Theories of Motivation Application

Motivations are feelings or ideas that cause us to act toward a goal. There are four basic theories of motivation: instinct (evolutionary) theory, drive-reduction theory, arousal theory, and incentive theory. Instinct theory refers to Darwin's influence that our genes incline us to act in ways that increases our change of survival. In other words, we behave a certain way because of our genetic composition. For example, whenever I'm in the car with my mom and …

…film wouldn't arousal me at all. The last theory of motivation is the incentive theory, which states that we are motivated with reward and punishment. For example, when I went to Parker Jr. High to talk with six graders about the effects of smoking, the kids were only interested with our presentation if we were to give them candy, otherwise they wouldn't be attentive. They were only motivated when they received rewards, such as candy.