PSY202 Motivation

week 5-6

What is Motivation?

Internal and External Factors that propel one in specific directions, usually toward a goal.

What is Internal “Push“referred to as?

Drive.

What is the Drive Reduction Theory?

• The drive/want to do something (Hunger; wanting to eat when hungry)

• Primary Drive

• Secondary Drive

What is Primary Drive?

• Not born with this drive

• The psychological state in response to an internal physiological need

• Motivates behaviours that aids survival

What is Secondary Drive?

• Learned by association with a primary drive.

• With the secondary drive, you can reinforce the primary drives you might have

What is Homeostasis?

• The process of the body maintaining a steady state

• Moving from an optimal state to another state activates drives, and the drives will motivate behaviours to return to a steady state again

What is Yerkes-Dodson Law?

• States what moderate levels of arousal lead to optimal performance

• Prefer to be in optimal levels of performance, rather than too much or too little

• Performance and Arousal relationship shown in inverted U shape

What are External “Pulls“referred to as?

Incentives.

What are Incentives?

• Environmental (external) factors that exert pulling effects on out actions

• These interact with internal factors

• Drives can motivate these needs

What did Maslow contribute to Motivation?

States that needs are prioritized in a hierarchy, The Hierarchy of Needs.

What is the Hierarchy of Needs?

• The order in which needs are prioritized

  • Psychological Needs come first

  • Social and Esthetic Needs come later

  • Unfilled Needs are often the basis for action

What is the Hunger Drive?

• Mostly associated with eating

• Role of Hypothalamus, Hormones, External Factors

What is the Role of the Hypothalamus?

• When the brain is signalled that we are hungry or not

• Ventromedial

  • Satiety Center: signal to stop eating

• Lateral

  • Hunger Center: signal to eat more

What are Hunger Hormones?

• Ghrelin (stomach) increases hunger

• Cholecystokinin (small intestine) decreases hunger

What Biologically Influences Weight Gain/Obedity?

• Chemical Messengers

• Set Point

• Fat Cells

• Metabolic Rate

What do Chemical Messengers do to Influence Weight Gain and Obesity?

• Leptin is a hormone produced by fat cells and it tells the body to work off fat

  • It reduces appetite and increases the amount of energy used

  • Obese people are seemingly less resistant to the effects of Leptin because body may not be signaled leading to them wanting to eat more

What does Set Point do to Influence Weight Gain and Obesity?

• Is the Natural body weight that the body seeks to maintain; genetics

• Weight loss below set point is often regained

• Obese people have a higher set point at birth, which makes it harder to lose weight

What do Fat Cells do to Influence Weight Gain and Obesity?

• Is determined by genetics and food intake

• Being significantly overweight leads to increase in the number of fat cells

• Changes from early childhood to adulthood cause fat cell number to stabilize

What does Metabolic Rate do to Influence Weight Gain and Obesity?

Obese people are born with a low rate that leads them to burn fewer calories.

What Psychologically Influences Weight Gain/Obesity?

• Expectations and External Cues

  • Portion Distortion (portion size changes constantly as years pass)

  • Unit Bias (cognition that a unit of food is the appropriate and optimal amount; if something is brought in larger size, more eating is required)

What is Sexual Drive/Desire affected by?

• Sex Hormones

• Neurotransmitters

How do Sex Hormones affect sexual drive/desires?

Testosterone enhances and increases sexual drive.

How do Neurotransmitters affect sexual drive/desire?

• Serotonin decreases desire

• Dopamine increases desire

What is Sexual Orientation?

• A person’s sexual and emotional attraction to members of the same/opposite sex

• Heterosexuality (opposite sex), Homosexuality (same sex), Bisexuality (both sex), Asexuality (neither sex)

What is involved in the determination ofSexual Orientation?

• Evidence from Twin Studies

• Bem’s “Exotic (familiar) becomes Erotic (attracted)” Theory

• Sex Hormones and Prenatal Influences

• Brain Differences

How does Evidence from Twin Studies help determine Sexual Orientation?

• Genetics

• As the Genetic relatedness increases → Concordance rate for homosexuality increases (if one twin is homosexual, 50% likely for the other to be homosexual as well)

How does Bem’s “Exotic becomes Erotic” Theory help determine Sexual Orientation?

• Genetics and Environment factors

• Biological Variables cause children to be born with certain temperamental characteristics that will cause them to seek out their interactions with others accordingly

• Being around one specific sex causes the other to appear more exotic to you

How do Sex Hormones and Prenatal Influences help determine Sexual Orientation?

• Study shows that greater prenatal exposure to Androgen (male hormone) in Lesbians than in Straight women

• “Older Brother Effect“ claims that the more boys brothers a boy has, the more likely they are to be homosexual (likeliness is up 33% for every brother they have due to mothers environment changes)

How do Brain Differences help determine Sexual Orientation?

• Possible influence of regions in the Hypothalamus

• Larger Corpus Callosum in gay men

  • Connects the two hemispheres is larger in gay men than straight