ch.10 motivation and emotion Flashcards
What is motivation?
It is the combination of factors that direct and energize the behavior of humans and other organisms
The combination of these factors are?
- Biological
- Cognitive
- Social
What are the six major approaches to motivation?
1-Instinct Approaches 2-Drive-Reduction Approaches 3-Arousal Approaches 4-Incentive Approaches 5-Cognitive Approaches 6-Maslows Hierarchy of Needs
What is the main focus of Instinct Approaches(born to be motivated)?
Biological
What does instinct mean?
Inborn patterns of behavior that are biologically determined rather than learnt throughout the course of life experiences
What does the Instinct Approach suggest?
It suggests that people and animals are born pre-programmed with sets of behaviors essential to their survival
What do instincts provide?
They provide the energy that guide behavior in certain directions
Whats the instinct to reproduce?
Sexual behavior
Whats the instinct to examine surrounding territory?
Exploratory behavior
What are the strengths for the Instinct Approach?
Emphasis on the dimension of evolution which focuses research on genetic inheritance which helps science progress
What are the weaknesses of the Instinct Approach?
- Who can decide for certain how many instincts are there?
- Labeling a behavior as instinct does not explain why certain behaviors appear in certain situations but not in others
- We cant simply reduce all our behavior to instincts
- The levels of motivation can also be different
What is the main focus of the Drive-Reduction approach(satisfying our needs)?
Biological
What is a drive?
Its a motivational tension(arousal) that aims at fulfilling a need
We have two types of drives
- Primary drive
- Secondary drive
What is a Primary drive?
Its a basic drive for hunger, thirst, sleep. The basic biological needs for the body
Behavior satisfies a basic biological need in which drive?
In the primary drive
What is a Secondary drive?
They are acquired needs like learning
What is the drive reduction approach to motivation?
A lack of some basic biological needs(primary drive) produces a drive to push an organism for satisfying that need
What is homeostasis?
Its the body’s tendency to maintain a steady internal state
What are the strengths for the drive reduction approach?
Provides a good explanation on how primary biological needs can motivate behavior
What are the weaknesses for the drive reduction approach?
Cant fully explain why some behaviors persist
What is the main focus for Arousal Approaches(normalizing stimulation)?
Biological + cognitive
What is the arousal approach?
Where each person tried to maintain a steady level of stimulation and activity, every action we perform is pursued by our motivation to maintain an ideal balance
What can the arousal theory explain?
It doesn’t only explain the reduction in drives but can also explain increases in excitement to reach an optimal desirable level of stimulation
When do u reduce the stimulation?
If its too high
When do u increase the stimulation?
If too low
What are the strengths for the arousal theory?
-Provides a good explanation on why people seek out excitement in addition to merely decreasing arousal
What are the weaknesses for the arousal theory?
Cant fully explain why people have different optimal levels of arousal
What is the main focus for Incentive approaches(motivations pulling force)?
Cognitive + Social
What is motivation caused by?
Its caused by the wish to attain external rewards
What is motivation not caused by?
Its not caused by drive reduction or the maintenance of optimal arousal
What is the behavior for the incentive approach?
Its the behavior of wanting not necessarily needing
Example for Incentive Approach?
Eat dessert even when not hungry
What are the strengths for the Incentive Approach?
Provides good explanation on behavior without proper internal drives
What are the weaknesses for the Incentive Approach?
It cant completely describe motivation we can strive for success, reward, and money even when it is not certain we will get these incentives
What are Incentive + Drive Reduction approaches?
Internal drives- push(force) to behave
External drives- pull(convince) to behave
What is the main focus for Cognitive Approaches(the thoughts behind motivation)?
Cognitive
Motivation is a product of what?
Its a product of peoples thoughts, expectations, goals, beliefs
Example for Cognitive Approaches?
Students are motivated to study because they expect good studying will pay off in the future
What is Intrinsic Motivation?
Activity for our own enjoyment and not for any concrete actual reward (doing something for its own sake)
What is Extrinsic Motivation?
Activity aimed at attaining a concrete actual reward such as earning money high grades (doing something for a further final gain)
Providing rewards for desirable behavior may increase or decrease intrinsic motivation?
It actually decrease intrinsic motivation
What is the main focus for Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs(ordering motivational needs)?
Cognitive + Social
What is the goal of behavior?
It is satisfying human needs in the order of their importance
What are the needs that guide human behavior?
- Psychological needs
- Safety needs
- Love and belongingness
- Esteem
- Self-actualization
To achieve advanced needs you need to first what?
You need to first achieve basic needs
What is Self-actualization?
Its a state of self fulfillment reaching ones full potential
Why is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs an important contribution to psychological science?
- It highlights the complexity of human needs
- It emphasizes that until basic biological needs are met people will be unconcerned about higher order needs
What is an additional approach influenced by Maslow’s theory?
The theory of Self-Determination
What is the Theory of Self-Determination?
It suggests that humans have 3 basic needs
1-Competence
2-Autonomy
3-Relatedness
What is Competence?
Its the need to produce desirable outcomes
What is Autonomy?
Its the need to perceive ourselves as having control over our lives
What is Relatedness?
Its the need to be involved in close/warm relationships with others
What are humans 3 basic needs?
1-Competence
2-Autonomy
3-Relatedness
What is Obesity?
Body weight being 20% more than average weight for that specific age group, gender and height
What is Body Mass Index (BMI)?
The percentage of body fat
Body Mass Index (BMI) is measured in?
Kg/m to the power of 2
What motivates people to eat?
Biological factors or social factors
Biological factors in the regulation of hunger
- Hypothalamus
- Changes in the chemical composition of the blood
- Metabolism
How does Hypothalamus regulate hunger?
It regulates blood glucose levels and maintains it
How does the Lateral Hypothalamus regulate hunger?
It signals to start eating
injury- no interest in food intake
How does the Ventromedial Hypothalamus regulate hunger?
It signals to stop eating
injury- constant food intake
What happens if glucose levels increase?
The Ventromedial Hypothalamus gets activated
What happens if glucose levels decrease?
The Lateral Hypothalamus gets activated
When is insulin secreted?
Its secreted when glucose levels increase
What does insulin aim at?
Its aimed at storing excess glucose as glycogen in the body
Excess glucose is what in the body?
Glycogen
When is Ghrelin secreted?
Its secreted when stomach is empty
What does Ghrelin aim at?
Its aimed at increasing eating response
How does hypothalamus regulate food intake?
- The idea of a weight set point where a particular level of weight the body strives to maintain.
- The hypothalamus acts as a body weight thermostat leading to feed more or less to reach desired weight levels.
- But if there become damage to the hypothalamus from genetic factors it affects the weight set point
What is metabolism?
The rate at which food is converted to energy and expended by the body (metabolic rate)
What happens when you have a high metabolic rate?
- Can eat large amounts of food
- Burning fast
- Not gaining weight
What happens when you have a low metabolic rate?
- Burning slow even when consuming small amounts of food
- Under risk to gain weight
What are social factors in the regulation of hunger?
- Societal rules
- Cultural influences
- Individual habits
- Classical and operant conditioning
What are societal rules when it comes to the regulation of hunger?
Manners and meal times
What are cultural influences when it comes to the regulation of hunger?
Type and amount of food varies from culture to culture
What are individual habits when it comes to the regulation of hunger?
Lifestyle, diet, exercise
What are classical and operant conditioning when it comes to the regulation of hunger?
Emotional eating where you associate food with comfort or a reward
What are the causes of obesity?
- Oversensitivity (external eating cues)
- Insensitivity (internal hunger cues)
- A higher weight set point
- The number of fat cells
What is oversensitivity (external eating cues) when it comes to the causes of obesity?
They are factors reminding of food or of food-related pleasure or rewards
What is insensitivity (internal hunger cues) when it comes to the causes of obesity?
Being unable to take into consideration that satiation response, the lack of hunger, adequately
How does a higher weight set point cause obesity?
Maybe they are sensitive to external eating cues even when they try dieting their bodies strive to reach a high weight set point
Why higher set point when it comes to the causes of obesity?
Higher level of the hormone leptin
What is the hormone leptin?
It protects against weight loss (boost to survival)
The number of fat cells
Rate of weight gain during the first four months of life is related to being overweight during later childhood
What happens to the number of fat cells after infancy?
Losing weight does not mean you lose fat cells you lose the volume of the fat cells
What is Anorexia nervosa?
A severe eating disorder in which people may refuse to eat, stating that this behavior and their physical appearance are not unusual
What is Bulimia nervosa?
Either by binging (eating large quantities of food) or purging (getting the food rapidly out of the body
How does one with bulimia nervosa purge?
- Vomiting
- Using laxatives
What follows after the purging?
- The person feel guilty and tried to get the food out of the body
- Constant binging and purging cycles which are problematic for heart, digestive system and teeth
What is the biological cause for eating disorders?
- Chemical imbalance in the hypothalamus or pituitary gland
- Possible genetic predispositions towards the imbalance
What are the psychological causes for eating disorders?
- Overly demanding parents, family problems
- Brain scans indicate that people with eating disorders process food related information differently than healthy people
What are the social causes for eating disorders?
Westernized societies value slenderness and put emphasis on obesity being a very undesirable/ even disgusting condition which causes social pressure to conform with societal norms
What type of characteristic do you get from the need for achievement?
Learnt and stable characteristic
What do you obtain from a learnt and stable characteristic?
You obtain satisfaction by striving for and achieving challenging goals
How does a high need for achievement motivate you?
Motivates you by a need to prove yourself successful, competing against an objective standard
How does a low need for achievement motivate you?
Motivated primarily by a desire to avoid failure
How to measure need for achievement?
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
What is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)?
Its a projective test that asks about ideas on ambiguous pictures
In the Thematic Apperception Test if the person creates an achievement-struggle-hardwork-competition related story what may it indicate?
It may indicate a high need for achievement
What is The Need for Affiliation?
An interest in establishing and maintaining relationships
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) stories put more emphasis on
- Maintaining friendships
- Sensitivity over rejection by close ones
High need for affiliation
- Particularly sensitive to relationships with others
- Not much preference to being alone
Gender differences in the need for affiliation
Time spent with friends- more in female students
The need for power
A tendency to seek impact on, control, or influence others the desire to be seen as a powerful individual
A high need for power results in
- Seeking organizational responsibilities/ more frequently
- Seeking professions that fulfill power needs
Gender differences in the display of the need for power
- Men(showing off)- more aggression/ alcoholism/ sexual indulgement, more frequent involvement in competitive sports
- Women(showing concern)- concern for others/ displaying supportive behavior
What are emotions?
Feelings that generally have both physiological and cognitive elements and that generally influence behavior
What are the functions of emotions?
- Preparing us for action
- Shaping our future behavior
- Helping us interact more effectively with others
How do emotions prepare us for action?
Emotions are as links between our environment and our responses to the environment like the fight-or-flight response
How do emotions shape our future behavior?
Promoting learning which help us make appropriate responses in future situations
How does emotions help us interact more effectively with others?
Verbal and nonverbal behavior- enhance the richness of communication so people understand us better and can predict out future behavior better
What do theories explaining emotions take into account?
- Environmental stimuli
- Physiological changes in the body
- Brain activity
- Being aware of the emotional response
Theories explaining emotions
- James-Lange theory
- Cannon-Bard theory
- Schacter-Singer theory
James-Lange theory
A reaction to bodily events (physiological processes) occurring as a result of an external situation
How does the brain interpret bodily events?
The brain interprets bodily events as emotions
Example for how the brain interprets bodily events as emotions
- I feel sad, because im crying
- Punching someone, gets us angry
- Crying at a loss, makes us feel sorrow
What is a visceral experience?
The reaction of our internal organs (gut reaction)
For every major emotion
There is an accompanying physiological reaction unique to that emotion
What are the drawbacks of James-Lange Theory?
- Physiological changes need more time to occur
- Physiological changes themselves are not always enough to cause emotions
- Our internal organs produce a rather limited range of reactions
Cannon-Bard theory
The idea that both physiological arousal and emotional experience are produced simultaneously by the same nerve stimulus
Where does physiological arousal and emotional experience originate?
They originate in the thalamus
Where is the initial site to begin an emotional response?
Thalamus
What does the thalamus do?
- Sends a message to the autonomic nervous system (for visceral changes)
- Sends a message to cerebral cortex (for conscious experiencing of fear)
What are the drawbacks of the Cannon-Bard theory?
- Hypothalamus and the limbic system (not thalamus) play major roles in emotional experience
- According to the theory visceral changes (physiological responses) and conscious awareness of the emotional responses have to happen at the same time
Schacter-Singer theory
Proposes that emotions are determined together with a nonspecific physiological arousal and its interpretation, based on environmental cues
When the kind of physiological arousal is unclear where do we turn to?
We turn to our environment to discern how we feel
James-Lange theory
Activation of visceral body changes- Brain interprets visceral changes as emotional experience
Cannan-Bard theory
Activation of thalamus- Activation of bodily changes in response to brain- Message to cortex regarding emotional experience
Schachter- Singer theory
Activation of general physiological arousal- Observation of environmental cues- Determination of label to place on arousal, identifying emotional experience
Contemporary perspectives on the neuroscience of emotions
Different emotions produce activation of different parts of the brain
Whats a region in the temporal lobe that plays a role in experiencing emotions?
Amygdala
What does amygdala provide in the experience of emotion?
It provides a link between the perception of an emotion-producing stimulus and the recall of that stimulus later
What is the importance(emphasis) of amygdala?
Fear-based learning
An example for fear-based learning
Will remember that dog attack and make you react faster next time you see a similar dog
What is the importance for fear-based learning?
Fast emotional response
How does the experience of emotions go through the brain?
Amygdala- visual cortex- hippocampus
Why doesn’t the experience of emotions in the amygdala include the frontal lobe?
Because it takes time to think rationally and amygdala is involved in fast decision making
Whats the facial-affect program?
Its the activation of a set of nerve impulses that make the face display an appropriate expression for each basic emotion
Is the facial-affect program innate?
Yes its innate which means its present at birth, your born with it
Whats the facial-feedback hypothesis?
That facial expressions not only reflect emotions they also influence how you feel helping you feel the emotion compatible with your face expression
An example for facial-feedback hypothesis
- Smile and see how you will feel a few moments after
- Make an afraid expression and notice changes in your heart rate, or mood after several seconds
