TOPIC 11: Motivation and Emotion Flashcards
motivation:
an inferred process that causes an organism to move toward a goal
evolution/Instinct Theory:
- behaviours are governed by fixed action
patterns, which are not learned- cannot account for learned behaviours
Drive-Reduction Theory(Walter Cannon, 1932):
- Deprivation of biologically necessary stimulus creates a physiological need, so people are “pushed” toward a goal to restore balance
- Based onhomeostasis
- regulatory drives
- non-regulatory drives
homeostasis
body’s tendency to maintain a stable physiological state
regulatory drive
innate, unlearned drives that help to preserve homeostasis
e.g., hunger, thirst, salt, O2,
non regulatory drives
unrelated to homeostasis
Incentive Theory(Clark Hull, 1943; 1951):
- external stimulus “pulls” people toward a goal or reinforcement
e. g., the appetizer effect:
(influenced by many other factors including socialization and (perceived) time of day)
appetizer effect
sight or smell of food increases appetite
Arousal Theory(Marvin Zuckerman, 1994; 2007):
- developed scale measuring motivation for:
- most people seek a balance between familiarity and novelty
- but some people (sensation seekers) want toincreasetheir arousal
- may be a link between certain brain chemicals/gonadal hormones and thrill-seeking motivation
sensation seeking may help overcome low autonomic reactivity==> increasing brain activity to normal levels
the scale for motivation for :
- thrill- and adventure-seeking (activities involving speed and danger)
- experience seeking (new, unconventional experiences and people)
- disinhibition (lack of social and sexual restraint)
- boredom susceptibility (aversion to repetition and routine)
Cannon & Washburn (1912):
- Swallowed balloon to record stomach contractions
- Hunger pangs occurred during peak of contractions
Problem: people who have had their stomachs removed still feel hunger
Brain regions (Stellar, 1954):
Lateral hypothalamus = hunger switch?
- LH lesions==> animals starve (+ other behaviours decreased)
- lesions severed brainstem==>basal ganglia tract (motivation)
Ventromedial hypothalamus = full switch?
- VMH lesions==> gorging (+ other behavioural effects)
• lesions speeded digestion
• food stored as fat
• tissues still required fuel==> more eating
Prader-Willi Syndrome (Prader, Labhart, & Willi, 1956):
- chromosome 15 disorder; incidence: 9 per 100,000
- characteristics include cognitive impairment, behavioral problems, hyperphagia
- linked to abnormal hypothalamus
- complex interactions
complex interactions:
motivational brain regions work with incentives & action planning
Set-Point Theory(Nisbett, 1972):
body has homeostatic level for weight, which is based on:
• metabolism:
- Basal metabolic rate: energy expended at rest (genetically influenced) - thermogenesis: heat production e. g., voluntary activity/exercise e. g., brown adipose tissue (BAT): burns calories to generate body heat
- fat cells
- hormones
- insulin:
- leptin
- peptide YY3-36
- peptide YY3-36
may signal fullness: cut food intake by 33% (Batterham et al., 2002)
leptin
(protein secreted by fat cells which binds to VMH): decreases appetite and increases metabolism
Insulin
facilitates uptake of glucose into cells
fat cells
(may increase in size and number)
evidence for set-point theory
- yo-yo effect:
- Sims (1974):
yo-yo effect
once diet is over, people tend to return to their set-point
(unless metabolism, fat cells, or hormones changed)
Sims (1974):
- Baseline phase: each man ate his normal diet
- Adapting phase: men were given more calories (overfeeding)
- Test phase: went back to normal diet
- Baseline phase: each man ate his normal diet
- Participants were volunteers from Vermont State prison
- Had no family history of obesity
- Number of calories consumed was recorded for 6 weeks
- No weight gain
- Adapting phase: men were given more calories (overfeeding)
- men gained weight (up to 20% increase)
- took 4-6 months; some had to eat 10,000 calories/day
- Test phase: went back to normal diet
- menlostweight until it returned back to baseline level
- took less than 10 weeks
Sexual Motivation
Affected by biological factors: hormones
- Adrenal gland==> DHEA(begins before puberty); implicated in onset of sexual feelings; supplements may not have any effect
- Men: low testosterone levels produce decreased drive.
- Women: in general, desire slightly higher at ovulation.
Also affected by sexual characteristics, cultural standards
The double standard:
- promiscuity seen as positive for men, but negative for women
- (as a result?) women are more conservative about sex than men
- predicted by evolutionary theory due to differences in parental investment
Clark &; Hatfield (1989):
- had students in social psych class find out whether men or women would be more receptive to an offer of sex from a stranger
- asked questions like “Would you go out tonight?” “Will you come over to my apartment?”
- results for “Would you go to bed with me?”
• men: __% accepted
• women: __% accepted
Hendrick &; Hendrick (1987; 2006):
- Developed Sexual Attitudes Scale
- Measures:
• Permissiveness (casual sexuality)
• Birth Control (nonjudgmental/responsible sexuality)
• Communion (spiritual/idealistic sexuality)
• Instrumentality (pleasure/biological sexuality)
- Measures:
Growth Mindset
- After repeated failed attempts to open a locked cage, animals stop trying–even when it is possible to escape (learned helplessness)
- Attribution of success or failure may be one of two types:
- fixed mindset
* growth mindset
fixed mindset
belief that intelligence is a fixed trait; errors attributed to a lack of inherent ability, which cannot be changed–thus, challenges are avoided
growth mindset
belief that intelligence is malleable and can be developed through hard work; errors attributed to a lack of effort–thus, greater effort leads to greater success, and challenges are embraced
Carol S. Dweck &; colleague (1998):
- Grade 5 children given 10 questions from a nonverbal intelligence test
- Then they were given one line of praise:
a) for their ability (i.e., intelligence: “You must be smart at these problems”), or
b) for their effort (i.e., hard work: “You must have worked hard at these problems”) - next, they were given a second set of difficult questions; all children were told that they did “a lot worse”
- finally, they were given another set of easier questions
- results:
• difficult problems: intelligence group became discouraged; effort group did not lose confidence
• easier problems: intelligence group’s performance declined; effort group’s performance improved.
- Then they were given one line of praise:
The secret to raising smart kids:
- tell stories about famous people who accomplished things through hard work
- do not tell children how brilliant they are
- instead, praise children for their effort
fluid intelligence:
cognitive ability to solve novel problems (as opposed
crystallized intelligence:
your stored knowledge)
Components to emotion:
- subjective feelings
- arousal of autonomic nervous system
- behaviour: -facial feedback hypothesis: smiling makes you happy
facial feedback hypothesis:
smiling makes you happy
Strack, Martin, &; Stepper (1988):
- group (a) held a pen in their teeth, without it touching their lips–forcing a “smile”
- group (b) held it in their lips–forcing a “forwn”
- group (a) felt happier and judged a cartoon to be funnier than group (b)
Body language
- (a.k.a. nonverbal communication or nonverbal leakage)
- considered to be instinctive fixed action patterns, often expressing emotion
embodied cognition
is the idea that all aspects of cognition are influenced by the state of the body
Friedman &; Elliot (2008):
- Former NBA coach Pat Riley often crossed his arms across his chest, giving the clear nonverbal signal, “I will persevere.”
- examined how body language/proprioception affected achievement
- task: solve two easy anagram puzzles (WODN and TOBOR), then an impossible one (OCHERSTE)
• experimental group crossed arms
• control group placed arms on thighs - results:
• experimental group persisted longer (about 55 seconds) on impossible task
• control group persisted on impossible task for less than 30 seconds.
- conclusion: proprioceptive cues can influence behaviour
“common sense” theory:
Stimulus ==> emotion ==> response
- response includes behaviour, autonomic nervous system response, and endocrine system (hormonal) response
James-Lange theory(James, 1884; Lange, 1885):
- argued that it makes more sense that emotions are theresultof an action (not a cause of them)
Stimulus ==> response ==> emotion
- one’s particular physiological response is interpreted as a certain emotion
e.g., see a bear ==>heart beats faster ==>fear
misattribution of arousal:
physiological arousal caused by the high bridge attributed to effects of attractive woman
Dutton & Aron (1974): the “love bridge” study
- men walked over bridges in North Vancouver:
a) 3 m high, solid bridge
b) 76 m high Capilano suspension bridge- were approached by attractive woman, and asked to write an imaginative story
- woman was apparently studying “effects of scenic attractions on creativity”
- woman gave out her phone number
- results:
• more men coming off higher bridge called her later (50% vs. 12.5%)
• also, their stories had more sexual content (2.5 vs. 1.4 items)
-misattribution of arousal: physiological arousal caused by the high bridge attributed to effects of attractive woman - other results:
• no women who crossed the bridge called the woman
• when men were approached by the woman after a 10-minute delay, the number of calls decreased (arousal had decreased)
•feel-good
happiness: sensation-based pleasure
e. g., laughing at a joke
•value-based happiness:
a sense that our lives have meaning and fulfill some larger purpose; represents a spiritual source of satisfaction, stemming from our deeper purpose and values
e.g., subjective life satisfaction
Diener & Seligman (2002):
- surveyed college students using Satisfaction With Life Scale and other measures, to determine
subjective well-being (SWB):
• (global) life satisfaction
• satisfaction with importance life domains (e.g., work, health)
• positive affect
• low levels of negative affect
- top 10% happiest were:
- more extraverted, more agreeable, less neurotic
- had stronger romantic and social relationships
- didn’t feel they had more good events in their lives than less happy people
Daniel Gilbert & colleagues (2001): affective forecasting
- people do not accurately predict what will make them happy; any positive impact is short-lived
- our current actions are based on inaccurate predictions, so “the future spoils the present”
- our “psychological immune system” helps us rationalize, discount, forgive and limit trauma–as well as positive events
- the best predictions about how you’ll feel about an event in the future are those made byother people.
Brickman, Coates, & Janoff-Bulman (1978):
- interviewed paraplegic/quadriplegic accident victims, ($50,000+) lottery winners
- events had immediate and profound effects
- but after a few months, people’s level of happiness returned to original levels:
e. g., lottery winners not happier than controls; took less pleasure from mundane events - effects not due to preexisting differences between people who buy (or don’t buy) lottery tickets
Lucas & colleagues (2003):
- 15-year study of 24,000 people in Germany
- after happiness, happiness increases
- but after 2-3 years, people returned to their initial level of happiness
- widows/widowers on average did so as well, but after about 8 years
- posits set point model of happiness to which we return after major life events
- exception: after unemployment people’s happiness was lower–even if they found new work
hedonic treadmill:
as income rises, people’s aspirations also escalate
The Easterlin Paradox(Richard Easterlin, 1974; 2003; 2010):
- across countries, GDP (gross domestic product) is correlated with happiness
- but what happens as GDP rises?
- compared to the 1940s, average income in the 1970s would buy about 60% more
- but the average level of happiness has remained remained since the 1940s
- at a national level, as income rises above fulfilling basic needs, happiness doesn’t increase–but why?
- thehedonic treadmill: as income rises, people’s aspirations also escalate
people spend time trying to make more money, at the expense of family life/health, reducing their happiness
Deci & colleagues (2008):
- studied college graduates with differing post-college life goals:
• intrinsic aspirations: personal growth, close relationships, community involvement, and physical health
• extrinsic aspirations: money, fame, and image- participants surveyed 1 and 2 years after graduation
- results:
• those who were more committed to their goals were more likely to attain them
• but those with intrinsic life goals had
» greater life satisfaction
» higher self-esteem
» lower anxiety
» fewer signs of stress
» and more positive/less negative emotion
Lyubomirsky & colleagues (2005):
Can happiness change? - happiness conjointly determined by: • genetically determined set point (50%) • circumstantial factors (10%) • intentional activities (40%)
- positive psychology
is about making life more fulfilling; is concerned with strength and virtue, not with weakness and damage
David G. Myers (1993):
- positive psychologyis about making life more fulfilling; is concerned with strength and virtue, not with weakness and damage
- happiness is not due to: age, gender, education, parenthood, or physical attractiveness
- research-based suggestions for a happier life:
1. Realize that enduring happiness doesn’t come from financial success
2. Take control of your control
3. Act happy
4. Seek work and leisure that engages your skills
5. Exercise
6. Give your body the it needs
7. Give priority to close relationships
8. Focus beyond yourself
9. Count your blessings/keep a gratitude journal
Nurture your spiritual self
