Unit 8: Motivation

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Unit 8 Motivation

• WHY?
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vP0zVPZBykSE

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What moves people to action?

• Pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain
• Counterproductive?
• Drug use? Studying?

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Freud

• Basic sexual/ aggressive instincts operate
  unconsciously
• dreams
• fantasies
• slips of the tongue

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Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow

• Basic tendency toward growth to master our lives

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Martin Seligman

• Emphasized cognitive factors in motivation and
  emotion
• How do you explain your successes and failures?

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Human sexual nature?

• Shows relationship between psychological and
  biological
• How did we go from caveman to Kimye?

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What does it all come down to?

• Drives/Incentives/Homeostasis/Optimum Arousal
• Pushed by need and pulled by incentive

Need (food/water)
Drive (hunger/thirst)
Drive-reducing behavior (eating/drinking)
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Close your eyes

• Think about the future
• Hopes?
• What do you see?

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What is hope?

• Agency willpower or energy to get towards a goal
  (choice)
• Pathways perceived ability to generate routes to
  achieve that goal

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Hope Index

• Add items 2, 9, 10, and 12 agency
• Add items 1, 4, 6, and 8 pathways
• Add agency pathway
• Mean for each is 12.5 (total 25)

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• High on hope scale pursue greater number of
  life goals and tend to be more successful in
  achieving those goals
• Interpret obstacles as life challenges rather
  than threats
• React to obstacles with less stress and less
  increase in blood pressure
• Hopeful women report less pain in childbirth
• Higher life satisfaction, self-esteem, optimistic

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So why are you here?
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Motivation Theories

• Evolutionary Theory
• A. Early instinct theories fixed, genetic
  programs behavior
• William James Principles of Psychology
• William McDougall 18 Instincts
• Migrating behaviors and mating displays of birds
• Examples in human behaviors, including rooting,
  sucking, and grasping

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• B. ethology relating behavior to features of
  environment
• Nest building (inherited dispositions)
• Instincts reflect adaptation to environment
• Development and expression can vary (seasons,
  food, mates)
• Sign stimuli shapes/triggers behavior

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• C. Charles Darwins evolutionary theory
• Natural selection
• Emotions are based on instincts

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• D. Modern evolutionary psych predispositions and
  probabilities, not instincts
• Natural selection acts on genes expressed in
  particular circumstances
• 2. Selection takes place at the individual
  level it is not survival in the literal sense
• 3. Behaviors adaptive in one time or place may
  not be adaptive to others (affluence and food
  choice)

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2. Arousal Theory

• Motivation to achieve and maintain a certain
  level of arousal
• Animals seek activities that create levels of
  physiological arousal
• Theories differ in assumptions about whether
  arousal is negative or positive

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• B. Drive-reduction theory (Clark Hull)
• Behavior originates from physiological need for
  food, water, air.
• These needs create tension (irritation) away from
  homeostasis
• When needs are met (homeostasis), arousal is low
  needs give rise to drives

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• Drive internal state of tension that motivates
  an organism to engage in activities that reduces
  tension

Restore equil.

• Blood vessels in skin dilate to
• remove heat
• Person sweats
• Turn down furnace
• Remove Sweater

Temp. too high
Comfortable range for body temp centered at 98.6F

• Blood vessels in skin constrict to
• conserve heat
• Person shivers
• Turn up furnace
• Put on sweater

Temp. too low
Restore equil.
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• C. Animals are motivated to reduce the drive
• Behaviors (eating, drinking, breathing) reduce
  need by restoring homeostasis
• Behaviors are reinforced/strengthened thru drive
  reduction
• Acquired motivation stimuli associated with
  drives become motivators stimuli associated with
  drive reduction become rewarding

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Optimal Arousal

• Why do we feel driven to experience stimulation?
• Why is there a variety?
• Exploration Inventory
• Sensation Seeking Inventory

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• 3. Optimal Arousal Theory
• a. Some nonzero level of arousal is optimal
• Arousal below optimal level motivates behavior to
  increase arousal
• Arousal above optimal level motivates behavior to
  decrease arousal
• b. Individual differences
• People vary in the ways they seek levels of
  arousal
• Sensation-seeking is an aspect of personality
  related to risky behavior

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Just how sensation-seeking are you?http//www.you
tube.com/watch?vIuv__-nyO1M
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Four Types of Sensation Seeking

• Peaks in late teens and early 20s
• Higher in men than women/60 genetic
• Categories
• 1. Thrill and adventure seeking
• Skydiving, bungee jumping, race car drivers
• 2. Experience seeking
• Nonconforming lifestyle, reject middle-class
  lifestyle unusual friends, frequent travel,
  artistic expression
• 3. Disinhibition
• Social drinking, partying
• 4. Boredom susceptibility
• Restless must get out of here.

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Higher 7-9pm Patriot Hall Next Thursday
2/12https//www.youtube.com/watch?vwCtpAIaOYW0
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4. Incentive Theory

• Motivation is produced by need for goal
  attainment
• Need for goal attainment or achievement may be
  either intrinsic or extrinsic
• Feelings vs. material often tangible reinforcers

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• B. Effect of external reward on intrinsic
  motivation
• Providing extrinsic reward for intrinsic
  motivated behavior can decrease interest in task
• Overjustification effect Decis puzzle solving
  experiment
• Or school in general what it was like to go to
  school in kindergarten vs. 11th or 12th grade

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• C. Conditioned incentives
• Cravings thru learning environmental stimuli
  craving
• Watch someone eating popcorn you want popcorn
• 2. Wanting motivation to approach incentive
• If you have a cold, you may want cold medicine
  but not like it

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5. Cognitive Consistency Theory

• Motivation for thoughts to be consistent with
  behavior
• Cognitive dissonance
• Self-perception theory an individual perceives
  his or her own behavior and forms beliefs and
  attitudes that are consistent with it

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Self Perception Theory

• A man is asked whether he likes wheat bread and
  replies, I must like it Im always eating it.
  His wife would say the same thing.
• Introspection/justification is a poor guide due
  to weak cues
• Outside observer assumes anothers internal states

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6. Humanistic Theory

• Maslows Hierarchy of needs
• B. Csikszentmihalyls flow
• deep, authentic involvement in meaningful
  activities
• Requires skilled control over instinctive drives

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Maslows Hierarchy of Needs
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High Challenge
Flow
Anxiety
Low Skill
High Skill
Apathy
Boredom
Low Challenge