Unit 8: Motivation and Emotion
8A: Motivation
Motivational Concepts





Motivation: a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior
Instincts and Evolutionary Psychology
o Instinct: a complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is
unlearned
o Example: infant sucking their finger
Drives and Incentives
o Reduction theory: the idea that a physiological needs creates an aroused state that
drives the organism to reduce the need by, say, eating, or drinking
o Homeostasis: the maintenance of a steady internal state
 Example: body temp-regulation system
o Incentive: positive or negative stimuli that lure or repel us
 Ex: the smell of fresh pizza lures us to go in and buy food
Optimum Arousal
o Some motivated behavior actually increase arousal
 Ex: young kids and baby monkeys are interested in things that they have not
seen before- this drives them to explore
A Hierarchy of Motives
o Hierarchy of needs: Maslow’s pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with
physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then
psychological needs become active
Belongingness and love needs: need to love
Self-transcendence need: Need to find
meaning and identify beyond self
and be loved, belong and be accepted; need to
avoid loneliness and separation
Self-actualization needs: need to live up to our
Safety needs: need to feel that the world is
fullest and unique potential
organized and predictable; need to feel safe
Esteem needs: need for self-esteem,
achievement, competence, and independence,
need for recognition and respect from others
Physiological needs: need to satisfy hunger
and thirst
Hunger

The Physiology of Hunger
o What factors produce hunger?
o The Brain Chemistry and the brain
 People and animals try to regulate calories intake because then they can
prevent energy deficits and maintain body weight
 Body keeps track of substances
 Like glucose
o form of sugar that circulates in the blood and when its level is
low, we feel hunger
 Your brain triggers hunger by monitoring your body’s internal state and
chemistry
 2 district hypothalamic centers
 Lateral hypothalamus: bring hunger
 Ventromedial hypothalamus: depresses hunger
 set point: the point at which an individual’s “weight thermostat” is supposedly
set – when the body falls below their weight, an increased in hunger and a
lowered metabolic rate may act to restore the lost weight.
 our bodies regulate weight through the control of food intake, energy output,
and basal metabolic rate
 the rate of energy expenditure for maintain basic body functions when
the body is at rest
o The Psychology of Hunger
 What psychological and culture factors influence hunger?
 Taste preferences: biology and culture
 Body chemistry and environment play into not only that we are hunger,
but what we are hungry for.
 Our preferences for salty and sweet tastes are genetic and universal
 The ecology of eating
o The presence of others amplifies our natural after a party or
feast  we may realize we have overeaten  called social
facilitation
 Eating Disorders
 Anorexia Nervosa
o Starts as a diet usually (weight-loss) till you end up starving
yourself because you have the constant feeling of being “fat”
 Bulimia Nervosa
o Binge-eating followed by puking
o Feelings of guilt, disgust, and distress
 Binge-eating disorder
o


Large amount of eating w/out excessive exercise (with no
puking or fasting)
Percents:
o 0.6% meet anorexia criteria
o 1% meet bulimia nervosa criteria
o 2.8% meet binge-eating disorder criteria
Obesity and weight control
 Influenced by genes and environment
 Lack of exercise w/ abundance of high calories food
 Twins and adoption studies indicate body weight is genetically
influenced
 Losing weight
o Permanent weight loss is not easy  and most of the time NOT
permanent because it requires a change in lifestyle, whereas
people tend to go back to their old ways
Sexual Motivation

The Physiology of Sex
o The Sexual Response Cycle
 Steps
 Excitement
o
o
o
o
 Plateau
 Orgasm
 Resolution
 Refractory period: resting period after an orgasm where a man cannot have
another orgasm for a time being (can be minutes but can be days)
Hormones
 Estrogen: woman
 Testosterone: men
The Psychology of Sex

Adolescents Sexuality
 Teen pregnancy
 Reasons for
o Ignorance
o Minimal communication about birth control
o Guilt related to sexual activity
o Alcohol use
o Mass media norms of unprotected promiscuity
Sexual Orientation
 Sexual Orientation: An enduring sexual attraction toward members of one’s
own sex (homosexual) or their other sex (heterosexual)
 old beliefs to why homosexual exist
 relationship with parents
 fear/hatred of other gender
 sex hormones in the blood
 molested/seduced/sexually victimized as a child
 all found not true
Need to Belong




Aiding Survival
o Social bonds boost the survival rate
o Those who form attachments are likely to reproduce and co-nurture their offspring to
maturity
o Married people  less likely at risk for depression, suicide, early death compared to
unattached people
Wanting to Belong
o We want to feel included, accepted, and loved by those important to us, our self-esteem
will rise because of it.
Sustaining Relationships
o When the fear of being along seems worse than the pain of emotional pr physical abuse,
attachments can keep people in abusive relationships
o Our fear of being along has some basis in reality
 Children whom move through series of foster home, with repeated disruption of
budding attachments, may come to have difficulty forming deep attachments
 Threatens to dissolve social ties – overwhelms us
The Pain of Ostracism
o Ostracism: social exclusion both in natural and laboratory settings
o When socially excluded, people may engage in self-defeating behaviors or in antisocial
behaviors