CHAPTER 12: MOTIVATION AND
EMOTION
MOTIVATION
• Def: an internal state that
activates behavior and directs
it toward a goal
• Not readily observable
• Can be intrinsic, extrinsic, or
both
INSTINCT THEORY
• Proposed by William
McDougall (1908)
• Instincts: innate tendencies
that determine behavior
• William James: human
instincts include cleanliness,
curiosity, parental love,
sociability, and sympathy
• Do not explain behavior, they
label it
DRIVE-REDUCTION THEORY
• Motivation starts with a Need:
biological or physiological
requirement of an organism
• Need produces a Drive: state
of tension produced by a need
that motivates an organism
toward a goal
D-R CONTINUED
• Clark Hull
• Organisms are driven by
Homeostasis: the tendency
of all organisms to correct
imbalances and deviations
from their normal state
• Says all drives extend from
biological needs
• Overlooks fact that some
experiences are inherently
pleasurable
INCENTIVE THEORY
• Incentive: an external
stimulus, reinforcer, or reward
that motivates behavior
• Drives push toward a goal,
incentives pull
COGNITIVE THEORY
• Extrinsic motivation:
engaging in activities that
either reduce biological needs
or help us obtain external
incentives
• Intrinsic motivation:
engaging in activities b/c they
are personally rewarding or
b/c they fulfill our beliefs or
expectations
• Overjustification effect:
intrinsic motivation declines
when extrinsic motivation is
used too much
HUNGER
• Lateral hypothalamus
(LH): part of the
hypothalamus that produces
hunger signals
• Ventromedial
hypothalamus (VMH): part
of the hypothalamus that can
cause one to stop eating
GLUCOSTATIC THEORY AND SET-POINT
• Hypothalamus monitors
glucose in blood
• Low levels activate LH,
pancreas releases insulin
• Set-point: the weight around
which your day-to-day weight
fluctuates
PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS OF HUNGER
• External cues
• Sight, smell, social pressures,
boredom, stress
OBESITY
• Obese: 30% or more above
your ideal weight
• Overweight: 20%
• 31.8% of all Americans are
obese
• Obese tend to eat more based
on external cues
ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVE
• The desire to set challenging
goals and persist in reaching
those goals despite obstacles,
frustrations, or setbacks
• McClelland’s Thematic
Apperception Test (TAT)
• High achievers: less need for
intimacy; prefer to associate
with experts who will help
them achieve
FEAR OF FAILURE
• Choose to take easy tasks or
impossible tasks w/no chance
of success
• Make excuses
• All to maintain a positive selfimage
FEAR OF SUCCESS
• Martina Horner
• Found fear of success was
greatest in women with above
average intelligence
• Exists in both sexes
EXPECTANCY-VALUE THEORY
• J.W. Atkinson
• Expectancy: estimated
likelihood of success
• Value: what the goal is worth
to you
• You weigh these when
deciding
COMPETENCY THEORY
• We choose tasks of moderate
difficulty to prove or improve
our competency
MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
• Abraham Maslow (humanist)
• Levels of needs
• Fundamental needs:
biological drives
• Psychological needs: urge
to belong, to give and receive
love, and to acquire selfesteem
• Self-actualization needs:
needs to fulfill one’s unique
potential
• Research does not support
claim that lower levels must be
met first
What? You gonna cry about it?
EXPRESSING EMOTIONS
• Emotion: a set of complex
reactions to stimuli involving
subjective feelings, physical
arousal, and observable
behavior
• Charles Darwin said that all
people express certain basic
feelings in the same way
• Some facial expressions are
innate
EXPRESSING CONTINUED
• Carroll Izard: coding system
for assessing emotional states
• James Averill: many everyday
emotional reactions are the
result of social expectations
and consequences---emotions
can be changed by learning
• Expressions help describe
emotion, but do not explain
cause
JAMES-LANGE THEORY
• William James and Carl Lange
• Emotions are the perceptions
of certain internal bodily
changes
• Body reactions form the basis
of labeling and experiencing
emotion
• Critics: you don’t run first and
then feel fear
• Physiological changes may
increase intensity of feeling
CANNON-BARD THEORY
• Walter B. Cannon and Philip
Bard
• Certain experiences activate
the thalamus and thalamus
sends signals to the cortex and
organs
• Brain sends 2 signals: arousal
and experience of emotion
• Thalamus is not involved in
emotion; the hypothalamus is
THE SCHACHTER-SINGER EXPERIMENT
• Stanley Schachter and Jerome
Singer
• Emotion depends on a
person’s perception of the
social situation
• When we don’t understand our
physical reactions, we take
cues from the environment on
how to react
• Perception and arousal create
emotion
OPPONENT-PROCESS THEORY
• Richard Solomon and John
Corbit
• Homeostatic theory of
emotional reactions based on
classical conditioning
involving the sympathetic and
parasympathetic NS
• When you remove a stimulus
that excites one emotion, a
swing is produced to an
opposite emotion
• Emotions and physical
reactions are intertwined