Empowering Underachievers

About the Center

The Center for Applied Motivation was founded to develop and enhance self-motivation. Lack of motivation causes underachievement which leads to low productivity, acceptance of mediocrity, unhappiness and failure. Established in 1984, our office is in Rockville, Maryland, with a satellite office in Annandale, Virginia. We are a private professional organization whose success in treating those who lack motivation is based on a developmental approach that addresses the problems of motivation psychologically. With this approach significant improvement in both attitude and performance can be achieved.

The Center believes that achievement and motivation are more dependent on attitude and personality development than on natural ability. Underachievement, which includes a lack of personal fulfillment and satisfaction, is the response that immature, developmentally lagging, individuals make to various academic, vocational, interpersonal, economic, organizational, or societal demands. While the demands may be external, the causes for a lack of motivation are internal to the individuals. Therefore, external approaches, such as power, logic, or skills enhancement, are ineffective for maintaining self-motivation. To achieve, one must remove the emotional blocks interfering with motivation, develop self-awareness, instill an understanding of self-control, and improve self-esteem so that an individual can achieve to his or her potential.

Director: Peter A. Spevak, Ph.D.

A native of Indiana, Dr. Spevak served in the U.S. Marine Corps before earning a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Prior to becoming Director of the Center, other professional experiences included counselor at Larkin Home for Children, Elgin, Illinois, consulting psychologist to the State of Missouri, Jefferson City, Missouri; assistant professor and psychological consultant at Indiana University Medical Center and Hospitals, Indianapolis, Indiana. Dr. Spevak has discussed achievement/underachievement, motivation and various child development issues in over four hundred interviews and presentations for television, radio, print media, and community organizations (parents, school personnel, business leaders, and professional organizations). Dr. Spevak is also co-author of Empowering Underachievers: New Strategies to Guide Kids (8-18) to Personal Excellence (New Horizon Press).