General Psychology Lecture #11
General Psychology Lecture #11 Notes - Fall 2025
Dr. Alec Goldstein
Theories of Motivation
Motivation: The needs, wants, and desires that propel people in certain directions.
Goal-directed behavior: Behaviors aimed at reaching specific objectives.
Three primary theories of motivation:
Drive Theories
Incentive Theories
Evolutionary Theories
Drive Theory
Homeostasis: A state of physiological equilibrium or stability within the body.
Drive: A hypothetical, internal state of tension that motivates an organism to engage in activities that should reduce this tension.
These unpleasant states of tension are seen as disruptions of the preferred equilibrium.
Internal states push someone to act, demonstrating the drive to maintain homeostasis.
Incentive Theory
Incentive: An external goal that has the capacity to motivate behavior.
External stimuli pull someone to act, showing the influence of environment on motivation.
Evolutionary Theory
Motives can best be understood in terms of the adaptive problems they have solved over the course of human history.
Motivational theorists agree that humans display enormous diversity in their motives, shaped by evolutionary factors.
Sexual Orientation
Sexual Orientation: Refers to a person’s preference for emotional and sexual relationships with individuals of the same sex, the other sex, or either sex.
Textbook definition: An enduring pattern of emotional and/or physical attraction (or lack of attraction) to members of the same and/or other genders.
Nature vs. Nurture Debate:
Biological versus environmental explanations of sexual orientation.
The complexity surrounding sexuality in psychology; it has been less understood compared to other topics.
Introduced in the early 1940’s by Alfred Kinsey.
Challenges in empirical study of sexual orientation.
Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956)
One of the first American researchers to study human sexual behavior.
Previously, it was believed that homosexual and heterosexual orientations formed a strict all-or-none distinction, which Kinsey disputed.
Theories of Sexual Orientation
Freudian Theory: Suggests that a poor father figure can lead to homosexuality later in life.
Behavioral Theory: Proposes that homosexuality is a learned preference, where same-sex stimuli are paired with sexual arousal.
Biological Theory:
Suggests that homosexuality has hereditary/genetic predisposition based on findings from twin studies.
Twin study statistics:
52% chance that if one identical twin is gay, the other is also gay.
22% chance for fraternal twins.
11% chance for adopted siblings.
Some research indicates that the roots of homosexuality may be influenced by prenatal hormonal effects on neurological development.
Hormonal secretions during critical prenatal development phases may shape sexual development and lead to lasting effects.
Insights on Homosexuality
Homosexual individuals often report that their sexual orientation can be traced back to early childhood, even before they understood sexual concepts.
Findings imply that biological factors have a greater impact on sexual orientation than environmental ones.
Evolutionary Psychology
Parental Investment Theory: Describes the investment of parents in their offspring relative to their reproductive success. (Trivers, 1972)
Kin-Selection Theory: Describes the evolutionary benefits of aiding relatives. (Foster et al., 2006)
Waist-to-Hip Ratio: A measure used as an indicator of attractiveness and health. (Singh, 1993)
Morphology: Studies how size and shape can influence mate selection. (Gallup et al., 2003)
Achievement
Achievement Motive: The need to master difficult challenges, outperform others, and meet high standards of excellence.
The need for achievement is recognized as a stable personality trait.
Individuals scoring high in need for achievement tend to:
Work harder.
Be more persistent.
Handle negative feedback more effectively.
Be more future-oriented.
Better delay gratification.
Determinants of Achievement
Strength of Personal Motive: Individual desire to achieve success.
Probability of Success: Assessment of likelihood of achieving the goal.
Incentive Value: The perceived value of the success/reward.
Situational Factors: External factors that may influence achievement behavior.
Goal Setting
Suggested personal goals for various time frames:
One goal for today.
One goal for this semester.
One goal for the year.
One goal for the next 5-10 years.
Focus on the following determinants of achievement:
Strength of motivation
Estimation of probability of success
Incentive of success
Emotion
Emotion: A subjective conscious experience, accompanied by bodily arousal and characteristic overt expressions.
Cognitive Aspects of Emotion
Cognitive Component: Psychologists rely on subjective verbal reports regarding emotional experiences.
Affective Forecasting: Efforts to predict one’s emotional reactions to future events; people often mispredict how they will feel after both positive and negative events.
Physiological Aspects of Emotion
Autonomic Arousal: Physiological arousal associated with emotion arises from the autonomic nervous system.
This connection is foundational for the polygraph test.
Neural Circuits: The hypothalamus, amygdala, and surrounding structures in the limbic system are critical for emotional processing.
The amygdala plays a central role in acquiring conditioned fears.
Behavioral Aspects of Emotion
Emotions manifest through body language and nonverbal behavior.
Facial expressions are indicators of basic emotions like happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust.
Expressions may be largely innate, and the facial-feedback hypothesis suggests that our facial muscles send signals to the brain that help recognize the emotions experienced.
Cross-Cultural Similarities in Emotional Experience
Agreement exists across cultures in identifying emotions by facial expressions, including happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust.
Similarities are seen in cognitive appraisals that lead to certain emotions, with minimal cultural variance in physiological arousal associated with emotional experiences.
Some theorists question the universality of emotion expressions across cultures.
Cross-Cultural Differences in Emotional Experience
Variations exist in how cultures categorize emotions; some cultures may lack words for emotions like sadness or anxiety.
Display Rules: Cultural norms that regulate appropriate expressions of emotions, leading to variations in prevalence and intensity of emotions aligned with cultural values.
Theories of Emotion
James-Lange Theory: Proposes that the conscious experience of emotion results from autonomic arousal, where different patterns of arousal lead to distinct emotional experiences.
Cannon-Bard Theory: Suggests that physiological arousal can occur without emotional experience, with emotion occurring when the thalamus simultaneously sends signals to the cortex and autonomic nervous system.
Schachter's Two-Factor Theory: Argues that situational cues help differentiate emotions, and both autonomic arousal and cognitive interpretation of arousal are necessary for emotional experience.
This theory reconciles James-Lange and Cannon-Bard by emphasizing external cues.
Comparison of Theories
Common Sense: "I tremble because I feel afraid."
James-Lange: "I feel afraid because I tremble."
Cannon-Bard: "The dog makes me tremble and feel afraid."
Schachter: "I label my trembling as fear because I appraise the situation as dangerous."
Theories of Emotion: Emotions List
Silvan Tomkins: Recognized several emotions, including fear, anger, enjoyment, disgust, surprise, and sadness.
Carroll Izard and Robert Plutchik further categorized emotions into a comprehensive model.
Questions and Assignments
For Friday:
Reading: Chapter #10
Completion: Discussion Post #11
In-Class Activities: No quiz planned.