Immediately after hatching, loggerhead sea turtles instinctively begin a perilous journey from their sandy nest to the ocean. This behavior is unlearned and innate, compelling them to move forward despite inefficient flippers on hot sand and threats from predators like gulls and ghost crabs. This drive to reach the sea is a critical survival instinct present from the moment of birth.

Innate Behavior: Loggerhead Sea Turtle Hatchling's Journey to the Ocean

Instincts and reflexes are both innate behaviors, but they differ significantly in complexity, scope, and neural control. Reflexes are simple, localized reactions involving primitive brain regions, whereas instincts are complex behavioral patterns that involve the whole organism and are controlled by higher brain centers.

Comparison of Instincts and Reflexes

Several animal behaviors are classic examples of instinct. These include birds constructing nests and migrating seasonally, salmon navigating upstream to their spawning grounds, and spiders weaving complex webs without being taught.

Examples of Instinctive Behaviors

The instinct theory of motivation faced significant criticism. A major point of contention was the lack of consensus among early psychologists, like William James and his contemporaries, on what exactly constituted an instinct, leading to differing lists of proposed instincts. The theory was further challenged by the undeniable role of learning in shaping human behavior. Experiments in the early 1900s, such as Watson's work with "Little Albert," demonstrated that behaviors once considered instinctive could be the result of associative learning.

Criticisms of Instinct Theory of Motivation

From a biological perspective, an instinct is a species-specific, unlearned pattern of behavior. These are complex, innate behaviors often triggered by events like maturation or seasonal changes. Unlike simple reflexes, instincts typically involve the entire organism, such as in migration or mating, and are controlled by higher brain centers.

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Unlearned behaviors are innate actions and responses that an individual is born with. They are not acquired through experience or training and include reflexes and instincts.

Unlearned Behaviors

Key theories and methods related to motivation include:
- Instinct Theory
- Drive Reduction Theory
- Self-Determination Theory (SDT)
- Self-Efficacy
- Social Motives
- Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
- Expectancy-Valence Theories
- Incentive Theory
- Yerkes-Dodson Law
- Temporal Motivation Theory
- Remembered Success Effect
- Procrastination
- Gamification
- Game Based Learning

Theories and Methods of Motivation

Biologically-oriented theories of motivation propose that behavior is driven by innate biological mechanisms. Key examples include theories centered on instincts and the physiological need to maintain the body's internal balance, or homeostasis.

Biologically-Oriented Theories of Motivation

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

A reflex is an innate motor or neural reaction to a specific environmental stimulus. Reflexes are generally simpler than instincts, involving the action of particular body parts or systems, such as the knee-jerk reflex or pupil contraction. They are controlled by more primitive centers of the central nervous system, including the spinal cord and medulla.

Reflexes

Both learned behaviors and innate behaviors, such as instincts and reflexes, are crucial for an organism's adaptation to its environment. The fundamental difference lies in their origin: innate behaviors are genetically predetermined and do not require experience, whereas learned behaviors are acquired through experience, resulting in a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge.

Learned vs. Innate Behaviors as Adaptive Mechanisms

Instinct (Definition)

Which of the following scenarios best illustrates a behavior that is not acquired through experience or training?

A theory of human motivation that posits that the reasons why an individual chooses to participate and exerts effort, are based on self-determined regulations (such as intrinsic motivation). It states there are 3 desires that promote optimal function and growth:
- 1) Autonomy
- 2) Competence
- 3) Relatedness

Self-determination theory (SDT)

People behave based on the value that they perceive doing the behavior has to them. It takes into account expectancy (effort), instrumentality (performance) and valence (value/reward).

Expectancy-Valence Theories

Behavior results from a drive to transform an undesirable state to a desirable one

Drive Reduction Theory

Motivational theory in psychology comprises a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as a hierarchical levels within a pyramid. Needs lower down in the hierarchy must be satisfied before individuals can attend to needs higher up.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Behavior is motivated by an organisms's desire for reinforcements and rewards and that this desire is what governs behavior
- Positive incentives: Increase Pleasure
- Negative Incentives: Remove Pain

Incentive Theory

Motivation leads to action. However, the quality of the action can vary depending on arousal. Arousal (stress, anxiety, stimulation) affects task performance. Task performance increases with level of arousal but only up to a point, at which performance decreases.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

Temporal Motivation Theory (TMT) explains the behavior of procrastination by providing a quasi-mathematical framework, by examining the underlying behavioral components that contribute to (or combat) procrastination. The five components are:
- Value: the tangible and intangible rewards that an individual would receive from completing a task.
- Expectancy: the individual's belief and self-confidence in completing said task.
- Delay: the the period of time an individual needs to wait before receiving the reward from completing said task.
- Sensitivity to delay: the willingness of an individual to tolerate longer delays.
- Utility: the likeness for the individual to perform said task.

Temporal Motivation Theory

This effect pertains to how students' memories and evaluation of prior challenging experiences impact their motivation to engage with similar challenging experiences in the future. Research has shown that after taking both a longer and shorter difficult math test, students prefer and will choose to repeat the longer test if it included a number of only moderately difficult problems that students could answer successfully. This pattern of preferences is known as the "remembered success effect".

Remembered Success Effect

Pulling from the Latin roots "*pro*" (meaning forward, forth, in favor of) and "*crastinus*" (of tomorrow), procrastination is an irrational, but voluntary decision to delay an intended behavior or task.
- *Irrationality* is defined as "... choosing course of action[,] despite expecting that it will not maximize your utilities..."
- *Intended* is defined as something that one wants to interact with; the avoidance of random or irrelevant tasks would not be considered procrastination.

Procrastination

- A method of learning where students are motivated to learn while playing a game.
   - I.e., playing a game for learning.

Game Based Learning

Self-efficacy is an individual’s subjective perception of his or her capability to perform in a given setting or to attain desired results, proposed by Albert Bandura as a primary determinant of emotional and motivational states and behavioral change.

Self-Efficacy

Social motives are a category of motivational theories which propose that behavior is driven by social needs, such as the need for affiliation, achievement, and power within a group context.

Social Motives as a Theory of Motivation

A technology company introduces a high-stakes reward system for its programmers to increase their output. Programmers earn significant bonuses for the number of coding tasks completed each week. While the quantity of completed tasks increases, management observes a sharp decline in the creativity and quality of the code, along with a rise in employee-reported stress. Which of the following principles provides the most direct explanation for this decline in performance quality?

Motivational theories can be categorized based on their primary focus. These categories include biologically-oriented theories that address instincts and homeostasis, cognitive approaches such as Bandura's concept of self-efficacy, theories centered on social motives, and hierarchical models like Maslow's hierarchy of needs which organizes various motives.

Classification of Motivational Theories

Homeostasis is the tendency of a biological system to maintain a stable and balanced internal environment, or an optimal level of functioning.

Homeostasis (Definition)

According to drive theory, behavior is motivated by the need to maintain homeostasis. When a biological system deviates from its optimal balance, a physiological need arises. This need creates a psychological drive state that compels an organism to act in a way that satisfies the need and restores homeostasis. Furthermore, the theory suggests that when a particular behavior successfully reduces a drive, it is more likely to be repeated in the future, thus forming a habit.

Drive Theory of Motivation

A person trains for months to climb a dangerous mountain, a goal that involves significant physical discomfort, risk, and does not satisfy an immediate biological need like hunger or thirst. How would the foundational drive theory of motivation, which is based on maintaining a stable internal state, account for this behavior?

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