AP PSYCH 7.1 Theories of Motivation
Motivation
- Motivation is a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior toward a goal
- We have primary and secondary needs
- Primary needs are innate or unlearned, like biological necessities, food, water, need for warmth, etc.
- Secondary needs are not tangible and psychological, like social approval, belongingness, and love
- Motivations can be very different and can be deconstructed very far
- You may want to go for a jog to reduce stress, get active, or look better
- And behind all of those reasons are more motivations
- No single theory can explain why we are motivated to engage in any particular behavior
- Different emotions and scenarios may fit better into other theories
Theories
Drive-Reduction Theory
- Drive is a state of tension or arousal caused by biological/psychological needs
- This is an unpleasant state
- Drive-reducing behaviors are the way we seek to resolve that drive
- We aim to return the body to homeostasis, or chemical balance
- Clark Hull, the author of this theory, was a behaviorist
- A lack of homeostasis induces a need, which creates a drive
- The drive makes a motivation to reduce the drive, prompting behavior that returns to homeostasis
- The cycle then repeats once there is a disruption to the established balance
Behaviorism
- Thorndikeās law of effect states that any behavior that leads to a desirable outcome will be repeated
- If homeostasis is achieved by eating, drinking, exercising, or taking a drug, that behavior will be repeated
Incentive Theory
- This theory proposes that we are pulled by incentives to behave in a certain matter
- This can be contracted with the way drives push us to behave in Drive-Reduction Theory
- Motivation originates from incentives that promise some values outcome (reward) or the avoidance of an aversive stimulus (punishment)
- Incentives are either positive or negative stimuli that motivate or pull us toward a behavior
- Motivations can be intrinsic, within, or extrinsic, from outside
- Intrinsic motivations include feeling good, fulfilling personal preferences, or doing something just because you enjoy it, and have been shown to contribute more to well-being
- Extrinsic motivators may be money, bodily changes, and gradesā these are often conditioned or biological
- The overjustification effect occurs when an expected external incentive such as money or prizes decreases a personās intrinsic motivation to perform a task
- Experiments relating to this phenomenon prove that people who do things for intrinsic reasons like enjoyment are much more productive in that behavior
- Whereas too large of a reward can actually decrease performance
- When something becomes an obligation, most people will do the bare minimum to reach the expected reward
Behaviorism and Biological Perspectives
- Recall the law of effect from above
- Biologically speaking, the neurotransmitter dopamine is released in a neural reward circuit when we feel pleasure
- We are motivated to then engage in that pleasure-inducing behavior repeatedly
(Optimal-)Arousal Theory
- People are motivated to take actions to either increase or decrease their arousal levels in order to achieve and maintain a personal optimum level of arousal
- Some people seek high arousal levels and spend their weekends chasing adrenaline
- Others seek low arousal levels and may spend the weekend at home, calming down from the week
- The behavior may change depending on what kind of equilibrium/optimal arousal a person is seeking, like biological, emotional, or intellectual
Yerkes-Dodson Law
- This law describes the relationship between arousal and performance
- It proposes that too much or too little arousal is detrimental to performance
- Having too little arousal means the motivation for the behavior is not there
- Having too much creates anxiety or overcompensation, also harming performance
- This relates to optimal arousal as it suggests we prepare ourselves to be optimally aroused for certain events
- People may be yelling and running around before a highly anticipated football game
- Whereas they are silent and calm before a major exam