1. Motivation

2. Motivation: What drives you?
Motivation: A psychological process that directs and maintains your behavior toward a goal fueled by motives
Motives: Needs or desires that energize your behavior
Primary, biological motives:
Hunger, thirst, sex, pain reduction, optimal arousal, agression
Secondary, social motives:
Achievement, affiliation, autonomy, curiosity, play
Social motives: learned motives acquired as part of growing up in a particular society or culture

3. Theories of Motivation
Instinct/Evolutionary Theory
Drive Reduction Theory
Incentive Theory
Arousal Theory
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

4. Instinct/Evolutionary Theory
Darwin believe many behaviors could be passed on through genes
William James believed that motivation via instincts was important for human behavior
McDougall supported the idea that all thoughts and behaviors resulted from instincts (curiosity, aggression, & sociability)
Ethologist Konrad Lorenzo investigated imprinting with baby geese and their instinct to follow their mother
Sociobiology tries to relate social behaviors to evolutionary biology
The Big Debate…Are any human behaviors considered TRUE instincts?

5. Drive Reduction Theory
Need
(motivated state caused by a physiological deficit)
Drive
(state of psychological tension induced by a need)
Behavior
(attempting to return to homeostasis)
According to Clark Hull, behavior is motivated by the need to reduce drives such as hunger, thirst, or sex
Homeostasis: Body’s ability to maintain an internal steady state of metabolism
Metabolism: Sum total of all chemical processes that our in our bodies and allows us to stay alive

6. Incentive Theory
Pushes: Primary motives that satisfy our biological needs
Pulls: Environmental factors
Secondary motives; Motives we learn to desire
Incentive: an environmental stimulus (negative or positive) that motivates us to get us closer to a goal

7. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Self-actualization: achievement of all our
potentials
Transcendence: Spiritual fulfillment

8. Arousal Theory
Arousal: The level of alertness, wakefulness, and activation caused by activity in the central nervous system
Yerkes-Dodson Law: We usually perform most activities best when moderately aroused, and efficiency of performance is usually lower when arousal is either low or high
Easy tasks  Moderately high arousal
Difficult tasks Moderately low arousal
Average tasks Moderate level of arousal

9. Achievement Motive
A desire to meet some internalized standard of excellence
Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT): Created by David McClellan to measure achievement motivation
High need for achievementmoderately challenging tasks to satisfy needs
Avoid easy goals (no sense of satisfaction) and impossible goals (no hope of success)
Low need for achievement easy or impossible goals (do not take responsibility for failure)

10. Affiliation Motive (Need to Belong)
Being isolated for long periods of time causes anxiety
Aroused when feeling threatened, anxious, celebratory
Evolutionary psychologist believe that the need to belong provides social bonds which lead to survival and reproductive benefits such as food, shelter, safety, and reproduction, and care for offspring

11. Overjustification Effect (Intrinsic Motivation)
When promising a reward for doing something we already like to do results in us seeing the reward as the motivation for performing the task. When the reward is taken away, the behavior tends to disappear
Example: Naturally you are a good student and enjoy learning and doing well. Your parents begin to reward you with money for your good grades during elementary school and middle school. When you get to high school, they stop giving you money, so you stop trying hard to get good grades.

12. Social Conflict Situations
Being torn in different directions by opposing motives the block us from attaining a goal, leaving us feeling stressed & frustrated
Approach-approach conflicts: situations involving two positive options only one which we can have
Live on campus or buy a new car
Avoidance-avoidance conflicts: Situations involving two negative options, one which we must choose
Use a lot of my savings for the rabies shot or potentially die!
Approach-avoidance conflicts: Situations involving whether or not to choose an option that has both a positive and a negative consequence(s)
Go to a party that may get busted to hang out with the popular crowd or go to the mall and spend a lot of money on clothes for spring break
Multiple approach-avoidance conflicts: Situations involving several alternative courses of action that have both positive and negative aspects
Changing your outfit many times to look great for a first date although you may be late

13. Sex Hormones
Luteinizing hormone (LH) & follicle stimulating hormone (FSH): Secreted by the pituitary gland, which stimulate the gonads
Males Testes
Females Ovaries
Testosterone & estrogen: Secreted by the gonads to initiate and maintain sexual arousal