Fundamental Motives Illuminate a Broad Range of Individual and Cultural Variations in Thought and Behavior

Abstract

An article published in Current Directions a decade ago introduced the fundamental-motives framework and reviewed initial promising findings using this general approach. According to this framework, a recurring set of challenges and opportunities during human evolution gave rise to overarching motivational systems in the domains of self-protection, disease avoidance, social affiliation, status seeking, mate acquisition, mate retention, and kin care. When activated, fundamental motives influence psychological processes by directing cognition and behavior in distinct and functionally relevant ways. In the intervening years, the approach has been expanded to a broader range of motives, individual and cultural variations in those motives, and the physiological correlates of activating different motives. In this article, we review a decade of research applying the fundamental-motives framework and point to promising new research directions.

Affordance management theory and stigma toward schizophrenia.

“…Then, they rated their perceptions of how much the person would threaten and afford opportunities related to the fundamental goals of self-protection, disease-avoidance, affiliation, economic-attainment, mate-seeking, and child protection, which was a new goal. Parenting is a fundamental goal (Cook et al, 2021;Kenrick et al, 2010), and people's parental motivations include both nurturance and protection of children (Hofer et al, 2018). As such, child protection represented an additional test of the hypothesized association between schizophrenia and threats to This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.…”

“…Humans share universal needs that drive behavior. The fundamental motives framework outlines how these universal needs influence psychological processes (Cook et al, 2021; Kenrick et al, 2010). According to the framework, evolutionary needs can be arranged hierarchically.…”

“…Finally, people try to find mates, maintain access to those mates, and pass on genes through successful parenting. These motives remain constant, but their salience fluctuates as cues in the environment signal threats or opportunities to meet fundamental goals (Cook et al, 2021; Kenrick et al, 2010). Based on the cues, people experience emotions such as fear, anger, or lust.…”

“…Study 1 examined the perceived relation of schizophrenia to fundamental needs (Cook et al, 2021; Kenrick et al, 2010). Following the affordance management approach to social perception (Lassetter et al, 2021; Pirlott & Cook, 2018), participants rated how much they believed a person with schizophrenia would threaten and provide opportunities related to fundamental goals of self-protection, disease-avoidance, economic-attainment, mate-seeking, and affiliation.…”

How much cultural variation around the globe is explained by ecology?

“…People around the world may be susceptible to conformity, but such effects are weaker in North America and Western Europe than in other world regions 5 . Indeed, human societies vary in myriad ways including their rules for behavior [6][7][8][9][10] , behavioral tendencies 11,12 , preferences 3,[13][14][15] , values [16][17][18][19] , motivations 20,21 , and political institutions 22,23 .…”