Module 26-Motivation

instinct

A complex, inherited behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species. (Blair-Broeker/Ernst Thinking About Psychology 3e p. 462)

achievement motivation

A desire for significant accomplishment; for mastery of things, people, or ideas; and for attaining a high standard. (Blair-Broeker/Ernst Thinking About Psychology 3e p. 470)

extrinsic motivation

A desire to perform a behavior because of promised rewards or threats of punishment. (Blair-Broeker/Ernst Thinking About Psychology 3e p. 466)

intrinsic motivation

A desire to perform a behavior for its own sake and to be effective. (Blair-Broeker/Ernst Thinking About Psychology 3e p. 466)

motivation

A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior toward a goal. (Blair-Broeker/Ernst Thinking About Psychology 3e p. 462)

homeostasis

A tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state. (Blair-Broeker/Ernst Thinking About Psychology 3e p. 465)

self-actualization

According to Maslow, an ultimate psychological need that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to realize our full and unique potential. (Blair-Broeker/Ernst Thinking About Psychology 3e pp. 468, 507)

bulimia nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by episodes of overeating—usually of high-calorie foods—followed by vomiting, use of laxatives, fasting, or excessive exercise. (Blair-Broeker/Ernst Thinking About Psychology 3e p. 475)

anorexia nervosa

An eating disorder in which normal-weight people (usually adolescent females) have a distorted self-perception of being "fat," put themselves on self-starvation regimens, and become dangerously underweight (15 percent or more below normal). (Blair-Broeker/Ernst Thinking About Psychology 3e p. 475)

Maslow, Abraham (1908-1970)

Humanistic psychologist who proposed the hierarchy of needs, with self-actualization as one of the ultimate psychological needs. (Blair-Broeker/Ernst Thinking About Psychology 3e pp. 468, 507)

hierarchy of needs

Maslow's pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active. (Blair-Broeker/Ernst Thinking About Psychology 3e p. 468)

Murray, Henry (1893-1988)

Neo-Freudian who first established the concept of achievement motivation and developed important personality testing tools. (Blair-Broeker/Ernst Thinking About Psychology 3e p. 470)

basal metabolic rate

The body's resting rate at which we burn calories for energy. (Blair-Broeker/Ernst Thinking About Psychology 3e p. 473)

drive-reduction theory

The idea that a physiological need creates a state of tension (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need. (Blair-Broeker/Ernst Thinking About Psychology 3e p. 463)

set point

The point at which an individual's "weight thermostat" is supposedly set; when the body falls below this weight, an increase in hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may act to restore the lost weight. (Blair-Broeker/Ernst Thinking About Psychology 3e pp. 473, 649)

Yerkes-Dodson law

The theory that a degree of psychological arousal helps performance, but only to a point. (Blair-Broeker/Ernst Thinking About Psychology 3e p. 464)