Drive-Reduction Model
The Drive-Reduction Model viewed motivated behavior as a strategy to ease an unpleasant state of tension or arousal (a drive) and return the body to a state of homeostasis. Homeostasis is the body's attempt to achieve a state of balance in which the body functions effectively around an optimal set point. This Drive Reduction Model, however, cannot explain why some people work harder for some goals than others or why humans, such as yourself, seek to acquire knowledge.
Optimal Arousal Model
Emotions, like motives, both arouse and direct our behavior. They tend to prompt us to move toward or away from an object or person. However, also like motives, emotions may trigger a complex chain of behavior that may promote or interfere with the accomplishment of our goals. According to the Yerkes-Dodson law, the more complex the task, the lower the level of emotional arousal that can be tolerated without interfering with performance. Moderate levels of arousal lead to optimal performance.
We are motivated to be in situations that are optimally arousing. Researchers believe that needs such as curiosity, learning, interest, aesthetics, competence, challenge, and optimal experiences are all motivated by the desire to be optimally aroused.
|
Abraham Maslow |
The Hierarchical Model
Abraham Maslow
|
return to top | previous page | next page
Created with SoftChalk LessonBuilder
believed all humans have an innate drive toward self-actualization. He suggested that the various motives, learned and unlearned, social and primary drives, can be arranged in a hierarchy. The lower motives spring from bodily needs that must be satisfied for survival; the higher motives, such as the striving to belong or to achieve self-esteem, do not emerge until the more basic motives have largely been satisfied. In other words, self-fulfillment would not be a number-one priority for someone in a war-torn country who had to dig in the trash for food. As a person was able to meet his needs for survival, he would seek to move up the ladder of needs toward self-actualization.