APSY-UE 20 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Homeostasis, Belongingness, Autonomic Nervous System
27 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Motivation is the need or desire that energizes behavior and directs it toward a goal. There are numerous perspectives regarding motivated behaviors. To qualify as an instinct, a complex behavior must have a fixed pattern throughout a species and be unlearned. Psychologists who ascribe to this perspective believe that natural selection favors behaviors that maximize reproductive success. At the heart of this perspective is the genetically-driven motivation to survive. Maternal instinct that women have following childbirth that drives them to perform certain actions that will enable their baby to live. The theory describes human behavior but fails to explain emotions. A physiological need creates an aroused state that drives the organism to reduce the need. When a physiological need increases, so does a psychological drive, an aroused motivated state. The aim of drive reduction is homeostasis, the maintenance of a steady internal state.
