Motivation & perception
- Motivation involves a strong desire or reason for performing an action or engaging in specific behaviours/cognitions e.g. ‘I am motivated to do well in my Psychology GCSE so I will put in lots of revision’
- In short, motivation affects perception as it increases the attractiveness of an action/object/person/behaviour e.g. ‘I wish I had enough money to buy those trainers’: this is known as perceptual accentuation (desire increases when what we want is out of reach)
- Being in a deprived state (e.g. hungry, thirsty, tired) can lead to perceptual accentuation as the object of desire becomes more acute and noticeable due to the deprivation of e.g. ‘I can’t stop thinking about my bed, I’m so exhausted!’
- If someone feels hungry, for example, they may find that adverts for food stand out and take on more of a significance for them than if they had been full
Motivation on Perception Diagram
Hunger may mean that the more filling (and ‘less healthy’) foods stand out more and seem more appealing.
Exam Tip
Remember that motivation can occur at a conscious and an unconscious level: someone may be aware that they are motivated to perceive specific stimuli but it is also possible that this can happen without them being consciously aware of it.