Motivation Flashcards
Motivation
- A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior
- Anything that drives you to a behavior
Why do people engage in a behavior?
- Instinct
- Drive Reduction
- Optimum Arousal
- Hierarchy of Needs
Instinct
- A complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned
- Darwinian
- Outlived it’s usefulness
- Does not really explain human behavior
Drive Reduction
- Idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy a need
- Ex: need for food, water–> drive (hunger, thirst)–> drive-reducing (eating, drinking)
Incentives
- Positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior
- How we are pushed by our psychological needs and pulled by incentives in the environment
- Grocery shopping when hungry–> buying more food
Homeostasis
- physiological aim of drive reduction
- tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state
- Regulation of any aspect of body chemistry
Optimum Arousal
- People are motivated to reach an optimal state of alertness or stimulation
- More than homeostatic systems
Hierarchy of Needs Levels
- Physiological–> food water
- Safety–> shelter, financial security
- Belongingness and love–> finding people with whom you love
- Esteem–> achievement (recognized for contributions)
- Self-actualization–> fulfilling full potential “true purpose”
Maslow
- Hierarchy of Needs
- How we prioritize our needs/motivations
- Dictates what type of behavior we engage in and when
- Lower levels need to be met before higher levels
- Progress in stages
Minnesota Starvation Experiment
- Ancel Keys
- Empirical (scientific) study of hunger
- Prep for end of WWII
- Guide efforts to help victims of famine in Europe and Asia
- 36 volunteers (conscientious objectors)
- Went through 6 week period of semi-starvation
- Resulted in preoccupation w/ food, loss of interest in other things
- *Shows Maslow’s hierarchy
Stomach contractions
-Stomach contractions (Pangs) send signals to the brain, making us aware of our hunger
Washburn and Cannon
- Swallowed a balloon that measured stomach contractions
- Pressed a key each time he felt hungry
- Pangs overlapped with feeling of hunger
Follow-Up on Washburn’s Experiment
- Stomach contractions occur at other times
- Removal of stomach doesn’t remove the hunger drive
- Tsang: removed a rat’s stomach, connected it to the esophagus for the small intestines, and the rats still felt hungry and ate food
Hypothalamus
- Best psychological basis for hunger (creates hunger drives)
- Levels of glucose in the blood are monitored by receptors (neurons) in the stomach, liver, and intestines
- Send signals to the hypothalamus in the brain
- Realtime feedback of blood chemistry
- Effected by what we eat
- Realtime feedback of blood chemistry
- Send signals to the hypothalamus in the brain
Lateral Hypothalamus
- Sides of hypothalamus
- Stimulation causes anger
- Drop in glucose triggers release of orexin
- Hunger creating hormone
- Drop in glucose triggers release of orexin
Ventromedial Hypothalamus
- Lower/middle hypothalamus
- Stimulation causes satiety–> satisfaction/fullness
Hypothalamus and Hormones
-The hypothalamus monitors a number of hormones that are released hunger
Hormones
- Orexin increase–> hypothalamus–> increases hunger
- Ghrelin increase–> Stomach–> increase hunger
- Insulin increase–> pancreas–> increase hunger
- Leptin increase–> fat cells–> decrease hunger
- PPY increase–> digestive tract–> decrease hunger
Set Point
- How our body regulates hunger and weight
- Point at which our body feels comfortable (shapewise) –rate of metabolism
- Manipulating the lateral and the Ventromedial hypothalamus alters the body’s “weight thermostat”
- Heredity influences the set point and body type
- Weight lost, food intake increases and energy expenditure decrease
- Weight gained= opposite
Psychology of Hunger
- Memory plays an important role in hunger
- Due to difficulty w/ retention, amnesia patients eat frequently when given food
- Eat due to: time of day or place where u usually eat increases hunger, tastes can lead to feeling full or satisfied –> food less yummy at end of meal (sensory adaptation)
Taste Preference
- Body chemistry and environmental factors influence not only when we feel hungry but what we are hungry for
- Taste preference are influenced by culture
- What we have been grown up eating
- Taste preference are influenced by culture
- Ex: hot cultures like hot spices
Obesity and Weight Control
- Fat is an ideal form of stored energy and is readily available if needed
- In times of famine, an overweight body was a sign of affluence
Unit Bias
- Idea of what a serving size in
- Portions in USA: different from other areas of world
- Larger meals
Obesity
- Determined by fat% of BMI (body mass index, measured by weight and height)
- Obesity increases the risk for health issues
- Cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, back problems
World Health Organization
- Estimates 1 billion people= overweight
- 300 million= clinically obese (BMI 30 or more)
- 34% of USA= obese
- Childhood obesity is increasing
Body Mass Index
- Obesity in children increases their risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, gallstones, arthritis, and certain types of cancer
- Shortens life expectancy
- Physical fitness isn’t determined by BMI and vice versa
Obesity and Mortality
- The death rate is high among very overweight men
- Where someone carries their weight is important
- Apple shape (stomach)= negative effects
- Pear shape (hips, thighs)= less negative effects
- Where someone carries their weight is important
Social Effects on Obesity
- Weight discrimination
- When women applicants were made to look overweight, subjects were less willing to hire them (rated negative way)
- Less acceptable for women to be overweight, than men
Regina Pingitore
- Pretend to apply for jobs
- Went as themselves, healthy weight and actors overweight
- How would this effect hire-ability
- Much less worthy of being hired
- How would this effect hire-ability
- Weight has an effect on pay (7,000 less)
Additional obesity effects
- Increased rates of depression
- Decreased wellbeing and little satisfaction
Physiology of Obesity
- Fat cells: 30-40 billion fat cells in body
- Cells increase size (2-3 times normal size) and # (75 billion) in obese individuals
- Fat cells never go away, but can shrink in size
Set Point and Metabolism
- When reduced from 3,500 calories to 450 calories, weight loss was a minimal 6% and metabolic rate was a mere 15%
- Obese defend their weight by converting energy
- Body is used to being at certain weight and burning certain amount of calories
The Genetic Factor of Weight
- Identical twin studies reveal that body weight has a genetic basis
- Closer to same weight than fraternal twins
- Obese mice have a defective gene for housing Leptin
- Regular weight mice shed 40% of weight when injected with Leptin
Activity
- Lack of exercise is a major contributor to obesity
- Watching TV for 2 hours–> 23% weight increase when other factors are controlled
Social Facilitation
- Social setting, perform better on well learned tasks
- Eat more
Sleep and Weight Correlation
- When sleep increases, weight decreases (and vice versa)
- Negative correlation
Yerkes-Dodson Law
-The principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point beyond which performance decreases
Glucose
- The form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues
- When level is low, feel hungry
Basal Metabolic Rate
-The body’s resting rate of energy expenditure