Motivation and emotion

XXXX is where our physiological and reproductive needs are translated by our genetic code and developmental history into neural networks in our brains that determine, or perhaps just influence our choices.

-Motivation is where our physiological and reproductive needs are translated by our genetic code and developmental history into neural networks in our brains that determine, or perhaps just influence our choices.

 the forces that activate and direct behavior

Motivation

 a complex internal state that involves physiological, cognitive, and behavioral components.

Emotion

-XXX psychology seeks to explain behavior in terms of its function. 

How would those behaviors have helped our ancestors to reproduce and care for themselves and their offspring? Why did those behaviors occur? Motivation is how we keep track of priorities and figure out what we should be doing. 

-Thanks to that long, long history of his ancestors, for example, Jim immediately reorganized his priorities around getting to the surface of the water. He didn’t care about the boat, he didn’t care what his friend would think of him, and he certainly didn’t think about what would happen with the rest of his afternoon; all he cared about was getting air. It took no conscious effort, and very little time, to reorient these priorities; the sensation of needing to breathe pushed everything else away. This was a good thing, because each extra moment under the water increased the odds that the day would have ended in tragedy.

-Evolutionary psychology seeks to explain behavior in terms of its function. 

How would those behaviors have helped our ancestors to reproduce and care for themselves and their offspring? Why did those behaviors occur? Motivation is how we keep track of priorities and figure out what we should be doing. 

-Thanks to that long, long history of his ancestors, for example, Jim immediately reorganized his priorities around getting to the surface of the water. He didn’t care about the boat, he didn’t care what his friend would think of him, and he certainly didn’t think about what would happen with the rest of his afternoon; all he cared about was getting air. It took no conscious effort, and very little time, to reorient these priorities; the sensation of needing to breathe pushed everything else away. This was a good thing, because each extra moment under the water increased the odds that the day would have ended in tragedy.

 branch of psychology that seeks to explain behavior in terms of its function. 

Evolutionary Psychology

-Motivation is essential to understanding how we make choices about our behavior. Because most of us aren’t faced with terrible hunger, overwhelming thirst, or imminent suffocation, it’s easy to imagine most of the time that we are “in charge” of the decisions we make, and in important ways we are—this is what philosophers have for hundreds of years called “free will,” and it remains a notion central for our legal code, for instance. 

René Descartes, writing in the 1600s, divided our behavior into an animal-like, mostly automatic portion, and a separate, spiritual component that had free will. But we are also increasingly aware of the fact that our basic motivations and emotions make themselves heard in our seemingly rational thoughts and ideas.

-To understand all of this, it’s often helpful to examine the behavior of animals. A central notion of Darwin’s ideas was that there is evolutionary continuity between animals and ourselves, and indeed, much of what we understand about motivation comes from studies of animal behavior.

(To understand why, consider the ethics of subjecting people to situations where strong motivations come into play—fear, hunger, pain, and thirst, for example). Animals have long been understood to have instinctive behavior.

-Motivation is essential to understanding how we make choices about our behavior. Because most of us aren’t faced with terrible hunger, overwhelming thirst, or imminent suffocation, it’s easy to imagine most of the time that we are “in charge” of the decisions we make, and in important ways we are—this is what philosophers have for hundreds of years called “free will,” and it remains a notion central for our legal code, for instance. 

René Descartes, writing in the 1600s, divided our behavior into an animal-like, mostly automatic portion, and a separate, spiritual component that had free will. But we are also increasingly aware of the fact that our basic motivations and emotions make themselves heard in our seemingly rational thoughts and ideas.

-To understand all of this, it’s often helpful to examine the behavior of animals. A central notion of Darwin’s ideas was that there is evolutionary continuity between animals and ourselves, and indeed, much of what we understand about motivation comes from studies of animal behavior.

(To understand why, consider the ethics of subjecting people to situations where strong motivations come into play—fear, hunger, pain, and thirst, for example). Animals have long been understood to have instinctive behavior.

XXX

Behaviors that occur with relatively little learning

Innate (unlearned)

Examples:breathing, migration, predation

Small variation

Instinct

XXX

Simple movements caused by a particular stimulus

Innate

EXAMPLES:breathing, knee jerk, avoiding burns

Small variation

Reflex

XXXX XXX XXX

Simple but coordinated movements caused by a particular stimulus.

Innate

Example:egg retrieval, nursing in infants

Small variation

Modal Action Patterns

XXX 

Psychological mechanisms (feelings) inside the organism that can motivate instinctive and learned behaviors. 

Innate or Acquired

Examples:thirst, hunger, playfulness, sexual arousal. 

Medium Variation

Drive

XXX

Something outside the organism that elicits approach or avoidance; can be innate or acquired by experience.

Innate or Acquired

Examples:water, smell or sight of food, toys, money, prison

Large variation

Incentives

-One thing implied by the idea of XXX is that they are unlearned behaviors.

 There are two ways in which we can demonstrate that behaviors might be unlearned.

 

-One thing implied by the idea of INSTINCTS is that they are unlearned behaviors.

 There are two ways in which we can demonstrate that behaviors might be unlearned.

behaviors that do not require previous experience or learning

Instincts

 behaviors that are apparent from a very early age onwards and require very little experience to emerge

Unlearned behaviors

There are two ways in which we can demonstrate that behaviors might be unlearned:

-1. One is that they are apparent from a very early XXX onwards.

- 2. Another is that they seem to require very XXX experience to emerge, or only the experiences that all members of a species go through.

 A good example of a behavior that meets both criteria is that human babies breathe from the moment their faces hit the air. It’s not the birth experience itself that causes it; a baby born into a tub can remain there for minutes, still getting oxygen from the umbilical cord, calmly floating just as she had done for the last nine months. But as soon as she breaks the surface of the water, a baby will open her mouth and inhale. The required networks of sensation and movement are built into her nervous system, and breathing occurs quickly with no prior experience.

There are two ways in which we can demonstrate that behaviors might be unlearned:

-1. One is that they are apparent from a very early age onwards.

- 2. Another is that they seem to require very little experience to emerge, or only the experiences that all members of a species go through.

 A good example of a behavior that meets both criteria is that human babies breathe from the moment their faces hit the air. It’s not the birth experience itself that causes it; a baby born into a tub can remain there for minutes, still getting oxygen from the umbilical cord, calmly floating just as she had done for the last nine months. But as soon as she breaks the surface of the water, a baby will open her mouth and inhale. The required networks of sensation and movement are built into her nervous system, and breathing occurs quickly with no prior experience.

This is an example of a XXX: the right sensations will invariably elicit a response. A dog stepping on a sharp stick will immediately raise (flex) the paw on the affected side, and tense (extend) the paw on the opposite side, so as not to fall. This happens in a fraction of a second, protecting the dog from injury. 

Interestingly, a sloth, who spends most of his day upside down hanging from branches, has exactly the opposite reflex built into his nervous system: he will extend the affected paw, thus removing it from the thorn, and contract the paw on the opposite side, so as not to loose grip on the branch.

This is an example of a reflex: the right sensations will invariably elicit a response. A dog stepping on a sharp stick will immediately raise (flex) the paw on the affected side, and tense (extend) the paw on the opposite side, so as not to fall. This happens in a fraction of a second, protecting the dog from injury. 

Interestingly, a sloth, who spends most of his day upside down hanging from branches, has exactly the opposite reflex built into his nervous system: he will extend the affected paw, thus removing it from the thorn, and contract the paw on the opposite side, so as not to loose grip on the branch.

automatic response when presented with a particular stimulus

reflex

The field of XXX seeks to study the behavior of animals in their natural habitat. Sometimes, ethologists intervene just slightly in order to understand the significance of what they’re observing. 

For example, in studying geese, ethologists noticed that if they gently removed an egg from the nest, the mother goose would immediately retrieve the egg, pulling it back into the nest by sweeping her bill from side to side and scooping it towards her. Though the behavior seems purposive and functional, its true nature becomes more apparent when the ethologist again reaches in, this time removing the egg from behind the goose as she’s drawing it back to the nest. In this situation, the goose will oddly continue with the retrieving motions, even though the egg is now gone, pulling her head all the way back to the nest without the egg. These behaviors, which are present in all members of a species (or at least, all members of a given sex), are called XXX XXX patterns: they occur in the same fashion, time and time again, and in nearly every individual.

Although somewhat more complex than reflexes, the environment seems to play very little role after the behavior gets started, and the behavior seems largely to be instinctive. It is in these behaviors where the concept of the evolutionary underpinnings of behavior seems most obvious; the ancestors of our goose who failed to retrieve their eggs correctly the first time and every time did not leave so many copies of their genes as those who did exactly the right thing with errant eggs.

The field of ethology seeks to study the behavior of animals in their natural habitat. Sometimes, ethologists intervene just slightly in order to understand the significance of what they’re observing. 

For example, in studying geese, ethologists noticed that if they gently removed an egg from the nest, the mother goose would immediately retrieve the egg, pulling it back into the nest by sweeping her bill from side to side and scooping it towards her. Though the behavior seems purposive and functional, its true nature becomes more apparent when the ethologist again reaches in, this time removing the egg from behind the goose as she’s drawing it back to the nest. In this situation, the goose will oddly continue with the retrieving motions, even though the egg is now gone, pulling her head all the way back to the nest without the egg. These behaviors, which are present in all members of a species (or at least, all members of a given sex), are called modal action patterns: they occur in the same fashion, time and time again, and in nearly every individual.

 Although somewhat more complex than reflexes, the environment seems to play very little role after the behavior gets started, and the behavior seems largely to be instinctive. It is in these behaviors where the concept of the evolutionary underpinnings of behavior seems most obvious; the ancestors of our goose who failed to retrieve their eggs correctly the first time and every time did not leave so many copies of their genes as those who did exactly the right thing with errant eggs.

field that seeks to study the behavior of animals in their natural habitat.

Ethology

 behaviors that occur in the same fashion, time and time again, and are present in nearly every individual. 

Modal Action Patterns

-If we go back to one of the major themes of the course: 

B=F(P+E+PE)

explaining motivated behaviors as being instinctive would put the emphasis on the XXX, and not the XXX. We know that behavior is a function of both, as well as the interaction between the two, so is our formula accurate for explaining motivation?

-If we go back to one of the major themes of the course: 

B=F(P+E+PE)

explaining motivated behaviors as being instinctive would put the emphasis on the Person, and not the Environment. We know that behavior is a function of both, as well as the interaction between the two, so is our formula accurate for explaining motivation?

7.2.2 How Do Internal Factors Motivate My Behavior?

-XXX XXX patterns work best in situations where the same behavior works like a charm every time.

 What about situations where a little more flexibility is required? Often, behavioral flexibility is most important when the environment can change. Jim knew, just knew he had to breathe, but he was confronted with a situation outside his experience (or even that of his ancestors): hanging upside down, underwater, attached to a boat. What about a cat confronting the cold of an Indianapolis winter? How should she adapt, given that her ancestors harken from North Africa, where such weather is pretty much unheard of? What about a lion whose water hole just dried up in a drought, for the first time in her memory?

All of these situations involve disruptions of XXX: the physiological requirements of our bodies have been disturbed.

A thirsty lion can detect the loss of water (and corresponding over-accumulation of salt) in her blood, just as we can. A cold cat is motivated by the loss of normal body temperature. Homeostasis is disrupted whenever the normal amounts of oxygen, heat, water, food, salt, and many other substances aren’t present. 

7.2.2 How Do Internal Factors Motivate My Behavior?

-Modal action patterns work best in situations where the same behavior works like a charm every time.

 What about situations where a little more flexibility is required? Often, behavioral flexibility is most important when the environment can change. Jim knew, just knew he had to breathe, but he was confronted with a situation outside his experience (or even that of his ancestors): hanging upside down, underwater, attached to a boat. What about a cat confronting the cold of an Indianapolis winter? How should she adapt, given that her ancestors harken from North Africa, where such weather is pretty much unheard of? What about a lion whose water hole just dried up in a drought, for the first time in her memory?

All of these situations involve disruptions of homeostasis: the physiological requirements of our bodies have been disturbed.

 A thirsty lion can detect the loss of water (and corresponding over-accumulation of salt) in her blood, just as we can. A cold cat is motivated by the loss of normal body temperature. Homeostasis is disrupted whenever the normal amounts of oxygen, heat, water, food, salt, and many other substances aren’t present. 

-In these situations, XXX become all-important. Drive is a central concept in motivation, because it seems to provide answers to why people and animals do the things they do. That cat is meowing at the door because she’s cold, and wants to get warm; Jim is driven to reach the surface of the water so that he can breathe. 

XXX are internal forces that provide us with the energy and intensity we may need to regain homeostasis. Thus, we would consider a drive as a “push” from inside the Person that can be used to explain motivated behaviors. After we begin to reduce the need, we often feel better; that is, we experience XXX-XXX 

If you are shivering, you could decide that you want to put on a sweater, turn on the heat, run around, snuggle with a friend, or just shiver more intensely. You feel cold; what you do with that information depends upon the situation and what solutions are available to you.

 The lion confronted with the loss of her watering hole initiates a search for a new source of water, sniffing the air, and perhaps even becoming attentive to the actions of other species who also require water. Her behavior, too, is flexible, but nonetheless dominated to a greater or lesser extent by her thirst. Drives, like instincts, make contact with what helped our ancestors survive and reproduce, but give us and other animals greater flexibility; they are organized around a biologically important need, and they help us to sort out our priorities.

-In these situations, DRIVES become all-important. Drive is a central concept in motivation, because it seems to provide answers to why people and animals do the things they do. That cat is meowing at the door because she’s cold, and wants to get warm; Jim is driven to reach the surface of the water so that he can breathe. 

Drives are internal forces that provide us with the energy and intensity we may need to regain homeostasis. Thus, we would consider a drive as a “push” from inside the Person that can be used to explain motivated behaviors. After we begin to reduce the need, we often feel better; that is, we experience drive-reduction. 

If you are shivering, you could decide that you want to put on a sweater, turn on the heat, run around, snuggle with a friend, or just shiver more intensely. You feel cold; what you do with that information depends upon the situation and what solutions are available to you.

 The lion confronted with the loss of her watering hole initiates a search for a new source of water, sniffing the air, and perhaps even becoming attentive to the actions of other species who also require water. Her behavior, too, is flexible, but nonetheless dominated to a greater or lesser extent by her thirst. Drives, like instincts, make contact with what helped our ancestors survive and reproduce, but give us and other animals greater flexibility; they are organized around a biologically important need, and they help us to sort out our priorities.

 internal forces that provide us with the energy and intensity to regain homeostasis

DRIVES

occurs after we begin to reduce a need, when we begin to feel better

Drive reduction

-Sex has a drive aspect as well. We are all descendants of individuals who had sex and procreated; those who did not feel the desire for another were likely to have been less successful in passing their genes along. 

“But,” you may protest, “what homeostatic disruption is present with respect to sex?” None; sex is not a homeostatic drive. Nonetheless, animals deprived of sex show behavior consistent with drive and its reduction. Deprive a male rat of sex, and he will quickly run towards a receptive female. Once he’s had sex with her, the speed with which he runs towards her will temporarily diminish, in just the same way that a thirsty animal will not run towards water once sated. But as time goes by without sex, that same male will run quicker and quicker towards the receptive female.

-The concept of drives seems to make everything negative—that is, behavior occurs because we feel less bad afterwards, an idea we call negative XXX But with respect to sex, it’s, of course, not all just about feeling less bad—there’s much to enjoy there, just as eating a tasty meal when we’re hungry is full of wonderful sensations. Thus, we need to appeal to the concepts of reward, something that makes you feel good, and the closely related idea of reinforcement to understand how motivation occurs.

-Sex has a drive aspect as well. We are all descendants of individuals who had sex and procreated; those who did not feel the desire for another were likely to have been less successful in passing their genes along. 

“But,” you may protest, “what homeostatic disruption is present with respect to sex?” None; sex is not a homeostatic drive. Nonetheless, animals deprived of sex show behavior consistent with drive and its reduction. Deprive a male rat of sex, and he will quickly run towards a receptive female. Once he’s had sex with her, the speed with which he runs towards her will temporarily diminish, in just the same way that a thirsty animal will not run towards water once sated. But as time goes by without sex, that same male will run quicker and quicker towards the receptive female.

-The concept of drives seems to make everything negative—that is, behavior occurs because we feel less bad afterwards, an idea we call negative reinforcement But with respect to sex, it’s, of course, not all just about feeling less bad—there’s much to enjoy there, just as eating a tasty meal when we’re hungry is full of wonderful sensations. Thus, we need to appeal to the concepts of reward, something that makes you feel good, and the closely related idea of reinforcement to understand how motivation occurs.

- XXX is the ability of an object or action—often, an object that is biologically important—to make the actions that preceded it more likely to happen in the future.

- If a rat presses a lever and receives a little bit of sugar water in return, he’ll be more likely to press that lever again. B. F. Skinner defined reinforcers as things that make behaviors that precede their occurrence more probable in the future. 

- reinforcement is the ability of an object or action—often, an object that is biologically important—to make the actions that preceded it more likely to happen in the future.

- If a rat presses a lever and receives a little bit of sugar water in return, he’ll be more likely to press that lever again. B. F. Skinner defined reinforcers as things that make behaviors that precede their occurrence more probable in the future. 

-The opposite of reinforcement is XXX: an event that makes the actions that preceded it less likely to happen in the future. 

Jim hasn’t kayaked since his unfortunate day on the Columbia River; one might think of the boat capsizing as an effective punishment for his kayaking behavior. 

-If the same rat that presses the lever hears a very loud noise each time he does so, it will make lever pressing less likely to happen again in the future. 

-The opposite of reinforcement is punishment: an event that makes the actions that preceded it less likely to happen in the future. 

Jim hasn’t kayaked since his unfortunate day on the Columbia River; one might think of the boat capsizing as an effective punishment for his kayaking behavior. 

-If the same rat that presses the lever hears a very loud noise each time he does so, it will make lever pressing less likely to happen again in the future. 

 an event that increases the probability that the behavior it follows will be repeated.

Reinforcement 

 an event that decreases the probability that the behavior it follows will be repeated. 

Punishment

Reinforcements and punishments are external forces that act on our behavior, and are referred to as XXX. These are “pulls” from the Environment that can be used to explain motivated behavior, so maybe the formula does hold true for motivation. 

Note that all things being equal, the larger the reinforcer or punisher is, the stronger its effects on our behavior will be. A hungry rat will press a lever faster for 10 milliliters of sugar water than for 0.1 milliliter. An electric shock might stop behavior more quickly than a loud noise.

- Thus, both the XXX and XXX of reinforcement and punishment are important determinants of the intensity of the corresponding motivation. However, in addition to making us feel more or less good or bad, reinforcers alter our level of arousal.

Reinforcements and punishments are external forces that act on our behavior, and are referred to as INCENTIVES. These are “pulls” from the Environment that can be used to explain motivated behavior, so maybe the formula does hold true for motivation. 

Note that all things being equal, the larger the reinforcer or punisher is, the stronger its effects on our behavior will be. A hungry rat will press a lever faster for 10 milliliters of sugar water than for 0.1 milliliter. An electric shock might stop behavior more quickly than a loud noise.

- Thus, both the quantity and quality of reinforcement and punishment are important determinants of the intensity of the corresponding motivation. However, in addition to making us feel more or less good or bad, reinforcers alter our level of arousal.

external cues that grab your attention and influence your behavior. 

Incentives

 amount and type of reinforcement and punishment, important determinants of motivation. 

quantity and quality

7.2.4 How Does Arousal Motivate My Behavior?

-What is XXX? It’s not just the sense we feel when we become sexually interested, though that’s certainly one source of it.

- It is the level of alertness or sleepiness, interest or boredom that we feel at any given moment. -Setting the appropriate level of arousal is one of the most important things our brain does for us. If our arousal is too high over too long a period of time, we suffer from the symptoms of chronic stress, including depression and heart disease.

- If arousal is too low at any given moment, we cannot function effectively. This is one of the reasons you have probably heard the advice to get a good night’s sleep prior to an exam: if you are sleepy during a test, chances are you won’t do well!

7.2.4 How Does Arousal Motivate My Behavior?

-What is AROUSAL? It’s not just the sense we feel when we become sexually interested, though that’s certainly one source of it.

- It is the level of alertness or sleepiness, interest or boredom that we feel at any given moment. -Setting the appropriate level of arousal is one of the most important things our brain does for us. If our arousal is too high over too long a period of time, we suffer from the symptoms of chronic stress, including depression and heart disease.

- If arousal is too low at any given moment, we cannot function effectively. This is one of the reasons you have probably heard the advice to get a good night’s sleep prior to an exam: if you are sleepy during a test, chances are you won’t do well!

 the level of alertness or sleepiness we feel at any given moment. 

AROUSAL

-There are two primary mechanisms for governing arousal. 

In chapter 3,  you learned about a part of your brain, called the XXX XXX (or reticular activating system), which lies in your brain stem. From there, it sends projections onward to almost all parts of your brain, including the cerebral cortex, where your conscious awareness resides. 

This system lies at the heart of your brain’s ability to regulate all levels of arousal, including sleep and wakefulness, and even during wakefulness, how alert or excited you feel.

- Damage to this critical part of the brain can result in the onset of a coma, because the brain loses its capacity to keep itself in a wakeful state. 

In many important ways, you can think of the XXX XXX as the “volume dial” for the entire brain. It is even capable of screening what is and is not important to govern your alertness.

- This is why at night, someone whispering your name might wake you up, while (so long as you’re used to it) you might sleep through a loud truck driving by outside. The XXX XXX “listens” to these inputs even when the rest of the brain is largely removed from outside inputs by sleep, and then decides whether or not to wake up the rest of the brain. 

-There are two primary mechanisms for governing arousal. 

In chapter 3,  you learned about a part of your brain, called the reticular formation (or reticular activating system), which lies in your brain stem. From there, it sends projections onward to almost all parts of your brain, including the cerebral cortex, where your conscious awareness resides. 

This system lies at the heart of your brain’s ability to regulate all levels of arousal, including sleep and wakefulness, and even during wakefulness, how alert or excited you feel.

- Damage to this critical part of the brain can result in the onset of a coma, because the brain loses its capacity to keep itself in a wakeful state. 

In many important ways, you can think of the reticular formation as the “volume dial” for the entire brain. It is even capable of screening what is and is not important to govern your alertness.

- This is why at night, someone whispering your name might wake you up, while (so long as you’re used to it) you might sleep through a loud truck driving by outside. The reticular formation “listens” to these inputs even when the rest of the brain is largely removed from outside inputs by sleep, and then decides whether or not to wake up the rest of the brain. 

 runs through the core of the hindbrain and midbrain (i.e., the brainstem), involved in regulating arousal, attention, and sleep. 

Reticular Formation

-Another critical component of our arousal level is the XXX XXX system.The purpose of the XXX XXX system is to put the entire body on alert status when a threat is present. It tends to still parts of the body involved in resting and digesting (like your intestines), while activating your muscles, heart and lungs to prepare for “XXX or XXX” This dual action (suppressing some activities while enhancing others) is vital to our survival when we need our muscles and circulatory system to be ready for action.

You should understand that this activation may be sought out in mild doses (such as by those who look for the excitement of parasailing or shooting rapids in a kayak) or avoided at high levels, such as when the sight of a truck coming right at you causes panic.

 Interestingly, many drugs of abuse, including cocaine and amphetamines, tend to activate the sympathetic nervous system.

-Another critical component of our arousal level is the sympathetic nervous system.The purpose of the sympathetic nervous system is to put the entire body on alert status when a threat is present. It tends to still parts of the body involved in resting and digesting (like your intestines), while activating your muscles, heart and lungs to prepare for “fight or flight.” This dual action (suppressing some activities while enhancing others) is vital to our survival when we need our muscles and circulatory system to be ready for action.

You should understand that this activation may be sought out in mild doses (such as by those who look for the excitement of parasailing or shooting rapids in a kayak) or avoided at high levels, such as when the sight of a truck coming right at you causes panic.

 Interestingly, many drugs of abuse, including cocaine and amphetamines, tend to activate the sympathetic nervous system

 branch of the autonomic nervous system associated with activation; mediates fight or flight response in stressful or threatening situations. 

Sympathetic nervous system

Because our level of arousal underlies so much of our psychological well-being, the XXX-XXX XXX curve seeks to explain the relationship between our level of arousal and our ability to perform (do a task well). This theory says that the relationship between arousal and performance follows an inverted-U-shaped curve. 

Because our level of arousal underlies so much of our psychological well-being, the Yerkes-Dodson arousal curve seeks to explain the relationship between our level of arousal and our ability to perform (do a task well). This theory says that the relationship between arousal and performance follows an inverted-U-shaped curve. 

 theory that describes the relationship between arousal and performance as an inverted-U-shaped curve. 

Yerkes-Dodson arousal curve

-At relatively XXX levels of arousal, we have trouble engaging our brain sufficiently to perform well. We might be too sleepy or exhausted to perform at our best. If something you are reading is really boring, you might find you’ve gotten to the bottom of the page without remembering anything at all about what you just read—or your eyes may simply close and you may fall asleep.

- At XXX levels of arousal, our brains are (like Goldilocks’ porridge) “just right.” That is, we are sufficiently alert to engage our entire mind and brain, and able to pay attention to what is going on. We tend to think over decisions and weigh options optimally. 

At XXX levels of arousal, we cannot function well. We may be distracted by the symptoms of that arousal (high heart beat, sweating, butterflies in our stomach), and tend to want to do anything to make the over-arousal go away. 

-Faced with such arousal, we might not be able to remember the correct answers on a test, or we might make fools of ourselves while asking someone out on a date. 

We might not be able to carefully consider options and determine what’s best for us: for example, unscrupulous salespeople may seek to take advantage of this over-arousal. When you are buying a car, they may push hard, asking that you make a decision right now, and they may even surround you with four or five salespeople all talking at once. If you are considering spending $20,000 you may be quite aroused already, and the extra urgency provided by those salespeople might be enough to get you to make a hasty decision (such as paying too much interest on a loan, or getting a different car than you originally wanted), just so you can escape the feeling of over-arousal.

-At relatively low levels of arousal, we have trouble engaging our brain sufficiently to perform well. We might be too sleepy or exhausted to perform at our best. If something you are reading is really boring, you might find you’ve gotten to the bottom of the page without remembering anything at all about what you just read—or your eyes may simply close and you may fall asleep.

- At moderate levels of arousal, our brains are (like Goldilocks’ porridge) “just right.” That is, we are sufficiently alert to engage our entire mind and brain, and able to pay attention to what is going on. We tend to think over decisions and weigh options optimally. 

At high levels of arousal, we cannot function well. We may be distracted by the symptoms of that arousal (high heart beat, sweating, butterflies in our stomach), and tend to want to do anything to make the over-arousal go away. 

-Faced with such arousal, we might not be able to remember the correct answers on a test, or we might make fools of ourselves while asking someone out on a date. 

We might not be able to carefully consider options and determine what’s best for us: for example, unscrupulous salespeople may seek to take advantage of this over-arousal. When you are buying a car, they may push hard, asking that you make a decision right now, and they may even surround you with four or five salespeople all talking at once. If you are considering spending $20,000 you may be quite aroused already, and the extra urgency provided by those salespeople might be enough to get you to make a hasty decision (such as paying too much interest on a loan, or getting a different car than you originally wanted), just so you can escape the feeling of over-arousal.

-According to the idea of XXX XXX, we all strive to be at our XXX level of arousal. People find either too-low, or too-high levels of arousal to be unpleasant. 

-Furthermore, there are big individual differences in what level of arousal feels “just right.”

 -Thus, some might find hang gliding or rock climbing a source of exhilarating arousal, and perform ideally under these conditions. During these activities, their minds light up with planning, movement, and perception, and they may feel it’s the only way to engage their entire brain. 

-Another person would find dangling from a rope on a 1000-foot cliff to be so terrifying, they would do just about anything to get out of the situation. We may think of those who enjoy high levels of arousal as thrill seekers, or sensation seekers. 

Perhaps you know one? Interestingly, sensation seekers are also at higher risk of drug dependence, either because they’re brave enough to try illegal substances (or drink to excess) in the first place, or because they find the high levels of arousal provided by some drugs to be enjoyable. But of course, they are also the same people who tend to be explorers and trendsetters, and we tend to pay attention to their extreme behavior.

Let’s revisit our formula again: B = f(P + E + PE). Arousal definitely involves factors inside the XXX because it is an internal state, and it also involves the XXX because stimuli from the environment can increase levels of arousal, and because we learn which environments are arousing. 

And there is definitely an interaction between XXX and XXX, as people will seek out environments with the optimal level of stimulation, and the environment will then alter their internal state of arousal. Guess what? Our formula does appear to be accurate for motivated behaviors, at least when we examine the role of optimal stimulation as the motivator.

-According to the idea of arousal homeostasis, we all strive to be at our optimal level of arousal. People find either too-low, or too-high levels of arousal to be unpleasant. 

-Furthermore, there are big individual differences in what level of arousal feels “just right.”

 

-Thus, some might find hang gliding or rock climbing a source of exhilarating arousal, and perform ideally under these conditions. During these activities, their minds light up with planning, movement, and perception, and they may feel it’s the only way to engage their entire brain. 

-Another person would find dangling from a rope on a 1000-foot cliff to be so terrifying, they would do just about anything to get out of the situation. We may think of those who enjoy high levels of arousal as thrill seekers, or sensation seekers. 

Perhaps you know one? Interestingly, sensation seekers are also at higher risk of drug dependence, either because they’re brave enough to try illegal substances (or drink to excess) in the first place, or because they find the high levels of arousal provided by some drugs to be enjoyable. But of course, they are also the same people who tend to be explorers and trendsetters, and we tend to pay attention to their extreme behavior.

Let’s revisit our formula again: B = f(P + E + PE). Arousal definitely involves factors inside the Person because it is an internal state, and it also involves the Environment because stimuli from the environment can increase levels of arousal, and because we learn which environments are arousing. 

And there is definitely an interaction between Person and Environment, as people will seek out environments with the optimal level of stimulation, and the environment will then alter their internal state of arousal. Guess what? Our formula does appear to be accurate for motivated behaviors, at least when we examine the role of optimal stimulation as the motivator.

 idea that we all strive to be at our optimal level of arousal. 

Arousal Homeostasis

7.3.1 How Do I Know When, What, and How Much to Eat?

XXX is one of the most fundamental concepts of both physiology and behavior. As alluded to above, it’s the concept that there’s an optimal level for something—previously, we talked about arousal, but the concept applies to regulation of our bodies as well. 

-Thus, we all have an optimal level for the saltiness of our blood, the temperature of our body, and the amount of energy stored in our body. 

-The optimal level for each of these is called the XXX XXX and is controlled in a way very similar to how a thermostat works. For example, if you are too cold, your body tries to gain heat by shivering; too warm and we turn on the “air conditioning” by sweating. Your brain uses set points to maintain homeostasis.

7.3.1 How Do I Know When, What, and How Much to Eat?

HOMEOSTASIS is one of the most fundamental concepts of both physiology and behavior. As alluded to above, it’s the concept that there’s an optimal level for something—previously, we talked about arousal, but the concept applies to regulation of our bodies as well. 

-Thus, we all have an optimal level for the saltiness of our blood, the temperature of our body, and the amount of energy stored in our body. 

-The optimal level for each of these is called the set point and is controlled in a way very similar to how a thermostat works. For example, if you are too cold, your body tries to gain heat by shivering; too warm and we turn on the “air conditioning” by sweating. Your brain uses set points to maintain homeostasis.

fundamental concept of both physiology and behavior, that there’s an optimal level for something.

Homeostasis

the body weight, or fat level, that each of us seeks to maintain

Set point

 Of course, we all know that we may start to eat when we feel XXX, and stop eating when we feel full, that is, when we have reached the state of satiety. 

 Of course, we all know that we may start to eat when we feel hunger, and stop eating when we feel full, that is, when we have reached the state of satiety. 

But this answer just pushes the question back one level, because as psychologists, we need to ask where these sensations of hunger and XXX come from, and what controls them.

But this answer just pushes the question back one level, because as psychologists, we need to ask where these sensations of hunger and satiety come from, and what controls them.

 These feelings of hunger and satiety exist to permit us to regulate our XXX XXX: the ability to eat a sufficient amount of food to engage in all the activities that cost energy, including just sitting still. Did you know that, on average, a person consumes about 1500 calories a day at rest? 

 These feelings of hunger and satiety exist to permit us to regulate our energy balance: the ability to eat a sufficient amount of food to engage in all the activities that cost energy, including just sitting still. Did you know that, on average, a person consumes about 1500 calories a day at rest? 

The energy we consume when at rest is called our XXX XXX XXX (XXX), and is driven by the energy requirements of our beating hearts, our thinking brains, our breathing lungs, and our busy livers, among other things. If we move around, we consume more calories. If we are to regulate energy balance, our brains need to “know” that we must consume more calories when we’re active, or if we’re pregnant, and so on. For example, high-altitude climbers may use upwards of 8000 calories a day; just eating enough food to survive is part of the battle for these sensation-seekers!

The energy we consume when at rest is called our basal metabolic rate (BMR), and is driven by the energy requirements of our beating hearts, our thinking brains, our breathing lungs, and our busy livers, among other things. If we move around, we consume more calories. If we are to regulate energy balance, our brains need to “know” that we must consume more calories when we’re active, or if we’re pregnant, and so on. For example, high-altitude climbers may use upwards of 8000 calories a day; just eating enough food to survive is part of the battle for these sensation-seekers!

state of feeling hungry

HUNGER 

state of feeling full

Satiety

ability to eat a sufficient amount of food to engage in all activities that cost energy. 

Energy Balance

 energy we consume when at rest

-basal metabolic rate (BMR)

-Of course, understanding energy balance alone is not enough if you were to seek to design a perfect diet.

- Food we eat is primarily composed of fat, carbohydrates, and protein; it also contains other nutrients like vitamins and minerals. All three of the primary “ingredients” of food contain calories, albeit in different proportions. 

-Fat has the highest number of calories per unit weight, about 9 calories per gram, while both carbohydrates and protein have about 4 calories per gram. This is why our bodies store energy in our XXX XXX: it’s the lightest way to store a given number of calories. 

-For example, if you have 30 pounds of fat in your body and weigh 130 pounds, you’d need to store 68 pounds of carbohydrates and would weigh 168 pounds if you wanted to store the same amount of energy in carbohydrate form! 

-Your XXX XXX is kind of like the battery on your laptop: the more XXX you have (or the larger your battery), the more energy you can store between “charges” (eating), but the more weight you need to carry around. In our evolutionary history, humans and our animal relatives have gone through times of famine. Those with too little body fat would not have survived; thus, those who stored energy as fat were the ones who passed along their genes. At the same time, those who carried too much fat to perform the demanding tasks of surviving the lifestyles of our ancestors, including food gathering and hunting, also wouldn’t have done well.

-Of course, understanding energy balance alone is not enough if you were to seek to design a perfect diet.

- Food we eat is primarily composed of fat, carbohydrates, and protein; it also contains other nutrients like vitamins and minerals. All three of the primary “ingredients” of food contain calories, albeit in different proportions. 

-Fat has the highest number of calories per unit weight, about 9 calories per gram, while both carbohydrates and protein have about 4 calories per gram. This is why our bodies store energy in our body fat: it’s the lightest way to store a given number of calories. 

-For example, if you have 30 pounds of fat in your body and weigh 130 pounds, you’d need to store 68 pounds of carbohydrates and would weigh 168 pounds if you wanted to store the same amount of energy in carbohydrate form! 

-Your body fat is kind of like the battery on your laptop: the more fat you have (or the larger your battery), the more energy you can store between “charges” (eating), but the more weight you need to carry around. In our evolutionary history, humans and our animal relatives have gone through times of famine. Those with too little body fat would not have survived; thus, those who stored energy as fat were the ones who passed along their genes. At the same time, those who carried too much fat to perform the demanding tasks of surviving the lifestyles of our ancestors, including food gathering and hunting, also wouldn’t have done well.

how our bodies store energy

Body fat

-Any of the food you eat can be converted and stored as body fat, whether carbohydrate, fat, or protein. 

-As we eat each meal, our brains are getting feedback about the type of food we’re eating and our overall XXX XXX We use this information for deciding whether or not satiety should kick in and end our meal. Most scientists believe that each of us seeks to maintain a certain body weight, or fat level. 

-This weight is likely our energy XXX point. However, your XXX point may not be your ideal weight. As many of us know, even if we are overweight, when we skip a meal, or eat fewer calories over time, we feel hungry just like anyone else That is, we defend our XXX point against things that would otherwise change it, like eating too much or too little, or changing our exercise habits. That being said, this set point defense is not perfect, which may be why increasingly, those eating a Western diet rich in both fatty foods and variety are becoming obese. 

-This apparent change in the XXX point of a large proportion of the population over years is evidence that culture plays a strong role even in homeostatic behaviors like eating. There is no way that U.S. populations changed genetically over the last 40 or so years that could explain the expanding American waistline.

-So let’s go back to our formula for explaining behavior: B = f(P + E + PE).

Hunger is an XXX drive that leads to motivated behavior—eating. So, hunger is a XXX variable that can be used to explain eating behavior; however, a diet rich in fatty foods, or poor exercise habits among your friends, are outside of the person, or XXX factors. As you continue reading this section, you will see that there are other P and E variables involved in eating Behavior, as well as interactions between P and E.

-Any of the food you eat can be converted and stored as body fat, whether carbohydrate, fat, or protein. 

-As we eat each meal, our brains are getting feedback about the type of food we’re eating and our overall energy balance. We use this information for deciding whether or not satiety should kick in and end our meal. Most scientists believe that each of us seeks to maintain a certain body weight, or fat level. 

-This weight is likely our energy set point. However, your set point may not be your ideal weight. As many of us know, even if we are overweight, when we skip a meal, or eat fewer calories over time, we feel hungry just like anyone else (see the following section on obesity). That is, we defend our set point against things that would otherwise change it, like eating too much or too little, or changing our exercise habits. That being said, this set point defense is not perfect, which may be why increasingly, those eating a Western diet rich in both fatty foods and variety are becoming obese. 

-This apparent change in the set point of a large proportion of the population over years is evidence that culture plays a strong role even in homeostatic behaviors like eating. There is no way that U.S. populations changed genetically over the last 40 or so years that could explain the expanding American waistline.

-So let’s go back to our formula for explaining behavior: B = f(P + E + PE).

Hunger is an internal drive that leads to motivated behavior—eating. So, hunger is a Person variable that can be used to explain eating behavior; however, a diet rich in fatty foods, or poor exercise habits among your friends, are outside of the person, or Environmental factors. As you continue reading this section, you will see that there are other P and E variables involved in eating Behavior, as well as interactions between P and E.

-This idea of a set point is central to understanding XXX- and XXX-term weight regulation. -You may have noticed that if you eat a particularly light dinner, you’ll wake up the next morning hungrier than usual; the opposite is also true. If you start your day by swimming two miles, you may be extra hungry by lunchtime. 

-Over time, your body seeks to consume the right amount of energy to maintain your weight at its set point. Indeed, maintaining set point requires a complex set of signals that can alter food intake within a meal as well as across multiple meals over days and weeks.

 Imagine if you wanted to hike the 2,663-mile Pacific Crest Trail, which winds from Mexico to Canada along the Sierras and Cascades. To succeed (and most don’t), you’d need to hike 15–30 miles of hilly trail, every day, from May to October, when the trails are usually free of snow. Every two weeks or so, you could descend into a town to load up on food for the next trail segment. During those two-week periods, you’ll need to carry all your food with you, and it gets heavy! You should plan on carrying a lot of fat in your backpacks (remember the 9 calories per gram?), but you’ll also tend to carry fewer calories than you’ll actually burn on your long, daily hikes. When you arrive at biweekly towns, you’re going to be hungry. 

Those who have hiked the trail tell of arriving at a town and eating for hours on end, waking up the next morning ravenous, and starting another hours-long eating jag. Over the two weeks of hiking, you’ll likely incur a debt, borrowed from your fat stores that, according to set point theory, you would then need to replenish. At the other extreme, consider the actor Robert De Niro, who forced himself to gain 60 pounds in two months for his portrayal of an overweight, older boxer in the movie Raging Bull. In these situations, when the weight gain is forced and rapid, it typically comes back off with relatively little effort. Meals become smaller as satiety kicks in earlier, and over time, the pounds come off.

-This idea of a set point is central to understanding short- and long-term weight regulation. -You may have noticed that if you eat a particularly light dinner, you’ll wake up the next morning hungrier than usual; the opposite is also true. If you start your day by swimming two miles, you may be extra hungry by lunchtime. 

-Over time, your body seeks to consume the right amount of energy to maintain your weight at its set point. Indeed, maintaining set point requires a complex set of signals that can alter food intake within a meal as well as across multiple meals over days and weeks.

 Imagine if you wanted to hike the 2,663-mile Pacific Crest Trail, which winds from Mexico to Canada along the Sierras and Cascades. To succeed (and most don’t), you’d need to hike 15–30 miles of hilly trail, every day, from May to October, when the trails are usually free of snow. Every two weeks or so, you could descend into a town to load up on food for the next trail segment. During those two-week periods, you’ll need to carry all your food with you, and it gets heavy! You should plan on carrying a lot of fat in your backpacks (remember the 9 calories per gram?), but you’ll also tend to carry fewer calories than you’ll actually burn on your long, daily hikes. When you arrive at biweekly towns, you’re going to be hungry. 

Those who have hiked the trail tell of arriving at a town and eating for hours on end, waking up the next morning ravenous, and starting another hours-long eating jag. Over the two weeks of hiking, you’ll likely incur a debt, borrowed from your fat stores that, according to set point theory, you would then need to replenish. At the other extreme, consider the actor Robert De Niro, who forced himself to gain 60 pounds in two months for his portrayal of an overweight, older boxer in the movie Raging Bull. In these situations, when the weight gain is forced and rapid, it typically comes back off with relatively little effort. Meals become smaller as satiety kicks in earlier, and over time, the pounds come off.

 over time, your body seeks to consume the right amount of energy to maintain your weight at its set point. 

short- and long-term weight regulation

What are the XXX XXX (or Person cues) of hunger and satiety that regulate our eating behavior?

 On one level, the hunger pangs that we feel are caused by movements in our stomach, called contractions. You may even hear these, because the contractions move the fluids in our stomach around. Stretch receptors in the stomach can sense when it’s full and help to create a feeling of satiety. 

But again, as is so often the case with hunger, this just puts the question back another level: what causes the stomach contractions in hunger? What are the signals for satiety that regulate behavior during a meal? In other words, what are the short-term, internal signals that regulate eating? 

What are the INTERNAL SIGNALS (or Person cues) of hunger and satiety that regulate our eating behavior?

 On one level, the hunger pangs that we feel are caused by movements in our stomach, called contractions. You may even hear these, because the contractions move the fluids in our stomach around. Stretch receptors in the stomach can sense when it’s full and help to create a feeling of satiety. 

But again, as is so often the case with hunger, this just puts the question back another level: what causes the stomach contractions in hunger? What are the signals for satiety that regulate behavior during a meal? In other words, what are the short-term, internal signals that regulate eating? 

signals in the brain and body that regulate hunger and satiety. 

Internal signals

The most important overall regulator of our eating behavior is our XXX 

This relatively small brain structure has several smaller structures within it that are very important in regulating body weight. 

For example, lesions to the lateral hypothalamus of a rat will cause the rat to stop eating; if the rat is to survive, the experimenter must force-feed the rat until eventually, at a much lower weight, it may finally regain the capacity to eat enough to survive. At the other end, a lesion of the ventromedial hypothalamus will cause rats to eat much more than their metabolic requirements, and they gain weight quickly. They will likely triple their body weight, mostly by adding fat. However, eventually they tend to stabilize at a new, higher body weight, and then will defend that higher set point against insult, just as they had before.

How does the XXX act to control eating? It communicates with the rest of the body by using chemical signals, both hormones released into the blood, and neurotransmitters. Using these chemicals, the hypothalamus can both listen to what’s going on in terms of energy balance, and direct the relevant parts of our body (for example, our stomachs and intestines) to spring into action when necessary.

The most important overall regulator of our eating behavior is our hypothalamus. 

This relatively small brain structure has several smaller structures within it that are very important in regulating body weight. 

For example, lesions to the lateral hypothalamus of a rat will cause the rat to stop eating; if the rat is to survive, the experimenter must force-feed the rat until eventually, at a much lower weight, it may finally regain the capacity to eat enough to survive. At the other end, a lesion of the ventromedial hypothalamus will cause rats to eat much more than their metabolic requirements, and they gain weight quickly. They will likely triple their body weight, mostly by adding fat. However, eventually they tend to stabilize at a new, higher body weight, and then will defend that higher set point against insult, just as they had before.

How does the hypothalamus act to control eating? It communicates with the rest of the body by using chemical signals, both hormones released into the blood, and neurotransmitters. Using these chemicals, the hypothalamus can both listen to what’s going on in terms of energy balance, and direct the relevant parts of our body (for example, our stomachs and intestines) to spring into action when necessary.

 Regulates body temperature, hunger, thirst, and sexual behavior, plays a role in sleep; link between brain and endocrine system, controls autonomic nervous system. 

Hypothalamus 

Although there are at least 20 chemical signals involved in regulating eating behavior, two we’ll talk about areXXX and XXX

-Many of these chemical signals have multiple actions related to energy balance. XXX, for example, is essential in that it allows our cells to take up sugar (glucose) that they can use for energy. XXX is released by our pancreas when we eat; when it reaches the brain, it tends to decrease hunger. 

-XXX is a fascinating hormone that is released directly by our fat cells. It can bind to receptors in the hypothalamus. The more fat cells we have, the more XXX we have. Thus, over long periods of time, the brain can sense the amount of fat in our bodies by detecting the leptin signal. It’s a safe bet that when Robert De Niro deliberately overate to gain 60 pounds, his leptin levels went up. Because XXX inhibits hunger, this made it easy for him to lose that weight again, until his leptin levels returned to normal and his appetite returned. 

Scientists have created mice that lack XXX (ob/ob mice); because their brain cannot “hear” the signal that their bodies have any fat, they tend to eat voraciously, and weigh five times as much as a normal mouse. The behavior and body weight of these mice can be restored by dosing them regularly with XXX. Other hormones released in the stomach help create a feeling of satiety, and even increases our sensitivity to the stomach stretch receptors that promote a feeling of fullness.

XXX: chemical signal involved in regulating eating behavior, released by fat cells, increased levels suppressing appetite.  

XXX:chemical signal involved in regulating eating behavior, allows cells to take up sugar, increased levels suppress appetite. 

-Many of these chemical signals have multiple actions related to energy balance. Insulin, for example, is essential in that it allows our cells to take up sugar (glucose) that they can use for energy. Insulin is released by our pancreas when we eat; when it reaches the brain, it tends to decrease hunger. 

-Leptin is a fascinating hormone that is released directly by our fat cells. It can bind to receptors in the hypothalamus. The more fat cells we have, the more leptin we have. Thus, over long periods of time, the brain can sense the amount of fat in our bodies by detecting the leptin signal. It’s a safe bet that when Robert De Niro deliberately overate to gain 60 pounds, his leptin levels went up. Because leptin inhibits hunger, this made it easy for him to lose that weight again, until his leptin levels returned to normal and his appetite returned. 

Scientists have created mice that lack leptin (ob/ob mice); because their brain cannot “hear” the signal that their bodies have any fat, they tend to eat voraciously, and weigh five times as much as a normal mouse. The behavior and body weight of these mice can be restored by dosing them regularly with leptin. Other hormones released in the stomach help create a feeling of satiety, and even increases our sensitivity to the stomach stretch receptors that promote a feeling of fullness.

Leptin: chemical signal involved in regulating eating behavior, released by fat cells, increased levels suppressing appetite.

Insulin:chemical signal involved in regulating eating behavior, allows cells to take up sugar, increased levels suppress appetite.

-As we all know, however, we are quite sensitive to suggestion when it comes to eating. 

Advertising wouldn’t work very well unless we tended to pay attention to XXX XXX (or Environmental cues) that influence hunger and satiety. Imagine watching an ad you probably have seen for pizza. Think about how the camera shows steam rising from a fresh pie, with the cheese stretching as a slice is moved towards you. Wouldn’t that just be delicious right now? Or remember a time walking through the mall when the sweet, cinnamon smell of buns arrived at your nostrils. While you had no sense of being hungry before, all of a sudden, your stomach growls, you start to drool, and before you know it, you’ve changed course and are heading towards that warm, gooey roll.

-As we all know, however, we are quite sensitive to suggestion when it comes to eating. 

Advertising wouldn’t work very well unless we tended to pay attention to EXTERNAL SIGNALS (or Environmental cues) that influence hunger and satiety. Imagine watching an ad you probably have seen for pizza. Think about how the camera shows steam rising from a fresh pie, with the cheese stretching as a slice is moved towards you. Wouldn’t that just be delicious right now? Or remember a time walking through the mall when the sweet, cinnamon smell of buns arrived at your nostrils. While you had no sense of being hungry before, all of a sudden, your stomach growls, you start to drool, and before you know it, you’ve changed course and are heading towards that warm, gooey roll.

environmental cues that influence hunger and satiety

EXTERNAL SIGNALS

 Your Environment has interacted with your Person (P times E). These are both examples of how XXX XXX can act on our behavior. 

The sight of the pizza and the smell of dessert are both cues that involuntarily make us think about the food they have become associated with. When you smell the cinnamon, you can almost taste the hot roll. Because of our past experience of smelling the rolls before eating one, we can’t help but to think about what one would taste like. Of course, if you’ve just left the buffet, the smell isn’t likely to change your behavior. But if you are even a little bit hungry, you might find yourself deciding that you simply must have one. 

 Your Environment has interacted with your Person (P times E). These are both examples of how classical conditioning can act on our behavior. 

The sight of the pizza and the smell of dessert are both cues that involuntarily make us think about the food they have become associated with. When you smell the cinnamon, you can almost taste the hot roll. Because of our past experience of smelling the rolls before eating one, we can’t help but to think about what one would taste like. Of course, if you’ve just left the buffet, the smell isn’t likely to change your behavior. But if you are even a little bit hungry, you might find yourself deciding that you simply must have one. 

learning to associate a meaningless stimulus with a meaningful stimulus that is important to us because of its ability to elicit a response

Classical Conditioning

Walking to the store and paying money (or picking up the phone and calling for a pizza) are XXX XXX, ones that are rewarded and perpetuate your obtaining the warm cinnamon roll or hot pizza afterwards.

Walking to the store and paying money (or picking up the phone and calling for a pizza) are operant behaviors, ones that are rewarded and perpetuate your obtaining the warm cinnamon roll or hot pizza afterwards.

behaviors that are rewarded

operant conditioning

-The classical conditioning makes you feel a certain way upon seeing or smelling the cues, while the operant conditioning is your knowledge of how to get the food that helps you to seal the deal. 

We also call these classically conditioned cues XXX, because they can grab your attention and influence your behavior. These cues are very important when it comes to eating and diet, and also with other motivated behaviors, like sex or thirst. 

Many of us know that a good way to stay on a diet if you are trying to lose weight is to simply not have fattening foods around in your house, and to avoid places where you might run into them (i.e., change your Environment and you can change your Behavior). It’s a lot easier to resist cookies when you have to drive to the store to get them than when you happen across them in the cupboard while putting away your tuna cans. 

-The classical conditioning makes you feel a certain way upon seeing or smelling the cues, while the operant conditioning is your knowledge of how to get the food that helps you to seal the deal. 

We also call these classically conditioned cues incentives, because they can grab your attention and influence your behavior. These cues are very important when it comes to eating and diet, and also with other motivated behaviors, like sex or thirst.

Many of us know that a good way to stay on a diet if you are trying to lose weight is to simply not have fattening foods around in your house, and to avoid places where you might run into them (i.e., change your Environment and you can change your Behavior). It’s a lot easier to resist cookies when you have to drive to the store to get them than when you happen across them in the cupboard while putting away your tuna cans. 

external cues that grab your attention and influence your behavior. 

Incentives

-All of this may seem a little bit at odds with what you learned earlier about homeostasis.

- If eating is all about maintaining your energy balance, then why can our behavior so easily be altered by XXX cues?

 One way to think about this is that XXX tend to influence behavior over relatively short amounts of time. They’re there because from an evolutionary perspective, they “pull” us towards valuable commodities like food and water, allowing us to use our past experience to grab what’s yummy.

 After all, XXX can sometimes remind you that you’ve forgotten to eat lunch—the sight of a cheeseburger might force you to put down your work for a while and get something to eat. But over longer periods of time, energy balance and homeostasis tend to dominate.

 

If you eat too much pizza today because of that exposure to XXX cues, then you’re likely to not feel as hungry tomorrow. Energy balance factors also alter your sensitivity to suggestion by XXXX. We know from talking to those who’ve been starving that food comes to dominate their thoughts and dreams; that their interests constantly come back to food, and that the sight and smell of food have such a powerful effect that they’d do almost anything to obtain it. So what do you think this tells us about our formula, B = f (P + E + PE) when it comes to eating behavior—which variable (or interaction) has the greatest influence?

-All of this may seem a little bit at odds with what you learned earlier about homeostasis.

- If eating is all about maintaining your energy balance, then why can our behavior so easily be altered by incentive cues?

 One way to think about this is that incentives tend to influence behavior over relatively short amounts of time. They’re there because from an evolutionary perspective, they “pull” us towards valuable commodities like food and water, allowing us to use our past experience to grab what’s yummy.

 After all, incentives can sometimes remind you that you’ve forgotten to eat lunch—the sight of a cheeseburger might force you to put down your work for a while and get something to eat. But over longer periods of time, energy balance and homeostasis tend to dominate. 

If you eat too much pizza today because of that exposure to incentive cues, then you’re likely to not feel as hungry tomorrow. Energy balance factors also alter your sensitivity to suggestion by incentives. We know from talking to those who’ve been starving that food comes to dominate their thoughts and dreams; that their interests constantly come back to food, and that the sight and smell of food have such a powerful effect that they’d do almost anything to obtain it. So what do you think this tells us about our formula, B = f (P + E + PE) when it comes to eating behavior—which variable (or interaction) has the greatest influence?

Unfortunately, our constant exposure to incentive cues in advertisements, the high variety and XXX (XXX) of our food, and our relatively inactive lifestyles, can all become too much for our homeostatic systems, which evolved under far different circumstances. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors had to eat whatever they could hunt or whatever was in season, or what they could preserve over the winter. They had to expend calories to obtain calories. 

Unfortunately, our constant exposure to incentive cues in advertisements, the high variety and palatability (tastiness) of our food, and our relatively inactive lifestyles, can all become too much for our homeostatic systems, which evolved under far different circumstances. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors had to eat whatever they could hunt or whatever was in season, or what they could preserve over the winter. They had to expend calories to obtain calories. 

tastiness

Palatability

Agriculture changed a lot of that, and the availability of large portions of prepared food seasoned for high palatability changed our environment even more. Many of our prepared foods are high in carbohydrates, fat, and salt, and all of those would have been hard to come by for our ancestors, especially in combination. 

Wherever these foods are becoming more abundant, so are people’s fat cells. This is resulting in widespread XXX

What is XXX? Well, it’s based on a combination of your weight and height, which only makes sense: if you weigh 200 pounds, that’s normal if you are 6'3", but it’s another thing if you are 4'10". BMI (body mass index) is used by many health care providers to determine if someone’s weight is within a normal range. 

A BMI between 18 and 25 is XXX; between 25 and 29.9 is XXX, and 30 or above is considered XXX

For a large portion of the population, BMI does accurately indicate whether someone is overweight or obese and as such, is at an increased risk of disease; however, there are circumstances where the BMI is an inaccurate prediction of risk. 

For example, BMI overestimates body fat in individuals with a high muscle mass and can underestimate overweight/obesity risk in people of normal weight who have little muscle mass, but carry a lot of extra pounds in the stomach.

 As we saw earlier, the percentage of the population that is either overweight or XXX is rapidly rising, which seems completely to defy homeostatic good sense. How can so many of us be engaging in behavior that seems to not be homeostatically controlled?

Agriculture changed a lot of that, and the availability of large portions of prepared food seasoned for high palatability changed our environment even more. Many of our prepared foods are high in carbohydrates, fat, and salt, and all of those would have been hard to come by for our ancestors, especially in combination. 

Wherever these foods are becoming more abundant, so are people’s fat cells. This is resulting in widespread obesity. 

What is obesity? Well, it’s based on a combination of your weight and height, which only makes sense: if you weigh 200 pounds, that’s normal if you are 6'3", but it’s another thing if you are 4'10". BMI (body mass index) is used by many health care providers to determine if someone’s weight is within a normal range. 

A BMI between 18 and 25 is normal; between 25 and 29.9 is overweight, and 30 or above is considered obese. 

For a large portion of the population, BMI does accurately indicate whether someone is overweight or obese and as such, is at an increased risk of disease; however, there are circumstances where the BMI is an inaccurate prediction of risk. 

For example, BMI overestimates body fat in individuals with a high muscle mass and can underestimate overweight/obesity risk in people of normal weight who have little muscle mass, but carry a lot of extra pounds in the stomach.

 As we saw earlier, the percentage of the population that is either overweight or obese is rapidly rising, which seems completely to defy homeostatic good sense. How can so many of us be engaging in behavior that seems to not be homeostatically controlled?

 based on a combination of height and weight, 30 or above using body mass index (BMI) of weight status

Obesity

 First of all, even if you are obese, chances are you are defending a set point, even if it’s one that isn’t the healthiest. Remember those rats that had lesions to their hypothalamus, and tripled their body weight? Even they would defend their set point. 

Very few of us have hypothalamic lesions (although tumors there can cause rapid body weight changes); instead, we’ve gradually grown heavier through exposure to highly palatable foods, the barrage of advertising, and inactivity.

Unfortunately, if you are obese and diet down to a BMI of 25, your body doesn’t seem to recognize that you have now regained some homeostatic set point. Quite the contrary, your body (and brain) seem to think you are starving. 

 First of all, even if you are obese, chances are you are defending a set point, even if it’s one that isn’t the healthiest. Remember those rats that had lesions to their hypothalamus, and tripled their body weight? Even they would defend their set point. 

Very few of us have hypothalamic lesions (although tumors there can cause rapid body weight changes); instead, we’ve gradually grown heavier through exposure to highly palatable foods, the barrage of advertising, and inactivity. 

Unfortunately, if you are obese and diet down to a BMI of 25, your body doesn’t seem to recognize that you have now regained some homeostatic set point. Quite the contrary, your body (and brain) seem to think you are starving. 

XXX levels fall as fat cells shrink, and we respond in a number of ways to try to put the weight back on.

 First, we may constantly feel XXX, and become quite susceptible to high incentive foods. In our culture, going on a diet is like an alcoholic who’s quit drinking while running a liquor store. Temptation is everywhere, and food becomes a serious preoccupation. 

Second, we may feel XXX or lethargic, so keeping up our exercise routine may become harder. 

Third, our XXX XX X XXX actually falls, so we use fewer calories a day just sitting still. Consider contestants on the reality show “The Biggest Loser.” We may like watching them melt the pounds off, but the question is, can they keep it off?

Leptin levels fall as fat cells shrink, and we respond in a number of ways to try to put the weight back on.

 First, we may constantly feel hungry, and become quite susceptible to high incentive foods. In our culture, going on a diet is like an alcoholic who’s quit drinking while running a liquor store. Temptation is everywhere, and food becomes a serious preoccupation. 

Second, we may feel tired or lethargic, so keeping up our exercise routine may become harder. 

Third, our basal metabolic rate actually falls, so we use fewer calories a day just sitting still. Consider contestants on the reality show “The Biggest Loser.” We may like watching them melt the pounds off, but the question is, can they keep it off?

 A recent study (Fothergill et al., 2016) followed 14 contestants from the show over a six-year period. Although they started at an average weight of 328 pounds and at the end of the 30-week show averaged 200 pounds, six years later they averaged 290 pounds, or not much less than they weighed originally. Worse, while they originally burned an average of 2600 calories per day, after they dieted for the show and then regained most of the weight, they now burned only an average of 1900 calories per day. 

The experience of dieting seems to have triggered a famine response, causing them to maintain a new, lower metabolism rate. 

Thus, keeping a lower body weight means persistently eating fewer calories than before, because of the lower metabolic rate. 

If the contestants went back to eating the same number of calories that were needed just to have constant weight before, they will actually gain weight because their bodies are more efficient with the calories than they were before. In other words, someone who had been obese and becomes “normal” weight again doesn’t appear to be normal; instead, they seem to be like someone who is chronically underfed and underweight. Back to our formula—do you want to change your choice of which variable (or interaction)—P, E or P times E—has the greatest influence on eating behavior. 

-Not surprisingly, then, many people who diet and successfully lose weight simply put it back on as time goes by. So how are we to lose any weight in this difficult scenario? There are no sure answers, but probably the best advice is to try to “turn back the clock” and make your environment more similar to that of our ice-age ancestors. 

Change your Environment and your eating Behavior will change. No, you don’t have to live in a cave and find your dinner with a spear! But you can achieve a similar effect by reducing your intake of prepared foods (give up those French fries and burgers, and leave the cookies at the store), eat more fruits and vegetables, increase your activity levels throughout the day, and turn off the TV—if nothing else, you’ll spend less time on your butt, but also importantly, you won’t see those food ads all the time.

 A recent study (Fothergill et al., 2016) followed 14 contestants from the show over a six-year period. Although they started at an average weight of 328 pounds and at the end of the 30-week show averaged 200 pounds, six years later they averaged 290 pounds, or not much less than they weighed originally. Worse, while they originally burned an average of 2600 calories per day, after they dieted for the show and then regained most of the weight, they now burned only an average of 1900 calories per day. 

The experience of dieting seems to have triggered a famine response, causing them to maintain a new, lower metabolism rate. 

Thus, keeping a lower body weight means persistently eating fewer calories than before, because of the lower metabolic rate. 

If the contestants went back to eating the same number of calories that were needed just to have constant weight before, they will actually gain weight because their bodies are more efficient with the calories than they were before. In other words, someone who had been obese and becomes “normal” weight again doesn’t appear to be normal; instead, they seem to be like someone who is chronically underfed and underweight. Back to our formula—do you want to change your choice of which variable (or interaction)—P, E or P times E—has the greatest influence on eating behavior. 

-Not surprisingly, then, many people who diet and successfully lose weight simply put it back on as time goes by. So how are we to lose any weight in this difficult scenario? There are no sure answers, but probably the best advice is to try to “turn back the clock” and make your environment more similar to that of our ice-age ancestors. 

Change your Environment and your eating Behavior will change. No, you don’t have to live in a cave and find your dinner with a spear! But you can achieve a similar effect by reducing your intake of prepared foods (give up those French fries and burgers, and leave the cookies at the store), eat more fruits and vegetables, increase your activity levels throughout the day, and turn off the TV—if nothing else, you’ll spend less time on your butt, but also importantly, you won’t see those food ads all the time.

-7.3.3 What Else Motivates Me?

 So far, we’ve spent most of our time talking about XXX XXX: food, water, sex, temperature, air, etc.

 Yet most of us spend relatively small amounts of our time actually eating or drinking. There is more to life than these reinforcers! Many of us go to great lengths to see a work of art, further a new friendship, read a book, or explore our worlds. You are currently spending considerable sums of money and time pursuing your educational goals. Ralph and Jim spent a lot of time, money, and energy to go kayaking in the Columbia River Gorge, even though there wasn’t a single primary reinforcer involved (other than breathing, which as we saw, quickly came to dominate Jim’s thoughts that day).

-7.3.3 What Else Motivates Me?

 So far, we’ve spent most of our time talking about primary reinforcers: food, water, sex, temperature, air, etc.

 Yet most of us spend relatively small amounts of our time actually eating or drinking. There is more to life than these reinforcers! Many of us go to great lengths to see a work of art, further a new friendship, read a book, or explore our worlds. You are currently spending considerable sums of money and time pursuing your educational goals. Ralph and Jim spent a lot of time, money, and energy to go kayaking in the Columbia River Gorge, even though there wasn’t a single primary reinforcer involved (other than breathing, which as we saw, quickly came to dominate Jim’s thoughts that day).

biological reinforcers, such as food, water, sex, temperature, and air. 

PRIMARY REINFORCERS

-Humans aren’t the only animals to spend time and energy on things other than primary reinforcers. 

Monkeys confined to a boring environment will expend a great deal of energy to open a window to see other monkeys or toys. Rats will learn to press a bar to gain access to a brief period in a running wheel, in the same way that they’d press the bar when hungry in order to get food. They even seem to defend running in a wheel homeostatically: if they’ve been running a lot, they won’t press that bar to get the wheel, but if they’ve been deprived of the opportunity, they will work very hard indeed to regain access. 

They like to explore. If they are shown two places, one they’ve seen and had a chance to explore before, and one that is new to them, they’ll consistently prefer the new location, a behavior we term preference for XXX

-Humans aren’t the only animals to spend time and energy on things other than primary reinforcers. 

Monkeys confined to a boring environment will expend a great deal of energy to open a window to see other monkeys or toys. Rats will learn to press a bar to gain access to a brief period in a running wheel, in the same way that they’d press the bar when hungry in order to get food. They even seem to defend running in a wheel homeostatically: if they’ve been running a lot, they won’t press that bar to get the wheel, but if they’ve been deprived of the opportunity, they will work very hard indeed to regain access.

They like to explore. If they are shown two places, one they’ve seen and had a chance to explore before, and one that is new to them, they’ll consistently prefer the new location, a behavior we term preference for novelty.

(need for) newness

Novelty

 But familiarity seems to be preferable in fellow travelers. Recent studies in fact show that rats will work to free a cage mate whom an experimenter has confined to a small tube. In fact, they’ll temporarily give up the opportunity to eat a palatable food to do so, and if they’re successful at freeing their friend, they’ll end up sharing that food with them. Interestingly, they’ll only do this if they’ve been housed with that rat for a long time; they won’t work to release another rat that they haven’t met. Such studies imply a strong need for XXX in rats, who like us evolved in social environments.

 But familiarity seems to be preferable in fellow travelers. Recent studies in fact show that rats will work to free a cage mate whom an experimenter has confined to a small tube. In fact, they’ll temporarily give up the opportunity to eat a palatable food to do so, and if they’re successful at freeing their friend, they’ll end up sharing that food with them. Interestingly, they’ll only do this if they’ve been housed with that rat for a long time; they won’t work to release another rat that they haven’t met. Such studies imply a strong need for affiliation in rats, who like us evolved in social environments.

 (need for) social interaction and connection

Affilation

These studies suggest that novelty seeking and affiliation aren’t uniquely human traits. Likely, that is because evolution has favored these traits in a wide variety of species, especially in mammals. 

-Why is curiosity a good thing? Well, if your life depends on knowledge of your environment—where to find food and water, and how to avoid predators—then an important way to gain that knowledge is through exploration. 

As for affiliation, rats, like humans, are a social species. Both spend a lot of time with other members of their species, and gain information about the environment through them. A friend might tell you where to find a good deal on a new book bag, or how to avoid the speed trap on I-65. In addition to learning about the environment socially, affiliation may also offer direct assistance when needed, such as in the rat study above, or more dramatically, a friend could save your life. Trapped in your house by tornado damage? Chances are a friend or neighbor will come looking for you before the police or other rescue workers do, especially if you are a good friend.

-Although controversial, the evolutionary theorist David Sloan Wilson has argued that humans and other species who affiliate in groups derive a benefit to themselves, and that evolution can act at the group level. In other words, groups that have achieved goals such as better access to food or security by working better together have been more successful than groups (or individuals) that did not work well together. 

-Wilson has also thought about evolution as acting on multiple levels at once, in which individuals seek to better themselves (the more traditional perspective), as well as one in which groups can derive evolutionary benefit through affiliation. At a more individual level, our attachments to our children (and they to their parents) encourages parents and kids to stay close to one another, which is the best way to assure their welfare and keep them safe. 

Because our kids carry our own genes, it is in some ways easiest to understand affiliation between parents and kids from an evolutionary perspective. Similarly, our desire to affiliate with romantic partners is easy to understand from an evolutionary level, because pairings are required to have children and for biological fitness.

- Even if we have relationships that can’t lead to children (such as gay relationships, or pairings between the elderly who are unable to have kids), it is likely that these affiliations engage the same psychological principles that evolved in the context of reproductive relationships

These studies suggest that novelty seeking and affiliation aren’t uniquely human traits. Likely, that is because evolution has favored these traits in a wide variety of species, especially in mammals. 

-Why is curiosity a good thing? Well, if your life depends on knowledge of your environment—where to find food and water, and how to avoid predators—then an important way to gain that knowledge is through exploration. 

As for affiliation, rats, like humans, are a social species. Both spend a lot of time with other members of their species, and gain information about the environment through them. A friend might tell you where to find a good deal on a new book bag, or how to avoid the speed trap on I-65. In addition to learning about the environment socially, affiliation may also offer direct assistance when needed, such as in the rat study above, or more dramatically, a friend could save your life. Trapped in your house by tornado damage? Chances are a friend or neighbor will come looking for you before the police or other rescue workers do, especially if you are a good friend.

-Although controversial, the evolutionary theorist David Sloan Wilson has argued that humans and other species who affiliate in groups derive a benefit to themselves, and that evolution can act at the group level. In other words, groups that have achieved goals such as better access to food or security by working better together have been more successful than groups (or individuals) that did not work well together. 

-Wilson has also thought about evolution as acting on multiple levels at once, in which individuals seek to better themselves (the more traditional perspective), as well as one in which groups can derive evolutionary benefit through affiliation. At a more individual level, our attachments to our children (and they to their parents) encourages parents and kids to stay close to one another, which is the best way to assure their welfare and keep them safe. 

Because our kids carry our own genes, it is in some ways easiest to understand affiliation between parents and kids from an evolutionary perspective. Similarly, our desire to affiliate with romantic partners is easy to understand from an evolutionary level, because pairings are required to have children and for biological fitness.

- Even if we have relationships that can’t lead to children (such as gay relationships, or pairings between the elderly who are unable to have kids), it is likely that these affiliations engage the same psychological principles that evolved in the context of reproductive relationships

In some ways, it’s easiest to understand the importance of affiliation to observe what happens when it’s not present. Most people feel happiest when connected to others, though not all people feel the desire for affiliation to a similar degree. Those who desire rich relationships in their lives, and derive energy from those relationships, we call XXX those who need more time to themselves we call XXX

It’s not that XXX have no friends, but they may not have as much of a need for them. Interestingly, studies have demonstrated that XXX tend to be happier over time, and have more positive experiences, than XXX do. This is consistent with the idea that affiliation is a source of joy for most people. Having no friends, even when not new to an area, can be a symptom of a mental disorder, such as autism or schizophrenia. 

In some ways, it’s easiest to understand the importance of affiliation to observe what happens when it’s not present. Most people feel happiest when connected to others, though not all people feel the desire for affiliation to a similar degree. Those who desire rich relationships in their lives, and derive energy from those relationships, we call extroverts; those who need more time to themselves we call introverts. 

It’s not that introverts have no friends, but they may not have as much of a need for them. Interestingly, studies have demonstrated that extroverts tend to be happier over time, and have more positive experiences, than introverts do. This is consistent with the idea that affiliation is a source of joy for most people. Having no friends, even when not new to an area, can be a symptom of a mental disorder, such as autism or schizophrenia. 

people who derive energy from relationships 

Extroverts

people who derive energy from solitude

Introverts

-The need to belong can be a very strong motivator. For hundreds of years, many institutions have used ostracism, or casting a person out of the group, as the highest punishment. For example, within a religious context, this is called excommunication, and for people during the medieval times or even the Renaissance, excommunication would have been a terrible sentence, as the person may have been shunned by all former friends and acquaintances. Our fascination with this sort of behavior can be seen in modern reality TV shows, where being “voted off the island” has become an expression in everyday speech. 

Interesting recent studies have created a feeling of exclusion or ostracism by using a video game, in which it appears that other “players” (really, just the computer program itself) interact with each other, but not with the subject of the experiment. In these studies, the neural pathways that become active show a large overlap with those stimulated by actual, physical pain, consistent with the idea that the pain of rejection is just as real as the pain of a blow, or of placing one’s hand in ice water.

-The workplace is obviously an area where people think about motivation quite a bit. Employers are very interested in their employees performing at their best, and there is an entire field of psychology, industrial organizational psychology, that studies the behavior of people in the workplace and organizational settings. The most obvious motivation to do work is that you get paid for it.

 But for many people, work is about more than just the pay, it’s about feeling a need for XXX and XXX. 

-The need to belong can be a very strong motivator. For hundreds of years, many institutions have used ostracism, or casting a person out of the group, as the highest punishment. For example, within a religious context, this is called excommunication, and for people during the medieval times or even the Renaissance, excommunication would have been a terrible sentence, as the person may have been shunned by all former friends and acquaintances. Our fascination with this sort of behavior can be seen in modern reality TV shows, where being “voted off the island” has become an expression in everyday speech. 

Interesting recent studies have created a feeling of exclusion or ostracism by using a video game, in which it appears that other “players” (really, just the computer program itself) interact with each other, but not with the subject of the experiment. In these studies, the neural pathways that become active show a large overlap with those stimulated by actual, physical pain, consistent with the idea that the pain of rejection is just as real as the pain of a blow, or of placing one’s hand in ice water.

-The workplace is obviously an area where people think about motivation quite a bit. Employers are very interested in their employees performing at their best, and there is an entire field of psychology, industrial organizational psychology, that studies the behavior of people in the workplace and organizational settings. The most obvious motivation to do work is that you get paid for it.

 But for many people, work is about more than just the pay, it’s about feeling a need for achievement and competence. 

What is motivation for XXX? It’s the sense that you want to make a difference: have a significant accomplishment, master a skill or an idea, or have control over your environment. You want to excel or outperform others. If you’re a good student, chances are that you desire a sense of achievement. While you might desire a good grade, you may also just feel a desire to understand the new ideas you’re learning.

 A desire for XXX means that you want to be someone others look to for help; that you enjoy being good at what you do—being capable and in control of the situation. A good work place honors these motivations, and does all that it can to nurture them. Contrast this with a classically bad work place, where it doesn’t matter whether you’re doing a good job or not, and people just clock in and clock out at the end of the day.

What is motivation for achievement? It’s the sense that you want to make a difference: have a significant accomplishment, master a skill or an idea, or have control over your environment. You want to excel or outperform others. If you’re a good student, chances are that you desire a sense of achievement. While you might desire a good grade, you may also just feel a desire to understand the new ideas you’re learning.

 A desire for competence means that you want to be someone others look to for help; that you enjoy being good at what you do—being capable and in control of the situation. A good work place honors these motivations, and does all that it can to nurture them. Contrast this with a classically bad work place, where it doesn’t matter whether you’re doing a good job or not, and people just clock in and clock out at the end of the day.

(need for) mastery of a skill or significant accomplishment.

-achievement

(need for) others to look to you for help because you are capable and in control of a situation. 

competence

-When you consider achievement motivation, do you immediately think of your own personal success? If so, your understanding of this concept falls within the norm for individualistic cultures, of which the United States is one. If you place more of an emphasis on group success, then your thinking is more in line with collectivistic cultures, such as those of many Asian countries. In these cultures, it is not acceptable to be proud of your personal achievements, but rather for how your achievements benefit others. You would strive for a promotion for your family, not for yourself; you would excel to promote the status of your coworkers and company. As described in one of the major themes of this course, our understanding of achievement motivation must take into account the socio-cultural context.

-When you consider achievement motivation, do you immediately think of your own personal success? If so, your understanding of this concept falls within the norm for individualistic cultures, of which the United States is one. If you place more of an emphasis on group success, then your thinking is more in line with collectivistic cultures, such as those of many Asian countries. In these cultures, it is not acceptable to be proud of your personal achievements, but rather for how your achievements benefit others. You would strive for a promotion for your family, not for yourself; you would excel to promote the status of your coworkers and company. As described in one of the major themes of this course, our understanding of achievement motivation must take into account the socio-cultural context.

-Another way to look at workplace motivation is to think about the difference between XXX and XXX rewards. 

-Most of what we’ve talked about in this chapter so far are XXX rewards: food, water, approval, and most of all (for people)—money, are XXX rewards. They are called extrinsic because they are things outside ourselves (that’s the ex part) that we desire. Behavior directed towards obtaining these XXX rewards is known as XXX motivation. 

-Another way to look at workplace motivation is to think about the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. 

-Most of what we’ve talked about in this chapter so far are extrinsic rewards: food, water, approval, and most of all (for people)—money, are extrinsic rewards. They are called extrinsic because they are things outside ourselves (that’s the ex part) that we desire. Behavior directed towards obtaining these extrinsic rewards is known as extrinsic motivation. 

behavior directed toward obtaining rewards that are outside ourselves.

extrinsic motivation

XXX rewards are about feeling a need for achievement and competence—the sense you may get at the end of the day that you’ve done a good job, that you were able to “step up to the plate,” or just that you felt a sense of mastery over your environment. 

-Closely linked to XXX motivation is the idea of self-determination, that you push yourself to do your best, set your own schedule, but most of all, do well because it makes you feel good to know that you’ve performed your job with excellence and integrity. It can also apply outside of work settings. 

When you push yourself to do something for its own sake (for example, learning how to roller skate, or to paint), rather than for approval of others or for money, then your motivation is driven by the XXX desire for mastery of a new skill.

Intrinsic rewards are about feeling a need for achievement and competence—the sense you may get at the end of the day that you’ve done a good job, that you were able to “step up to the plate,” or just that you felt a sense of mastery over your environment. 

-Closely linked to intrinsic motivation is the idea of self-determination, that you push yourself to do your best, set your own schedule, but most of all, do well because it makes you feel good to know that you’ve performed your job with excellence and integrity. It can also apply outside of work settings. 

When you push yourself to do something for its own sake (for example, learning how to roller skate, or to paint), rather than for approval of others or for money, then your motivation is driven by the intrinsic desire for mastery of a new skill.

 behavior driven by desires that are inside ourselves

Intrinsic motivation