Motivation And Emotion Flashcards
What is motivation?
Motivation refers to processes which influence the direction, persistence and vigour of goal direct behaviour. When motivations are achieved, thwarted or threatened, we feel emotions.
What is emotion?
Affective states, adaptive and they help us negotiate our environment and communicate.
Who proposed that motivation and emotions are inextricably linked?
Richard Lazarus
Explain the biological perspective of motivation.
Motivation to achieve and maintain physiological homeostasis. Disruptions to homeostasis motivate us to restore balance.
Explain the psychodynamic perspective of motivation.
Motivation is understood in context of personality development. Unconscious motives, with conscious mental processes, guide emotions and behaviour.
Explain the humanistic perspective of motivation
Humans are motivated to achieve personal growth or reach full potential, and self actualisation (Maslow).
Define homeostasis
A state of physiological equilibrium actively maintained by the body. Physiological disruptions to homeostasis produces drives; internal state of tension motivates organism to reduce tension. Doesn’t explain why we increase drives.
Explain the cognitive perspective of motivation
Driven to maximise pleasure and minimise stress (Gray). BAS and BIS, internal drives and external incentives, intrinsic (internal) and extrinsic (external) motivations.
Explain BAS
Behavioural activation system, which is activated by signals of potential reward and gratification; positive emotions and approach behaviour. Located in the prefrontal lobe in left hemisphere.
Reward cues = BAS = desire, anticipation, approach, behaviour
Explain BIS
Behavioural inhibition system, activated by signals of potential pain, publishers and non-reinforcement.
Punishment cues = BIS = aversion, fear, depression, pain, anticipation, avoidance behaviour.
What are incentives?
Environmental stimuli that pull organisms towards a goal.
Explain the hierarchy of needs
Proposed by Abraham Maslow as he believed humans strive for personal growth. A pyramid involving hierarchy towards self-actualisation. Consists of deficiency needs and growth needs. Regression occurs if the lower needs - deficiency - are not met.
What are some criticisms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
You can aspire to growth needs before deficiency, concepts are ill-defined.
Explain growth needs and deficiency needs.
Growth: from cognitive needs (knowledge and understanding), to aesthetic needs (beauty, symmetry) to self-actualisation.
Deficiency: physiological needs (food and drink), safety needs (security, psychological safety), belongingness and love needs (affiliation, acceptance, affection), esteem needs (approval and recognition).
Explain the self-determination theory.
Established by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan. Assumes we seek to improve, self-actualise and grow. Identifies three fundamental psychological needs; competence, autonomy and relatedness.
What types of motivation are there?
- amotivation
- extrinsic motivation
- intrinsic motivation
Explain amotivation
Non-regulated, and there are no internal or external motivation. There’s no perceived reason to participate and behaviour is not self-determined.
Explain extrinsic motivation
Consists of three components.
- external regulation, behaviour motivated by desire for external reward and avoiding punishment.
- introjected regulation, internalised reasons tied to self-administered rewards and punishment.
- identified regulation, behaviour is self-determined but not enjoyable.
Explain intrinsic motivation.
Internal regulation, behaviour is self-determined and driven by inherent pleasure.
Define behaviour.
Behaviour consists of a spectrum, where it starts as not self-determined - where amotivation sits, a middle part where extrinsic motivation sits and the bottom which is self-determined, where intrinsic motivation sits.
What is metabolism?
Metabolism refers to the body’s rate of energy utilisation. The set point is the standard by which body weight (or fat mass) is regulated. Sets the range for body weight and can be shifted.
Explain biological processes involved in eating
Glucose levels, stomach distension (release of cholecystokinin) and leptin levels.
Explain brain mechanisms involved in eating.
Lateral and ventromedial hypothalamus, paraventricular nucleus, pituitary
What psychological mechanisms relate to hunger?
Positive and negative reinforcement, attitudes and beliefs, habits and body ideals. Expectation of eating being pleasurable becomes strong motivator of behaviour. Eating without needing to, social environment can influence eating patterns. Times of day we eat and types of food are influenced by culture.
What are some environmental and cultural factors relating to hunger?
- food variety
- classically conditioned cues
- eating with others
- time of day
What are the health risks of obesity and overweight?
- CVD
- type 2 diabetes
- mental illness
- social stigma e.g. Prejudice, stereotypes
What are some biological and environmental factors relating to obesity?
- genetic component; heritability of 40-70%
- environmental: access to inexpensive, high calorie convenience foods. Upsizing of meals, decreased physical activity, reinforcement of eating through dopamine release.
- gene-environment interaction and Pacific Islanders: genetically predisposed to obesity
- cultural emphasis on quantity over quality
- increased sedentary behaviour
- losing weight; surgery, lap band or stomach stapled.
What is anorexia nervosa?
An eating disorder in which individuals have an intense fear of being fat. Involved severely restricting food intake to the point of starvation, view themselves as fat despite being severely underweight, health problems include cessation of menstruation, bone loss, stress on the heart.
What is bulimia nervosa?
An eating disorder where people are afraid of becoming fat. Occurs in phases, binge eating and purging. Can appear to maintain a normal weight, health problems include gastric problems, gum disease and severely eroded teeth.
What are the causes of anorexia and bulimia?
Genetics, high concordance rates for twins.
- personality factors: perfectionism - anorexia. Low impulse control, depression, anxiety - bulimia.
- environmental/societal; more common in societies with thinness ideals.
Early intervention most effective for treating these disorders, causes could be abnormal neurochemical and hormone activity.
How have behaviours changed regarding sex?
Sexual education classes, engaging in sexual behaviours earlier and more often, delaying intercourse until marriage has declined.
What are some psychological, cultural and environmental factors of sex?
Psychological: sexual fantasy, stress, fatigue, interpersonal difficulties.
Cultural: acceptance of certain sexual practices, religious beliefs.
Environmental: accessibility of sexual material.
What are the three dimensions of sexual orientation?
Self identity: the way we perceive ourselves
Sexual attraction: who we are attracted to sexually
Sexual behaviour: who we actually engage in sexual behaviour with
Explain the evolutionary and psychological views of affiliation.
Evolutionary perspective: greater access to sexual partners, protection from predators, greater division of labour, sharing of knowledge.
Contemporary psychological perspective: positive stimulation, emotional support, attention, social comparison.
Explain achievement goal theory.
At individual level: mastery orientation focuses on maximum effort towards personal improvement and skill perfection. Ego orientation focuses on out-performing others with minimal effort.
At contextual level: focuses on motivational climate
What are mastery approach goals?
Desire to master a task and learn new knowledge and skills
What are ego approach goals?
Competitive orientation that focuses on outperforming others.
Explain mastery and ego avoidance goals.
Mastery avoidance: reflect a fear of not performing up to one’s own standards
Ego avoidance: reflect a fear of being outperformed by others
Explain high and low need achievers
High need: high stress, high importance and high challenge tasks outperform low need achievers. Relaxed low importance and easy tasks don’t perform better. Persist longer in the face of adversity, internalise responsibility and choose intermediate difficulty.
Low need: choose the easiest or most difficult, reduce outcome uncertainty.
Explain the three types of motivational conflict.
Approach-approach conflict: choose between two desirable alternatives, losing the one that is not chosen.
Avoidance-avoidance: choose between two undesirable alternatives, both of which you would prefer to avoid.
Approach-avoidance: attracted and repelled by the same goal, both want and don’t want the outcome
What are the four major components of emotions and how do they influence one another?
Emotions are affective states involving cognitive, physiological and behavioural responses to events.
Sharing four common features:
- triggered by internal or external eliciting stimuli
- result from our appraisals of eliciting stimuli
- respond physiologically to the appraisals
- expressive and instrumental behavioural tendencies
Explain facial expressions and cultural display rules.
Same facial expression can be due to different emotions. Contextual cues enhance accuracy, most people identify happiness, disgust, surprise, sadness, anger and fear based on facial expressions alone.
Cultural display rules: cultural differences in emotional identification and expression. When and how particular emotions are to be expressed, go beyond facial expressions.
Explain the relationship between emotional arousal and performance.
Arousal too low or too high, performance negatively affected. Moderate levels result in optimal performance. The more complex the task, the lower the arousal required for optimal performance. The simpler the task the higher the arousal required to optimally perform.
