Motivation

Question 1

What is motivation?

Answer 1

Psychological cause of action

Question 2

How do emotions motivate people?

Answer 2

• Providing people with information about world

- Providing people with objectives to strive towards

Question 3

Hedonistic principle

Answer 3

People look to experience pleasure and avoid pain (not always physical)

Question 4

Hedonistic treadmill

Answer 4

Constantly wanting more pleasurable experiences

Question 5

Instincts

Answer 5

Natural tendency to seek particular goal, without being taught.

Question 6

Drive

Answer 6

Internal state caused by physiological needs (e.g. hunger). Based in homeostasis and evoked by external stimuli + learned.

Question 7

Drive-reduction theory

Answer 7

Motivation to reduce drive

Question 8

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Answer 8

People experience a need when need below is met. You may go back to a previous need, but you can’t jump. These needs are physiological, safety and security, belongingness and love, esteem and self-actualization.

Question 9

What are some criticisms about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?

Answer 9

Varies across culture and with people’s values

Question 10

Orexigenic signal

Answer 10

Switches hunger on. Caused by a hormone called grehlin, which is found in the stomach. If the lateral hypothalamus is damaged, people starve to death.

Question 11

Anorexigenic signal

Answer 11

Switches hunger off. Caused by leptin (secreted by fat cells). If ventromedial hypothalamus is damaged, people gorge to death.

Question 12

Binge eating

Answer 12

Lots of calories in short time

Question 13

Bulimia

Answer 13

Cycle of binge eating to reduce negative emotions and purging due to guilt

Question 14

Anorexia

Answer 14

Severe food restriction due to intense fear of being overweight. Results in distorted body image, severe control of eating, and can even turn off some physiological processes such as menstruation.

Question 15

Obesity

Answer 15

BMI of 30 or greater. Obese people are leptin-resistant; they don’t respond to signal to turn hunger off.

Question 16

What are some causes of obesity?

Answer 16

Genetics, obesogenic toxins, calorie rich foods, saturated fat rich food makes brain less sensitive to stop eating messages

Question 17

Why is it so hard to lose weight?

Answer 17

Losing weight reduces the size of fat cells but not the number. Also, even if you’re overweight, body has a set weight it likes to stay so the body might reduce your metabolism if you lose weight too fast and dip below it.

Question 18

DHEA

Answer 18

Hormone involved in onset of sexual desire

Question 19

Testosterone

Answer 19

Male sex hormone

Question 20

Estrogen

Answer 20

Female sex hormone

Question 21

Excitement phase

Answer 21

Muscle tension and blood flow increase around sexual organs, heart rate and respiration and blood pressure also increase

Question 22

Plateau phase

Answer 22

Heart rate and muscle tension continue to increase

Question 23

Orgasm phase

Answer 23

Rapid breathing, pelvic contractions

Question 24

Resolution phase

Answer 24

Muscles relax, blood pressure drops, body returns to resting state; enters a refractory period

Question 25

Intrinsic motivation

Answer 25

Taking actions that are rewarding; they don’t have a payoff, they ARE the payoff (e.g. eating french fries)

Question 26

Extrinsic motivation

Answer 26

Take actions that lead to a reward; don’t directly bring pleasure but lead to pleasure in time (e.g. flossing to get nice teeth to get a date). Delay gratification works!

Question 27

Why shouldn’t you get paid to do an activity you love?

Answer 27

Extrinsic rewards take away value of intrinsic interest (if they pay me to do it, am I doing it because I love it or because I’m being paid?)

Question 28

Conscious motivation

Answer 28

Motivation that people are aware of

Question 29

Unconscious motivation

Answer 29

Motivation that people aren’t aware of or constantly thinking about

Question 30

Need for achievement

Answer 30

Motivation to solve worthwhile problems

Question 31

What determines if we are conscious of our motivations?

Answer 31

Level of difficulty

Question 32

General motivation

Answer 32

Easy actions

Question 33

Specific motivation

Answer 33

Difficult actions

Question 34

Approach

Answer 34

Motivation to experience good

Question 35

Avoidance

Answer 35

Motivation to avoid bad - tends to be a more powerful motivator

Question 36

Promotion focus

Answer 36

Achieving gains

Question 37

Prevention focus

Answer 37

Avoiding losses

Question 38

Loss aversion

Answer 38

Tendency to care more about avoiding losses than achieving equal-sized gains

Question 39

Terror management theory

Answer 39

How people respond to the knowledge of their own mortality. Most people cope by developing cultural worldviews/shared beliefs, that allow them to give life meaning and seek symbolic (legacy or children) or literal immortality (afterlife)

Question 40

Mortality salience hypothesis

Answer 40

When people were reminded of their own mortality, they will work to reinforce their cultural worldviews - more likely to praise people who share them and derogate those who don’t.