Important Definitions

Motivation: set of factors that
activate, direct, and maintain
behavior, usually toward
some goal

Emotion: subjective feeling
including arousal, cognitions,
and expressions
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
Theories and Concepts of Motivation
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Theories and Concepts of Motivation:
(Major Theories of Motivation)

Biological Theories:
1.
Instinct--inborn, unlearned
behaviors universal to
species explain motivation
Drive-Reduction--internal
tensions “push” toward
satisfying basic needs
Arousal--motivated toward
optimal level of arousal
2.
3.
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Drive-Reduction Theory
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Arousal
Theory
•
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People seek an
optimal level of
arousal that
maximizes their
performance.
Theories and Concepts of Motivation:
(Major Theories of Motivation Cont.)

Psychosocial Theories:
1.
Incentive--motivation
results from the “pull”
of external
environmental stimuli
Cognitive--motivation
affected by attributions
and expectations
2.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
Theories and Concepts of Motivation:
(Major Theories of Motivation Cont.)

1.
Biopsychosocial Theory:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
interaction of biological,
psychological, and social
needs; lower motives
(physiological and safety)
must be met before higher
needs (belonging, self-esteem)
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
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Social Motivation: Why make friends?



Evolutionary Psychology: Using Darwinian
principles to explain human nature.
Being nice, making friends must have offered
some fitness advantage for our ancestors
Evolution of niceness:

Kin selection: being nice to those with similar
genetics
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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Kin selection

There are a number of examples of
what appear to be altruistic
behaviors among animals. Most are
explainable as examples of kin
selection.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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Reciprocity: You scratch my back I’ll scratch yours

Non related individuals
sometimes engage in
reciprocal arrangements,
vampire bats share
blood, chimps groom for
food
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Indirect reciprocity: being nice to the nice

Some animals are sensitive to reputation and
restrict reciprocal interactions to only those
who have a history of playing fair
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So why are humans friendly to each other?



Kin bias
Reciprocal arrangements
Reputational rewards
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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Human Mate Attraction




Using an evolutionary approach to explain why we
are attracted to certain traits in members of the
opposite sex.
Operates at level of “gut” attractions, not conscious
evaluation
Identifies what types of attractions in members of
opposite sex would have enhanced reproductive
success in our ancestral past.
Argues that problems of optimizing reproductive
success would have been different for males and
females, and thus would have lead to somewhat
different reproductive strategies and attractions.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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Thomas Aquinas on Marriage

We observe that in those animals, dogs for
instance, in which the female herself suffices
for the rearing of the offspring, the male and
female stay no time together after the sexual
act. But in animals in which the female herself
does not suffice for the rearing of the offspring,
male and female dwell together after the sexual
act so long as is necessary for the rearing and
training of the offspring. This appears in birds
whose young are incapable of their own food
after they are hatched…Hence, whereas it is
necessary in all animals for the male to stand
by the female for such a time as the father’s
concurrence is requisite for bringing up the
progeny, it is natural for man to be tied to…one
woman for a long period…(SCG B3 Q122).
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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Challenges to reproductive success: Males vs. Females

Advantages of being male:
 Cheap sperm: relatively low parental investment cost
Disadvantage:
low paternity certainty
Advantage of being female:
High maternity certainty
Disadvantage:
costly eggs: relatively high parental investment
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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Buss: Global study on mate attraction
Over 10,000 subjects from over 30 countries across the
globe.

Female attractions: decrease parental
investment by getting good genes and copious
resources

Male long-term mate attractions: increase
paternity certainty, while maximizing
reproductive output
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Evolved Male Attractions: Long-term mates – desire
for youth
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Evolved Male Attractions: Beauty
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Evolved Male Attractions: Chastity
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Evolved Male Attractions: Long-term mates
Summary


1. Youth/Beauty: increase reproductive value
in single mate
2. Chastity/youth: increasing paternity
certainty in offspring to be resourced
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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Evolved female attractions: Long-term mates
Age
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Evolved female attractions: long-term mates
Financial Prospects
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Evolved Female attractions: Long-term mates
Good genes
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Evolved Female attractions: Long-term mates
Good genes
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Female evolved attractions:
summary



1. Older mate/good financial prospects:
status, stability, resources
2. Cues of masculinity: good genes
3. interaction with ovulatory cycle: evidence
for cuckoldry strategy?
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
Human mate attraction: Long term mates




Males: young, beautiful,
sexually modest
Reproductive value;
paternity certainty
Females: older, high-status
(or potential), robust
Good genetics, stable
secure source of
resources.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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Cross-cultural signally
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Risks of step-parenting.
Note: Violent step parents represent less than 1% of step families
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Darwinian strategy to happy marriage



For females: Men want paternity certainty, so avoid all
jealousy-arousing behavior (don’t even look at other
men). Also, take good care of his genes (offspring).
For males: Women want resources. All the money is
hers. Avoid spending money in any way she dislikes.
For both: Both want health (good genes, fertility, etc.)
Take care of yourselves. Have some kids – lower divorce
rate among couples with kids.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
Motivation and Behavior—
Hunger and Eating


Biological factors:
stomach, biochemistry,
the brain
Note the size difference
in these rats.
The rat on the left had
the ventromedial area of
its hypothalamus
destroyed.

©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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Motivation and Behavior—
Hunger and Eating


Psychological factors:
visual cues, cultural
conditioning
Obesity is common for
Pima Indians in U.S.,
but not for those living
in nearby Mexico with
traditional diet.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
Hunger and Eating--Eating Disorders
•
Obesity appears to result from
numerous biological and
psychosocial factors.
•
Anorexia nervosa and bulimia
nervosa are both characterized
by an overwhelming fear of becoming
obese and explained by multiple
biological and psychosocial factors.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
Hunger and Eating--Eating Disorders
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Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
Motivation and Behavior—
Achievement
•
–
–
–
–
–
–
Characteristics of a high need
for achievement (nAch):
Prefers moderately difficult tasks
Prefers clear goals with
competent feedback
Competitive
Prefers responsibility
Persistent
More accomplished
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
Theories and Concepts of Emotion

1.
Three Components of Emotion
Physiological-arousal comes from
brain (particularly
the limbic system)
and autonomic
nervous system
(ANS)
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Physiological Component and the
Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
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Theories and Concepts of Emotion

Three Components of Emotion (Continued)
2.
Cognitive--thoughts, values
and expectations
Behavioral--expressions,
gestures, and body positions
3.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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Theories and Concepts of Emotion

Can you identify the social smile versus the
genuine, “Duchenne” smile? Real smiles involve
muscles around both the eyes and cheeks.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
Theories and Concepts of Emotion-Four Theories of Emotion




James-Lange: emotions occur after
arousal
Cannon-Bard: arousal and emotion occur
simultaneously
Facial-Feedback: facial movements elicit
arousal and specific emotions
Schachter’s Two-Factor: arousal leads to
search for label and then emotion occurs
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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Theories and Concepts of Emotion:
 Overview of
Four Theories
of Emotion
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Can You Explain Why Pleasant Feelings
Increase When Teeth Show?
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Facial Feedback Hypothesis: changes in facial expression
produce corresponding changes in emotion



Laird (1974): attached electrodes to students
faces to study facial muscles. Showed them
cartoons. Ask subs to contract muscles to
form either smile or frown. Those who smiled
while seeing cartoons rated them as funnier.
Kleinke et al., (1998). Had subjects model
either pictures, most either happy or sad.
Rated emotions. Happy faces happier.
Zajonc (1993). Cool brain hypothesis
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Facial expressions: Universal expressions of
emotions


Paul Ekman (1970’s) series
of cross-cultural studies
looking for universals in
facial expressions of
emotions
Based on evolutionary
principle that it would have
been advantageous for a
highly social species to be
able to quickly read
emotions from faces.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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Universal Facial Expressions

Ekman & Friesen (1978) identified six universal
facial expressions: joy, fear, anger, sadness,
surprise and disgust.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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Lying faces: Can we identify when a face is lying?





Ekaman Telling Lies (2001). microexpression:
brief, fleeting facial expression of the opposite
emotion to what the person is trying to convey
90% of deceivers produce reliable microexpression.
30% of truth-tellers also do.
Other cues: depersonalization of speech, departure
from typical communication style.
Ekman’s advice: always play good cop
Avner Less/Adolf Eichmann example.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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
MicroExpression Training Tools (METT) and Subtle
Expression Training Tools (SETT) provide self
instructional training to improve your ability to
recognize facial expressions of emotion. In under
an hour, METT will train you to see very brief
(1/25th of a second) microexpressions of concealed
emotion. SETT teaches you to recognize the
subtlest signs of when an emotion is first beginning
in another person.
*©Paul Ekman 2004
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
Schachter two factor theory of emotion



Two factors: physiological arousal and
cognitive evalution
We take note of physio arousal and label
arousal with emotional tag appropriate to
situation.
Is it love or is it gas?
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
What Theory of Emotion is
Portrayed in this Figure?
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
Happiness: An elusive emotion




Why humans aren’t designed to be happy
1. Hedonic treadmill: we quickly adapt to
new circumstances requiring ever greater
“thrills” to achieve contentment (the more you
have the more you want!)
2. Tendency to make upward rather than
downward social comparisons
3. Asymmetry of affective experience
effect: losing $50 dollars feels worse than
finding $50 feels good.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
Happiness: Does money buy happiness?


Yes and no: Enough money to establish a
health and security, but past that no effect
Of greater importance: stability and depth of
social relationships – marriage, family,
community.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
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The secret to Happiness: Ancient wisdom

Here again, I saw emptiness under the sun: a
lonely man without a friend, without a son or
brother, toiling endlessly yet never satisfied
with his wealth. Two are better than one; they
receive a good reward for their toil, because,
if one falls, the other can help his companion
up again; but alas for the man who falls with
no partner to help him up. (Eccles. 4:7-10).
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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Critical Thinking about
Motivation and Emotion

Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation-extrinsic rewards may lower interest and motivation.
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Critical Thinking about Motivation and
Emotion—Intrinsic Vs. Extrinsic
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Critical Thinking about Motivation
and Emotion—
The Polygraph

Polygraph: measures
changes in emotional
arousal, which in turn
supposedly reflects
lying versus
truthfulness
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
The Polygraph
Critical Thinking about Motivation
and Emotion- The Polygraph

The subject’s response
on the GSR does rise in
response to the second
question. But
remember that error
rates on the polygraph
range from 25% to 75%.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
Critical Thinking about Motivation
and Emotion—
Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Emotional
Intelligence (EI):
ability to know and
manage one’s
emotions,
empathize, and
maintain satisfying
relationships
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
Culture, Evolution, and Emotion

Cultural similarities and differences:
7 to10 culturally universal
emotions, but each culture
has its own display rules
governing how, when, and
where to express emotions

Role of evolution: strong
biological, evolutionary basis for
emotional expression and decoding
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
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Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions
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Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
Pause and Reflect:
Check & Review
1.
According to the _____ theory of emotions,
we see a bear, our hearts race, and we run
for cover. Then we feel afraid.
2.
The _____ primarily measures arousal and
the physiological component of emotions.
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
Psychology in
Action (8e)
by
Karen Huffman
PowerPoint  Lecture Notes Presentation
End of Chapter 12:
Motivation and Emotion
Karen Huffman, Palomar College
©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007
Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)