Psychology2016

Motivation and Emotion 363

incentive theory is actually based, at least in part, on the principles of learning that were
discussed in Chapter Five. to Learning Objective 5.5.
By itself, the incentive approach does not explain the motivation behind all behav-
ior. Many theorists today see motivation as a result of both the “push” of internal needs
or drives and the “pull” of a rewarding external stimulus. For example, sometimes a per-
son may actually be hungry (the push) but choose to satisfy that drive by selecting a
candy bar instead of a celery stick. The candy bar has more appeal to most people, and it,
therefore, has more pull than the celery. (Frankly, to most people, just about anything has
more pull than celery.)

Humanistic Approaches

9.5 Describe how Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and self-determination theories
explain motivation.

Some final approaches to the study of motivation are humanistic in nature. One of the
classic humanistic approaches is that of Maslow, while a more modern approach is repre-
sented by self-determination theory.

MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS The first humanistic theory is based on the work
of Abraham Maslow (1943, 1987). As explained in the video Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,
Maslow proposed that there are several levels of needs that a person must strive to
meet before achieving the highest level of personality fulfillment. According to Maslow,
self-actualization is the point that is seldom reached—at which people have satisfied
the lower needs and achieved their full human potential.

self-actualization
according to Maslow, the point that
is seldom reached at which people
have sufficiently satisfied the lower
needs and achieved their full human
*hierarchy: a graded or ranked series. potential.

CC

Watch the Video Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

These needs include both fundamental deficiency needs, such as the need for food
or water, and growth needs, such as the desire for having friends or feeling good about
oneself (Maslow, 1971; Maslow & Lowery, 1998). For a person to achieve self- actualization,
which is one of the highest levels of growth needs, the primary, fundamental needs must
first be fulfilled. Figure 9. 3 shows the typical way to represent Maslow’s series of needs
as a pyramid with the most basic needs for survival at the bottom and the highest needs
at the top. This type of ranking is called a hierarchy.* The only need higher than self-ac-
tualization is transcendence, a search for spiritual meaning beyond one’s immediate self,
that Maslow added many years after his original hierarchy was formulated.