Motivation and Emotion ch 10 Flashcards
Motivation is defined by psychologists in the following ways:
- The psychological cause of an action
- A process that arouses, maintains and guides behavior toward a goal
- A need or desire that energizes or directs behavior
- Pushes and pulls behavior
- Each definition is composed of two different components, a motivational push and a motivational pull
What are biological motives?
Drive Reduction Theory
Lateral Hypothalamus and Hunger
Drive Reduction Theory - Clark Hull
Need – Internal Deficiency
Drive – aroused, motivated state; bodily tension. Psychological desire. Motivates relief from tension
Response – actions directed toward goal
Need Reduction – Satisfied need reduces drive
need
Internal deficiency: Something important that is lacking in your body.
Biological motive: Something biological that is lacking. Water, nutrients, sleep, oxygen, etc
Things we need to survive.
Innate: Born with these needs
Push behaviour: Pushing us from the inside, getting us to do something that we need to survive, they do this by creating a drive.
- Push towards a biological motive
drives
Aroused motivated state or bodily tension: Hunger or thirst for examples. Creates a tension – need to do something about these needs
Psychological desire: We want or desire somethng. We are conscious of being hungry, we are aware of this tension of being hungry
Motivate relief from tension : Relieve the feeling of being hungry for example. We create a drive that arises from the bodily tension and then motivation to get relief from that tension
need reduction
Psychological drive reduced: For example, when we eat, the psychological drive is reduced
Motivation for response toward goal reduced: For example, when we eat, the motivation to eat is reduced
how the lateral hypothalamus regulates your hunger drive with the noted hormones.
Grehlin- Released by stomach lining that signals low nutrient levels.
Orexin- Signals lateral hypothalamus to release orexin to increase hunger drive.
evidence that illustrates the role of the lateral hypothalamus in regulating your hunger drive.
The lateral hypothalamus is destroyed: Will not eat
The lateral hypothalamus is stimulated: Continue to eat
Bypass surgery: Done for people with extreme obesity. This surgery reduces the size of the stomach. Individual will have lower level of appetite.
- Reduce the amount of grehlin released
- Regulates hunger drive
Ventromedial Hypothalamus and Hunger
plays a key role in decreasing hunger.
has hormones called leptin
Leptin
LeptinHormone released by fat cellhen body fat exceeds optimal set point.
Signals to ventromedial hypothalamus to decrease release of orexin.
- Optimal set point is the optimal amount of fat stored
Leptin targets the ventromedial hypothalamus, signaling that it should decrease the release of Orexin. What effect does this have?
- Decreases hunger
- Motivated to eat less
- Help the amount of fat stored in fat cells to go back to normal levels
What are learned motives?
Learned motives which are acquired in complex ways, such as cultural conditioning, and include the desire for status, money, success, achievement, and dominance are called secondary motives, or extrinsic motivations.
Name three ways that learned motives differ from biological motives
- Not directly related to survival
- Not innate
- Involve external incentives (pull behavior from outside)
characteristics of External Incentives
Pull behaviour- outside behaviour
External stimuli associated with rewards or punishments
Influence drive strength
What are stimulus motives?
Stimulus motives reflect an Innate need to seek stimulation and information. They promote curiosity, activity, and exploration.
What is the evolutionary benefit that may explain why stimulus motives motivate us to seek stimulation and explore out of curiosity even when there is no clear benefit or purpose?
- If you have an innate tendency to seek stimulation you can make discoveries that may help you to survive.
- To get stimulation if arousal levels are low
Arousal theory
theory states that we are motivated to keep arousal at an optimal level. Arousal refers here to bodily arousal of the autonomic nervous system (e.g., sympathetic nervous system), including heart rate, respiration, adrenaline boosts and so on.
According to arousal theory, how do stimulus motives help us to maintain optimal arousal levels?
If arousal levels are high you are motivated to decrease stimulus and if they are low you are motivated to increase stimulus.
Study participants left alone in a room with nothing to do behaved in a way that supports arousal theory. Explain what happened and how their behaviour fits with arousal theory.
People chose electric shock instead of doing nothing
the Yerkes-Dodson law.
Research on arousal and performance levels may show why we are motivated to maintain optimal arousal levels. The results of this research are summarized
Performance is optimal at moderate levels of arousal. Why is this so, and how may this explain the contention of arousal theory that we are motivated to maintain optimal levels of arousal?
You are energized enough to pay attention and work hard but not too aroused that you are overwhelmed.
Why is performance poor at low arousal levels?
No energizing aspect of motivation to concentrate and perform well
Why does performance also suffer at high arousal levels, unless the task is easy?
Over stimulated, overwhelmed with arousal
What innate, psychological needs (necessary for well-being) are specified in self-determination theory?
Competence : the desire to seek mastery over our environment
Autonomy : the desire to control our own lives and to be free of outside interference
Relatedness : the desire to be connected to, and care for other people.
What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?
Intrinsic Motivation
- Motivated by internal rewards with no obvious external rewards
- Related to the innate psychological needs
Extrinsic Motivation
- Motivated by external factors
- Motivated to get tangible reward (unenjoyable jobs)
What are the possible negative consequences of using extrinsic motivation excessively?
Taking them away from doing things that they find naturally enjoyable can result in:
- Anger
- Rebelliousness
What are some guidelines for using extrinsic motivation?
- Don’t reward intrinsically motivating behaviour
- External rewards when skills developing
- Phase out ASAP
People tend to describe their subjective feelings in two dimensions.
Arousal level : High or Low
Valence : Positive or negative
What part of your nervous system is activated when you experience the physiological arousal of emotion?
- Sympathetic branch
- Activated in high arousal emotions like fear and hunger – immediate
- Prepares body for challenging situations
- Fight or flight response
How does the parasympathetic nervous system affect emotional arousal?
- Reduces arousal: conserves energy
- Works more slowly (20-30 minutes)
What is the purpose of emotional arousal?
parasympathetic:
- narrow pupil, stimulate tears
- inhibited, dry palms
- bronchi narrow, breathing relaxed
- heartbeat slows
sympathetic:
- dilate pupil, inhibit tears
- perspiration, sweaty palms
- bronchi dilate to take in more oxygen
- speeds up heartbeat
Emotions predispose us to innate, evolved action tendencies that historically have been adaptive in the circumstances eliciting the emotion. Give examples for each emotion below
Fear: Escape danger
Anxiety : Avoidance and vigilance
Anger : Aggression
Sadness : Get support or comfort
Disgust : Avoid toxins
Joy/Happiness : Motivates acquisition of social and material resources needed for survival
Why are some emotional action tendencies not adaptive in modern situations?
- Not socially acceptable
- Are from hunter/gatherer times
Describe the results of a study that supports Darwin’s view.
- Isolated tribe, had them make facial expressions
- Brought those pictures to the states and people were able to identify facial expressions
Discuss the results of a study that shows there are some cultural variations in emotional expressions.
- Facial expressions of politicians in North America and Europe were more likely to have big smiles than Asian politicians
Give some examples of what facial expressions communicate, noting research findings that support this point of view.
- Anxious – you need help – more response from partners when you have an anxious face on
- Anger – don’t mess with them – people who had angry facial expressions got a better deal when bargaining than less angry expressions
explain different ways to tell sincere from insincere facial expressions.
Reliable muscles cause emotional leakage:
- Muscles that you can’t control voluntarily
- Cause emotional leakage
Symmetry:
- Genuine facial expressions are more symmetrical
Duration:
- Genuine facial expressions last ½ second to 5 seconds
-Longer is fake
Attributions
Attributions explain why something happened. The same experience can result in different emotions depending on how we interpret the reason for something happening.
hostile attribution biases
the tendency to assume that ambiguous situations or actions involved hostile intent.
study showed :
how hostile attribution biases can affect emotional responses… Will become more reactively aggressive
Emotional Appraisals
are another kind of emotional cognition, described by Richard Lazarus, which involve conscious or unconscious evaluations of the personal meaning of an emotional event.
What kinds of questions about the meaning of an event are addressed by emotional appraisals?
- Significance for well being?
- Dangerous or safe?
- Good or bad?
- Will I be able to cope?
Low Road/Fast Pathway
Joseph LeDoux conducted neuroimaging research that identified a low road/fast pathway that initiates automatic emotional appraisals that trigger simple emotions (e.g., likes, dislikes, fear) automatically, with no conscious input.
Discuss the structure and functions of Low Road/Fast Pathway
What brain structure controls automatic emotional appraisals? Amygdala
What physiological response does it trigger? Physiological aspect of emotion
What other emotional aspects can be initiated? Behavioral
What is an important benefit of automatic emotional appraisals as well as an important drawback?
Fast Response
High Road/Slow Pathway
Joseph Ledoux also described a high road/slow pathway of emotions that passes through the cerebral cortex. For a visual emotional stimulus, this information would be processed by the visual cortex and prefrontal cortex
What kind of emotional appraisal does the prefrontal cortex perform on the high road/slow pathway of emotions?
- Conscious
Discuss the timing of automatic and conscious emotional appraisals performed by the low road and high road.
- High road is slower
- Low road is faster and automatic
Do emotions promote rational or irrational behavior? Are they useful or maladaptive?
summarize adaptive and maladaptive consequences of emotions.
Rational/Adaptive:
Fight or flight response energizes you for emergencies
Adaptive reaction tendencies: eg., escape from danger when afraid
Low (fast) road: fast, automatic emotional reactions to deal with immediate danger
Emotional expressions communicate feelings to others
Irrational/Maladaptive :
Arousal can feel unpleasant
BUT behaviour adaptive in the past may not help in modern world
BUT autonomic responses occur without conscious reflection and may be irrational
BUT it’s hard to hide our true feelings due to reliable muscles
