Transcript Intrinsic Motivators

AP Psychology
Unit 8: Motivation, Emotion and Stress
Module 37: Identify and apply basic motivational
concepts to understand behavior with specific
attention to instincts for animals, biological factors
like needs, drives, and homeostasis, and operant
conditioning factors like incentives, and intrinsic vs.
extrinsic motivators.
Module 37:
Outline
• Basic motivational concepts to understanding
behavior
– Instincts for animals
– Biological factors like
• Drives (Primary vs. Secondary)
• Homeostasis
– Operant conditioning factors
• Incentives
• Intrinsic motivators
• Extrinsic motivators
Motive
• Motive
– Specific need or desire, such as hunger,
thirst, or achievement, that prompts goaldirected behavior
– a need or desire that energizes behavior
and directs it towards a goal.
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Instincts for animals NOT humans.
• Instincts are complex behaviors that have
fixed patterns throughout the species and are
not learned (Tinbergen, 1951).
Outline
Humans do not have instincts!!!
• Most important human behavior is learned
• Human behavior is rarely inflexible and is
found throughout the species
• Humans have reflexes but not instincts.
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Biological Drives (Primary Drives)
• Unlearned drive based on a physiological state found in all
animals
- Motivates behavior necessary for survival
• Hypothalamus
– Hunger
– Thirst
– Sex
• Evolutionary biology talks about the four F’s (Fighting,
Fleeing, Feeding, Reproducing).
Homeostasis – explains why we stop
fulfilling biological drives.
• The ability or tendency of an
organism to maintain internal
equilibrium or balance.
• A state of psychological
equilibrium obtained when
tension or a drive has been
reduced or eliminated.
Secondary Drives – not biologically
dictated.
•
Learned drives
• Wealth
• Success
• Fame
Operant Conditioning Factors
• Incentives – environmental cues that trigger
a motive.
• When a stimulus creates goal-directed
behavior
Intrinsic Motivators
• Refers to motivation that comes from inside an
individual rather than from any external or outside
rewards, such as money or grades.
• It is stronger than external motivation
Extrinsic Motivators
• Refers to motivation that comes from
external or outside rewards, such as money
or grades.
Theories of Motivation
1. Drive-Reduction Theory
2. Arousal Theory
3. Hierarchy of Motives
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Drive-Reduction Theory
When the instinct theory of motivation
failed it was replaced by the DriveReduction Theory. A physiological need
creates an aroused tension state (a drive)
that motivates an organism to satisfy the
need (Hull, 1951).
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Drive Reduction
The physiological aim of drive reduction is
homeostasis, the maintenance of a steady internal
state – balance. The regulation of any aspect of body
chemistry around a particular level
Drive
Reduction
Food
Empty
Stomach
Stomach
Full
(Food Deprived)
Organism
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Drive Reduction Theory
• Strengths
– Does a nice job explaining most primary
drives
• Falls apart with more complex
behaviors/secondary drives
– Sex and Secondary Drives.
Outline
Optimum Arousal
• Humans seek optimum levels of arousal.
• Sometimes we want lots of arousal
• Sometimes we want very low arousal
• Some of us tend to want more and some of us
tend to want less.
Arousal Theory
• People do things in order to seek out an
optimal level of arousal for a given moment
• I want a high level or arousal – let’s do
something epic tonight.
• I want a low level of arousal – let’s stay in
tonight.
• I am bored with my life I need a new job.
• I am stressed at work, let’s take a vacation.
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Yerkes-Dodson Law
– States that there is an optimal level of
arousal for best performance on any task
– The more complex the task, the lower the
level of arousal that can be tolerated
without interfering with performance
Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow (1970)
suggested that certain needs
have priority over others.
Physiological needs like
breathing, thirst, and
hunger come before
psychological needs such as
achievement, self-esteem,
and the need for
recognition.
(1908-1970)
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Hierarchy of Needs
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