PSY 1101 Lecture 7: Chapter 11 Motivation, Hunger, Sex

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1101
• Professor: Mark Dallas

Document Summary

Motivation - need or desire that energizes and directs behaviour, reason for acting. Motivation isn"t positive or negative, it"s a mover. All motivations have these characteristics: activation - initiation or production of behaviour, persistence - continued efforts or determination to achieve a goal, intensity - greater visor in responding, often accompanying motivated behaviour. 4 complimentary theories of motivation: instinct and evolutionary theories, drive and incentive theories, arousal theories, hierarchy of needs. Instinct - a complex behaviour that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unearned. Based on the darwinian theory - random variation, followed by selection. Key concepts of evolution: more offspring are produced than can possibly survive, traits vary among individuals, leading to different rates of survival and reproduction for offspring, and trait differences are heritable. Instinct must: be automatic, be irresistible, occur at some point in development, be triggered by some event tin the environment, occur in every member of the species.