Ch 5: The motive perspective Flashcards
Underlying Assumption to Human Behaviour
- human behaviour is best understood as a reflection of underlying needs
- individual differences in needs may explain people’s behaviours
What is a Need?
-lack of something necessary for well-being
Internal directional force
- the lack of something necessary can motivate us
- this force determines how we seek/respond to environment
Positive needs
approach
Negative needs
avoidance
Primary needs
based on biological nature
- food, sleep, water
- must be satisfied repeatedly over time
Secondary needs
psychological based
-power, achievement, affiliation
Needs & behaviour
- the stronger the need, the more intense the action
- helps set priorities
- needs result in and work through motives
- people have multiple needs & motives
Basic Elements: Motives
- influenced by underlying needs
- close to behaviour
- when motives are strong they influence behaviour strongly
Press (pressure)
- an external force that influences motives, creates desire or avoidance of something beyond need
ex: peers (marriage/children —-> motive for relationship)
Needs & Press
needs might fuse: gain both achievement & affiliation at work
- needs might serve eachother: order & achievement
- needs might in conflict: autonomy & affiliation (ex teenagers)
Motive States
-motives vary across time & situations(states)
Motive Dispositions
- ppl generally have different levels of needs (dispositions) which influence behaviour
- some ppl naturally have more of a given need than others
- helps from a picture of personality
Motive Strengths:
shift depending on need being satisfied; resulting in different behaviours
Murray’s System of Needs (1938)
- emphasizes universal basic needs
- focuses on secondary psych needs
- generated lists of needs that underlie personality
Dispositional Tendencies (Murray’s system of needs 1938)
- recognizes differing dispositional need levels among people; leads to uniqueness of personality
- everyone has some basic needs; but have dispositional tendencies toward a particular level of that need