Final test Flashcards
What is motivation?
Set of factors that activate, direct, and maintain behaviour, either toward a goal or away from an undesirable situation.
What are the biological theories of motivation?
- Instinct
- Drive-Reduction
- Arousal
What is the instinct?
Inborn, unlearned behaviours universal to species explain motivation
What is drive-reduction?
Internal tensions “push” toward satisfying basic needs
What is arousal?
Motivated toward optimal level of arousal
What are the instincts for animals
instinct propels bears to hibernate, birds to build nests or to fly south in winter
What are the instincts for humans
Sociobiologists such as Edward O. Wilson believe that humans developed and pass on adaptive instincts such as aggression and competition
Characteristics of the drive-reduction theory
- This theory began to replace the theory of instincts in the 1930s
- Drive-Reduction theory uses the concept of homeostasis
Characteristics of the Arousal theory
- People seek an optimal level of arousal that maximizes their performance
- Our need for stimulation influences behaviour efficiency
- ex: we perform best when we are neither too stimulated (anxious) nor too relaxed (can’t be bothered)
What is incentive
Motivation results from the “pull” of external environmental stimuli. Ex: If we desire something then we are pulled toward it
What is cognitive
Motivation affected by attributions and expectations
Biological factors of the hunger and eating motivated behaviours
- Stomach
- Biochemistry
- Brain
Psychological factors of the hunger and eating motivated behaviours
- Visual cues
- Cultural conditioning
What are the different eating disorders?
- Obesity
- Anorexia Nervosa
- Bulimia Nervosa
Main characteristic and explanation of eating disorders
An overwhelming fear of becoming obese and explained by multiple biological and psychological factors
What is obesity
appears to result from numerous biological and psychological factors
What is anorexia nervosa
eating disorder characterized by a pathological drive to be thin and severe loss of weight resulting from self-imposed starvation
What is bulimia nervosa
eating disorder characterized by the consumption of large quantities of food (bingeing), followed by extreme exercise, vomiting, or laxative use (purging)
What are the characteristics of a high need for acheivement
- Preferring moderately difficult tasks
- Competitive
- Preferring to clear goals with competent feedback
- Preferring responsibility
- Persistant
- More accomplished
Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation
extrinsic rewards may lower interest and motivation
What is emotion?
subjective feeling including arousal, cognitions and expressions
What are the three components of emotion?
- Psychological
- Cognitive
- Behavioural
What is the psychological component of emotion?
arousal comes from the brain (particularly the limbic system) and automatic nervous system (ANS)
What is the cognitive component of emotion?
thoughts, values and expectations
What is the behavioural component of emotion?
expressions, gestures and body positions
What are the 4 theories of emotion
- James-Lange
- Cannon-bard
- Facial-feedback
- Schachter’s Two-factor
James-lange theory
emotions occur after arousal
Cannon-bard theory
arousal and emotion occur simultaneously
Facial-feedback theory
facial movements elicit arousal and specific emotions
Schachter’s Two-factor theory
arousal leads to search for label and then emotion occurs
What are the cultural similarities and differences in emotions
7 to 10 culturally universal emotions, but each culture has its own display rules governing how, when, and where to express emotions
What its the role of evolution in emotions?
Strong biological, evolutionary basis for emotional expression and decoding
What is the polygraph
Measures changes in emotional arousal which in turn supposedly reflects lying versus truthfulness
What is social psychology?
study of how other people influence our thoughts, feelings and actions
What is attribution
explanation for the cause of behaviours or events
What is dispositional attribution?
behaviour stems from an internal cause, such as personal characteristics
What is situational attribution?
behaviour stems from an external cause, such as situational demands
What are the two major attribution errors?
- Fundamental attribution error
2. Self-serving bias
What is the fundamental attribution error?
misjudging the causes of others’ behaviour as due to dispositional causes rather than situational ones.
What does the saliency bias do?
It explains our focus on dispositional causes of one’s behavior
What is the self-serving bias
taking credit for our successes and externalizing our failures
What is attitude?
learned predisposition to respond cognitively, affectively, and behaviourally to a particular object
What is cognitive dissonance?
a feeling of discomfort caused by a discrepancy between an attitude and behavior or between two attitudes
What was Festinger and Carlsmith’s Cognitive dissonance study?
- Students were given very boring tasks to complete, and then were paid either 1$ or 20$ to tell next participant that the task was “very enjoyable” and “fun”
- Students who got paid 1$ felt more cognitive dissonance, and therefore changed their attitude about the boring tasks
What is prejudice?
learned, generally negative, attitude toward members of a group.
What are the three components of prejudice?
- Cognitions (stereotypes)
- Feelings
- Behavioural tendencies (discrimination)
What are cognitions?
a set of beliefs about the characteristics of people in a group generalized to all group members
What are the 4 major sources of prejudices?
- Learned response
- Mental shortcut (outgroup homogeneity effect)
- Economic and political competition
- Displaced aggression
What is outgroup homogeneity effect?
judging members of an outgroup as more alike and less diverse than members of the ingroup
What is interpersonal attraction?
positive feelings toward another
What are the 3 key factors to the interpersonal attraction?
- Physical awareness
- Proximity (geographic closeness)
- Similarity (need complementary vs new compatibility)
What is liking?
favorable evaluation of another
What is love?
defined in terms of caring, attachment, and intimacy
What is romantic love?
Erotic attraction with future expectations
What is companionate love?
Lasting attraction based on trust, caring, tolerance, and friendship
What is conformity?
Changing behaviour because of real or imagined group pressure
What is obedience?
following direct commands, usually from an authority figure
What was Asch’s conformity study?
- Participants were asked to select the line closest in length to X
- When confederates, gave obviously wrong answers (a or c), more than 1/3 of the participants conformed and agreed with the others’ incorrect choices
What are the reasons for conformity?
- Normative social influence
- Informational social influence
- Reference groups
What is Normative social influence?
conforming out of a need for acceptance and approval
What is Informational social influence?
conforming out of a need for direction
What is Reference groups?
people we conform to we like them and want to be like them
What was Milgram’s obedience study?
- Participants served as “teachers” in a supposed study of the effects of punishment on memory and learning
- 65% of participants delivered the highest level of shock (450 volts) to the “learner”
What are the factors influencing obedience?
- Legitimacy and closeness of the authority figure
- Remoteness of the victim
- Assignment of responsibility
- Modeling and imitation
What is group membership?
- Involves playing one or more roles
- May also involve deindividuation
What is deindividuation?
feeling less self-conscious, less inhibited, and less personally responsible as a member of a group than when alone
What was Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison study?
- students were randomly assigned as either “prisoners” or “guards”
- original study was to last for 2 weeks, but it was terminated in 6 days because of alarming psychological changes in both the “prisoners” and “guards”
What are the two components of group decision making?
- Group polarization
2. Groupthink
What is group polarization?
group movement toward either a riskier or more conservative behaviour depending on the members’ initial dominant tendency
What is groupthink?
faulty decision making that occurs when a highly cohesive group strives for agreement and avoids inconsistent information
What are symptoms of groupthink?
- Illusion of invulnerability
- Belief in the morality of the group
- Collective rationalizations
- Stereotypes of outgroups
- Self-censorships
- Illusion of unanimity
- Direct pressure on dissenters
What is aggression?
any behavior intended to harm someone
What are the biological factors of aggression?
- instincts
- genes
- brain and nervous system
- hormones and neurotransmitters
- substance abuse
- other mental disorders
What are the psychosocial factors of aggression?
- aversive stimuli
- culture and learning
- media and video games
How to control or eliminate aggression?
- Introduce incompatible responses
- Improve social and communication skills
What is altruism?
actions designed to help others with no obvious benefit to the helper
Why don’t we help?
diffusion of personality -> assuming someone else will take care of it
How can we increase helping?
- reduce ambiguity of the situation
- increase social rewards
