Psychology Chapter on Motivation Theories

Affective Psychology Introduction

• Required readings for the day include Reeve, Chapters 1 & 2 and Smith et al., pp. 358-366.

General Information

• Attendance is mandatory.
• English is a second language for some students.
• Students should begin studying from day one.
• Some required readings and topics are available through Neptun Meet Street.
• Not all required topics will be covered in class.
• Students are expected to follow the course requirements.
• A combined written and oral exam is required.

Definition

• Students should write a one-sentence personal definition of motivation and emotion in their notebooks.

Why "Affective" Psychology?

• Affects involve a wide range of emotions, feelings, and moods.
• Affects mobilize resources to cope with challenges, avoid punishment, and achieve rewards.
• Affective psychology studies factors that initiate behavior.
• Motivation and emotion are key areas of study.

Why did you come to class today?

• Provide a motivational answer explaining initiation, persistence, and goal-directedness.

Why Study Motivation?

• It is interesting to understand why people do what they do.
• Motivation is essential for understanding behavior.
• Studying motivation can provide self-knowledge and insight into character.
• Scientific study involves objective data, well-controlled studies, and peer-reviewed research.
• Studying motivation is useful for theoretical understanding and practical know-how.

Fundamental Questions

• What causes behavior?
• Why does behavior vary in intensity?

Why do you brush your teeth?

• One explanation centers on the cause (antecedents) of the behavior.
• Another explanation focuses on the goal (purpose) of achieving healthy teeth.

Why-s Regarding Behavior

• Initiation: Why does behavior start?
• Persistence: Why is behavior sustained over time?
• Goal-directedness: Why is behavior directed towards goals?
• Change: Why does behavior change?
• Termination: Why does behavior stop?

Why does behavior vary in its intensity?

• Intensity varies within the individual and between individuals
• Why is desire sometimes strong and resilient at one time, and weak and fragile at another?
• Why does the same person choose to do different things at different times?

Need for a Theory to Explain...

• What factors make behavior strong and purposeful?
• Energy: Behavior has significant strength, intensity, and persistence.
• Direction: Behavior has purpose and is aimed at achieving goals.

What is Motivation?

• Motivation is a force that initiates, directs, and maintains behavior.
• Intrinsic motivation comes from within the organism.
• Extrinsic motivation comes from outside the organism.
• Examples of intrinsic motivation: need, wish, desire, interest, habit, will
• Examples of extrinsic motivation: expectations, force, attraction, being asked, etc.

Sources of Motivation

• Motivation comes from internal motives (needs, cognitions, emotions) and external events (incentives).
• Needs are necessary for maintaining life, growth, and well-being (biological and psychological).
• Cognitions include mental events such as beliefs, expectations, plans, goals, and self-concept.
• Emotions are short-lived, subjective-physiological factors that express our reactions to important events in our lives.

How is Motivation Expressed?

• Motivation is expressed through behavioral manifestations, antecedents, physiology, and self-report.
• Behavioral manifestations include attention, effort, latency, persistence, and choice.
• Antecendents are things that come before a behavior, such as food deprivation
• Physiology and brain activation are also aspects of motivation.
• Self-report provides information about internal states.

Principles Unifying the Discipline of Motivation

• Motivation is a dynamic process that changes over time.
• This dynamic process involves rising and falling motivation over time.
• Motivation benefits adaptation, directs attention, is variable, has various qualities, involves approach and avoidance.
• It is inseparable from social context and needs a theory.
• Students should consider what theories they have studied in their psychology major.

History of the Psychology of Motivation: Grand Theories

• Will, instinct theory, and drive are grand theories.
• Freud and Hull developed functional biology theory.
• Functional biology theory states that the function of behavior is to serve bodily needs.
• Lack of food, water, sleep creates drives.
• Drives motivate behavior to satisfy bodily needs.

History of the Psychology of Motivation: Philosophical Roots

• Early schools of thought include free will (Descartes), behavior organizations by rationality and understanding, and responsibility.
• Descartes' thought considered animals and humans differently.
• British Empiricists focused on association and hedonism.

History of the Psychology of Motivation: Biology

• Darwin believed that animals and humans share the same motivation factors, primarily survival, and instinct.
• Restricted environmental sources can influence survival instinct.
• Ernst Brücke explored mechanistic biology.
• Biological processes are based on chemical and physical phenomena.

History of the Psychology of Motivation: Psychiatry

• Freud's drive theory included source, impetus, object, and aim.
• The theory addressed unconscious, repressed motives that drive behavior.

History of the Psychology of Motivation: Psychology (4/4)

• Wundt did not focus on motivation as a primary point of interest.
• Instinct theories were proposed by McDougall and W. James, focused on functionalism.
• Behaviorism emphasizes the learned nature of behavior.

Behaviorism

• Thorndike explored the role of effect (consequence) in behavior and the law of readiness.
• Pavlov discovered the law of readiness where behavior is regulated by external stimuli.
• Watson's stimulus-response (S-R) psychology was a primary component of behaviorism.

Drive

• Woodworth introduced the idea of drive as a necessary internal condition to explain behavior.
• Hull proposed a biological need versus drive framework.
• Primary drive is a pooled energy source that includes all bodily deficits and disturbances.
• Learned (secondary) drives are related to drive reduction theory.

Hull's Drive Theory

• Hull's drive theory had three fundamental assumptions:

1. Drives emerge from bodily needs.
2. Drives energize behavior.
3. Drive reduction reinforces learning.

History of the Psychology of Motivation: Mini Theories

• Mini theories address specific motivational phenomena, not the full range of motivation.
• Examples include achievement motivation, cognitive dissonance, flow, goal-setting, learned helplessness, and self-efficacy theories.

Test your understanding of key concepts in motivation theories, including Hull's drive theory and Woodworth's contributions. This quiz covers essential aspects of motivation, behaviorism, and affective psychology. Dive into the intricacies of internal and external sources of motivation and their implications.