Approaches to Understanding Motivation

9.1 Defining Motivation

• Motivation: the process by which activities are started, directed, and continued so that physical or psychological needs or wants are met

• Extrinsic Motivation: type of motivation in which a person performs an action because it leads to an outcome that is separate from or external to the person

• Intrinsic Motivation: type of motivation in which a person performs an action because the act itself is rewarding or satisfying in some internal manner

9.2 Early Approaches to Understanding Motivation

• Instincts: the biologically determined and innate patterns of behavior that exist in both people and animals

• Need: a requirement of some material (such as food or water) that is essential for survival of the organism

• Drive: a psychological tension and physical arousal arising when there is a need that motivates the organism to act in order to fulfill the need and reduce the tension

• Drive-Reduction Theory: approach to motivation that assumes behavior arises from physiological needs that cause internal drives to push the organism to satisfy the need and reduce tension and arousal

• Primary Drives: those drives that involve needs of the body such as hunger and thirst

• Acquired (Secondary) Drives: those drives that are learned through experience or conditioning, such as the need for money or social approval

• Homeostasis: the tendency of the body to maintain a steady-state

9.3 Different Strokes for Different Folks: Psychological Needs

• Need for Affiliation (nAff): the need for friendly social interactions and relationships with others

• Need for Power (nPow): the need to have control or influence over others

• Need for Achievement (nAch): a need that involves a strong desire to succeed in attaining goals, not only realistic ones but also challenging ones

9.4 Arousal and Incentive Approaches

• Stimulus Motive: a motive that appears to be unlearned but causes an increase in stimulation, such as curiosity

• Arousal Theory: theory of motivation in which people are said to have an optimal (best or ideal) level of tension that they seek to maintain by increasing or decreasing stimulation

• Yerkes-Dodson law: law stating that when tasks are simple, a higher level of arousal leads to better performance; when tasks are difficult, lower levels of arousal lead to better performance

• Sensation Seeker: someone who needs more arousal than the average person

• Incentives: things that attract or lure people into action

• Incentive Approaches: theories of motivation in which behavior is explained as a response to the external stimulus and its rewarding properties

9.5 Humanistic Approaches

• Self-Actualization: according to Maslow, the point that is seldom reached at which people have sufficiently satisfied the lower needs and achieved their full human potential

• Peak Experience: according to Maslow, times in a person’s life during which self-actualization is temporarily achieved

• Self-Determination Theory (SDT): theory of human motivation in which the social context of an action has an effect on the type of motivation existing for the action

What, Hungry Again? Why People Eat

9.6 Physiological and Social Components of Hunger

• Insulin: a hormone secreted by the pancreas to control the levels of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates in the body by reducing the level of glucose in the bloodstream

• Glucagon: hormone that is secreted by the pancreas to control the levels of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates in the body by increasing the level of glucose in the bloodstream

• Leptin: a hormone that, when released into the bloodstream, signals the hypothalamus that the body has had enough food and reduces the appetite while increasing the feeling of being full

• Weight Set Point: the particular level of weight that the body tries to maintain

• Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): the rate at which the body burns energy when the organism is resting

9.7 Obesity

• It’s not a simple as what foods you eat, factors like heredity are big here

  • There are genes that increase one’s likelihood of being obese, leptin comes in play here

Emotion

9.8 The Three Elements of Emotion

• Emotion: the “feeling” aspect of consciousness, characterized by a certain physical arousal, a certain behavior that reveals the emotion to the outside world, and an inner awareness of feelings

• Display Rules: learned ways of controlling displays of emotion in social settings

9.9 Early Theories of Emotion

• James-Lange Theory of Emotion: theory in which a physiological reaction leads to the labeling of an emotion

• Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion: theory in which the physiological reaction and the emotion are assumed to occur at the same time

• Facial Feedback Hypothesis: theory of emotion that assumes that facial expressions provide feedback to the brain concerning the emotion being expressed, which in turn causes and intensifies the emotion

9.10 Cognitive Theories of Emotions

• Cognitive Arousal Theory (two-factor theory): theory of emotion in which both the physical arousal and the labeling of that arousal based on cues from the environment must occur before the emotion is experienced