What is Motivation -1- Francisco R.

Paya

What is Motivation

A motive, is an impulse that cause a person to act. Motivation is an internal proces that
make a person move a goal. Motivation. is like intelligence, can not be directly observed.
Motivation can only be inferred by noting a person’s behavior.
Reasearchers have proposed theories that try to explain the human motivation. These
theories include drive reduction theoria and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory.

Theories

Drive reduction theoria of motivation sugest that people act in order to reduce needs
and maintain a constant physiological state.
For example: People eat in order to reduce their need for food.
The idea of homeostasis is central to drive reduction theories. Homoestasis is the mainte-
nance of a state of physiological equilibrium.

In Drive reduction theories fail to explain several aspects of motivation.

1. People sometimes are not motivated by internal needs

Example: Some people fast for long period for political causes, despite feeling
extreme hunger.

2. Sometimes, people continue being motivated even when they have a satisfied
internal needs.

Example: People are often eat when they can not feel hungry.

3. People are often motivated by external incentives as well internal needs.

Example: If a person in handry, He or She may choose to eat a salad with a cheese
burger,because they wants to be slimmer.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

A motivation may be intrinsic, extrinsic, or both.

1. The Intrinsic motivation: Is the motivation to act for the sake of the activity alone.
For example: people have intrinsic motivation to write poetry,if they do it simply
because they enjoy it.
2. The Extrinsic motivation: on the other hand, is the motivation to act for external
rewars.For example: people have extrinsic motivation to write if they do so in the
hope of getting published,being famous,or making money.
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3. The Both or Incentives motivation : An incentive is an environmental stimulus that

pulls people to act in a particular way. Getting an A on an exam to be an incentive
that pulls a student toward studying.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of need

In the 1970s, “The psychologist abraham Maslow suggested that people are motivated by a
hierarchy of needs:”

1. First level or basic: physiological needs for food, water, safety, and security.
2. Second level: need for social interaction.
3. Third level: need for estreem,which include the need for respect from oneself and
others.
4. Fourth level: needs for self-actualization, or realizing one full potential.

Maslow believed people pay attention to higher needs only when lower needs are satisfied.
The critics argue that Maslow’s theory doesn’t explain why higher needs often motivate
people even when lower needs are unsafisfied.
Example: Ray lives in a very dangerous neighborhood and constantly worries about safety.
He make little money at his job in civil-right law, but he enjoy it because he believes that
his true calling is to fight injustice.
Critics also point out that people are sometimes simultaneously motivated by needs at
different levels. Example: Angie might be motivated to join a theater club both,because she
wants to be respected for her acting skill.

Types of Need

People have innate needs and learned needs, both of which are influenced by society and
culture. People have a limited number of innate needs, which include needs for food,water,
oxygen, and elimination of vastes. There are however a relatively large number of learned
needs,including needs for achievement,autonomy, and power. These needs are determined
by values,or people perceptions of what is important in life.

Hunger: Is a complicated motivation;people don’t eat only because they need food.many
factors, both biological and environmental,influence hunger.These facors interat with
another in many ways.
What is Motivation -3- Francisco R. Paya

Biological Factor

Researchers believe certain genetic differences among individuals play a role in hunger.
The brain,the digestive, and hormones are all involved influencing hunger at the biological
level.The researchers theorize that people have a genetically influence set point for body
weight. If a person’s weight rises too far above his set point, his appetite decreases,or he
uses up more enegy.His weight then returns to its set point.If on the other hand,his weight
falls too far bellow his set point, his appetite increases, or he use less energy.
The set point is maintained not only by ffod intake and energy expenditure,but also by the
body’s basal metabolic rate,other genetically influenced variable. Basal metabolic rate is
the rate at which a person at complete rest use energy. some researchers disagree about set
points and believe that people can reset their normal weight if they add,or lose pounds
slowly. They also point out that people usually gain weight,when they have easy access to
rich foods.

The Brain

1. The lateral hipothalamus is envolved in recongnizing hunger,In rats,damage to the

lateral hypothalamun results in loss of interest eating.

2. The ventromedial nucleus of the hipothalamus is involved in reconizing satiety or

fullness.In rats,damage to the ventromedial nucleus results in excessive eating and
weight gain.

3. The paraventricular nucleus of the hipothalamus is also involved in hunger

regulation.When the paraventricular nucleus of a rat is demaged, the rat will eat a
very quantity of food at each meal.

The Digestive System

The digestive system influences in several ways. After a meal, the stomach and intestines
send nerve impulses to the brain to help people recognize that , they are full. The body
converts food in glucose, a simple sugar that acts as an energy source for cells. The level of
glucose in the blood affects hunger. Low blood glucose increase hunger; high blood glucose
decreases hunger.

Hormones

The hormone insulin also play an important role in regulatin hunger.Insulin allows cells to
access glucose in the bllod.When the pancreas secretes insulin.
What is Motivation -4- Francisco R. Paya

Diabetes is a condition caused by a deficiency of insulin. People who have diabetes take
injections of insulin. Without these injections, their cells would be unable to use the
glucose in their blood.
Another hormone involved in hunger regulation is Leptin. The fat cells in the body secrete
leptin and release it into the blood.When the leptin lever in the blood is hight, hunger
decrease.

Environmental Factors

Many environmental factors influence hunger, includind the availability of rich foods,taste
preferences,habits,memory, stress, and cultural attitudes.

1. Availability of rich foods: People tend to gain weight when rich foods are plenfiful.
2. Preferences: Some taste preferences appear to be innate,such as the preference for
fatty foods.
3. However, people acquire most taste preferences throught conditioning or
obervational learning. People tend to prefer familiar foods. These preferences have
an influence hunger and food intake.
4. Habits: people learn habits such as when and how much they eat. These habits also
influence hunger and food intake.
5. Memory: The memory of what people last ate and, when they ate it influences
hunger.
6. Stress: The increased physiological arousal associated with stressful situations can
stimulate hunger in some people. In other people, stress decreases hunger.
7. Cultural attitudes: In cultural attitudes about ideal body size and shape have a strong
influence on what and how much people eat.

Eating Disorder

The prevalence of the eating disorder anorexia and bulimia nervosa in weight conscious
cultures show that cultural factors can have a negative influence on hunger and body
weight. Anorexia nervosa is charactericed by bouts of binging, followed by compensatory
behaviors susch as purging, fasting, or heavy exercise to rid the body og food,both
disorders can be life-threatening.

Sexual Drive

Unlike hunger, sexual drive does not motivate people to fulfill a basic biological need.
A lack of food leads to death; a lack of sex, on the other hand, does not. Both biological
and psychological factors strongly influence sexual drive.
What is Motivation -5- Francisco R. Paya

Kinsey’s Studies

One of the first researchers in to give a modern study of human sexuality was, Alfred
Kinsey. In the 1940s, he and his colleagues interviewed more than 18.000 men and
women about their sexual behavior and attitudes. In his reports about the human sexuality,
Kinsey denounced the represive social attitudes of his time, which he said bore little
relation to actual sexual practices.

Critics of Kinsey’s research maintained three arguments

1. Kinsey is a sample was not random.Instead,it consisted largely of well-educated,

white city dwellers.
2. Kinsey and his colleagues used questionable method to gather their
data,especially asking leading questions when interview subjects.
3. Kinsey may have let his own beliefs influence in his results.

Masters and Johnson’s studies

Others pioneers of sexual reseach were William Masters and Virginia Johnson. In the
1960s, they studied several hundred male and female volunteers who agreed to either
masturbate or have intercourse in a laboratory. masters and Johnson hooked up the
volunteers to instruments that measured various physiological indicators during sexual
activity. Using the results of these studies, they described the sexual response cycle.

The Sexual Response Cycle

Masters and Johnson divided the human sexual response cycle into four phases.

1. Excitement phase: physiological arousal increases quickly. Muscle tension, heart

rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate increase.In men, the penis gets erect and the
testes swell.In women, the clitoris hardens and swells, the vaginal lips open, and
the vagina lubricates.
2. Pleateau phase: Physiological arousal continues. In women the clitoris retracts
under the clitoral hood. men may secrete a small amount of fluid from the penis.
3. Orgasm phase: Physiological arousal peaks. Men eyaculate seminal fluid.Both men
and women experience muscular contractions in the pelvic area, along with a
sensation of pleasure.
4. Resolution phase: Physiological responses return to normal levels. Men then go
through a refractory periord that can vary in length, during they are not responsive
to stimulation. The refractory period tends to get longer as men age.
What is Motivation -6- Francisco R. Paya

Critics of masters and Johnson’s research maintained two arguments

1. Masters and Johnson studied a biased sample of people. The sample

included only people who were both willing and able to perform sexual acts
in a laboratory.
2. Masters and Johnson did not pay attention to individual differences. In
reality people’s sexual responses vary according to factors as age, amount of
sexual experience, and cultural background.

The Role of Testosterone

Sexual drive is related to testosterone lever in both men and women, but the
relationship is a complex one. Sexual activity increase testoteron level, and this levels
increase sex drive.

Psychological Factors in the Sexual Motivation

1. Erotic stimuli: Men and women can become sexuality aroused by external and
internal erotic stimuli. External erotic stimuli is: read exciting material,heard or
seen. in Internal eroctic stimuli incluye sexual fantasies,and past sexual
experiences.
2. Desires: People have an infinite number of desires that influences the
motivation for sex, including to procreate,to express love, or physical
enjoyment.
3. Cultural context: Having a strong influence on sexual behavior, cultures inform
people about sexual scripts, or implicit rules that allow a person to judge the
appropropiate sexual behavior for a given situation.

A culture’s social and economic structure determine the gender roles that men and women
adopt. These gender role in turn determine people’s attitude toward sexual activity. In some
cultures, a woman is less likely to be interested in sex for its own sake, since casual sex can
demage her reputation and reduce her change of marriage.
What is Motivation -7- Francisco R. Paya

Sex and the Brain

Psychological influences are cleary powerfull motivators for sex, and the brain is highly
involved in sexual arousal. people who have lost all sensation in their genitals became of
spinal injuries, are still capable of sexual desire.

Gender differences in sexual behavior and patner choise

Many researcher have found that some differences exist between men and women in the
sexual behavior and pather choice, though all men and women do not behave the same way
of feel same things.

Men

1. More interested in sex

2. Want sex with more partners
3. Desire sex without emotional commitment
4. Focus on youth and physical attractiveness when choosing a sex pertner.
5. Feel more jealous when patner is physically unfaithfull.

Women

1. Iniciate and think about sex more often less interested in sex
2. No is interested in sex many patners
3. Desire sex with emotional commitment
4. Focus in social and economic status when choosing a sex partner
5. Feel more jealous when partner is emotionally unfaithfull.

Evolutionary Explanation

Some theorists use evolutionary theory to explain these gender differences. Their
explications are generally based on Robert Trivers’s idea, that men and women make
different parental investments in orden to produce offspring.
From a biological standpoint, men invest no more that energy required for intercourse.
Women, on the other hand, invest time and energy in pregnancy and breast feeding.
Because of these biological diferencies, females can produce only a limited umber of
offspring, where as males can potencially produce virtually unlimited offspring.
Males can increase their productive success by producing as many offspring as possible
Evolucionary theory predicts that men tend to choose attractive,youthful partners
because these qualities imply good health and ability to reproduce discriminanting
What is Motivation -8- Francisco R. Paya

when choosing mates. They try to select males who have the most access to material
resources,because such males can contribute the most to carint for offspring.

Furthermore,men must contend with paternity uncertainty, they can never be certain
that they are the fathers of their partners’s offspring. Evolutionary theorist predict that
men would therefore tend to have concerns about their partners’s sexual infidelity.
Women, on the other hand, can be certain that their offspring are their own, though they
cannot be certain that their partners will provide for their offspring. Therefore,they are
more likely to be concerned about the emotional fidelity of their partners.

Problems with Evolutionary Explanations

Many people criticize the use of evolucionary explanations of gender differences in

sexual behavior. Some critics argue that alternative explanations can account equally
well for the observed gender differences. Example: “Women’s history of social and
economics subservience may have taught them to place a high value on their partners
product of socialization”.

Sexual Orientation

Sexual orientation is such a controversial subject that people can not even agree about
how the term sexual orientation should be defined.Some people argue over whether it
refers to sexual behavior,sexual attraction,emotional attraction, or all three.
Researchers define sexual orientation in a variety of ways.

• Hormones
• Genes
• Prenatal factors
• Brain differences into Man and Woman

Environmental Factors

Many researchers believe biological factors alone can not explain the origin of homo-
sexuality.

• An ineffectual distant father and an overly close, domineering

mother
• Seduction in childhood by a homosexual adult
• Same-sex sexual play as children.
What is Motivation -9- Francisco R. Paya

At this time, no one knows exactly what determine sexual orientation. possibily, men and
women develop a homosexual orientations through varius patways. Its also possible from
individual to individual.

Summary : What is Motivation?

• Motivation is an internal process that make a person move

toward a goal.
• Motivation may be extrinsic, intrinsic.
• Drive reduction theories of motivation sugest that people act in
order to reduce needs and maintain a constant physiological state.
• Abraham Maslow proposed that there is a hierarchy of needs ant
that people pay attention to high needs, only when lower ones are
satisfied.
• Needs may be innate or learned, in learned needs are determined
by values, and innate and learned needs are influenced by society
and culture.

Hunger

• Is a genetically influence set point may allow people to keep their

weight constant.
• The lateral hypothalamus and the ventromedial and ventricular
nucleo 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 availability of
foods,preferences, habits, memory,stress, and cultural attitudes.

Sexual Drive

• 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.
• Testosterone increases sex drive, and sexual activity increase
testosteron.
• The sexual response cycle has four phases: excitement, plateau,
orgasm, and resolution.
• Psychological influences on sex incluye internal and external
erotic stimuli, desires, cultural context.
• Researchers have found that there are some gender differencies in
sexual behavior and partner choise. Both evolucionary and socio-
cultural explanations can account for these diferencies.
• Researchers have suggested that biological factors including
hormones levels, genes, prenatal environment, and brain anatomy
could influence sexual orientation.
What is Motivation - 10 - Francisco R. Paya

• Psychologist have proposed several theories about how

environment might influence homosexuality, but research has
failed to support these theories.

Undestanding Psychology
McCraw-Hill
ISBN 0-02-823155-4
Edition: 2000

Sociology Understanding Society

Pentice-Hall
Edition: 2003

MS Encarta Encyclopedia 2006 (English version)

MS Enciclopedia Encarta 2006 (Spanish version)

Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology

Distance Learning

http://www.socialpsychology.org/distance.htm

Psychology Student Recurses

http://psychology.about.com/

Francisco R. Paya
E-mail.: scpaya@ono.com
Spain