Motivation and Emotion General Psychology 20

What motivates behavior? Motivation cannot be observed directly – so it must be inferred from behavior Some behavior is motivated by the body trying to return itself to a state of chemical balance For example: low blood sugar, dehydration, exhaustion

What motivates behavior? Some behaviors cannot be explained physiologically Ex: Wanting to go to law school, working three jobs so you can afford to buy a car, etc

What motivates behavior? Our bodies have a built in regulating system – the tendency of all organisms is to correct any imbalances in this system (this is known as homeostasis)

What motivates behavior? The hypothalamus measures and controls the amount of glucose entering your cells, your average weight each day (set-point) and your body temperature. If it tells your brain that the glucose levels in your blood are too low you will feel dizzy or nauseous until you eat something and raise your blood sugar This is a physiological response to hunger

What motivates behavior? So what about those people who are obese? Are they just hungry all the time? Stanley schacter discovered that those who are obese eat simply because of external factors – if they see something that looks good they eat it. This is a learned response rather than a physiological response.

Drive reduction theory Clark hull: When an organism is deprived of something it needs or wants (food, water, etc) it becomes tense or agitated – to release this it engages in a random activity The organism will continue to act this way until the need is met – if the need comes up again and will automatically go to the behavior that worked – this becomes habit Example: infants become attached to their mothers because mothers relieve drives like hunger and thirst

Motivation continuum Motivation is complex Much of our motivation is learned from our interactions with other people Physiological Learned

Need for achievement David mcclelland developed the thematic apperception test (tat) Test that demonstrated that a person's responses reveal underlying motives, concerns, and the way they see the social world through the stories they make up about ambiguous pictures of people Learned that high achievers prefer to be associated with experts who will help them achieve instead of more friendly people

Fear of success Matina Horner (1970) Had subjects write stories based on a story starter 65% of women wrote stories that view success negatively Concluded women in our society were raised with the idea that being successful in all but a few careers is odd and unfeminine Being successful is a source of deep conflict for women

Expectancy value theory J.W. Atkinson Expectancy is your estimated likelihood of success Value - what the goal is worth to you Behavior is based on high values of expectancy and value

Competency theory If a task is too easy we don’t learn anything about how competent we are We learn more from an impossibly difficult task As such we choose moderately difficult tasks where both success and failure is instructive

Intrinsic & extrinsic motivation Intrinsic motivation: when the knowledge you gain and the fun you have is reward enough for your effort Extrinsic motivation: when an external reward is needed in order to induce effort

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs Developed by abraham maslow – a pioneer of humanistic psychology Believed all human beings need to feel competent, to win approval and recognition, and to sense that they have accomplished something.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs Self-actualization: to fulfill one’s unique potential Esteem: to achieve, be competent, gain approval and recognition Love/Belonging: feeling accepted by others Safety: Feeling safe and secure Physiological: Hunger, thirst, etc **Needs are not necessarily satisfied in order – any one need may dominate at one particular time

emotion Emotions are the feelings associated with our behavior Sometimes emotions function like biological drives – our feelings energize us and make us pursue a goal Anticipated emotions are the incentive for our actions – we do things because we think they will make us feel good

Expressing emotions Charles darwin (1872) All people express certain basic feelings the same way – you can tell when people are angry or happy by their faces Some emotions are innate (part of our biological inheritance) Children who are born without sight still express emotion the same way – smile when they are happy, frown when upset or sad

Expressing emotions James averill (1983) Many of our everyday emotional reactions are the result of social expectations and consequences We learn that emotions can serve different social functions

Physiological vs cognitive theory Physiological theorists believe that bodily changes are what produce emotions Cognitive theorists believe that bodily changes and thinking work together to produce emotions