Drive Reduction Theory

10 Key excerpts on "Drive Reduction Theory"

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  What is Psychology?

  Foundations, Applications, and Integration

  • Ellen Pastorino, Susann Doyle-Portillo, Ellen Pastorino(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  According to the drive reduction approach, motivation stems from the desire to reduce an uncomfortable, internal state, called a drive, that results when our needs are not fulfilled (Hull, 1943). For instance, when we do not have enough food in our system, we feel the uncomfortable state of hunger, which drives us to eat until we have taken in the food that our bodies require. Then, when we have taken in motive a tendency to desire and seek out positive incentives or rewards and to avoid negative outcomes instincts innate impulses from within a person that direct or motivate behavior drive reduction theories theories of motivation that propose that people seek to reduce internal levels of drive drive an uncomfortable internal state that motivates us to reduce this discomfort through our behavior Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Theories of Motivation 179 enough food, the hunger drive dissipates, and we stop eating. In this fashion, our drives can help us survive by creating what psychologists call a drive state, which ensures that we will be motivated to meet our biological needs. Primary drives, such as needing food, water, and warmth, motivate us to maintain certain bodily processes at an internal state of equilibrium, or homeo- stasis. Obviously, it would be desirable for us to take in just the right amount of food and water, to sleep just enough, and to maintain our body temperature at 98.6 degrees. Without the motivation from drives, we would not keep our bodies at homeostasis because we would not know when to eat, sleep, drink, and so on.

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  Psychology

  • Ronald Comer, Elizabeth Gould, Adrian Furnham(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Conversely, some individuals avoid experi- ences that others find rewarding and pleasurable. Catholic priests and nuns, for example, forgo marriage and bio- logical parenthood to fulfil their obligations to their church. Clearly, these behaviours are not driven by instincts. We need other explanations to explain these more complex human motivations. Drive-Reduction Theory Drive-reduction theory also tries to explain motivation on the basis of internal biological factors. This theory is based on the concept of homeostasis , which is the body’s tendency to maintain itself in a state of balance, or equilibrium (Figure 13.1). When an external factor alters the state of balance in the organ- ism, a motivation arises to correct that balance (Stricker & Zigmond, 1986). A simple example of this can be seen in the response of the body to heat, which is called ther- moregulation. When the temperature rises, your body per- spires and you lose water. The perspiration evaporates and cools the surface of the skin, helping to maintain the tem- perature balance in the body. In addition, you may feel homeostasis a tendency of the body to maintain itself in a state of balance, or equilibrium. motivated to remove layers of clothing or get a cool drink to return to an ideal body temperature. Many of the major organs of the body (e.g. the liver and the kidneys) are designed to help maintain homeostasis by absorbing substances into the blood (like iron, sugar, fats) and disposing of wastes (like urea). When these organs fail, diseases like diabetes and problems like hypo/hypergly- caemia occur. Most of us know the simple principle of energy balance. If we eat too much and exercise too little, we get fat; or eat too little and exercise too much we get (too) thin. Body weight is a function of the energy homeostatic system. Drive-reduction theory works well to explain behaviours related to biological needs, such as cooling off when we are too hot.

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  21st Century Psychology: A Reference Handbook

  • Stephen F. Davis, William Buskist, Stephen F. Davis, William F. Buskist(Authors)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  Theoretical Perspectives on Motivation One of the oldest perspectives, drive theory , proposes the existence of internal motivational states called drives that result from some physiological need. Consequently, drive theory is most relevant to the biologically related motives such as hunger and thirst. Drive-reduction theory proposes that drives direct our behavior to reduce an exist-ing state of physiological imbalance (which results from a state of deprivation) and return us to a more balanced state of homeostasis . From a behavioral standpoint, behaviors that lead to drive reduction are therefore reinforced and are more likely to occur again. Optimum-level theories feature an opposite approach and propose that organisms are motivated not by drive reduction but by a desire to maintain some optimum level of arousal. This optimum level of arousal varies from individual to individual, thus accounting for the variability we see in human and animal behavior. One classic example of this approach is seen in research on sensation seeking, which is used to account for a wide range of behaviors: food preferences, gambling, drug and alcohol use, sexual behavior, occupations, and interests in sky diving and race car driving (Flory, Lynam, Milich, Leukefeld, & Clayton, 2004; McDaniel & Zuckerman, 2003; Zuckerman, 1994). Perspectives on motivation also include cognitive con-sistency theories , which propose that we are motivated by a desire to maintain a state in which our thoughts and Motivation and Emotion • 423 actions are consistent, a form of what might be termed psy-chological homeostasis. When thoughts and behaviors are inconsistent we experience cognitive dissonance, and we are motivated to reduce it by altering our thinking about the behaviors that are causing the cognitive dissonance. For example, a person who smokes may find this behavior incompatible with information on the dangers of smok-ing, thus creating cognitive dissonance.

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  Test File to Accompany Essentials of Psychology

  • Sarah Rundle(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  This suggests that a. the hunger drive is never really satisfied. *b. incentives can affect behavior in the absence of need. (pp. 223-224). c. hunger is determined primarily by external stimuli. d. tissue needs are for specific foods. 20. Objects or events in the environment that motivate an organism in the absence of any known physiological need state are called a. drive-reduction elements. *c. incentives, (p. 2241 b. external motivators. d. primary reinforcers. 21. Incentive theory emphasizes the importance of *a. objects or events in the environment that motivate organisms by attraction or pull. (pp. 223-2241 b. the need-reduction potential of an object or event. c. specific incentives for specific drives. d. internal states that are independent of physiological states. 22. Drives ; incentives . a. motivate; satisfy *c. push; pull (pp. 223-224), b. satisfy; motivate d. pull; push 23. Incentives are a. internal stimuli. *b. objects or events in the environment, (p. 224) c. substances that reduce tissue needs. d. not attractive unless a need state exists. 24. For most children candy is a(n) because they will work for it even if they aren't hungry. a. drive reducer c. psychological need *b. incentive (p. 2241 d. secondary need Optimal-Level-of-Arousal-Theory 25. Optimal-level-of-arousal theorists objected to drive theory because a. drive theory emphasized internal states and ignored external stimuli as factors in motivation. *b. drive theorists assumed that organisms are motivated exclusively to reduce arousal level, (p. 2241 c. drive theorists were more concerned with how behavior is directed than how it is initiated. d. drive theorists thought of arousal as an all-or-none state. 26. Monkeys will work to get a peek at what's going on in a lab and humans will pay to ride a roller coaster. These behaviors are best explained by a. drive theory *c. level-of-arousal theory, (pp. 224-225), b.

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  Psychology

  • Douglas Bernstein, , , (Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Drive reduction Behavior is guided by biological needs and learned ways of reducing drives that arise from those needs. Arousal People seek to maintain an optimal level of physio-logical arousal, which differs from person to person. Maximum performance occurs at optimal arousal levels. Incentive Behavior is guided by the lure of rewards and the threat of punishment. Cognitive factors influence expectations of the value of various rewards and the likelihood of attaining them. Types of Motivation Type Examples Intrinsic Doing things for the sake of enjoyment, satisfying curiosity, or feeling competent or independent Extrinsic Doing things to get money, prizes, or other external rewards In Review Questions 1. The fact that some people like roller coasters and other scary amusement park rides has been cited as evidence for the _ theory of motivation. 2. Evolutionary theories of motivation are modern outgrowths of theories based on _ . 3. The value of incentives can be affected by _ , _ , and _ factors. Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 336 Motivation and Emotion HUNGER AND EATING What makes me start eating and stop eating? At first glance, eating seems to be a simple example of homeostasis and Drive Reduction Theory at work. You’re motivated to eat when you get hungry. Much as a car needs gaso-line, you need fuel from food, so you eat.

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  Psychological Foundations of Education

  Learning and Teaching

  • B. Claude Mathis, John W. Cotton, Lee Sechrest(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  With further deprivation, the manipulating drive is reinstated. 374 Motivation and Learning Theory 375 ( Drive is a tendency to perform a class of related acts such as manipula-tion, or eating, or drinking without special training. The strength of a drive depends on the degree of deprivation.) No bodily need is con-sistently diminished by manipulating these objects, so far as is known. It seems evident, then, that motivations include more than the effects of need. This is not to say that a manipulatory drive is not useful; it may sometimes help a chimpanzee to escape from his cage and thus, indirectly, to obtain food. But the indirectness of physiological significance makes it a general drive in Morgan and King's terminology (99), rather than a physiological drive like hunger. What is a drive? Is it the motivated behavior itself? Or is it some characteristic of the body inferred to be present because of the motivated behavior? The latter is usually judged the better answer. One early attempt to pin this concept down was the heal theory of hunger and thirst. According to Cannon (23) who postulated this theory, hunger consisted of the sensory impulses present during contraction of the empty stomach. This conclusion was largely supported by a study by Cannon and Washburn (24) in which they measured pressure changes within the stomach. The method of measurement is fascinating enough to be discussed in some detail. Washburn first accustomed himself to the presence of a rubber tube in his esophagus. Almost every day for several weeks he inserted the tube through his mouth, down the esophagus, and into the stomach, keeping it there for 2 or 3 hours at a time. With a rubber balloon con-nected to the lower end of the tube before insertion, Washburn was able to use the balloon to measure stomach contractions.

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  Essentials of Psychology

  • John P. Houston, Helen Bee, David C. Rimm(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  Beginning in the 1920s, the concept of drive came to dominate the field of motivation for several decades. Animals were thought of as being pushed into behavior by internal drives that arise in connection with physiological tissue needs (Bolles, 1975; Logan & Gordon, 1981; Hull, 1951;Sahakian, 1976). Approaches to motivation 223 You may be wondering why we try to distinguish between needs and drives if they increase together. The answer is that they only increase to-gether up to a point. If the need becomes too great, then drive cannot continue to increase. As Figure 1 shows, if we are too hungry we may reach the point where our drive begins to decrease. We become too weak to eat. When we are starving, our need is very high (the body desperately needs fuel) but our drive level is low (we become listless and exhausted rather than active and aroused). In other words, the need can continue to increase but the drive does not Drive theory has faced severe criticism over the years. It soon became apparent that we would have to invent a whole catalog of drives to ac-count for all the motivated behaviors we observe. It is easy to think of a hunger drive and a thirst drive because these are related to known needs of the body. But what about such varied human interests as success, being with others, exploring, reading, wandering about department stores, chewing pencils, and cracking the backs of new books? To invent a drive for each and every motivated human behavior would be ridiculous and impossible. How could we ever identify the tissue need corresponding to a space-exploration drive or a stamp-collecting drive? As a result of this flaw in drive theory, many alternative conceptions of motivation have arisen. No doubt some behavior is motivated by drives associated with physiological need states, but many behaviors are better understood in other ways.

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  Personality as an Affect-processing System

  Toward An Integrative Theory

  • Jack Block(Author)
  • 2002(Publication Date)
  • Psychology Press

    (Publisher)

  As noted earlier, research at the animal level where anxiety has been conceptualized as a drive can be viewed as supportive of the presently posited relation. Although there has been much dispute in the journals regarding the appropriateness of the drive concept, my point is simply that evidence is widespread that organisms, when manipulated so that their ordinary motivations (drives) are not realized by the achievement of goals (i.e., drive-reduction), subsequently manifest an agitation of behavior from which it seems reasonable to infer a latent variable such as anxiety. Essentially, the evidence to be mustered here is the nature of the behavioral effects of prolonged deprivations or drive containment.

  Although previous clinical theory and findings from empirical research are supportive, it is at the level of subjective experience that the argument for the proposed relation must prove telling. Is it reasonable to assert that drive unresolved precipitates that feeling known as anxiety?

  Drive, as I have defined it, is an internal behavioral directive that ordinarily helps activate actual behavior. It must be dealt with by the personality system when it is present. It is there and by posit, if not dealt with immediately in some way or another, it will be incremented or intensified and persist into succeeding psychological moments. If drive increases, and by the nature of the circumstances no means of coping with the unreduced drive is permitted, the welling up of drive will cause anxiety to be experienced.

  With respect to drives for which physiological origin can be readily seen, the relation appears to easily hold. As already noted, the sudden unavailability of oxygen will certainly cause panic; thirst will drive men mad; prolonged hunger breeds something reasonably entitled to the anxiety label, at least until certain psychological and physiological mechanisms come into play to dampen its intensity and create an apathy.

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  R. S. Peters on Education and Ethics

  • R.S. Peters, R. S. Peters(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  126 THE CONCEPT OF MOTIVATION motive but a description of it. It becomes explanatory when a theory emerges about the deficit states in the body restored by drinking. A theory of 'needs' which related such deficit states to variations in vigour and persistence of drinking would thus state necessary conditions of motivated behaviour, and hence help to explain it. The concept of 'needs' as used in this second sort of explanatory theory also involves reference to some kind of norm like that of homeostasis or survivall. The deficit states are regarded as injurious to the organisnj' which involves some reference to a normal or healthy state. In the case of Hull's need-reduction theory it is quite clear that he assumed a Darwinian theory of survival interpreted in terms of Cannon's homeostasis. As Koch (1956) has so aptly put it: 'there was a time not too many years ago when a direct pipe-line extended between Cannon's stomach balloon and the entire domain of motivational psychology'. And Hull also assumed that both the acquisition of habits and performance could be, in part, explained by means of 'need-reduction' con-ceived of in terms of this model. Enough has been said to cast doubt on the applicability of homeostasis as an over-all principle. Some phenomena, including motiva-tional ones, may be explained by reference to it; but the trend nowadays is to reject the assumption that it is relevant to all motivational phenomena. Harlow (1953) for instance, in his celebrated paper on Mice, Monkeys, Men and Motives, explicitly attacked 1 See, for instance, Olds' definition of need as 'the absence of some-thing which if pereisknt will terminate the life or health of the organism'. (Olds, 1955.) DRIVE THEORIES 127 the assumption that homeostatic types of explanation were relevant to all types of learning. The reference to survival as an over-all assumption does not help much either.

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  Human Motivation

  • Bernard Weiner(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Psychology Press

    (Publisher)

  Investigators making use of the obstruction box varied the strength of the “drive to action,” which was considered to be a function of the number of hours of deprivation, and the strength of “resistance,” which, in turn, was a function of the magnitude of shock. The general findings were that there is a monotonic relationship between deprivation and the likelihood of crossing the goal and that with greater deprivation the animals were willing to endure higher levels of shock to reach the food. The broad implication of this work was that investigators believed drive could be measured with some precision.

  Hull's Conception of Drive

  Guided by the empirical evidence reviewed above, Hull (1943) suggested that physiological deficits, or needs, instigate the organism to undertake behaviors that result in the offset of those needs. Drives, therefore, are a motivational characteristic or property of need states. They result from physiological disequilibrium and instigate behaviors that return the organism to a state of equilibrium. In sum, needs generate the energy that is required for survival. Hull (1943) summarized his position as follows:

  … Since a need, either actual or potential, usually precedes and accompanies the action of an organism, the need is often said to motivate or drive the associated activity. Because of this motivational characteristic of needs they are regarded as producing primary animal drives…. The major primary needs … include the need for foods of various sorts (hunger), the need for water (thirst), the need for air, the need to avoid tissue injury (pain), the need to maintain an optimal temperature, the need to defecate, the need to micturate, the need for rest (after protracted exertion), the need for sleep (after protracted wakefulness), and the need for activity (after protracted inaction). (pp. 57, 59–60)

  Hull’s conception of the relationship between need and drive was:

  antecedent operation (e.g., deprivation, shock)

  In adopting this position, Hull was greatly influenced by Darwin’s notion of the survival relevance of action. Just as it is survival relevant to become active when in a state of need, it also is debilitating for an organism to search for food if satiated. That is, it is adaptive for behavior to occur if, and only if, a need exists that is not satisfied.

  In addition, Hull specified that drive is a nonspecific energizer of behavior. All drives pool into one, and this aggregate drive energizes the organism. Hull (1943)

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