PSYC 1000 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Autonomic Nervous System, Facial Feedback Hypothesis, Cerebral Cortex

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1000
• Professor: Hank Davis

Document Summary

Motivation is a process that influences the direction, vigour, and persistence of behaviour. Evolutionary psychologists propose that in our ancestral past, motivational tendencies that had adaptive significance were more likely to be passed from one generation to the next, eventually evolving into genetically based predispositions to act in certain ways. Homeostatic models view motivation as an attempt to maintain equilibrium in bodily systems. Drive theories propose that tissue deficits create drives, such as hunger, that motivate or push an organism from within to reduce the deficit and restore homeostasis. Incentive theories emphasize the role of environmental factors that pull people toward a goal. The cognitive expectancy x value theory explains why the same incentive may motivate some people, but not others. Psychodynamic theories emphasize that unconscious motives and mental processes guide much of our behaviour. Humanist abraham maslow proposed that needs exist in a hierarchy, from basic biological needs to the ultimate need for self-actualization.