Multiple human motivation theories have been developed during the last century. The main aim of this work is to analyse the current situation on motivational psychology and to describe which are the most promising theoretical tendencies at this moment and in the short future. The initial point of reflection about the role of motivation on the explanation of human activity is the classification between reactive and active models. Reactive theories incorporate a great deal of different tendencies but all of them agree around the general consideration of a passive subject being his-her behaviour a reactive answer to internal or external stimuli. Active theories, however, agree around the general idea of an active subject being his-her behaviour guided by plans, goals, and purposes. A general balance about the state of the art on motivational psychology shows a great dispersion and also a prevalence of the applied research as the main characteristics. In academic psychology most of the authors assume a cognitive interpretation about human motivation focussing the study on goal directed behaviours. At the present moment, the most relevant challenges for future research are the interactions between motivation and emotional & cognitive processes.