AP Psychology - Unit 7

Motivation

A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior. The intrinsic kind is motivated by internal satisfaction and personal enjoyment, while the extrinsic kind is motivated by external rewards or fear of punishment.

Instinct

A complex behavior must have a fixed pattern throughout a species and be unlearned

The instinct theory

Explores genetic influences on complex behaviors.

Drive

Physiological states that create an aroused, motivated state that pushes us to reduce a need.

Drive-reduction theory

When a physiological need increases, so does our psychological drive to reduce it.

Homeostasis

The maintenance of a steady internal state.

Incentives

Positive or negative environmental stimuli that lure or repel us

Optimal arousal theory

Proposes that some behaviors (such as those driven by curiosity) do not reduce physiological needs but rather are prompted by a search for an optimum level of arousal

The Yerkes-Dodson law

Performance increases with arousal, but only to a certain point, after which it decreases. Performance peaks at lower levels of arousal for difficult tasks, and at higher levels for easy or well-learned tasks. Moderate arousal leads to optimal performance

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

At the base of this pyramid are our physiological needs, such as for food and water. Only if these needs are met are we prompted to meet our need for safety, and then to satisfy our needs to give and receive love and to enjoy self-esteem. Beyond this lies the need to actualize one’s full potential. At the self-transcendence level, people strive for meaning, purpose, and communion in a way that is transpersonal—beyond the self

Why are some needs more compelling than others?

We prioritize survival-based needs and then social needs more than the needs for esteem and meaning.

Hunger pangs

Correspond with stomach contractions, but not the only reason. Increases in the hormone insulin (secreted by the pancreas) diminish blood glucose, partly by converting it to stored fat. The brain recognizes this, and triggers hunger signals.

How does your brain recognize hunger and send out signals?

In the hypothalamus, some neural networks can suppress or increase appetite. Blood vessels connect the hypothalamus to the rest of the body, so it can respond.

Appetite hormones

Insulin (controls blood glucose), ghrelin (secreted by an empty stomach), leptin (secreted by fat cells; increases metabolism), orexin (hunger trigger from the hypothalamus), PYY (sends ‘I’m not hungry’ signals)

Basal metabolic rate

The resting rate of energy expenditure for maintaining basic body functions

Set point

A biologically fixed tendency to maintain an optimum weight; can be influenced by the environment

Why do people eat when they are sad?

Carbohydrates boost the neurotransmitter serotonin, which has calming effects. When stressed, both rats and many humans find it extra rewarding to scarf chocolate cookies

Taste preferences

Other taste preferences are conditioned, as when people given highly salted foods develop a liking for excess salt, or when people who have been sickened by a food develop an aversion to it.

Cultural taste preferences

Many Japanese people enjoy nattó, a fermented soybean dish. Asians are often repulsed by what many Westerners love—cheese.

Response to unfamiliar food

Neophobia (the dislike of unfamiliar things) surely was adaptive for our ancestors, protecting them from potentially toxic substances.

Overeating with friends

This happens because the presence of others tends to amplify our natural behavior tendencies

Serving sizes

When offered free food with a small portion and large portion, people were likely to take the larger portion. Larger portions induce bigger bites, which may increase intake by decreasing oral exposure time.

The effect of variety

Offered a dessert buffet, people eat more than they do when choosing a portion from one favorite dessert.

Encouraging nutrition

One research team quadrupled carrots taken by offering schoolchildren carrots before they picked up other foods in a lunch line.

Obesity

A body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above

Factors of obesity

Associated with increased depression (especially in women), bullying, and health risks.

Physiological factors in obesity

Storing fat was adaptive to our ancestors, and fat requires less food intake to maintain than it did to gain. Set point and metabolism matter; lean people tend to move around more. Twin and adoption studies indicate that body weight is also genetically influenced.

Environmental factors in obesity

Sleep loss, social influence, and food and activity levels.

Sex and fertility

Females become sexually receptive when their estrogens peak at ovulation, and researchers can cause female animals to become receptive by injecting them with estrogens

Women’s testosterone relationship

If a woman’s natural testosterone level drops, as happens with removal of the ovaries or adrenal glands, her sexual interest may wane. And as experiments with surgically or naturally menopausal women have demonstrated, testosterone-replacement therapy can often restore diminished sexual activity, arousal, and desire.