MENTAL SUPERSTRUCTURE

Sociocultural materialism term used to refer to conscious and unconscious motives for human behavior. Borrowed from Max Weber, there are four basic motivations for human behavior: wertrational (or value oriented rationality), affective action (action motivated by emotions), traditional action (action motivated by what Weber calls the "eternal yesterday"), and zweckrational (goal oriented rational action). (See also SUPERSTRUCTURE, and CULTURAL SUPERSTRUCTURE).