Editing Content theory (section)

== Unconscious Motivation ==
In his book ''A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis'', Sigmund Freud explained his theory on the conscious-unconscious distinction.<ref>{{cite book |title = A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis |last = Freud |first = Sigmund |publisher = Renaissance Classics |year = 2012 |isbn = 978-1-4841-5680-3 }}</ref> To explain this relationship, he used a two-room metaphor. The smaller of the two rooms is filled with a person's preconscious, which is the thoughts, emotions, and memories that are available to a person's consciousness. This room also houses a person's consciousness, which is the part of the preconscious that is the focus at that given time. Connected to the small room is a much larger room that houses a person's unconscious. This part of the mind is unavailable to a person's consciousness and consists of impulses and repressed thoughts. The door between these two rooms acts as the person's mental censor. Its job is to keep anxiety-inducing thoughts and socially unacceptable behaviors or desires out of the preconscious. Freud describes the event of a thought or impulse being denied at the door as repression, one of the many defense mechanisms. This process is supposed to protect the individual from any embarrassment that could come from acting on these impulses or thoughts that exist in the unconscious.

In terms of motivation, Freud argues that unconscious instinctual impulses can still have great influence on behavior even though the person is not aware of the source.<ref>{{cite book |title = Motivation: Biological, Psychological, and Environmental |last = Deckers |first = Lambert |publisher = Routledge |year = 2018 |isbn = 978-1-138-03633-8 |pages = 39–41 }}</ref> When these instincts serve as a motive, the person is only aware of the goal of the motive, and not its actual source. He divides these instincts into sexual instincts, death instincts, and ego or self-preservation instincts. Sexual instincts are those that motivate humans to stay alive and ensure the continuation of mankind. On the other hand, Freud also maintains that humans have an inherent drive for self-destruction, or the death instinct. Similar to the devil and angel that everyone has on their shoulder, the sexual instinct and death instinct are constantly battling each other to both be satisfied. The death instinct can be closely related to Freud's other concept, the id, which is our need to experience pleasure immediately, regardless of the consequences. The last type of instinct that contributes to motivation is the ego or self-preservation instinct. This instinct is geared towards assuring that a person feels validated in whatever behavior or thought they have. The mental censor, or door between the unconscious and preconscious, helps satisfy this instinct. For example, one may be sexually attracted to a person, due to their sexual instinct, but the self-preservation instinct prevents them to act on this urge until that person finds that it is socially acceptable to do so. Quite similarly to his psychic theory that deals with the id, ego, and superego, Freud's theory of instincts highlights the interdependence of these three instincts. All three instincts serve as checks and balances system to control what instincts are acted on and what behaviors are used to satisfy as many of them at once.

=== Priming ===
{{See also|Priming (psychology)}}
Priming is a phenomenon, often used as an experimental technique, whereby a specific stimulus sensitizes the subject to later presentation of a similar stimulus.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/priming/|title=Priming|date=2016-06-17|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Psychology|access-date=2018-10-13|language=en-US|archive-date=2018-10-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181015153047/https://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/priming/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

"Priming refers to an increased sensitivity to certain stimuli, resulting from prior exposure to related visual or audio messages. When an individual is exposed to the word "cancer," for example, and then offered the choice to smoke a cigarette, we expect that there is a greater probability that they will choose not to smoke as a result of the earlier exposure."<ref name="AutoRef1">{{cite journal |last1 = Elgendi |first1 = Mohamed |last2 = Kumar |first2 = Parmod |last3 = Barbic |first3 = Skye |last4 = Howard |first4 = Newton |last5 = Abbott |first5 = Derek |last6 = Cichocki |first6 = Andrzej |date = 2018-05-30 |title = Subliminal Priming—State of the Art and Future Perspectives |journal = Behavioral Sciences |volume = 8 |issue = 6 |page = 54 |doi = 10.3390/bs8060054 |pmid = 29849006 |pmc = 6027235 |issn = 2076-328X |doi-access = free }}</ref>

Priming can affect motivation, in the way that we can be motived to do things by an outside source.

Priming can be linked with the mere exposure theory. People tend to like things that they have been exposed to before. Mere exposer theory is used by advertising companies to get people to buy their products. An example of this is seeing a picture of the product on a signboard and then buying that product later. If an individual is in a room with two strangers they are more likely to gravitate towards the person that they occasionally pass on the street, than the person that they have never seen before. An example of the use of mere exposure theory can be seen in product placements in movies and TV shows. We see a product that is in our favorite movie, and hence we are more inclined to buy that product when we see it again.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/mere-exposure-effect/|title=Mere Exposure Effect|date=2016-06-17|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Psychology|access-date=2018-10-13|language=en-US|archive-date=2018-10-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181015153121/https://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/mere-exposure-effect/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Priming can fit into these categories; Semantic Priming, Visual Priming, Response Priming, Perceptual and Conceptual Priming, Positive and Negative Priming, Associative and Context Priming, and Olfactory Priming. Visual and Semantic priming is the most used in motivation. Most priming is linked with emotion, the stronger the emotion, the stronger the connection between memory and the stimuli.<ref name="AutoRef1" />

Priming also has an effect on drug users. In this case, it can be defined as, the reinstatement or increase in drug craving by a small dose of the drug or by stimuli associated with the drug. If a former drug user is in a place where they formerly did drugs, then they are tempted to do that same thing again even if they have been clean for years.<ref name=":5" />

=== Conscious motivation ===
Freud relied heavily upon the theories of unconscious motivation as explained above, but Allport (a researcher in 1967) looked heavily into the powers of conscious motivation and the effect it can have upon goals set for an individual. This is not to say that unconscious motivation should be ignored with this theory, but instead, it focuses on the thought that if we are aware of our surroundings and our goals, we can then actively and consciously take steps towards them.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web|url=https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/gordon-w-allport|title=Gordon W. Allport |website=psychology.fas.harvard.edu|language=en|access-date=2019-12-10}}</ref>

He also believed that there are three hierarchical tiers of personality traits that affect this motivation:<ref name=":9" />

# Cardinal traits: Rare, but strongly determine a set behavior and cannot be changed
# Central traits: Present around certain people, but can be hidden
# Secondary traits: Present in all people, but strongly reliant on context- can be altered as needed and would be the focus of a conscious motivation effort.