Home > Motivation
In psychology, motivation is the driving force ( desire) behind all actions of an organism. Motivation is based on emotions, specifically, on the search for positive emotional experiences and the avoidance of negative ones, where positive and negative are defined by the individual brain state, not by social norms: a person may be driven to self-injury or violence because their brain is conditioned to create a positive response to these actions.
1 Types of motivation
1.1 Tissue needs
The easiest kinds of motivation to analyse, at least superficially, are those based upon obvious physiological needs. These include hunger, thirst, and escape from pain. The analysis of the processes underlying such motivations can make use of research on animals, in ethology, comparative psychology, and physiological psychology, and the hormonal and brain processes involved in them seem to have much in common at least across all mammals and probably across all vertebratePetromyzontidae ( lampreys) Placodermi extinct Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fish) Acanthodii extinct Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish) Actinistia ( coelacanths) Dipnoi ( lungfish) Amphibia ( amphibians) Reptilia ( reptiles) Aves ( birds) Mammalia ( mammals. However, in humans, even these basic motivations are modified and mediated through social and cultural influences of various kinds: for example no analysis of hunger in humans could ignore the issues of eating disorderEating disorders are a group of mental disorders that interfere with normal food consumption. They may lead to serious health problems and, in the case of both bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa, even death. The major recognized eating disorders are anos such as anorexia nervosaNote: Wikipedia does not provide medical advice. If you have a medical problem, you should seek expert help. Anorexia nervosa anorexia is an eating disorder characterised by voluntary starvation and exercise stress. Anorexia nervosa is a complex disease, and obesityObesity is a condition in which the natural energy reserve of a mammal (such as a human), which is stored in fat, is expanded far beyond usual levels to the point where it causes health stress. Obesity in wild animals is relatively rare, but it is common, for which the parallels in other animals are unclear. Even in animals, it is clear that the earlier homeostaticHomeostasis or homoeostasis is the property of an open system to regulate its internal environment so as to maintain a stable condition, by means of multiple dynamic equilibrium adjustments controlled by interrelated regulation mechanisms. The term was co "depletion-repletion" models of such motivations are no longer adequate, since many animals feed on a precautionary rather than a reactive basis, most obviously when preparing for hibernationHibernation is a state of regulated hypothermia, lasting several days or weeks that allows animals to conserve energy during the winter. During hibernation animals slow their metabolism to very low levels, with body temperature and breathing rates lowered.
1.2 Other biological motivations
At the next level are motivations that have an obvious biological basis but are not required for the immediate survival of the organism. These include the powerful motivations for sex, parental care and aggressionAggression is defined as The act of initiating hostilities or invasion. The practice or habit of launching attacks. Hostile or destructive behavior or actions. Aggression in humans is partly genetic, with origins going as far as to our reptilean ancestors: again, the physiological bases of these are similar in humans and other animals, but the social complexities are greater in humans (or perhaps we just understand them better in our own species). In these areas insights from behavioral ecology and sociobiology have offered new analyses of both animal and human behaviour in the last decades of the twentieth century, though the extension of sociobiological analyses to humans remains highly controversial. Perhaps similar, but perhaps at a rather different level, is the motivation for new stimulation - variously called exploration, curiosity, or arousal-seeking. A crucial issue in the analysis of such motivations is whether they have a homeostatic component, so that they build up over time if not discharged; this idea was a key component of early twentieth century analyses of sex and aggression by, for example, Freud and Konrad Lorenz, and is a feature of much popular psychology of motivation. The more informed biological analyses of recent decades, however, imply that such motivations are situational, arising when they are (or seem to be) needed to ensure an animal's fitness, and subsiding without consequences when the occasion for them passes.
