# Motivation and Drive-Reduction Theory

Psychology I · Learning and Emotion · https://tryals.app/learn/psychology-i/motivation-and-drive-reduction-theory

## What Pushes Behavior

**Motivation** is the set of processes that initiate, direct, and sustain behavior toward a goal. Early **instinct theory** viewed behavior as driven by fixed, innate patterns, but failed to account for human flexibility.

**Drive-reduction theory** (Clark Hull) proposed a dynamic alternative: a physiological need creates an aroused psychological state called a **drive**, motivating behavior to reduce it and restore **homeostasis**.

| Concept | Role |
|---|---|
| Physiological need | The biological deficit (e.g. low blood sugar) |
| Drive | The aroused psychological state (e.g. hunger) |
| Homeostasis | The stable baseline to restore |

Here, motivation is fundamentally a PUSH from within.

## Pushes and Pulls

Drive-reduction theory explains behavior tied to physiological needs, but struggles with behaviors that seek stimulation without any biological deficit.

**Incentive theory** addresses this by emphasizing external stimuli that PULL behavior toward them for their anticipated rewards. Contemporary accounts treat drive-reduction (internal push) and incentive (external pull) as complementary.

> **Common pitfall:** treating drive-reduction theory as a complete account of all motivation. It fails to explain sensation-seeking, curiosity, and reward-pursuit behaviors that do not reduce a biological deficit, which is why incentive theory is necessary.

## Practice questions

6 of this lesson's 12 practice questions, with answers. The full set is in the app.

### 1. Sort each element as belonging to the drive-reduction sequence or NOT part of it.

**Answer:**

- Part of drive-reduction: Physiological need, Drive (aroused psychological state), Homeostasis restoration
- Not part of drive-reduction: An external incentive with no underlying deficit, Pure thrill-seeking for its own sake

**Why:** Need, drive, and homeostasis restoration form the drive-reduction cycle; external incentives and thrill-seeking - which involve no deficit - fall outside it and motivate the incentive-theory alternative. The dividing line is whether a physiological deficit is being corrected.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/motivation-and-drive-reduction-theory/sort-each-element-as-belonging-to-the-drive-reduction-sequence-or-not

### 2. Select every statement that is TRUE about motivation.

A. Instinct theory struggled to explain the flexibility of human behavior.
B. A drive is the aroused psychological state produced by a physiological need.
C. Incentive theory emphasizes external stimuli that pull behavior.
D. Wanting to know how a story ends can be traced to a bodily deficit being corrected.
E. Homeostasis is the stable baseline the organism seeks to restore.

**Answer:** A. Instinct theory struggled to explain the flexibility of human behavior.; B. A drive is the aroused psychological state produced by a physiological need.; C. Incentive theory emphasizes external stimuli that pull behavior.; E. Homeostasis is the stable baseline the organism seeks to restore.

**Why:** The drive-need relation, homeostasis, incentive theory's external pull, and instinct theory's limits are all true. Drive-reduction does NOT fully explain curiosity and thrill-seeking - the very behaviors incentive theory was proposed to cover.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/motivation-and-drive-reduction-theory/select-every-statement-that-is-true-about-motivation

### 3. Children who enjoy drawing are paid to draw. When payment stops, they draw **less** than children who were never paid. What has the reward done?

A. Taught them that drawing is difficult and deserves compensation
B. Nothing, the decline is regression to the mean rather than an effect of reward
C. Exhausted their interest through overexposure to the activity
D. Replaced the internal reason with an external one

**Answer:** D. Replaced the internal reason with an external one

**Why:** The overjustification effect: an external reward overwrites the internal one, and withdrawing it leaves nothing behind. Reinforcement is not universally helpful, where motivation already exists, paying for it can be the thing that destroys it, which is a genuine problem for incentive schemes in schools and workplaces.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/motivation-and-drive-reduction-theory/children-who-enjoy-drawing-are-paid-to-draw-when-payment-stops-they

### 4. Order one evening's events as drive-reduction theory describes them, from the bodily change to the return to baseline.

**Answer:**

1. Her blood glucose falls below its set point, though she has not yet noticed feeling hungry.
2. The deficit registers as an aroused, uncomfortable state.
3. She feels restless and preoccupied, and cannot settle to anything until she eats.
4. She eats, and the deficit is corrected.
5. The restlessness fades and her internal state returns to its steady baseline.

**Why:** The sequence separates two words that are used interchangeably in ordinary speech and mean different things here. The need is the physiological deficit - glucose below its set point - and it exists whether or not she notices. The drive is the aroused psychological state the deficit produces, and it is what she actually experiences as restlessness. Behaviour is directed by the drive, and the drive is caused by the need.

The last step is what the theory says everything is for: homeostasis restored, tension reduced, the organism back at baseline.

Which also shows exactly where the theory runs out. Follow this chain and every behaviour should terminate in a return to equilibrium - so the same person, entirely satisfied, choosing later that evening to watch something frightening or to walk somewhere new, is doing something this sequence has no room for.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/motivation-and-drive-reduction-theory/order-one-evenings-events-as-drive-reduction-theory-describes-them

### 5. Drive-reduction theory holds that behaviour serves to restore homeostasis. Why do curiosity and thrill-seeking count as evidence against it rather than as behaviours it has yet to explain?

A. Because they raise arousal from a satisfied state, not lower it.
B. Because curiosity and thrill-seeking are learned rather than biological, and drive-reduction covers only biological drives.
C. Because these behaviours are rare, and a theory of motivation need only account for common behaviour.
D. Because they are actually driven by an information drive, which the theory failed to include in its list.

**Answer:** A. Because they raise arousal from a satisfied state, not lower it.

**Why:** A theory has a gap when a behaviour falls outside it and a refutation when a behaviour runs the way it says nothing can, and a well-fed, safe person seeking a frightening ride is deliberately leaving equilibrium with no deficit in sight. Arousal theory kept the useful part by making the target an optimum rather than a minimum.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/motivation-and-drive-reduction-theory/drive-reduction-theory-holds-that-behaviour-serves-to-restore

### 6. Order the drive-reduction cycle, from deficit to relief.

**Answer:**

1. A physiological need arises (e.g. low blood sugar)
2. It creates an aroused psychological drive (hunger)
3. The drive motivates goal-directed behavior (seeking food)
4. Satisfying the drive restores homeostasis and relieves the arousal

**Why:** A physiological need creates a drive, which motivates behavior that restores homeostasis and relieves the arousal. Drive-reduction frames motivation as a PUSH: the uncomfortable drive pushes behavior until the deficit is corrected.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/motivation-and-drive-reduction-theory/order-the-drive-reduction-cycle-from-deficit-to-relief