Topic 16: Social Motives Flashcards
What is motivation?
Has to do with what drives animals to do anything at all
What is the Id?
Source of basic drives - sexual and aggressive
What is the superego?
Pushes person toward behaving in socially appropriate ways.
What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- set of motives which humans are driven to fulfil
Pyramid - visual interpretation of his model
What is the highest level of need in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
Self Actualisation
- being able to do those things you were meant to do.
How do contemporary psychologists view motivation?
Believe that motivation is a state of arousal that promotes goal directed behaviour
e.g. Food deprivation - ‘I am hungry and want to be full - Foraging behaviour
What is the ego?
the component of personality, developed through contact with the external world, that enables us to deal with life’s practical demands.
What do motives serve?
A need
What is a need?
Satisfying a need leads to a positive emotion
Real or imagined loss of a need leads to negative emotion
Most people engage in goal-directed behaviour to obtain a need and are satisfied after a certain amount of that need has been obtained
What is a really important need that humans have?
The need to belong
Belonging leads to positive emotion
Real or imagined loss of belonging leads to negative emotion
People actively seek out belonging and are satisfied once they have a sufficient amount of belonging.
Therefore, belonging is considered a need that humans have.
Humans evolved strong motives to satisfy the need to belong.
What is ostracism?
Active rejection by other group members
What are the effects of cyberball exclusion?
Causes feelings of social pain even when participants are told that other players were just computer programs.
- Explain other theoretical approaches to motivation (e.g. terror management theory) and what predictions they make
Why do participants in cyberball feel physically hurt?
Because being ostracised triggers the dorsal anterior cingulate (DAC) - brain region that is normally activated during painful physical experiences.
What are the consequences of being ostracised?
- increase in pro-social behaviour in attempt to forge connections:
e.g. greater attention to social information, increased mimicry of behaviour, increased cooperation/compliance/conformity - But also antisocial behaviour, more aggression for people who feel they cannot control the situation.
What other social motives are there in addition to want to belong?
Evolutionary motives:
- obtain food, avoid toxins
- avoid disease and predators
- form social connections, avoid exclusion
- find mates
What’s involved in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
Self actualisation
Esteem
Love and Belonging
Safety Needs
Physiological needs
What did Lieberman think the most basic human need (bottom of the pyramid) should be?
Social connection to a caregiver.
What is sexual selection?
Darwin proposed this
Some traits may have been selected because they contributed to reproduction regardless of their effects on survival.
What are the types of sexual selection?
Intrasexual selection - competition among males e.g. lions that lead to direct competition
Intersexual selection - mate choice based on traits that signal gene quality/health - e.g. peacock tails.
What are psychological traits that may have evolved via intersexual selection?
Intelligence, verbal skills, creativity
Because these traits signal ‘quality’ they may contribute to sexual attractiveness e.g. artists, musicians, rappers, novelists - which increase mating success.
What is terror management theory?
Explains how people protect themselves against concerns about death (mortality salience)
What is creativity?
Defined as the ability to produce something that is novel and valued
How was creativity initially thought to facilitate survival and how does it compare today?
E.g. through devising new hunting techniques
However today, most valued forms of creativity do not facilitate survival e.g. music, writing etc.
