Lecture 7: Motivation, Emotion And Personality Flashcards
Motivation
- mental and behavioural processes that influence the direction, persistence, and vigour of goal-directed behaviour
(Motivation = expectancy + incentive value)
Instinct
inherited predisposition to behave in a specific and predictable way when exposed to a particular stimuli
Facts of instinct
- have genetic basis
- All members of a species has them
- Independent of learning (not nurture)
- Have survival value (instincts evolved over gens and provide certain adaptive advantages
- How instincts give survival advantage, we can understand role in motivation
Homeostasis
- state of internal equilibrium or balance that the body strives to maintain
- Body has sensory mechanisms that detect changes, control system that decides what to do, response system that gets it done
(swear when too hot or shiver when cold)
Psychological homeostasis
return to set point after disruption
Drive theory
- disruptions to homeostasis produce drives
(states of internal tension that motivate an organism to behave in ways to reduce the tension)- Ex. feel hungry (disruption/tension) so you are driven to eat something
Drive theory facts
- More to do with bodily functions but can be used to describe psychological states as internal tension
- Don’t always act to alleviate internal tension
- Consciously restricting our food consumption
- Staying awake for longer then we should
Incentives
- environmental stimuli that pulls an organism toward a goal
- Focus on allure of external stimuli (dif, from drive theories that focus on internal tension and resolution)
- Usually distinct from, but often related to, internal drives
(Ex; eating dessert after you’ve finished a meal)
Problems with incentives
- why do we respond differently to some incentives?
- Says nothing about how we think about incentives
Expectancy
- goal-directed behaviour
How is expectancy determined by 2 things?
- how strongly we expect our behaviours will lead to the desired outcome
- Value we place on outcome
Extrinsic motivation
- doing something to gain a reward or to avoid punishment
- Imposed from outside
Intrinsic Motivation
- doing something for its own sake, because you enjoy it or think its worthwhile
- no external force or coercion to do it
- Motivations come from own desires, thoughts, beliefs, goals, feelings, etc
Can combine extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation to do something
- love job but also need to make a living
- External reward can undermine our intrinsic motivation to do something
Psychodynamic theories
- behaviour is result of conflicts between our unconscious impulses/desires and psychological defences used to keep them under control
1) Disguise socially unacceptable behaviour through more appropriate behaviours
- ex: hide aggressive impulses through competitions
Humanistic theories
- motivation through striving for personal growth
- Difference between deficiency needs (physical and social survival) and growth needs
- Growth needs are uniquely human and motivate us to develop our potential
(Takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something)
Problems with idea of hierarchy
- “self-actualization” is pretty vague
- Often deny some basic needs to feel fulfilled
Growth needs
- self-actual action
- Aesthetic needs (beauty, symmetry)
- Cognitive needs (knowledge, understanding)
Deficiency needs
- esteem needs (approval, recognition)
- Belongingness and love needs (affiliation, acceptance, affection)
- Safety needs (security, psychological safety)
- Physiological needs (food, drink)
Regression
if lower needs are not met
Progression
if lower needs are satisfied
Self-determination theory
- have fundamental needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness
- Most fulfilled when we have all 3 kinds of needs met
Competence
- master new challenges/skills
Autonomy
- free choice without interference
Relatedness
- Freire to form meaningful bonds with others
Need for achievement
- desire to accomplish tasks and attain standards of excellence
Motive for success
- attracted to the thrill of victory
- Get strong reward response when we complete task or win at something or do better then others
Fear of failure
- pushed to avoid losing
- Measured by test that determine how much anxiety people experience in achievement situations
- People are more motivated by a fear of failure than a motive for success
Fear of failure facts
- parents who reward or encourage achievement and don’t punish failure produce kids who have need for achievement
- Fear of failure is fostered through parental expectation of success and punishment of failure
Cultural variations
- western/individualistic cultures stress personal achievement
- Eastern/collectivistic cultures stress group goals, fitting into family and social groups and meeting their expectations
Achievement goal theory
- Focus on manner in which success is defined by individual and the situation itself
Mastery orientation
- personal improvement, giving maximum effort, and perfecting skills
Performance orientation
- want to outperform others
Approach
- moving towards something
Avoidance
- moving away from something
Mastery-approach
I want to learn as much as I can
Mastery-avoidance
“I dont want to learn nothing from this”
Performance-approach
“I want to get the best grade”
Performance-avoidance
“I don’t want to get the worse grade”
Performance depends on type of task
- Tasks are easy and relaxed are associated with no difference between high or low need for achievement
- Tasks that are challenging and high-stress find high-need achievement people perform better then low-need achievement people
High achievement
- people choose situations that present a middle-level of challenge (not too difficult, aka good chance of failure or too easy)
- People motivated by fear of failure will most often take the easiest option, given the choice
- Perception of task uncertainty is best predictive of success
Hunger
- one of our most basic physiological needs and necessary for our survival
- Evolve a lot of mechanisms that involve eating, such as a reward response to sugar
- Imagine you could get all of your nutritional needs satisfied through pills
- People enjoy experience of eating
- Biological drive (need for nutrients) with a psychological incentive (tastes good)
Metabolism
- body rate of energy utilization, measured in calories
- 2/3 of our energy usage goes to maintain basal metabolism (bare minimum needed to keep our cells going)
- Mechs that keep body in homeostasis by regulating food intake
States of metabolism
- Hunger = more food intake
- Satiety = feeling full, don’t need more food
- Long-terms signals, based on body fat that adjust appetite and metabolism
When do we feel hungry?
- stomach contradictions (noticed by tummy rumble) correspond to feelings of hungry, but don’t necessarily cause these feelings
- People who have their stomachs removed still feel hungry and/or full
- Animal research where nerves from stomach to brain been cut, still display hunger behaviours
- More to hunger then empty stomach
Why do we feel full?
- partially from stomachs and intensities stretching as food fills them up, which sends nerves to the brain
- Nutritionally rich food seems to “fill us up” faster than equal volume of less nutritious food
- Food content may play a role in feeling full
Chemicals in feeling full
- Chemical signals in the body also contribute to feeling hungry or full
- Hormones (peptides) are released by the intestines in response to food
Chemical signals of hungry and satiety
- Gherkin
- Leptin
- CCK (cholecystokinin)
CCK (cholecystokinin)
that is released when food reaches small intestine signals feeling of being “full”
Gherkin
released by the stomach and small intestine and considered most important chemical hunger signal for humans
Leptin
- hormone that is secreted by fat cells to actively regulate food intake
- Decreases appetite (gain fat, more leptin is secreted into blood stream)
- Does not make us feel full, but instead regulates other hunger/satiety signals
Hunger Fact
- Hunger is not associated with immediate energy needs
- only felt hungry when our energy supply was low, we would be of serious medical problems - Evidence to suggest that body weight may have settling point
- previously thought we had a set point for body weight and that if we eat too much or not enough, homeostatic mechanisms would return us to our set point body weight
Psychological aspects of hunger
- several areas of brain are associated with hunger and eating
- Lateral hypothalamus seemed to be a “hunger on” centre
fMRI studies of exposure to environmental cues suggests…
that seeing/smelling food triggers motivation and reward centre’s in our brain
How is fMRI explained?
- strength of brain activation is associated with body weight
- Ppl who show smaller responses to food stimuli lost weight, whereas those who showed large responses to food stimuli lost the least amount of weight
- Ppl with BMI over 30 show greater activity in brain areas associated with pleasure/reward aspect of food