PSY100H1 Chapter 9: Motivation
2 Aug 2010
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Chapter 9 : Motivation
-motivation is the area of psychological science that studies the factors that energize, or
stimulate behaviour.
How Does Motivation Activate, Direct, and Sustain Behavior?
-most general theories of motivation emphasize FOUR essential qualities of motivational states.
1) motivational states are energizing in that they activate or arouse behaviour.
2) motivational states are directive in that they guide behaviors toward satisfying specific goals
or needs.
3) motivational states help people to persist in their behavior until goals are achieved or needs
are satisfied
4) most theories agree that motives differ in strength, depending on both internal and external
factors.
Needs, Drives, and Arousal Motivate Behaviour
-we have to satisfy our biological needs.
-a need is a state of deficiency, such as a lack of air or food
-we also have social needs, such as the need for achievement and the need to be with others.
-Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs, in which survival needs like hunger and thirst were lowest and
personal growth needs were highest in terms of ultimate priority.
-Maslow believed that satisfaction of lower needs allowed humans to function to upper levels.
-Maslow’s theory is an examples of humanistic psychology, in which people are viewed as striving
toward personal fullfllment.
-a state of self-actuatlization occurs when someone achieves his or her personal dreams and
aspirations.
-the greater the need, the greater motivation to satisfy it.
Drive
-How do we satisfy our needs? Drives are psychological states activated to satisfy needs.
-needs create arousal, which motivates behaviours that will satisfy these needs.
-Arousal is a generic term used to describe physiological activation or increased autonomic
resonses.
-Clark Hall: The drive state creates arousal, which activates behaviours until performing one of
them reduces the drive.
-any behaviour that satisfies a need is reinforced and therefore is more likely to occur.
-if a behaviour consistently reduces a drive, it becomes a habit.
-One criticism of Hull was that his theory could not explain why people choose to engage in
behaviour that do not appear to satisfy biological needs.
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!althought drive states push us to reduce arousal, we are also pulled toward certain things in our
environments.
!incentives: are external objects, rather than internal drives, that motivate behaviours.
Arousal
-Yerks-Dodson law dictates that performance increases with arousal up to an optimal point, after
which it decreases with increasing arousal, thus creating a shape like an inverted U.
!ex: you perform best on exams when you have a moderate level of anxiety.
-Arousal, then, not only motivates us to satisfy basic needs, but an optimal amount of arousal is
also desirable on its own.
Pleasure Can Motivate Adaptive Behaviours
-motivation can be viewed as a capability that initiates, directs, and sustains behaviours that
promote survival and reproduction.
-arouse behaviours that solve adaptive problems.
-Sigmund Freud – drives are satisfied according to the pleasure principle, which tells organism to
seek pleasure and avoid pain.
-ex: sex. We have sex because it feels good, but it is also essential for survival of species.
-From an evolutionary perspective, behaviours associated with pleasure are often those that
promote the animal’s survival and reproduction, whereas behaviours associated with pain interfere
with survival and reproduction.
Some Behaviours are Motivated for their Own Sake
-Extrinistic motivation emphasizes the external goals toward which an activity is directed, such as
drive reduction or reward.
!ex: working hard to earn a paycheck at the end of the week.
-Intrinstic motivation refers to the value of pleasure that is associated with an activity but that
has no apparent biological goal or purpose.
!ex: listening to music. Intrinstic motivated behaviours are performed for their own sake.
Curiosity and Play
-curiosity is a mental state that leads to intrinsically motivated behaviour.
-Playful exploration is characteristic of all mammals and especially primate.
-One obvious function of play is that it lets us learn about objects in the environment; this clearly
has survival value.
Creativity and Problem Solving
-many intrinsically motivated behaviours allow people to express creativity.
-Creativity is the tendency to generate ideas or alternatives that may be useful in solving problems,
communicating, and entertaining ourselves and others.
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-Creativity involves constructing novel images, synthesizing two or more disparate ideas or
concepts, and applying existing knowledge to solving new problems.
-creativity is an integral component of solving adaptive problems.
Rewarding Intrinsic Motives
-extrinsic rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation and decrease the likelihood that people will
perform the rewarded behavior.
-Mark Lepper allowed children to draw with colored marking pens, and activity that most children
find intrinsically motivation.
-One group of children was given an extrinsic motive for drawing, led to expect a “good player
award.”
-Second group of children was unexpectedly rewarded following the task.
-third group of children was neither rewarded nor given the expectation of reward.
-RESULT: children who were given the expectation of extrinsic reward spent much less time playing
with the pens than did the group of children who were never rewarded or received an unexpected
reward
-therefore… more efficient in extrinsic motives.
Control Theory and Self-Perception
-Why do extrinsic rwards sometimes reduce intrinsic value?
-feelings of personal control and competence make people feel good about themselves and inspire
them to do their most creative work.
-Self Perception Theory: people are seldom aware of their specific motives and draw inferences
about their motivation on the basis of what seems to make the most sense.
Why Are Human Beings Social?
-people feel anxious when socially isolated
-human nature requires us to have frequent and close contact with others
Human have a Fundamental Need to Belong
-the need to belong theory: states that the need for interpersonal attachments is a fundamental
motive that has evolved for adaptive purposes.
-those who lived with others were more likely to survive and pass along their genes.
-the need to belong theory explains the ease and frequency with which many people form social
bonds
-not belonging to a group increases a person’s risk for a number of adverse consequences, such as
illnesses and premature death.
-the need to belong is a basic motive that drives behavior and influences cognition and emotion; ill
effects follow when it is not satisfied.
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Document Summary
Motivation is the area of psychological science that studies the factors that energize, or stimulate behaviour. A need is a state of deficiency, such as a lack of air or food. We also have social needs, such as the need for achievement and the need to be with others. Maslow"s heirarchy of needs, in which survival needs like hunger and thirst were lowest and personal growth needs were highest in terms of ultimate priority. Maslow believed that satisfaction of lower needs allowed humans to function to upper levels. Maslow"s theory is an examples of humanistic psychology, in which people are viewed as striving toward personal fullfllment. A state of self-actuatlization occurs when someone achieves his or her personal dreams and aspirations. The greater the need, the greater motivation to satisfy it. Drives are psychological states activated to satisfy needs. Needs create arousal, which motivates behaviours that will satisfy these needs.
