ABSTRACT
Over 2,000 years ago, the analysis of motivation emphasized hedonism: Pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain. Early Greek philosophers recommended hedonism be spread over the long-run. Later philosophers and Freud claimed that immediate pain may be necessary to experience pleasure later. Learning theorists incorporated hedonism into the law of effect: pleasurable consequences reinforce behavior. In evolution, pleasure selects behavior that promotes survival while pain selects behaviors to avoid in order to help conserve life. Early psychologists postulated motivation from psychological needs and drives but also from incentives, especially the interaction between them. Examples include Warden’s drive-incentive link, Lewin’s psychological force, and Hull’s formula: behavior = drive X incentive. Bacon and Descartes views from the 1600s contemplated categories of emotion, the function of physiological arousal, and the function of facial expressions.
