Motivation

Homeostasis

Maintenance of the body’s internal environment (body-based such as body temperature and blood compositions) within a narrow physiological range (whatever is healthy to keep it regulated)

What is homeostasis regulated by?

Hypothalamus - involved in maintaining body temperature, fluid and energy homeostasis

Why does motivation happen?

To To maintain homeostasis and ensure that the body is okay such as by regulating eating

How do we describe the physiological factors of eating?

We need eating for:

• Fuel for cells

  • Glucose (brain)

  • Fatty acids (rest of the body)

• Glucose in a meal is used for fuel or converted into glycogen

• The glucostatic hypothesis of hunger

  • we have a unit of measure of how much glucose we have in our body

Why are we motivated to eat?

The part of our hypothalamus that measures glucostatic hypothesis tells us whether we have enough glucose for energy in our bodies and therefore sends signals that we are hungry thus giving us motivation to eat.

What is hunger?

It is the measure of energy balance and helps us maintain the glucose supply in our body. It is important for this energy balance because our brain needs constant glucose supply and a few minutes with glucose deprivation can lead to loss of consciousness and death.

Explain what is related to Glucose

• Most of our food enters the body and our bloodstream as glucose

• In case we run out of glucose, our liver converts stored nutrients to glucose

• The amount of glucose actually available to the cells depends on two hormones from pacreas:

  • insulin helps glucose enter cells (decreases amount in bloodstream)

  • glucagon stimulates liver to convert glycogen to glucose (increases amount in bloodstream)

What is insulin for?

If there’s too much glucose in the bloodstream, it helps glucose enter cells and store them

What is glucagon for?

When there is too less glucose in the bloodstream, it helps the liver convert stored nutrients (glycogen) into glucose

How does the cycle for eating occur?

After a meal, our insulin levels rise and glucose enters cells and our appetite decreases. As our glucose levels fall over time, the pancreas releases glucagon and less insulin. If we have no more glucose in our cells, our blood levels rise and our hunger returns.

Why do people with untreated diabetics eat a lot but lose weight?

When they eat, their insulin levels don’t increase and therefore the glucose leaves the body in their urine and waste, thus the cells are always starving while there’s still blood glucose in the bloodstream.

How does the balancing work in terms of signaling?

We have neurons in the hypothalamus.

• Lateral hypothalamus:

  • Neurons signal hunger (“glucostats“)

  • When damaged, we won’t have hunger, won’t eat, will starve

• Ventromedial hypothalamus:

  • Neurons signal satiation (that there is enough, you are full and satisfied)

  • When damaged, you’ll think it’s neverl enough, will keep eating, you’ll grow very obese

How can we talk about physiological factors in terms of biological needs?

At a behavioral level, we have an approach and avoid method. We approach what is good and we avoid what is bad.

Motivation is not only about survival of the fitness for us but rather for the group in general (Inclusive fitness). It’s about the surviving and the reproduction of our species.

What is the drive reduction hypothesis?

This is when our body signals us for the lack of something in our body and cause us to have an increased drive in trying to fill this lack. (Our signal of hunger gives us the drive to eat)

What does it mean by reinforcing a drive?

If we are able to meet the needs of our drive, it is reinforced in us (a learning process) in which we know what to do next time the same issue occurs

What are the two aspects in the drive reduction hypothesis?

• Wanting:

  • this is the drive, and it’s more like we need it to survive —> our motivation

• Liking:

  • This connects motivation to emotion and allows us to create a memory and remember it for the next time

When do we start wanting a meal?

Our behavior can be described into two sections:

• Cultural and social factors (this refers to habits or copying)

  • Let’s say maybe after doing a specific task, it is embedded into your body that you have to eat, and therefore even if you have just ate, you might feel like eating.

  • Maybe you’ve eaten, but your friends invite you for a meal, so you decide to join them just to feel like part of the group

• Physiological factors (hunger)

  • This is in terms of your body maintaining homeostasis and happens when there is no energy balance in your body

When do we eat more than we need?

• when we are with other people

• in the evening

• on weekends

• if food is low-fat

• when it tastes good

• alcoholic beverages add calories

• disorders:

  • anorexia nervosa

  • bulimia

  • hormonal conditions

Types of approaches to human behavior?

Sigmund Freud vs. Charles Darwin

• Thanatos (the death drive) —> Natural selection

  • This helps a person want to survive and maintain homeostasis that allows the body to live

• Eros (the love drive) —> Sexual selection

  • This helps a person try and find the right person to be able to create an offspring that would also be successful

  • sometimes it also regards in the social sense in the way we are perceived by other people and therefore lead to the doing of amazing achievements

What is the key in understanding human beings?

From learning for something to learning for learning.

Humans are very curious about the things around us and we often ask questions of why something is the way it is. We use the concept of playing as experimentation where we look at different things and try to explore it to learn new things. We do art for the sake of art.

What is learning for extrinsic reward?

We do certain things and actions for rewards that are external such as:

• food, sex

• money

  • prestige, reputation

What is learning for intrinsic reward?

We do certain things or actions for our self-satisfaction such as:

• the thing itself

• “because it is fun”

How does motivation vary per person?

• Some types of information are naturally more interesting than others —> we prefer doing more interesting stuff than things that bore us

  • Individual preferences —> depending on the places we are born or grew up in, we would have different interests in what we find engaging and what we don’t

What is the role of education in motivation?

We develop different areas of interest and we are provided more context in which we may find more interesting thus allowing us to acquire that acquired taste because you are exposed to it and therefore get interested in it (YOU CAN LEARN TO APPRECIATE SOMETHING THAT YOU DIDN’T APPRECIATE BEFORE)

What is incidental learning?

It’s the fact that when you are curious, even if information is relevant, you tend to remember that information more because you want to take in information at that moment.