Motivation and
Emotion
Motivation

internal processes that activate, guide,
and maintain our behavior
Drive-Reduction Theory
Behaviors that
reduce drive are
strengthened
Biological Need
(need for food,
water, oxygen,
etc.)
Drive State
(hunger, thirst,
etc.)
Activation
of many
different
behaviors
Behaviors that do
not reduce drive
are weakened
Theories of Motivation

Drive-Reduction Theory
 Humans
sometimes engage in behaviors that
increase rather than reduce drives

Arousal Theory
 Motivated
to be at optimal level of arousal
Yerkes-Dodson Law

There is an optimal level of arousal for the
best performance of any task.
 The
more complex the task, the lower the level of
arousal that can be tolerated before performance
deteriorates.
Theories of Motivation

Incentive theories
 Motivation

 incentives/pay offs
Cognitive approaches
 thoughts,
expectations, and goals
 Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation
A
desire to perform a behavior originates
within the individual

Extrinsic motivation
A
desire to perform a behavior to obtain an
external reward or avoid punishment
Maslow’s Hierarchy
Identify the motive…
Have I got a terrible headache. It’s really
splitting.
 It gets lonely in my apartment on the
weekends. My roommate goes to visit her
parents and most of my neighbors are
away too.
 I feel really bored by this course. It’s a lot
like the one I took last year. I was hoping
it would be more challenging.

Identify the motive…



He really makes me furious. I’m tired of his putdowns! Who does he think he is anyway?
Uh, listen, do you mind if we don’t go into that
nightclub? I hear that some tough types hang
out there and that someone got beaten up there
last week.
Hey, guess what? I just got an A+ on my term
paper. Pretty good, eh?
Human Needs & Motivation

Hunger and Thirst
 stimulated
by internal and external cues
 Hypothalamus
 Blood
(lateral and ventromedial)
levels
Glucose, fats, carbohydrates, insulin,
leptin
 Cells in stomach and small intestine





Insulin: secreted by pancreas; controls
blood glucose
Leptin: protein secreted by fat cells;
when abundant, causes brain to
increase metabolism and
decrease hunger
Orexin: hunger-triggering
hormone secreted by hypothalamus
Ghrelin: hormone secreted by empty
stomach; sends “I’m hungry” signals to
brain
PYY: digestive tract hormone; sends
“I’m not hungry” signals to brain
Human Needs & Motivation

Hunger & Thirst
 Sights
and smells
 Body Mass Index (BMI)
 Stress
Motivations-to-Eat (Jackson et al., 2003)

Suggests that there are four specific
motivations for eating beyond the “need”
for nourishment
 To
cope with negative affect
 To be social
 To comply with others’ expectations
 To enhance pleasure
Means

Females
 1.78
coping
 2.74 social
 1.60 compliance
 2.33 pleasure

Males
 1.40
coping
 2.66 social
 1.54 compliance
 2.28 pleasure
Eating Disorders

Anorexia nervosa
A
serious eating disorder that is associated
with an intense fear of weight gain and a
distorted body image

Bulimia nervosa
 An
eating disorder characterized by binges of
eating followed by self-induced purging
Eating Disorders
Increased incidence in relatives
 Serotonin
 Perfectionism
 Dissatisfaction with body

Ladies Home Journal poll (2003)
On a scale from 1-10, 43% rated bodies
between 6-9. 1% rated perfect, 20%
ranked themselves at 5
 One out of three said they were currently
on a diet
 When given a choice between a facelift or
a refurbished kitchen, 78% chose the
kitchen

52% would rather have smaller hips or
thighs than a two-week vacation “to get
away from it all”
 87% said it’s more acceptable for men to
go gray and get out of shape than it is for
women
 75% said they would rather have a root
canal than wear a thong bikini

Need for Affiliation

Interest in establishing and maintaining
relationships with others

Ostracism
Emotions
Body Response
(arousal)
Expressive
Reaction
Conscious
Experience
Emotions
Primary emotions
 Secondary emotions

James-Lange Theory

Certain stimuli in the environment can
bring on physiological changes.
 Emotions
arise from our awareness of those
changes.

Facial feedback hypothesis
Neuroscience of Emotions
Specific patterns of biological arousal
associated with specific emotions
 PET scans
 Amygdale  link between perception of
stimulus and recall of stimulus later

Communicating Emotions
Voice Quality and Facial Expression
 Body language
 Personal space
 Explicit Acts

Gender and Emotion

Research findings
 Men
and women may feel emotions similarly,
but differ in how they are expressed.
 Same situation may provoke different
emotions.
 Women are better at reading emotional cues
than men.
Anger
Response to perceived misdeeds
 Common when acts are seen as willful,
unjustified, and avoidable
 Can promote prejudice and heart disease


Catharsis hypothesis
Happiness

Feel-good, do-good phenomenon

Subjective well-being
 Self-perceived
happiness/satisfaction with life