11.2 social motivations Flashcards
Abraham Maslow
some of our motivations must take presidency over others
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs
the motivation to pursue higher levels of needs can only proceed after we succeed in pursing lower level needs physiological needs safety needs belongingness and love needs esteem needs cognitive needs aesthetic needs self actualization needs
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
- failure to fulfill more basic needs will tend to make it impossible to fulfill higher needs
- maslow didn’t mention it, but sometimes it is possible to fulfill more than one need at a time
- having self actualization as the ultimate goal is bias of our individualistic western culture
- members of more collectivist cultures may consider group success to be the ultimate goal
the basic human need to belong
this needs relates to the goal to maintain social relationships that generate pleasant feelings in us, these feelings come from knowing other ppl value us
-failing to achieve belongingness affects our mental health-one key source of anit-social behaviour
under-appreciated threats to mental health and causes of social problems
sleep deprivation
information overload
social isolation and rejection
fulfilling our need to belong generates health benefits
- loneliness lowers our immune system and increase our risk of disease
- the ultimate fulfillment of our need for belongingness goes by the term, LOVE
Passionate love
love that is tied to physical attraction and the intense desire to have sexual contact with the other person
Companionate love
lover emerges more from feelings of warmth, contentment, trust, as well as deep knowledge of the other person and strong admiration for them
- more strongly related to romantic relationships that last over the long-term
- our desire for theses sorts of relationships probably arise from the child raising advantage they provided our ancestors
- OXYTOCIN
oxytocin
hormone that stimulates the feelings of attachment and closeness that we refer to as love
factors associated with romantic partners staying together for the long-tern include
- having a high level of attraction to begin with
- the obstacles discouraging the break up
- the availability of alternative options
- > staying together is an accomplishment, particularly for ppl who do have many appealing alternative options
esteem needs
also known as achievement motivations
achievement motivation and approach goals
we seek achievement through approach goals
money, self esteem boosting, popularity
achievement motivation and avoidance goals
-trying to avoid negative feelings
avoidance of emotional pain
to avoid financial losses
embarrassment avoidance
universal human needs
relatedness
autonomy
competence
relatedness
the need to feel connected with others
autonomy
the need to feel that we have control over our own destiny
Competence
the ability to develop a satisfying level of skill in some area
self efficacy
our belief about how competent we are to succeed in a particular domain
self determination theory
- universal human needs combine to form self determination theory
- our ability to succeed in achieving our goals, our happiness, and our health depends on whether we have control over our ability to achieve those goals
extrinsic motivation
(or performance motives)
are motivations having to do with direct personal gain for performing an activity
amotivational
when the threat to our autonomy becomes so great that we completely lose the motivation to engage some behaviour, such as our job
intrinsic motivation
(or mastery motives)
are motivations having to do with the inherent pleasure one derives from an activity and from improving one’s skill
intrinsic motivation is better
in a recent study, grade 5 students were either praised for their intelligence when solving puzzles (an extrinsic reward), or they were praised for their hard work (encouraging an intrinsic motivation to develop skill in puzzle solving)
later, the children praised for their intelligence were more anxious about solving more difficult puzzles, were more likely to give up, and ended up solving fewer puzzles than the children praised for working hard
-only 13% of the students praised for working hard lied about how many puzzles they solved, whereas 40% of the students praised for their intelligence lied about the number of puzzles they solved
the over justification effect
applying extrinsic rewards to an intrinsically enjoyable behaviour can cause ppl to enjoy the behaviour less and may reduce their motivation to engage in the behabiour
sometimes activities can start out as extrinsically-motivated,
but then develop into intrinsically-motivated behaviours
currently, there is an effort to change ppls behaviour through ways other than bribery or the threat of punishment
there are advertising methods that avoid threatening peoples autonomy and that seek to nudge them into changing their behaviour
- initially persuasive messages are better at prompting changes in ppls behaviour if they focus on the negative consequences of failing to take action
- once ppl are made aware of the severity of a problem, it is better to lighten up and present messages that describe simple actions that will weaken the threat
