Unit 1: Motivation

Motivation, performance, arousal

Homeostatic model of motivation/Drive reduction

deficit occurs, aversive arousal, drive to reduce arousal, return to equilibrium

Cognitive dissonance theory

mismatch between action and belief, dissonance arousal, change of belief or action, return to equilibrium

Biological, learned, cognitive basis of cognitive dissonance as state arousal

1. counter attitudinal essays cause sweating

2. if attitude is shifted discomfort reduces

3. no cognitive dissonance for doing boring tasks if you get paid

Two types of arousal

cortical and autonomic

Autonomic arousal

1. sympathetic nervous system causes fight or flight from endocrine and adrenal activity

2. linked to RAS, stress, emotion

Cortical arousal

1. RAS processes sensation and directs attention

2. ascending pathway activates cortex and descending activates motor system

3. stimulating monkey RAS improves discrimination task performance

Theories of arousal and peak performance

1. task difficulty (yerkes-dodson)

2. optimal stimulation (hebb)

3. reversal (apter)

4. personality (eysenck)

Task difficulty theory of peak performance

best performance on difficult tasks with low arousal and on easy tasks with high arousal

Optimal stimulation theory

1. hedonic tone

2. a point of arousal between increasing positive emotion and emotional disturbance

3. sensory deprivation experiments showed a lack of stimulation is aversive

Reversal theory

1. arousal avoidance system (telic) and excitement seeking system (paratelic)

2. telic: low arousal=relaxation, high arousal=anxiety

3. paratelic: low arousal=boredom, high arousal=excitement

Personality theory of arousal and performance

positive hedonic tone of introverts is optimized at lower stimulation levels than average, extraverts higher

Trait vs state arousal

Trait arousal is dispositional, state arousal is context based (sensory overload, cognitive dissonance, evaluation arousal)

Biological component of trait arousal

1. extraversion regulation by cortical arousal levels (introverts have higher baseline), neuroticism regulation by limbic system reactivity (neurotics have higher baseline)

2. high BAS have more activity in regions linked to executive function and approach in response to arousal

Personality (learned/cognitive) component of trait arousal

1. learned negative associations with arousal

2. state of preparedness: fears are highly prepared learning that is difficult to break and easy to acquire

3. depressed people have excess focus on threat, CBT helps rethink threats

Biological component of state arousal

physiological response (glucose, lactic acid, NE, immunoglobin decline)

Learned/cognitive component of state arousal

1. self preoccupying intrusive thinking: anxiety is interference of intrusive thoughts with task focused thinking

2. two stage coping: anticipatory (affective, approach or avoid), appraisal of adequacy (did it work)

Arousal and anxiety

1. arousal leads to selective attention

2. selective attention leads to focus on threat cues, more arousal, and more attentional narrowing

Studies for arousal (social, cultural, cognitive)

1. alone but feeling no pain

2. aggression and honor culture

3. mind over matter

Alone but feeling no pain (DeWall and Baumeister)

1. pain tolerance and social exclusion

2. forecast for lonely future increases pain tolerance and exclusion lowers emotional sensitivity and empathy

3. arousal leads to sympathetic activation which dulls pain perception

Aggression and culture of honor (Cohen and Nisbett, 1980)

1. southern males insulted and measured on physical, emotional, behavioral response

2. more threat to masculinity, cortisol, physical and cognitive aggression priming, aggression response

3. norms of honor cultures lead to negative associations to social threat and an increased sympathetic response

Mind over matter, reappraising arousal outcomes (Jamieson, 2011)

1. asked to think about their physical arousal as adaptive during a stressful task

2. increased cardiovascular adaptation and efficiency, decreased attentional bias

3. reappraisal in two stage coping with arousal