Motivation is the pushing force behind all human action. Simply, without motivation, humans will cease doing anything.

For this reason, the instinct theory of motivation is one of the most influential theories in psychology. As one of the very first theories in psychology to explain why humans are driven to do certain behaviors, it examines the forces that motivate people to act and how they influence behavior.

The idea is that this approach finds parallels between biological instincts and motives. It declares that motives are natural forces found in all living creatures

Psychology is the study of mind and behavior in humans and non-humans. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts

Psychologists seek an understanding of the emergent properties of brains, linking the discipline to neuroscience. As social scientists, psychologists aim to understand the behavior of individuals and groups.[1][2]

Some psychologists can also be classified as behavioral or cognitive scientists. Some psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and social behavior

Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;. The view that some human motives are innate and due to genetic programming is a description of:

Some students work hard in school to attain high grades. After working all afternoon cleaning up the attic, Mr

His motivation to drink in order to reduce his feeling of thirst can best be explained by:. Aaron is motivated to engage in risky activities simply for the sake of the thrill they give him

There are different theories of motivation that are viewed in various approaches. The differences in these theories usually lie on how they emphasize biological and/or environmental forces in their attempt to explain the process of motivation

Coined by Wilhem Wundt in 1870s, “instinct” is a term that was used to refer to any repeated behaviour. This definition led a research to list about 4,000 instincts of humans

Freudian psychoanalysts use the word instinct as a human motivational force, or what we now call human “drives”. Psychoanalysts have identified two kinds of basic instinct: “eros” or life instinct, and “thanatos” or death instinct.

– Compare and contrast the the Cannon-Bard, James-Lange, Schachter-Singer two-factor, and other theories of emotion. The words emotion and mood are sometimes used interchangeably, but psychologists use these words to refer to two different things

Emotions are often thought to be consciously experienced and intentional. Mood, on the other hand, refers to a prolonged, less intense, affective state that does not occur in response to something we experience

Here we will focus on emotion, and you will learn more about mood in the chapter that covers psychological disorders.. We can be at the heights of joy or in the depths of despair

The contributions from philosophical and physiological sources have generated several stages of evolution in motivational theory since the late 19th century. In the 1800s Descartes’ dualism was often used to distinguish between animal and human motivation

Other behaviourists, as exemplified by the American psychologist John B. Watson, rejected theories of both instinct and will and emphasized the importance of learning in behaviour

By the 1920s, the concept of instinct as proposed by theorists such as James and McDougall had been roundly criticized and fell into disrepute. Behaviourism dominated the thinking of motivational theorists and a new motivational concept, drive, congenial to behaviourism’s S-R approach, was born

Emotion Theory and Research: Highlights, Unanswered Questions, and Emerging Issues. Emotion feeling is a phase of neurobiological activity, the key component of emotions and emotion-cognition interactions

Emotions play a critical role in the evolution of consciousness and the operations of all mental processes. Types of emotion relate differentially to types or levels of consciousness

Unresolved issues include psychology’s neglect of levels of consciousness that are distinct from access or reflective consciousness and use of the term “unconscious mind” as a dumpster for all mental processes that are considered unreportable. The relation of memes and the mirror neuron system to empathy, sympathy, and cultural influences on the development of socioemotional skills are unresolved issues destined to attract future research.