What’s on the Motivation poster
A 6-row table: Theory · Claims.
Major theoretical accounts.
- Drive reduction — Behaviour reduces physiological need
- Arousal — We seek an optimal level of stimulation
- Yerkes-Dodson — Inverted-U between arousal and performance
- Incentive — Behaviour pulled by external rewards
- Self-determination — Autonomy, competence, relatedness
- Expectancy-value — Motivation = expectancy × value
Yerkes-Dodson's optimum is lower for difficult tasks: complex work is disrupted by arousal that would help a simple one.
Questions about the Motivation poster
- What’s on the Motivation poster?
- A 6-row table: Theory · Claims. Major theoretical accounts. Drive reduction — Behaviour reduces physiological need; Arousal — We seek an optimal level of stimulation; Yerkes-Dodson — Inverted-U between arousal and performance; Incentive — Behaviour pulled by external rewards; Self-determination — Autonomy, competence, relatedness; Expectancy-value — Motivation = expectancy × value. Yerkes-Dodson's optimum is lower for difficult tasks: complex work is disrupted by arousal that would help a simple one.
- Who is the Motivation poster for?
- Motivation belongs to the Psychology section rather than to a school year, because life science is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning personality & individual differences can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Motivation poster?
- The Yerkes-Dodson curve: performance peaks at moderate arousal, and the peak moves with task difficulty. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Motivation belongs on the wall where that life science work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Motivation?
- The Big Five, Culture & Personality and Defence Mechanisms sit alongside Motivation in the Psychology section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.The Big FiveCulture & PersonalityDefence Mechanisms
- Is the Motivation poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Motivation downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Psychology section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Motivation poster print at?
- Motivation is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Motivation loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Motivation on the same wall.
Browse every Psychology poster, or start from the full catalogue.