MOTIVATION AND WORK
Alex, Ebony, Sana, Trea, Tre
Perspectives on Motivation
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Instinct: A complex behavior that is rigidly patterned
throughout a species and is unlearned.
Drive-Reduction Theory: The idea that a physiological need
creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an
organism to satisfy the need.
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.
Homeostasis: A tendency to maintain
balanced or constant internal state; the
regulation of any aspect of body chemistry,
such as blood glucose, around a particular
level.
 Incentive: A positive or negative
environmental stimulus that motivates
behavior.
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Optimum Arousal
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A high increase in arousal can lead to an increase in
curiosity. One is more likely to involve themselves in risky
situations if they have a high increase in arousal. We aim to
seek optimum levels of arousal to satisfy our needs.
To satisfy our increase in optimum levels of arousal, we
need to experience stimulation.
An example to describe regulating arousal and stimulation
is when we are bored and stressed. When we are bored we
lack stimulation and we need to increase our arousal to a
certain optimum level. Although when we are stressed we
have too much stimulation and we need to decrease our
arousal to a certain level.
Instincts and Evolutionary Psychology
5759 supposed human instincts
 Psychologist view human behavior as directed
by:
-Physiological needs
-Psychological wants
 Genes predispose species’ typical behavior
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Drives and Incentives
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Instincts Theory replaced by Drive-Reduction Theory
-When a physiological need increases, so does a
psychological want
-Psychological aim is homeostasis
Pushed by our need to reduce drives
Pulled by incentives
Individual learning histories influence motives
-Past experiences or preconceived notions can
influence our motives
Drives are stronger when there’s both a need AND
an incentive
HUNGER
Hunger (Physiological)
Ways we regulate hunger:
 Caloric intake
 Glucose: The form of sugar that circulates in
the blood and provides the major source of
energy for body tissues. When its level is low,
we feel hunger.
 Body Chemistry and the Brain (lateral
hypothalamus versus ventrome-dial
hypothalamus)
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Physiological (con’t)
Set point: The point at which an individual’s
“weight thermostat” is supposedly set. When
the body falls below this weight, an increase
in hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may
act to restore the lost weight.
 Basal metabolic rate: The body’s resting rate
of energy expenditure.
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Psychological
What influences taste preferences?
 Carbohydrates and emotions (body chemistry)
 Location and culture (environment)
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Acceptance of new or unfamiliar foods
Psychological (con’t)
Anorexia nervosa: An eating disorder in
which a normal- weight person diets and
becomes significantly underweight, yet still
feeling fat, continues to starve.
 Bulimia nervosa: An eating disorder
characterized by episodes of overeating,
usually of high-calorie foods, followed by
vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive
exercise.
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Sexual Motivation
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Researchers William Masters and Virginia
Johnson recorded the physical responses of
volunteers who were involved in intercourse.
With their data and results, they came up
with a 4 stage cycle that occurred in both
males and females known as the Sexual
Response Cycle.
Sexual Response Cycle
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- Excitement Phase: genital areas are swelled
with blood; breasts enlarge
- Plateau Phase: blood pressure, breathing, and
pulse increase; sperm becomes engorged in
penis; clitoris retracts
- Orgasm Phase: muscles contract all over the
body; woman’s arousal facilitates conception
between penis and uterus, which creates a
pleasurable feeling
- Resolution Phase: males go through a refractory
period where he is incapable of another orgasm
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Another aspect Masters and Johnson looked into was the
incapability to complete the Sexual Response Cycle known
as Sexual Disorders. Sexual Disorders are problems that
consistently impair sexual functioning. For men, this
includes premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction;
and for women, this includes orgasmic disorder, or having
trouble with producing orgasms.
Causes of Sexual Disorders – emotional relationship
between two partners during intercourse
Solutions – Behaviorally Oriented Therapy, where men
learn to control ejaculation and women train themselves to
produce an orgasm; Viagra.
Hormones and Sexual Behavior
Our sex hormones have 2 effects on us. They:
 - Direct the physical development of
males/female sex characteristics
 - Activate sexual behavior
 Males have testes that help manufacture
testosterone, the male sex hormone. Females
become sexually receptive in heat when the
female hormone estrogen peaks at ovulation.
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Teen Pregnancy
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Researcher K.T. Call compared American teens to
European teens and discovered that although
American teens have lower rates of intercourse, they
have higher rates of teen pregnancy and abortions.
Five Factors that Contribute to Teen
Pregnancy
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- Ignorance: mistaking ideas about birth control, overestimating
other’s sexual activity that leads to misperception and influence on
their behavior
- Guilt Related to Sexual Activity: Sexual inhibitions can reduce
sexual activity; but it also reduces attempts of birth control and
teens may hesitate to carry condoms
- Minimal Communication about Birth Control: teens feeling
uncomfortable talking to others about contraception, teens who
are open to talk to other people are more likely to use
contraceptives
- Alcohol Use: sexually active teens are usually alcohol using teens
and those who use alcohol prior to sex are less likely to use
condoms
- Mass Media Norms of Unprotected Promiscuity: an average hour
of TV time in three major U.S. networks contain around 15 sexual
acts and/or words that involve unmarried partners
Four Factors That Help with Teen
Abstinence
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High Intelligence: teens with higher than average
test scores will delay sex because they are more
focused on future long-term achievements
Religiosity: Actively religious teens reserve sex for
marital commitment
Father Presence: a father’s absence has linked to
sexual activity in girls
Participation in Service Learning Programs: teens
that volunteer as tutors, teachers, or take part in
community projects have lower pregnancy rates
Sex and Human Values
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Researchers try to keep their work about
sexuality value-free since values are both
personal and cultural. The significance about
sexual intimacy is its expression of our
profoundly social nature. Sex at its human
best is life uniting and love-renewing.
Stimuli
External Stimuli
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Many studies say men become
aroused when they see
(pornography), hear, or read erotic
material
Women (surprisingly) inhabit the
same amount of stimuli as men when
they’re given the same amount of
stimuli
Women – Amygdala
Men – Erotica
People may find such (things) pleasing
of disturbing (just like food)
With more exposure, any erotic
stimuli habituates (lessens)
Imagined Stimuli
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The brain is the most significant sex
organ
Our imagination can influence sexual
arousal
People with a spinal cord injury (no
genital sensation) can still feel sexual
desire
Genital arousal accompanies all types of
dreams, when most dreams aren’t
sexual
Dreams = Sexual Imagery = orgasms +
wet dreams (nocturnal emissions) ->
occurs when no orgasm hasn’t occurred
recently.
Previous Sexual Activities + Fantasies =
More Attraction. women/men have had
sexual fantasies
Sexual active people
95% or have more sexual fantasies
Studies indicate that about 3 or 4 % of men
and 1 or 2% of women are homosexual, and
that sexual orientation in enduring.
 Research doesn’t support cause /effect links
between homosexuality and any of the
following: A child’s relationship w/parents,
father-absent homes, fear of other genders,
childhood sexual experiences, peer
relationships, or dating experiences.
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The Need to Belong
Social bonds boosted our ancestor’s survival
rate. Attachments served as a powerful
survival impulse.
 Cooperation in groups enhance survival.
 We are innately social creatures.
 People in every society belong to groups.
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Wanting to Belong
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We spend a great deal of time thinking about
actual and hoped-for relationships.
When relationships do form, we tend to feel joy.
Kennon Sheldon and colleagues (2001)
 South
Korean and American collegians
 Satisfaction of self-esteem and relatedness- belonging
Acting to Increase Social Acceptance
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When we feel included, accepted, and loved by
those important to us, our self-esteem increases.
Mark Leary says that self-esteem is a gauge of how
valued and accepted we are.
Most of our social behavior aims to increase our
belonging or social acceptance.
To avoid rejection, we generally conform to group
standards and seek to make favorable impressions.
Maintaining Relationships
We promise to call, write, text.
 Parting makes one feel distressed.
 Attachments can keep people in abusive
relationships.
 When something threatens or dissolves our
social ties, anxiety, loneliness, jealousy, and
guilt overwhelms us.
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The Pain of Ostracism
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Sometimes, the need to belong is denied.
Social psychologist Kipling Williams and his
colleagues have studied such experiences of
ostracism- of social exclusion- in both natural and
laboratory settings.
Worldwide, humans use ostracism to control social
behavior, with punishing effects (ie. Children:
timeout, Adults: imprisonment).
To experience ostracism is to experience real pain.
Motivation at Work
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If we are not satisfied with certain aspects in our life, we tend to
change our workplaces.
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It is likely that whatever causes us distress, socially, is our work.
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People tend to categorize their work into three categories; a job, a
career, or a calling.
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A job is where you make money, but it is not always positive or
fulfilling to the worker.
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A career is a chance to advance from one position to a higher one.
And a calling is fulfilling, it makes money, and it is a socially useful
activity.
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A calling gives you the highest level of satisfaction with your work
and life because that is what one enjoys doing and is good at.
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When being purposefully engaged one experiences flow, a
completely involved/focused state of consciousness when
diminished awareness of self and time, resulting from optimal
engagement of one’s skills.
During flow, or being in the zone, one is most likely to say,
“Where did the time go?!” Exhilarating flow within an activity
fully engages our skills. When someone is purposefully
engaged and doing what they enjoy, their quality of life
increases.
Industrial-organizational (I/O) psychology is the application of
psychological concepts and methods to optimizing human
behaviors in workplaces.
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There are 3 subfields of I/O psychology.
Human factors psychology explores how machines and
environments can be optimally designed to fit human
abilities.
Personnel psychology applies psychology’s methods and
principles to select and evaluate workers, and focuses on
identifying and placing well suited candidates.
Organizational psychology considers how work environments
and management of styles influence worker motivation,
satisfaction, and productivity, and often modifies jobs to
boost morale and productivity.
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Task leadership: Goal-oriented leadership that sets
standards, organizes work, and focuses attention on
goals.
Social leadership: Group-oriented leadership that
builds teamwork, mediates conflict, and offers
support.
Achievement motivation: A desire for significant
accomplishment: for mastery of things, people, or
ideas; for attaining a high standard.
Harnessing Strengths
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Identifying your strengths and weaknesses allows you
to set personal goes which enables one to flourish at
work.
We tend to perform well at jobs that deal with what
we enjoy and what we are good at.
Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton stated that
the first step to a stronger organization is
creating/instituting a strengths-based selection.
Matching one’s strengths to certain works is the first
step towards workplace effectiveness. Identifying
effective and non-effective people in a role is a way to
try to measure performance as objectively as possible.
Do Interviews Predict Performance?
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Interviewers tend to feel confident about their
ability to predict job performances from an
unconstructed, get-acquainted, informal interview.
However, these interviews are not as reliable as they
think they are. Studies showed that focusing more
on the interviewee’s overall evaluation is much more
reliable than evaluating hand-written applications or
parts of an interview. Formal interviews create the
least amount of bias possible.
The Interviewer Illusion
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There are 4 factors that explain overconfidence in an interviewer to make
false accusations on the interviewee.
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-The interviewer does not ask about the interviewee’s good intentions,
rather they ask more about the work and habitual behaviors.
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-The interviewers follow the successes of their careers of the ones they
have hired rather than the rejected ones. Interviewers focus more on a
perfect candidate than one that can make minor mistakes that can shape
them into becoming a more successful worker.
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-Interviewers believe that what the interviewee is like in the interview is
what they get, however people can change and we do not always get
what we see.
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-Preconceptions and mood of the interviewer reflect on the interviewee’s
chances of getting the job. Interviewers tend to take their bad moods out
on applicants, or, if they find the interviewee to have similar personalities
as them, they are more likely to get the job.
Structured Interviews
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Structured interviews offer a disciplined method of
collecting information. This is an interview process that
asks the same, job-relevant, questions to all applicants,
and each applicant is rated on an established scale.
A structured interview tries to reduce bias. It tends to be
more accurate than an unstructured interview because it
is more reliable and focuses more on the job itself.
Unstructured interviews ask irrelevant questions,
questions that do not focus directly on the job itself. In
this type of interview, not all applicants are asked the
same questions.
Appraising Performance
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Performance appraisal serves organizational purposes on who to
retain, how to reward/pay people, and how to better manage
employee strengths with promotions/job shifts.
There are three types of appraisal methods.
The first is a checklist, where supervisors check behaviors that
describe the worker.
The second are graphic rating scales, where a supervisor checks
how dependable and productive someone is.
The third are behavior rating scales where a supervisor checks
behaviors that best describes the workers performance.
Another type of feedback is 360-degree feedback where you rate
yourself, your manager, and other coworkers and vice versa. This
results in open communication and a complete appraisal.
However, performance appraisal can be bias.
Organizational Psychology: Motivating
Achievement
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Motivation matters just as much as the appraisal of
work and the matching of talents to work.
People with high achievement motivation achieve
more.
School performance, attendance, and graduation
honors reflect self-discipline more than intelligence.
Herbert Simon that world class experts invest at least
10 years of hard work—40 hours a week, 50 weeks a
year.
Higher achievers are likely to be distinguished by their
discipline over their natural talent.
Achievement involves more than raw ability.
Satisfaction and Engagement
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Employee satisfaction is a priority concern for I/O
Psychology.
-Decreased job stress feeds improved health.
-Modest positive correlation between individual job
satisfaction and performance.
-Three types of employees:
Engaged: Working with passion and feeling a profound
connection to their company or organization.
Not-Engaged: Putting in the time but investing little
passion into their work.
Actively Disengaged: Unhappy workers undermining
what their colleagues accomplish.