Chapter 9
Motivation and Emotion
Motivation Is a Dynamic
Process
• The study of motivation is
essentially the study of what
moves a person or animal to act
in a particular way.
• Motivation: an inner state that
energizes behavior toward the
fulfillment of a goal
Theories of Motivation
Internal: something about the
organism pushes it toward (or
away from) some object
External: attributes of the goal
or the environment pull the
organism in a certain direction
Drive Reduction Theories:
Motivation to Reduce Arousal
• an imbalance in homeostasis creates a
physiological need, which produces a
drive that motivates the organism to
satisfy the need
• Homeostasis: tendency to keep
physiological systems internally balanced
and adjusting in response to change
• Theory incomplete, many behaviors that
seem designed to increase arousal.
Drive-Reduction Theory
Motivation to Maintain an
Optimal Level of Arousal
• Research indicates too low levels
of arousal are as uncomfortable as
those that are too high.
• Yerkes-Dodson law.
• Best performance occurs when we are at
an intermediate level of arousal.
The Yerkes-Dodson Law
Incentive Theory: External
Factors Motivate Behavior
• Behavior is directed toward attaining
desirable stimuli (positive incentives) &
avoiding undesirable stimuli ( negative
incentives). (Remember operant
conditioning.)
• Any stimulus that we learn to associate
with positive or negative outcomes can
serve as an incentive for behavior.
Incentive Theory: External
Factors Motivate Behavior
• Researchers distinguish two types of
motivation:
• Intrinsic motivation: a behavior or an
activity that a person perceives as a valued
goal in its own right
• Extrinsic motivation: type of motivation
that leads a person to engage in a behavior
or an activity for external reasons
Maslow Proposed Some Needs Must
Be Met before Others
• We are born with a hierarchy of needs.
• First, basic safety and survival needs needs must be
sufficiently satisfied.
• Next, the person is motivated by more social needs
such as the desire for intimacy, love, and acceptance
from others.
• These are followed by esteem needs such as the
desire for achievement, power, recognition, and
respect from others.
• All the needs in the four levels of the hierarchy are
deficiency needs.
Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy
Maslow Proposed Some Needs Must
Be Met before Others
• Self-actualization, the need to fulfill one’s
potential, is the ultimate goal of human
growth.
• This is an appealing theory of motivation in
business, education, etc., and it provides an
organized framework for discussing
human motives.
• However, the simplicity of the theory proved
to be its primary problem. (It tells us little
that we did not already know and explains
nothing.
What are some reliable psychological
needs?
Need for
affiliation/affection/acceptance
Need for
achievement/accomplishment
Need for
approval
Do Genes Shape Our Motivation:
Are eating patterns hereditary?
• Instinct: an unlearned, relatively
fixed pattern of behavior that is
essential to a species’ survival
• In the early 1900s William McDougall
and other instinct theorists
contended that much of human
behavior is controlled by instincts.
Do Genes Shape Our Motivation:
Evolutionary Psychology:
Instinct Theories?
• The problem with these instinct
theories is that many so-called
instinctual behaviors are learned
and shaped by experience.
Do Genes Shape Our Motivation:
Current Evolutionary Psychology?
• Contemporary evolutionary
perspective states that we inherit
adaptive genetic traits but that
these traits express themselves
more as predispositions for
behaviors rather than as a
predetermined set of actions.
Then what determines
eating patterns?
• Internals – listen to hunger cues
from the body
• Externals – are pulled by the
incentives of tasty food and
social cues
Then what determines
eating patterns: psychology
• Classical conditioning
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•
•
•
Comfort food
Social events
Social acceptability
Acquired tastes
Obesity & Eating Disorders
• Anorexia nervosa: eating disorder in which person
weighs less than 85% of normal weight & expresses
an intense fear of gaining weight.
• Bulimia: eating disorder in which person engages in
recurrent episodes of binge eating followed by
drastic measures to purge body of consumed
calories
Sexual Motivation
• Sexual behavior is essential for the
continuation of a species.
• The reinforcing properties of sex may involve
the same brain structures and
neurotransmitter systems that are stimulated
by cocaine and other addictive drugs.
Forces Affecting
Sexual Motivation
Sexual Attitudes &
Behaviors
• Vary across cultures
• 50-80% of American teenagers
• 2.5% China
• Vary across history
• 3% of American women age 18 in 1900
• 50% of American women age 18 in 1998
Are we having fun?
• According to one survey, 72% of 12-17
year old girls who had sex said that they
regretted it.
Are We Having Trouble?
 Births to
unwed
parents
Adolescent Pregnancy
• U.S. adolescent pregnancy rate is higher than
that of most industrialized countries
• 40-45% of these end in abortion
• 75% to unmarried females
• Why?
• Increased social acceptance
• Belief that a baby will fill a void in life
Sexually Transmitted
Diseases (STD’s)
• Adolescents have the highest rates of
all age groups, 1 in 6 of those who are
sexually active contracts a sexually
transmitted disease per year.
What motivates teen sexual
activity & lack of contraception?
• Ignorance of relationship/motivational
factors
• Guilt related to sex – ambivalent
feelings
• Lack of communication about birth
control
• Alcohol
• Media norms of spontaneous passion
Why are we having so much
irresponsible sex?
Lack of clear cultural standards (reasons
not to).
Change in direction of social pressure
Religious diversity - More people
believe it is OK.
Why are having so much
irresponsible sex?
• Social Pressure & Idealized concepts of
romance and sexuality (Reasons to).
• Everybody is doing it - Most HS seniors no
longer virgins.
• Media (TV, movies) creates ideals
• Proves masculinity/desirability (media
pressure).
• Necessary & desirable part of romantic
relationship (extended adolescence).
• Spontaneous passion is idealized.
Knowing about “Safer Sex”
Is Not Enough
• College students engage in number of risky
sexual behaviors:
• High numbers of sexual partners
• “One-night stands” with casual acquaintances
• Frequent condomless sex
Sex Education?
• Effective prevention programs must focus on
multiple areas of a person’s life in order to
increase safer sexual behaviors.
• Discussions of nonsexual motivations for seeking
intimacy
• Assertiveness training for people to feel comfortable
saying no to a potential sex partner
• Providing models and examples of situations where
safer sex is still exciting sex (de-glamorizing).
Responsible Sexual Behavior
• People who are uneasy thinking about sex
plan less for sexual interactions.
• This leads to more unprotected sex
& greater likelihood of unwanted
pregnancies & STD infection.
Know your partner
• Cochran & Mays (1990)
• 4% of women; 20 % of men Indicated
that they would lie to a potential sex
partner about the results of a positive
HIV test.
Sex and Relationships
• “Sex is a socially significant act.”
•
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•
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It will affect your self-concept.
It will affect your current relationship.
It will influence relationships with future partners.
It will affect your relationship with parents and
family.
• It will affect your peer and friendship relationships.
• It may cause you to become a parent under
unintended circumstances.
Sex and Relationships
• Sex is most satisfying and has the least
capacity for harm in intimate, committed
relationships.
• However, people often engage in sexual
relationships for other motives.
• Need to be accepted or to belong.
• Need to be loved.
• Believing casual sex is “normal.”
Sexuality - Adulthood
• 80% of adults in committed relationships ,
and 88% in marriages report begin
“extremely physically and emotionally
satisfied.”
Sexual Motivation
• Motives for sexual behavior also include
nonphysical factors:
•
•
•
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•
•
peer approval
need to feel valued
need for intimacy
stress reduction
need for power
desire to have children
Sex and Relationships
People also have sexual relationships for selfish
motives.
Use others to satisfy own desires
Feeling of power & control
Frighten, dominate, or humiliate
another
Demonstrate own attractiveness
Sexual Coercion
• 12% of American girls and 5% of boys
say they were forced to have
intercourse.
• Among those who had sex voluntarily,
25% said they really did not want to do
so.
Sexual Coercion
• Estimated 13% of women have endured rape,
legally defined as intercourse by force, by threat
of harm, or when the victim is incapable of
consent by reason of mental retardation, mental
illness, or intoxication.
• 1998 college survey, 44% of women had
experienced sexual coercion; 19% of men had
obtained sex through force
Deciding how sexual behavior suits
your life: In what relationship?
•
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A new acquaintance?
An old friend?
A new romantic interest?
A long-time romantic interest?
A fiance(e)?
A marriage partner?
Anyone, anywhere, anytime?
Why is it OK to have sex?
•
•
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•
•
•
Share mutual love or affection?
A thrill? A biological need? Curiosity?
Prove that you are attractive?
Fulfill a need for acceptance or affection?
Hold on to a partner?
Don’t need a reason?
Why is it OK to not have sex?
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Immoral?
Not socially acceptable?
Might get pregnant?
Might catch a disease?
I’m not that easy?
Don’t want to bond with you?
Don’t want to be used?
What Sexual Acts Do Americans
Find “Very Appealing”?
Why Do Men Have a Stronger Sex Drive &
Enjoy More Variety Than Women?
• One explanation for the differences involves the different sexual scripts
men and women learn.
•
The traditional women’s sexual script is to downplay interest in sex and to
resist sexual advances;
•
The traditional men’s script is to freely express sexual interest, brag about
sexual exploits, and to persist despite protests.
• The alternate explanations are biological.
•
Edward Laumann’s National Health and Social Life Survey of 3,500 American adults’ sexual
behaviors
Sex and Love More Fused
for Women Than for Men
• Research suggests women tend to emphasize
emotional intimacy as more of a necessity for sexuality
than men.
• Men more focused on the sexual mating aspect
• Women more focused on the attachment aspect.
• Such findings suggest that, compared to men,
women’s sexual motivation is more easily shaped by
social, cultural, and situational factors.
Males & Female Similarities
• Nurture: Cognitive factors influence
sexual arousal.
• Nature: Testosterone, a male sex hormone found in
both men and women, has a positive influence on
sexual desire
− The effect is stronger among men than women.
Emotions: Positive or Negative
Feeling States
• Emotion: a positive or negative feeling state
typically including some combination of
physiological arousal, cognitive appraisal, and
behavioral expression
Emotions: Unifying Characteristics
• Involve reactions of many bodily systems,
• Expressions are based on genetically transmitted
mechanisms but are altered by learning and
interpretation of events,
• Communicate information between people, and
• Help individuals respond to changes in their
environment.
Emotions Result in Bodily Responses
• The autonomic nervous system
produces bodily responses of
emotion.
• It has two separate branches:
• Sympathetic: geared toward energy
expenditure
• Parasympathetic: geared toward
energy conservation and “refueling”
Three Brain Regions Coordinate
Emotional Responses
• The hypothalamus
• vital link between higher-order cognition (forebrain)
and the lower brain (homeostatic control of the body)
• The limbic system (amygdala)
• Two distinct neural circuits produce emotional
responses, particularly fear
• The cerebral cortex
• Important for the subjective experience of emotions
Cognition and Emotion
• The brain’s shortcut for emotions
Emotional Arousal
Lie Detectors
• Polygraph
• machine commonly used in attempts
to detect lies
• measures several arousal responses
that accompany emotion
• perspiration
• heart rate
• blood pressure
• breathing changes
Emotion - Lie Detectors
Respiration
Perspiration
Heart rate
Control Relevant
question question
(a)
Control
question
Relevant
question
(b)
Emotion - Lie Detectors
• 50 Innocents
• 50 Thieves
Percentage
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Innocent
people
Guilty
people
Judged innocent by polygraph
Judged guilty by polygraph
• 1/3 of innocent
declared guilty
• 1/4 of guilty
declared
innocent (from
Kleinmuntz &
Szucko, 1984)
Subjective Well-Being
• self-perceived happiness or
satisfaction with life
• used along with measures of
objective well-being
• physical and economic indicators to
evaluate people’s quality of life
Experiencing Emotion
• Does money buy happiness?
Average
per-person
after-tax income
in 1995 dollars
$20,000
$19,000
$18,000
100%
$17,000
90%
$16,000
$15,000
80%
$14,000
70%
$13,000
Personal income
$12,000
60%
$11,000
50%
$10,000
Percentage very happy 40%
$9,000
30%
$8,000
$7,000
20%
$6,000
10%
$5,000
0%
$4,000
1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Year
Percentage
describing
themselves as
very happy
Experiencing Emotion
• Values and life satisfaction
0.6
Importance
scores
0.4
Money
Love
0.2
0.0
-0.2
-0.4
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
Life satisfaction
6.00
7.00
Experiencing Emotion
Researchers Have Found That
Happy People Tend to
However, Happiness Seems Not Much
Related to Other Factors, Such as
Have high self-esteem
(in individualistic countries)
Age
Be optimistic, outgoing, and agreeable
Gender (women are more often
depressed, but also more often joyful)
Have close friendships or a satisfying
marriage
Education levels
Have work and leisure that engage
their skills
Parenthood (having children or not)
Have a meaningful religious faith
Physical attractiveness
Sleep well and exercise
Experiencing Emotion
• Adaptation-Level Phenomenon
• tendency to form judgments relative to a
“neutral” level
• brightness of lights
• volume of sound
• level of income
• defined by our prior experience
• Relative Deprivation
• perception that one is worse off relative to
those with whom one compares oneself