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Sleep Deprivation Essay

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Running head: BASIC PERSPECTIVES ON MOTIVATION

Basic Perspectives on Motivation: Evaluating Five
Accounts for Sleep and Sleep Deprivation
David Hickson
University of Southern Queensland

Abstract
Sleep deprivation is prevalent in industrialized societies and has been linked to serious health issues and traffic accidents. This essay views sleep and sleep deprivation from five different motivational perspectives in order to gain a holistic understanding of the phenomena. From evolutionary, psychodynamic, behaviourist, cognitive, and hierarchy of needs perspectives, it is inferred that the cognitive and behaviourist perspectives uphold the most merit for gaining understanding into sleep and sleep deprivation. However, it is …show more content…

The psychodynamic perspective was originally theorised by Sigmund Freud. Psychodynamic theory suggests that much of human motivation, action, and thought, are governed by unconscious mental processes. These processes can conflict with one another causing compromises between the contending motives. Freud argued that these mental processes and motivations are determined by two biological drives: aggression and sex. These drives, Freud suggests, are internal states of tension that augment in pressure until satisfied (Burton et al., 2009). From a psychodynamic perspective, sleep is encompassed by the sex drive as it fosters health and therefore encourages reproductive success. Sleep results from an imbalance between contending motives, and is a mechanism used to restore balance. The research method implemented by psychodynamic theorists to explain sleep is a case study (Burton et al., 2009). This involves the comprehensive observation of the sleeping behaviour of a small group of people. Afterwards, a test is applied to deduce the state of tension between the contending motives. The biological variable is sleep; the theoretical variable is the internal contention between motives. It is expected that when there is an imbalance between contending motives, sleep will occur. Sleep deprivation is the result of an unresolved confrontation

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