Organisms are motivated to achieve and maintain an ideal or optimal level of stimulation that maximizes their performance according to arousal theory.
How are organisms motivated ?
Animals are highly clever, can read body language, and have personalities. They are driven by physiological requirements including thirst, hunger, sex, company, air, and rest.
Hunger, thirst, the search for pleasure, and the avoidance of suffering are examples of biological reasons. The ambitious idea of Clark Hull was an early attempt to define how these drives influence animal behavior. Hull adapted the idea of biological regulation or homeostasis.
