UNit 7 - Social Motivation, Emotion, and Stress

Achievement motive

a desire to meet some internalized standard of excellence

* McClelland used responses to the **Thematic Apperception Test** (TAT) to measure achievement motivation.

Affiliation motive

the need to be with others

Conflict

being torn in different directions by opposing motives that block you from attaining a goal, leaving you feeling frustrated and stressed

approach-approach conflicts

* least stressful
* situations involving __two positive options__, only one of which you can have

ex. a student wishes to pursue a graduate degree and has been accepted into two graduate programs and needs to make a decision about which one to attend.

Avoidance-avoidance conflicts

situations involving __two negative options__, one of which you must choose

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ex. choosing between a lower salary at work or unemployment

Approach-avoidance conflicts

situations involving whether or not to choose an option that has both a positive and negative consequence or consequences

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ex. an individual making a decision about taking a job that possesses both financial gain and prestige, but also contains a great deal of stress and long hours.

Multiple approach-avoidance conflict (pros and cons)

several alternative courses of action that have both positive and negative aspects.

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ex. choosing between two different cars, each with different pros and cons. One car gets great gas mileage and has lots of fancy stuff (approaching) but is very expensive and expensive to maintain (avoidance).

theory x

managers believe that employees will only work if rewarded with benefits or threatened with pumishment

* employees extrinsically motivated
* only interested in **Maslow’s lower needs (deficiency needs)**

theory y

managers believe that employees are internally motivated to fo good work and policies should encourage this internal motive

* employees are intrinsically motivated
* interested in **Maslow’s higher needs (growth needs)**

James-Lange Theory (William James and Carl Lange)

our experience of an emotion is the result of the arousal that we experience

* we feel emotion because of the biological changes caused by stress
* ex. if you run into a snake, your heart rate increases which makes us realize we're afraid (heartbeat)

Our autonomic nervous systems are activated by external stimuli, which results in specific physiological patterns for various emotions that generate specific emotional experiences.

cannon-bard theory (Walter Cannon and Philip Bard)

stimulating events trigger feelings and physical reactions that occur at the same time (disagreed with James-Lange theory)

* ex. seeing a snake might prompt both the feeling of fear (an emotional response) and a racing heartbeat (a physical reaction)

thalamus simultaneously sends information to both the limbic system and the frontal lobes about an event.

two-factor theory of emotion (Atanley Schachter)

explains that emotions happen at the same time but people who are already physiologically aroused experience more intense emotions than unaroused people when both groups are exposed to the same stimuli

* ex. You start sweating, and you label what you're feeling as "anxious." However, when you meet with them, they say they want to give you a raise. You are already physically aroused, but now, you cognitively label this feeling "excitement" as a result of the good news.

opponent process theory

When we experience the first emotion on repeated occasions, the opposing emotion becomes stronger and the first emotion becomes weaker, leading to an even weaker experience of the first emotion

* ex. the more a person experiences the fear, the less the fear will affect them. This decrease in fear may continue to the point where the situation is no longer scary.

Cognitive-Appraisal Theory (Richard Lazarus)

our emotional experience depends on our interpretation of the situation we are in

* Different people on an amusement park ride experience different emotions.
* first think about your situation before you can experience an emotion

Stress

the process by which we appraise and respond to environmental threat

LCUs

Life-changing units

* ex. marriage, changing jobs, and moving houses
* used for determining the stress you have

Social Readjustment rating scale (SRRS)

scale for determining stress

* the more LCUs, the higher your score = more likely to have stress related diseases
* ex. high BP, heart attack, stroke, aneurysyms

Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

3 stage theory of our body's reaction to stress:


1. alarm
2. resistance
3. exhausion

alarm

* “shocking”
* “I wasn’t expecting it to be this intense”

resistance

* being tired but you refuse to rest/eat and rush together

exhausion

body says “enough” and begins to shut down

* ex. after an intense game, you pass out and fall asleep for 12 hours

Hans Selye

* believed that we react similarly to both physical and psychological stressors.
* Stressors are stimuli such as heat, cold, pain, mild shock, restraint, etc., that we perceive as endangering our well-being.
* came up with 3 stage theory of how we response to stress