Chapter 9 Notes
Motivation and Emotion
Stimulus motives
Largely unlearned, more dependent than primary drives on external
stimuli
Primary drives associated with survival
Stimulus motives associated with obtaining info about the
environment
Curiosity, exploration, manipulation and contact
Push us to investigate and often to change our environment.
Curiosity:
Psychologists disagree about the nature and causes of curiosity:
Wm. James: an emotion
Freud – a socially acceptable expression of the sex drive.
Others: response to the unexpected and attempt to make sense of or
find meaning in life.
Is curiosity a key component of intelligence?
No positive correlation – but it has been linked to creativity
Curiosity varies according to our familiarity with events and
circumstances
As we learn from our environment, we raise our threshold for the new
and complex and our curiosity becomes more ambitious
In this way, curiosity is linked to cognition.
As we feed our curiosity we become less curious because of boredom
and need to explore our surroundings further.
Manipulation is limited to primates that have agile fingers and toes.
Contact – Harlow the cloth and the wire monkey.
Human application: the low birth weight babies who were touched and
massaged gained weight faster.
Other Important Motives:
Even motives that seem innate are partly learned.
Aggression is complex motive shaped by both biological and environmental
factors.
Aggression – encompasses all behavior intended to inflict physical or
psychological harm on others. Intent is the key element in aggression.
One explanation of aggression: it is a vestige of our evolutionary past that is
triggered by pain or frustration. Some evidence that frustration precedes
aggression.
Not all people respond the same way to frustrating. Some seek help and
support, others withdraw from the source and some escaped into drugs or
alcohol.
Frustration seems to generate aggression when people have learned to be
aggressive as a means of coping.
Freud considered aggression an innate drive that builds up until it is
released. He believed in channeling aggression into socially acceptable
activities.
If Freud is correct then expressing aggression should reduce the drive, but it
does not always hold true.
Sometimes angry people who are encouraged to express their aggression
actually become more aggressive.
Today most psychologist believe that human aggression is largely a learned
response
Observing aggressive models – especially those who get what they want and
avoid punishment when they behave aggressively.
Hockey for example
Is punishment a deterrent for aggression? -- Remember in Chapter 5
children who viewed aggression became more aggressive even if the
participants were punished.
Those who see the aggressors punished are less aggressive than those who
see the aggressors rewarded, but both groups are more aggressive than the
group who viewed no aggression at all.
Children who grow up witnessing aggression are at particular risk. Children
who witness aggression become aggressive when they think it can serve
their needs.
Culture and Aggression:
Some cultures place a premium on resolving conflicts peacefully. Zuni,
Blackfoot nations, Tahitian Islanders, Pygmies of Africa, Japanese and
Scandinavians.
These groups tend to withdraw from a confrontation in order to reduce
hostility.
Others encourage aggressive behavior – particularly the males.
Truk Islanders, Simbu of New Guinea, etc.
US. Crime rates are high compared with those of other nations.
Norway murder rate .9 compared to US 8.6
Most of the nonaggressive cultures are collectivist societies that emphasize
the good of the group over the desires of the individual. They are likely to
seek compromise or withdraw from a threatening interaction because of their
concern for maintaining group harmony.
Individualism encourages one to stand up for yourself.
Gender and Aggression.
Across cultures and at every age males are more likely than females to
behave aggressively.
Is the gender difference biological or social in origin?
Some research suggests testosterone may play a role in aggression
14-24 highest crime rate and highest levels of testosterone.
Recent evidence disputes this link. It suggests that human aggression has its
roots in evolution and can be traced to defensive behaviors characteristic of
non-primate ancestors.
Society encourages and expects greater aggressiveness in boys than girls.
Studies show that when both sexes are exposed to increased provocation, the
aggression gap narrows.
Achievement
Psychologists suggest there is a separate achievement motive.
It has been studied through the TAT and WOFO scale.
A high degree of competitiveness may actually interfere with achievement.
GPAs and WOFO scores compared. Student5s with the highest grades were
those who had high work and mastery scores but low competitiveness
scores.
The belief is that highly competitive people alienate those who might help
them achieve their goals, or preoccupation with winning distracts them from
taking the actions necessary to attain their goals.
People with a high level of achievement motivation:
Do best in competitive situations and are fast learners.
Relish the opportunity to develop new strategies for unique and challenging
tasks, they are willing to take on responsibility, do not bow to outside
pressures, and have a self-imposed standard of performance.
In addition, they tend to have ore psycho physiological disorders ulcers and
headaches.
Low need for achievement people rarely deviate from the tried and true
methods.
Power motives:
Need to win recognition or to influence and control other people or groups.
Students who score high on the need for power occupy offices in student
organizations residence positions, and committee leaders. They are more
inclined to participate in contact sports and purpose careers in teaching,
psychology, and business.
Affiliation
Need for affiliation – to be with other people
Isolation leads to anxiety and often-antisocial behavior.
Affiliation motive is aroused when people feel threatened.
Alternatively, we affiliate sometimes to get accolades from others
Fear and anxiety may be tied to affiliation. Calm individuals seem to reduce
anxiety in others.
Affiliation has it s roots in evolutionary as well.
Maintenance of social bonds provided our ancestors with survival and
reproductive benefits. Social groups can share resources help in childcare
etc.
Illness and catastrophe tend to increase our need for affiliation. Ill people
want to be with healthy ones.
A Hierarchy of Motives
Maslow believes that higher motives emerge only after the more basic ones
have been satisfied.
Recent research challenges the universality of his views. Maslow based his
model on observations of historical figures, famous individuals and friends
he admired. Many were white males living in Western society.
We know many simple societies live on the edge of survival yet they form
strong and meaning social ties and possess firm sense of self-esteem.
We know males must have a firm sense of their own identity before they can
successfully establish close relationships with others.
Emotions
Recently scientists have begun to see them as safeguards for survival,
capable of enriching our experience.
We can classify emotions according to whether they make us turn to or away
from objects.
Yerkes-Dodson law: looks at the strength of the emotion and the difficulty
of the task
The more complex the task, the lower the level of arousal than can be
tolerated without interfering with performance.
A minimal level of arousal is necessary for good performance; a high level
may hamper your performance.
Plutchik – eight basic categories of emotions
Fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, anticipation, joy and
acceptance.
Each helps us adjust to the demands of our environment.
On his chart emotions next to each other are more alike those across are
more different. His model also deals with intensity.
Some challenge the universality of his model. May be too European.
In some languages there are not words for various emotions. We have over
2000 words for emotions.
Researchers who have done cross-cultural studies have identified these six
emotions as universal: happiness, surprise, sadness, fear, disgust and anger
Theories of Emotion:
William James and Carl Lange believe:
Stimulus causes physiological changes – message to brain -- emotions
Positive emotions are accompanied by an increase in the electrical activity
on the left side of the brain and negative emotions result in more activity on
the right side.
An argument for James Lange: If bodily changes are the source of
emotions, then people with sever spinal cord injuries should experience less
intense emotions. However, this is not so.
Cannon-Bard theory – processing of emotions and bodily response occur
simultaneously.
Cognitive Theory – the situation we are in gives us clues as to how we
should respond to this general state of arousal. Our cognitions tell us how to
label our diffuse feelings in a way that suits our current thoughts and ideas
about our surroundings.
Interpreting emotional states may be a two-part process: People respond to
emotional arousal with a quick appraisal of their feelings then search for
environmental cues to back up their assessment. In the process, they pay
greater attention to internal cues that agree with external cues; thus, they
tend to experience the kind of emotion they expect to experience.
Some argue, “feelings come first” Babies have emotions before they acquire
language.
Zajonc feel the affective system has the ability to respond instantaneously to
the situations in which we find ourselves, without taking time to interpret
and evaluate those situations.
Izard feels that facial expressions and body posture are crucial to the
experience of emotion.
The expression of emotion:
We all conceal our emotions to a degree to protect our self-image or
conform to what is socially accepted. Still we give off some clues to help
others determine what we care feeling.
Verbal Communication
We do not always report our emotions accurately
Nonverbal communication
We transmit much though out facial expressions, body postures and physical
distance. Sometime our bodies often send emotional messages that
contradict our words.
Facial expressions are the most obvious emotional indicators.
Some expressions are learned, not reflective of true emotions
Body language – personal distance
Explicit acts – slammed door
Overt behavior is not an infallible clue
Many professionals are not any better than others are reading the liars.
Empathy as an emotion: identify and put ourselves in another person’s
position.