Motivation

Question 1

Instinct Theory

Answer 1

Human behaviour is motivated instincts
Instincts - a disposition to respond a particular way when confronted with a specific stimulus
Doesn’t explain learned motivations

Question 2

Drive-Reduction Theory

Answer 2

Maintenance of homeostasis - corrective action to get back to normal values associated with motivation
Important for survival e.g. maintain water levels
Motivations associative with hedonic state - pos motivations with pos effect

Question 3

Motivation Cycle

Answer 3

Need
Buildup of tension
Focused activities
Achieve goals
Satisfaction and tension reduction

Question 4

Arousal Theory

Answer 4

Motivation is to maintain optimum level of arousal

There are individual differences in arousal levels

Question 5

Yerkes-Dodson Law 1908

Answer 5

Performance increased with arousal but only up to a point

Question 6

Reticular Activating System

Answer 6

Structure extending from medula to forebrain

Control motor areas in the spinal cord and inceased arousal in various cortical areas

Question 7

Incentive Theories

Answer 7

Motivations have appetitive and consummatory phases
Appetitive: means necessary to achieve goal
Incentive: attraction towards reward
Consummatory: what is done in the end situation, reward

Question 8

Classical Conditioning in Motivation

Answer 8

Learned incentives between stimulus and reward

Question 9

Mesolimbic Dopamine Pathway

Answer 9

When this pathway is activated by a particular incentive the animal tends to approach

Question 10

Nuclues Accumbens

Answer 10

Info of motivational importance is

• Computed
• Transmitted to motor control

Question 11

Amygdala and Incentive Learning

Answer 11

Involved in learning about conditional significance of a positive or negative event
Lesions of the amygdala : 0 incentives for eating (Everitt & Robbins, 1992)

Question 12

Opioid System

Answer 12

Activated for several types of reward
Taste-reactivity test (Rideout & Parker, 1996) response more positive after opioid agonist injection
Loss of opioid system reduces reward of social contact (Moles et al. 2004)

Question 13

Individual Difference in Motivation

Answer 13

Impulsiveness
Self control
Benefits of self control: higher grades, better relationships, less alcohol use

Question 14

Motivated Forgetting

Answer 14

Suppression induced forgetting (SIF)

Essence that there is a fundamental motivation underpinning this process

Question 15

Mechanisms of Motivated Forgetting

Answer 15

Recently become area of interest (2000)

fMRI studies shown a role of frontal brain regions and the hippocampus, small role of BG

Question 16

Motivation and PTSD

Answer 16

Why can’t people with PTSD forget the trauma?
Evidence: suppression induced forgetting was diminished in PTSD group
Retrieval suppression is most compromised in people with most severe symptoms