VI. Quick Review
What Is Motivation?
What Is Motivation?
- Motivation is an internal process that makes a person move toward a goal.
- Motivation may be extrinsic, intrinsic, or both.
- Drive reduction theories of motivation suggest that people act in order to reduce needs and maintain a constant physiological state.
- Abraham Maslow proposed that there is a hierarchy of needs and that people pay attention to higher needs only when lower ones are satisfied.
- Needs may be innate or learned. Learned needs are determined by values. Both innate and learned needs are influenced by society and culture.
- A genetically influenced set point may allow people to keep their weight constant.
- The lateral hypothalamus and the ventromedial andparaventricular nuclei of the hypothalamus play key roles in regulating hunger.
- The digestive system and hormones such as insulin and leptin also regulate hunger.
- Environmental influences on hunger include availability of foods,preferences,habits, memory, stress, andcultural attitudes.
- Alfred Kinsey was one of the first people to give a modern account of human sexuality.
- William Masters and Virginia Johnson described the human sexual response.
- The sexual response cycle has four phases: excitement,plateau, orgasm, andresolution.
- Testosterone increases sex drive, and sexual activity increases testosterone.
- Psychological influences on sex drive include internal and external erotic stimuli, desires, and cultural context.
- Researchers have found that there are some gender differences in sexual behavior and partner choice. Both evolutionary and sociocultural explanations can account for these differences.
- Estimates of the prevalence of homosexuality vary, and the causes of homosexuality remain unclear.
- Researchers have suggested that biological factors including hormone levels,genes, prenatal environment, and brain anatomy could influence sexual orientation.
- Psychologists have proposed several theories about how environment might influence homosexuality, but research has failed to support these theories.
- Researchers often use the thematic apperception test (TAT) to measure the need for achievement.
- People who have a high achievement motivation tend to be persistent and hardworking. They are able to delay gratification to meet long-term goals, and they tend to choose careers that allow them to compete with others.
- People achieve the most when they have high expectations of success,incentives that reward competence, control over tasks,opportunities to achieve, and effective goals.
- Goals are most effective when they are specific, moderately difficult, andframed in terms of what must be done rather than what must be avoided.