Unit V – Motivation and Emotion

• Memory/Cognition – What we know about the world

• Learning – How we make associations between causes and effects

• Motivation – What effects do we really desire

Learning• The studies of how learning works are some of

the earliest of psychology and are the most informative of the debate of the soul.

Habituation

• Habituation – the simplest and most basic form of learning• It is the decline in the tendency to respond to a stimuli

after repeated exposure. • Not only do our senses tune out constant stimuli, but we

also consciously learn to ignore them.• Habituation is an adaptive advantage as organisms need to

function without constantly reacting to threatening stimuli

Habituation works closely with memory:

• Short-term habituation – responses to stimuli decrease quickly after repeated exposures over a short time. Eg. 300 loud sounds over 5 hours.

• Spontaneous recovery – after an extended delay, short term habituation is extinguished and the response returns.

• Long term habituation – responses to a stimuli decrease gradually after repeated exposures over a long time. Eg. 1 loud sound per day for 1 month.

Classical Conditioning

• Habituation is the recognition of events as familiar, learning is the relationship between events and circumstances. These relationships are called associations.

• Experimental study of associations did not begin until Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

Pavlov’s Dog

• A dog was prepared for this experiment by having a small operation exposing the salivary gland to the surface, which made it possible to measure salivation automatically.Then the dog, which is fastened by leashes such that he cannot move, is given food while ringing a bell. This procedure was repeated several times.

• Before training• US (food in mouth) ------------ UR (salivation)• CS (bell ringing) -------------- No response• Training• CS (bell ringing) + US ( food in mouth)• After training• CS (bell ringing) ---------------- CR (salivation)

formerly the UR• Once the training is finished, the dog will now

salivate at the sound of the bell, which previously had no effect on the dog.

The Reflex• Unconditioned reflex – The innate relationship between

stimuli and involuntary responses. Composed of an unconditioned stimulus (US) and an unconditioned response (UR)

• Conditioned reflex – Relationships between stimuli and responses that result from experience. Composed of a conditioned stimulus (CS) and a conditioned response (CR)

Reinforcement

• Through training, the unconditioned stimulus is paired with the conditioned stimulus.

• Trials where the US occurs with the CS are reinforced

• Trials where the US occurs without the CS are unreinforced

• The tendency of the CS to elicit the CR, and the strength of the CR, go up the more often they are reinforced – this can be plotted on the learning curve.

The Learning Curve

• Learning curve: Learning is proportional to prediction error (received-predicted reward) and reaches an asymptote as the prediction error approaches zero. =prediction, and are learning constants, =reward.

Unlearning

• Extinction – the greater the number of unreinforced trials, the weaker the strength of the CR until it no longer occurs.

• Reconditioning – extinct CRs can be reconditioned through further reinforced trials. Reconditioning a CS takes fewer trials than the initial conditioning.

• Spontaneous recovery – an extinguished CR will reappear after a rest interval.

Response Strength• There are 3 ways to measure the strength of the CR:• Response amplitude – The intensity of the response.

Eg. How much saliva the dog produced.• Probability of response – The proportion of trials in

which the CR occurred when the CS was presented alone. Eg. The number of times the dog drooled when hearing the bell alone

• Response latency – the time from the presentation of the CS to the CR. Eg. The amount ot time it took the dog to drool after hearing the bell alone.

The implications of Pavlov’s discoveries has been instrumental in many different fields

eg. Advertising

• Generalization – the CS does not have to be identical in every trial, a range of variation will still elicit a CR even though the strength is reduced, this reduction is called generalization decrement.

• Discrimination - subjects can be conditioned to distinguish between very small differences in stimuli.

• pairing slightly different stimuli with reinforced trials, and others with unreinforced trials

• Discrimination is important because it shows that learning is taking place. It takes multiple trials to get the subject to remember which is the right CS and which is the unreinforced CS.

Fear

• Studies in fear have been linked with classical conditioning from its inception

Phobias

• When a negative stimulus (an electric shock) is paired with a CS (a light going on) any learned behaviour will cease; this is called response suppression.

• Many fears that adults have is closely linked with classical conditioning. If the fears are intense enough, they can be deemed phobias.

CR and UR

• Fear highlights an important relationship between the CR and the UR: the CS (the bell) is a signal for the US (the food) but is not a substitute for it.

• The CS causes the subject to prepare for the US and the subsequent CR. This occurs unconsciously and involuntarily.

Compensatory Reaction• Compensatory reaction – The conditioned response

works opposing the unconditioned response• When diabetics receive insulin shots, their bodies react

to the CS of the needle and the injection process by raising its blood sugar level.

• The same will occur in drug addicts – the drug heroin induces feelings of euphoria, relaxation, and relief from pain. Therefore the CS of the drug needle and the usual injection procedures can cause the body to ache, to become restless, and depressed.

• This requires the addict to raise the dose of the injection to attain the same effect each time they inject.

• However, in the absence of the usual CS, the body will not compensate and the same dosage will be fatal.

Journal

• What makes horror movies so frightening?• Explain how they work (sights and sounds) to

make changes occur to your body and behaviour.

Instrumental Conditioning• Studies in Instrumental Conditioning began

before Pavlov with the development of the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin – were we just a type of ape? Or was mankind special in some way?

E.L. Thorndike

• E.L. Thorndike became one of the most important figures in the history of science with his work with problem solving and animals.

• Thorndike placed a cat in the cage and observed how the cat learned to escape. The cat was then put back in the cage and Thorndike timed how long it would take for the cat to master the solution to the box (his chosen measure of learning).

• Thorndike plotted a learning curve for the cat’s speed of success.

The learning curve

• What would be expected to happen IF the cat was intelligent?

• The cat would learn quickly – sudden insight• What would be expected to happen IF the cat was

NOT intelligent?• The cat would learn gradually – trial and error

The Law of Effect• Based on his results, Thorndike

proposed his Law of Effect:• “The consequences of a

response determine whether the tendency to perform it is strengthened or weakened. If the response is followed by a satisfying event (e.g., access to food), it will be strengthened; of the response is not followed by a satisfying event, it will be weakened.”

• When introduced to a new environment, a subject will produce infinite random behaviours. As some behaviours lead to success and others to failure, certain behaviour patterns will dominate and others become extinguished. Note the absence of reason or intelligence.

B.F. Skinner

• Most of the early research on instrumental learning was performed by B. F. Skinner. Skinner proposed that instrumental learning and classical conditioning were fundamentally different processes.

Classical vs. Instrumental Conditioning

• Because the response precedes the reinforcement, rather than follows it.

• Because the response is voluntary, it must be selected from an infinite number of possible actions.

Operant Conditioning

• Instrumental Conditioning – also called Operant Conditioning – The learning process through which the consequence of an operant response affects the likelihood that the response will be produced again in the future.

Skinner Box

• Skinner devised a box in which a mechanism can be operated to produce a reinforcer. The animal can be left in the box to respond however it chooses. Skinner measured the number of responses as an indication of learning.

Man vs. Animal

• Skinner argued that everything we do can be attributed to this process of reinforcement whether we are aware of the consequences of our actions or not.

Skinner identified three consequences for behaviour:

• 1) Positive Reinforcement - Any stimulus that increases the probability of a behaviour

• 2) Negative Reinforcement - Any stimulus whose removal increases the probability of a behaviour.

• 3) Punishment - Any stimulus whose presence (or absence in negative reinforcement) decreases the probability of behaviour.

• Skinner thought that punishment was the least effective of the 3 possible consequences for learning.

• Shaping – reinforcing behaviours that are increasingly similar to the desired responses.

2 important facts:

• The larger the reinforcer, the more rapid the extinction.

• The greater the number of training trials, the more rapid the extinction.

Reinforcement schedules

• Continuous Reinforcement: every response is reinforced

• Partial Reinforcement: only some responses are reinforced.

• Learning is faster with continuous reinforcement but extinction takes longer with partial reinforcement.

Four basic schedules of partial reinforcement

• Ratio schedules: reinforcer given after some number of responses.

• Interval schedules: reinforcer given after some time period.

• Fixed: the number of responses or time period is held constant.

• Variable: the number of responses or the time period is varied.

Resulting behaviour

• Fixed-Ratio: bursts of responses. • Variable-Ratio: high, steady rate of

responding. (Slot machines work on a V-R schedule).

• Fixed-Interval: pauses with accelerating responses as the time approaches.

• Variable-Interval: after training, a slow, steady pattern of responses is usually seen.

Cognitive Learning

• Opposing the mechanical view of learning and emotions depicted by Skinner, Thorndike and Pavlov were other scientists who believed that there was more going on than simple trial and error; they felt that even the simplest animals were forming knowledge.

Edward Tolman

• Edward Tolman believed that animals were acquiring knowledge about their surroundings he called cognitions.

• He found that rats being transported around his laboratory were showing evidence that they had learned something about the space in later tests.

Test subjects were forming relationships between the CS and US based on 2 factors:

• Contiguity – togetherness in time; studies showed that there was an optimum amount of time that should pass between the CS and the US for conditioning.

• Contingency – the occurrence of the US depends on the CS; there are a multitude of stimuli that occur before the US that could also be interpreted as the CS. Subjects learned which of these stimuli signalled the coming of the US by experiencing the absence of the CS and the corresponding absence of the US.

These studies indicated that the animals were reasoning that the CS was a probable indicator of the US more than other stimuli occurring in

the environment at the time.

Fear vs. Anxiety

• When these ideas are applied to negative stimuli (electric shocks) they highlight the difference between fear and anxiety.

• When a tone precedes an electric shock 60% of trials, subjects would react to the tone with tension and response suppression - fear.

• When there was no stimuli that would predict that a shock was coming reliably, the animal constantly shows fear and suffers long term physiological consequences – anxiety

Response Control

• Subjects that were tested in conditions where they could respond to avoid their negative stimuli developed response control

• Infants who can control the movement of their crib mobiles show more interest in them.

• Subjects tested in conditions where they could not respond to avoid negative stimuli displayed learned helplessness – an acquired sense that environmental control is not possible so no efforts are made.

• Two groups of dogs were strapped into hammocks and subjected to electric shocks after the presentation of a 3 second tone. The dogs in group A were given to ability to avoid these shocks by pressing a level with their nose. The shocks of the two groups were linked, if the dogs in group A avoided the shock, so would their partners in B. Each group of dogs received the same level of shocks but only the dogs in group A could control them.

• When the dogs were then placed in a shuttle box (a cage divided in half by a low partition) A tone would precede a shock through the floor of the cage. The dogs from group A quickly learned to jump the divider at the tone to avoid the shock; the dogs in group B simply laid down on the floor of the cage and took the shocks.

• Learned helplessness has been linked to depression because they both carry the same symptoms (suppressed immune systems, weight loss, excessive sleep, etc.)

Motivation

• Motivation – the needs, wants, interests, and desires that propel people in certain directions

Humans display a huge range of goal-directed behaviour. These behaviours can be highly complex and their

dynamics known only to the agent

• These can be divided into two main categories:

• Biological motives – originate in bodily needs such as hunger or excretion.

• Social motives – originate in social experiences such as achievement

Biological Motives

• Hunger• Thirst• Sex• Temperature• Excretion• Sleep• Activity• Aggression

Social Motives

• Achievement• Affiliation• Autonomy• Nurturance• Dominance• Exhibition• Order• Play

Attribution Errors• Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) - The bias to

attribute behaviour to stable internal causes rather than external ones

FAE expression factors:• What if we tell people what behaviours they must

express?• This has been shown to be consistent even when observers

ascribe the participants into their opinion groups themselves. (Gilbert and Jones 1986)

• What if we find out that there might be some kind of agenda explaining someone’s behaviours?

• Some dispositional factors have also been shown to impact FAE.

• When observers are informed that the opinion of a participant matches that of an authority figure who could control rewards or punishments in the participants future – FAE diminishes. (Fein 2001)

Gilbert and Malone (1995) – have shown that FAE involves a two step attribution process:

• First - We observe behaviour and make an automatic and unconscious inference toward disposition

• Second - We make a controlled and conscious process inquiry into the situational factors that could explain the behaviour

• FAE’s occur when we do not proceed to the second step.– We are distracted by other tasks– We believe that our first explanation based on

dispositional inferences is a sufficient explanation

Self-serving bias – attributing our successes to internal dispositional factors and blame failures on external

situational factors• Johnson et al• Aims – to investigate the effect of performance

improvements on the perceptions of teachers assessments of their abilities.

• Methods – Participants were asked to teach students how to multiply by using a one-way intercom in two stages. The control group performed well in both phases, the first experimental group showed no improvement from the first to the second phase, the second group showed improvement. The participants were then asked to explain the improvement in the second phase

• Conclusions – When there was no improvement in the student, the participants ascribed it to a lack of ability in the student, when there was improvement, the participants ascribed this to their abilities as teachers.

Some exceptions to the SSB:• We are more likely to rely on SSB when we fail in domains in which

we cannot improve but we are more likely to attribute failure to internal dispositions if there is something we can improve on in the future.

• Abrahamson (1989) found that people with depression often rely on an attributional style that links success to external and failure to internal factors

• Zuckerman (1979) meta-analysis of SSB studies show that the effect stems from a desire to maintain self-esteem

• Hiene (1999) found less desire to seek self-esteem reinforcing experiences in collectivist cultures and therefore found less SSB’s occurring in that culture.

• Miller and Ross (1975) SSB has rational uses apart from self-esteem enhancement. Logically, effort changes with success. If increased effort does not increase performance then the conclusion must be the nature of the task, if increased effort yields increased results, then the success is attributable to the self.

Social Identity Theory (Tajfel et al. 1979)

• Based on four interrelated concepts:– Social categorization– Social identity– Social comparison– Positive distinctiveness

Social Categorization

• Divides the environment into two groups:– Ingroup– Outgroup

• This has the effect of category accentuation effect:– reducing perceived variability in the ingroup– reducing perceived variability in the outgroup– increasing perceived variability between the

ingroup and the outgroup

Social Identity•Our self-concepts formed by being members of various social groups – based on intergroup behaviours rather than interpersonal ones. People can have several of these– Where do student-teacher relationships fit in here?

Social Comparison•We continuously compare our ingroups to relevant outgroups to maintain positive social identities. Positive distinctiveness•The need to show that your ingroup is superior to an outgroup

Explain these concepts as they are expressed in the film The Breakfast Club

These lead to intergroup behaviours with some general characteristics:

• 1) Ethnocentrism– Positive behaviours by ingroup members attributed to dispositions– Negative behaviours by ingroup members attributed to situational

factors– Positive behaviours of outgroup members attributed to situational

factors– Negative behaviours or outgroup members attributed to dispositions

• 2) In group favoritism• 3) Intergroup differentiation - altered behaviour to emphasize

group differences• 4) Stereotypical Thinking – ingroup members and outgroup

members are perceived according to stereotypes• 5) Conformity to ingroup norms – acting according to defined

behaviours

Minimal Group Paradigm – Tajfel et al (1971)

• Aims – To determine the effect of group membership on behaviours• Method – participants were divided into groups randomly but told

that their group membership was based on personal taste in artists. They were then asked to assign points to other members of the study according to predetermined rules.

• Conclusions – the participants exhibited strong SIT tendencies such as favoring members of their own group and assigning points in such a way as to enhance the difference between the groups rather than increase the benefit to their own group.

• Despite criticisms of demand characteristic validity issues these findings have proven consistent in real-life situations and when participant do not know they are being observed.

• Mummendey and Otten (1998) - The effect is more powerful when distributing rewards than when distributing punishments.

• Dobbs and Crano (2001) – the effect is diminished when subjects must justify their reward strategies afterwards.

Stereotypes

• Stereotypes – widely held evaluative generalizations about a group of people.

• Assigns similar characteristics to all members of a group despite variability

• Has all the properties of schemas• Based on defining characteristics: gender, age,

race, etc.• Are persistent across cultures

Formation of stereotypes

• Four theories of the structure and function of stereotypes:

1.Social-cognitive theories2.SIT3.Systems-justification theory4.Social representation theory

Stereotype formation – social cognitive theories

• Limited capacities for cognitive processing• Complex world – increasing complexity• Social categorization simplifies cognitive

processing• Social categorization – stereotypes– Energy-saving devices– Automatically activated– Stable and resistant to change– Affect behaviour

Stereotype Formation – Social Identity Theory

• Stereotypes – based on category accentuation effect and positive distinctiveness.

• Sherman et al (2009) – we pay more attention to those ingroup and outgroup members that maximize positive distinctiveness.

• Ethnocentrism leads biased attributions to behaviours of ingroup and outgroup members.

Stereotypes – Systems justification theory

• Jost and Banaji (1994) – stereotypes are used to justify social and power relations in society. eg. rich vs. poor

• SIT and social-cognitive approaches to stereotyping cannot explain negative self-stereotyping – internalization of negative stereotype attributes in disadvantaged groups

Stereotypes – Social-representations theory

• Moscovici (1984) – Stereotypes emerge from group beliefs shared by a society rather than by individual schema activation.

• Both SJT and SRT emphasize negative perceptions – stereotypes have been shown to be predominantly negative (Fiske and Taylor 2008)

Stereotypes and performance

• Stereotype threat effect – performance impairment that results when individuals asked to carry out a task are made aware of a negative stereotype held against them regarding their group’s ability to perform that task well.

• Spencer et al (1999) – informing females that they perform statistically worse than men on math tasks prior to taking a math test lowered their scores

• Steele and Aronson (1995) – performance of African-Americans on verbal skills tasks was lower when they were asked to indicate their race prior to beginning.

Origins of Personality

• Although people have a limited number of biological needs (10 – 15) they can be socialized to have an unlimited number of social needs.

• The strength of each need varies from person to person and becomes a crucial factor in defining identity and personality.

Biological needs - hunger

• Early research into hunger showed a string correlation between stomach contractions and hunger – researchers thought that hunger was caused by stomach contractions

• But patients who have had their stomachs removed for medical reasons continued to experience hunger

3 causes of hunger

• Brain regulation• Blood sugar levels• Hormones

Brain regulation

• The experience of hunger is controlled in the hypothalamus• Lateral Hypothalamus – turned hunger off• Ventromedial Hypothalamus – turned hunger on• Paraventricular Hypothalamus – works with both

Glucose regulation• Glucose – a simple sugar that is an important source

of energy• Most of what we consume is converted into glucose• Low blood sugar levels are associated with hunger• High blood sugar levels are associated with

satedness• Glucostatic theory – neurons sensitive to glucose in

the surrounding fluid send signals to the brain to stop/start eating

Digestive Regulation

• Vagus nerve – sends signals to the brain when the stomach walls are stretched

• Other nerves carry signals that depend on how rich in nutrients the contents of the stomach are.

Hormonal regulation

• Insulin – hormone secreted in the pancreas. It must be present for cells to extract glucose from the blood.

• High insulin – hunger• Low insulin – no hunger• Leptin – produced by fat cells throughout the body.

Provides information to the hypothalamus about the body’s fat levels

• High leptin – low hunger• Low leptin – high hunger

What are the key environmental factors governing eating?

• Learned preferences• Food-related cues• Stress

How does classical conditioning play a role in eating?

• Preferences in taste are learned through associations created in classical conditioning.

If you force a child to eat, will they eventually like it? Why or why not?

• Coercion tends to have a negative effect on preference for a food. They have learned an aversion to the food from the unpleasant association created when they were exposed to it.

How does memory influence eating?

• A key component to hunger is our memory of the last time we ate. The appropriate duration between meals is learned through socialization.

What effect does the sight of food have?

• The sight and smell of food trigger hunger. This includes its appetizingness, the effort required to eat it, and its availability.

How are stress and eating related? Is this relationship the same for men

and women?• The arousal related to stress, rather than

stress itself, leads to more eating. This is common in women more than in men.

Define obesity.

• The condition of being overweight, more than 20% above the ideal weight.

• What are the negative effects of obesity?• Overweight people are susceptible to

diabetes, high blood pressure, respiratory problems, stroke, arthritis, and back problems.

What has brought on obesity in modern times?

• Only recently have humans stopped eating wild foods and switched to domesticated, high sugar foods. Our bodies have not adapted to the new diet.

How common is dieting?

• 24% of men and 40% of women diet

Can you be born to be fat? Explain. What have scientists studied to

answer this?

• Scientists have discovered through studying adopted children and twins raised in different families that people can be born with a vulnerability to obesity. Genetic factors account for 61% of the variation in weight of women and 73% in men.

Define body set point. Can you change your body’s set point?

• Set Point – a natural point of stability in body weight. Long term excessive eating can raise the body’s set point but it is very difficult to lower it.

Achievement vs. Affiliation

• Achievement – the need to master difficult challenges, to outperform others, and to meet high standards of excellence.

• This becomes more prominent in competitive situations and can be measures for entire societies through studying literature or movies.

The tendency to pursue achievement depends on the following factors.

• The strength of the motivation to achieve. • The estimate of the probability of success• The incentive value of success.

Affiliation

• Affiliation – the need to associate with others and maintain social bonds.

• Also included the fear of rejection, jealousy, and depression.

TAT Test

• Achievement and affiliation levels in people can be measured with a Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) in which subjects are shown stimuli with ambiguous meaning. They are then asked to construct a fictional narrative for the image. These narratives can be analyzed for their achievement or affliative content.

Journal

• Observe the following image carefully. Construct a narrative (a story) that could explain the scene you are observing.

• Bring in your narrative and exchange it with a partner. Analyze each narrative for its affiliative or achievement motives.

Emotions

• There are 3 elements to emotional experience:

• 1. subjective conscious experience (cognitive)• 2. bodily arousal (physiological)• 3. characteristic overt expression (behavioral)

The cognitive component

• Emotions happen to us rather than something that we make happen

• Some degree of emotional control is possible (emotional intelligence)

• People’s conscious appraisals of situations are key determinants of emotions – evaluation of an emotion as good or bad

The physiological component

• The biological reaction to situations involves structures of the brain, neurotransmitters, and the endocrine system.

• Autonomic Nervous System – regulates the activity of the glands, smooth muscles, and blood vessels. – fight or flight response

• Galvanic Skin Response – the change in electrical conductivity of the skin that occurs when the sweat glands of the skin increase their activity.

Autonomic Responses

• Sympathetic • Pupils dilated• Dry mouth• Goose bumps• Sweaty palms• Dilated lungs lungs• Increased heart rate• Adrenal activity• Inhibited digestion

• Parasympathetic• Pupils constrict• Salivating mouth• No goose bumps• Dry palms• Constricted lungs• Decreased heart rate• Decreased activity• Stimulated digestion

Brain Activity

• The emotional centers of the brain are the:• Hypothalamus• Amygdala• Limbic system• The amygdala plays a central role in

processing emotional stimuli

The Amygdala

• The thalamus process emotional stimuli immediately and passes them on to the amygdala or the cortex.

• If the amygdala detects a threat then it triggers the hypothalamus to create an autonomic and endocrine response.

The behavioral component• Emotions are expressed in “body language” or

nonverbal behavior.• When evaluating photographs of facial expressions,

subjects successfully identify 6 emotions:• Happiness• Disgust• Sadness• Fear • Surprise• Anger

Facial responses

• Evidence suggests that facial muscles send signals to the brain that help the cortex interpret emotional stimuli

• Subjects asked to adopt a facial expression will report feeling that emotion

• Subjects who have been blind since birth still adopt facial expressions like everyone else.

Theories of emotion

• James-Lange Theory – the perception of arousal leads to the conscious experience of fear – different patterns of autonomic activation lead to different emotions

• Cannon-Bard Theory – emotion occurs when the thalamus sends signals directly to the cortex and the autonomic nervous system.

• Schachter’s Two-Factor Theory – Emotion depends on two factors 1) autonomic arousal 2) cognitive interpretation of that arousal. You feel a certain way and search for reasons why.

Emotions• Darwin – emotions developed because of

their adaptive value. Emotions are innate reactions to specific stimuli. They are recognizable without thought.

Innate emotional vocabulary

• Humans are born with 6 – 10 emotions that originate in the subcortical brain:

• fear, anger, joy, disgust, interest, surprise. • All other emotions are the result of • 1) variations in intensity of emotions• 2) blending of several different emotions.

The Nature of Personality

• Personality is the consistent disposition to behave a certain way in a variety of situations.

Personality can be described according to 5 Factors:

• Agreeableness – people who are sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, modest, and straightforward vs. People who are suspicious, antagonistic, and aggressive

• Openness to experience – people who are curious, flexible, vivid fantasy, imaginative, artistic, and unconventional - a key determinant of political attitudes.

• Neuroticism – people who are anxious, hostile, self- conscious, insecure and vulnerable. It is also called negative emotionality.

• Extraversion – people who are outgoing, sociable, upbeat, friendly, assertive, and gregarious. Also called positive emotionality.

• Conscientiousness – people who are diligent, disciplined, well-organized, punctual, and dependable. It is also called constraint and is associated with success and high productivity.

Personality theory• The 5 Factors can describe behaviour, but

they don’t account for it’s development and processes.

• There are 4 main groups of personality theories

• Psychodynamic theories• Behavioural theories• Humanistic theories• Biological theories

Psychodynamic Theory

• Based on the work of Sigmund Freud

• Psychodynamic theory explains motivation, personality, and disorders by focussing on the influence of early childhood experiences, unconscious motives and conflicts, and coping with sexual and aggressive urges.

Freud proposed three components of personality: behaviour was the result of interactions between these

three parts.• Id• Ego• Superego

Id

• Id – the primitive, instinctual component that operates according to the pleasure principle – it demands immediate gratification of raw biological urges. It’s thinking is primitive, illogical, irrational, and fantasy oriented.

Ego

• Ego – the decision-making component that operates according to the reality principle, which seeks to delay gratification of the id’s urges until the socially acceptable moment can be found. It’s thinking is rational, realistic, and problem solving.

Superego

• Superego – the moral component that incorporates social standards about right and wrong. It emerges from the ego at approx. 3 to 5 years old.

Freud believed that there were 3 levels of awareness

• the unconscious – thoughts. Memories, and desires that are below the level of consciousness but exert a large effect on behaviour

• the preconscious - material just beneath the level of consciousness but that can be easily retrieved.

• the conscious – everything one is aware of at any given moment.

Anxiety

• Anxiety is caused by conflict between the 3 components of personality. We deal with this anxiety with defense mechanisms – unconscious reactions that protect a person from unpleasant emotions (eg. Anxiety or guilt)

Defense Mechanisms• Repression – keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in

the unconscious.• Projection – Attributing one’s own thoughts, feelings, or motives

to someone else.• Displacement – Diverting emotional feelings from their original

source to a substitute target.• Reaction formation – Behaving in a way that is exactly opposite

of one’s true feelings• Regression – A reversion to immature patterns of behaviour.• Rationalization – Creating false but plausible excuses to justify

unacceptable behaviour.• Identification – Bolstering self-esteem by forming an imaginary

or real alliance with some person or group.

Behavioural Perspectives

Albert Bandura• Albert Bandura – believed in much

of Skinner’s ideas of conditioning but added environmental factors in a theory called reciprocal determinism – the idea that internal mental events, external environmental events, and overt behaviour all influence one another.

• In essence, people can control their own conditioning.

Observational Learning

• Observational learning occurs when an organism’s responding is influenced by the observation of other models – a person whose behaviour is observed by another (often people who are attractive or powerful).

• People are more likely to follow a model’s behaviour when they see it leads to positive outcomes.

Humanistic Perspectives

• Humanism is a theoretical orientation that emphasizes the unique qualities of humans especially for their potential for growth and freedom

• The person’s subjective view of the world is more important than objective reality

Carl Rogers

• Carl Rogers – believed in the construct of the self – a collection of beliefs about one’s own nature, unique qualities, and typical behaviour.

• People tend to distort their experiences to promote a favourable self-concept

Incongruence

• Incongruence – the gap between the self concept and actual experience

• Experiences that are conflicting with our self concept cause incongruence and are the primary source of anxiety.

• Individuals behave defensively to avoid anxiety and incongruence. They will ignore, deny, and distort reality to preserve or enhance their self-concept.

Abraham Maslow

• Abraham Maslow – Proposed that human motivation can be organized into a hierarchy of needs – a systematic arrangement of needs according to priority in which basic needs must be met before less basic needs.

• The satisfaction of basic needs leads to the activation of needs at the next level up. Humans have an innate drive to achieve a higher state of being – progression, and feel anxiety when lower needs are not being met – regression.

7 Levels of needs:

• Physiological needs• Safety and security needs• Belongingness and love needs• Esteem needs• Cognitive needs• Aesthetic needs• Self-actualization

Regressio

n Progression

Self-actualization

• Self-actualization – the need to fulfill one’s potential. Persons who achieve self-actualization have exceptionally healthy personalities, marked by continuous personal growth.

Characteristics of self-actualized individuals• Clear perception of reality and comfortable relations with it• Spontaneity, simplicity, and naturalness• Problem centering (having something outside themselves they

must “do” as a mission)• Detachment and need for privacy• Continued freshness of appreciation• Mystical and peak experiences• Feelings of kinship and identification with the human race• Strong friendships, but limited in number• Democratic character• Ethical discrimination between good and evil• Philosophical, unhostile sense of humor• Balance in polarities of personality