Motivation
• Motivation- the process of starting, directing, & maintaining physical & psychological activities

Motivation
• Why study motivation?:
1. To relate biology to behavior
2. Account for behavior variability
3. To infer private states from public acts (why someone laughs)
4. To assign responsibility for actions
5. To explain perseverance despite adversity

Sources of Motivation
1. Internal Drives (Push Theory)internal states that arise in response to an animal’s physiological needs
Hungry???

Sources of Motivation
- drives become aroused when deprivation creates disequilibrium or tension, while trying to maintain homeostasis  organism moves toward tension reduction- homeostasis is restored

Sources of Motivation
2. Incentives (Pull Theory)- external stimuli or rewards that do not relate directly to biological needs; result in an endstate
- ex. Eating dessert even when you’re already full, or watching a scary movie you know will frighten you

Sources of Motivation
3. Reversal Theory- rejects motivation as tension reduction; includes 4 pairs of metamotivational states
- Explains motivation in terms of reversals from one to the other, in the pair; you can only be in one state or the opposing state, never both simultaneously

Sources of Motivation
4. Cognitive Approach- human motivation comes from objective realities in the world but from subjective interpretations of reality
- focuses on the importance of expectations in motivating behavior

Sources of Motivation
- Probability that you will engage in a behavior is determined by your expectations of attaining a goal and the personal value of that goal
- A discrepancy between expectations and reality can motivate you to change behaviors

Sources of Motivation
- Outcome of behavior can be attributed to dispositional forces, such as lack of effort, insufficient intelligence, or situational forces
 unfair test/biased teacher
(influencing how you behave)

Sources of Motivation
- Thus, identification of a source of motivation as internal or external may depend on your own subjective interpretation of reality

Behaviors Influencing
Motivation
• 3 behaviors influenced by different motives: Eating, Sexual
Behavior, Personal Achievement

Physiology of Eating
1. Eating-
- Physiology: a) detects internal food need b) initiates & organizes eating behavior c) monitor quality & quantity of food eaten d) detect when enough food is eaten

Physiology of Eating
- Stomach contractions not necessary condition for hunger, but full stomach will cause you to stop eating b/c body is sensitive to pressure in stomach

Physiology of Eating
- you become less enthusiastic about taste of food over the course of meal – sensory specific satiety
- Hypothalamus controls eating- uses info from bloodstream; body monitors sugar and fat in blood, if levels are too low  eating is activated

Psychology of Eating
• There are social and cultural constraints of eating
Obesity- part nature & nurture; some have a predisposition toward it
- other important factor is what an individual thinks about food & eating behavior

Psychology of Eating
- restrained eaters put limits on amt of food they eat & are always anxious about food  chronic dieters
- when restraints are let down, they tend to indulge on a high calorie binge
 usually occurs when stressed

Psychology of Eating
- Unrestrained eaters tend to not eat when stressed

Psychology of Eating
• Eating disorders:
- Anorexia- individual weighs <85% of expected weight & still believes they are fat, or have intense fear of becoming fat
Ex.- Expected weight = 130lbs, person weighs less than 110lbs, still feels overweight

Psychology of Eating
- Bulimia- binge eat then purge
(with use of vomiting or laxatives)
- Most at Risk: white and Hispanic teenage girls

Motivation of Sexual Behavior
• Sex shows us another example of motivation; it’s necessary for survival of the species- but not necessary to biologically function
• Nonhuman sexual behaviorsgenerally controlled by biology (our physiological processes & hormones)

Motivation of Sexual Behavior
• However, stimuli in the environment can also cause arousal (ex. sight and sounds of species’ rituals)
• Birds of Paradise

Motivation of Sexual Behavior
• Human Sexuality- shaped by evolution & environment
• Sexual Arousal- the motivational state of excitement/tension brought by physiological & cognitive reactions to stimuli (which may be physical or psychological)

Motivation of Sexual Behavior
• 1970’s Masters & Johnson began to study human sexuality  found the human sexual response cycle
- also discovered a psychological aspect in arousal & satisfaction, in that problems in sexual response may be due to psychological rather than physiological origins

Evolution of Sexual Behavior
• Men & Women have evolved to have different strategies that underlie sexual behavior (David Buss)

Evolution of Sexual Behavior
• Males: short-term mating strategy= seduce & abandon long-term mating strategy= committing and investing in the offspring (parental investment)

Evolution of Sexual Behavior
• Females: Short-term mating strategy= controversy about existence
Long-term mating strategy= attract a loyal male who will stay to help raise children

Sexual Norms
• Alfred Kinsey: controversial & shocking, research of sexual behavior in the 1940s
 Sexual norms are what you acquire as a member of a culture

Sexual Norms
• Sexual Scripts- socially learned programs of sexual responsiveness; usually unspoken- what to do, when, with whom, how, and why, etc..
• Scripts suggest the types of behavior you might & should take; include not only what you think is appropriate but also expectations for a sexual partner

Sexual Norms
• Often male and female scripts conflict
 seems to occur b/c of differences of token resistance- woman’s mild resistance to sexual advances despite intention, ultimately, to allow sex
• Men can feel this is part of the “game” and it doesn’t signal genuine distress
• Date rape can occur due to this conflict

Homosexuality
• Research shows:
1. genetic/biological
2. biology indirectly impacts activities of young children (Daryl Bern)
- if children come to feel dissimilar to same-sex peers  over time will be aroused/attracted to same-sex*
*relatively new theory

Homosexuality
• People still maintain hostility toward homosexuals
• Biggest burden/difficulty is coping with societies homophobia

Motivation
• Intrinsic Motivation- desire to behave a certain way b/c of the enjoyment derived from that behavior
Ex- climbing a tree
• Extrinsic Motivation- desire to behave a certain way b/c of an external reward, or to avoid punishment
Ex- doing chores for allowance

Personal Achievement
• Need for Achievement (n Ach)- an assumed basic human need to strive for achievement of goals that motivate a wide range of behavior & thinking

Need for Achievement
• (n Ach) is coupled with a fear of failure = also a motivating force
• Measured with the Thematic
Apperception Test (TAT)  participants asked to generate stories based on ambiguous drawings

Need for Achievement
• Create a story based on the image below (you have 5 minutes)…

TAT
• Participants project their own values, interests & motives onto the scene they are asked to generate a story about
• High n Ach- need for efficiency, work harder, future oriented, value concrete feedback, higher salary at
31 than Low n Ach at 41

High n Ach
• How does it come about?
• Possibly based on parenting practices…

Attributions
• Attributions- judgments about the causes of outcomes; the way you account for your successes & failures can influence your motivation & mood

Attributions
• People’s explanatory style -
(optimism/pessimism) reflects motivation, affects whether people give up or not, take risks or not…

Attributional Style
• Pessimistic attributional style- focus on the causes of failure as internally generated, stable & global (Failure); see success as external causes
• Optimistic attributional style- failure is a result of external causes, unstable and specific to the situation; see success as internal

Attributional Style
• Both styles affect future motivation
& performance!
• Same incident… different conclusion

Workplace & Motivation
• Organizational Psychologists- study human work environment, communication among employees, socialization, stress, burnout, job satisfaction
- help companies train & design policies to make the workplace better

Workplace & Motivation
• 2 theories developed to understand motivation in the workplace:

Workplace & Motivation
1. Equity Theory- workers motivated to maintain fair or equitable relationships with other relevant people at work
2. Expectancy Theory- workers motivated to work when they expect their efforts and performance to result in a desired outcome

Hierarchy of Needs
• Maslow’s Theory- basic human motives form a hierarchy; needs at each level must be satisfied before moving to the next level

Hierarchy of Needs