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Evolutionary and comparative perspectives on motivation and emotion are almost absent from contemporary social and behavioral sciences. The history of psychology, particularly the relation between motivational, comparative, and learning psychology has made the phylogeny of motivation a largely ignored topic. The author briefly reviews the extent to which these perspectives are influential in the history and present state of motivational psychology, and discusses how motivational and emotional mechanisms might provide the missing link to the environment-need fit in the activation and deactivation of behavioral and cognitive modules. In this way, behavioral regulation by motivation may be part ofa multilevel architecture of the mammal and the human mind A number of basic motivational modules that might be involved in processes of goal engagement and disengagement in humans are proposed, which together may favor an overall preference for controlling the environment and maximizing one's resources and capacities for control.
Before Charles Darwin's theory gained influence in the social and behavioral sciences, the traditional philosophical and theological views distinguished human motivation from animal motivation as something governed by the "free will," as opposed to by instinct. The growing acceptance of Darwinian ideas resulted in three major innovations in psychology, which led to a segregation rather than integration of approaches.
First, McDougall (1908) argued that a set of basic instincts and drives guides not only animal but also human behavior. His approach is reflected in modem ethological approaches to fundamental behavioral systems, such as aggression (Bischof, 1985; Lorenz, 1966), parenting (Bischof, 1985; Bowlby, 1969), and foraging (L. Tinbergen, 1960; N. Tinbergen, 1951).
Second, simultaneously with McDougall's (1908) ideas about human motivational drives, Sigmund Freud developed his psychodynamic theory, which conceptualizes behavior and cognition as influenced by latent and unconscious drives of the individual. This approach found its continuation in personality conceptions of motivation and their specific diagnostic instruments, namely, projective tests (McClelland, 1971; Murray, 1938).
Third, the ability to adjust instinctual behavior to changing environmental conditions is a key feature of human behavior, which should be precedented by early forms of intelligent behavior in related animal species. The pioneer of comparative research in learning (i.e., associative) capacity was Thorndike (1898). His groundbreaking work, together with James's (1890) conception of "habit:' laid the foundation for behaviorism, which unfortunately dominated...