Rintaro Okabe’ psychological motivations can be understood in terms of goal hierarchies. The hierarchical ideas of the goal complex suggest that different types of goals and motivations interact with each other, from broad life goals to specific situational motivations. Rintaro Okabe's motivation demonstrates how larger, underlying reasons for action can shape his specific, day-to-day pursuits. One of the key drivers for Okabe is the desire to protect others, particularly his friends, and to live up to the expectations he sets for himself as the leader of the "Future Gadget Lab." This kind of motivation could be classified as introjected motivation, in which the individual feels pressure to act to maintain a sense of self-worth or to avoid guilt. For Okabe, his sense of responsibility often makes him feel pressured to save those he cares, and he is afraid of failing on them. This need to maintain his own internal standards or those that he believes others hold on him leads him to do complex time travel operations, even at tremendous personal cost. The introjected motivation also shapes his specific goals, often leading him to adopt mastery avoidance behaviors. For instance, Okabe is motivated to "not fail" to save Mayuri and Kurisu, which is a mastery avoidance goal. His repeated attempts to undo the tragedy demonstrate that he is not necessarily striving to achieve his own competence, but instead, he is trying to avoid failing in his perceived duty as the protector. His introjected motivation also interacts with performance approach goals at times when he attempts to maintain the image of "Hououin Kyouma," to inspire confidence in those around him. In this way, he pursues these goals to avoid feelings of guilt and responsibility for failing to live up to the ideals he has internalized.

Achievement motives can be understood in terms of whether a person is motivated by hope for success or fear of failure. Both of these motives are present in Rintaro Okabe, but the balance between them shifts depending on the situation. In the early parts of Steins;Gate, Okabe's actions are driven by a desire to explore the possibilities of time travel and make significant scientific discoveries. This is consistent with a hope for success, as he demonstrates a fascination with the potential of science to shape the future. This is more closely aligned with a performance approach goal, where he wishes to make scientific breakthroughs and impress his peers in the Future Gadget Lab. However, once Okabe starts to realize the bad consequences of time travel and witnesses the constant death of Mayuri in different timelines, his motivation shifts toward fear of failure. This fear of failing to save his friends and the trauma of watching them suffer repeatedly pushes him into a cycle of avoidance. His goals become avoiding negative outcomes, even more than achieving a positive, transformative success. The emotional cost leads him to desperately avoid any possibility that Mayuri or Kurisu might die, regardless of the cost to himself. This is leading to mastery avoidance focus, which he is obsessed with avoiding failure in his mission rather than striving for success. 

Okabe's journey is also deeply influenced by his understanding of control, particularly the limits of what he can control. As Okabe begins to understand the complex, deterministic nature of the timelines, he starts to feel that certain events are beyond his control. He becomes acutely aware of the idea that "world lines" are influenced by factors that cannot be easily altered, no matter how hard he tries. This realization reflects secondary control beliefs, which is a recognition that there are greater powers and deterministic forces at play, such as "fate" or the "convergence of world lines." The secondary control beliefs initially lead Okabe to feel powerless, which impacts his motivation in a negative way. At several points in the story, Okabe falls into helplessness, feeling that his actions are useless against the flow of deterministic events. This belief creates significant emotional distress and leads him to temporarily give up on pursuing his goals. However, as he grows, Okabe finds a way to reframe these beliefs. By accepting the existence of forces beyond his control, Okabe eventually finds meaning in persistence, which he recognizes that even if control is limited, the actions he takes are still meaningful in the attempt to change outcomes. This development transforms his motivation into a more adaptive and resilient form, allowing him to keep moving forward despite the overwhelming odds.

Rintaro Okabe's motivation is an interesting mixture of different motivational constructs. His introjected motivation to protect others leads him to pursue goals such as mastery avoidance and performance approach. His achievement motives fluctuate between hope for success - early in his pursuit of scientific discovery - and fear of failure, particularly as he tries to protect those close to him from harm. His secondary control beliefs about the existence of powers beyond his control initially undermine his sense of agency, but eventually lead to a more adaptive, resilient motivational framework where he learns to persist even in the face of uncertainty. Together, these motivational dynamics make Rintaro Okabe a more interesting character whose actions and goals are shaped by the tension between personal control and external limitations, as well as between the hope for success and the fear of failure.