Motivation and emotion ❮ 173• Drive reduction theory—focuses on internal states of tension, such as hunger, that
mo tivate us to pursue actions that reduce the tension and bring us back to homeostasis,
which is internal balance. Need is a motivated state caused by a physiological def i cit.
Drive is a state of psychological tension, induced by a need, which motivates us.
• Incentive theory—beyond the primary motives of food, drink, and sex that push us
toward a goal, secondary motives or external stimuli such as money, approval, and
grades regulate and pull us toward a goal.
• Arousal theory—each of us has an optimal level of arousal necessary to perform
tasks which varies with the person and the activity. Arousal is the level of alert-
ness, wakefulness, and activation caused by activity in the central nervous system.
According to the Yerkes-Dodson law, for easy tasks, moderately high arousal is
optimal; for difficult tasks, moderately low is optimal; and for most average tasks, a
moderate level of arousal is optimal.
• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs—arranges biological and social needs in priority
from the lowest level of (1) basic biological needs to (2) safety and security needs to
(3) belongingness and love needs to (4) self-esteem needs to (5) self-actualization
needs. The need for self-actualization, the need to fulfill one’s potential, and tran-
scendence, spiritual fulfillment, are the highest needs and can only be realized after
each succeeding need below has been fulfilled. Lacks evidence to support theory.Physiological motives are primary motives such as hunger, thirst, pain, and sex influ-
enced by biological factors, environmental factors, and learned preferences and habits.
These include:
1. Hunger—increases with stomach contractions, low blood sugar, high insulin levels
that stimulate the lateral hypothalamus (LH); high levels of the neurotransmitters nor-
epinephrine, GABA, and neuropeptide Y that stimulate the paraventricular hypothal-
amus (PVN); environmental factors such as the sight and smell of desired foods, and
stress. Stimulation of the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) stops eating behavior.
- Set point—a preset natural body weight, determined by the number of fat cells in
our body. - Anorexia nervosa—eating disorder most common in adolescent females character-
ized by weight less than 85 percent of normal, abnormally restrictive food consump-
tion, and an unrealistic body image. - Bulimia nervosa—an eating disorder characterized by a pattern of eating binges
involving intake of thousands of calories, followed by purging, either by vomiting
or using laxatives.
2. Thirst—increases with mouth dryness; shrinking of cells from loss of water and low
blood volume which stimulate the lateral hypothalamus; and sight and smell of desired
fluids.
3. Pain—promotes avoidance or escape behavior to eliminate causes of discomfort.
4. Sex—necessary for survival of the species, but not the individual. Testosterone levels
in humans seem related to sexual motivation in both sexes. Sexual orientation
refers to the direction of an individual’s sexual interest: - • Homosexuality—a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another person of the
same sex. - • Bisexuality—a tendency to direct sexual desire toward people of both sexes.
- • Heterosexuality—a tendency to direct sexual desire toward people of the oppo-
site sex.