Chapter 8Chapter 8

Motivation and Emotion

Motivation: What Makes Us Motivation: What Makes Us Act as We Do?Act as We Do?

Motivation: All processes involved in starting, directing, and maintaining physical and psychological activities

Behavior motivated by…Behavior motivated by…

1. Biological factors – food, water, sex

2. Emotional factors – panic, fear, love

3. Cognitive factors – perceptions, beliefs, expectations

4. Social factors – parents, friends, media

How Psychologists Use the Concept How Psychologists Use the Concept of Motivationof Motivation

Motivation• Connects observable behavior to internal states• Accounts for variability in behavior• Explains perseverance despite adversity• Relates biology to behavior• Helps explain behavior over time• Based partly on desire to feel certain emotions

• Motivation affects emotion• MOTIVATION & EMOTION ARE INTERTWINED!!!

Types of MotivationTypes of Motivation

Drive: Biologically instigated motivation; usually from a need

Motive: Reason or purpose for behavior (often used to describe motivations that are learned, rather that biologically based)

Types of MotivationTypes of Motivation

• Conscious motivation: Having the desire to engage in an activity and being aware of the desire

• Unconscious motivation: Having a desire to engage in an activity but being consciously unaware of the desire

• Intrinsic motivation: Desire to engage in an activity for its own sake

• Extrinsic motivation: Desire to engage in an activity to achieve an external consequence (reward)

Rewards Can Sometimes Squelch Rewards Can Sometimes Squelch MotivationMotivation

Overjustification: The process by which extrinsic rewards can sometimes displace internal motivation

Theories of MotivationTheories of Motivation

Instinct theory: View that certain behaviors are determined by innate, automatic, involuntary and unlearned responses• Emphasizes biological factors• Fixed-action patterns: Genetically based

behaviors, seen across a species, that can be set off by a specific stimulus (instincts)

Theories of MotivationTheories of Motivation

Drive-reduction theory: View that motivation arises from imbalances in homeostasis• Emphasizes biological factors• Homeostasis: body’s tendency to maintain a

biologically balanced condition• Need: biological imbalance that threatens

survival if left unmet; produces drives• Brain responds to needs by creating drives• Need for food hunger drive motivates

you to find food

Theories of MotivationTheories of Motivation

Social-Cognitive Theory: motivation due to cognitive processes

Locus of control: An individual’s sense of where his or her life influences originate–internally or externally

Theories of MotivationTheories of Motivation

Freud’s Psychodymanic Theory: motivation from the unconscious

Focused on mental disorders more than everyday behaviors

Everything we do based on either

• Eros – desire for sex

• Thantos – aggressive/destructive impulse

Maslow’s Humanistic TheoryMaslow’s Humanistic Theory

Hierarchy of needs: The notion that needs occur in priority order, with the biological needs as the most basic

Theories of MotivationTheories of Motivation

Arousal theory: motivated to behave in ways that keep us at our optimal level of arousal

• Seek excitement when bored

• Seek relaxation when over-aroused

Theories of MotivationTheories of Motivation

Incentive theory: behavior is directed toward attaining desirable stimuli and avoiding unwanted stimuli

Measuring the Need for AchievementMeasuring the Need for Achievement

Need for achievement (n Ach): Mental state that produces a psychological motive to excel or reach some goal

Projection: Process by which people attribute their own unconscious motives to other people or objects

Motives in ConflictMotives in Conflict

Approach-approach conflict: A conflict in which one must choose between two equally attractive options

Avoidance-avoidance conflict: A conflict in which one must choose between two equally unattractive options

Motives in ConflictMotives in Conflict

Approach-avoidance conflict: A conflict in which there are both appealing and negative aspects to the decision to be made

Multiple approach-avoidance conflict: A conflict in which one must choose between options that have both many attractive and many negative aspects

Hunger MotivationHunger Motivation

The multiple-systems approach to hunger• Set point: Refers to the tendency of the body to

maintain a certain level of body fat and body weight

• Brain receptors/hypothalamus – fat/sugar in blood• Lack of Leptin – keep eating• Pressure detectors in stomach – full or empty• Other mechanisms – sweet and fatty foods• Physical activity

Thirst and PainThirst and Pain

Thirst/hunger: Seek a stimulus

• Volumetric thirst: A drop in extracellular fluid levels

• Osmotic thirst: A drop in intracellular fluid levels

Pain: Avoid/remove stimulus

What Do Our Emotions What Do Our Emotions Do For Us?Do For Us?

Emotions have evolved to help us respond to important situations and to convey our

intentions to others

What Is Emotion?What Is Emotion?

Emotion: A four-part process consisting of physiological arousal, cognitive interpretation subjective feelings, and behavioral expression

The Evolution of EmotionsThe Evolution of Emotions

• Emotions have survival value and have been shaped by natural selection

• Individuals vary tremendously in emotional responsiveness

• Emotions are not entirely programmed by genetics

Cultural Universals in Emotional Cultural Universals in Emotional ExpressionExpression

• Seven universal basic emotions: sadness, fear, anger, disgust, contempt, happiness and surprise (Ekman)

• There are huge cultural differences in the context and intensity of emotional displays

• Display rules: Permissible ways of displaying emotions in a particular society

The Emotion WheelThe Emotion Wheel(Robert Plutchik)(Robert Plutchik)

Two distinct brain pathways for emotional arousal:

1.Fast & unconscious

2.Slow & conscious

•clarified connections among biological structures involved in

emotion

• offered solutions to many issues in the psychology of

emotion

Where Do Our Emotions Where Do Our Emotions Come From?Come From?

Where do our emotions come from?Where do our emotions come from?The Neuroscience of EmotionThe Neuroscience of Emotion

The biological mechanisms at work behind our emotions include:• The limbic system • The reticular formation• The cerebral cortex• The autonomic nervous system• Hormones/neurotransmitters

Psychological Theories of EmotionPsychological Theories of Emotion

James-Lange theory: A stimulus produces a physical response that, in turn, produces/causes an emotion

Cannon-Bard theory: An emotional feeling and an internal physiological response to the stimulus occur at the same time• One is not the cause of the other

Psychological Theories of EmotionPsychological Theories of Emotion

Two-factor theory of emotion: Emotion results from the cognitive appraisal of both (1) physical arousal and (2) stimulus• Schachter-Singer Theory

EmotionfearCognitive interpretation

“I feel afraid!”

Physiological arousaltremblingincreased heart rate

James-James-Lange Lange theorytheory

Cannon-Cannon-bard bard

theorytheory

Two-Two-factor factor theorytheory

Stimulussnake

Stimulussnake

Stimulus

Emotionfear

Physiological arousaltremblingincreased heart rate

Physiological arousaltremblingincreased heart rate

Emotionfear

Psychological Theories of EmotionPsychological Theories of Emotion

Cognitive appraisal theory: Theory that individuals consciously decide on an appropriate emotion after the event (Lazarus)

Opponent-process theory: Theory that emotions have pairs; when one is triggered the other is suppressed

Performance

Low HighLow

High

Arousal Level

Inverted “U”Inverted “U”

Inverted “U” function: Describes the relationship between arousal and performance

• Both low and high levels of arousal produce lower performance than does a moderate level of arousal

• Easy tasks = high level; Hard tasks = low level

Developing Emotional IntelligenceDeveloping Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence: Ability to understand and control emotional responses

• Examples of when you’ve needed to mask an emotion?

• Marshmallow Test – delay of gratification

Arousal, Performance, and the Arousal, Performance, and the Inverted “U”Inverted “U”

Sensation seekers: Individuals who have a biological need for higher levels of stimulation than do other people

How and Why Do WeHow and Why Do WeExperience Stress?Experience Stress?

The human stress response to a perceived threat

activates thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and physiological

arousal that normally promote adaptation and

survival

Stress and StressorsStress and Stressors

Stress: A physical and mental response to a challenging or threatening situation

Stressor: A stressful stimulus, a condition demanding adaptation

Psychological StressorsPsychological Stressors

• Pleasant or unpleasant

• Upleasant• Catastrophic events – sudden, unexpected,

potentially life-threatening experiences or traumas

• Life changes – divorce, family illness, difficulties at work, moving

• Chronic stressors – living in unsafe area, serious illness, lack of decent living, discrimination, academic pressure

• Daily hassles – irritations, pressures, annoyances

The Physical Stress ResponseThe Physical Stress Response

Acute stress: a temporary pattern of arousal caused by a stressor with a clear onset and offset

Chronic stress: a continuous state of stressful arousal persisting over time

The Physical Stress ResponseThe Physical Stress Response

Fight-or-flight response: a sequence of internal processes that prepares the organism for struggle or escape

Tend-and-befriend model: stress response model proposing that females are biologically predisposed to respond to stress by nurturing and protecting offspring and seeking social support

The Physical Stress ResponseThe Physical Stress Response

General adaptation syndrome (GAS): a pattern of general physical responses that takes essentially the same form in responding to any serious chronic stressor

Resistance

Resistance– the body

seems to adapt to the

presence of the stressor

Alarm Reaction

Alarm reaction – the body

mobilizes it’s resources to cope with a

stressor

The General Adaptation SyndromeThe General Adaptation Syndrome

Exhaustion

Illness/death

Exhaustion– the body

depletes it’s resources

Level ofnormal resistance

Successful Resistance

Stress and the Immune SystemStress and the Immune System

Immune system: bodily organs and responses that protect the body from foreign substances and threats

Stress and the Immune SystemStress and the Immune System

Psychoneuroimmunology: Multidisciplinary field that studies the influence of mental states on the immune system

Cytokines: Hormone-like chemicals facilitating communication between brain and immune system

Personality and StressPersonality and Stress

Type A: behavior pattern characterized by intense, angry, competitive, or perfectionistic responses to challenging situations

Type B: behavior pattern characterizedby a relaxed, unstressedapproach to life

Psychological Responses to StressPsychological Responses to Stress

Learned helplessness: Pattern of not responding to noxious stimuli after an organism learns that its behavior has no effect