motivation and emotion

3/19/24

motivation: the forces that act on or within an organism to initiate and direct behavior

three basic characteristics associated with motivation:

  1. activation: demonstrated by the initiation or production of behavior

  2. persistence: demonstrated by continued efforts or the determination to achieve a particular goal often in the face of obstacles

  3. intensity: demonstrates by the greatest vigor in responding to the behavior

theories that try to explain motivation and how people can be so differently motivated

  • Late 1800s

    • instinct theory: the view that some motives are innate and due to genetic programming

      • what they thought was innate: rivalry, sympathy, fear shyness, cleanliness, hunting, play, repulsion, submission

  • 1940s and 50s

    • the drive theories/drive reduction theory: the view that behavior is motivated by the desire to reduce internal tension caused by unmet biological needs

      • based on homeostasis: the notion that the body monitors and maintains internal states, such as body temperature and energy supplies at relatively constant levels

      • when you aren’t in homeostasis you want to get back to homeostasis

      • drive: an impulse that activates behavior to reduce a need and restore homeostasis

  • 1950s

    • incentive theory: the view that behavior is motivated by the pool of external goals such as rewards

  • late 1950s

    • the humanistic theory: emphasizes the importance of psychological and cognitive components in motivation they also recognize the importance of the environment and the theorists believe that without a supportive and encouraging environment personal, social, and cultural the motivation to strive towards one’s highest potential could be jeopardized

    • Abraham Maslow: said we are motivated by what he calls a hierarchy of needs

      • the hierarchy of needs: divided into levels that progress from basic physical needs to psychological needs to self-fulfillment needs

Highest: self-actualization

  • reaching your full potential and making full use of your talents

Second highest: esteem needs

  • sense of accomplishment and recognition

Middle level: belongingness and love needs

  • intimate relationships and friends

Second lowest: Safety needs

  • security, safety, and predictability

Lower level: the physiological needs

  • you have to meet these needs before you care about anything else

  • food, water, warmth, and rest

  • the shelter is not included

characteristics of self-actualized people:

  • realism and acceptance: they see themselves realistically and they accept who they are, as well as others for who they are

  • spontaneity: they re-open to new experiences and they are willing to try things in the spur of the moment

  • Problem-centering: they focus on problems outside of themselves

    • often their life purpose

  • autonomy: a strong need for privacy and independence

  • continued freshness of appreciation: they still appreciate the simple things in life

  • peak experiences: a transforming experience

    • can cause them to focus on a problem that can become their purpose in life

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3/20/24

hunger motivation

what, when, and how much you eat are influenced by diverse psychological, biological, social, and cultural factors

factors that go into us consuming what we consume:

  • biological factors:

    • cholecystokinin (Cck): a hormone that seems to play a role in signaling satiation or fullness

    • insulin: a hormone secreted by the pancreas that helps regulate the body’s processing or metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins

      • higher insulin levels lead us to experience more hunger and eat more food

      • people can become classically conditioned to associate environmental stimuli with eating, which can trigger a surge of insulin in our bodies

      • stimuli such as:

        • this sight or smell of appealing food

        • other people eating

        • the thought of food

    • glucose: a form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides a major source of energy for body tissues

      • when its level is low you feel hunger

    • the ventromedial hypothalamus: depresses hunger so if it’s damaged, the rat will eat and become obese

    • the lateral hypothalamus: brings on hunger so if it’s damaged, the mouse will stop eating and if it’s not force-fed, will starve to death

    • basal metabolic rate (BMR): the rate at which your body uses energy for vital body functions when at rest

      • a third of our body's energy is used for routine physical activities such as sitting, walking, or standing in line

      • 2/3 of our body’s energy is used for continuous body functions that are essential to life such as respiration, heartbeat, brain activity, and the production of body heat

      • several factors that influence your BMR

        • slows down as you age

        • gender, males have a higher BMR than females

        • body size, heavier people have a higher BMR

        • genetics, size, and build go from one generation to the next

        • diet, restricted food intake lowers BMR, excess food intake increases BMR

        • set point, the particular weight that is set and maintained by increases or decreases in BMR

obesity

the highest ethnic group that suffers from obesity, black and Hispanic Americans

about 40% are obese? 7% are obese

For a person to be classified obese their BMI has to be 30,

typically for women to be considered obese waist measurement needs to be 35 inches males 42 inches

obese: they have to weigh 20% or more above their optimal body weight

how to obese individuals differ from non-obese individuals? in the daily regulation of hunger,

  1. many obese people tend to be highly responsive to external cues associated with food, this could be things such as time of day how appetizing the food is, and how easy it is to get

  2. individuals who are highly responsive to food-related stimuli tend to react physiologically with higher insulin production,

  3. obese individuals generally operate with higher body levels of insulin

eating disorders

10-15% of Americans suffer from eating disorders 7 mil women, 1 mil men

anorexia nervosa: an individual refuses to maintain a minimally normal body weight, is extremely afraid of gaining weight or becoming fat, and has a distorted perception of the size of their body, for a person to be classified 15% below

bulimia nervosa: a person engages in binge eating and then purges the excessive food consumption by self-induced vomiting, some will throw up in their bedrooms and then hide it in their bedroom, or less often by taking laxatives

people can have a combination of both

Sexual motivation

Alfred Kinsey: interviewed 18,000 people asking about their sexual behavior, in the 1960s published his findings, and his book became a best-seller

Dr Joyce Brothers: based on her studies made this pronouncement

  • 2/3 of married men and 1/2 of married women have affairs, other surveys dispute her findings

William Masters and Virginia Johnson: they filmed more than 10,000 sexual cycles, from their findings

  • the sexual response cycle

    • stage 1: excitement, all parts of the body involved become aroused

    • stage 2: plateau, when excitement peaks

    • stage 3: orgasm,

    • stage 4: resolution, when males enter a refractory period and they are not able to have another orgasm

sexual disorders: a problem that consistently impairs sexual arousal or function

  • premature ejaculation: when a person ejaculates before they or their partner’s wish

  • impotence: the inability to have or maintain an erection, erectile dysfunction

  • orgasmic disorders: infrequently or never experiencing an orgasm

sexual orientation: the direction of a person’s emotional and erotic attraction toward members of the opposite sex, the same sex, or both sexes

statistical 3-4% identify as gay, and 1% of women

homosexual: attraction toward one’s gender

heterosexual: attraction towards the opposite gender

Simon LaVay: a cell cluster in the hypothalamus was reliably larger in heterosexual men than in women and in homosexual men

Darrel Bem: discovered a gene code for prenatal hormones and brain anatomy which predisposed temperament that leads children to prefer sex-typical or sex-atypical, activities and friends

Allen and Gorski: discovered that a section of fibers connecting the right and left hemispheres is 1/3 larger in homosexual men than in heterosexual men

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3/21/24

Achievement motivation: motivated behavior directed toward excelling, succeeding, or out-performing others at some task

different factors that contribute to achievement motivation:

  • emotional: as children learn to associate achievement with positive emotions

  • cognitive factor: as children learn to attribute their achievement to their competence and effort, raising their expectations

  • parental influence: some studies that correlate birth order with achievement

  • intrinsic motivation: a desire to perform a behavior for its own sake and to be effective

  • extrinsic motivation: a desire to perform a behavior due to promised rewards or threats of punishment

Industrial/organization psychology: a sub-field in psychology that studies and advises on workplace behavior

  • Human Resources

    • Select and train employees

    • Boost morale and productivity

    • design products and asses responses to them

Self-efficacy: a degree to which a person is subjectively convinced of his or her ability to effectively meet the demands of a situation

Leadership styles

have to decide the ppl you are dealing with

  • task leadership: goal-oriented leadership that sets standards organizes work and focuses attention on goals

  • social leadership: group-oriented leadership that builds teamwork, mediates conflict, and offers support

two theories proposed by McGregor that are contrasting views on human motivation

  • theory x: assumed that workers are basically lazy, error-prone, and externally motivated so they should be directed from above

    • only do the job to get a paycheck

  • theory y: assumed that given challenge and freedom workers are motivated to achieve self-esteem, and to demonstrate their competence and creativity

other areas of motivation: arousal, curiosity, and competence

arousal theory: the view that people are motivated to maintain an optimal level of arousal that is neither too high nor too low

sensation seeking: the degree to which an individual is motivated to experience high levels of arousal associated with varied and novel activities

  • thrill-seekers

competence motivation: motivated behavior directed toward demonstrating competence and exercising control in a situation

Emotion

emotion: a distinct physiological state that involves subjective experience physical arousal and a behavioral or expressive response

the autonomic NS is involved in emotion

prolonged emotional arousal due to sustained stress taxes the body

as we experience negative emotions the right hemisphere becomes more active positive emotions activate the left hemisphere

we communicate verbally and non-verbally

couples that are passionately in love: eye-gazing is typically prolonged and mutual

we read fear and anger mostly from the eyes and happiness from the mouth

introverts are better at reading others’ emotions

extroverts are easier to read

women are better at reading and expressing than men

3/22/24

subtle facial indicators of emotion may someday enable a new behavioral approach to lie detection

  • Polygraph: measures several of the arousal responses that accompany emotion: changes in breathing, pulse rate, blood pressure, and perspiration

    • An innocent person might also respond with heightened tension to the accusations implied by relevant questions

    • Lykken: too difficult for the polygraph to distinguish between emotions, bc they can appear as arousal

    • The tests error about 1/3 of the time

    • deemed too inaccurate for about 1/2 of U.S. state courts

    • the guilty knowledge test: assesses a suspect's physiological responses to details of a crime known only to the police and the guilty person

  • the growing awareness that we communicate through the body’s silent language has led to studies of how job applicants and interviews communicate (or miscommunicate) non-verbally

Culture and emotional expression:

  • cultures and languages have many similarities in how they categorize emotion — as anger, fear, and so on

  • Children’s facial expressions — even those of blind children are also universal

  • Movie directors harness the phenomenon by creating contexts and mood music that amplify our perception of a particular emotion

  • Emotional expressions may enhance survival in other ways too

  • In cultures that encourage individuality: emotional displays often are intense and prolonged

  • In cultures that encourage the group: they hide their emotions in the presence of others — rarely displaying negative to self-aggrandizing emotions that might disrupt communal feeling

  • In Asian cultures: they emphasize social connectedness and interdependence — they display emotions such as sympathy, respect, and shame more often than in the West

The effects of facial expressions:

  • communicate emotion, amplify and regulate it

  • People instructed to mold their faces in ways that mimic the expression of basic emotions also experienced those emotions

  • Going through the motions awakens the emotions

  • our facial expressions: send signals to our automatic nervous system which then responds accordingly

experiencing emotion:

  • Among Americans and Japanese, the emotions of joy and sadness typically endure longer than anger and guilt, which outlast fear and disgust

  • Carrol Izard: identified 10 basic emotions:

    • joy

    • interest-excitement

    • surprise

    • sadness

    • anger

    • disgust

    • contempt

    • fear

    • shame

    • guilt

Fear:

  • can be a poisonous emotion

  • can torment us, rob us of sleep, and preoccupy our thinking

  • people can be literally scared to death

  • can be contagious

  • adaptive response: it prepares our bodies to flee danger

  • binds people together as families, tribes, and nations

  • fear of injury: protects us from harm

  • fear of punishment or retaliation: contains us from harming one another

  • triggers worry, which focuses the mind on a probability and rehearses coping strategies

  • we can learn to fear almost anything

  • the amygdala plays a key role in associating various emotions, including fear, with certain situations — its output is wired to all the parts of the brain that produce the bodily symptoms of extreme fear: diarrhea and shortness of breath

  • intense fears of specific objects or situations disrupt the ability to cope for some

  • to be ever-attentive to potential threats to be chronically anxious

  • other —courageous heroes and remorseless criminals — are less fearful

anger:

  • often anger is a response to friends’ or loved ones’ perceived misdeeds

  • is especially common when another person’s act seems willful, unjustified, and avoidable

  • blameless annoyance: foul odors, high temps, a traffic jam, aches, and pains

  • hostile outbursts can be better than keeping anger pent up

  • Catharsis: emotional release

    • the catharsis hypothesis: maintains that releasing aggressive energy through action or fantasy relieves aggressive urges

  • expressing anger: breeds more anger

  • although blowing off steam may temporarily calm and angry person it may also amplify underlying hostility

  • the best way to handle anger:

    • 1st bring down the level of physiological arousal of anger by waiting

    • 2nd deal with anger in a way that involves neither being chronically angry covering every little annoyance nor passively sulking, which is merely rehearsing your reasons for anger

  • can benefit relationships when expressing a grievance in ways that promote reconciliation rather than retaliation

happiness:

  • people who are happy: perceive the world as safer, make decisions more easily, rate job applications more favorably, and report greater satisfaction with their whole lives

  • when your mood is gloomy: life as a whole seems depressing

  • feel-good, do-good phenomenon: people tend to be helpful when already in a good mood

  • subjective well-being: self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. used along with measures of objective well-being physical and economic indicators to evaluate people's quality of life

  • people tended to rebound from bad day to a better-than-usual good mood the following day

  • apart from prolonged grief over the loss of a loved one or lingering anxiety after a trauma, even tragedy is not permanently depressing

  • the effect of dramatically positive events is similarly temp

  • Solomon's opponent-process theory of emotion: every emotion triggers an opposing emotion

  • adaption-level phenomenon: our tendency to form a judgment of sound, lights, and income relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience

    • satisfaction and dissatisfaction, success and failure, all are relative to our recent experience

  • relative deprivation: the perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself

theories of emotion:

  • James-Lange theory: the theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli

  • cannon-bard theory: the theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers 1) physiological response and 2)subject experiences of an emotion

  • Schachter’s two-factor theory: to experience emotion one must 1)be physically aroused and 2)cognitively label the arousal

  • zajoric: argues that our emotional reactions are sometimes quicker than our interpretations of a situation; we therefore feel some emotions before we think

  • research on neurological processes shows how we can experience emotion before cognition

  • Lazarus: believes that emotion arises when we appraise an event as beneficial or harmful to our well-being

  • they both agree: some emotional responses involve no conscious thinking

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