Aron Ralston Case Study Answers

From watching this Crash Course video, I learned many things about motivation. One topic that was discussed in the video was Aron Ralston. Ralston was out climbing in Utah's Bluejohn Canyon when a giant rock shifted under his feet, and he fell, pinning his right arm to the canyon wall. There was no one around to help Ralston, and for five days Ralston attempted to escape by chipping away at the rock. He was forced to ration his food supply and had to endure serious hallucinations. As he was a to give up on himself, he had a dream that depicted him as a father and the dream boosted his adrenaline high enough that he was able to break the bones in his arm and dismember it. Because Ralston was faced with hunger, thirst and the need to be apart of a family, he was able to …show more content…
This video gave detail on what motivation is and the things that make it up. Motivation is the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way. Psychologist have broken motivation into four different theories: evolutionary perspective, drive-reduction, optimal arousal, Maslow's hierarchy of needs. For a while in the early 20th century, many believed behaviors were instincts but this so-called Instinct Theory was misguided, in part because the presence of a tendency doesn't always mean it's supposed to be there. Instincts are unpredictable, unlearned practices that have a settled example all through a species (evolutionary perspective). Drive-reduction theory proposed that the purpose of biological drives is to correct disturbances of homeostasis. In psychological terms, homeostasis is the process of preserving an individual’s secure mental and emotional state under different