ABSTRACT
Motivation is any condition – usually an internal one – that initiates, activates, or maintains an individual’s goal-directed behavior. Many interesting and useful ideas for cross-cultural psychology about the nature of human motivation appear in the classical works of prominent social scientists, including evolutionary theorists. There are also several psychological theories of motivation: drive theories, arousal theories, psychoanalytic theories, humanistic theories, and cognitive theories. In general, most of the theories emphasize the universal nature of human motivation that is influenced by various environmental factors that are the product of historic, religious, political, cultural, and socioeconomic developments. Different types of motivation are culturally influenced. Achievement motivation is acquired by the individual and influenced by his or her culture. Aggressive motivation has many underlying factors, from chemical and physiological to socioeconomic, psychological, and political. Sexual motivation is certainly regulated, at least in part, by human physiology, but culture determines various forms of its experience and behavioral manifestations.
