PSYC 1115 Lecture Notes - Abraham Maslow, Incentive Salience, Homeostasis
Document Summary
*instinct theory: originates from instincts: a set of behavioural blueprints. Inborn--activated by environmental stimuli; similar to involuntary responses. Ex) flight-flight responses ; how dogs naturally know how to take care of their babies without learning. Ex) eat, form social contacts--behavior motivated by insticts. Behavior also motivated by biological needs, internal push. Based on concept of homeostasis: tendency to maintain body in a state of equilibrium. Ex. of doing just the opposite: going onto rollercoaster-- too much excitement. Behavior motivated by need to achieve optimum/appropriate arousal. Motivated by no specific goal, but to satisfy your arousal(ex. curiosity) No rewards or punishment, besides emotional reward of arousal. Ex. ) seeking out gossip and information just because of curiosity. Arousal can affect our performance on our tasks. *- yerkes-dodson law: states that the ideal performance of a tasks is when our arousal level is right for the difficulty of the task---the more complex a task is, the less arousal wanted for the optimum.
