Evolutionary Psychology And Motivation

Recent media coverage of the controversial theory of sexual violence as a product of biological evolution has once again brought the question of the origins of human motivation into the public eye. In this volume, leading scholars in behavioral studies examine the value of evolutionary perspectives in understanding psychological motivations. Beginning with the fundamental fact that humans are part of the biological world, evolutionary psychologists contend that human motivations and mental processes should be understood as by-products of natural selection. By viewing human psychology?both normal and abnormal?within this framework, evolutionary psychologists intend to bridge the disciplinary divide between traditional psychology and fields such as biology.

Recent media coverage of the controversial theory of sexual violence as a product of biological evolution has once again brought the question of the origins of human motivation into the public eye. In this volume, leading scholars in behavioral studies examine the value of evolutionary perspectives in understanding psychological motivations. Beginning with the fundamental fact that humans are part of the biological world, evolutionary psychologists contend that human motivations and mental processes should be understood as by-products of natural selection. By viewing human psychology--both normal and abnormal--within this framework, evolutionary psychologists intend to bridge the disciplinary divide between traditional psychology and fields such as biology.

This unique book provides a comprehensive study of emotion within a modern evolutionary perspective. Motivation and emotion are presented within an integrated approach that assumes biological and psychological causes, including evolution, neuroscience, endocrinology, human development, and culture. Motivation and Emotion Presents a wealth of modern evidence integrating neuroscience and endocrinology into the study of motivation and emotion. The book provides a variety of photographs of facial expressions showing emotions from people of diverse cultures as well as nonhuman primates. It also discusses modern interactive explanations for specific behaviors, rather than dull, historical perspectives. For example, human affect is explained as a response to social events and stress, resulting in psychophysiological consequences. An essential reference for any professional in sociology or psychology.

Human beings are an intrinsically gregarious species - our personal relationships are of immense interest to us and are a key factor in achieving happiness and well being. From the moment of birth, humans crave love and intimacy and we devote much energy to creating and maintaining successful personal relationships throughout our personal and our working lives. However, modern industrialized societies present a particularly challenging environment for sustaining rewarding personal relationships. Understanding how people initiate, develop, maintain, and terminate relationships is one of the core issues in psychology, and the subject matter of this book. Contributors to this volume are all leading researchers in relationship science, and they seek here to explore and integrate the subtle influence that evolutionary, socio-cultural, and intra-psychic (cognitive, affective and motivational) variables play in relationship processes. In addition to discussing the latest advances in areas of relationship research, they also advocate an expanded theoretical approach that incorporates many of the insights gained from evolutionary psychology, social cognition, and research on affect and motivation. The contributions should be highly relevant to researchers, teachers, students, laypersons and to everyone who is interested in the subtleties of human relationships. The book is also highly recommended to clinical, health, and relationship professionals who deal with relationship issues in their daily work.

This book provides a complete overview of motivation and emotion. Well-grounded in the history of the field, the fourth edition of Motivation: Biological, Psychological, and Environmental combines classic studies with current research. The text provides an overarching organizational scheme of how motivation (the inducement of action, feelings, and thought) leads to behavior from physiological, psychological, and environmental sources. The material draws on topics that are familiar to students while maintaining a conversational tone to sustain student interest.

The science of getting started: from complete apathy to full sprint. Stop saying “I’ll do that later...” Humans, at our best, seek to take the path of least resistance. Often, this results in doing nothing at all. And it feels great. But we need to be able to switch to another gear. And you’ll learn how here. Understand the psychology of motivation (and procrastination) and how to take advantage of it. Motivation Triggers is an insightful look at motivation: how it works, and how you can interrupt our inclination to be lazy and procrastinate. You’ll learn to attack motivation from both a physical and psychological perspective. This book will teach you how to give your brain what it wants... while lighting a fire under you and pushing you to reach your goals. Learn to trigger motivation and action on command. Patrick King is an internationally bestselling author and social skills coach. His writing draws of a variety of sources, from scientific research, academic experience, coaching, and real life experience. He transformed himself from a lazy, apathetic person into someone with nearly endless motivation - this book understands your struggles. Transform your thinking and multiply your results, no matter how lazy you are. •The scientific and biological foundations of motivations. •The science of how to get started and find momentum. •How to plan yourself out of apathy and into action. •An overview of the types of motivation: extrinsic, intrinsic, instinctual, drives, cognitive needs, bribes, etc.

Motivation is that which moves us to action. Human motivation is thus a complex issue, as people are moved to action by both their evolved natures and by myriad familial, social and cultural influences. The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation collects the top theorists and researchers of human motivation into a single volume, capturing the current state-of-the-art in this fast developing field. The book includes theoretical overviews from some of the best-known thinkers in this area, including chapters on Social Learning Theory, Control Theory, Self-determination theory, Terror Management theory, and the Promotion and Prevention perspective. Topical chapters appear on phenomena such as ego-depletion, flow, curiosity, implicit motives, and personal interests. A section specifically highlights goal research, including chapters on goal regulation, achievement goals, the dynamics of choice, unconscious goals and process versus outcome focus. Still other chapters focus on evolutionary and biological underpinnings of motivation, including chapters on cardiovascular dynamics, mood, and neuropsychology. Finally, chapters bring motivation down to earth in reviewing its impact within relationships, and in applied areas such as psychotherapy, work, education, sport, and physical activity. By providing reviews of the most advanced work by the very best scholars in this field, The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation represents an invaluable resource for both researchers and practitioners, as well as any student of human nature.

Integrating control theory, evolutionary psychology, and a hierarchical approach to personality, this book presents a new approach to motivation, personality, and consumer behavior. Called the 3M, which stands for `Meta-theoretic Model of Motivation', this theory seeks to account for how personality traits interact with the situation to influence consumer attitudes and actions. The book proposes that multiple personality traits combine to form a motivational network that acts to influence behavior. Mowen argues that in order to understand the causes of enduring behavioral tendencies, one must identify the more abstract traits underlying surface behaviors. In constructing the 3M model, the author reports data from fifteen empirical studies employing over 3500 respondents. In this hierarchical model, four types of personality traits are identified: elemental, compound, situational, and surface traits. Eight elemental traits are proposed as forming the underlying dimensions of personality. Consistent with control theory, the research reveals that the elemental traits combine to form compound traits, such as self-efficacy, task orientation, playfulness, and competitiveness. These elemental and compound traits combine with situational influences to cause enduring behavioral tendencies within general situational contexts. Examples of situational traits investigated include impulsive buying, value consciousness, sports interest, and health motivation. In the 3M model the elemental, compound, and situational traits combine to yield surface traits, which are enduring dispositions to act in specific behavioral contexts. Five surface traits are empirically investigated in the book: compulsive buying, sports participation, healthy diet lifestyles, proneness to bargaining, and a tendency to frugality. Across these five studies, the empirical results reveal that the 3M model accounts for over 44% of the variance in the surface trait measures. By presenting a new meta-theory of motivation and personality that is testable, Mowen's 3M model accounts for high levels of variance in consumer behavior. By integrating the work of selected past and current theorists into a comprehensible whole, the 3M model provides coherence in a field currently dominated by conflicting ideas, theories, and approaches. The book provides evidence that by understanding the individual dispositions that underlie consumer behavior, public policy officials and marketing specialists can develop better communication programs to influence and persuade their target audiences. The book shows how to employ the 3M model to segment the marketplace, provide psychographic inventories, position brands, create promotional themes, and develop brand personalities.