Motivation Theories



Motivation Theories

Arousal Theory

The arousal theory was put forward by Donald B. Lindsley in the year 1951, and was further researched as well as expanded by the researcher Ellis Lee in the year 1996. Lindsley had differentiated various levels of arousal or activation in terms of characteristics of brain waves. The brain waves disclose a rhythmic and smooth pattern of around ten oscillations per second, and they are also known as the alpha rhythm. On the other hand, when the subject is aroused or excited, such as by pain, anxiety or the noise of a gunshot, the alpha rhythm gets inhibited and there are faster waves of lower amplitude instead. This change in the rhythm is called the activation pattern. Because of his immense contribution to the world of science, Lindsley was known to be the most prominent physiological psychologist of the 20th century (Weinberger, 2009). The graduation duration of Lindsley proved to be very productive, since he developed the know-how of equipment's intricacies and also established a solid foundation in the field of physiology, besides becoming an expert in the area of psychology. In the year 1932, he was able to publish six papers on rat and human muscle activity.

Lindsley established new grounds in three main fields. The first field was about thalamic control of cortical function and mechanisms of brainstem, the second was the human electroencephalogram, also called the EEG, and the third field was related to neurophysiology of perception and human visual attention. According to most of the scientists, Lindsley deserved to get the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology along with Giuseppe Moruzzi and Horace Magoun because they had discovered the system of reticular activation. This field is now known as neuroscience and the findings of Lindsley and his fellow scientists elucidated the main principles of ...