11.1 Basic Motivational Concepts

A motivated man: Chris Klein To see and hear Chris presenting his story, visit tinyurl.com/ChrisPsychStudent.

11-1 How do psychologists define motivation? From what perspectives do they view motivated behavior?

Psychologists define motivation as a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior. Our motivations arise from the interplay between nature (the bodily “push”) and nurture (the “pulls” from our thought processes and culture). Consider four perspectives for viewing motivated behaviors:

motivation a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior.

Instincts and Evolutionary Psychology

instinct a complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned.

Early in the twentieth century, as Charles Darwin’s influence grew, it became fashionable to classify all sorts of behaviors as instincts. If people criticized themselves, it was because of their “self-abasement instinct.” If they boasted, it reflected their “self-assertion instinct.” After scanning 500 books, one sociologist compiled a list of 5759 supposed human instincts! Before long, this instinct-naming fad collapsed under its own weight. Rather than explaining human behaviors, the early instinct theorists were simply naming them. It was like “explaining” a bright child’s low grades by labeling the child an “underachiever.” To name a behavior is not to explain it.

To qualify as an instinct, a complex behavior must have a fixed pattern throughout a species and be unlearned (Tinbergen, 1951). Such behaviors are common in other species (recall imprinting in birds and the return of salmon to their birthplace). Some human behaviors, such as infants’ innate reflexes for rooting and sucking, also exhibit unlearned fixed patterns, but many more are directed by both physiological needs and psychological wants.

Instinct theory failed to explain most human motives, but its underlying assumption continues in evolutionary psychology: Genes do predispose some species-typical behavior. We saw this in Chapter 7’s discussion of the limits that biological predispositions place on conditioning. And we will see this in later discussions of how evolution might influence our phobias, our helping behaviors, and our romantic attractions.

Same motive, different wiring The more complex the nervous system, the more adaptable the organism. Both humans and weaverbirds satisfy their need for shelter in ways that reflect their inherited capacities. Human behavior is flexible; we can learn whatever skills we need to build a house. The bird’s behavior pattern is fixed; it can build only this kind of nest.

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Drives and Incentives

drive-reduction theory the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need.

homeostasis a tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level.

When the original instinct theory of motivation collapsed, it was replaced by drive-reduction theory—the idea that a physiological need (such as for food or water) creates an aroused state that drives the organism to reduce the need. With few exceptions, when a physiological need increases, so does a psychological drive—an aroused, motivated state.

The physiological aim of drive reduction is homeostasis—the maintenance of a steady internal state. An example of homeostasis (literally “staying the same”) is the body’s temperature-regulation system, which works like a room’s thermostat. Both systems operate through feedback loops: Sensors feed room temperature to a control device. If the room’s temperature cools, the control device switches on the furnace. Likewise, if our body’s temperature cools, our blood vessels constrict to conserve warmth, and we feel driven to put on more clothes or seek a warmer environment (FIGURE 11.1).

Figure 11.1
Drive-reduction theory Drive-reduction motivation arises from homeostasis—an organism’s natural tendency to maintain a steady internal state. Thus, if we are water deprived, our thirst drives us to drink and to restore the body’s normal state.

incentive a positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior.

Not only are we pushed by our need to reduce drives, we also are pulled by incentives—positive or negative environmental stimuli that lure or repel us. This is one way our individual learning histories influence our motives. Depending on our learning, the aroma of good food, whether fresh roasted peanuts or toasted ants, can motivate our behavior. So can the sight of those we find attractive or threatening.

When there is both a need and an incentive, we feel strongly driven. The food-deprived person who smells pizza baking feels a strong hunger drive and the baking pizza becomes a compelling incentive. For each motive, we can therefore ask, “How is it pushed by our inborn physiological needs and pulled by incentives in the environment?”

Question

F94rhrTnMmiDL6iR9kE71/d53iWi7EA9cHXKqLP8RbbiP328eIKZld/IxNXsaUhhJIxb1jYbXVKuj9sXigyaGVqmWC3ZFI8wuEUkZgKTS9fF6GNr8KhCUA+priN1ya5KoCBA8+6l1bIxuhk7nhgYFLwN3X4yESSbxTiCkGnaqJlHyPKNxrZZv40qCCb+YIpO3LV3CaBEGsWTq1TW68TuDUiZuYVhHHiFmKjWP4Faz5UAjYBPolemKrVl4hwxSaN4vuQoZDIckajF7O1ikQ3d4WSSS4H+USF+6UeIKuyDzDXi3j+e
Possible sample answer: Instinct theory focuses on genetically predisposed behaviors. However, it merely names the behavior; it does not explain it. Although instinct theory failed to explain most human motives, its underlying assumption that genes do predispose some species-typical behaviors is retained in evolutionary psychology. Instinct theory was replaced by drive-reduction theory, which focuses on how we are pushed by inner physiological needs or pulled by external incentives. More recently, arousal theory focuses on finding the right level of stimulation, and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs focuses on the priority of some needs over others.

Optimum Arousal

We are much more than homeostatic systems, however. Some motivated behaviors actually increase arousal. Well-fed animals will leave their shelter to explore and gain information, seemingly in the absence of any need-based drive. Curiosity drives monkeys to monkey around trying to figure out how to unlock a latch that opens nothing or how to open a window that allows them to see outside their room (Butler, 1954). It drives the 9-month-old infant to investigate every accessible corner of the house. It drives the scientists whose work this text discusses. And it drives explorers and adventurers such as George Mallory. Asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, the New York Times reported that Mallory answered, “Because it is there.” Those who, like Mallory, enjoy high arousal are most likely to seek out intense music, novel foods, and risky behaviors and careers (Roberti et al., 2004; Zuckerman, 1979, 2009). Although they have been called “sensation-seekers,” many risk takers (such as mountaineers) also are motivated in other ways, such as by a drive to master their emotions and actions (Barlow et al., 2013).

Driven by curiosity Young monkeys and children are fascinated by the unfamiliar. Their drive to explore maintains an optimum level of arousal and is one of several motives that do not fill any immediate physiological need.

Yerkes-Dodson law the principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases.

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So, human motivation aims not to eliminate arousal but to seek optimum levels of arousal. Having all our biological needs satisfied, we feel driven to experience stimulation and we hunger for information. Lacking stimulation, we feel bored and look for a way to increase arousal to some optimum level. However, with too much stimulation comes stress, and we then look for a way to decrease arousal.

Two early-twentieth-century psychologists studied the relationship of arousal to performance and identified the Yerkes-Dodson law, suggesting that moderate arousal would lead to optimal performance (Yerkes & Dodson, 1908). When taking an exam, for example, it pays to be moderately aroused—alert but not trembling with nervousness. Between depressed low arousal and anxious hyperarousal lies a flourishing life. But optimal arousal levels depend upon the task as well, with more difficult tasks requiring lower arousal for best performance (Hembree, 1988) (FIGURE 11.2). When anxious, it’s better not to become further aroused with a caffeinated energy drink.

Figure 11.2
Arousal and performance

Question

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Possible sample answer: Arousal theory maintains that we strive for an optimal level of arousal. For some people (sensation-seekers) this means a search for high arousal, such as one receives from extreme sports. For most of us, as described in the Yerkes-Dodson law, moderate arousal leads to optimal performance.

RETRIEVAL PRACTICE

  • Performance peaks at lower levels of arousal for difficult tasks, and at higher levels for easy or well-learned tasks. (1) How might this phenomenon affect runners? (2) How might this phenomenon affect anxious test-takers facing a difficult exam? (3) How might the performance of anxious students be affected by relaxation training?

(1) Runners tend to excel when aroused by competition. (2) High anxiety in test-takers may disrupt their performance. (3) Teaching anxious students how to relax before an exam can enable them to perform better (Hembree, 1988).

A Hierarchy of Motives

“Hunger is the most urgent form of poverty.”

Alliance to End Hunger, 2002

Some needs take priority. At this moment, with your needs for air and water hopefully satisfied, other motives—such as your desire to achieve (discussed later in this chapter)—are energizing and directing your behavior. Let your need for water go unsatisfied and your thirst will preoccupy you. Deprived of air, your thirst would disappear.

Small psychological world: Abraham Maslow was the first graduate student of the famed monkey attachment researcher, Harry Harlow. (Harlow, in turn, had been mentored at Stanford by the famed intelligence researcher, Lewis Terman.)

hierarchy of needs Maslow’s pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active.

Abraham Maslow (1970) described these priorities as a hierarchy of needs (FIGURE 11.3). At the base of this pyramid are our physiological needs, such as those for food and water. Only if these needs are met are we prompted to meet our need for safety, and then to satisfy our human needs to give and receive love and to enjoy self-esteem. Beyond this, said Maslow (1971), lies the need to actualize one’s full potential.

Figure 11.3
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs Reduced to near-starvation by their rulers, inhabitants of Suzanne Collins’ fictional nation, Panem, hunger for food and survival. Hunger Games heroine Katniss expresses higher-level needs for actualization and transcendence, and in the process inspires the nation.

Near the end of his life, Maslow proposed that some people also reach a level of self-transcendence. At the self-actualization level, people seek to realize their own potential. At the self-transcendence level, people strive for meaning, purpose, and communion that are transpersonal, beyond the self (Koltko-Rivera, 2006).

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Maslow’s hierarchy is somewhat arbitrary; the order of such needs is not universally fixed. People have starved themselves to make a political statement. Culture also matters: Self-esteem matters most in individualist nations, whose citizens tend to focus more on personal achievements than on family and community identity (Oishi et al., 1999). And, while agreeing with Maslow’s basic levels of need, today’s evolutionary psychologists note that gaining and retaining mates and parenting offspring are also universal human motives (Kenrick et al., 2010).

Nevertheless, the simple idea that some motives are more compelling than others provides a framework for thinking about motivation. Worldwide life-satisfaction surveys support this basic idea (Oishi et al., 1999; Tay & Diener, 2011). In poorer nations that lack easy access to money and the food and shelter it buys, financial satisfaction more strongly predicts feelings of well-being. In wealthy nations, where most are able to meet basic needs, home-life satisfaction is a better predictor.

Let’s now consider four representative motives, beginning at the physiological level with hunger and working up through sexual motivation to the higher-level needs to belong and to achieve. At each level, we shall see how experience interacts with biology.

Question

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Possible sample answer: According to Abraham Maslow, we are motivated by needs that form a hierarchy from most basic to most spiritual. At the base level, we are motivated to fulfill physiological needs. Following those are safety, belongingness and love, esteem, and self-actualization. At the top of the pyramid are self-transcendence needs, the need to find meaning and identity beyond the self. Maslow’s theory has been criticized because the order of needs is not universal and because some people are willing to sacrifice basic needs for higher-level needs (say to starve themselves to make a political statement).

RETRIEVAL PRACTICE

  • How do instinct theory, drive-reduction theory, and arousal theory contribute to our understanding of motivated behavior?

Instincts and evolutionary psychology help explain the genetic basis for our unlearned, species-typical behaviors. From drive-reduction theory, we know that our physiological needs (such as hunger) create an aroused state that drives us to reduce the need (for example, by eating). Arousal theory suggests we need to maintain an optimal level of arousal, which helps explain our motivation toward behaviors that meet no physiological need.

  • After hours of driving alone in an unfamiliar city, you finally see a diner. Although it looks deserted and a little creepy, you stop because you are really hungry. How would Maslow’s hierarchy of needs explain your behavior?

According to Maslow, our drive to meet the physiological needs of hunger and thirst take priority over safety needs, prompting us to take risks at times in order to eat.

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