What Pushes and Pulls Behavior
Motivation refers to the processes that initiate, direct, and sustain behavior toward a goal. Early explanations leaned heavily on instinct theory, treating much behavior as driven by fixed, innate patterns — but this approach struggled to explain the sheer flexibility and variety of human behavior, and largely fell out of favor as a general account.
Drive-reduction theory (Clark Hull) offered a more dynamic alternative: a physiological need (such as low blood sugar) creates an aroused psychological state called a drive (hunger), which motivates behavior aimed at reducing that drive and restoring the body's baseline balance, or homeostasis. Under this model, satisfying a drive is inherently rewarding because it relieves an uncomfortable state of arousal — motivation is fundamentally a PUSH from within.
| Concept | Role |
|---|---|
| Physiological need | The underlying biological deficit (e.g. low blood sugar) |
| Drive | The resulting aroused psychological state (e.g. hunger) |
| Homeostasis | The stable baseline the organism is motivated to restore |
Drive-reduction theory explains a great deal of behavior focused on genuine physiological needs, but it struggles with behaviors that seem to seek OUT stimulation rather than reduce it — trying a new food when not hungry, seeking a thrill, or pursuing a hobby with no biological deficit behind it. Incentive theory addresses this gap by emphasizing external stimuli that PULL behavior toward them because of their anticipated rewards, rather than purely internal states pushing behavior away from discomfort. Most contemporary accounts of motivation treat drive-reduction (internal push) and incentive (external pull) as complementary, not competing, explanations — different behaviors, and often the same behavior at different moments, draw on both.
Common pitfall: treating drive-reduction theory as a complete account of all motivated behavior. It explains behaviors clearly tied to restoring a physiological deficit reasonably well, but struggles with sensation-seeking, curiosity, and reward-pursuit behaviors that are not obviously reducing any biological deficit at all — which is exactly the gap incentive theory was proposed to fill.