PSY100H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11.1: Family Reunion, Eating Disorder, Nucleus Accumbens

• School: UTSG
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY100H1
• Professor: Dan Dolderman

Document Summary

The study of motivation concerns the physiological and psychological processes underlying the initiation of behaviours that direct organisms toward specific goals. These initial factors, or motives, include the thoughts, feelings, sensations, and bodily processes that lead to goal-directed behavior. A drive is a biological trigger that tells u we may be deprived of something and causes us to seek out what is needed, such as food or water. When a drive is satisfied, reward centers in our brain become activated. This reinforces our behavior, making it more likely that we will respond to these drives. Motivation is esse(cid:374)tial for a(cid:374) i(cid:374)di(cid:448)idual"s sur(cid:448)i(cid:448)al (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause at its (cid:373)ost (cid:271)asi(cid:272) le(cid:448)el it (cid:272)o(cid:374)tri(cid:271)utes to homeostasis, the (cid:271)od(cid:455)"s ph(cid:455)siologi(cid:272)al pro(cid:272)esses that allo(cid:449) it to (cid:373)ai(cid:374)tai(cid:374) (cid:272)o(cid:374)siste(cid:374)t i(cid:374)ter(cid:374)al states i(cid:374) respo(cid:374)se to the outer environment. However, sometimes humans and animals are motivated to engage in behaviours that cannot be explained by homeostasis.