What Gets Us Moving?
MOTIVATION
Motivation
 Motivation: a need or desire that energizes
and directs behavior
Motivational Concepts
 Instinct Theory (Evolutionary Theory)
 Drive-Reduction Theory
 Arousal Theory
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Motivational Concepts
 Instinct/Evolutionary
 Influenced by Darwin
 Instinct: complex behavior that is rigidly
patterned throughout a species and is
unlearned
 Ex. Infants reflexes
 Issues: Theory fails to explain human motives
 However, still explains underlying assumption that
genes predispose species typical behavior
Motivational Concepts
 Drive Reduction Theory:
 Replaced Instinct Theory
 Idea that physiological needs creates an aroused
tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism
to satisfy the need
 As physical need increases, psychological drive also
increases
 Incentives: positive or negative environmental
stimulus that motivates behavior
 When there is a need and incentive we feel strongly
driven
 Aim for each person is homeostasis: tendency to
maintain a balanced or constant internal state
Motivational Concepts
 Optimal Arousal Theory
 We seek optimum levels of excitement:
Without such stimulation, we get bored.
 Examples:
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Climbing a mountain
Taking AP Psychology
Maintaining a high GPA
Bringing in thousands of cans in order to beat Mrs.
Faulkner’s class!
Motivational Concepts
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
 Maslow’s pyramid of human needs.
 Beginning at the base with physiological
needs that must first be satisfied before
moving up the pyramid to higher levels
 (You will draw/label the pyramid later)
Maslow’s Hierarchy
 Turn to page 331- draw Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs and level each section.
 Next, reflect on your activities over the past
month. Enter three significant behaviors that
you think demonstrate the operation of a
need at each level of Maslow’s hierarchy.
Please indicate the degree to which you are
satisfied that your need has been met at each
level. Use a scale of 1 (totally unsatisfied) to 6
(totally satisfied).
HUNGER & MOTIVATION
 David Mandel, a Nazi concentration camp
survivor, recalled how a starving “father and
son would fight over a piece of bread. Like
dogs.” One father, whose 20 year old son stole
his bread from under his pillow while he slept,
went into a deep depression, asking over and
over how his son could do such a thing. The
next day the father died. “Hunger does
something to you that’s hard to describe.”
Hunger and Motivation
 WWII concentration camps demonstrated the
supremacy of physiological needs
 Ancel Keys experiment on semistarvation
 36 Male Volunteers
 6 months food level cut in half
 Beginning of energy conservation
 Weight dropped rapidly and stabilized @ 25% below
initial weight
 Activated motives hijack out consciousness
Body Chemistry and the Brain
 People automatically regulate their caloric
intake to prevent energy deficits
 Glucose: form of sugar that circulates in the blood
and provides the major source of energy for body
tissue.
 When it is low, we feel hungry
Body Chemistry and the Brain
 Hypothalamus: Hunger controls
 Lateral hypothalamus (located on
the sides): brings on hunger
 Tells the body to release orexin
which is a hunger triggering hormone
 Ventromedial hypothalamus:
depresses hunger and is located in the
lower-mid section of the
hypothalamus
Body Chemistry and the Brain
 Set point:
 When a body falls below individual’s “weight
thermostat”, an increase in hunger and a
lowered metabolic rate may act to restore the
lost weight
Psychology of Hunger
 Physical hunger is often paired with
psychological hunger
 Taste preferences
 Feeling depressed you eat food that boosts the level
of serotonin
 Carbs
 Preferences for salty and sweet are typically
universal
 Culture affects taste (neophobia: the dislike of
things unfamiliar)
Eating Disorders
 Anorexia: eating disorder in which a person
diets and becomes significantly underweight,
yet, still feeling fat, continue to starve
themselves
 .6% of the population (18.2 million)
 75% are female
 50% display binge-purge-depression cycle
Eating Disorders
 Bulimia nervosa: eating disorder
characterized by episodes of over eating,
usually of high-calorie foods, followed by
vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive
exercise
Eating Disorders
 Binge-eating disorder: significant binge-
eating episodes followed by distress, disgust,
or guilt, but without purging, fasting, or
excessive exercise that marks bulimia
 2.8% of the population at some time in their lives
meet the criteria for this
Eating Disorders
 Three family environmental aspects
 Mothers of girls with eating disorders tend to
focus on their own weight and on their daughters
weight and appearance
 Families of bulimia patients have a higher-thanusual incidence of childhood obesity and negative
self-evaluation
 Families of anorexia patients tend to be
competitive, high-achieving, and protective
 Does our society pressure girls to be thin?
Obesity and Weight Control
 Obesity
 35.7% of American adults are obese
 17% of American children are obese
 Kentucky is ranked 7th in the leading obese states.
 Is fighting fat a social responsibility?
 A government responsibility?
Mini-FRQ action
 Bob is on his way home from work. He has
not eaten all day, but has expended a lot of
effort on the line at Toyota. Apply the
following terms to Bob’s scenario:
 Glucose
 Set Point
 Hierarchy of needs
SEXUAL MOTIVATION
Sexual Motivation
 What stages mark the human sexual
response cycle?
 Masters and Johnson describe four stages in
the human sexual response cycle:
 Excitement
 Plateau
 Orgasm (males and females respond
similarly both emotionally and
neurologically)
 Resolution
Sexual Motivation
 During the resolution stage males experience
the refractory period in which renewed arousal
and orgasm are impossible
 Sexual disorders can be successfully
treated, often by behaviorally oriented
therapy or drug therapy
Sexual Motivation
 Hormones:
 Females= estrogen
 Males= testosterone
 However, women’s sexuality is more
responsive to testosterone level than
estrogen levels
 Research shows that women fantasize about
sex or wear more sexually attractive clothing
around ovulation
Sexual Motivation
 Short-term hormonal changes have little
effect on desire
 Large shifts that occur due to the aging
process have a much greater effect
 As sex hormones decline with age, frequency
of sexual fantasies reduce and the desire for
intercourse also declines
Sexual Motivation
 Psychology of Sex
 Studies confirm that men become aroused
when examining erotic material
 However, studies also report that women
exhibit nearly as much arousal as men do to
same material
 Sexually explicit material can have adverse
effect
 Imagined Stimuli
 95% of both males and females say they
have had sexual fantasies
Sexual Motivation
 Adolescent Sexuality
 1900- 3% of American women had
experienced premature sex by age 18
 1991- 54%
 2005- 47% of teens had experienced
premature sex
 Teen Pregnancy
 American teens have a lower rate of
contraceptive use and thus higher rate of
pregnancy.
WHY?
Sexual Motivation
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Ignorance
Minimal communication about birth control
Guilt related to sexual activity
Alcohol use
Mass media
 Predictors of sexual restraint
 High intelligence
 Religious engagement
 Father presence
 Participation in service learning programs
Sexual Motivation
 Sexual Orientation and Research:
 2.5% of U.S. population is gay or lesbian
 Sexual orientation is neither willfully
chosen nor willfully changed.
 Much like handedness:
 Most people are one way, some the other. A
very few are truly ambidextrous.
 Some degree of homosexuality seems to be a
natural part of the animal world.
 LeVay study
 Found that one hypothalamic cell cluster is larger in
straight men than in women & gay men.
 Hypothalamus not sexual orientation center but
important in conducting neural pathways for sexual
behavior.
 Gay men & straight women have brain
hemispheres of similar size
 Lesbian women & straight men have a larger
right hemisphere
Genes & Sexual Orientation
 No statistical evidence that environmental influences
determine sexual orientation
 Homosexuality appears to run in families
 Abnormal prenatal hormone conditions between the
2nd & 5th month of development have been a topic of
research.
 A lesbian’s cochlea and hearing systems develop in a
different way compared to heterosexual males &
females
 Heterosexual females & gay men
have less fingertip ridges on their
right hand.
 Final word- sexual orientation
is biological and not a lifestyle
choice!
Need to Belong
 Belong: to feel connected and identified with
others
 Survival value to our ancestors
 Could explain why humans live in groups in every
society
 Societies control behavior with threat of ostracism
 When socially excluded people may engage in selfdefeating behaviors
Motivation to Work
 Why do we work?
 Reasons vary person to person
 Many will declare happiness or money as primary
reasons for working
Motivation to Work
 Personal psychologist work with
organizations to devise selection methods of
new employees, recruit, and evaluate
applicants