motivation

Table of Contents

Introduction
The study of motivation
- Physiological, psychological, and philosophical approaches
- Debates in motivational study
  - The nomothetic versus ideographic approach
  - Innate versus acquired processes
  - Internal needs versus external goals
  - Mechanistic versus cognitive processes
Historical overview
- Philosophers’ contributions
- Physiologists’ contributions
- Behaviourism
Biological approaches to motivation
- Genetic contributions
- Motivation as arousal
  - The James-Lange theory
  - The Cannon-Bard theory
  - The Schachter-Singer model
  - The inverted-U function
  - Sleep processes and stress reactions
- Biological monitoring systems
  - Hunger
  - Thirst
  - Sexual motivation
Behavioristic approaches to motivation
- Drive
- Learned motives
  - Classical conditioning
  - Instrumental learning
  - Observational learning
- Incentive motivation
Cognitive motivation
- Expectancy-value theory
- Attribution theory
- Cognitive dissonance
- Self-perception theory
- Self-actualization
Applications in society
Summary

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Why do some people love feeling fear?

For Students

motivation summary

Discover

Groups of depositors in front of the closed American Union Bank, New York City. April 26, 1932. Great Depression run on bank crowd

Causes of the Great Depression

Chapter 4 pg 42 - Chapter header of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Published in 1884 by The American Publishing Company

Periods of American Literature

Prisoners of Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany, April 16, 1945, liberated by American troops of the 80th Division. Elie Wiesel (7th from the left on the middle bunk next to the vertical post) World War II Holocaust

What Is the Origin of the Term Holocaust?

virology. infectious disease. woman sneezes into tissue. sneezing coughing blowing, allergy, allergies, common infections, cold and flu, cold virus, flu virus, hay fever, healthcare and medicine, human nose, russian influenza, bacterial disease

6 Common Infections We Wish Never Existed

Abstract vector hi speed internet technology background

History of Technology Timeline

Washington, D.C. locator map.

What State Is Washington, D.C. In?

A Factory Interior, watercolor, pen and gray ink, graphite, and white goache on wove paper by unknown artist, c. 1871-91; in the Yale Center for British Art. Industrial Revolution England

Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution

motivation: Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Photos and Videos

Why do some people love feeling fear?

See All Videos and Images →

Topics

drive internal motive need primary motivation secondary motivation curiosity achievement motivation cognitive motivation desire external motive human sexual activity perception human intelligence memory personality emotion creativity mind attitude anomie

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Key People

Kenneth Wartinbee Spence

American psychologist

Neal E. Miller

American psychologist