Unit VIII:Motivation & EmotionMs. Justice

AP Psychology

2014-2015

Unit VIII - Overview

37 – Motivational Concepts 38 – Hunger Motivation

39 – Sexual Motivation40 – Social Motivation: Affiliation Needs 41 – Theories & Physiology of Emotion

42 – Expressed Emotion43 – Stress & Health

44 – Stress & Illness

Unit VIII:Motivation & EmotionModule 37

Motivational Concepts

Motivation & Motivational Perspectives

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Motivation

• Motivation is a need or desire that energizes behavior and directs it towards a goal.

• Would you ever be motivated to cut off your own arm? Aron Ralston was motivated to do so in order to free himself from a rock that pinned him down.

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Perspectives on Motivation: Instinct

• Instincts are complex behaviors that have fixed patterns throughout different species and are not learned.

• Fail to explain most human motives

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

• The physiological aim is homeostasis.

Perspectives on Motivation: Drive-Reduction

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• Not only are we pushed by our need to reduce drives, we are also pulled incentives – positive or negative stimuli that lure or repel us.

A food-deprived person (need) who smells baking bread (incentive) feels a strong hunger drive.

Perspectives on Motivation: Incentives

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• Human motivation aims to seek optimum levels of arousal, not to eliminate it.

• When other needs are met, young monkeys and children are known to explore the environment in the absence of a need-based drive.

Perspectives on Motivation: Optimum Arousal

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• Abraham Maslow (1970) suggested that certain needs have priority over others:

• Physiological needs like breathing, thirst, and hunger come before psychological needs such as achievement, self-esteem, and the need for recognition. (1908-1970)

Perspectives on Motivation: A Hierarchy of Needs

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Fig. 37.3,

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