1. Chapter 12: Motivation & Emotion
Motivation: set of factors that activate, direct & maintain behavior,
usually toward some goal
….Motivation energizes and directs behavior
Emotion: subjective feeling that includes arousal (heart pounding),
cognitions (thoughts, values, & expectations), and expressive
behaviors (smiles, frowns, & running)
….Emotion is the feeling response
2. Theory of Motivation: Instinct/Evolution
• Instinct/Evolution Theories: Explains behavior in how it
supports reproduction in the organism. These behaviors
are generally innate and unlearned.
• Instincts: Unlearned, genetically programmed, fixed action
pattern of complex behavior by all members of species
examples: birds flying south in the winter, ducks imprinting, bears
hibernating, salmon swim upstream to spawn
• What instincts do humans have?
• William McDougall: 18 human instincts (parental, submission,
curiosity, escape, reproduction, repulsion, self-assertiveness, jealousy…)
• Later turned into over 10,000
• Critics
BIO
3. Theory of Motivation: Drive-Reduction
• Drive-Reduction Theory: an organism is motivated to
engage in activities that reduce an internal drive state and
return to homeostasis
• Drive: an internal state of tension that motivates an organism to
reduce tension
• Homeostasis: balanced internal state
• Lack of homeostasis – need – drive – motivate to act –
homeostasis
• Primary drives (unlearned): hunger, thirst
• Secondary drives (learned): fear, want for attention/praise
BIO
5. Theory of Motivation: Arousal
• Arousal Theory: Organisms are motivated to achieve and
maintain an optimal level of arousal. Prefer environments
that are more stimulating
• Yerkes-Dodson model
Best level of arousal for difficulty
– Low difficulty- high arousal
(lineman)
– Med difficulty- med arousal
(quarterback)
– High difficulty- low arousal
(surgeon)
BIO
6. Theory of Motivation: Incentive & Cognitive
• Incentive Theory: being driven to perform a behavior
because of some external payoff…externals “pull” us in a
certain direction
- Environmental cause of motivation
- Goal attainment
Intrinsic: internal need for achievement
Extrinsic: external reinforcement from
Expectancy: value, what you believe will/can happen
• Cognitive Theory: motivation is affected by our
attributions, or how we interpret or think about our own
and others’ actions. Expectations, interpretations,
outlooks.
PSYCHOSOCIAL
8. nAch
• Need for achievement (nAch): a social need that
directs a person to constantly strive for excellence
Low nAch
- choose easy tasks
- want to minimize
- risk of failure
High nAch:
- Set challenging, but attainable goals
- Present and future successes
- Willing to take risks
- Persist after failure
9. nAch
Achievement motivation appears to be learned
Parents: Encourage difficult tasks
Praise and give appropriate rewards for success
Provide strategies for success
Encourage new challenges
Culture: Collectivist vs. Individualist societies
10. Theory of Motivation: Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: being driven by an ascending “needs” list
BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL
12. Create a biological explanation of
hunger using the following terms:
• Glucose
• Insulin
• Leptin
• Hypothalamus
• Lateral hypothalamus
• Ventromedial nucleus
• Set Point
• Drive Reduction Theory
13. Physiology of Hunger
• Washburn’s studies
showed hunger was
partially related to the
stomach.
• But those with their
stomachs removed still
feel hunger.
14. Factors controlling hunger & satiation
Garcia Effect: occurs whenever nausea is paired with either food or
drink even if you know the food/drink did not cause your sickness
15.
16. Hormones
• Glucagon: hormone involved in carbohydrate metabolism
• produced by pancreas
• released when blood glucose levels start to fall too
low, causing the liver to convert stored glycogen into
glucose and release it into the bloodstream, raising
blood glucose levels and ultimately preventing the
development of hypoglycemia.
• Glucose: blood sugar
• Glycogen: molecule that functions as secondary long-term
energy storage in animal cells
• made primarily by liver & muscles.
17. The Brain
In the 1960’s it was discovered that hunger comes
from………..
The Hypothalamus
18. Hypothalamus
Lateral Hypothalamus
• When stimulated it makes
you hungry.
• When lesioned (destroyed)
you will never be hungry
again.
Ventromedial Hypothalamus
• When stimulated you feel
full.
• When lesioned you will
never feel full again.
19. Biological Drives-Hunger
Why do we become hungry?…We don’t only eat to survive…some eat even
though they are full, some do not eat even when they need
nourishment.
Internal Cues
• Glucostatic Theory of Hunger: As glucose levels
drop in the blood, hunger signals are initiated.
Insulin works the opposite way (high=hunger)
• Set Point Theory of Hunger and Weight: idea that
the body tries to maintain a set weight
• Fat Cell: Fixed number throughout life
• Metabolism: genetic range for individuals
• Brain Messages
– Ventromedial Hypothalamus: when stimulated, it signals
satiety (fullness)
– Lateral Hypothalamus: when stimulated, it signals hunger
External Cues
• Seeing others eat, watching a pizza commercial (stimulus
cues), time of day, memory of when ate last meal
20. How does the hypothalamus work?
Leptin
• Leptin is a protein
produced by bloated fat
cells.
• Hypothalamus senses
rises in leptin and will
curb eating and
increase activity.
• Can leptin injections
help me?
Set Point
• Hypothalamus acts like a
thermostat.
• We are meant to be in a
certain weight range.
• When we fall below weight
our body will increase
hunger and decrease
energy expenditure (Basic
Metabolic Rate).
• What happens if we go
above our set point?
Two Theories
21. The Psychology of Hunger
• Externals: people
whose eating is
triggered more by
the presence of
food than internal
factors.
22. Taste Preferences
Food taste better and we chew less when we
are hungry (beginning of a meal).
Food tastes worse
and we chew more
when we are not
hungry (at the end of
the meal).
Its weird, the better the food tastes, the less
time we leave it in our mouths.
23. Weight Control
• The thinning
of Miss
America•
•
•••
•••
•
•
•
••
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•••
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•••
• ••
•
Trend in Body Mass Index (BMI) of Miss America Pageant Winners
BMI, kg/m²
24
23
22
21
20
19
18
17
16
15
1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Year of Pageant
World Health
Organization’s
cutoff point for
undernutrition (18.5)
Trend line
Eating Disorders
- anorexia: self-starvation & extreme weight loss
- bulimia: intense, recurring episodes of binge eating and purging
- obesity: excess weight threatens their health
24. Eating Disorders
Anorexia Nervosa
• An eating disorder in
which a normal
weight person diets
and becomes
significantly
underweight, yet, still
feeling fat, continues
to starve.
25. Eating Disorders
Bulimia Nervosa
• An eating disorder
characterized by
episodes of overeating,
usually of high caloric
foods, followed by
vomiting, laxative use,
fasting, or excessive
exercise.
32. Biological Drives-Thirst
• Thirst
– Osmotic Thirst
• produced when intracellular fluids are depleted
• After salty foods
– Volemic Thirst
• produced when extracellular fluids are depleted
• Decreased blood plasma volume (example with
bleeding or diarrhea)
33. Biological Drives-Sex
• Internal Factors
– Brain mechanisms: hypothalamus regulates hormone release
which may play a role in sexual behavior
– Normal Sexual Response Cycle
– Hormones
• organize gender during gestation
(ex: androgens masculinize genitals in males)
• activate gender-specific development during puberty
(ex: breast development in women)
• their role in motivating sexual intercourse is unclear
• External Factors and Signals
– Pheromones: odors which elicit a specific response in members of
the same species
34. Emotions
Basic Emotions: Acceptance, anger, anticipation, disgust,
joy, fear, sadness, surprise
Defined
• positive or negative feelings aroused by stimuli in the
environment
Function
• enrich life
• increase readiness for fight or flight
• Three Elements of Emotions
• Physiological
• Behavioral (Reveals to the outside world)
• Subjective Exerience: Labeling Emotion (innerworld)
35. Physical Components of Emotions
• Autonomic Nervous System Activation
– Some differences in activation are noted with
specific emotions
• ex: fear shows lower blood pressure and anger shows
increases cardiovascular changes
• Polygraph: an electronic device that measures
physiological activation that some believe are related
to deception
36. Brain Mechanisms in Emotion
• Limbic System
– Amygdala: associated with fear, anxiety, and rage
– Hippocampus: important in the processing of memories
– Hypothalamus: begins a cascade of hormonal changes to
perceived threats in the environment
37. The Expression of Emotions
• Facial Expression: there is evidence that facial
expressions of various emotions are universal
(anger, disgust, happiness, fear, surprise, sadness)
• Body Language/Movements/Gestures
– ex: Thumbs up to indicate “A-OK”
• Tone of Voice/Rate of Speech
– ex: pitch of voice increases when experienced
emotion increases
39. Display Rules
• Cultural norms which prescribe who can display
what emotions
– ex: In our society, we are more accepting of men
feeling anger and women feeling sadness
40. Theories of Emotions
• James-Lange
– Theory that states that physiological arousal precedes (comes
before) and causes the sensation of emotion
• Facial-Feedback Hypothesis
– Focuses on expressive component of emotions….sensory input
is routed to subcortical area of brain that activates facial
movements, which then initiate & intensify emotions
• Cannon-Bard
– Theory that states that physiological arousal and emotional
feelings occur simultaneously
• Schacter-Singer
– Theory that states that emotion begins with an
undifferentiated arousal that we interpret into an emotion
dependent on the perceived context
42. Experiencing Emotion
• Facial Feedback Hypothesis: states that feedback
from facial muscles affects our experienced
emotion
• Gender Differences
– women report experiencing more emotion than men
– women are more comfortable experiencing emotion
than men
43.
44. Theories of Emotions
• Catharsis: emotional release (expressing anger can be temporarily
calming if it does not leave us feeling guilty or anxious)
• Relative depravation: feeling that we are worse off than others with
whom we compare ourselves.
• Adaptation Model: tend to judge various stimuli relative to those we
have previously experienced
• Opponent-Process Theory: every emotion triggers an opposing
emotion….parachute jump –fear, then elation….child birth – pain,
then euphoria
• Feel good, do good Phenomenon: When we feel happy we are more
willing to help others
45. Stress
• Stress: term used to describe the physical,
emotional, cognitive, and behavioral response
to events that are appraised as threatening or
challenging.
• Stressor: stress-causing events
– Distress: the effect of an unpleasant and
undesirable
– Eustress: effect of positive events/optimal amount
of stress that people need to promote
health/well-being.
46. Stress Disorders
• Acute Stress Disorder (ASD):
– Occurs with 4 wks of traumatic event
– Symptoms
• Anxiety, recurring nightmares, sleep disturbances,
problems concentrating, reliving the events through
dreams and flashbacks, emotional numbness.
• If it last more than 1 month it is labeled Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder
47. Stress & HealthStress & Health:: Types of StressTypes of Stress
– Life events require people to change, adapt, or
adjust and result in stress
– Scale is measures events from 0 (no change) to 100
(extreme change)
• Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Holmes & Rahe, 1967)
– Death of a spouse (100)
– Divorce (73)
– Marital Separation (65)
– Jail Term (63)
– Death of a close family member (63)
– Personal injury or illness (53)
– Marriage (50)
48. Major Life Changes
• Most stress is not from catastrophe but from
ordinary life.
• Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)
– Life events require people to change, adapt, or
adjust and result in stress
– Scale is measures events from 0 (no change) to
100 (extreme change)
• Marriage is measured as a 50
52. Stress & HealthStress & Health:: Types of StressTypes of Stress
• Physiological Responses
– Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome
• A model of the body’s stress response, consisting of
three separate stages
– Alarm
– Resistance
– Exhaustion
– Fight-or-Flight
Response
53. Stress & HealthStress & Health:: Types of StressTypes of Stress
• Behavioral Responses
– Most behavioral responses to stress involve coping
• Active efforts to master, reduce or tolerate the demands
created by stress; can be helpful or maladaptive
– Coping Mechanisms
• Learned helplessness
• Self-blame
• Aggression
• Catharsis
• Self-indulgence
• Defense mechanisms
54. Stress & HealthStress & Health:: Types of StressTypes of Stress
• Conflict
– Occurs when two (or more) incompatible
motivations or behavioral impulses compete for
expression
• Approach-Approach Conflict
– A choice must be made between two attractive goals
• Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict
– A choice must be made between two unattractive goals
• Approach-Avoidance Conflict
– A choice must be made about whether to pursue a single
goal that has both attractive & unattractive aspects
» Often produce vacillation…
55. Happiness
• Sources:
– Relationship with children
– Friends
– Contributing to others’ lives
– Relationship with spouse/partner
– Degree of control over your life
– Leisure time activities
– Relationship to parents
– Religious
– Holidays
56. Things to do to improve mood
• Talk to someone
• Listen to music
• Pray/meditate
• Help others in need
• Take a bath
• Play with a pet
• Exercise
• Go out with friends
• Eat
• Take a drive
57. 8 steps to a more satisfying life
• Count you blessings
• Practice acts of kindness
• Savor life’s joys
• Thank a mentor
• Learn to forgive
• Invest time in family/friends
• Take care of your body
• Develop strategies for coping with
stress/hardships.
