• Most of the general theories of motivation emphasize four basic qualities
1. Activating—it stimulates us to do something
2. Directive—it guides our behaviors toward meeting specific goals or needs
3. Sustaining—it helps us sustain behaviors until we achieve our goals or satisfy our needs
4. Motivating—motives will differ in strength depending on the person and the situation
5. Factors of differing strength that energize, direct, and sustain behavior
• Satisfaction of needs
1. Need: A state of biological or social deficiency
2. Need hierarchy: An arrangement of needs, in which basic survival needs must be met
before people can satisfy higher needs
• Maslow’s theory is an example of humanistic psychology
– Drive: A psychological state that, by creating arousal, motivates an organism to engage
in a behavior to satisfy a need
• Basic biological drives, such as thirst and hunger, help animals maintain a stable
condition
– A stable condition is called equilibrium
– Tendency for bodily functions to remain in equilibrium
– The set point
– indicates homeostasis
– for the system
– Arousal: Physiological activation (such as increased brain activity) or increased
autonomic responses (such as increased heart rate, sweating, or muscle tension)
• Everyone is motivated to engage in behaviors based on their own optimal level
of arousal
– The Yerkes-Dodson law describes the relationship between arousal, motivation, and
performance
• This law states that performance increases with arousal up to an optimal point.
After that point, more arousal will result in decreasing performance
– A graph of this relationship is shaped like an upside-down U
– Freud proposed that needs are satisfied based on the pleasure principle
• According to Freud, the pleasure principle motivates people to seek pleasure
and avoid pain
, – External objects or external goals, rather than internal drives, that motivate behaviors
• Incentives affect our motivations to act in certain ways because we have learned
over time that our actions have consequences
• A desire to perform an activity because of the external goals toward which that activity is
directed
– A desire to perform an activity because of the value or pleasure associated with it rather
than for an apparent external goal or purpose
– In self-determination theory, extrinsic rewards may reduce the intrinsic value of an
activity because they undermine our feeling that we are choosing to do something for
ourselves
– In self-perception theory, we are seldom aware of our specific motives. Instead, we
make inferences about our motives according to what seems to make the most sense
• This section explores our motivations to eat, create social ties, and work hard to be successful in
academics and the workplace
• Stomach and blood chemistry
– People who have had their stomach surgically removed due to illness continue to report
feeling hungry even though they no longer have a stomach
– The existence of receptors in the bloodstream that monitor levels of vital nutrients
• One theory proposes that the bloodstream is monitored for its glucose levels
• Hormones
– Insulin: A hormone, secreted by the pancreas, that controls glucose levels in the blood
– Ghrelin: A hormone, secreted by an empty stomach, that is associated with increasing
eating behavior based on short-term signals in the bloodstream
– Leptin: A hormone, secreted by fat cells, that is associated with decreasing eating
behavior based on long-term body fat regulation
• The brain
– The hypothalamus is the brain structure that most influences eating
– Seeing tasty food makes a person crave it, and this response is associated with activity in
the limbic system
– The internal clock leads to various anticipatory responses that motivate eating behavior
and prepare the body for digestion
• Familiarity and eating preferences
1. Activating—it stimulates us to do something
2. Directive—it guides our behaviors toward meeting specific goals or needs
3. Sustaining—it helps us sustain behaviors until we achieve our goals or satisfy our needs
4. Motivating—motives will differ in strength depending on the person and the situation
5. Factors of differing strength that energize, direct, and sustain behavior
• Satisfaction of needs
1. Need: A state of biological or social deficiency
2. Need hierarchy: An arrangement of needs, in which basic survival needs must be met
before people can satisfy higher needs
• Maslow’s theory is an example of humanistic psychology
– Drive: A psychological state that, by creating arousal, motivates an organism to engage
in a behavior to satisfy a need
• Basic biological drives, such as thirst and hunger, help animals maintain a stable
condition
– A stable condition is called equilibrium
– Tendency for bodily functions to remain in equilibrium
– The set point
– indicates homeostasis
– for the system
– Arousal: Physiological activation (such as increased brain activity) or increased
autonomic responses (such as increased heart rate, sweating, or muscle tension)
• Everyone is motivated to engage in behaviors based on their own optimal level
of arousal
– The Yerkes-Dodson law describes the relationship between arousal, motivation, and
performance
• This law states that performance increases with arousal up to an optimal point.
After that point, more arousal will result in decreasing performance
– A graph of this relationship is shaped like an upside-down U
– Freud proposed that needs are satisfied based on the pleasure principle
• According to Freud, the pleasure principle motivates people to seek pleasure
and avoid pain
, – External objects or external goals, rather than internal drives, that motivate behaviors
• Incentives affect our motivations to act in certain ways because we have learned
over time that our actions have consequences
• A desire to perform an activity because of the external goals toward which that activity is
directed
– A desire to perform an activity because of the value or pleasure associated with it rather
than for an apparent external goal or purpose
– In self-determination theory, extrinsic rewards may reduce the intrinsic value of an
activity because they undermine our feeling that we are choosing to do something for
ourselves
– In self-perception theory, we are seldom aware of our specific motives. Instead, we
make inferences about our motives according to what seems to make the most sense
• This section explores our motivations to eat, create social ties, and work hard to be successful in
academics and the workplace
• Stomach and blood chemistry
– People who have had their stomach surgically removed due to illness continue to report
feeling hungry even though they no longer have a stomach
– The existence of receptors in the bloodstream that monitor levels of vital nutrients
• One theory proposes that the bloodstream is monitored for its glucose levels
• Hormones
– Insulin: A hormone, secreted by the pancreas, that controls glucose levels in the blood
– Ghrelin: A hormone, secreted by an empty stomach, that is associated with increasing
eating behavior based on short-term signals in the bloodstream
– Leptin: A hormone, secreted by fat cells, that is associated with decreasing eating
behavior based on long-term body fat regulation
• The brain
– The hypothalamus is the brain structure that most influences eating
– Seeing tasty food makes a person crave it, and this response is associated with activity in
the limbic system
– The internal clock leads to various anticipatory responses that motivate eating behavior
and prepare the body for digestion
• Familiarity and eating preferences
