Images as Motives and Motivators: A Historical Perspective

An extremely influential theory of motivation is traced from its inception in Aristotle's thinking to the form it has assumed in contemporary work. The ancient theory--that mental images of goal objects serve as motives by providing energization and direction - seemed to succumb to the Darwinian revolution in the nineteenth century, despite William James' attempt to save it, but then surreptitiously reappeared in behavioristic systems and has since openly surfaced in Mowrer's theory. Its treatment in contemporary physiological and cognitive psychology obviates the problems that led to its earlier abandonment.