PSY 1305 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Blood Sugar, Orexin, Ghrelin
Document Summary
Motivation: a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior. Four perspectives: instinct/evolutionary, drive-reduction, arousal, and hierarchy of needs. Instinct: a complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned. Evolutionary behavior: studies behaviors in search of their adaptive functions. Drive reduction theory: the idea that a physiological need (hunger, thirst) creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need (eating/drinking). Homeostasis: a tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect. We are most strongly driven when pushed by our need to reduce a drive (such as satisfying hunger), and also pulled by an external incentive (the smell of cooking food). Incentives: a positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior. Depending on our personal and cultural histories, we will respond more to some stimuli than to others. Not all behaviors reduce immediate physiological needs or tension states.
