Introduction to Psychology - Chapter 9 Motivation Emotion

Chapter 9: Motivation & Emotion Explaining Motivation 9.1 Foundations of Motivation How do psychologists define and classify motivation? For psychologists, motivation is a very broad term that encompasses all the processes that initiate, direct, and sustain behavior. As such, it takes in a lot of mental and behavioral territory. To make the task of studying motivation more manageable, we will break the topic down into its constituent parts and categorize motivations into several types. The Components of Motivation. Generally, psychologists consider motivation to have three components: activation, persistence, and intensity. To understand each, think about the role of motivation in studying for an exam. In the activation phase, you take the first steps required to achieve your goal of being prepared for the exam. You find out what will be covered on the exam; locate the appropriate material in your textbook, notes, and other resources; and develop a study plan. Persistence is the faithful and continued effort put forth in working toward a goal. In other words, this phase of motivation requires that you put your plan into action and stick to it even in the face of distractions and obstacles. Intensity refers to the focused energy and attention applied in order to achieve the goal. When you study, do you get caught up in your interest in the subject matter or in the emotional roller coaster that comes from thinking about the alternate possibilities of success and failure? Either way, it’s the intensity component of motivation that’s at work. In addition to breaking motivation into its component parts, researchers can further their understanding of motivation by working from a precise definition of the term motive, a concept that is narrower than the full scope of motivation itself. A motive is a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior toward a goal. The motives that might compel a student to study for an exam are many. The student might derive self-esteem from getting good grades, or she might desire to escape from the anxiety that comes from a failing grade. Either motive would push her in the direction of moving through the motivational steps outlined above. Thus, two people could exhibit exactly the same behavior on the basis of very different motives. Primary Drives and Social Motives. Most people would agree that, at times, physiological needs demand our full attention. The primary drives direct our behavior toward the fulfillment of these needs. Primary drives are unlearned and include thirst, hunger, and sex. Later in the chapter, you’ll learn more about thirst, hunger, and sexual motivation. In contrast to primary drives, social motives are learned through experience and interaction with others. This group of motives includes those that influence our behavior in social settings such as workplaces and schools. One of the social motives is work motivation, the conditions, and processes responsible for the arousal, direction, magnitude, and maintenance of effort of workers on the job. Another is achievement motivation, a social motive that includes the factors that move people to seek success in academic settings. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation. Motives can arise from something inside yourself, such as when you keep studying because you find the subject matter interesting. Such activities are pursued as ends in themselves, simply because they are enjoyable, not because any external reward is attached. This type of motivation is known as intrinsic motivation. Other motives originate from outside, as when some external stimulus, or incentive, pulls or entices you to act. When the desire to get a good grade—or to avoid a bad grade—causes you to study, the grade is serving as this kind of external incentive. When we act so as to gain some external reward or to avoid some undesirable consequence, we are pulled by extrinsic motivation. 9.2 Biological Approaches to Motivation How do drive-reduction and arousal theory explain motivation? Perhaps you have heard the term instinct used to explain why spiders spin webs or birds fly south in the winter. An instinct is a fixed behavior pattern that is characteristic of every member of a species and is assumed to be genetically programmed. Thus, instincts represent one kind of biological motivation. Psychologists generally agree that no true instincts motivate human behavior. However, most also agree that biological forces underlie some human behaviors. One biological approach to motivation, drive-reduction theory, was popularized by Clark Hull (1943). According to Hull, all living organisms have certain biological needs that must be met if they are to survive. A need gives rise to an internal state of tension called a drive, and the person or organism is motivated to reduce it. For example, when you are deprived of food or go too long without water, your biological need causes a state of tension—in this case, the hunger or thirst drive. You become motivated to seek food or water to reduce the drive and satisfy your biological need. Drive-reduction theory is derived largely from the biological concept of homeostasis — the tendency of the body to maintain a balanced, internal state to ensure physical survival. Body temperature, blood sugar level, water balance, blood oxygen level—in short, everything required for physical existence—must be maintained in a state of equilibrium, or balance. When such a state is disturbed, a drive is created to restore the balance. Drive-reduction theory assumes that humans are always motivated to reduce tension. Other theorists argue just the opposite, that humans are sometimes motivated to increase tension. These theorists use the term arousal to refer to a person’s state of alertness and mental and physical activation. Arousal levels can range from no arousal (when a person is comatose), to moderate arousal (when pursuing normal day-to-day activities), to high arousal (when excited and highly stimulated). Arousal theory states that people are motivated to maintain the level of arousal that each individual considers to be optimal. If arousal is less than the optimal level, we do something to stimulate it; if arousal exceeds the optimal level, we seek to reduce the stimulation. When arousal is too low, stimulus motives —such as curiosity and the motives to explore, manipulate objects, and play—cause humans and other animals to increase stimulation. There is often a close link between arousal and performance. According to the Yerkes– Dodson law, performance on tasks is best when the person’s arousal level is appropriate to the difficulty of the task. Performance on simple tasks is better when arousal is relatively high. Tasks of moderate difficulty are best accomplished when arousal is moderate; complex or difficult tasks, when arousal is lower. But performance suffers when the arousal level is either too high or too low for the task. The relationship between arousal and performance is most often explained in terms of attention. Low arousal allows the mind to wander, so performance declines for tasks that require concentration, such as taking a test. By contrast, high arousal interferes with concentration by taking up all the available space in working memory. The ideal level of arousal for test taking, then, is an amount that is sufficient to keep the mind from wandering but not so great as to interfere with the memory demands of taking the test. Critics of this theory have argued that arousal is merely one of many variables that influence attention. Moreover, they point out that the Yerkes–Dodson law is based primarily on animal research ( Hancock & Ganey, 2003 ). For these reasons, they caution against generalizing arousal theory to complex human behaviors such as test performance without taking into account other factors that influence how humans allocate attention. 9.3 Behavioral and Social-Cognitive Approaches to Motivation How do behavioral and social-cognitive theories explain work and achievement motivation? Work Motivation. What motivates workers to perform well on the job? Psychologists who apply their knowledge in the workplace are known as industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologists. I/O psychologists design behavior modification plans that use reinforcers such as supervisor praise, bonuses, and extra time off to motivate employees to improve job performance. They may also use a strategy called goal setting in which supervisors provide employees with specific goals, such as providing sales-people with goals that are defined in dollar amounts or numbers of units sold, which leads to higher levels of performance than simply telling people to do their best ( Seitjs & Latham, 2012 ). An organization can enhance employees’ commitment to goals by (1) having them participate in the goal setting, (2) making goals specific, attractive, difficult, and attainable, (3) providing feedback on performance, and (4) rewarding the employees for attaining the goals ( Katzell & Thompson, 1990 ). Several social-cognitive theories have been applied to research on work motivation. According to one of these— expectancy theory —motivation to engage in a given activity is determined by (1) expectancy, a person’s belief that more effort will result in improved performance; (2) instrumentality, the person’s belief that doing a job well will be noticed and rewarded; and (3) valence, the degree to which a person values the rewards that are offered. Several studies have supported expectancy theory by showing that employees work harder when they believe that more effort will improve their performance, when they think that a good performance will be acknowledged and rewarded, and when they value the rewards that are offered ( Diefendorff & Chandler, 2011 ). Achievement Motivation. In early research, social-cognitive theorist Henry Murray (1938) developed the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), which consists of a series of pictures of ambiguous situations. The person taking the test is asked to create a story about each picture— to describe what is going on in the picture, what the person or persons pictured are thinking about, what they may be feeling, and what is likely to be the outcome of the situation. The stories are presumed to reveal the test taker’s needs and the strength of those needs. One of the motives identified by Murray was the need for achievement (abbreviated n Ach ), or the motive to accomplish something difficult and to maintain a high standard of performance. The need for achievement, rather than being satisfied with accomplishment, seems to grow as it is fed. Researchers David McClelland and John Atkinson have conducted many studies of the n Ach ( McClelland, 1958, 1961, 1985; McClelland et al., 1953 ). People with a high n Ach pursue goals that are challenging yet attainable through hard work, ability, determination, and persistence. Goals that are too easy, those anyone can reach, offer no challenge and hold no interest because success would not be rewarding ( McClelland, 1985 ). Impossibly high goals and high risks are not pursued because they offer little chance of success and are considered a waste of time. The goals of those with high n Ach are self-determined and linked to perceived abilities; thus, these goals tend to be realistic ( Roberts, Treasure, & Conroy, 2007 ). Another social-cognitive theory known as goal orientation theory provides a somewhat different view of achievement motivation. According to this perspective, achievement motivation varies according to which of the four goal orientations an individual adopts ( Wolters, 2004 ). Here’s how each of the orientations might affect a college student. Students with a mastery/approach orientation will study and engage in other behaviors (e.g., attend class) so as to increase their knowledge and overcome challenges. Those who have a mastery/avoidance orientation will exhibit whatever behaviors are necessary to avoid failing to learn (a different outcome than a failing grade, by the way). Students with a performance/avoidance orientation will measure their performance against that of other students and are motivated to work to the point where they are at least equal to their peers. Finally, those who have a performance/approach orientation try to surpass the performance of their peers in an attempt to enhance their own sense of self-worth. 9.4 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs What are Maslow’s views on motivation? Another view of motivation, associated with the humanistic personality theory of Abraham Maslow, suggests that physiological motivations are the foundation for so-called higher-level motives ( Maslow, 1970 ). He proposed that motivation is the process through which humans seek to meet their needs. Human needs, Maslow claimed, are hierarchical in nature, with our need for food and shelter at the bottom and our need for self-actualization at the top. Selfactualization is the pursuit of self-defined goals for personal fulfillment and growth. For example, a successful businessman who retires early to devote his time to charitable work is pursuing self-actualization goals. Thus, as Figure 9.3 suggests, in Maslow’s view, it is impossible for an individual to attain self-actualization without first meeting his or her needs at the lower levels of the hierarchy. One implication of Maslow’s theory is that we must work through our lower needs to experience the fulfillment that comes from pursuing personal growth for its own sake. However, the hierarchy also implies that humans are motivated by their lowest unmet need. If we ask, for example, why a student in school is failing to achieve one of Maslow’s esteem needs, it is possible that the student has an unmet lower need. He or she may be hungry (physiological need), feel threatened in the school environment (safety need), or be concerned about peer rejection (belongingness need). Consequently, Maslow’s theory has helped educators understand that providing students with adequate nutrition, ensuring their safety while at school, and supporting their social development may be as critical to achievement as curriculum materials and teaching strategies are. Despite the practical implications of Maslow’s theory, critics have often charged that selfactualization is an elusive concept. Maslow agreed to some extent and, in an effort to better illustrate the phenomenon, he studied people he believed were using their talents and abilities to their fullest. He studied some historical figures, such as Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson, and some individuals who made significant contributions during his or her own lifetime, including Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Albert Schweitzer. Maslow found these selfactualizers to be accurate in perceiving reality—able to judge honestly and to spot quickly the fake and the dishonest. Most of them believed that they had a mission to accomplish or need to devote their life to some larger good. Finally, the hallmark of self-actualizers is frequently occurring peak experiences —experiences of deep meaning, insight, and harmony within and with the universe. Remember It: 1. Reading for pleasure is an example of ______ motivation. 2. Drive-reduction theory asserts that the desire to maintain _______ motivates human behavior. 3. The ______ law explains the relationship between arousal and performance. 4. Individuals who have a high need for achievement set goals that are of _____ difficulty. 5. In Maslow’s view, after a people’s physical and safety needs are satisfied, they seek fulfillment of _____, ______, and ______needs. 6. ______ Psychologists study the factors the influence work motivation. Hunger 9.5 Internal & External Cues How do internal and external cues influence eating? Like thirst, hunger is influenced by physiological processes. Eating stimulates the brain’s pleasure system. Thus, one of the reasons that we eat is because it is pleasurable. However, some researchers speculate that, as is true for some drugs, something can go awry in the brain’s pleasure system such that food loses its capacity for inducing pleasure and, instead, becomes the object of compulsive behavior ( Berridge, 2009 ). As a result, a person becomes driven to eat or to avoid eating without regard to hunger, the pleasure associated with eating, or the consequences of compulsive consumption or avoidance of food. Excessive food avoidance or consumption may also be caused by dysfunctions in the brain’s feeding/satiety (fullness) system. As researchers discovered long ago, the lateral hypothalamus (LH) acts as a feeding center to incite eating. Stimulating the feeding center causes animals to eat even when they are full ( Delgado & Anand, 1953 ). And when the feeding center is destroyed, animals initially refuse to eat ( Anand & Brobeck, 1951 ). The ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) apparently acts as a satiety center that inhibits eating ( Hernandez & Hoebel, 1989 ). If the VMH is surgically removed, animals soon eat their way to gross obesity ( Hetherington & Ranson, 1940; Parkinson & Weingarten, 1990 ). Moreover, some of the substances secreted by the gastrointestinal tract during digestion, such as the hormone cholecystokinin (CCK), act as satiety signals ( Geary, 2004 ). 9.6 Explaining Variations in Body Weight What factors contribute to individual differences in body weight? Healthcare professionals classify individuals’ body weights using a measure of weight relative to height called the body mass index (BMI). A BMI that is less than 18.5 is considered underweight, while one in excess of 25 is classified as overweight. To calculate your BMI, use this formula or search online for a BMI calculator. BMI = [Weight in pounds ÷ (height in inches × height in inches)] × 703 Why are there variations in human body weight? Heredity is one reason ( Hamdy, 2012 ). More than 40 genes appear to be related to body weight regulation ( Barsh et al., 2000 ). But what exactly do people inherit that affects body weight? Researchers Friedman and colleagues identified the hormone leptin, which affects the hypothalamus and may be an element in the regulation of body weight ( Smucny et al., 2012 ). Leptin is produced by the body’s fat tissues. Decreases in body fat cause lower levels of leptin in the body. Lower levels of leptin stimulate food intake because the body “thinks” that it may be in danger of starvation. When leptin levels increase sufficiently people begin to lose weight due to the appetite-suppressing effects of rising levels of leptin. In one study, obese mice injected with leptin lost 30% of their body weight within 2 weeks ( Halaas et al., 1995 ). However, the bodies of humans who are obese appear to develop a tolerance for the effects of leptin. Consequently, researchers are currently searching for a way to counteract this tolerance in hopes of developing a leptin-based anti-obesity drug ( Ozcan et al., 2009 ). The rate at which the body burns calories to produce energy is called the metabolic rate, and it is also influenced by genes. Further, set point theory suggests that each person is genetically programmed to carry a certain amount of body weight ( Keesey, 1978 ). Set point — the weight the body maintains when one is trying neither to gain nor to lose weight—is affected by the number of fat cells in the body and by metabolic rate, both of which are influenced by the genes ( Gurin, 1989 ). Researchers think that fat cells send biochemical messages indicating how much energy is stored in them to the hypothalamus ( Hallschmid et al., 2004 ). Presumably, the genes influence what the hypothalamus “believes” to be the appropriate amount of energy to store. One of the most important current lines of research in this area aims to identify these biochemical messages and influence them in ways that will lower the set points of obese individuals ( Hallschmid et al., 2004 ). 9.7 Obesity & weight Loss What does research suggest about obesity and dieting? Variations in body weight have emerged as an important public health topic in recent years because of the link between excessive weight and health problems, such as heart disease and arthritis ( Hamdy, 2012 ). The prevalence of both overweight (BMI between 25 and 29.9) and obesity (BMI over 30) has risen dramatically over the past three decades. More than onethird of adults in the United States are obese. Most individuals who are obese require the help of a physician to attain a healthy weight. For one thing, many suffer from other health problems, such as diabetes, that are linked to their weight problems in complex ways. Thus, any weight-loss program they undertake must be managed in such a way that does not aggravate other conditions. Children who are obese also require medical assistance to lose weight because caloric-restriction diets can interfere with their growth ( Krebs & Primak, 2011 ). For unknown reasons, some people who suffer from obesity appear to be unable to reverse the trend of continual weight gain. For these individuals, bariatric surgery, procedure in which the capacity of the stomach is modified to reduce the amount of food that the person can consume, may be the only alternative ( Saber, 2012 ). Candidates for bariatric surgery must have a BMI in excess of 40. Individuals with BMIs ranging from 35 to 39 may be considered for the surgery if they have a weight-related health problem, such as diabetes or high blood pressure. Among more than 80% of patients, the bariatric surgical technique known as gastric bypass results in both weight reduction below the obesity threshold and improvements in weight-related health conditions ( Schauer et al., 2000 ). However, physicians stress that any person who undergoes the surgery must be willing to commit to postoperative lifestyle changes, including following a healthy diet and exercise regimen ( Saber, 2012 ). These changes are needed because, even with reduced stomach capacity, it is quite possible to return to an obese state after a period of postoperative weight loss. Moreover, bariatric surgery is associated with risks, such as the possibility of postoperative infection. In general, the heavier the patient is, the greater the risk of post-surgical complications ( Livingston et al., 2002 ). For individuals who are not obese, the principles of successful dieting are fairly simple. There is no need to spend your hard-earned money on special foods, food supplements, or the latest celebrity or fad diet. In fact, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is one of many healthcare institutions that have posted everything you need to know about weight loss on the Internet ( Mayo Clinic, 2010 ). summarizes the strategies the clinic recommends for achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. The complexities of the processes involved in appetite regulation and energy metabolism explain why diets often do not work ( Campbell & Dhand, 2000 ). To be effective, any weightloss program must help people decrease energy intake (eat less), increase energy expenditure (exercise more), or both ( Bray & Tartaglia, 2000 ). Unfortunately, most people who are trying to lose weight focus only on cutting calories. 9.8 Eating Disorders What are the characteristics of eating disorders? Eating disorders are a category of mental disorders in which eating and dieting behaviors go far beyond the everyday extremes of overeating and dieting many people experience. One eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, is characterized by an overwhelming, irrational fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, compulsive dieting to the point of self-starvation, and excessive weight loss. Some people with anorexia lose as much as 20 to 25% of their original body weight. The disorder typically begins in adolescence, and most of those afflicted are females. About 1 to 4% of females are diagnosed with this disorder ( American Psychiatric Association, 2006a ). The greater prevalence of eating disorders among females appears to be a general phenomenon rather than a culturally specific one. In a large sample of Norwegian adults, for example, women were twice as likely as men to have an eating disorder ( Augestad, 2000 ). There are important differences between dieting (even obsessive dieting) and anorexia nervosa. For one, among people with anorexia, perceptions of body size are grossly distorted ( Castellini et al., 2013 ). No matter how emaciated they become, they continue to perceive themselves as fat. Researchers have learned that such unrealistic perceptions may result from a general tendency toward distorted thinking ( Tchanturia et al., 2001 ). Moreover, most individuals with anorexia—as many as 88% in some studies—are diagnosed with another kind of psychiatric disorder, such as depression, along with their eating disorder ( Swanson et al., 2011 ). These findings suggest that, for some individuals with anorexia, the eating disorder may be only one component of a larger psychiatric problem. Frequently, people with anorexia not only starve themselves but also exercise relentlessly in an effort to accelerate the weight loss. Further, they don’t necessarily avoid food or the ritual of eating. Indeed, most people with anorexia are fascinated with food and the process of preparing it ( Faunce, 2002 ). Many become skilled in giving the appearance of eating while not actually swallowing food. To accomplish this, some of them habitually chew and spit out their food, often with such dexterity that others with whom they eat don’t notice ( Kovacs, Mahon, & Palmer, 2002 ). Among young females with anorexia, progressive and significant weight loss eventually results in amenorrhea (cessation of menstruation). Some may also develop low blood pressure, impaired heart function, dehydration, electrolyte disturbances, and sterility ( American Psychiatric Association, 2006a ), as well as decreases in the gray matter volume in the brain ( Mainz et al., 2012 ). Moreover, prolonged self-starvation induces changes in the lining of the stomach that can make it extremely difficult for people with anorexia to recover normal functioning of the digestive system even after they have begun eating normally ( Ogawa et al., 2004 ). Unfortunately, as many as 6% of those suffering from anorexia nervosa eventually die of starvation or complications from organ damage ( Arcelus, Mitchell, Wales, & Nielsen, 2011 ). It is difficult to pinpoint the cause of this disorder. Most individuals who are diagnosed with anorexia are well-behaved and academically successful ( Vitousek & Manke, 1994 ). Psychological risk factors for eating disorders include being overly concerned about physical appearance, worrying about perceived attractiveness, and feeling social pressure in favor of thinness ( Whisenhunt et al., 2000 ). Some investigators believe that young women who refuse to eat are attempting to control a portion of their lives, which they may feel unable to control in other respects. Anorexia is very difficult to treat. Most people with anorexia are steadfast in their refusal to eat, while insisting that nothing is wrong with them. The main thrust of treatment, therefore, is to get the individual to gain weight. The patient may be admitted to a hospital, fed a controlled