Emotion & Motivation

Question 1

What are motivational states?

Answer 1

psychological and physiological states that initiate and direct us towards or away from specific goals

Question 2

What are approach behaviours?

Answer 2

behaviours that initiate and direct us towards a specific goal

Question 3

What are avoidance behaviours?

Answer 3

behaviours that initiate and direct us away from a specific goal

Question 4

what are the two types of biological motivational states?

Answer 4

bodily sensations and emotions

Question 5

what are bodily sensations?

Answer 5

motivational states mostly triggered by internal events and having physiological arousal and dedicated and unambiguous physical signal

Question 6

what are emotions?

Answer 6

motivational states mostly triggered by external events

Question 7

what is emotion marked by?

Answer 7

physiological arousal, cognitive interpretation, observable facial and bodily expressions

Question 8

what is the hypothalamus?

Answer 8

structure that is especially responsible for regulating bodily sensation, especially those related to arousal and hunger

Question 9

what is the amygdala?

Answer 9

structure that plays an important role in many emotional processes, especially reward and fear

Question 10

what are acquired/personal motivation states?

Answer 10

learned states that do not directly contribute to our immediate survival, are culturally defined, and often controlled

Question 11

what is the main idea of the James-Lange theory?

Answer 11

a stimulus causes unique physiological reactions that produces a dedicated emotional experience in the brain, there is no confusion about what is being experienced

Question 12

what are the faults of the James-Lange theory?

Answer 12

bodily reactions can occur AFTER emotions, bodily reactions can occur without causing emotions, different emotions can be associated with the same bodily response and vice-versa

Question 13

what is the main idea of the Cannon-Bard theory?

Answer 13

a stimulus triggers both physiological reaction and a separate brain-based emotional response - arousal and emotion occur at the same time

Question 14

what is the two-factor theory of emotion?

Answer 14

emotions are inferences from physiological reactions; we experience arousal, and then try to find out why, leading to an emotional state

Question 15

what are the 2 paths of the two-factor theory of emotion?

Answer 15

fast path - leads directly amygdala and triggers quick jolt of arousal, attention, and fear

slow path - assesses source of the arousal, and then reinterprets and labels sensation into emotions (i.e. happy, sad, fear, etc.)

Question 16

what are the two main roles of emotions?

Answer 16

internal role: help guide us towards particular goals

external role: they communicate to others what our internal states are

Question 17

what is the facial feedback hypothesis?

Answer 17

emotional expressions can cause the emotional experiences they typically signify

Question 18

what is the discrete emotion theory?

Answer 18

a categorical and universalist theory that says there are a small number of core/primary emotions, identical for all people that are each associated with a specific biological and evolutionary function

Question 19

what is the Fusiform Face Area?

Answer 19

a dedicated brain area that processes and distinguishes faces and facial expressions

Question 20

what is prosopagnosia?

Answer 20

a neurological problem (usually from damage to the FFA), leading to face blindness, the inability to properly perceive faces

Question 20

what is the constructed emotion theory?

Answer 20

a non-categorical and universalist theory that says all emotions are a mixture of arousal and valence, emotions are always fluidly interpreted

Question 20

what dimensions do we appraise events in?

Answer 20

self-relevance, importance, ability to cope, and control

Question 20

what is appraisal?

Answer 20

our conscious or unconscious evaluations and interpretations of the emotion-relevant aspects of a stimulus or event

Question 21

what are action tendencies?

Answer 21

a readiness to engage in a specific set of emotion-relevant behaviours

Question 21

what is ghrelin and what does it do?

Answer 21

a peptide secreted in the stomach that leads to higher hunger levels

Question 21

what is leptin and what does it do?

Answer 21

a hormone secreted by fat/adipose cells that leads to reduced hunger levels

Question 22

what happens when leptin levels are high?

Answer 22

food starts to seem a little repulsive

Question 23

what is DHEA?

Answer 23

a precursor steroid to both testosterone and estrogen, the accumulation of DHEA is the (slow) onset of puberty

Question 24

what does testosterone do during puberty?

Answer 24

enlarge the penis and clitoris, increase hair growth and muscle strength/volume, and change vocal chords

Question 25

what does estrogen do during puberty?

Answer 25

breast growth, stimulate bone maturation, higher retention of fat cells

Question 26

what are the stages of the human sexual response cycle?

Answer 26

1. Excitement 2. Plateau 3. Orgasm 4. Resolution 5. Refractory

Question 27

what is motivation?

Answer 27

the internal causes of purposeful behaviour

Question 28

what is an instinct?

Answer 28

a not-learned (innate), automatic, complex behaviour programmed throughout a species to increase the chance of survival and sexual reproduction

Question 29

what are the 3 problems with instinct theory?

Answer 29

1. many motivational states are not automatic 2. proliferation of instincts 3. behavioural flexibility

Question 30

what is drive theory?

Answer 30

motivational states are caused to maintain homeostasis in various bodily and cognitive systems, only activate when something is out of balance

Question 31

what is the Yerkes-Dodson law?

Answer 31

the U-shaped relationships between the amount of arousal and performance on a task

Question 32

what are the problems with drive theory?

Answer 32

1. we sometimes do things without need for homeostasis 2. we sometimes do things even when we are off-balance 3. it struggles to explain acquired motivational states

Question 33

what is incentive theory?

Answer 33

we are motivated for things we receive rewards for, and motivated to avoid those that we are punished for

Question 34

what is intrinsic motivation?

Answer 34

motivation that is marked by expected rewards and value that is internal (e.g., personal enjoyment, sense of mastery)

Question 35

what is extrinsic motivation?

Answer 35

motivation that is marked by expected reward and value that is external (e.g. praise, money)

Question 36

what is the overjustification effect?

Answer 36

a phenomenon whereby people who are rewarded for a behaviour become less intrinsically motivated

Question 37

what is loss aversion?

Answer 37

the tendency to care more about avoiding losses than about achieving equal-size gains

Question 38

what is terror management theory?

Answer 38

a theory about how people respond to knowledge of their own mortality, it suggests that people cope by developing a cultural worldview

Question 39

what is procrastination?

Answer 39

the voluntary delay of an action despite being worse off for having made the delay

Question 40

what behavioural interventions can help procrastination?

Answer 40

reducing access to rewarding distractions, promoting routines, boredom exposure training, increasing value of actions

Question 41

what is need for belonging?

Answer 41

a motivational state to be in social groups, feeling accepted by others, and connected physically and psychologically

Question 42

what happens when people do not feel a sense of belonging or are lonely

Answer 42

when unable to satisfy this motivational state, people experience loneliness and rejection, which stimulate same pain centers as when we are in physical pain; perpetual loneliness increases rates of depression, cardiovascular problems, and early mortality

Question 43

what is need for acheivement?

Answer 43

a motivational state that drives us towards creating, succeeding, and being recognized for some behaviour we perform

Question 44

what is a performance orientation?

Answer 44

a persistent focus on outward markers of performance, on avoiding failure at all cost, and not being an outlier

Question 45

what is a mastery orientation?

Answer 45

a persistent focus on learning and improving, even at a cost of persistent failure and public knowledge about it

Question 46

what is the need for cognition?

Answer 46

a motivational state that drives us to engage in effortful, difficult, and challenging cognitive tasks, even for pleasure and to alleviate boredom