Wants and Lifestyles
Our wants. are triggered by both internal and external cues and we respond individually to each. Human behavior is caused, motivated, and goal-directed. Our basic drives are physiological and range from such active strivings of hunger, thirst, and sex to passive resting and sleep. At the psychological level our incentives include the needs to achieve, to join, and to aggress. We speak also of the needs for power and independence. "Inner" and "outer" 'motivation affects all of us. When intrinsically motivated, we like what we are doing; the activity its own reward. When we are extrinsically motivated to do something, we do it because it leads to an external reward. Sometimes otivation can be made to shift from internal to external reward.
When intrinsically motivated behavior becomes dependent on external controls, it may be difficult to come back to "inner" motivation.
Need-drive theorists speak of primary drives, determined by physiological states, and of acquired drives. This theorizing is opposed a that of nondrive theorists who say that all behavior is under the ontrol of stimuli from which we get a "cue stimulus." Needierarchy theory proposes a "ladder" of needs from lower to h,igher
rungs. Five need steps are involved: physiological, safety, social, ego, and self-fulfillment. Emotion can be a strong motivation of behavior, where an emotional state depends both upon the state of physiological arousal and on cognition appropriate to this state of arousal.
Environmental psychology is a study of the relations between the individual and where he finds himself in space. It involves three propositions. First, behavior occurs in some particular environmental
ontext, which imposes major constraints on the range of behaviors permissible in it. Second, certai~ qualities of the environment, such as crowding, may exert generalized effects on broader systems of response within the individual. Third, behavior is in a variety of ways instigated by and directed at particular attributes and characteristics of the physical environment.
Much of our individual life-style relates to our closeness to others. Crowding occurs when the number of people violates individual distance and in the way we perceive the situation, From time to 'me we seek out different kinds of privacy, where both physical and social distances become important. Crowding is "spatial invasion" related to the concept of territoriality. Crowding becomes unpleasant when it is beyond our personal control. Territoriality involves "mineness"-my property, my space, my time, my choice.
Living under crowded conditions involves adjustments designed to conserve our psychic energy by shutting out some stimuli, restricting social contacts, and avoiding problem overload.
Life-styles relate to the size of our living community, its cultures, and to individual perceptions. Living style relates-to "what we are used to." The positive and negative aspects of community living are largely individual-how much centrol the individual has, how well he or she can tolerate change.
