Psychology, drive. --- .This section is about drive. Topics include: ( ) Drive. ( ) Types of drive. ( ) Needs. ( ) Wants. Desires. ( ) Obsession. Addiction. ( ) Will. ( ) Instincts. Urges. ( ) Eastern vs. Western perspectives. ( ) What is drive. --- 1/24/2006
Psychology, drive. --- (1) Drive defined as instinct. Have to do. Hard wired. Examples, breath, drink, eat. (2) Drive defined as urge. Want to do, but don't have to. For example, sex? --- 5/16/2005
Psychology, drive. --- (1) Drive is an approach/avoidance issue. One weighs the costs of pursuing a goal vs. the benefits of gaining a goal. --- 4/6/2001
Psychology, drive. --- (1) Drives are what keep people going? Not necessarily. (2) Having something to live for. Is it about drive (urge), reason (duty), or emotion (love or care)? (3) All drives are primal urges or instinct that get filtered through the high-level mind? (4) Pathological drive conditions, are there any? Not being able to control drives? Can drives be destroyed at a base level, or just repressed at a high level? (5) We want sex, but we don't need sex like we need food and water. We need love more than sex. --- 8/23/1998
Psychology, drive. --- (1) Drives defined as basic physiological needs. (2) Desires defined as higher, consciously considered wants, including their corresponding emotions. --- 8/6/1999
Psychology, drive. --- (1) Goal formation is one issues. (2) Goal pursuit is another issue. (3) Motivation is the attitude (thought and emotion) you have toward your goals. How important and urgent you think your goals are. The impetus to get goals. --- 6/12/2002
Psychology, drive. --- (1) Repressed (no goals) vs. unrepressed (goals). (2) Controlled (boundaries) vs. uncontrolled (no boundaries). --- 8/15/1998
Psychology, drive. --- (1) Some drive terms: desire, wants, acquisitive, greedy, curious. (2) We all want everything. We want it all. They try to tell us that we can have it all. This is why we are fat. This is why the environment is stressed. (3) Two types of drive. (A) See it, want it. No thoughts involved. (B) Juggling wants. Involves a form of thinking known as deciding and prioritizing. Juggling issues like "like (approach)" and "dislike (avoid)" also involves decision making. --- 7/18/2000
Psychology, drive. --- (1) To "really want" something, is that an emotion, a thought, an attitude (emotion + thought), a craving or urge, or what? What is the explanation for the psychological mechanism of goal creation and goal pursuit? (2) What are "wants"? They are goals. What is "wanting"? It is a desire for goals. --- 4/10/2001
Psychology, drive. --- (1) To want only. Children, addicts, and compulsives do this. (2) Wants mediated by emotions, thoughts and attitudes. Healthy adults do this. --- 12/15/1998
Psychology, drive. --- (1) Total focus: all I can see is this. (2) Total drive: all I want is this. (3) Total confidence: I can get anything. (4) Total self esteem: I deserve everything. (5) Drive is will, determination, self discipline, dedication, desire. --- 12/30/1995
Psychology, drive. --- (1) We all have basic low-level drives for food, sex, sleep, etc. (2) These low-level drives develop into a generalized mid-level drive to "survive" and "get more at any cost", which then leads to our desires for money, power, fame, etc. (3) Above these mid-level urges we have higher-level thought processes that weigh one drive against another, and that think about the implications of possible courses of action. --- 2/10/2001
Psychology, drive. --- (1) We all have remnants of an infantile urge to touch, taste, feel and see everything. (2) We all have remnants of a childish urge to own, control, dominate and manipulate everything. (3) Thus, part of our drives reflect a time when we were tiny, sensual, megalomaniacs. --- 7/18/2000
Psychology, drive. --- (1) We can endeavor to do something, to gain some accomplishment or achievement. (2)(A) Then there is the vigorous pursuit of simplicity, emptiness and nothingness, as found in Zen, Thoreau, and the Amish. (B) Also, there is unvigorously doing nothing. Ala couch potato. --- 8/23/1998
Psychology, drive. --- (1) Why would one persevere in a course of action without any extrinsic reward? They like it. They are good at it. They are doing something useful. (2) What would motivate one to devote every spare minute to this project? A sense of urgency. Urgency caused by realizing that life is not as long as it appears to be. --- 3/25/2000
Psychology, drive. --- A drive hypothesis. (1) Drives, if they exist, have a thought component and an emotion component. (2) Drives have a innate component (nature) and a learned component (nurture). (3) Some drives have a single, narrow, specific expression in behavior, and other drives can have multiple expressions in behavior. The latter are more influenced by environment, the former are closer to hardwired instincts. --- 4/10/2001
Psychology, drive. --- An inflationary view of drives gives drives a large and important role to play in our lives. The implication of such a view is to play up concepts such as determinism and genetics, and play down concepts like freewill, environment, emotion and thinking. I disagree with an inflationary view of drives. I prefer a deflationary view of drives. In this view, anything beyond the few lowest-level biological urges becomes a complex interplay of thoughts and emotions involved in goal forming. The reason I prefer the deflationary view of drives is because there is very little we have to do, very little we must do beyond eating and sleeping. However, the diversity of human behavior shows that there is an extraordinary number of things we can do. This fact argues for a deflationary view of drives and an increased emphasis on thought and emotion. I say we are 90% freewill and only 10% pre-programmed. Ethics, based on reason and emotion, limits out behavior much more than drive does. --- 2/10/2001
Psychology, drive. --- Beyond the most basic, strongest drives for survival and reproduction, it is all up for grabs when it comes to drives. Anyone can desire just about anything. Even the basic drives of survival and reproduction can be over-ridden. For example, people give up their lives for various political issues and causes. Another example, people decide not to have kids for various reasons. So if the most basic and strong drives of survival and reproduction can be over-ridden then maybe drive is less important than other psychological issues like emotion and thought. --- 4/6/2001
Psychology, drive. --- Desire is also an inability to accept the world as it is. Desire is about making the world like you want it to be. Change the world. --- 8/29/2000
Psychology, drive. --- Desire. If you desire something bad enough, you will put in time and effort, face obstacles, have focus and drive, and will avoid diversions distractions and seductions away from your goal. Desire is the key. Remember your strongest desires and your reasons for them. --- 06/01/1994
Psychology, drive. --- Desires. (1) Some people put too much emphasis on their desires. Some people can't get away from their desires. Too much emphasis on desire can make a person self-centered and selfish. (2) Too little desire results in no sense of self. It also results in repression of natural desires which leads to neurosis. (3) We seek a balanced state of desire (degree of wanting). And we seek noble objectives (goal wanted). (4) What do you call altruistic desires, like the desire to save the world? --- 8/29/2000
Psychology, drive. --- Drive and emotions. We experience our drives as emotional likes and dislikes. --- 5/9/2000
Psychology, drive. --- Drive and ethics are closely related. Many of us are chasing after the wrong things. --- 8/6/1999
Psychology, drive. --- Drive for emotional bonding leads to need for love. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- Drive vs. obsession vs. addiction. What is the difference? --- 6/4/2002
Psychology, drive. --- Drive vs. obstacles, opposition and distraction. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- Drive, desire, and will. (1) The Eastern (Buddhist) view is that we desire a lot of things which we do not need, and that desire in general is basically a bad thing. (2) The Western view is that desires are an unavoidable, natural and healthy part of life. To have no drives, desire and goals is to be apathetic, lazy, wasteful, repressed and depressed. To have no will is to be a zombie or a brain-washed cult member. --- 8/6/1999
Psychology, drive. --- Drive, motivation, will, desire, determination is really a matter of (1) Thinking of goals, strategies, and reasons. (2) Remembering the goals, strategies, and reasons that you of thought of. (3) Feeling strongly that the goal should be pursued despite any given opposition, or temptation of any other course of action. (4) Number three starts to edge into ethics. (5) So drive is really closely connected to memory, emotion, thinking, and ethics. --- 02/28/1998
Psychology, drive. --- Drives are a question of goals, which are a question of values. Values are not so much taught as they are either figured out for self, or else imposed by society. It turns out that drives (psychology) is really about ethics (philosophy). All along scientists have been saying that philosophy is about psychology. --- 7/1/1999
Psychology, drive. --- Drives are always mediated by thought, especially ethical thoughts. Thoughts like "What do I want to do? Do I really want to do this? What will turn me on and get me off? What are my goals and reasons for them? What are my strategies and reasons for them?" --- 8/23/1998
Psychology, drive. --- Drives. Drives, clashing drives. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- Drives. (1) Healthy: when drives overtake fears (i.e., bravery). (2) Unhealthy: when fears overtake drives (i.e., cowardice). --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- Drives. (1) Ideal drive states. (2) Problems with drives. (A) Repressed. (B) Don't know how to deal with it. (3) Techniques to deal with problems. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- Drives. (1) Type, degree, frequency, duration. (2) Causes and effects. (3) Evolution of drives in animals, human species, and individuals. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- Drives. Social implications: struggling, cooperation. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- Fanaticism. At what point does your drive to achieve a goal, or your obsession with a thought, turn you into a fanatic? You are a fanatic when you are willing to engage in unethical behavior in pursuit of a goal. --- 5/27/2005
Psychology, drive. --- Feeling urges vs. forming goals. The amount that thought and emotion intermediate in the above. --- 1/1/2000
Psychology, drive. --- Giving up (1) When drive is repressed. (2) When taught not to fight. (3) Both are bad. Models of resignation. --- 9/2/1998
Psychology, drive. --- How are interests and curiosity related to drive, motivation and goals? --- 6/12/2002
Psychology, drive. --- Instinct. Psychologists say that animals operate on instinct. But who can explain exactly what is animal instinct? And who can explain exactly how the residue of animal instinct expresses itself in humans. It is not just "hunch". It is not just "urge". Perhaps humans are unaware when instinct is at work in them, and that is why we have trouble explaining instinct. --- 6/3/2002
Psychology, drive. --- Intention, self-direction, will, requires the ability to think about the future, and requires the ability to think about the past, because self direction requires the ability to say, "Next time this happens, I will do differently from last time." Prehistoric, proto-humans without the ability to think of past and future had little conscious self direction. --- 4/17/2006
Psychology, drive. --- Is desiring nothing as bad as desiring everything? Are they both undesirable extremes? --- 7/31/2006
Psychology, drive. --- Meaning and purpose are close cousins to desire, drive and will. The former generates the latter. --- 8/6/1999
Psychology, drive. --- Memory and drive. Drive is a function of how much a thing is on your mind. Thus, drive is a function of memory. --- 7/28/2006
Psychology, drive. --- Needs. Given two choices, the need to do the one you want. How will it hurt your will psychologically if you don't choose what you want? When does a psychological want become a psychological need, and visa versa? --- 01/01/1993
Psychology, drive. --- Needs. One mans crumb is another mans food. Different people have different needs at different times due to their physical, psychological, economic, and social development. --- 12/30/1995
Psychology, drive. --- Obstacles to drive satisfaction. (1) Interior: psychological. (2) Exterior: natural, manmade, social. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- Problems. (1) Too much survival drive. (A) Taking the first thing, or whatever comes along. (B) Living for money and safety. (2) Not enough survival drive. (A) Self destruction. (B) Too much risk. --- 10/30/1993
Psychology, drive. --- Problems. Drive problems: (1) Thwarted drives. (2) Warped drives. (3) Sublimated drives. (4) Repressed drives. (5) Denied drives. --- 4/10/2001
Psychology, drive. --- Settling. When to settle? Never settle. Settling is selling out. If we define settling as compromising principles. If we define settling as being practical or realistic. --- 5/27/2005
Psychology, drive. --- Social esteem: having others feel good about you. Vs. self-esteem: feeling good about yourself. Go for the latter. --- 8/23/1998
Psychology, drive. --- Survival drive leads to survival neurosis. Do anything to survive. Obsessions with money, or power. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- The more driven you are, the more pain you can endure. Therefore, to counteract the pain of this life, one should get drive. Get purpose. Get the will to live. So the pain of life does not drive you nuts. --- 5/25/1999
Psychology, drive. --- To what extent do our aesthetic tastes, which are supposedly arbitrary, like for example our favorite foods, affect our ethical likes and dislikes, which are supposed to be closely reasoned, and how does this affect our drives and goals? --- 4/6/2001
Psychology, drive. --- Two extremes. (1) Strong motivation for well defined goals. (2) Weak motivation for hazy goals. --- 4/10/2001
Psychology, drive. --- Two thoughts must burn in our subconscious at all times. (1) We are going to die. (2) We want to reproduce; get laid. How do these two constant subconscious thoughts affect us? --- 09/13/1988
Psychology, drive. --- Types of drives. (1) Needs, necessities? (2) Luxuries: that help and that hurt. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- Types of drives. (1) Physical. The drive for psychological and physical health. Survival. Eat, drink, sleep, breath, shit, piss, sex. (2) Psychological. Succeed. Social? Goals/purpose? Freedom? --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- Types of drives. (1) Unconscious, instinctively, uncontrollably. (2) Conscious, chosen. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- Types of drives. A desire (something you want) can be a need or a luxury. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- Types of drives. Needs. (1) Perceived vs. actual. (2) Psychological and physical needs. (3) To stay alive, and to become something. (4) Things you need vs. don't need. (5) Things you need more or less of. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- Types of drives. Wants. (1) Needs. (A) To survive. (B) For devolution, stagnation, evolution. (C) Psychological, physical, economic-finance needs. (2) Luxuries. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- Ultimate drive makes it perfect. Everything matters, monumentally. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- Wants vs. needs. Are your wants way above or way below what you actually need to develop? Is what you actually need always some "next step"? Can you be given something too far ahead of you to use it? Is there some orderly progression? --- 12/30/1995
Psychology, drive. --- What are drives? Drive as a "hunger" or "thirst". --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive. --- What are the conscious and unconscious drives that motivate me, and people in general? Why do I and people in general do things? (1) Money and stuff (survival neurosis). (2) Status and fame. (3) Discover and reach your personal best (self actualization). (4) To be the best in a field (competition). (5) Intellectual pride. (6) To make the world a better place through gaining knowledge, or making actual changes (ethics). (7) For your group (nationalism, patriotism). (8) To do something new (creative). --- 04/30/1993
Psychology, drive. --- When people have the quantity (amount) and quality (standards required or desired) of their needs and wants met, then they are satisfied and happy. --- 09/20/1994
Psychology, drive. --- When we were young we saw the older kids as much more smart, cool, and mature than us, and sometimes they were, but more often it was illusion due to age worship (a pathological condition). The image we had of them may no longer have applied to them, but the vision can still be an ideal to us. A self created vision to guide us when we can't see a real life model. "The New" and "The Best" have no real life models anyway. --- 10/23/1993
Psychology, drive. --- Where does all the energy come from? It comes from an IDEA. Thoughts can influence drives. --- 8/6/1999
Psychology, drive. --- Will, desire, drive, urge, hankering, and yearning are important to counteract apathy and laziness. --- 9/2/1998
Psychology, drive. --- Will. Intention. Will to power. Very often people do things "Because they can" or "To see if they can". That is, people do things just to exercise their will. Many thinkers have been concerned with will. William James recovered from a nervous breakdown by a famous decision to will. Nietzsche was concerned with the will to power. Sartre's existentialism is concerned with humans ability to make a choice. Victor Frankl is concerned with humans choice to create meaning. --- 1/1/2002
Psychology, drive. --- You need to push yourself in a good direction. No self push means no forward movement. No direction means aimless wandering. No self push means no accomplishment. No self push means someone else may push you in a wrong direction. To achieve good things you really need to push yourself in a good direction. --- 2/11/2006