Lecture 7 - Long-term Sources of Human Motivation

Question 1

How is incentive value of an outcome determined?

Answer 1

Interplay between

1) Liking (hedonic value)
2) Biological need
3) current arousal state
4) preferred activity (not discussed)

Question 2

what about incentive value of long term motivated behaviour

Answer 2

Value of rewards decreases with delay. Impulsivity may play a role.

Question 3

what did humanists emphasise?

Answer 3

the unique qualities of humans compared to other animals, especially freedom and potential for personal growth.

Question 4

what questions did humanists ask?

Answer 4

• why do people persistently try to test and expand their abilities and capacities
• why do we long for more?

Question 5

what motive did Rogers propose (two points)

Answer 5

1) One single motive - innate tendency to try to fulfil one’s potential for growth.

2) we strive to be fully functioning. Through
- maintenance
- enhancement
- reproduction

Question 6

what is humanism a reaction to

Answer 6

behaviourism and psychodynamic theory

Question 7

what did Rogers propose about what we think of ourselves? What is the problem with this?

Answer 7

That we have a self-concept - we build a schema of what we’re like as individuals and this bears some semblance to reality.

Might be a “rosy” version of what we are actually like

Question 8

How in this rogers model does anxiety obtain?

Answer 8

Incongruence between the concept of self and the realities of actual experience
–> anxiety and distortion/denial of actual events to minimise disparity.

Question 9

How does Rogers believe the anxiety can be reduced or prevented? How will it work?

Answer 9

Unconditional positive regard

–> gives consistency between self-concept and feedback which leads to growth.

Question 10

what can conditional positive regard cause?

Answer 10

anxiety, defensiveness, stasis, distortions and denials of thought

Question 11

what were the characteristics of Rogers’ fully functioning person. what is important to note.

Answer 11

1) openness to experience
- no need to defend, more emotional

2) existential living
- living fully in the present

3) Trust in one’s organism
- because it feels right

4) sense of freedom
- to choose what happens

5) creativity
- and ability to adapt to change

Question 12

How is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs characterised?

Answer 12

• As the ladder of needs ascended, the needs become progressively more human and complex
• the needs emerge in order
• frustration of these needs generates pathology

Question 13

What are the 5 stages of hierarchy of needs from bottom.

Answer 13

1) physiological
2) safety
3) love/belonging
4) esteem
5) self-actualization

Question 14

what is the relationship between maslow and rogers’ ideal persons

Answer 14

• openness idea
• existential moment idea in maslows “spontaneous”
• democratic character structure

Question 15

Criticisms of Humanistic psychology?

Answer 15

1) weak empirically - they were just clinicians, may not stack up
2) hierarchy itself
3) who is self-actualised (Maslow) - just a list of things maslow liked. Circularity
4) cultural concerns and elitism - western-centric, biased by political leanings of theorist i.e. conservative republican would have problems.

Question 16

how may human goals be assessed? i.e. describe what occurs

Answer 16

qualitative approach.

People asked to describe an ambiguous image, and their descriptions analysed for themes by psychologist.

Question 17

what is an assumption of projective tests?

Answer 17

that a person’s preoccupations, needs, drives and goals will be projected into their interpretations.

Question 18

Whats an example of how rorschach test is used?

Answer 18

If someone is slow to respond there is some sort of social conflict involved

Question 19

What is another projection test? is there a problem with it?

Answer 19

TAT

Problem or issue is that what is important is what is told to the psychologist not what is actually happening in the mind. i.e. could be discrepancy.

Question 20

What are some long term human needs?

Answer 20

main one: nAch

Also: nPower, nApproval, nAffil

Question 21

Define nAch

Answer 21

to be good at difficult stuff, achieve things rapidly, good standard compared to others, surpass them…

Question 22

What are the two aspects to nAch

Answer 22

1) Extrinsic rewards associated with succeeding
- prizes, grades etc

2) intrinsic rewards
- feeling you get from doing well

Question 23

how is nAch related to career. Important to note?

Answer 23

People in position of power seem to have a higher nAch.

BUT there a multiple explanations. Maybe they are drawn to it or it is increase by it…

Question 24

nAch predictions?

Answer 24

people high in nAch should attempt harder tasks, as you dont feel reward by e.g. brushing your teeth.

Question 25

what is utility of success and the trends of it?

Answer 25

value of achieving something

high nAch get more pride in success with harder tasks.
Low nAch ALSO get more pride is succes with harder tasks but not to the same degree. I.e. less steep gradient

Question 26

How was nAch and choice investigated?

Answer 26

ring-toss game by Atkinsonetc.

Length from target was manipulated

Question 27

what were the findings of nAch investigation

Answer 27

People with high nAch would situate on the moderately difficult distance

people with low nAch would just throw from anywhere

Question 28

What does expectancy value theory show?

Answer 28

expected utility of an action = value of goal x probability of obtaining goal

Question 29

What jobs do people with high nAch gravitate towards?

Answer 29

According to McClelland people high in nAch will
tend towards tasks that:
– Personal responsibility for solving problems
– Sets moderate goals (not too hard or failure too likely,
not too easy or success brings no satisfaction)
– Needs concrete rapid performance feedback