Motivation and Emotion
I.
Motivation
A. Definition: the psychological processes that arouse, direct and maintain behavior toward a goal
B. Motivation must be inferred by observing behavior.
C. Three sources of motivation
1. Drives
2. Incentives
3. Heredity
II.
Drive theory
A. Behavior is motivated by some kind of need caused by physiological deprivation
B. This need creates a tension state called a drive.
C. The drive motivates a person to reduce the need.
D. Aim of drive reduction is to restore homeostasis, which is a steady state of psychological
equilibrium or balance.
E. Drawbacks of drive theory
1. Sometimes people do things that increase rather than decrease drives
2. Drive theory assumes that people always try to reduce drives because they are tension
states, and tension is something people should want to avoid.
3. Drive theory would predict that no one would withhold food from themselves when
they’re hungry.
4. This theory is now out of favor.
III.
Incentives
A. Difference between drives and incentives
1. A drive is an internal state that pushes you toward a goal
2. An incentive is an external stimulus that pulls you toward a goal
3. Through experience, we learn that some things should be approached and others should
be avoided.
4. Sometimes we’re more motivated by external incentives than we are by internal drive
states.
B. Expectancy theory
1. The idea that we are pulled toward a goal by external incentives
2. Often used to explain work motivation –people only work hard when they think that
doing so will improve their performance, that good performance will be recognized and
rewarded, and that the rewards will be ones that they want.
C. Goal-setting theory
1. The idea that motivation can be strongly influenced by goals
2. Three conditions where goal-setting works best
a. When goals are highly specific instead of general.
b. When goals are challenging.
c. When goals are perceived as highly attainable.
3. Also goals work best when a person is given positive feedback for meeting them and if
they’re truly, deeply committed to reaching them.
4. If goals are set by someone else and the person who is expected to meet them is not
committed to them, then goal-setting will be ineffective and can even backfire.
IV.
Heredity
A. Instincts
1.
2.
3.
An instinct is a relatively complex, inherited behavior pattern characteristic of a species.
Psychologists first attributed human and animal motivation to instincts.
This view fell out of favor in the early 20 th century because psychologists were
compiling lists of thousands of human “instincts” (such as religious instinct, and a love
of beauty)
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B. Sociobiology
1. Studies the hereditary basis of human and animal social behavior
2. Associated with Edward Wilson
3. Highly controversial field
C. Altruism according to sociobiology
1. Altruism is the willingness to sacrifice yourself to help others
2. Shouldn’t natural selection weigh against altruistic behavior? Shouldn’t you choose to
save yourself over someone else?
a. Answer lies in this: Passing on your genes is the goal. Individual survival is not.
b. Caring for children seems self-sacrificing, but it actually ensures that the child’s
genes (and thus your own) will be passed down.
c. Inclusive fitness: a species member’s ability to ensure the survival of its genes in
future generations
d. Kin selection: A form of natural selection that favors genes because of their effect
on improving the reproductive success of one’s relatives. You’re more likely to
help close relatives than strangers because you share a higher percentage of genes.
3. Why do we ever help people we’re not related to?
a. The concept of reciprocal altruism—we help others because they might help us in
return
b. Sort of like the idea of karma: you reap what you sow.
D. Sex differences, according to sociobiology
1. Women are more faithful to their mates than males are.
2. Men report lower criteria for dating partners than women do, and even lower criteria for
sexual partners.
3. Women tend to report higher criteria for both dating and sexual partners.
4. Women prefer wealth, social status, seniority, and dominance, whereas men prefer youth
and attractiveness.
5. Men are attracted to youthful women because they can bear children. Women are
attracted to older, rich men because they can provide for their children.
6. Differential parental investment
a. Males and females differ in the amount of resources they offer their children.
b. Men can father with low investment. They can father an unlimited amount of
children, whereas women can bear a maximum of 20 or so.
c. Women can always be certain that their children are their own, but men cannot.
Thus, men become jealous when their wives are sexually unfaithful.
d. Women employ self-protection when their husbands cheat because they stand to
lose their resources.
e. Study by Buss (1992)
a. Asked participants to vividly imagine scenarios involving either sexual
or emotional infidelity by their partner.
b. Results showed that men were more distressed by sexual infidelity,
whereas women were more distressed by emotional infidelity.
V.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
A. Abraham Maslow—five basic human needs that influence behavior
B. The ones at the bottom must be satisfied before higher-order needs can be met
C. From lowest to highest:
1. Physiological needs—food, water, sleep, oxygen, activity
2. Safety needs—being cared for as a child, having a secure income as an adult
3. Belongingness or love—being part of various social groups and participating in sexual
and nonsexual relationships
4. Esteem—being respected as a useful, honorable individual
5. Self-actualization—becoming all that you’re capable of
D. Criticisms of this theory
1. Too simplistic
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2.
3.
Others have added cognitive and aesthetic needs to the hierarchy
Sometimes basic needs are not satisfied before higher-order needs are
VI.
Arousal theory
A. Developed in order to address why people sometimes seek to increase existing drives rather than
decrease them
B. Humans seek an optimal level of arousal, not a minimal level (as drive theory suggests)
C. People differ in their optimal levels of arousal (general level of physiological activation of brain and
body)
D. Human beings perform best at moderate levels of arousal, with performance deteriorating under
extremely low or extremely high levels of arousal
E. This inverted-U relationship between arousal and performance is the Yerkes-Dodson Law.
1. Optimal arousal is higher for simple than for complex tasks
2. Optimal arousal is also higher for well-learned tasks than for simple ones
3. It’s hard to predict what constitutes an optimal level of arousal for people because they
always differ—this is a problem with arousal theory.
VII.
Achievement motivation
A. A desire for mastery, excellence, and accomplishment; found more in Western cultures where our
basic needs are satisfied
B. Assessed with the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)—look at ambiguous pictures and make up a
story about them
C. High need for achievement
1. Persist at tasks in the face of difficulty
2. Delay gratification in pursuit of long-term goals
3. Achieve greater success
4. Select moderately difficult challenges
5. Want success above everything else, but only in certain areas
6. Want feedback on performance and merit-based pay
D. Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation
1. Intrinsic: we want to perform the task for its own sake (hobbies)
2. Extrinsic: we do it for some external reward, not because we enjoy it
3. Overjustification effect: losing your intrinsic motivation for something because you’re
being extrinsically rewarded for it
E. Self-handicapping
1. A strategy people use to explain away poor behavior
2. A way to protect your intrinsic motivation (because failure reduces intrinsic motivation)
3. Providing yourself with a ready explanation why you’re not going to do well on a task
4. These explanations are always offered BEFORE the task, not after.
VIII.
The Hunger Motive
A. Why we eat
1. Hunger is not always a product of our body’s need for nutrition.
2. Hypothalamus plays a role in eating and feeling full
3. Changes in body chemistry affect hunger.
4. People and animals automatically regulate their caloric intake to maintain a stable
weight.
5. Blood sugar glucose is one resource we have to regulate caloric intake; when this level
drops, we feel hungry.
6. Body chemistry affects our taste preferences
a. Carbohydrates help boost the level of serotonin (a neurotransmitter), which has
calming effects.
b. Some evidence to suggest that we crave food that contains nutrients we may be
lacking.
B. Experimental starvation & overeating
1. Keys et al. (1950)—male volunteers lost 25% of their body weight
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a.
2.
Behavior pattern of extreme irritability, aggression, loss of interest in everything,
obsession about food and its taste, refusal to engage in physical activity; general
negative outlook
b. Refeeding aspect: men still hadn’t regained their previous optimism after they put
the weight back on
Sims et al. (1970s)—prisoners volunteered to put on 20-30 lbs.
a. Easy to gain weight at first, but then got harder.
b. Food became repulsive to them.
c. Results showed that normal-weight people have trouble putting on substantial
amounts of weight and keeping it on.
C. Obesity
1.
2.
Overeating is a large factor in obesity, but it’s not the sole cause.
Obese people are more likely to eat foods high in fat and calories and are less physically
active than normal-weight people.
3. Binge eating is a definite risk for obesity.
D. Set-point theory
1. Our body has a “weight thermostat” that keeps our body at a particular weight.
2. If rats fall below their normal weight, there is biological pressure to gain weight; hunger
increases and energy expenditure decreases.
3. If rat’s body weight increases, hunger decreases and energy expenditure decreases.
4. Human set point
a. Some researchers think that slow, sustained changes in body weight (e.g., dieting)
can alter your set point; others contest the idea of a set point.
b. Set point also adjusts our metabolic rate—resting rate of energy expenditure.
5. Main problem with this theory: Why are some people’s set points set at obese?
E. Positive incentive model
1. Three motivations for eating
a. Personal pleasure (taste of food)
b. Social context (fun to eat with others)
c. Biological factors (how hungry are you?)
2. 2. Internal-external hypothesis (Schachter, 1968)—People often fail to listen to their
internal cues for eating and pay attention to the external cues.
3. Some people are especially responsive to appealing foods
4. People whose eating is triggered by more than hunger are called “externals.”
5. Obese people are more likely to be externals.
6. Externals have a greater rise in insulin and hunger when exposed to food than
non-externals do, suggesting that their psychological response to food influenced their
physiological state.
7. Restraint theory: when you’re trying to lose weight, you often ignore your internal
hunger cues and try to use cognitive rules to limit eating. May backfire if you consider
some foods to be forbidden; may lead to binging.
F. Eating Disorders
1. Anorexia nervosa
a. Lose 15% or more of body weight
b. Feels fat and is obsessed with losing weight
c. Usually develops in adolescence, and mostly females (90%)
d. Come from families who are competitive, high-achieving, and protective families
2. Bulimia nervosa
a. The more common eating disorder
b. Repeated binge-purge episodes of overeating followed by laxative use or
vomiting.
c. Mostly women in their late teens or twenties
d. Preoccupied with food, fearful of being overweight, and depressed & anxious
(especially during and after binges)
e. Marked by weight fluctuations within or above normal ranges
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3.
IX.
X.
f. About half of those with anorexics also show bulimic symptoms
g. Come from families marked by alcoholism, obesity, and depression
Men and Eating Disorders
a. Men who develop eating disorders usually are overweight to begin with.
b. More concerned with muscle definition than weight.
c. May diet for athletic reasons
d. 21% are gay and may diet to please a lover
G. Losing Weight
1. Basic principle: Eat fewer calories and exercise more
2. Several popular strategies
a. Restrict types of food
b. Reduce portion sizes
c. Behavior modification programs (changing eating and exercise behavior)—most
successful approach
d. Exercising at least 3 times a week is crucial
Sexual Behavior
A. Difference between humans and animals
1. Animal sexual behavior is governed largely by the endocrine system.
2. Female animals are usually receptive to sex only when they’re in heat; males are almost
always receptive (except deer, mice, and goats)
3. Humans are less influenced by hormonal factors, except that women are more sexually
receptive during ovulation.
B. The Chicago sex survey (1994)—we’re less promiscuous that people think we are
Emotion
A. Three major components
1. Physiological changes in our bodies (heart rate, BP)
2. Subjective cognitive states (personal experiences we label as emotions0
3. Expressive behaviors (outward signs of these internal reactions)
B. Theories of emotion
1. Canon-Bard theory: An emotion-producing event simultaneously produces
physiological reactions and subjective cognitive states.
2. James-Lange theory: An emotion-producing event produces physiological reactions,
which then produce subjective cognitive states.
3. Which of the above two are correct?
a. Recent evidence favors the James-Lange theory, although the Canon-Bard was
traditionally favored.
b. Facial feedback study
4. Schachter & Singer’s two-factor theory of emotion
a. Emotion-producing stimulus produces arousal, which we then seek to label; this
label is our emotion
b. The same physiological arousal produces different cognitive states that we label
as one emotion or the other
c. Dutton & Aron (1974)—man on the bridge study; misattribution of arousal
5. Opponent-process theory (Solomon, 1982)
a. An emotional reaction to a stimulus is automatically followed by the opposite
reaction
b. Repeated exposure to the stimulus causes the initial reaction to weaken and the
opponent process (opposite emotion) to strengthen
C. Nonverbal cues
1. Outward expressions of other people’s emotional states through posture, facial
expressions, and other nonverbal behavior
2. We have 6 basic emotions from birth (anger, fear, surprise, disgust, happiness, sadness)
3. There are cultural differences in nonverbal cues.
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