Download Chapter 9: Motivation and Emotion

Chapter 9: Motivation and Emotion
Motivational Theories and Concepts
Motives – needs, wants, desires leading to goal-directed behavior
Drive theories – seeking homeostasis
Organisms seek to maintain homeostasis, or a state of
equilibrium or stability.
.
Incentive theories – regulation by external stimuli
Incentive theories hold that motivation is regulated by external
stimuli: ice cream, an A, money, etc
Evolutionary theories – maximizing reproductive success
Natural selection favors behaviors that maximize reproductive
success.
They explain affiliation, achievement, dominance, aggression,
and sex drive in terms of adaptive value.
The Motivation of Hunger and Eating: Biological Factors
Brain regulation
Lateral and ventromedial hypothalamus
Paraventricular nucleus
In the early 1900s Walter Cannon and A.L. Washburn
hypothesized that there is an association between
stomach contractions and the experience of hunger
Cannon hypothesized a causal relationship, yet people
who have their stomachs removed still experience
hunger.
This realization led to more complicated theories focusing
on the brain, blood sugar, and hormones.
Glucose and digestive regulation
Glucostatic theory
Theory proposed that fluctuations in blood glucose level
are monitored in the brain by glucostats – neurons
sensitive to glucose in the surrounding fluid. It appears
likely that hunger is regulated, in part, through glucostatic
mechanisms.
Hormonal regulation
Insulin and Leptin
Hormones circulating in the
blood also appear to be
related to hunger. Insulin,
secreted by the pancreas,
must be present for cells to
use blood glucose. Increases
in insulin increase hunger, and
the mere sight and smell of
food has been shown to
increase insulin.
Leptin, has been discovered to
be released from fat cells into
the bloodstream. Leptin is
believed to signal the
hypothalamus about fat stores
in the body, causing decreases in hunger when fat stores are high.
The Motivation of Hunger and Eating: Environmental Factors
Food availability and related cues
Palatability: people eat more when the food available tastes
good to them.
Quantity available: people eat more when more food is put in
front of them.
Variety: people eat more when there is a greater variety of
foods available to them
Learned preferences and habits
Classical conditioning
Observational learning
People’s food preferences are influenced through classical
conditioning, and their eating habits are acquired partly through
observational learning.
Stress
Link between heightened arousal/negative emotion and
overeating
Stress has been shown to be related to increased eating, with
some research indicating that chronic dieters are more likely to
respond to stress with eating. It is unclear whether stress
induced eating is caused by physiological arousal or negative
emotion. It is also unclear whether the effects of stress on
hunger are direct or indirect.
The Human Sexual Response
Masters and Johnson – 1966
Stages:
Excitement
Plateau
Orgasm
Resolution
Evolutionary Analyses of Human Sexual Motivation
Parental investment theory
Gender differences in sexual activity
Gender differences in mate preferences
Criticism and alternative explanations
The Mystery of Sexual Orientation
Heterosexual – Bisexual – Homosexual
A continuum
Theories explaining homosexuality
Environmental
Biological
Interactionist
Achievement Motivation
Achievement motive = need to excel
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Work harder and more persistently
Delay gratification
Pursue competitive careers
Situational influences on achievement motives
The Elements of Emotional Experience
Cognitive component
Subjective conscious experience
Positive psychology
Physiological component
Bodily (autonomic) arousal
Neural circuits
Behavioral component
Characteristic overt expressions
Facial feedback hypothesis
Theories of Emotion
James-Lange
Feel afraid because pulse is racing
Cannon-Bard
Thalamus sends signals simultaneously to the cortex and the
autonomic nervous system
Schacter’s Two-Factor Theory
Look to external cues to decide what to feel
Evolutionary Theories
Innate reactions with little cognitive interpretation