Theories of Motivation
Motivation–an internal state that
activates behavior and directs it
toward a goal.
Motivation
1. Instinct Theory
2. Drive Reduction Theory
3. Incentive Theory
4. Cognitive Theory
1. Instinct Theory
Instinct– a natural or inherited tendencies
William McDougall– proposed that people
have innate tendencies that determine
behavior
William James– believed people have
such instincts as cleanliness, curiosity,
parental love, sociability, and sympathy.
Eventually, psychologist realized a flaw in
the instinct theory. Instincts do not explain
2. Drive Reduction Theory
Something motivates us into action.
A biological need may motivate us.
A needs produces a drive. (hunger drives
us to eat)
All organisms seek homeostasis.
The response to needs often becomes
habitual.
Physical needs that we seek to satisfy
include hunger and thirst.
Drive-Reduction Theory
the idea that a physiological need creates an
aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates
an organism to satisfy the need
Need Drive-reducing
Drive
(e.g., for behaviors
(hunger, thirst)
food, water) (eating, drinking)
Hull overlooked motivation—
Some experiences are inherently pleasurable
(hugging, soft things, roller coasters)
3. INCENTIVE THEORY
Something motivates us to act.
The rewards we receive motivate us.
If the incentive is weak, the drive must be
strong to motivate us.
If the incentive is strong, we will likely be
motivated to act even if the drive is weak.
We are motivated to obtain external
rewards.
4. COGNITIVE THEORY
We act in a particular ways at particular times
as a result of extrinsic and intrinsic
motivations.
An intrinsic motivator leads us to do things
that fulfill our expectations.
Extrinsic motivator leads us to do things that
reduce biological needs or obtain incentives
or external rewards.
The overjustification effect states that when
extrinsic motivation increases, intrinsic
motivation decreases.
BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL
MOTIVES
Biological needs are
physiological requirements
critical to our survival. (food,
water, oxygen, sleep)
Have built in regulatory systems to
maintain homeostasis
Social needs are acquired
through experience and
learning.
Some Biological & Social Needs
Hunger
What motivates us to seek food?
Lateral hypothalamus- produces hunger
signals.
Ventromedial hypothalamus- produces
signal to stop eating.
Glucostatic theory- suggests that the
hypothalamus monitors the amount of
glucose, or ready energy available in the
blood.
Hunger
The hypothalamus interprets at least three
kinds of information– glucose entering the
cells of your body, your set-point, and your
body temperature.
Psychosocial hunger factors– the external
cues that can affect eating, such at where,
when and what we eat.
Obesity
Growing evidence that a person’s weight is controlled by
biological factors.
Obese- 30% or more above ideal body weight
Schachter- Obese people eat if they see something good
to eat or their watches tell them its time to eat, not
because they are hungry.
Schachter’s Study
Almonds were put in the waiting room
Obese people would not eat unless the shells were
off.
Normal weight people ate a few, whether they
were shelled or not
Overweight- external cues, normal weight-
internal cues
Percentage of Overweight
Americans
Social Motives
• The Need for Achievement
– To set challenging goals and persist to achieve them
despite obstacles, frustrations, and setbacks.
– The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)- McLelland
• Fear of Failure
– Choose easy tasks offering assured success or very
difficult tasks and blame failure on difficulty of the task
– Find excuses for poor performances to explain their
failure
– People who are high achievers are more likely to be
persistent, but less artistically sensitive and less likely to
be interesting.
• Fear of Success
– People (females) raised with the idea that success in
many careers is unlikely, so a woman who is a success
in medicine or law must be a failure as a woman.
– Also found in males in a female dominated occupation.
– Success can create deep conflicts for some people
Social Motives
• Need for achievement
– Fear of failure
– Fear of success
• Expectancy-value theory (J.W. Atkinson)- to
explain goal-directed behavior. Expectancy is
your estimated likelihood of success, and
value is simply what the goal is worth to you.
• Competency theory– Too easy or too difficult
of a task means we do not learn anything
about how competent we are. So, to prove
and improve our competency we tend to
choose moderately difficult tasks.
Your Performance
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Humanistic psychology
All humans need to
feel competent, to win
approval and
recognition, and feel as
though they have
achieved something.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
The Self-Actualizing Person
• Accepting of self and others
• Spontaneous
• Social interest
• Autonomy
• Detachment
• Sense of humor
• Creative
• Interpersonal relationships
• Efficient perception of reality
• Democratic character structure
Emotions
Emotion is a subjective feeling provoked by
real or imagined objects or events that have
high significance for an individual.
Result of four occurrences:
1. you must interpret some stimulus;
2. you have a subjective feeling, such as fear;
3. you experience physiological responses;
4. you display observable behavior
Emotions (cont)
Emotions have 3 parts
The Physical
The Behavioral
The Cognitive
The Range of Emotions
Expressing Emotions
In The Expression of the Emotions in Man
and Animals (1872), Charles Darwin
argued that all people express certain
basic feelings in the same ways.
Studies have implied that certain basic
facial expressions are innate–that is, part
of our biological inheritance.
Psychologist Carroll Izard and his
colleagues (Trotter, 1983) developed a
coding system for assessing emotional
states in people.
Expressing Emotions (cont.)
Another psychologist (Russell, 1994)
concluded that there are universally
recognized facial expressions of
emotions.
James Averill (1983) believes that many of
our everyday emotional reactions are the
result of social expectations and
consequences.
We learn to express and experience
Expressing Emotions (cont.)
Learning explains the differences we find
among cultures once we go beyond such
basic expressions as laughing or crying.
Children are taught–either directly or
indirectly–which emotions are appropriate in
certain circumstances.
All of us are born with the capacity for
emotion and with certain basic forms of
expression, but when, where, and how we
express different feelings depend in large
part on learning.
Expressing Emotions (cont.)
Analyzing facial expressions helps us to
describe emotions, but it does not tell
us where emotions come from.
Some psychologists believe emotions
derive from physical changes, while
others believe that emotions result from
mental processes
Theories of Emotion
James-Lange Theory
concluded that we use the word ―emotion‖
to describe our visceral or ―gut‖ reactions
to the things that take place around us.
argued that bodily reactions form the basis
of labeling and experiencing emotions.
Critics of the James-Lange theory claim
that different emotions such as anger,
sadness, or fear are not necessarily
associated with different physiological
reactions.
Facial Feedback Theory
• Carroll Izard’s (1972) He believed that our
conscious experience of emotion results
from the sensory feedback we receive
from the muscles in our faces.
Theories of Emotion (cont)
Cannon-Bard Theory
Cannon argued that the thalamus (part of
the lower brain) is the seat of emotion–an
idea Philip Bard (1934) expanded and
refined.
This theory states that the brain sends two
reactions–arousal and experience of
emotion.
more sophisticated experiments
Later,
showed that the thalamus is not involved
Schachter-Singer Experiment
Cognitive theorists believe that bodily
changes and thinking work together to
produce emotions.
Perception and arousal interact to create
emotions.
Critics of this theory point out that you do
not need to first experience physiological
arousal to feel an emotion.
Critics also say that you use processes
other than environmental cues to interpret
your emotions.
According to the opponent-process theory, when the
stimulus for one emotion is removed, you feel the opposite
emotion.
Example: Fear and Relief