PSY 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Abraham Maslow, Mount Everest, The Need
Document Summary
Theories of motivation: drives, arousal, hierarchy of motives. Motivation a need or desire that energizes behavior and directs it towards a goal. An instinct is a fixed (rigid and predictable) pattern of behavior that is not acquired by learning and is likely to be rooted in genes and the body. Birds building a nest is not the same as humans building houses. Other species have genetically programmed instincts motivating their actions. Humans also have general patterns of behavior which can be explained as emerging through natural selection. Instinct theory has given way to evolutionary theory in explaining human behavior. Evolutionary psychologists would say that human beings have very complex instincts and that everything is rooted in our biology which is shaped by evolution. Does not exclude evolutionary theory, but is complementary. A drive is an aroused/tense state related to a physical need such as hunger or thirst.
