Motivation and Emotion Lecture

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms from the Motivation and Emotion lecture, including theories of motivation, eating behavior, sexual behavior, emotion theories, and biological structures involved in emotion.

Intrinsic Motivation

Drive to perform a behavior for its own sake because it is personally satisfying.

Extrinsic Motivation

Drive to perform a behavior in order to receive external rewards or avoid punishment.

Motivation

The wants or needs that direct behavior toward a goal.

Overjustification Effect

Decrease in intrinsic motivation when an expected external incentive is applied to a behavior already enjoyed.

Tangible Rewards

Physical rewards (e.g., money, prizes) that tend to decrease intrinsic motivation.

Intangible Rewards

Non-material rewards (e.g., praise) that can enhance intrinsic motivation.

Instinct Theory of Motivation

William James’s view that behavior is driven by innate survival instincts.

Drive Theory of Motivation

Theory stating that deviations from homeostasis create physiological needs that produce drive states to restore balance.

Homeostasis

Body’s tendency to maintain a steady internal state.

Habit (Drive Theory)

A learned pattern of behavior that becomes likely when it successfully reduces a drive.

Arousal Theory of Motivation

Concept that people seek to maintain an optimal level of physiological arousal.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

Principle that performance is best at moderate arousal; low arousal helps difficult tasks, high arousal helps simple tasks.

Self-Efficacy

Bandura’s term for one’s belief in one’s capability to complete a task.

Need for Achievement

Social motive that drives accomplishment and high performance.

Need for Affiliation

Social motive that encourages forming positive relationships with others.

Need for Intimacy

Social motive that leads people to seek deep, meaningful relationships.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Five-level model proposing lower biological needs must be satisfied before higher social and self-fulfillment needs.

Physiological Needs

Lowest level in Maslow’s hierarchy—food, water, shelter, warmth.

Satiation

Feeling of fullness and satisfaction that stops eating behavior.

Leptin

Hormone released by fat cells that signals satiety to the brain.

Metabolic Rate

Amount of energy expended in a given period of time; varies among individuals.

Set-Point Theory

Idea that each person has a genetically predetermined ideal body weight the body resists changing.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

Measure of body fat based on height and weight.

Obesity

Condition of having a BMI of 30 or higher.

Bariatric Surgery

Surgical procedures (e.g., gastric banding) that reduce stomach size to aid weight loss.

Bulimia Nervosa

Eating disorder involving binge eating followed by compensatory behaviors such as vomiting or laxatives.

Anorexia Nervosa

Eating disorder characterized by maintaining a body weight below average through starvation and/or excessive exercise.

Hypothalamus

Brain region important for motivated behaviors; regulates sexual function and sympathetic activation.

Medial Preoptic Area

Hypothalamic region; lesions disrupt sexual performance in male rats without reducing sexual motivation.

Amygdala

Limbic structure that processes emotional information, especially fear and anxiety.

Nucleus Accumbens

Limbic reward center involved in the motivation to engage in sexual behavior.

Kinsey’s Research

1940s large-scale surveys that revealed human sexual behaviors were more varied than assumed.

Kinsey Scale

Continuum used to categorize sexual orientation from exclusively heterosexual (0) to exclusively homosexual (6).

Masters and Johnson’s Sexual Response Cycle

Four-stage physiological model of sexual arousal and orgasm.

Excitement Phase

First stage of sexual response; increased blood flow leads to erection or lubrication.

Plateau Phase

Second stage; intensified arousal with continued physiological changes.

Orgasm Phase

Third stage; rhythmic muscular contractions and ejaculation occur.

Resolution Phase

Final stage; body returns to unaroused state.

Sexual Orientation

Enduring emotional and erotic attraction toward others; relatively stable and not a choice.

Gender Identity

Personal sense of being male, female, or something else.

Gender Dysphoria

Clinical diagnosis for distress when gender identity does not match assigned sex.

Transgender Hormone Therapy

Use of hormones to align physical traits with gender identity.

Mood

Prolonged, less intense affective state not necessarily linked to a specific event.

Emotion

Relatively intense affective state in response to an experience; consciously experienced.

James-Lange Theory

View that emotions result from physiological arousal (we feel afraid because our heart races).

Cannon-Bard Theory

Proposes physiological arousal and emotional experience occur simultaneously and independently.

Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory

States emotion arises from physiological arousal plus cognitive interpretation of that arousal.

Lazarus’ Cognitive-Mediational Theory

Emotions result from an immediate, unconscious appraisal of a stimulus before physiological response.

Limbic System

Interconnected brain structures mediating emotion and memory (includes amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus, thalamus).

Thalamus

Sensory relay station sending information to the cortex and amygdala.

Hippocampus

Limbic structure integrating emotion with cognition and memory formation.

Basolateral Complex (Amygdala)

Subregion with dense sensory connections; critical for classical conditioning and emotional memory.

Central Nucleus (Amygdala)

Subregion involved in attention and regulating autonomic and endocrine responses.

Cultural Display Rule

Culturally specific guidelines governing acceptable emotional expressions.

Facial Feedback Hypothesis

Idea that facial expressions can influence the emotional experiences they signify.

Universal Facial Expressions

Seven emotions (happiness, surprise, sadness, fright, disgust, contempt, anger) recognized across cultures.