AP Psychology Chapter 8 Motivation and Emotion

Chapter 8: Motivation and Emotion Motivation ● Theories of Motivation o Instinct Theory: we are innately driven to act a certain way (evolutionary perspective) ▪ This was overruled because a tendency does not mean it is supposed to be there ▪ Instinct was redefined as complex unlearned behaviors that have a fixed pattern throughout a species o Drive Reduction Theory: our behavior is motivated by biological needs (requirements for survival) ▪ Drives: our impulses to act in ways that satisfy our needs/desire to reach homeostasis ● Primary drives: biological needs (ex: thirst) ● Secondary drives: learned drives (ex: wanting money to satisfy primary drives) ▪ Ex: need is food, drive is hunger, drive-reduction: snacking ▪ Homeostasis: a balanced internal state our body strives to be in: when we are out of it, we have a need that creates a drive ▪ Incentives: positive or negative stimuli that entice or repel us o Optimal Arousal Theory: we seek an optimum level of excitement or arousal ▪ we are motivated by activities that help us achieve our needed level ▪ balance of stimulation and relaxation, motivated to avoid boredom and stress ▪ Yerkes-Dodson Law: we might perform well at an easy task with a very high arousal level ● the same high level would worsen our performance on a difficult task o Opponent-Process Theory: people are usually at a baseline (normal) state. We might perform an act that moves us away from this state that may be pleasurable at first, but eventually we feel an opponent process and want to return to baseline state ▪ with physically addictive substances, we get withdrawal and are required to have more to return to new baseline state ▪ explains addictive behaviors o Incentive Theory: we learn to associate stimuli with rewards and others with punishment/motivated to act due to incentives o Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs ▪ Physiological needs: to satisfy drives for hunger, thirst, and shelter ▪ Safety needs: to feel safe, secure, and out of danger ▪ Belonging and love needs: to be accepted and belong ▪ Esteem needs: to achieve and to gain approval and recognition/respect ▪ Self-actualization needs: to achieve your unique potential, spiritual growth ● Hunger/Hunger Motivation o Biology: ▪ Lateral hypothalamus: causes us to eat (think L for let’s eat!) ▪ Ventromedial hypothalamus: causes us to stop eating (satiety center) ▪ Set-point theory: the hypothalamus wants to maintain a certain optimum body weight ● if we drop below the weight, it lowers our metabolic rate (how quickly our body uses energy) ● when the set point is reached the hypothalamus tells us to stop eating and raises metabolism to burn excess food ▪ Metabolism: converts food to energy, some faster than others o Psychological factors: ▪ Externals: more motivated to eat by external food cues (attractiveness or availability of food) ▪ Internals: respond more often to internal hunger cues ▪ The extent of the effect of each type of cue on us might be learned ▪ Garcia effect: taste aversion to a food results after feeling nauseous after eating it ▪ We prefer foods we were raised with o Eating Disorders ▪ Bulimia: binging and purging ▪ Anorexia nervosa: refusing to eat due to obsession with weight/starving themselves to below 85% of normal body weight ▪ Obesity: severely overweight, often by over 100 pounds, which threatens health o Hunger hormones ▪ Glucose: energy sugar that circulates throughout the body ▪ Insulin: allows our cells to promote extra glucose to fat (inverse relationship with glucose) ▪ Leptin: protein produced by bloated fat cells, says “stop eating” ▪ Orexin: triggers hunger, from hypothalamus o Ancel Key’s experiment ▪ Created obsession with food ▪ Devastating psychological and social (withdrawing) effects of starvation ● Sexual Motivation o Sexual Response Cycle: documented by William Masters and Virginia Johnson 1. Stages: ● initial excitement ● plateau phase ● orgasm ● resolution phase o Psychological Factors ▪ Sexual desire can be present even when the capability to have sex is lost ▪ Erotic material can spark physiological responses ● Social Motivation o Achievement Motivation: examines our desires to master complex tasks/knowledge and reach goals ▪ Some people have higher than others ▪ Varies from activity to activity ▪ Extrinsic motivators: rewards that we get for accomplishments from outside ourselves ● ex: grades, salary ▪ Intrinsic motivators: rewards we get internally ● ex: enjoyment, satisfaction ● most effective to sustain a behavior for a long period of time o Management Theory ▪ Theory X: managers believe that employees will work only if rewarded with benefits or threatened with punishments ▪ Theory Y: managers believe that employees are internally motivated to do good work and policies should encourage this inner motive ● studies show it's more beneficial o When Motives Conflict ▪ Approach-approach conflict: you must choose between two desirable outcomes ▪ Avoidance-avoidance conflict: you must choose between two unattractive outcomes ▪ Approach-avoidance conflict: one event or goal has both attractive and unattractive features ▪ Multiple approach-avoidance conflicts: you must choose between two or more things, each of which has both desirable and undesirable features Emotion: a mind and body’s integrated response to a stimulus ● Theories of emotion o James-Lange Theory: we feel emotion b/c biological changes cause stress (bodily reaction to an event leads to emotion) o Cannon-Bard Theory: the biological change and the cognitive awareness of the emotional state occur simultaneously (combo of bodily action and cognition) ▪ the hypothalamus sends signals to our cortex and autonomic nervous system about environment o Two-Factor Theory: Stanley Schachter said both our physical responses and cognitive labels (mental interpretations) combine to cause emotional responses ▪ People who are physiologically aroused experience more intense emotions ▪ Arousal leads to cognitively labelling it, leading to emotion ▪ SCHACTER 2 FACTOR (it rhymes!) ▪ Spillover effect: lingering arousal (increased energy/reactivity) ▪ Arousal spurs emotions but cognition directs it o Opponent-process: we trigger one emotion by suppressing its opposite (ex: happiness is no sadness) o Lazarus: stimuli leads to interpretation, which leads to both general autonomic arousal and an emotional experience o Zajonc: emotion and cognition are separate and travel different routes ▪ Ex: a loud noise startles you, you don’t control that (low road neural path, fear stimulus leads to quick fear reaction) ▪ Interpretations of situations are slower than emotional reactions ▪ Feelings influence thought ▪ Physical reaction is first due to instinct, then cognitive appraisal, then ultimate appraisal is a combo ▪ Emotion is just naming arousal ● Two dimensional model ● Number of emotions o Ekman’s 7 basic emotions: fear, anger, disgust, sadness, contempt, happiness, despair (universal) o Pluchick’s 8 primary and 8 secondary emotions: ● Stress o Stressors: life events that cause stress ▪ Catastrophes: huge unpredictable things (like natural disasters) ▪ Significant life changes: big things (moving, marrying) ▪ Everyday inconveniences: short-term minor problems (like traffic) o Stress reactions: how we react to these changes in the environment o Distress: bad, unhappy, and unpleasant strain o Eustress: optimal stress level, results from positive events (ex: adrenaline) o Measuring Stress ▪ SRRS: social readjustment rating scale, measures stress using LCU’s (life changing units) ● any major life change increases the score ● people who score high are more likely to have stress related diseases ● Thomas Holmes and Richard Rae ▪ Seyle’s General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS): describes the general response animals and humans have to a stressful event 1. alarm reaction: the organism readies itself to meet the challenge by activating the sympathetic nervous system 2. resistance: body remains physiologically ready, hormones released to maintain readiness (if in this state for too long, the body will be depleted of resources) 3. exhaustion: parasympathetic nervous system returns our body to normal (more vulnerable to disease) ▪ Explains problems associated with extended periods of stress o More stress leads to more health problems o We frequently overestimate how long it will last o Perceived Control: control over events lessens stress and a perceived lack of control makes events more stressful o Physiology of stress: ▪ Cortisol and epinephrine/adrenaline are stress hormones- this leads to heart disease, immune suppression, and autonomic nervous system effects (such as psychosomatic disorder) ● Cortisol also increases appetite and stores energy as fat ● The body focuses its energy on essential life functions (like muscles and brain) ● Contributes to heart problems ▪ B lymphocytes: fighting bacterial infections (stress leads to less since energy is immobilized away from the immune system) ▪ T lymphocytes: attacking cancer cells and viruses (stress leads to less since energy is immobilized away from the immune system) ▪ Microphages: take in foreign substances ▪ Natural killer cell: a type of lymphocyte white blood cell that destroys infected/cancerous cells