Motivation and Emotion

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Motivation and Emotion

• Ch 13 notes

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Terminology

• Motive stimulus that moves a person to behave in
  ways designed to accomplish a specific goal
• Need a condition in which we require something
  we lack
• Both biological and psychological
• Drives forces that motivate an organism to take
  action (food gives rise to the hunger drive)

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Instinct Theory

• Behavior patterns that are genetically
  transmitted from generation to generation are
  instincts
• At one time psychologists believed that human
  behavior, like that of animals, is instinctive
• Today, most psychologists do not believe that
  human behavior is primarily motivated by instinct
  because it would need to be found throughout the
  species

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Drive-Reduction Theory

• Based on learning as well as motivation
• People and animals experience a drive arising
  from a need as an unpleasant tension
• Learn to do whatever will reduce that tension by
  reducing the drive (eat to reduce hunger drive)
• Some drives are caused by biological needs, some
  are learned (need for )
• Do what we can to reduce the drive to reach a
  balance homeostasis
• Explains a lot but not all motivation

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Humanistic Theory

• People are also motivated by the conscious desire
  for personal growth and artistic fulfillment
• Sometimes our drive to fulfill such needs
  outweighs our drive to meet more basic needs
• Abraham Maslows Hierarchy of Needs
• People rise naturally through the levels as long
  as they do not encounter overwhelming obstacles
  along the way
• Critics say it doesnt apply to all

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Sociocultural Theory

• Even if basic drives such as hunger are inborn,
  cultural experiences and factors influence the
  behavior that people use to satisfy those drives
• Foods people eat and the way they eat those foods
  are shaped by culture

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Biological Needs

• Can be complex because they involve psychological
  and physiological factors
• Ex food
• Hunger drive regulated by both biological and
  psychological factors

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Hunger Drive

• Mouth chewing/swallowing help satisfy hunger
  drive
• Stomach hunger pangs felt in stomach play a role
  in hunger but are not main factors involved in
  signaling hunger
• Blood sugar level when low, message carried to
  hypothalamus
• Hypothalamus sends start eating message and
  stop eating message
• If one or both dont work properly, eating
  patterns are effected

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Psychological Influences on Hunger

• Learning certain amounts of food/drink will
  produce feeling of well-being and relaxation can
  cause people to eat/drink when they feel upset
• Should parents reward good behavior with food?

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Obesity

• More than ½ of US adults are overweight
• 18 are obese weigh more than 30 above
  recommended weight
• Increasing problem in the US
• Estimated that 300,000 people die each year
  because of health problems related to excess
  weight and inactivity

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Losing Weight

• Adolescents should be cautious because they need
  a good deal of nourishment
• Sound diet is one that is sensible, realistic,
  and well planned
• Improve nutritional knowledge, decrease caloric
  intake, exercise, and substitute healthful foods
  for harmful foods
• Dieting plus exercise is more effective than
  dieting alone

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Causes of Obesity

• Biological and psychological factors
• Runs in the family, so is it inherited?
• Not necessarily because children learn what they
  live
• Heredity does play a major role (adoptee study)
• May not get messages from hypothalamus to stop
  eating
• Genes determine of fat cells a person has
• Psychological Factors
• Eat more under stress or negative emotions
• Circumstances/situations (parties, tv watching)

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Needs

• Psychological Biological Needs
• Some psychological needs motivate us to reduce
  tension/stimulation
• Others actually lead us to increase the amount of
  stimulation we experience
• Stimulus motives desires for stimulation
• Sensory stimulation, activity, exploration,
  manipulation of the environment
• Some have clear survival value (envir.)

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Sensory Deprivation

• Absence of stimulation
• What happened to the people in the sensory
  deprivation experiment?
• Felt very uncomfortable, felt they went through a
  terrible ordeal, had trouble concentrating and
  readjusting to their environment after the
  experiment
• Proves the importance of sensory stimulation to
  humans

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Sensation Seeker

• Someone who seeks out thrilling activities

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Why do some psychologists think exploration and
manipulation are reinforcing in and of themselves?

• Once a person feels comfortable with an
  environment, they seek novel stimulation (new
  experiences)
• Ex human infants and the busy boxes

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High Achievement Motivation

• Driven to get ahead
• Tackle challenging situations
• Driven to meet high personal standards of success

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Performance v. Learning Goals

• Performance
• Specific goals
• Ex gaining admission to a college, earning
  parent/teacher approval, even just avoiding
  criticism

• Learning
• Learning for the sake of learning
• Can be very powerful

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Extrinsic v. Intrinsic Rewards

• Extrinsic
• External rewards
• Good grades
• Good income
• Most often how performance goals are rewarded

• Intrinsic
• Internal rewards
• Self-satisfaction
• Usually how learning goals are rewarded

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Parents Role

• Crucial importance
• Need to encourage children to be persistent and
  find own solutions to problems
• Create opportunities to expose children to new
  and stimulating experiences (learning goals)
• Reward kids with toys for good grades, punishment
  for bad grades (performance)
• Overall, tend to be generous with praise to do
  well and less critical when their children do
  poorly

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Cognitive Consistence Theory

• People behave in ways expected of them
• Primarily motivated by the beliefs we hold about
  how others view us
• Most people prefer that the pieces of their
  lives fit together

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Balance Theory

• People need to organize their perceptions,
  opinions, and beliefs in a harmonious manner
• Do this to maintain a cognitive balance by
  holding consistent views and by being with people
  who share their beliefs and values

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• What causes imbalance?
• A major area of disagreement between 2 people who
  have strong feelings for each other
• Tends to upset people
• What causes a state of nonbalance?
• Not having feelings toward someone
• Leaves people feeling indifferent

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• According to the cognitive-dissonance theory, why
  do people behave the way that they do?
• Most people want their thoughts and attitudes
  (cognitions) to be consistent with their actions
• When we become aware that there is an
  inconsistency (dissonance) we feel unpleasant
  which causes inner tension that can be
  uncomfortable
• Why do people desire affiliation with others?
• Humans are social beings and need to be with
  others
• During adolescence, this need is VERY strong

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What happens when we experience strong emotions?

• Activity in autonomic nervous system anxiety
  for example triggers activity of sympathetic
  division of autonomic nervous system
• How do emotions have biological, cognitive, and
  behavior components?
• Anxiety makes heart race, breathe rapidly, sweat,
  muscles tense (bio)
• Anxiety idea that something bad might happen
  (cognitive)
• Anxiety might lead a person to try to escape from
  a situation (behavioral)

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Our Emotional State Effects Our Perceptions of
Our Surroundings

• Happier people usually think the world is a
  happier, safer place
• Tend to make decisions more readily and are more
  satisfied with their lives
• Unhappy people tend to feel like gloom is
  settling in over everything in their lives
• Shows that happiness and unhappiness create their
  own momentum
• Happier we are, the more likely we are to help
  others

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Anger

• Response to insult or attack
• Assertive reaction vs. hostile reaction
• Can go and speak with the person who made them
  angry about whatever it was that made them angry
  rather than getting revenge
• Assertiveness is more effective because it allows
  a person to approach his/her feelings and reduce
  them while not causing harm to themselves or
  others

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Facial Expressions

• Probably inborn
• The ways that specific emotions are expressed
  appear to be the same around the world

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Theories of Emotion

• Opponent-Process Theory
• Commonsense Approach
• James-Lange Theory
• Cannon-Bard Theory
• Theory of Cognitive Appraisal

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Opponent-Process Theory

• Emotions come in parts with one followed by its
  opposite
• Eventually restores a balance

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Commonsense Approach

• When something happens to a person in a certain
  situation, the person quickly interprets the
  situation
• Interpretations trigger body sensations that
  signal a feeling or emotion
• Emotions trigger a behavior
• This approach (broad view) has influenced the
  next 3 theories

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James-Lange Theory

• Peoples emotions follow, rather than cause,
  their behavioral reactions to situations
• People act first then react emotionally according
  to the way they acted
• Certain situations trigger reactions
  instinctive bodily response patterns that include
  specific feelings and behaviors
• Suggests people can change their feelings by
  changing their environment

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Problems with James-Lange Theory

• Cognition has little role in determining behavior
• Minimizes the role of personal values and choice
  as factors in human behavior

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Cannon-Bard Theory

• Emotions accompany bodily responses that are
  aroused by external stimuli
• Situation triggers external stimulus that is
  processed by the brain, brain stimulates bodily
  changes and cognitive activity (experience of the
  emotion) happens simultaneously
• Emotions are not produced by bodily responses
• A 2 stage reaction is involved bodily response
  followed by an emotional reaction

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Theory of Cognitive Appraisal

• Argues that all emotions have basically similar
  bodily response patterns
• Body reacts in physically similar ways with
  different emotions it experiences
• Maintains that the way people label an emotion
  depends on their cognitive appraisal of the
  situation
• Cognitive appraisal that occurs is based on many
  factors analysis of situation and ways other are
  reacting in same situation

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Criticism of Cognitive Appraisal

• Studies designed to support the theory often
  yield different results when repeated
• Lacking test-retest reliability

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So, are any of the theories correct?

• No
• None are perfect
• People are very complex
• Emotions then are also complex