What type of force is needed to accelerate an object? what direction will the object accelerate?

I think this question is fishing for "NET" force.

That means any force that's not cancelled by another force
on the same object that's equal and opposite (so that the two
of them would add up to zero and have no effect at all).

When there's a 'net' force on the object ... meaning that the whole 
GROUP of ALL forces on the object is not balanced and not zero ...
then the object accelerates in the direction of the net force.

the simple machine has three main features. they are:

loadfulcrumeffort

fulcrum is the center point or pivot point of the machine. effort is input force/ applied force. load is external force/ output.

the keisha 's machine labels are

x : load

y: fulcrum

z: lever