Instincts: inherited, automatic species-specific behaviors (fear, lust, curiosity) prompt us to act
Theories
- Arousal theory: we are driven to obtain the optimal level of arousal.
- Yerkes-Dodson Law: double inverted U-curves; performance is optimal for familiar/easy tasks with higher arousal, performance is optimal for new/difficult tasks with lower level of arousal
- Drive Reduction Theory: imbalances in our body triggers needs (motivated states, e.g. a need for food), which causes drives (internal states of tension, e.g. hunger), which motivate us to pursue actions to reduce the tension and bring us back to homeostasis (a steady state of metabolism = balance, e.g. satiation/not hungry nor too full)
- Incentive theory: secondary motives or external stimuli (money, approval, grades) pull us toward a goal
- Self-determination theory: people are motivated by intrinsic (internal) or extrinsic (external) motivations
- Overjustification effect: intrinsic motivation + extrinsic rewards -> intrinsic motivation becomes replaced by extrinsic motivation -> behavior disappears
- Sensation-seeking theory: one's level of need for varied/novel experience is the basis of motivation; include experience seeking, thrill/adventure seeking, disinhibition, and boredom susceptibility
Physiological Motives
- Primary motives: hunger, thirst, pain, sex; evolutionary perspective
- Eating/Drinking: can be stimulated by internal cues (hunger/thirst) or external cues (food/beverage advertisements)
- Lateral hypothalamus (LH) "on" (low hunger when lesioned); Ventromedial Hypothalamus (VMH) "off" (very much hungry when lesioned)
- Ghrelin: hormone that signals hunger; Leptin: hormone that signals fullness / stops hunger
- Set point theory: there is a 'default' body weight, determined by the number of fat cells in our body -> when you lose/gain weight temporarily, you tend to return to the 'set point' after a while.
Social Motives
- Affiliation/Belongingness: wanting to feel like accepted and liked
Lewin's motivational conflicts theory: choices create conflicts one must resolve
- Approach-approach: you want to keep fit but you also want to chill
- Approach-avoidance: you want to get close to someone but you're afraid of rejection
- Avoidance-avoidance: you don't want to study, but you also don't want to be expelled