EVALUATING HUMAN
DRIVES AND NEEDS FOR A
SAFE MOTIVATIONAL
SYSTEM
Morgan Waser
Virginia Commonwealth University
Dept. Computer Science
DECISION MAKING STRATEGIES
• Automated Responses:
actions performed with no thought or decision, necessary when
speed is of the essence
• Desires:
feelings and emotions that push us towards something. Little
thought and no long-term plans
• Goals:
thought-out, long-term plan that pull us towards an optimal
situation
WHAT FACTORS WEIGH IN ON
OUR DECISIONS?
• There are five main drives that have been evolved to fulfill and
maintain sub-goals that further the pursuit of virtually any goal. These
drives inspire our decision making strategies and they are:
• Self-Preservation
• Resource Hoarding (Collecting)
• Community
• Self-Improvement
• Rationality
AUTOMATED RESPONSE (REFLEX)
• First strategy of decision making that was developed and it can be found in
plants, animals and humans
• Can be driven by:
• Self- Preservation
• Example:
• Plants moving toward sunlight
• Jumping at a loud noise
Hunger, thirst,
pain and fear
SelfPreservation
Pride,
disgust
DESIRES
Desires, emotions and feelings in
animals are all derived from the drives
for self-preservation, resource
collection, and community.
Desires are found in both animals and
humans.
Resource
Hoarding
Greed
Community
Empathy, love,
loneliness, gratitude,
trust and pity
The feeling of surprise in humans is
driven by self-improvement in addition
to being driven by self-preservation.
GOALS
• Rationality is a huge part of how we choose our goals, how we plan to
achieve them and how we make well-thought-out decisions. Goals are
based off of our desires.
• Long-term goals are unique to humans and sets us apart because of the
higher-level of thinking and planning that it requires. Of course there are
numerous tool users (short-term goals) among birds and other animals.
• Goals are driven by all five drives: Self-Preservation, Resource Hoarding,
Community, Self-Improvement, Rationality
IF THEY REPRESENT THE SAME DRIVES,
WHY DO WE HAVE ALL OF THE
STRATEGIES?
• Time available: Responses that require faster response times generally
require reflexes to take an action
• Desires motivate our actions without the urgency of reflexes
• Cognitive complexity enables the creation of goals (a particular
manifestation) to fulfill our desires
Rationality
SelfActualization
Esteem
Love / Belonging
MOTIVATIONAL DRIVES AND
NEEDS
Development of the drive for self-improvement
Development of the drive for community
Development of the drive for resource hoarding
Safety
Physiological Needs
Development of the drive for resource collecting
Development of the drive for self-preservation
SO WHAT REALLY MAKES THIS
MOTIVATIONAL SYSTEM SAFE?
Rationality
and
Community
RATIONALITY
• The drive for rationality (effectiveness) is necessary for motivational system
optimality as well as providing the reasoning that makes it safer.
• Rationality:
•
Gives us the ability to make goals
•
Helps to better fulfill needs
•
Expands upon the drives we have already developed
RATIONALITY
• Are rational goals better than emotions, feelings and desires?
We cannot say that one is necessarily better than the other
because:
•
Feelings and emotions tell us how we are meeting our needs
•
Evolution has honed our emotions to be better long-term
decision makers than rational thought
•
Emotions and feelings can be affected by past things which can
be disabling
COMMUNITY
• Our society is community driven. Communities allow us to share
resource, divide labor and play to differing strengths.
• The loss of community can result in a devastating loss to resources,
safety, stability, belonging and purpose.
• Rule and law breaking generally results in losing community status and
sometimes community all together.
• Because of the long-term view that rationality provides, it is obviously
more advantageous to work together in a community than to be
independent (but it frequently requires emotion to force us to follow
this good advice).