Motivation
Agenda
1. Finish Intelligence
2. Notes: Introduction to Motivation (25)
3. 12-4 Assessment of Needs (10)
4. Why college discussion? Maslow’s Hierarchy (15)
5. Crash Course Motivation (11)
6. Aron Ralston Story of Motivation, How does he fit
in Maslow’s Hierarchy? (13)
Objective(s)
• What is motivation?
• What drives our motivation?
• What are the different
perspectives psychs use to
view motivation?
Motivation
•A psychological process
that directs and maintains
behavior towards a goal.
•Fueled by motives
Motives
•Needs or desires
that energize
behavior.
Types of Motivation
• PRIMARY/Biological
– Hunger, thirst, sex, pain, optimal arousal,
aggression
• SECONDARY/Social
– Achievement, affiliation, autonomy,
curiosity , play
Instinct
• Complex, inherited behavior patterns
characteristic of a species.
• To be a true instinct it must be
performed automatically by all
members of the species
–Debatable whether many human traits
are instincts
Instinct Theorists
• Charles Darwin: best traits are passed on.
• William James: motivation is driven by instinct.
• William McDougall: aggression, curiosity and
sociability are result from instinct
• Sigmund Freud: sex and aggression are motivators
• Konrad Lorenz: studied geese and wanted to see
how instincts worked.
Imprinting – an
attachment to the
first moving thing
seen or heard
after birth.
Why would imprinting be a vital
instinct in animals?
• Survival
• Someone to learn from, get
help from, get taken care of
Sociobiology
•Relates social
behaviors to
evolutionary biology.
•Ex. Mating rituals
With your partner disucss:
• What would an evolutionary
psychologist say is the reason why
humans mate?
–Why do males mate with multiple
partners?
–Why do females mate for life with the
male with the best resources?
Drive Reduction Theory
Goal – return to state of
homeostasis
Drive-Reduction Theory: Need v. Drive
• Needs are motivated states caused by a
physiological deficit
– Ex. Lack of food and water
• Drives are a state of physiological tension
induced by a need which motivates us to eat
or drink etc.
Drive-Reduction Theory
• The body must return to a balanced state
– Homeostasis: body’s tendency to maintain an
internal steady state of metabolism
– Metabolism: is the sum total of all chemical
processes that occur in our bodies and are
necessary to keep us alive.
• What part of the brain deals with hunger and
thirst?
Drive-Reduction Theory?
With your partner
• How would you apply drive reduction theory to the
previous picture?
• What is the need, drive, drive reducing behavior?
• Need = Living 
• Drive = Survival
• Drive reducing behavior: Staying strong, being
alert/focused, being physically fit, well fed, hydrated
Incentive Theory
•People is a positive or
negative environmental
stimulus that motivates
behavior pulling us toward
a goal.
With your partner discuss:
What is your incentive to do well in this class?
Remember extrinsic and intrinsic motivation?
• When all your needs are met you are likely to
look for something else to occupy your time.
This is called Optimal Arousal.
We don’t
like to be
bored
Optimal Arousal
• Arousal is the level of
alertness, wakefulness, an
activation caused by activity in
the Central nervous system
(CNS).
• Yerkes-Dodson Law states that we
usually perform most activities best
when moderately aroused and we are
less efficient when arousal is to high or
low.
• Example: When you first learn to drive a
car you may be more tense and alert, but
after years of driving you may need more
arousal simply to pay attention.
What’s the level of arousal here?
What’s the level of arousal here?
What is the arousal level here?
Cognitive Theory
• People are motivated as a
result of their own thoughts,
desires, goals, and
expectations.
–Intrinsic vs. extrinsic
Bio-Psycho-Social Approaches to
Motivation
Psycho/Social:
•Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs
Maslow’s
Hierarchy
of Needs
Transcendence
• You cannot move up a level unless the needs
of that level are met.
• Discuss:
– How can using the hierarchy of needs be used to
explain a child who is doing poorly at school?
Exit Ticket
What needs do you think
are most important?
After reading the article,
what needs were
missing Ellyn Mantell’s
life?