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Dr. Andrew Elliot is a professor of Psychology currently working at the University of Rochester in New York. In 1994, he earned a Ph.D. in social–personality psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His previously taught courses include competence and motivation, exploring research in social psychology and individual differences and social psychology. Dr. Elliot who calls himself a ‘motivational theorist’ now focuses on researching the fundamental distinction between approach and avoidance motivation.

Approach-Avoidance Motivation
The approach-avoidance model is not a recent creation of analyses for motivation and behaviour. Scholars have used the approach-avoidance distinction for over two thousand years. It first appeared in the writings of the Greek Philosopher Democritus who articulated an ethical hedonism in which the immediate pursuit of pleasure and avoidance pain were prescribed as the guide of human action. In the field of psychology research many people from William James to Freud have made use of the approach-avoidance distinction

Approach-Avoidance Motivation has five key aspects to it:

1) It encompasses both the energization and direction of behaviour. It is also how a person channels their behaviour

2) It is the concept of psychological concept of the stimuli for people.

3) The initial presence/absence of a stimulus may be crossed with it valence to discern two different types of approach and avoidance motivation. Approach motivation encompasses promoting new positive situations, but also maintains existing positive stations. While, avoidance motivation attempts to prevent new negative situations and rectifying existing negative situations.

4) While positive and negative experiences are presumed to take a different context such as beneficial or harmful, liked or disliked, this is not the case with approach-avoidance motivation. Research has indicated they are empirically comparable to one another to a high degree

5) Stimuli is used to represent concrete objects or events and possibilities that affect a person’s reactions.

Research
To research approach and motivation, Dr. Elliot created a hierarchical model of approach-avoidance motivation that articulates the various ways that approach and avoidance processes operate across the neuraxis to produce, affect our behaviour. The purpose of his research is to try and understand the broader context of cultural, dispositional and situational influences on motivation. He also focuses his research on trying to understand the self, motivation, achievement and social connection that people have and strive for. He has also set out to understand the influence of color on basic approach and avoidance processes in both achievement and social domains.

Definitions
His creation of the hierarchical model approach motivation is crucial to understanding how people react to different types of motivation. He defines approach motivation as “the energization of behaviour by, or the direction of behaviour toward, positive stimuli (objects, events, possibilities). Avoidance motivation is described as the energization of behaviour by, or the direction of behaviour away from negative stimuli (objects, events, possibilities).

Findings
His research has found that “motives and temperaments orient individual, but do not provide precise guidance for how general desires are dealt with.” Also, “organisms (humans, mammals) are motivated in multifaceted ways to approach the positive and void the negative. Elliot realizes that the approach-avoidance method is important in understanding a person’s motivation but it is not a sufficient component

Through research, Elliot has discovered that the sighting of the colour red provokes unconscious avoidance behaviour. The significance of this is if someone sees the colour red, they immediately take notice and being to avoid whatever’s red. In the context of a traffic light and if it turns red, then the immediate reaction of the driver is to stop. The research findings back up the reason why traffic lights are red, because it will make them stop faster than any other colour will.