10.1 Motivation

• Motivation: the wants or needs that direct behavior toward a goal.

• Motivations can be intrinsic (arising from internal factors) or extrinsic (arising from external factors).

• Intrinsically motivated behaviors: performed because of the sense of personal satisfaction that they bring

• Extrinsically motivated behaviors: performed in order to receive something from others.

• Our motivations are often a mix of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors, but the nature of the mix of these factors might change over time.

• Receiving extrinsic reinforcement for engaging in behaviors that we enjoy leads to those behaviors being thought of as work no longer providing that same enjoyment.

  • As a result, we might spend less time engaging in these reclassified behaviors in the absence of any extrinsic reinforcement.

• Overjustification effect: intrinsic motivation is diminished when extrinsic motivation is given.

• This can lead to extinguishing the intrinsic motivation and creating a dependence on extrinsic rewards for continued performance.

• Physical reinforcement and verbal reinforcement may affect an individual in very different ways.

• Tangible rewards tend to have more negative effects on intrinsic motivation than do intangible rewards .

• If the person expects to receive an extrinsic reward, then intrinsic motivation for the task tends to be reduced.

• If the extrinsic motivation is presented as a surprise, then intrinsic motivation for the task tends to persist.

Theories About Motivation

• William James was an important contributor to early research into motivation, and he is often referred to as the father of psychology in the United States.

  • James theorized that behavior was driven by a number of instincts, which aid survival.

  • Instinct: a species-specific pattern of behavior that is not learned.

• Drive theory: deviations from homeostasis create physiological needs that result in a psychological drive that directs behavior to meet the need and bring the system back to homeostasis.

  • Drive theory emphasizes the role that habits play in the type of behavioral response in which we engage.

    • Habit: a pattern of behavior in which we regularly engage.

  • Once we’ve engaged in a behavior that successfully reduces a drive, we’re more likely to engage in that behavior whenever faced with that drive in the future.

• Arousal theory: if we’re underaroused, we become bored and will seek out some sort of stimulation; if we’re overaroused, we will engage in behaviors to reduce our arousal.

• Researchers Robert Yerkes and John Dodson discovered that the optimal arousal level depends on the complexity and difficulty of the task to be performed.

  • Yerkes-Dodson law: a simple task is performed best when arousal levels are relatively high and complex tasks are best performed when arousal levels are lower.

Self-efficacy and Social Motives

• Self-efficacy: an individual’s belief in her own capability to complete a task, which may include a previous successful completion of the exact task or a similar task.

• Albert Bandura theorized that an individual’s sense of self-efficacy plays a pivotal role in motivating behavior.

• Bandura argues that motivation derives from expectations that we have about the consequences of our behaviors, and it’s the appreciation of our capacity to engage in a given behavior that will determine what we do and the future goals that we set for ourselves.

• The social motives researchers describe are needs for achievement, affiliation, and intimacy.

  • Achievement: drives accomplishment and performance.

  • Affiliation: encourages positive interactions with others

  • Intimacy: causes us to seek deep, meaningful relationships.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

• Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs that spans the spectrum of motives ranging from the biological to the individual to the social.

  • At the base of the pyramid are physiological needs that are necessary for survival.

  • Next are basic needs for security and safety, the need to be loved and to have a sense of belonging, and the need to have self-worth and confidence.

  • The top tier of the pyramid is self-actualization, which is a need that equates to achieving one’s full potential, and it can only be realized when needs lower on the pyramid have been met.

    • Self-actualization reflects the humanistic emphasis on positive aspects of human nature.

      • Maslow suggested that this is an ongoing, life-long process and that only a small percentage of people actually achieve a self-actualized state.

• One must satisfy lower-level needs before addressing those needs that occur higher in the pyramid.

10.2 Hunger and Eating

Physiological Mechanisms

• Chemical messages travel to the brain, and serve as a signal to initiate feeding behavior.

• When our blood glucose levels drop, the pancreas and liver generate a number of chemical signals that induce hunger and initiate feeding behavior.

• Satiation: fullness and satisfaction

  • Satiation is regulated by several physiological mechanisms.

    • As blood glucose levels increase, the pancreas and liver send signals to shut off hunger and eating.

    • The food’s passage through the gastrointestinal tract also provides important satiety signals to the brain, and fat cells release leptin, a satiety hormone.

    • The various hunger and satiety signals that are involved in the regulation of eating are integrated in the brain.

    • Activity in the brain determines whether or not we engage in feeding behavior.

Metabolism

• Metabolic rate: the amount of energy that is expended in a given period of time

  • There’s tremendous individual variability in our metabolic rates.

  • People with high rates of metabolism are able to burn off calories more easily than those with lower rates of metabolism.

• Set-point theory: each individual has an ideal body weight, or set point, which is resistant to change.

  • This set-point is genetically predetermined and efforts to move our weight significantly from the set-point are resisted by compensatory changes in energy intake and/or expenditure.

Obesity

• When someone weighs more than what is generally accepted as healthy for a given height, they are considered overweight or obese.

• Overweight: an adult with a body mass index (BMI) between 25 and 29.9.

• Obese: an adult with a BMI of 30 or higher

• Morbid obesity: having a BMI over 40; people who are so overweight that they are at risk for death

• The BMI is most useful for studying populations, and less useful in assessing an individual since height and weight measurements fail to account for important factors like fitness level.

• Being extremely overweight or obese is a risk factor for several negative health consequences.

• Socioeconomic status and the physical environment are contributing factors.

• Generally, overweight and obese individuals are encouraged to try to reduce their weights through a combination of both diet and exercise.

• Bariatric surgery: a type of surgery specifically aimed at weight reduction; involves modifying the gastrointestinal system to reduce the amount of food that can be eaten and/or limiting how much of the digested food can be absorbed.

Eating Disorders

• Bulimia nervosa: binge eating behavior that’s followed by an attempt to compensate for the large amount of food consumed.

  • Purging the food by inducing vomiting or through the use of laxatives are two common compensatory behaviors.

  • Some affected individuals engage in excessive amounts of exercise to compensate for their binges.

• Binge eating disorder: eating binges followed by distress, including feelings of guilt and embarrassment.

• Anorexia nervosa: an eating disorder characterized by the maintenance of a body weight well below average through starvation and/or excessive exercise.

  • Individuals suffering from anorexia nervosa often have a distorted body image

  • Distorted body image: a type of body dysmorphia where they view themselves as overweight even though they’re not.

• While social factors play an important role in the development of eating disorders, there’s evidence that genetic factors may predispose people to these disorders.

10.3 Sexual Behavior

Physiological Mechanisms of Sexual Behavior and Motivation

• This suggests that the ability to engage in sexual behavior and the motivation to do so may be mediated by neural systems distinct from one another.

• Animal research suggests that limbic system structures such as the amygdala and nucleus accumbens are especially important for sexual motivation.

  • Damage to these areas results in a decreased motivation to engage in sexual behavior, while leaving the ability to do so intact

• The hormones secreted by the endocrine system also play important roles in sexual motivation and behavior.

Kinsey’s Research

• Dr. Alfred Kinsey of Indiana University initiated large-scale survey research on human sexuality.

• People began to engage in open conversations about human sexuality.

• Although Kinsey’s research has been widely criticized, his research was very influential in shaping future research on human sexual behavior and motivation.

• Kinsey described a diverse range of sexual behaviors and experiences reported by the volunteers participating in his research.

• Behaviors that had once been considered exceedingly rare or problematic were demonstrated to be much more common and innocuous than previously imagined

• Kinsey developed a continuum known as the Kinsey scale that is still commonly used today to categorize an individual’s sexual orientation.

  • Sexual orientation: an individual’s emotional and erotic attractions to same-sexed individuals (homosexual), opposite-sexed individuals (heterosexual), or both (bisexual).

Masters and Johnson’s Research

• Masters and Johnson observed people having intercourse in a variety of positions and masturbating, either manually or with the aid of a device, while researchers recorded measurements of physiological variables.

• Based on these observations, Masters and Johnson divided the sexual response cycle into four phases that are fairly similar in men and women: excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution.

  • Excitement: the arousal phase of the sexual response cycle, which is marked by erection of the penis or clitoris and lubrication and expansion of the vaginal canal.

  • Plateau: when women experience further swelling of the vagina and increased blood flow to the labia minora, and men experience full erection and often exhibit pre-ejaculatory fluid; both men and women experience increases in muscle tone.

  • Orgasm: marked in women by rhythmic contractions of the pelvis and uterus along with increased muscle tension, and in men by pelvic contractions accompanied by a buildup of seminal fluid near the urethra that’s forced out by contractions of genital muscles.

  • Resolution: the relatively rapid return to an unaroused state accompanied by a decrease in blood pressure and muscular relaxation.

• Refractory period: a period of time that follows an orgasm during which an individual is incapable of experiencing another orgasm.

• Masters and Johnson collected important information about reproductive anatomy.

Sexual Orientation

• For many years, people believed that different socialization and familial experiences causes differences in sexuality.

• Research shows that family backgrounds and experiences are very similar among heterosexuals and homosexuals.

• Genetic and biological mechanisms have been proposed

• Data suggests that to a significant extent, sexual orientations are something with which we are born.

• Research has made it clear that sexual orientation isn’t a choice, but rather a relatively stable characteristic of a person that can’t be changed.

• Not only is gay conversion therapy ineffective, but also potentially harmful.

Gender Identity

• Gender identity: one’s sense of being male or female.

• Gender dysphoria: individuals who don’t identify as the gender that most people would assume they are.

  • This dysphoria must persist for at least six months and cause significant distress or dysfunction to meet DSM-5 diagnostic criteria.

  • In order for children to be assigned this diagnostic category, they must verbalize their desire to become the other gender.

  • Many people who are classified as gender dysphoric seek to live their lives in ways that are consistent with their own gender identity.

• Transgender hormone therapy: an attempt to make one’s bodies look more like the opposite sex through hormones

Cultural Factors in Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

• Issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity are influenced by sociocultural factors.

• The ways in which we define sexual orientation and gender vary from one culture to the next.

10.4 Emotion

• Emotion: a subjective state of being that we often describe as our feelings.

• The words emotion and mood are sometimes used interchangeably, but psychologists use these words to refer to two different things.

  • Emotions are often thought to be consciously experienced and intentional.

  • Mood, on the other hand, refers to a prolonged, less intense, affective state that doesn’t occur in response to something we experience.

Theories of Emotion

• The components of emotion: physiological arousal, psychological appraisal, and subjective experiences.

  • These appraisals are informed by our experiences, backgrounds, and cultures.

• James-Lange theory: emotions arise from physiological arousal.

  • Different arousal patterns would be associated with different feelings.

• Cannon-Bard theory: physiological arousal and emotional experience occur simultaneously, yet independently

• Schachter-Singer two-factor theory: emotions are composed of two factors: physiological and cognitive; physiological arousal is interpreted in context to produce the emotional experience.

• Strong emotional responses are associated with strong physiological arousal, causing some to suggest that the signs of physiological arousal might serve as a tool to determine whether someone is telling the truth or not.

  • Polygraph: measures the physiological arousal of an individual responding to a series of questions.

• Cognitive-mediational theory: our emotions are determined by our appraisal of the stimulus.

  • This appraisal mediates between the stimulus and the emotional response, and it is immediate and often unconscious.

  • The appraisal precedes a cognitive label.

• Zajonc asserted that some emotions occur separately from or prior to our cognitive interpretation of them.

  • He believed in a gut feeling—that we can experience an instantaneous and unexplainable like or dislike for someone or something.

• LeDoux views some emotions as requiring no cognition: some emotions completely bypass contextual interpretation.

• A fear stimulus is processed by the brain through one of two paths: from the thalamus (where it’s perceived) directly to the amygdala or from the thalamus through the cortex and then to the amygdala.

  • The first path is quick, while the second enables more processing about details of the stimulus.

The Biology of Emotions

• The limbic system includes the hypothalamus, thalamus, amygdala, and the hippocampus.

• Hypothalamus: plays a role in the activation of the sympathetic nervous system that is a part of any given emotional reaction.

• Thalamus: serves as a sensory relay center whose neurons project to both the amygdala and the higher cortical regions for further processing.

• Amygdala: plays a role in processing emotional information and sending that information on to cortical structures.

  • The amygdala is composed of various subnuclei, including the basolateral complex and the central nucleus.

    • Basolateral complex: has dense connections with a variety of sensory areas of the brain; is critical for classical conditioning and for attaching emotional value to learning processes and memory.

    • Central nucleus: plays a role in attention, and has connections with the hypothalamus and various brainstem areas to regulate the autonomic nervous and endocrine systems’ activity.

  • Hippocampus: integrates emotional experience with cognition.

Facial Expression and Recognition of Emotions

• Culture can impact the way in which people display emotion.

• Cultural display rule: one of a collection of culturally specific standards that govern the types and frequencies of displays of emotions that are acceptable.

  • People from different cultural backgrounds can have different cultural display rules of emotion.

• Despite different emotional display rules, our ability to recognize and produce facial expressions of emotion appears to be universal.

• Facial feedback hypothesis: facial expressions are capable of influencing our emotions.

• Body language: the expression of emotion in terms of body position or movement.