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Motivation and Behavior

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Motivation and Behavior
Motivation and Behavior
Robert White
University of Phoenix
PSY/355
Instructor: Dr. Kimberly Armstead
03 December 2012

Motivation and Behavior Motivation refers to the process that drives an organism to behave the way it does. Simply put motivation causes an organism to eat, sleep, and drink and individuals to participate in the activities they find satisfying. Motivation can separate people into two categories optimist and pessimist. Optimists are those looking for the good in situations and pessimists finding the bad. Motivational sources can be described as extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic is the motivation that comes from outside of the individual. Intrinsic is the motivation of an individual that comes from within. Motivation affects an organism’s behavior. Dr. Whitbourne describes six theories in here article from psychology today; instinct, drive reduction, arousal, incentive, cognitive and self-determination.
Motivation
As defined by psychology.about.com, motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is the psychological process that tells humans what to do. A motivation causes humans and other species to drink, eat, play, sleep and reproduce. Without motivation there would be no reason for accomplishing anything. Within the motivation process there are different factors with each individual. Motivation can come in the form of positive motivation and negative motivation. These motivating factors eventually lead to an emotional state within the individual.
Generally motivation creates to type of individuals that society recognizes and relates with; optimist and pessimist. Optimistic is disposed to take a favorable view of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome, (“Optimistic,”2012). These are the individuals who tend to have a positive outlook on life. In most cases these individuals are look for the good in every situation. From dictionary.com, pessimistic

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