10: Motivation 1+2 Flashcards
What is the first characteristic of motivation?
Motivations can differ, but the behavior is the same
What is a definition for motivation?
A process that energizes, guides, and maintains behavior towards a goal
Who started biological motivations, what did he do?
Discovered by William James, where he identified over 6000 instincts. He ended up just naming behaviors rather than explaining them.
Describe modern biological motivations:
Maintaining homeostasis and equilibrium through drives (internal states caused by physiological needs)
Resulted in Drive-Reduction Theory
What is Drive Reduction theory and how was it derived from the concept of equilibrium?
Needs (Food, water, sex) ->
Drive (hunger, thirst, sex) ->
Drive reducing behaviors (eating, drinking, sex)
What is the Yerke-Dodson Law?
The graph (that looks like a bell graph) of performance vs arousal.
Ex/
- People who aren’t aroused (don’t care) don’t perform well on midterm
- People who care (the middle of bell curve) perform best on midterm
- People who are way too aroused (PANIC) don’t perform well on midterm
How does the graph of Yerke-Dodson’s Law differ for easy and hard tasks?
For easy tasks, we need a lot of arousal for our performance to increase, as we’re too laid back and usually procrasinate.
For hard tasks, we don’t need a lot of arousal for peak performance, as we’re already worried about the HARD task.
Our performance on hard tasks also quickly decreases if we are TOO aroused.
What is individual motivation comprised of?
Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation
Intrinsic: Motivation towards passion / sense of accomplishment. Behavior itself is rewarding. Comes from within
Extrinsic: Motivation towards external reward, avoid punishment, comes externally
How does intrinsic and extrinsic motivations influence each other?
Thinking back on Simon playing Sax example:
- started high on intrinsic motivation (he liked playing for fun)
- starts getting paid (extrinsic, tangible); decrease in intrinsic motivation, increase in extrinsic motivation
- Gets sincere compliment: Intrinsic motivation increased
- Starts EXPECTING IT!!!! NOW TURNS TO EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION!
What about curiosity and motivation?
Anything that serves to increase our curiosity increases our extrinsic motivation.
Ex/ Big red button vs Big red button with a sign saying, “Do not push”.
The warning increases the perceived value of button, INCREASING extrinsic motivation.
What is self-efficacy? According to this, where does our motivation come from?
It’s related to self-confidence. You’ve got to think you can do it to DO IT.
Motivation comes from our expectations of the consequences of our behavior. (If I do X, then Y will happen).
What are the three main parts of social motivations?
Achievement, Affiliation, Intimacy
Achievement: compare ourselves to others
Affiliation: We’re social creatures. Hardwired.
Intimacy: People want love.
All sources of social motivation.
Maslaw’s Hierarchy of Needs:
self-transcended needs:
- Transcended your own needs. There for rest of society.
Self- actualization needs:
- Need to live up to our fullest and unique potential
Esteem needs:
- Need for self-esteem, achievement, competence, respect, recognition
Belongingness and love needs:
- Need to be loved and love, accepted
Safety needs:
- Feel safe, secure, the world is organized
Physiological needs:
- Need to satisfy hunger and thirst
What are some critiques of Maslow’s hierarchy?
Higher level needs sometimes trump lower needs
Not scientific, no control group
Culturally biased
What is ghrelin? Where is it released? How does it travel? Where does it go?
Ghrelin is released by the stomach when you’re hungry. It travels through blood system, goes to brain, hypothalamus.
What is orexin? Where is it released?
Orexin is released by the hypothalamus after it receives ghrelin. This hormone causes us to feel hungry.
What is leptin? Where is it released? What does it tell us?
Leptin is released by fat cells and it signals to the brain that we are full.
Leptin is also associated with a decreased of dopamine from eating.
What is hyperphagia?
Being chronically sensitive to any existence of ghrelin in your system
Take the Alexis Shapiro case study for example. She had her hypothalamus damaged in surgery and it became like this.
What is a possible solution to hyperphagia
Gastric sleeve bypass, where you have a chunk of your stomach removed. This makes it produce less ghrelin, but doesn’t solve the sensitiveness.
What does a leptin deficiency do?
Doesn’t have much leptin, so your body doesn’t tell you when to stop eating.
Can be solved somewhat with leptin injections.
What is metabolic rate? How does it differ in people?
The amount of energy expended in a given period of time. Everyone has a different metabolic rate which is set by their genes.
Define catabolism and anabolism:
Catabolism: Take food and break it down into its parts and energy
Anabolism: Take the parts and combine with energy to build muscle, meat, etc.
What is set-point theory?
A theory that we have an ideal weight - a set point.
This point is resistent to change. We fluxiage up and down, but generally stays near it.
If we try to change our weight significantly, it is resisted by our body through compensatory changes.
What is some evidence against set point theory?
Set point theory states that our weight and stuff is all regulated by our metabolism and genes, but social networking influences our weight.
There is proof that hanging out with other people also heavily impacts your metabolism and weight.
