Unit 7: Motivation, Emotion, and Personality

Motivation

Motivation

Need or desire that energises and directs behaviour

Instinct

A complex behaviour that is rigidly pattern for a species and is unlearned.

Physiological need

Basic bodily requirement

Drive reduction theory

Idea that a physiological need creates an arousal state (A drive) That motivates an organism to satisfy the need.

Homeostasis

Tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; The regulation of any aspect of body chemistry such as blood glucose, around a particular level.

Incentives

A positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behaviour

Yerkes-Dodson Law

Principal, that performance increases with arousal, only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases.

Hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base With physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher level safety needs and then psychological needs become active.

Abraham Maslow

Created a hierarchy of needs

A.L. Washburn and Walter Cannon

Monitored stomach contractions when hungry but ingesting balloon.

Glucose

Form of sugar that circulates in the blood, and provides the major source of energy for body tissues. When level decreases, we feel hunger. Specifically when higher in a hormone insulin (From pancreas) Decreases blood glucose, partly by converting to stored fat.

Insulin

Controls blood glucose

Gherlin

Arouses hunger, as appearing from an empty stomach

Leptin

Protein hormone, which, when abundant, causes brain to increase metabolism and decreases hunger. Comes from fat cells.

Orexin

Triggers hunger and comes from the hypothalamus.

PYY

Suppresses hunger and comes from the digestive tract.

Set point

Point at which your “Weight thermostat” may be set. When your body falls below this weight, it increases hunger, and a lowered metabolic rate may combine to restore lost weight.

Basal metabolic rate

Body’s resting rate of energy output.

Obesity

Defined as a body mass index (BMI) Measurement of 30 or higher. Overweight individuals have a BMI of 25 or higher.

Asexual

Having no sexual attraction to others

Testosterone

Male sex hormones

Estrogen

Sex hormones such as estradiol That contribute to female sex characteristics and once created in greater amounts by females than by males. These levels peak during ovulation. Non-human mammals, this promotes sexual receptivity.

Sexual response cycle

The four stages of sexual responding described by William Masters and Virginia Johnson: Excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution

Alfred Kinsey

Questioned Americans about their sexuality and writing about their experiences.

Excitement

Genital areas become engorged with blood

Plateau

Breathing, pulse, and blood pressure rates continue to increase, excitement peaks

Orgasm

Muscle contractions appear, BPB rates still increase, same subcortical brain regions, were active in men and women during orgasm.

Resolution

Body gradually returns to its unaroused state as a genital blood vessels release their accumulated blood. Happens relatively quickly of orgasms secured, relatively slowly, otherwise.

Refractory period

In human sexuality, or resting. That occurs After orgasm, during which a person cannot achieve another orgasm.

Biological influences of sexual motivation

• Sexual maturity

• Sex hormones, especially testosterone

Psychological influences of sexual motivation

• Exposure to stimulating conditions

• Sexual fantasies

Social-cultural influences of sexual motivation

• Family and society values

• Religious and personal values

• Cultural expectations

• Media

Affiliation need

Need to build relationships and feel part of a group

Ostracism

Deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups

Narcissism

Excessive self-love and self-absorption

Achievement motivation

Desire for significant accomplishment, for mastery of skills, or ideas, for control, and for retaining a high standard.

Grit

In psychology, passion, and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals

Emotion

Response of the whole organism, involving (1) Physiological arousal, (2) Expressive behaviours, and (3) Conscious experience.

James Lang theory

Siri that our experience of emotion is our awareness of or physiological responses to an emotion-Arousing stimulus: Stimulus —> Arousal —> Emotion.

Cannon Bard theory

Theory that an emotion arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) Physiological responses, and (2) The subjective experience of emotion.

Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer

Demonstrated how we appraise (Interpret) Our experiences also matters. Our Physical reactions and our thoughts (Perceptions, memories, and interpretations) Together create emotion.

Two factor theory

S – S theory that experience emotion one must (1) Be physically aroused and (2) Cognitively label the arousal.

Joseph LeDoux and Robert Zajonc

Some embodied responses happen instantly, without conscious appraisal.

Richard Lazarus

Conceited that our brain processes, fast amounts of information without our conscious awareness, and that some emotional responses do not require conscious thinking. Emotions arise when we appraise an event as harmless or dangerous.

Some more complex feelings like hatred and love, travel what type of road?

A highroad where stimulus travels through thalamus to the brains cortex. It is analysed And labelled before the response command sent out, via the amygdala.

Emotions like simple, likes, dislikes, and fears, take what type of road?

A low road Which is a neural shortcut that bypasses the cortex. Fear provoking stimulus would travel from the eye or ear via the thalamus directly to amygdala.

Enables our grease, lightning emotions response before our intellectual intervenes. A conscious feeling of fear that occurs as we become aware that our brain has detected danger.

Personality

An individuals’ characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

Psychodynamic theories

Theories that view personality w a focus on the unconscious + the importance of childhood experiences

psychoanalysis

F’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts + actions to unconscious motives + conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose + interpret unconscious tensions

Unconscious

According to F, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, + memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware

Free association

in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes + says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

Id

A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to f, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification.

Ego

The largely conscious, executive part of Personality that, according to f, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the ID's Desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain

Superego

The part of Personality that, according to f, represents standards for judgment [ the conscious] and for future aspirations

Psychosexual stages

the childhood stages of development [ oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital] during which, according to f, the ID's pleasure seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones

What is the focus of the oral stage and when does it occur?

Pleasure centers on the mouth- sucking, biting, chewing

(0-18 months)

What is the focus of the anal stage and when does it occur?

pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control

(18-36 months)

What is the focus of the phallic stage and when does it occur?

Pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings

(3-6 years)

What is the focus of the latency stage and when does it occur?

A phase of dormant sexual feelings

(6 to puberty)

What is the focus of the genital stage and when does it occur?

 Maturation of sexual interests

(puberty on)

Oedipus complex

According to f, a boy's sexual desires towards his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred  for the Rival father

Identification

Process by which, according to f, children and corporate their parents values into their developing supergos

Fixation

In psychoanalytic theory, according to f, a lingering focus of pleasure seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, and which conflicts were unresolved

Defense mechanism

in psychoanalytic theory, the Ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

Repression

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from Consciousness anxiety arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

Alfred Adler

believed much of our behavior is driven by efforts to conquer childhood inferiority feelings the trigger are striving for superiority and Power (inferiority complex idea)

Karen Horney

Childhood anxiety triggers our desire for love and security

Collective unconscious

Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species’ history

Projective test

a personality test, such as the  Rorschach, the provides ambiguous images designed to trigger projection of one's inner Dynamics

Henry Murray

Created Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

A projective test in which people Express their inner feelings and interest for the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes

Rorschach inkblot test

he most widely used projective test; a set of 10 ink blots, designed by Herman  Rorschach; seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots

False Consensus Effect

Tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors

Terror management Theory

A theory of death related anxiety; explores people's emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death

Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers

Offered a third Force perspective that emphasized human potential

Humanistic Theories

theories that view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth

Hierarchy of needs

Maslow's pyramid of human needs beginning at the base with  physiological needs that must be satisfied before higher level safety needs and then psychological needs become active

Self-actualization

According to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one's potential

Self-transcendence

According to Maslow, the striving for identity, meaning, and purpose beyond the self

Rogers' person-centered perspective

People are basically good and are endowed with self-actualization tendencies. Unless thwarted by an environment that inhibits growth, primed for growth and fulfillment.

Rogers believed that a  growth promoting social climate provides:

(1) acceptance: unconditional positive regard (a caring, accepting common non-judgmental attitude, which Carl Rogers believe would help people develop self-awareness and self-acceptance), (2) Genuineness, and (3) Empathy

Self-concept, how can it affect our perception?

all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, an answer to the question, “who am I?”

if negative, we act and perceive the world negatively, if positive, we act and perceive the world positively

Life story approach

collecting a rich narrative detailing each person's unique life history

Trait

a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act in certain ways, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports

Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother Katherine Briggs

Wanted to describe important personality differences and created the Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI) based on Carl Jung's personality types.

Factor Analysis

A statistical procedure that identifies clusters (factors)Of test items that tab basic components of a trait.

Hans Eysenck and Sybil Eysenck

believed that we can reduce many of our normal individual variations to two dimensions: (1) extraversion- introversion and (2) emotional stability- instability.

Personality inventories

a questionnaire [often with true or false or agree disagree items]On which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits

Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory (MMPI)

The most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. originally developed to identify emotional disorders [still considered its most appropriate use], this test is now used for many other screening purposes

Empirically derived test

a test [such as the MMPI] created by selecting from a pool of items those that discriminate between groups

Objectivity does not guarantee?

Validity

Robert McCrae and Paul Costa

created Big 5 test which specifies where you are on the five dimensions of consciousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion. Demonstrates one’s personality.

Social cognitive perspective, who created it?

Views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people's traits [ including their thinking] and their social context.

Albert Bandura

Behavioral approach

focuses on the effects of learning on our personality development

Reciprocal determinism

the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment

Three specific ways in which individuals and environment interact

(1) different people choose different environments (we choose our environment and it then shapes us), (2) our personalities shape how we interpret and react to events (3) our personalities help create situations to which we react.

Gene environment interaction

our genetically influenced traits evoke certain responses from others, which may nudge us in One Direction or another

Self

In contemporary psychology, assumed to be the center of personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions

Spotlight effect

overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders [as if we presume a spotlight shines on us]

We can reduce the spotlight effect by two ways:

(1) simply to know and remember the spotlight effect and (2) to take the audience's perspective.