January 7th, 2020 LECTURE 1 *HE DOES NOT TEST ON NAMES AND DATES D – Deterministic: Psych is deterministic (causes, influences, mind, feelings) AS - Associativity: Mind and body are in association, we think associatively (i.e. the alphabet) A-Adamistic: Take complex stuff and reduce to simplest units, look for the simple within the complex RED – Reductionistic: Reduce everything to the simplest units Mech – Mechanistic: We search for physical and psychological connections Elem – Elementeristic: Par – Parsimonious: Try to focus and find the simplest explanation Find the stimulus, and the changing response I. CONCEPT OF MOTIVATION Motivation (M): Forces acting on or within an organism to initiate an action (pg. 4) Motivated behaviour (B) displays intensity and persistence Intensity and persistence vary in the pursuit of our goals and our objectives Internal Stimuli: Needs External Stimuli: The world *Both the external and internal determine our action *When you are motivated to pursue a goal, your persistence is strong *Any behaviour that is reinforced, is likely to be repeated Measurement of M: Not measured directly; manipulate stimulus (s) condition and observe behavioural response (r ) (pg. 5) Simulus -> Response S -> R 48 hours of deprivation -> Speed of running through the maze Stimulus change -> Intervening variable -> Response 48 hours of Food Deprivation -> Hunger Motivation -> Faster Running January 7th, 2020 ^^^This is page 5 of the textbook CHARACTERISTICS OF MOTIVATION A. Activation – As in the production of overt and covert behaviour B. Persistence – As in ongoing performance of B C. Vigor - As in forceful – effortful behaviour D. Direction – As in which choice of goal is made. Measure direction in terms of a preference test of possible choices (pg. 7) Arousal Theory: Yerkes – Dodson Law (pg. 62) Also known as the inverted U function You have increasing performance on the y-axis and increasing arousal on the x-axis We are trying to link arousal to performance with this law/function At the extremes of arousal, performance is low, there is an optimal level of arousal somewhere in the middle On complex tasks, it’s better to be on a slightly lower level of arousal On simple tasks, it’s better to be on a slightly higher level of arousal A. S is deprivation and speed of running in a maze is R B. Infer motivational processes from change in behaviour C. Motivation is an intervening variable (IV): it serves to link the S and R as an IV it provides an explanation for the relationship[ between S & R D. Motivation is a performance variable (PV): When enough is present B is performed IV: Categories of Analysis: Study motivation from difference viewpoints A. Nomothetic: A search for general laws by studying large groups. Results that hold for one group may apply to other groups Study of the sample so we can generalize it to the population Idiographic: A search of individual differences; i.e. or how organisms differ from one another o Personality psychology fits into this area B. Innate vs Acquired: McDougall and James saw motivated behaviour as controlled by innate motives – inborn motives called instincts Acquired Motives in contrast are learned; e.g., Incentive motivation is the value placed on a goal and the goal becomes through experience and learning to be valued An incentive motivation is an acquired motivation January 7th, 2020 We learn to value certain objects moreso than other goals and objects *On page 37, James outlined a variety of different feelings that contribute to human instincts *On page 38, McDougall gives his list of characteristics Internal vs External: Bio – Needs are sources of motivation and are internal. Deprivation brings about needs as internal sources of motivated behaviour. Whereas incentives and goals are external sources of motivation Mechanistic vs Cognitive: Are motivational processes blind, mechanical, triggered automatically by internal and external sources without conscious awareness or choice? OR Are motivational processes Cognitive in so far as conscious choice operates. This approach assumes that the manner in which information is interpreted influences motive states Attributing failure to ability or to luck; does this influence emotion and subsequent motivation? Do I succeed because I have good ability, or is it because I have luck? Or did I succeed because I have effort? Did I succeed because the task is easy? The motivation may be determined based on the internal, or the external, the question is not how much control do we really have? V. LEVELS OF ANALYSIS A. Physiological Analysis: Is concerned with the brain’s control of motivated states Which brain structures trigger motivational states? Study the brain through 1. Electrical 2. Chemical 3. Surgical e.g. Olds and Milner’s study of “reward centers” in the brain by (1) implanting electrodes in selected brain sites. Rats were motivated for hours to receive electrical stimulation in the septal region of the brain by depressing a lever The particular activation system: What controls sleep, concentration among other things (on page 65) Chemical Manipulation: By inserting a tube (Canula) into brain sites and releasing chemicals Lesion: Within the brain by removing brain tissue in a given site of the brain and observe behaviour result January 7th, 2020 EEG: Recording of brain wave patterns associated with motivation. PET records of metabolic activity and MRI to visualize active areas in the brain (pg. 9-10) Individual Analysis research aimed at understanding motivational changes due to internal and external conditions In studies of achievement, motivation was induced by telling subjects that they had failed an important task. In aggression studies observe results of modeled presentations of aggression (pg. 10-11) Social Analysis: Examines motivational changes in the presence and absence of others. The role of situational factors such as at work, school, a party Philosophical Analysis: May view motivation as an aversive state to escape or avoid Freud’s philosophy presents motivation as tension that must be released and thus reduced so as to restore equilibrium
