Psychology2016

Motivation and Emotion 357

Early Approaches to Understanding Motivation

9. 2 Identify the key elements of the early instinct and drive-reduction
   approaches to motivation.

Researchers and theorists began the serious study of motivation almost as soon as psy-
chology became its own recognized field of study. As is often the case when first exam-
ining a topic such as this, there were many different areas of focus in those early days.
As the decades have gone by, some approaches have fallen out of favor, some have been
modified, and newer approaches have been developed. Let’s take a look at some of the
earlier theories.

INSTINCTS AND THE EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH Early attempts to understand moti-
vation focused on the biologically determined and innate patterns of behavior called
instincts that exist in both people and animals. Just as animals are governed by their
instincts to perform activities such as migrating, nest building, mating, and protecting
their territory, evolutionary theorists proposed that human beings may also be gov-
erned by similar instincts (James, 1890; McDougall, 1908). For instance, according to
these theorists, the human instinct to reproduce is responsible for sexual behavior, and
the human instinct for territorial protection may be related to aggressive behavior.
William McDougall (1908) actually proposed a total of 18 instincts for humans, includ-
ing curiosity, flight (running away), pugnacity (aggressiveness), and acquisition (gathering
possessions). As the years progressed, psychologists added more and more instincts to the
list until there were thousands of proposed instincts. However, none of these early theorists
did much more than give names to these instincts. Although there were plenty of descrip-
tions, such as “submissive people possess the instinct of submission,” there was no attempt
to explain why these instincts exist in humans, if they exist at all (Petri, 1996).
Instinct approaches have faded away because, although they could describe human
behavior, they could not explain it. But these approaches did accomplish one import-
ant thing by forcing psychologists to realize that some human behavior is controlled by
hereditary factors. This idea remains central in the study of human behavior today. For
example, research on the genetics of both cognitive and behavioral traits suggests that
hereditary factors can account for more than 50 percent of the variance in some aspects
of human cognition, temperament, and personality; and much of this variance is due to
the influence of multiple genes or hereditary factors, not just one (Kempf & Weinberger,
2009; Plomin et al., 1994; Plomin & Deary, 2015; Plomin & Spinath, 2004).

DRIVE-REDUCTION THEORY The next approach to understanding motivation focuses on
the concepts of needs and drives. A need is a requirement of some material (such as food or
water) that is essential for survival of the organism. When an organism has a need, it leads
to a psychological tension as well as a physical arousal that motivates the organism to act
in order to fulfill the need and reduce the tension. This tension is called a drive (Hull, 1943).
Drive-reduction theory proposes just this connection between internal physiolog-
ical states and outward behavior. In this theory, there are two kinds of drives. Primary
drives are those that involve survival needs of the body such as hunger and thirst,
whereas acquired (secondary) drives are those that are learned through experience or
conditioning, such as the need for money or social approval or the need of recent former
smokers to have something to put in their mouths. If this sounds familiar, it should. The
concepts of primary and secondary reinforcers from Chapter Five are related to these
drives. Primary reinforcers satisfy primary drives, and secondary reinforcers satisfy
acquired, or secondary, drives. to Learning Objective 5.5.
This theory also includes the concept of homeostasis, or the tendency of the body to
maintain a steady state. One could think of homeostasis as the body’s version of a thermo-
stat—thermostats keep the temperature of a house at a constant level, and homeostasis does
the same thing for the body’s functions. When there is a primary drive need, the body is
in a state of imbalance. This stimulates behavior that brings the body back into balance, or

instincts

the biologically determined and innate

patterns of behavior that exist in both

people and animals.

need

a requirement of some material (such

as food or water) that is essential for

survival of the organism.

drive

a psychological tension and physical

arousal arising when there is a need

that motivates the organism to act in

order to fulfill the need and reduce the

tension.

drive-reduction theory

approach to motivation that assumes

behavior arises from physiological

needs that cause internal drives to

push the organism to satisfy the need

and reduce tension and arousal.

primary drives

those drives that involve needs of the

body such as hunger and thirst.

acquired (secondary) drives

those drives that are learned through

experience or conditioning, such as

the need for money or social approval.

homeostasis

the tendency of the body to maintain a

steady state.