And Emotion
Motivation: Wants, Desires and Needs
Psychological drives that propel us
What Is Motivation?
• Factors that influence the initiation,
direction, intensity, and persistence of
behavior.
• Cannot be directly observed, must be
inferred.
• Thought of as an intervening variable.
Motivation
• Motive are triggered by a stimulus (Incentive)
– Bodily conditions (low blood sugar)
– Cue in the environment (AP Test/College Success)
– Emotion - Feeling, such as fear, joy, or surprise, that
underlies behavior
• When the stimulus creates goal-directed behavior it
motivated the person
About our the basketball shots…
• Where would you predict that people with
high versus low achievement motivation tend
to stand with respect to the basket?
• What might motivate one to stand very close
to verses far from the basket?
• What is gained or lost by standing at each
position?
• What might one learn about one’s abilities
and skills after shooting the basketball from
each position?
• What does it mean to have a motivation for
achievement?
McClelland, 1955Achievement Motivation
• Children who scored low on the need-forachievement test tended to take shots that
the chances of success were virtually zero or
so close that the chances were virtually 100%.
• Children who scored high on the need-forachievement test tended to throw rings at
moderate distances where chances for success
were reasonable, but not guaranteed.
Take the following survey…
http://www.wwnorton.com/
college/psych/psychsci/media/surv
ey.htm
*Type “achievement motivation
scale into Google)
Motives as
Intervening Variables
Sources of Motivation
• Biological Factors
– Need for food, water, sex, temperature regulation
• Emotional Factors
– Panic, fear, anger, love, hatred
• Cognitive Factors
– Perceptions, beliefs, expectations
• Social Factors
– Reactions from others
(parents, family, co-workers, peers, friends)
What were YOUR Sources?
Did you?
Drink Water
Eat something unhealthy
East something healthy
Put on clean underwear
Get in a fight with family or a friend
Drive faster than the speed limit or do
something else dangerous while
driving
Study for a test/quiz
Take a test/quiz without studying
Do something exciting
Source of Motivation
(Biological, Emotional, Cognitive, or Social)
What is the SOURCE of motivation?
Most Powerful Motivators
• Food and sex!!
Theories of Motivation
•
•
•
•
•
Evolutionary Instinct
Drive Reduction
Arousal Theory
Incentive Theory
Maslow’s Hierarchy
The Evolutionary Approach
• Instinct- an unlearned biological pattern of
behavior that is assumed to be universal
throughout a species.
• Meta-analysis during the height of this craze found 5759 ‘instincts’
• Sign Stimulus- something in the environment that
turns on a fixed pattern of behavior.
• What is an “instinct” that most infants have?
• What would be the “sign stimulus?”
Evolutionary Instinct Theory
• Explains some
animal behaviors
•Explains some human
behaviors
•Does not explain other human
behaviors
Problems with Evolutionary Approach?
• Most human behavior is far too complex to be
explained on the basis of extinct.
– Most important human behavior is learned
– Human behavior is rarely inflexible and found throughout the species
• Not adaptive for humans to have actions set in
motion by a signal from the environment.
• What capabilities do humans have that make the
evolutionary approach less significant?
Drive-Reduction Theory
(Bodily Needs)
When the instinct theory of motivation failed it
was replaced by the drive-reduction theory. A
physiological need creates an aroused tension
state (a drive) that motivates an organism to
satisfy the need (Hull, 1951).
17
Drive Reduction Theory
• Motivation through DRIVE and NEED
– Drive- Impulse to satisfy physiological need.
– Need- Requirements of survival
– Need for Food (PHYSIOLOGICAL)
– Drive is Being Hungry (PSYCHOLOGICAL)
Drive Reduction Theory
• Some states are aversive (causing avoidance)
– Hunger, thirst, sexual frustration
• Satisfying drives is pleasurable
• Homeostasis- The body’s tendency to maintain an
equilibrium.
• Primary and secondary (learned, i.e. $$$) drives
As a DRIVE becomes stronger,
we are motivated to REDUCE IT!
Drive Reduction Theory
Unbalanced
Equilibrium
Need
(E.g. for water)
Balance
Restored
Drive
(E.g. thirst)
Drive-Reducing
Behaviors
(E.g. drinking)
Problems with Drive-Reduction?
• Drive Reduction does not always explain
motivation
• People often behave in ways that increase
rather than decrease a drive
• Once homeostasis is achieved we’d never do
anything
Examples:
• How is this true of diets?
• Increasing Stress?
Optimum Arousal Theory
Human motivation aims to seek optimum levels
of arousal, not to eliminate it. Young monkeys
and children are known to explore the
environment in the absence of a need-based
drive.
Harlow Primate Laboratory, University of Wisconsin
Optimum Arousal Theory
• Arousal- Feeling of being alert and engaged
• Motivation influences arousal levels
VS.
Drives and Arousal
• Yerkes-Dodson Law
– Relationship between
arousal and
performance
– Optimal point of arousal
– Underaroused = bored
– Overaroused = stressed
Yerkes-Dodson Law
25
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
• Intrinsic motivation
– Motivation for a behavior is the behavior itself
– Children playing is an example
• Extrinsic motivation
– Behavior is performed in order to obtain a reward
or to avoid punishment
– A bonus program is an example
26
Overlearning
• Learning to perform a task so well that it
becomes automatic.
• With extra learning, when individuals are
under conditions of high arousal, they can
rely on automatic pilot to get things done.
Incentive Theory
• ​Incentives
– ​stimuli that we are drawn to due to learning
• ​We learn to associate some stimuli with rewards and
others with punishment
– ​we are motivated to seek the rewards
What Motivates YOU?
http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Howto-Determine-What-MotivatesYou-Motivation-Style