Motivation as the key problem of personality psychology

The problem of motivation is one of the most difficult issues in psychology. It is currently not studied fully and comprehensively enough, and it suppresses solving of theoretical and practical tasks related to this theme. Today there is no consensus on this problem. Methodological objectives and worldview of scientists forms the basis for its conceptualization. Foreign psychologists consider motivation from naturalistic positions. Russian scientists regard it in keeping with interaction of social and biological causes with the leading role of social ones. The authors pay special consideration to the activity approach. There is a difference between motivation and motivation system. Various motivation factors are said to be.The article deals with a problem of ambiguity of motives by psychologists. There is a diversity of defini-tions of “motive” notions. Some scientists suppose that motives determine behavior not only of humans, but also animals. However, some of academicians don’t accept this point of view since they suggest that animal behavior, their activity is predicated upon stimuli and instincts, but not motives.The problem of consciousness of motives is regarded variously by different scientists. Some of them tell about motives which can have unconscious nature, and others claim their motives to be of conscious nature, transition of conscious and unconscious motives into each other and the leading role of conscious motives in the process of choice of a behavior strategy.