MOTIVATION

MOTIVE - any force acting on or within an organism that initiates and directs behavior and governs its intention

Theories of Motivation

A. Instinctual theories - instinct - an innate, unlearned, goal directed, species-specific behavior, a fixed action pattern

1) Psychoanalytic Theory - Sigmund Freud - two instincts that direct our personalities and behavior: libido (sex or life) and mortido (aggression or death).

Hydraulic model of aggression - mortido (aggressive energy) builds up inside of us and must be released. Catharsis - is the socially acceptable form of release of aggressive energy (watching violent TV or movies, playing sports)

2) Ethological Theory - Konrad Lorenz - a two factor theory: 1) instinctual aggressive energy (reaction specific energy) which motivates the behavior and 2) a sign stimulus or releaser which elicits the behavior ( if the sign is not present then the discharge of the instinct is inhibited)

Also a hydraulic model - with the greater buildup of instinctual energy, the weaker the sign stimulus has to be to elicit the behavior

            imprinting, bonding (other instincts)

            guns, knives (sign stimuli for aggressive behavior)? weapon's effect (Berkowitz)

3) Sociobiology - E.O.Wilson - says that there is a biological basis for social behavior

 B.) Behavioral theories of motivation:

            1)Incentive theory -

                        Drive- any strong stimulus or reward equated with drive (not need) reduction

                        Incentives - external objects to which the organism is attracted

Motivation can be understood in many cases as an interaction between drives and incentives:

Drives and incentives compliment each other and can affect one another, i.e. the greater one's need, the more attractive the appropriate incentive becomes

2) Arousal theory - we often seek arousal, arousal may be seen as incentive

Optimal level hypothesis - we seek an optimal level of arousal; too little stimulation, we seek an increase; too much, we seek to decrease

Yerkes- Dodson Law

Opponent Process theory - Solomon - an arousal theory - a stimulus that arouses a positive reaction when removed will cause a negative counterreaction: a stimulus that causes a negative reaction when removed will cause a positive counterreaction

C.) Cognitive Theories of Motivation

1) Dember-Earl Model of Ideal Complexity - the complexity of a stimulus determines its attractiveness (complexity refers to how much information the stimulus conveys).

            Behavioral measure - how long the person will spend with the stimulus              

            3) Self-Actualization (Maslow)

motives to achieve competence and control. Humans strive to satisfy their needs, these needs change as more basic needs are satisfied

Self-Actualization - wholeness, full-functioning, and the expression of all of one's capacities. We are motivated to become all that we can become

Human motivation is a hierarchy of needs ranging from basic biological needs to the ultimate motive of self-actualization:

HUNGER

        Theories of Hunger Motivation:

1.) Hypothalamic Theory - two structures within the hypothalamus related to the initiation and cessation of eating: the lateral hypothalamus (starts eating) and the ventromedial hypothalamus ( stops eating).

Large lesions to the LH produces APHAGIA (failure to eat) and ADIPSIA (failure to drink) - the LH is thought to be the hunger center

Large lesions to the VH produce HYPERPHAGIA (gross over-eating) and obesity - the satiety center. However, these rats will not eat just anything, they will only eat things that taste good. They are extremely sensitive to taste, smell, and texture. They will not work hard to get food and they groom poorly.

3.) Externality Hypothesis - Schacter et. al. have done research on obese humans. They argue that the difference between obese and normal weight Ss is that the obese are overly responsive to external stimuli (cues for eating) and relatively unresponsive to internal cues.

4.) Set Point Theory - set point is the weight that your body wants to be. It is a self-regulatory system that maintains your body weight. If you starve yourself the hypothalamus activates compensatory mechanisms, your metabolism slows so that energy stores are used more sparingly and the amount of insulin that is produced increases so that more of the food that you take in remains as fat (this makes it possible to maintain weight on a meager diet).

Set Point seems to be determined by the number of fat cells in your body. Restrainers "what the heck" effect