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