Motivation and emotion Flashcards
What are the primary theories of motivation?
- drive theories
- incentive theories
- Evolutionary theories
What are drive theories?
Concept of motivational forces that assumes an internal state of tension that motivates and organism to engage in activities that will reduce the tension and achieve homeostasis
- psychoanalytic
- behavioural
What is the main flaw of drive theories
They can’t explain all motivation.
What are incentive theories?
That external stimuli regulate motivational states by pulling people to act, source of motivation is external
- expectancy-value models
What are expectancy-value models?
motivation to pursue a course of action depends on
- expectancy about one’s chances of attaining the incentive
- and the value of the desired incentive
What are evolutionary theories?
Human motives are a product of evolution, based on adaptive value and maximize reproductive success
- best understood re adaptive problems they solved for hunter-gatherers
- affiliation motive
How are human needs differentiated?
- bodily needs (10-15)
- social needs (unlimited numbers)
What are the most studied motives?
- sex
- hunger
- achievement
How have the theories of hunger evolved over time?
- first thought hunger caused by stomach
- then thought brain caused hunger w hypothalamus: lateral hypothalamus and ventromedial nucleus
- now hunger believed to be caused by neural circuits passing through the hypothalamus, LH and VMN just parts of the system
What were thought to be the stop and start centres for hunger in rats?
- lateral hypothalamus was the start centre
- ventromedial nuclei were the stop centre
What two new areas are thought to play role in modulating hunger?
- arcuate nucleus
- paraventricular nucleus
What relation ship does glucose have with hunger?
- actions that decrease blood sugar increase hunger
- actions that increase blood sugar reduce hunger
- inverse relationship
What is glucostatic theory?
Fluctuations in blood glucose level are monitored in the brain where they influence hunger
What tells the brain to stop eating?
- cells in stomach signal brain stem to stop via the vagus nerve
- other nerves activated based on nutrient richness and stomach contents
What are the hormones that regulate hunger?
- insulin: required for glucose extraction by cells
- ghrelin: secreted by stomach to promote hunger
- CCK: from upper intestines to reduce hunger
- Leptin: from fat cells to reduce hunger and inform hypothalamus re fat cells
How does insulin secretion affect hunger?
Hunger is increased when insulin is secreted
- can be triggered by sight and smell of food
- sensitive to fat stores
Where do the signals from all of the hormones converge?
In the hypothalamus in the arcuate and paraventricular nuclei
What does hunger ultimately depend on?
Complex interactions between:
- neural circuits
- neurotransmitters
- digestive processes
- hormonal fluctuations
What are the key environmental factors of hunger regulation?
- availability of food
- learned preferences and habits
- stress
What are the innate taste preferences at birth?
- sweet and fatty
- salty develops at around 4 months
What are the two main taste learning methods?
- classical conditioning (calories + flavours)
- observational learning (familiarity + adult influence)
How is BMI calculated?
Weight divided by height, squared (kg/m)2
What does evolutionary theory say about obesity?
- eating motivated by instinct that unknown where next meal will come from
- not everyone will be obese due to overeating due to genetic variations
Is mortality elevated by being moderately overweight?
No, possibly due to better treatments for cardio
What supports genetic predisposition to obesity?
- adoption and twin studies
- people inherit genetic predisposition
What are the main causes of obesity?
- genetic predisposition
- excessive eating and inadequate exercise
- sensitivity to external cues
- set point concept
- dietary restraint
- eating disorders
What is the externality hypothesis for obesity?
obese ppl are extra sensitive to external (sensory) cues that affect hunger and insensitive to internal physiological signals
What is set point theory?
The body monitors fat cell levels to keep them and weight fairly stable
What is settling-point theory?
weight tends to drift around the level at which the constellation of factors that determine food consumption and energy expenditure achieves an equilibrium
What is the main mechanism in dietary restraint that causes obesity?
Disinhibition caused by feeling of failure/cheating
What was the result of Masters and Johnson research?
4 stages of sexual responses: 1- excitement 2- plateau 3- orgasm 4- resolution
What is vasocongestion?
engorgement of the blood vessels
What is the refractory period?
The time following orgasm when men are unresponsive to further stimulation
What is the correlation between porn and sex crimes?
Virtually none, although there is a correlation between aggressive porn and failure in men to see sexual coercion clearly
What was Alfred Kinsey’s contribution to research?
Scale or continuum of sexual orientation
- ambisexual
What is the general percentage of gay population?
5-8%
What are the psychoanalytic and behaviourist theories of homosexuality?
- Freudian: males are gay when they’re raised by weak, detached, ineffectual fathers over-identified with close-binding mother
- Behaviourists: learned preference acquired through pairing of same-sex stimuli w sexual arousal (chance seductions)
What are the findings re origins of homosexuality?
Genetic predisposition exists- twin + adoption studies
- possibly organizing effects of prenatal hormones on neurological development
What test is often applied to measure need for achievement?
Therapeutic Apperception Test- projective test
What is an interesting habit re ppl with high need to achieve?
They often select tasks of intermediate difficulty
What are the situational factors that influence achievement striving?
- probability of success
- incentive value
Intermediate difficulty is therefore the highest value
What is a non-situational key motivators?
- strength of motivation
- Fear of failure
both stable aspects of personality
What are the three elements involved in emotion?
1- subjective experience (cognitive)
2- bodily arousal (physiological)
3- characteristic overt expressions (behaviour)
What are key cognitive determinants of emotions experienced?
Appraisals
What is affective forecasting?
Efforts to predict one’s emotional reactions to future events
- people not good at predicting intensity or duration
Why are people bad predictors of emotional reactions?
- underestimate effectiveness of rationalizations, etc
- cognitive biases insulate from fallout
What bodily systems are involved in emotions?
- brain areas
- neurotransmitter systems
- autonomic nervous system
- endocrine system
What does a polygraph test measure?
Autonomic fluctuations and detects emotions, not lies
What are the key indicators in autonomic arousal that a polygraph measures?
- heart rate
- blood pressure
- respiration rate
- galvanic skin response (GSR)
What regulates autonomic responses
The brain
What structures are considered the seat of emotions?
- hypothalamus
- amygdala
- limbic system
What structure plays central role in acquisition of conditioned fears?
Amygdala
Which pathways do sensory inputs that elicit emotions travel along to arrive in the thalamus?
- fast path: amygdala, autonomic/endocrine arousal
- slow path: cortex, cognitive appraisal
What are the other areas in the brain that are involved in modulation of emotions?
- prefrontal cortex
- cingulate cortex
- mesolimbic dopamine pathway (pleasure)
- mirror neurons
- hippocampus
- lateral hypothalamus
- brainstem
What are the 6 facially identifiable fundamental emotions?
- happiness
- sadness
- anger
- fear
- surprise
- disgust
What physical response also contributes to our conscious experience of emotions?
muscular feedback from facial expressions
- Facial feedback hypothesis
What is emotional efference?
Changes in facial muscles change blood temperature going to the brain and triggers distinct emotions
What are display rules?
Norms that regulate the appropriate expression of emotions
What are the primary theories of emotion?
- James-Lange Theory: autonomic causes emotion
- Cannon-Bard Theory: subcortical brain simultaneously causes arousal and feeling
- Schacter 2-factor theory: autonomic then appraisal then emotion
What do evolutionary theorists say about emotions?
Emotions are innate reactions to certain stimuli and should be recognizable without much thought
- adaptive value
How do evolutionary theorists explain variety in emotions?
- blends of primary emotions
- variations in intensity (Putchik’s model)
What factors do not predict happiness?
- money
- age
- parenthood
- intelligence and attractiveness
what are moderate predictors of happiness?
- health
- social activity
- religion
What are strong predictors of happiness?
- love and marriage
- work
- genetics and personality
What are 5 common fallacies of arguments?
- Irrelevant reasons
- circular reasoning
- slippery slope
- weak analogies
- false dichotomy
