Module 11 & 12

Motivation and Emotion

Motivation

A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior

A complex, unlearned behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout

a species.

Instinct

Drives

• In drive–reduction theory, aroused tension states created by imbalances that prompt an organism to restore the balance, typically by reducing the drive.

• Drive-reduction theory: the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need. Removing deficits

Basic Drives

• Hunger Depression causes a decrease in stomach acid Anger causes an increase in stomach acid

• What causes Hunger Feelings Your stomach contracting Your taste receptors are “on” You’ve lost weight and shrunken cells are signaling

you. Psychological reason: Previous associations (time,

Smell)

Factors Controlling Weight

• Not able to read the cues from the body that tells us to stop eating and operate on external cues

• Eat when under stress

• Set point: Body-regulating mechanism that determines a person’s typical weight

• Don’t give children food as a reward!!

Thirst

• 65-70% water

• Units that “count” the number of water molecules in certain body cells surrounding the hypothalamus, when the count gets low the desire for water increases.

• Water intake is controlled by learning more rather than by a physical signal.

Arousal Theories

• Yerkes-Dodson law: The theory that a degree of psychological arousal helps performance, but only up to a certain point.

Homeostasis

• A tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level. Avoiding both deficits and surpluses

Physical Factors

• Hypothalamus: Pain and Pleasure also fear, rage, hunger, thirst, and sex Electrical impulses to this area can send off

different emotions of motivation.

• Amygdala: Aggression and fear Makes us afraid all by itself Destroy it and you destroy fear With out is a person cannot feel it or see it on

others faces

Physical Factors

• Reticular Formation: Level of activity (sleep) Emotional or motivational state requires action

• Pituitary Gland: Signals other glands with chemicals

• Adrenal Gland: Increases bodily function and perspiration

Cognitive Explanations

• Extrinsic motivation: a desire to perform a behavior because of promised rewards or threats of punishment.

• Intrinsic motivation: a desire to perform a behavior for its own sake ad to be effective.

Clinical Explanations

Hierarch of Needs

• Abraham Maslow: Humanistic psychologist who developed the hierarchy of needs.

• Self-actualization: according to Maslow, the need to live up to one’s fullest and unique potential.

Hierarchy of Needs

• Psychological Needs: Hunger Thirst and other survival needs

• Safety Needs: need to feel that the world is organized and predictable; need to feel safe, secure, and stable

• Belonging and Love Needs: Need to love and be loved, to belong and be accepted; need to avoid loneliness and alienation

• Esteem Needs: Need for self-esteem, achievement, competence, and independence; need for recognition and respect from others.

• Self-Actualization Needs: Need to live up to one’s fullest and unique potential

Achievement

• Achievement Motivation: A desire for Significant accomplishment Mastery of ideas, things and people Attaining a high standard

• Henry Murray: Neo-Freudian who first established the concept of achievement motivation and also developed important personality testing tools.

Three Ways to Develop Self-Motivation

• Associate you high achievement with positive emotions.

• Connect you achievement with your efforts.

• Raise your expectations.

Process for Motivating Others

• Cultivate intrinsic motivation.

• Attend to individual motives.

• Set specific, challenging goals.

• Choose an appropriate leadership style. Task leadership: goal-oriented leadership that sets

standards, organizes work, and focuses attention. Social leadership: group-oriented leadership that

builds teamwork, mediates conflict, and offers support

Emotion

Whole-organism responses, involving (1) psychological arousal

(2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience

Two Controversies

1. Which comes first, physiological arousal or the subjective experience of an emotion? Do you feel happy because your heart is pounding, or is your heart pounding because you feel happy?

2. Can we react emotionally before appraising a situation, or does thinking always precede emotion? Did you feel joy at seeing your name on the list before you thought about what that meant, or id you interpret the situation and then feel joy?

Theories of Emotion

• The James-Lang Theory: The theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to an emotion-arousing stimulus. William James (1842-1910): American psychologist who

believed our awareness of physiological responses leads to our experience of emotion

Carl Lange (1834-1900): Danish physiologist who proposed a theory of emotion similar to, and at about the same time as, William James’s theory that our awareness of physiological responses leads to our experiences of emotion.

Theories of Emotion

• The Cannon-Bard Theory: The theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses, and (2) the subjective experience of emotion. Walter Cannon (1871-1943): American physiologist who,

along with Philip Bard, concluded that physiological arousal and emotional experience occur simultaneously.

Cognition and Emotion

• Two-Factor Theory: The theory that to experience emotion one must (1) be physically aroused, and (2) cognitively label the arousal. Stanley Schachter (1922-1997): American

psychologist who, with Jerome Singer, concluded that emotion requires a cognitive label of physiological arousal.

Cognition and Emotion

• Robert Zajonc (1923- ): American psychologist who concluded that some emotional reactions involve no deliberate thinking and cognition is not always necessary for emotion.

Emotions

Culture has different emotions to different things

Facial Expressions

• Emotions maybe different across the world but facial expressions are basically the same