Motivation: Biological, Psychological, and Environmental

Part I on introduction and history defines what motivation and emotion are and how these concepts are studied. Ideas about the motivation and emotion have been around for a couple of thousand years. These ideas include hedonism, the unconscious, the link between motives and incentives, and why people are motivated differently. Part II takes the view that the body and mind resemble a machine that is motivated to maintain its existence. How the body and mind evolved determines what enhances motivation but also what is detrimental to motivation. Part III covers the psychological aspects of motivation. Differences in psychological needs explain why people are pushed in different directions while differences in personality traits accounts for why people are motivated by different incentives. Part IV examines how the environment is a large source of motivation. People are motivated to achieve positive environmental outcomes and avoid negative ones. Part V treats emotions as motives. An emotion pushes a person into action in order to satisfy the aim of the emotion, such as the aim of fear is to motivate a search for safety. Demonstrate the relevance of understanding motivation. Cutting-edge fields- such as evolutionary psychology and behavioral genetics and their relationship to motivation- are explored. Detailed discussions address the cost of satisfying motives and achieving goals. Uses examples from students' everyday lives so that they are able to relate to the material.