1. Motivation Why do we do what we do? How do we know when we’re hungry?
If appetite can make us hungry, how do we feel full?
Are we more likely to respond to External rewards, or internal ones?
Why is it that sometimes when asked “why did you do that?” our best answer is … I don’t know.

2. Our behaviours
There are so many reasons for why we behave as we do, that no one answer will suffice. Animals, in many cases, have instincts ( a set pattern of behaviours that is steady over time ). Humans are, in fact born with a few instincts:
Rooting – a baby will turn it’s head and suckle if you touch it’s cheek.
Clutching – a baby will grasp so tightly that you can lift the baby up.

3. Instincts So, if we’re born with these instincts, where do they go?
We “think” that they go away because the memory of that behaviour becomes so “overwritten” with new information that the instinct is basically forgotten (as it isn’t needed to survive).
If instincts don’t govern our behaviour, what does?
Let’s Look!

4. External motivation
External (or extrinsic) motivation is when you will work for some reward that is given to you in return for some behaviour. “If you’re good, you’ll get a cookie.”
(Will that work for adults?)
In many cases, people who are highly motivated by external rewards also tend believe that they cannot control events. They believe in “fate” – whatever happens is beyond my control.
( Do you believe this about grades??)
If the external reward is taken away, often a person will stop performing the desired behaviour.

5. Internal Motivation
People who are motivated intrinsically work hard and pay attention because they feel good about themselves when they do good work. They enjoy their work and so it is not a burden to them. In some cases, even if they are not compensated for their work, they continue to do it anyway. Someone like this may be an Artist, but they may also be a school Volunteer.
People in this category believe that they make a difference and that they have control over life outcomes. These individuals often report lower levels of stress in their lives.

6. The Phenomenological Approach
This is a big word that means your experiences early in life mold how you see the world. If you have experienced abuse in your life, you might see the world as a bad place where you have to fight for what is “rightfully” yours.
If you have led an easy life, you may feel that the world is a safe place where you just have to go and ask for what you need.
This internal “cognitive map” also effects how a person will behave in relationships.

7. Alfie Kohn: Punished by Rewards
Kohn stated that if you over use an external reward, the behaviour will actually stop (overjustification). Two sets of children who liked to colour. One group was rewarded for colouring and the other was left alone. What happened, when the reward was taken away from those children for colouring?
That’s RIGHT, they lost interest in the activity and stopped. The control group who was left alone? They still liked to colour just as before.
Think about this: if you had a hobby and it became a job, would you like it anymore? Think about it. In many cases, you may say “yes,” but research has shown that often the answer has been “no.”

8. Hunger
Appetite is when you “think” you are hungry. For example, you normally eat at 6pm every night. At about 6pm you get feel hungry.
Hunger is when your body actually needs food.
If you wait until you are hungry, you waited too long to eat (low blood sugar). If you eat until you feel very full, you ate too much (and any excess calories will be stored as fat). But how does your body “know” that you’re hungry?

9. Eating behaviour
The lateral portion of the hypothalamus actually turns on eating behaviour. A drop in blood sugar levels lets your brain know that you are hungry. If you don’t eat, you may feel dizzy, light headed, and your blood pressure may drop. If you get your “second wind,” this is actually your body dumping sugar back into your blood stream from fat storage.
You are “motivated” to eat to satisfy hunger, a pure survival influence. You are not hungry just because your stomach growls. Your stomach actually contracts at other times when your blood sugar is not low.

10. Feeling Full
Your stomach is about the size of your fist. As it stretches that (along with glucose receptor in the small intestine) release CCK. CCK then has to go through your blood stream to the ventromedial hypothalamus and then eating behaviour is turned off. Because CCK has to go through the blood stream to reach the brain, it takes a while. You may actually be full, but not know it for another minutes. Because of this time lag, it’s best to eat slowly. If you eat too much (and do it a lot), the stomach will stretch permanently. If this happens, you will eat more before CCK is relased.

11. Brain damage This rat has a damaged ventromedial hypothalamus.
It can feel hungry, but it can not feel full. So, it eats and keeps on eating until the food is gone.
Know anyone like that?

12. Social motivation
To a social psychologist the question is more straight forward. Why do we act and behave as we do? Because we want to interact with other people. This could be within families or in social networks.

13. Drive theory
This last theory states that there is something either inside of us or outside of us that pushes out of our comfort zone (homeostasis). When this occurs, we feel uncomfortable and we will do whatever is necessary to regain equilibrium. Makes sense….
but what about people who like to be scared? People who like to take risks? People who thrive in high stress jobs?
Well, it just goes to show you, it’s always something