world, what we remember from our experiences, and how our thoughts are directed. This is an organizing process that includes organizing, mastery and competence, and patterning which describes a striving for consistency and integration of the personality.