The Activation Theory of Motivation

Drive reductionists believed that if all of an organism’s needs are fulfilled,
that organism will lapse into a lethargic state. They conclude that increasing
needs will cause the organism to have an increased drive to fulfill those
needs. Their view is that the inevitable course that individual organisms select
is that of least resistance.
Donald O. Hebb, however, takes a more sanguine view of motivation, particularly
in humans. In his activation theory, he contends that a middle
ground between lethargy at one extreme and incapacitating anxiety at the
other produces the most desirable level of motivation. This theory accounts
for states of desired arousal such as that found in such pursuits as competitive
sports.
The drive reductionists ascribe to the reward/punishment views of most
of the behaviorists, who essentially consider organisms to be entities in need
of direction, possibly of manipulation. The drive inductionists, on the other
hand, have faith in the innate need of organisms to be self-directive and to
work individually toward gaining competence. Essentially they accept the
Greek ideal of the golden mean as a guiding principle, which has also been
influential in the thinking of such humanistic psychologists. 556