Chapter 10: Motivation and Emotion

Question 1

What are the five stages of Maslow’s hierarchy of need? (5)

Answer 1

-self-actualization
-esteem
-love/belonging

Question 2

What are the two theoretical approaches to motivation? (2)

Answer 2

-evolutionary perspective
-humanistic perspective

Question 3

What are the answers to the important questions that the evolutionary approach to motivation gives? (3)

Answer 3

What is our goal of life?
-to reproduce, enhance the survival of the species
What motivates you to set this goal?
-biological/psychological needs
How do you accomplish this goal?
-maximize the number of offspring and their chance of survival

Question 4

What are four observations that drive the theory of evolution? (4)

Answer 4

-organisms vary in endless ways (size, speed, strength, etc)
-some of these characteristics are heritable (can be passed down from one generation to the next)
-availability of resources can never catch up with the rate of reproduction (competition for resources occur within and across species)
-a heritable trait will become prevalent if this trait enhances the survival of an organism and its offspring

Question 5

Define fitness

Answer 5

-the reproductive success (number of descendants) of an organism relative to the average reproductive success in the population

Question 6

What is Bateman’s principle? (2)

Answer 6

-that men have more partners because it helps them have more offspring whereas for women this doesn’t make a big impact
-most females in a population mate and have offspring, but few males mate successfully meaning that some males have a very high reproductive rate and some very low

Question 7

Describe a Harem in both human society and the animal world. (2)

Answer 7

-an elite man houses his wives, pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters etc
-in the animal world, a harem is a group consisting of a dominant male that drives off other males and maintains the unity of the group

Question 8

What are the three answers the humanistic approach to motivation gives? (3)

Answer 8

What is your ultimate goal in life?
-to self-actualize and live to the fullest potential, achieving personal goals
What motivates you to set this goal?
-need for achievement
How do you accomplish this goal?
-set a SMART goal, self-discipline, have grit and resilience

Question 9

What is a hot cognition?

Answer 9

-thoughts and actions are affected by emotions or needs (think reacting rather than responding)

Question 10

What is cold cognition? What is an example of this? (2)

Answer 10

-thinking critically and making decisions based on logic and evidence (think responding rather than reacting)
-delayed gratification

Question 11

What is grit and what do people with grit have better chances at? (2)

Answer 11

-passion for their goals and perseverance
-grit is a better predictor than intelligence for achieving long term academic success and better grades

Question 12

What do people with a high need for achievement have?

Answer 12

-set challenging but realistic goals, high level of grit, self-regulation, delayed gratification

Question 13

How does the circumplex model of emotion categorize emotions? (2)

Answer 13

-valence (negative like sad or upset to positive like happy)
-level of arousal (low like fatigued to high like tense)

Question 14

Are fear and anger bio-chemically identical?

Answer 14

-yes, think of flight and fight

Question 15

What did Charles Darwin believe about emotions?

Answer 15

-they are universal and are serving adaptive functions

Question 16

What emotions are deemed primary emotions because people across all cultures are able to identify them? Six/seven emotions.

Answer 16

-fear, disgust, happiness, surprise, anger, sadness and (contempt)

Question 17

What did Ekman believe about emotions?

Answer 17

-believed the meaning of facial expressions is socially learned, thus it should vary across cultures

Question 18

What brain area is key to processing emotions?

Answer 18

-the limbic system (amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus and hypothalamus)

Question 19

What is the slow vs. fast process during experiencing fear? (2)

Answer 19

-slow path is when the visual cortex sends information to the thalamus which sends it back to the neocortex to process which then sends it to the amygdala
-fast path is when the stimuli goes directly to the thalamus and then right to the amygdala letting us react quickly

Question 20

Describe the difference between the common sense diagram of fear, the James-Lange theory and the Cannon-Bard theory. (3)

Answer 20

-common sense says if a scary dog barks you tremble because you feel afraid (conscious feeling to autonomic arousal)
-James-lange says the autonomic arousal comes before the conscious feeling so I feel afraid because I tremble
-the cannon-bard theory says that both conscious feeling and autonomic arousal occur simultaneously

Question 21

What does Cannon-Bard’s theory of central neural processing say?

Answer 21

-subcortical brain activity in the thalamus is the cause for both physiological arousal and emotional feeling

Question 22

Can you describe Schachter’s two-factor theory?

Answer 22

-when an emotion-invoking event occurs, it leads to physiological changes which is similar for different emotions, thus we must use cognitive labelling to tell the difference between emotions