

Motivation and Emotion Stimulus motives:

 Motivate individuals to increase
The Psychology of Motivation stimulation
 Provide an evolutionary advantage
 Explained by the concepts of motives,  Animals and humans are motivated to
needs, drives, and incentives seek novel stimulation
 Motive: Hypothetical state that
activates behavior, propelling one Humanistic Theory
toward a goal
 Abraham Maslow proposed the theory of
 Needs: Can be physiological or
hierarchy of needs
psychological
 People are motivated by a
 Give rise to drivesthat lead
conscious desire for personal
to action
growth
 Incentives: Object, person, or
 Humans have a unique capacity for
situation viewed as capable of
self-actualization
satisfying a need or as desirable
for its own sake

The Evolutionary Perspective

 Many animals follow their instinct

 Instinctive behaviors are:
 Species-specific
 Inborn
 Genetically transmitted
 William James and William McDougall
asserted that humans have instincts that
foster social behavior and survival
Cognitive Perspectives on Motivation
Drive-Reductionism and Homeostasis
 Individuals represent their worlds
 Drive-reduction theory: Organisms
mentally
learn to engage in behaviors that reduce
 Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory
tension
 Individuals strive to eliminate
 Primary drives trigger arousal and
inconsistencies
activate behavior
 Triggered in a state of  Cognitive-dissonance theory
deprivation  People are motivated to hold
 Acquired drives are gained consistent beliefs and to justify
through experience their behaviors
 Homeostasis: Tendency of the body to  Each theory applies to certain aspects of
maintain a steady state behavior

The Search for Stimulation Biological Influences on Hunger

  Mouth and digestive tract
 Create signals of satiety that
regulate eating
 Chewing and swallowing
 Stomach
 Hunger pangs are crucial to hunger
 Other mechanisms that regulate hunger
 Blood sugar level
 Receptors in the liver
 Hypothalamus
Eating Disorders
 Ventromedial nucleus (VMN)
functions as a stop-eating center  Characterized by persistent, gross
 Destruction can lead to disturbances in eating patterns
hyperphagia  Types
 Lateral hypothalamus: Functions  Anorexia nervosa -Individuals are
as a start-eatingcenter too thin
 Destruction can lead to  Bulimia nervosa -Individuals use
aphagia dangerous methods to maintain
normal weight
 Student project -National Eating
Disorders Association

Anorexia Nervosa

 Characterized by:
 Extreme fear of being overweight
 Dramatic weight loss
 Distorted body image
 Resistance to eating enough to
attain or maintain a healthy weight
Psychological Influences on Hunger
 Afflicts adolescent and young adult
 Sight and aroma of food women
 Feelings of depression, anxiousness, or  Affluent women are at a higher
boredom risk
 Research evidence  Can lead to female athlete triad
 Direct relationship between
Bulimia Nervosa
weight gain and sitting around
 Classroom demonstration - Super-Tasters  Involves repeated cycles of binge eating
and purging
 Avenues of purging
 Vomiting
 Strict dieting or fasting
 Use of laxatives
  Engaging in demanding and  Plateau phase
prolonged exercise regimens  Increase in vasocongestion, muscle
 Triggers hormonal imbalances tension, heart rate, and blood
pressure
Origins of Eating Disorders
 Testes elevate into a position for
 Family dynamics ejaculation
 Role of eating and dieting  Orgasmic phase
 Child abuse  Orgasms:Involuntary muscle
 Sociocultural climate contractions and release of sexual
 Idealization of slimness tensions
 Resolution
Hormones and Sexual Motivation  Men enter a refractory period
 Women can be re-aroused
 Sex hormones:
 Promote development of male and Teenagers who have had sex at least once
female sex organs
 Regulate the menstrual cycle
 Have activating effects
 Affect sex drive and
promote sexual response
 Example -Female animals
are receptive to males only
during estrus

Sexual Response Cycle

 Bodily changes that occur when people

are sexually aroused Sexual Orientation
 Characterized by:  Sexual orientation: Direction of one’s
 Vasocongestion: Swelling of romantic interests and erotic attractions
genital tissues with blood  Homosexuals
 Myotonia: Muscle tension that  Include gay males and
causes grimaces, spasms in the lesbians
hands and feet, and spasms of  Heterosexuals
orgasm  Bisexuals
Phases of the Sexual Response Cycle  Miley Cyrus is a bisexual
LGBT activist
 Excitement phase
 Erection in men Gender Identity
 Vaginal lubrication in women  One’s sense of whether a person sees
herself or himself as being female, male,
or somewhere in between
 Transgender: Identifies as being a
member of the other anatomic sex
  Gender nonconformity Emotions
 Behavior that is inconsistent with
 Feeling states with physiological,
the gender-role stereotype
cognitive, and behavioral components
associated with one’s anatomic sex
 Associated with arousal of the autonomic
in a given culture
nervous system (ANS)
Origins of Sexual Orientation and Gender  Sympathetic nervous system
Identity  Parasympathetic nervous
system
 Probable causes for homosexuality
 Effect of genetic factors on sexual Components of Emotions
orientation
 Differences in brain structures of
homosexuals and heterosexuals
 Role of sex hormones
 Effects of testosterone are limited
to activating effects during
adulthood
 Gender identity and sexual
orientation may develop during
the intrauterine period

Achievement Motivation
Expression of Emotions
 Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
 Cards with pictures that are  Expression of many emotions is universal
subject to various interpretations  Smiling and baring the teeth
 Helps assess achievement  Facial expressions can occur in the
motivation absence of the emotion they are thought
 Driven by performance or learning goals, to accompany
or both  Voice, posture, and gestures
 Performance goals are met provide clues
through extrinsic rewards
 Satisfaction of learning goals
provides intrinsic rewards
  Emotions are by-products of
automatic physiological and
Positive Psychology
behavioral responses
 Deals with positive emotions  Feelings can be changed by
 Factors that contribute to happiness changing one’s behavior
 Genetics  Criticism
 Impact of positive and negative  Existence of distinct physiological
events response for each emotion
 Socioeconomic circumstances The Cannon–Bard Theory of Emotion
 Social relationships
 Religion - Events can simultaneously trigger bodily
 Attitudinal aspects responses and the experience of emotion
 Optimism is a cognitive bias  Emotions accompany bodily
responses
The Facial-Feedback Hypothesis - Criticism
 Responses and emotions may not
 Argues that facial expressions can affect
be stimulated simultaneously
one’s emotional state
 Example -Pain may trigger arousal
 Relationship between emotions
before any feelings of distress or
and facial expressions can work in
fear
the opposite direction
 Links between facial feedback and The Theory of Cognitive Appraisal
emotion
 Contraction of facial muscles - Proposed by Schachter and Singer
causes arousal, which boosts
emotional response

We May Smile When We Feel Good, but Does

Smiling Make Us Feel Good?

Theories of Emotions

The James–Lange Theory of Emotion

 Certain external stimuli instinctively

trigger specific patterns of arousal and
action
 - Asserts that emotional labels and arousal  Hunger pangs, hypothalamus,
depend on the appraisal of the situation blood sugar levels, and liver
receptors
Evaluating the Theories of Emotion
- Psychological influences on hunger
- Various components of an experience include the sight and smell of food
contribute to emotional responses - Sex hormones affect one’s sex drive,
 Cognitive sexual response, and sexual orientation
 Physiological  Sexual response cycle comprises
 Behavioral of excitement, plateau, orgasmic,
- Appraisal doesn’t directly cause one and resolution phases
emotion or the other - Achievement motivation is the urge to do
beyond what one is capable of doing
Polygraphs (Lie Detectors)  Driven by performance or
learning goals
- Monitor indicators of sympathetic arousal
- Theories of emotions
during an interrogation
 James–Lange
 Heart rate
 Cannon–Bard
 Blood pressure
 Cognitive appraisal
 Respiration rate
 Electrodermal response
- Validity and accuracy have been
questioned

Accuracy of the Polygraph

- American Polygraph Association claims

accuracy of 85% to 95%
- Factors that lead to reduced accuracy
 Sensitivity to tense muscles
 Drugs
 Prior experience with polygraphs
- Polygraph results are no longer admitted
as evidence in many courts

Summary

- Motivation is a state in which an organism

experiences an inducement or incentive
to do something
- Theories of motivation
 Evolutionary perspective, drive-
reduction theory, stimulus
motivation, humanistic theory,
and cognitive theory
- Biological influences on hunger