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The path of human motivation, as viewed by psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), is a highly structured plan he called The Hierarchy of Needs, i.e., the needs that demand our attention and motivation as humans.
Primary Motives
Primary Motives, which researchers believe are innate, are based on biological needs that must be met in order for humans to survive, adapt and evolve. The most important of these are air, water, food, pain and illness avoidance, the need for sleep, elimination of body wastes, and the regulation of body temperature, called homeostasis, which can be simply explained as the automatic need or motivation for equilibrium – satisfying the need to get warm when you are cold.
Secondary Motives
Another group of motives, called Secondary Motives, are based on learned needs, drives and goals. Learned motives help explain many human activities, such as creating music, art, blogging or building a house. Many Secondary Motives are related to learned needs for such activities as: a longing for power, belonging to associations, the need for approval, status in one’s community, personal and family security and achievements in life. These needs appear to be greatly affected by learning.
Stimulus Motives
Lastly, there are needs for stimulation and information. These needs are called Stimulus Motives and include our seeking system. This encourages foraging, our need for exploration, physical contact and activity, risk-taking, impulsiveness, curiosity, craving, language acquisition, and expectation, as in getting an award or prize.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), called these motives “Primal Motives,” hardwired instincts. Stimulus Motives indeed appear to be innate, but they are not strictly necessary for survival.
Needs Candy Store
It is interesting to note that nearly every innate human need, whether physiological or emotional such as the need for love, companionship, community, self-esteem, even the rewards of gambling, shopping and dating, cause the release of loads of Dopamine. Today these are available 24 hours a day online. It seems the internet was practically designed to be a “Primal Drive” candy store and almost impossible to resist.
This report is not a diagnosis. We hope this information can guide you toward improving your life.
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