Chapter 12 - Motivation

Motivation
 Motivation- a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior
 Instinct- 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
 Homeostasis- 1. tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state 2. regulation of any
aspect of body chemistry around a particular level
 Incentives- a positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior.
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
 Self-actualization needs Need to live up one’s fullest and unique potential
I. Esteem needs
Need for self-esteem, achievement, competence, and independence; need for recognition
and respect from others
 Belongingness and love needs
Need to love and be loved, to belong and be accepted; need to avoid loneliness and alienation
 Safety needs
Need to feel that the world is organized and predictable; need to feel safe, secure, and stable
 Physiological needs
Need to satisfy hunger and thirst.
 begins with physiological needs that must be satisfied
 the higher-level safety needs become active
 then psychological needs become active
 
Motivation-Hnuger
 Stomach contractions accompany our feelings of hunger
 Glucose the form of sugar that circulates in the blood
 provides the major source of energy for body tissues
 when its level is low, we feel hunger
 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.
 Metabolic Rate- body’s base rate of energy expenditure
 The  hypothalamus  controls eating and other body maintenance functions
Eating Disorders
 Anorexia Nervosa
 When a normal-weight person diets and becomes significantly underweight, yet, still feeling
fat, continues to starve
 Usually and adolescent female
 When a person weighs less than 85% of their normal body weight
 95% of sufferers are female
 most are between the ages of 18-30
 30% of persons diagnosed with anorexia nervosa die
 Bulimia Nervosa
 Disorder characterized by private “binge-purge” episodes of overeating, usually of high caloric
foods, followed by vomiting or laxative use
 
Sexual Motivation
 Sex is a physiologically based motive, like hunger, but it is more affected by learning and values
 Sexual Response Cycle
 The four stages of sexual responding described by Masters and Johnson
I. Excitement
II. Plateau
III. Orgasm
IV. Resolution
 Refractory Period- resting period after orgasm, during which a man cannot achieve another
orgasm
 Estrogen- a sex hormone, secreted in greater amounts by females than by males
 Forces Affecting Sexual Motivation:
 Imaginative stimuli
 External stimuli
 Physiological readiness
 Sexual Disorders- problems that consistently impair sexual arousal or functioning
 In Men
I. Premature ejaculation- ejaculation before they or their partners wish
II. Impotence- inability to have or maintain erection
 In Women
I. Orgasmic disorder-  infrequent or absent orgasms
II. Sexual Orientation- an enduring sexual attraction toward members of wither one’s own gender
(homosexual orientation) or the other gender (heterosexual orientation)
 
Motivation
 Achievement Motivation- a desire for significant accomplishment
 For mastery of things, people, or ideas
 For attaining a high standard
 McClelland and Atkinson believed fantasies would reflect achievement concerns
 Intrinsic Motivation- desire to perform a behavior for its own sake or to be effective
 Extrinsic Motivation-  desire to perform a behavior due to promised rewards or threats of
punishment
 Rewards Affect Motivation
I. Controlling reward: Mom: “I’ll give you $5.00 for every A.” - 
II. Extrinsic Motivation: Child: “As long as she pays, I’ll study.”
III. Informative reward: Mom: “Your grades were great! Let’s celebrate by going out for dinner.” 
IV. Intrinsic Motivation: Child: “I love doing well.”
 Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology- sub-field of psychology that studies and advises on
workplace behavior
 I/O Psychologists-  help organizations select and train employees, boost morale and
productivity, and design products and assess responses to them
 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
 Theory X
 Assumes that workers are basically lazy, error-prone, and extrinsically motivated by money
 Should be directed from above
 Theory Y
 Assumes that, given challenge and freedom, workers are motivated to achieve self-esteem and
to demonstrate their competence and creativity
 Chapter 13 - Emotion
 Emotion- a response of the whole organism
 Physiological arousal
 Expressive behaviors
 Conscious experience
Emotional Arousal
 Autonomic nervous system controls physiological arousal
 Arousal and Performance- Performance peaks at lower levels of arousal for difficult tasks, and
at higher levels for easy or well-learned tasks.
 
Emotion-Lie Detectors
 Polygraph- machine that is commonly used in attempt to detect lies; measures several of the
physiological responses accompanying emotion (i.e. perspiration, heart rate, blood pressure,
breathing changes0
 Control Question
 Up to age 18, did you ever physically harm anyone?
 Relevant Question
 Did the deceased threaten to harm you in any way?
 RELEVANT > CONTROL ! LIE
 Is 70% accuracy good?
 Assume 5% of 1000 employees actually guilty…after testing all employees 285 will be wrongly
accused
 What about 95% accuracy?
 Assume that 1 in 1000 employees actually guilty…after testing all employees 50 are wrongly
declared guilty and 1 of 51 testing positive are guilty (2%)
 
Experiencing Emotion
 The amygdala is a neural key to fear learning
 Catharsis- emotional release; catharsis hypothesis- "releasing" aggressive energy (through
action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges
 Feel-good, do-good phenomenon- people's tendency to be helpful when already in a good
mood.
 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.
 Adaptation-Level Phenomenon-  tendency to from judgements relative to a “neutral” level (i.e.
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
 
 
Theories of Emotion
 Does you heart pound because you are afraid…or are you afraid because you feel your heart
pounding?
 James-Lange Theory of Emotion
Experience of emotion is awareness of physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli
  Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion
Emotion-arousing stimuli simultaneously trigger: physiological responses and subjective experience of
emotion
  Schachter’s Two Factor Theory of Emotion
To experience emotion one must: be physically aroused and cognitively label the arousal
 Emotion and cognition feed on each other