W9 Lecture 2: Motivation, Habits, and Goals PDF
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Uploaded by FelicitousKazoo7765
University of Sydney
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Summary
This document provides lecture notes on motivation, habits, and goals, and covers related research findings. It explores how innate and learned behaviors influence motivation in individuals and how this is measured. It's likely to be relevant learning material for psychology students.
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# 24/9 W9 Lecture 2 ## Motivation, habits, and goals ### Motivation - why individuals initiate, choose, or persist in specific circumstances - both a necessary condition for behavior and an energizing effect on behavior #### Hebb's research - motivation provides power - innate or learned determ...
# 24/9 W9 Lecture 2 ## Motivation, habits, and goals ### Motivation - why individuals initiate, choose, or persist in specific circumstances - both a necessary condition for behavior and an energizing effect on behavior #### Hebb's research - motivation provides power - innate or learned determines direction of the individual's behavior #### 2 Forms of motivation 1. Innate, species-specific - behavior displayed by all sexes of the species in response to the same stimulus. - a sequence of behaviors, often regulated by a specific biological state. - can also be a sign stimulus for reciprocal response in another individual. 2. Psychological goal/value-driven, depends on individual ### Supernormal stimulus - exaggerated version of a sign stimulus that motivates stronger behavioral tendencies. - Fixated action patterns are not directly motivated by consideration of the end goal. - Type of instinct - Combination of biological and environmental circumstance. ### Study human instincts - How can we tell if behavior is instinctive vs learned? 1. Biological basis 2. Cross-species similarity 3. Cross-cultural similarity 4. Twin studies 5. Developmental studies ### Problems with evolutionary explanations of behavior 1. Circular reasoning (ending an argument at the beginning) 2. Proliferation (tendency to overuse instincts as the explanation for a range of behaviour) ### Habits - Learned behaviors can often look like innate behaviors when they are performed without much thought. - Habit is a learned response performed without consideration of the value or reinforcer or "you". ### Devaluation test - Can be used to assess whether behavior is habitual or goal-directed. - Under vs over vs satiety ### Goals (content to habits) - Long-term motivations for behavior. - Requires an understanding of incentive value. - Goals often center on simplistic sources of motivation. ### Incentive value - The degree to which rewards attract an individual's behavior. - Can be acquired through conditioning. - Can change moment to moment. - Dependent on biological state. - Liking (hedonic value) vs wanting (incentive value). ### Delay reward discounting - Value of something (rewards) decreases over time. - Correlates with impulsivity, disorders of abuse.
