Chapter 11 - Emotion and Motivation Flashcards
Define “emotion”
“Motivated state marked by physiological arousal, expressive behaviour, and mental experience.”
“Mental states or feelings associated with our evaluation of our experiences”
Three aspects of emotion
- Physiology - eg. autonomic nervous system, limbic system
- Behaviour - What we do when ‘emotional’ (eg. crying, slamming doors)
- Cognition/Mental - Subjective experience of emotion; Relation between physiology and cognition
Discrete emotions theory of emotions
Theory that humans experience a small number of distinct emotions that are rooted in our biology
- Evolutionary basis; adaptive
- Prepare us for action (eg. disgust - avoid illness; anger - ready to fight)
James-Lange Theory of emotion
-Physiological/behavioural response first, then our interpretation of this results in emotion
Somatic Marker Theory of Emotion
- Variation of James-Lange theory
- Use our gut reactions to determine how to act
Facial-Feedback Hypothesis of Emotion
- Another variation of James-Lange
- Changes to face (temp, blood-vessels, muscles) signal brain about type of emotion
- Darwin
Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion
- Contrast to James-Lange
- A situation leads to BOTH physiological and cognitive experiences of emotion
- Incorrectly proposed thalamus triggered both
Two-Factor Theory of Emotion
- Interpretations of bodily reactions are important, but not sufficient for emotion:
1. Emotion-provoking event causes “undifferentiated” arousal (alertness), which is the same across all emotions.
2. We label the arousal with an emotion after attributing arousal to an occurrence.
Broaden and Build theory
- Proposes that happiness predisposes us to think more openly
- Think more flexibly, creatively, big-picture
VS
- Negative emotion narrows our focus for ‘specific action tendencies’
- Find source of threat, ready for attack = survival
What is happiness?
- Subjective well-being
- Positive affect (emotion)
Two perspectives of happiness
- Hedonic view:
- pursuit of pleasure; avoiding suffering
- Happiness is “totality of one’s hedonic moments” -Aristipuss
- Modern accounts: focus on pleasure (physical and mental) - Eudaimonic view:
- Aristotle - “self-realization”
- Living the “good life,” which might not always bring you pleasure per se
Misconceptions about happiness
-Good life events; money; youth; living in warm/beautiful places = happiness….wrong
Hedonic treadmill
-Circumstances can temporarily shift our happiness but we return to our set point soon after
Durability bias
-Belief that our good and bad moods will last longer than they do
What makes us happy?
- Close positive relationships (strong r, and some causal)
- Exercise
- Giving and gratitude
- Flow
- Increases of income up to 50k
Motivation
- Psychological drives that propel us in a specific direction
- Includes approach (hunger, sex) and avoidance (scary animals) behaviour
Drive reduction theory of Motivation
- Organisms seek equilibrium in respect to certain “drives” like thirst, hunger, sexual frustration (all negative)
- Goal is to reduce tension by satisfying the drive
- Limitation: doesn’t explain why we act when our drives are satisfied
Incentive Theories of Motivation
- Motivated by positive goals too (contrast to drive reduction)
- Incentives work best when we value them and expect we can get them
- Intrinsic and Extrinsic
Intrinsic vs Extrinsic motivation
- Intrinsic: motivated by internal goals (eg, mastery of material)
- Extrinsic: motivated by external goals (eg, good grades)
-Sometimes these can interact (hunger)
Physical factors controlling Hunger (2 switches, plus hormones)
2 “switches”:
Glucostatic Theory: dips in glucose creates drive to eat
Dual-centric Theory:
- Lateral hypothalamus ‘starts’ feeling of hunger
- Ventromedial hypothalamus ‘stops’feeling of hunger
PLUS hormones:
- Ghrelin communicates with hypothalamus to increase hunger
- Cholecystakinin (CCK) counteracts ghrelin to decrease hunger
- Leptin reduces hungerand increases energy used
External factors controlling hunger
- Learned habits (places, types of food, cultural customs)
- Dietary restraints
- External cues (“it’s dinnertime”; sight, smell, associations)
- Presence of others
Set point
- Bodies always try to get back to our genetically determined set-point (fat, muscle)
- Can shift slightly through lifestyle
- Genes play important role (shown by twin studies-MZ .7-.9 while DZ .35-.45 for fat mass)
- In 6% of severe obesity cases mutation of “melanocortin-4 receptor’ gene causes never feeling full
