Emotion and Motivation Flashcards
Motivation
•Refers to the wants and needs that direct behavior toward a goal
Intrinsic Motivation
- Comes from within the individual
- Autonomy
- Mastery
- Purpose
Extrinsic Motivation
- Comes from outside the individual
- Compensation
- Punishment
- Reward
Instinct
•A species-specific pattern of behavior that is not learned (proposed by William James)
Early theory of motivation proposed that the maintenance of _______ is particularly important in directing behavior.
Homeostasis
In a body system, a _______ (often part of the brain) receives input from _____ (often complexes of neurons)
The ______ directs ______ (may be other neurons) to correct any _______ imbalance detected by the ______.
Control center; receptors
Control center; effectors
Drive Theory of Motivation
- According to this theory, deviations from homeostasis create physiological needs.
- These needs result in psychological drive states that direct behavior to meet the need and, ultimately bring the system back to homeostasis
E.g., it’s been a while since you ate, your blood sugar levels will drop below normal. This low blood sugar will induce physiological need and a corresponding drive state (i.e., hunger) that will direct you to seek out and consume food
Habit
•A pattern of behavior in which we regularly engage
Arousal Theory of Motivation
- Takes into account levels of arousal as potential motivators
- If we are under-aroused, we become bored and will seek out some sort of stimulation
- If we are over-aroused, we will engage in behaviors to reduce our arousal
What level of arousal leads to the best performance?
•Research shows that moderate arousal is generally best; when it is not too high or too low
Robert Yerkes and John Dodson
•They discovered that the optimal arousal level depends on the complexity and difficulty of the task performed
Yerkes-Dodson Law
•This law states that a simple task is performed best when arousal levels are relatively high and complex tasks are best performed when arousal levels are lower
Self-Efficacy
•An individual’s belief in her own capability to complete a task, which may include a previous successful completion of the exact or similar task
Albert Bandura
- Theorized that an individual’s sense of self-efficacy plays a private role in motivating behavior
- Bandura argues that motivation derives from expectations that we have about the consequences of our behaviors
E.g., If you have a sincere belief in your ability to achieve at the highest level, you are more likely to take on challenging tasks and to not let setbacks dissuade you from seeing the task through the end
Need for Achievement
•Drives accomplishment and performance
Need for Affiliation
•Encourage positive interactions with others
Need for Intimacy
•Result us to seek deep, meaningful relationships
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs that spans the spectrum of motives ranging from the biological to the individual to the social
- Physiological needs (base of the pyramid) – needs that are necessary for survival – food, water, shelter, warmth
- Needs for Security – needs to be loved and to have a sense of belonging – safety, employment, assets
- Social needs – needs for emotional relationships drives human behavior – family, friendship, intimacy, belonging
- Esteem needs – needs for respect, self-esteem, and self-confidence – self-worth, accomplishment, confidence
- Self-actualization – desire of becoming everything that one is capable of – inner-fulfillment
Physiological Mechanisms of Hunger
•Stomach contractions send signals to the brain, allowing us to be aware of our hunger
Satiation
•Once an individual has eaten, they feel satisfaction, and their eating behavior stops
Leptin
•Fat cells will produce leptin, which will trigger the hypothalamus in the brain to decrease your appetite
Metabolic Rate
- Refers to the amount of energy that is expended in a given period of time
- Varies in individuals
Set-point Theory
- Asserts that each individual has an ideal body weight, or set point, which is resistant to change
- Genetically predetermined and efforts to move our weight significantly from the set-point are resisted by compensatory changes in energy intake and/or expenditure
Overweight
•According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an adult with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight
Obese
•According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, an adult with a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese
Morbid Obesity
- Define as having a BMI of over 40
* At risk for death
What are the negative health consequences for being extremely overweight?
- Increased risk of cardiovascular disease
- Stroke
- Type 2 diabetes
- Liver disease
- Sleep apnea
- Colon and breast cancer
- Infertility
- Arthritis
What are the Factors that Result an Individual to be overweight?
- Genes
- Environment
- Socio-economic status
Overweight and obese individuals are encouraged to try to reduce their weights through a combination of both _____ and ______.
Exercise; diet
Bariatric Surgery
- Specifically aimed at weight reduction; recommended for individuals who are at risk of death due to obesity
- Involves modifying the gastrointestinal system to reduce the amount of food that can be eaten and/ or limiting how much of the digested food can be absorbed
Bulimia Nervosa
- Individuals engage in binge eating behavior that is followed by an attempt to compensate for the large amount of food consumed
- 2 common compensatory behaviors – purging the food by inducing vomiting or through the use of laxatives
- Adverse health consequences – kidney and heart failure, tooth decay, anxiety and depression (increased risk of substance abuse)
Binge Eating Disorder
- It is followed by distress, including feeling of guilt and embarrassment
- The resulting psychological distress distinguishes binge eating disorder from overeating
Anorexia Nervosa
- It is characterized by the maintenance of a body weight well below average through starvation and/or excessive exercise
- Distorted body image – a type of body dysmorphia, which means that they view themselves as overweight even though they are not
- Adverse health consequences – bone loss, heart and kidney failure, amenorrhea, reduced function of the gonads, and even death
- Psychological issues – anxiety and mood disorders, substance abuse
Physiological Mechanisms of Sexual Behavior and Motivation
•Hypothalamus plays an important role in motivated behaviors, as well as sex
Medial Preoptic Area
•An anterior extension of the hypothalamus that has been implicated in the regulation of gonadal hormone secretion
What happens if there are lesions to an Area of the Medial Preoptic Area? (Based on animal research)
- Disrupt a male rat’s ability to engage in sexual behavior
* However, they do not change how hard a male rat is willing to work to gain access to a sexually receptive female
What are the consequences of damaged limbic systems (e.g., amygdala and nucleus accumbens)
- Result in a decreased motivation to engage in sexual behavior, while leaving the ability to do so intact
- Dissociation of sexual motivation and sexual ability have been observed in the female rat
Erectile Dysfunction
- Inability to get and keep an erection firm enough for sex
* Cause stress, affect your self-confidence and contribute to relationship problems
Hypogonadism
•Diminished functional activity of the gonads— the testes or the ovaries — that may result in diminished production of sex hormones
Dr. Alfred Kinsey
- Initiated large-scale survey research on human sexuality
- Described a remarkably diverse range of sexual behaviors and experiences reported by the volunteers participating in his research
- Developed a continuum known as the Kinsey scale that is still commonly used today to categorize an individual’s sexual orientation
William Masters and Virginia Johnson
- They observed people having intercourse in a variety of positions, and they observed people masturbating, manually or with the aid of a device
- Measurements of physiological variables, such as blood pressure and respiration rate were being made during intercourse or masturbation
•Measurements of sexual
arousal, such as vaginal lubrication and penile tumescence (swelling associated with an erection) were made as well
Masters’s and Johnson’s Four Phases of Sexual Response Cycle
- Excitement – the arousal phase of the sexual response cycle, and it is marked by erection of the penis or clitoris; lubrication and expansion of the vaginal canal
- Plateau – women experience further swelling of the vagina and increased blood flow to the labia minora; men experience full erection and often exhibit pre-ejaculatory fluid
- Orgasm – women experience rhythmic contractions of the pelvis and uterus along with increased muscle tension; in men, pelvic contractions are accompanied by a buildup of seminal fluid near the urethra that is ultimately forced out by contractions of genital muscles, (i.e., ejaculation)
- Resolution – Refers to the relatively rapid return to an unaroused state accompanied by a decrease in blood pressure and muscular relaxation
Refractory Period
•A period of time that follows an orgasm during which an individual is incapable of experiencing another orgasm
*As men age, their refractory periods tend to span longer periods of time
Sexual Orientation
•Refers to an individual’s emotional and erotic attraction toward another individual
What causes one individual to be heterosexual while another is homosexual?
- Research has demonstrated that the family backgrounds and experiences are very similar among hetero- and homosexuals
- Genetic and biological mechanisms have also been proposed, and the balance of research evidence suggests that sexual orientation has an underlying component
Is sexual orientation a choice?
•Research has made it clear that sexual orientation is not a choice, but rather it is a relatively stable characteristics of a person that cannot be changed
Dr. Robert Spitzer
- Author of one of the most widely-cited examples of successful conversion therapy
- Apologized to both the scientific community and the gay community for his mistakes
- It was cited that gay conversion therapy is ineffective, but also potentially harmful
Gender Identity
- Refers to one’s sense of being male or female
* Correspond to our chromosomal and phenotypic sex (not always the case)
Gender Dysphoria
- A diagnostic category in the DSM-5 that describes individuals who do not identify as the gender than most people would assume they are
- Must persist for at least six months and result in significant distress or dysfunction to meet DSM-5 criteria
- In order for children to be assigned with this diagnostic category, they must verbalize their desire to become the other gender
Transgender Hormone Therapy
•An attempt to make their bodies look more like the opposite sex, and in some cases, they elect to have surgeries to alter the appearance of their external genitalia to resemble that of their gender identity
Emotion
- A subjective and affective state of being that we often describe as our feelings
- Relatively intense and occurs in response to something we experience
Mood
- Refers to prolonged, less intense, affective state that does not occur in response to something we experience
- May not be consciously recognized and do not carry the intentionality that is associated with emotion
What are the Components of Emotions?
•Our emotional states are combinations of physiological arousal, psychological appraisal, and subjective experiences
James-Lange Theory of Emotion
- Asserts that emotions arise from physiological arousal
* According to this theory, you would only experience a feeling of fear after this physiological arousal had taken place
Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion
•According to this theory, physiological arousal and emotional experience occur simultaneously, yet independently
Schachter-Singer Two-factor Theory of Emotion
- According to this theory, emotions are composed of two factors: physiological and cognitive
- Physiological arousal is interpreted in context to produce the emotional experience
Polygraph
- Measures the physiological arousal of an individual responding to a series of questions
- Validity and accuracy are highly questionable – no evidence that lying is associated with any particular pattern of physiological arousal
Lazarus’s Cognitive-mediational Theory
•Asserts that our emotions are determined by our appraisal of the stimulus
Hypothalamus
•Plays a role in the activation of the sympathetic nervous system that is a part of any given emotional reaction
Thalamus
•Serves as a sensory relay center whose neurons project to both the amygdala and the higher cortical regions for further processing
Hippocampus
•Integrates emotional experience with cognition
Amygdala
•Plays a role in processing emotional information and sending that information on to cortical structures
Basolateral Complex
- Has dense connections with a variety of sensory areas of the brain
- Critical for classical conditioning and for attaching emotional value to learning processes and memory
Central Nucleus
•Plays a role in attention, and it has connections with the hypothalamus and various brainstem areas to regulate the autonomic nervous and endocrine systems’ activity
Cultural Display Rule
- One of a collection of culturally specific standards that govern the types and frequencies of displays of emotions that are acceptable
- People from varying cultural backgrounds can have very different cultural display rules of emotion
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
•Asserts that facial expressions are capable of influencing our emotions, meaning that smiling can make you feel happier
Body Language
•The expression of emotion in terms of body position or movement
