Affective Psychology PDF

# Affective Psychology ## Psychological and Social Needs - **Psychological needs:** autonomy, competence, relatedness - **Social needs:** achievement, affiliation, intimacy, power ## Needs - **Physiological** - Thirst - Hunger - Sex - **Biologically based regulation** - **Psycholog...

# Affective Psychology ## Psychological and Social Needs - **Psychological needs:** autonomy, competence, relatedness - **Social needs:** achievement, affiliation, intimacy, power ## Needs - **Physiological** - Thirst - Hunger - Sex - **Biologically based regulation** - **Psychological** - Autonomy - Competence - Relatedness - **Innate psychological processes** - **Social** - Achievement - Affiliation, Intimacy - Power - **Acquired psychological processes (socialization history)** ## Development of Our Skills - At birth: "empty brain" - We must be motivated to fill it by - learning - growing - development - **Motivational Basis:** - autonomy - competence - relatedness - **Environment:** can support or frustrate these needs ## Autonomy - **Self-determined:** - When our own interests, preferences guide our decision-making - **Non Self-determined:** - When some outside force (factor) forces us to behave or decide in a certain way ### Subjective qualities of autonomy Perceived autonomy is based on: 1. **Perceived locus of control** - Internal vs. external (e.g., reading a book, kissing grandma) 2. **Volition (unforced willingness to engage in an activity)** - Free will vs. feeling pressure / coerced (e.g., going to the gym or to the movies) 3. **Perceived choice over one's action:** decision-making flexibility, real choices - Free choice vs. obligation (e.g., taking a day off work, what to eat for dinner) ### Development of autonomy - **Supporting factors:** - Self-direction - Democracy - Own goals - Own ways of problem solving - Own interest and values - **Hindering factors:** - Deadlines, consequences - Directives, commands - Set goals - Determined ways of problem solving - External values - Pre-arranged actions - Externally prescribed way of thinking ### Supportive Environment - **Motivates to nurturing inner motivational resources:** expresses interest, preferences - **Handles bad performance with informational language:** (e.g., "I noticed your score…do you know what might be behind it?") - **Promotes valuing:** what is the worth, importance, etc., of doing something (esp, in case of an uninteresting task) - **Acknowledges negative affect** ### Autonomy-supportive vs. controlling motivating style - **Autonomy-supportive style:** - Listens carefully - Allows others time to talk - Provides rationale - Encourages effort - Praises progress, mastery - Asks others what they want to do - Responds to questions - Acknowledges others' perspective - **Controlling motivating style:** - Shows correct answers - Speaks directives - Commands - Uses "should, must, have to" - Controlling questions - Seems demanding ### The benefits of supporting autonomy in others - **Supporting autonomy leads to:** - Higher self-esteem (developmental importance!), greater satisfaction - More positive emotional tone - High-quality learning, greater flexibility in thinking - Optimal functioning: maintenance of behavior, longer retention - Improved performance better social development - **Supporting autonomy catalyzes:** - Intrinsic motivation - Curiosity - Desire for challenge ## Competence: Effective Interaction with the Environment - reflects the desire to exercise one's capacities and skills, and to seek out and master optimal challenges - when we engage in a task with a level of difficulty and complexity that is precisely right for our current skills and talents, we feel strong interest ### Yerkes & Dodson's Law **Human Performance Curve** - **Optimal performance:** Energised, Focused, Work feels effortless - **Distress:** Fatigue, Exhaustion, III Health, Breakdown & Burnout ### Competence - **Circumstances that support this need:** - Optimal challenge - Optimal structure - **Flow:** holistic absorption in an activity - **Described by:** Mihály Csíkszentmihályi ### General Scheme of Flow - **Flow:** High Challenge & High Skills - **Anxiety:** High Challenge & Low Skills - **Apathy:** Low Challenge & Low Skills - **Boredom:** Low Challenge & High Skills ### Variations in the combination of challenge and abilities: different emotional states - **Flow:** Focused, Happy, High Challenge & High Abilities - **Arousal:** Alert, Focused, High Challenge, Moderate Abilities - **Control:** Happy, Confident, Moderate Challenge, High Abilities - **Worry:** Sad, Stressed, High Challenge, Low Abilities - **Apathy:** Sad, Depressed, Low Challenge, Low Abilities - **Boredom:** Depressed, Contented, Low Challenge, Moderate Abilities - **Relaxation:** Confident, Contented, Moderate Challenge, Low Abilities ### How does it feel to be in "the flow"? 1. Completely involved, focused, concentrating - with this either due to innate curiosity or as the result of training 2. Sense of ecstasy - of being outside everyday reality 3. Great inner clarity - knowing what needs to be done and how well it is going 4. Knowing the activity is doable - that the skills are adequate, and neither anxious, nor bored 5. Sense of serenity - no worries about self, feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of ego - afterwards feeling of transcending ego in ways not thought possible 6. Timeliness - thoroughly focused on present, doesn't notice time passing 7. Intrinsic motivation - whatever produces "flow" becomes its own reward ### Challenge - **Challenge as a reality vs. the experience of challenge:** to feel the challenge we need to have feedback - **Failure tolerance:** dread of failure prevents us to be active - no possibility to experience challenge and reach flow - **Structure:** clear communication of the expectations ### According to the surveys Csíkszentmihályi used - 15% say they have never experienced 'flow'. - 15-20% say they experience it every day (or several times a day). - 65-70% in between. ### Competence is Supported By - **Positive feedback:** - Task itself - Comparison of performances - Current / past - Mine / others' - Evaluations of others ## Relatedness - Need to belong - Desire for social interaction - To have reciprocal interaction, it promises: - Warmth - Care - Mutual concern - To give and get: - Care - Attention ### Relationship types - **(Lonely: Interaction with others, but no intimate relationship)** - **Communal:** - E.g., friendship, family, romantic relationships - We monitor others' need - Care about the welfare of others - Satisfies relatedness need - **Exchange:** - E.g., business - Implicit rules: how to give/get benefits - No obligation for caring others' need or welfare - Does not satisfy relatedness need ### Summary of psychological needs | Psychological need | Environmental condition that involves the need | Environmental condition that satisfies the need | |---|---|---| | AUTONOMY | Opportunities for self-direction | Autonomy support | | COMPETENCE | Optimal challenge | Positive feedback | | RELATEDNESS | Social interaction | Communal relationships | ## Needs - **Physiological:** - Thirst - Hunger - Sex - **Biologically based regulation** - **Psychological:** - Autonomy - Competence - Relatedness - **Innate psychological processes** - **Social:** - Achievement - Affiliation, Intimacy - Power - **Acquired psychological processes (socialization history)** ## Social Needs - **Achievement:** - Doing something well to show personal competence - **Affiliation:** - Please others and gain their approval - Intimacy: warm, secure relationship - **Power:** - Having impact on others ### Achievement motive - Desire to do well, relative to a standard of excellence - **Competition:** - With tasks (e.g., solving a puzzle) - With self (e.g., swimming one's best personal time) - Against others (e.g., winning the Olympic games) ### Origins of need for achievement (nAch) - **Socialization influences:** - Independence, autonomy, realistic standards of excellence, positive valuing of achievements (cultural differences!), stimulating home environment (e.g., books), wide scope of experiences (e.g., traveling) - **Cognitive influences:** - Perception of high ability, mastery orientation, high expectation of success, valuing of achievement, optimistic attributional style - **Developmental influences:** - Young children: cannot judge their abilities, do not lower their ability beliefs following failure - Middle childhood: comparing to peers - Late childhood: realistic ability beliefs ### Achievement: Atkinson's Model - **Need for Achievement:** - **Predictors:** - Dispositional need - Task-specific probability of success - Incentive value of success - **Achievement behavior:** - **T: Tendency to approach success is a multiplicative function of:** - **M:** (Motive) person's need for achievement (i.e., success) - **P:** (Probability) subjective estimation of success (task difficulty & ability estimation) - **I:** Incentive value of success - **Note:** P + I = 1 **Tendency to approach success** - T = M x P x I - Easy vs. Difficult task **Tendency to Avoid Failure** - Just as people have a need for achievement (Ms), they also have a motive to avoid failure (Maf) - The tendency to avoid failure motivates the individual to defend against the loss of self-esteem, the loss of social respect, and the fear of embarrassment - Taf = Maf x Pf x If - Difficult vs. Easy task **Combined Approach and Avoidance Tendencies** - **Combined tendency:** Ta = Ts - Taf = (Ms x Ps x Is) - (Maf x Pf x If) - **High need achievers:** Ms > Maf - **Low need achievers:** Ms < Maf ### Achievement: Atkinson's Model - **Ta:** Tendency to achieve - **If motive to succeed is greater than fear of failure:** (e.g., Ms = 10 and Maf =1) - **If fear of failure is greater than motive to succeed:** (e.g., Mg = 1 and Maf =10) - **Approach bias:** - **Probability of success:** (subjective difficulty of the task) - **Avoidance bias:** - **Probability of success:** (subjective difficulty of the task) ### Conditions that involve and satisfy the need for achievement - **Moderately difficult task:** - High nAch-ers outperform low nAch-ers on moderate (but not on easy or difficult) tasks. - Only moderate tasks create emotions of pride, satisfaction, and provide possibility to diagnose one's level of ability. - **Competition:** - High nAch-ers: seek diagnostic info, self-evaluation, enjoy opportunities to demonstrate abilities - **Entrepreneurship:** - High nAch-er students became businessmen, stockbrokers: challenge, responsibility, rapid feedback ### Goal types - **Performance Goals:** - Demonstrate / prove competence - Norm-based evaluation - Ability relative to others - **Mastery goals:** - Develop / Improve - Self-based evaluation - Developing competence, making progress - Positive and productive - Thinking - Feeling - Behavior ### High need achievers compared to those of low nAch - Engage in achievement-related task with more effort - Perform better (on moderately difficult task) - Persist in case of difficulty / failure - Take personal responsibility for failure or success ### Avoidance Motivation - **With high Maf:** - Try to avoid performing poorly - Underperforming - Quit - Lose interest - **Fear of failure → performance avoidance goals → maladjusted coping in achievement settings** ### Implicit theories: the way people think about personal qualities - **Entity theories:** - Fixed, enduring - "You either have it or don't" - E.g.: Your intelligence is something that you cannot change - Performance goal - **Incremental theories:** - Malleable, increaseable - "People can become smarter, more motivated" - E.g.: You can always change how intelligent you are - Mastery Goals ### Implicit theories: the way people think about personal qualities - **Entity theories:** - Effort is interpreted as low ability - Negative feedback is interpreted as low ability - Withdraw from the task - **Incremental theories:** - Effort is interpreted as advantage to improve - Negative feedback is interpreted as low effort - Take remedial action ## Affiliation motive - To establish, maintain, and restore positive, affective relationships - Need for approval, acceptance, security - Rooted in fear of interpersonal rejection - The main motive in interpersonal interactions is to avoid disapproval and loneliness ### Affiliation vs. Intimacy - To establish, maintain, and restore positive, affective relationships - Need for approval, acceptance, security - Rooted in fear of interpersonal rejection - The main motive in interpersonal interactions is to avoid disapproval and loneliness - To engage in warm, close, positive interpersonal relations - (Just a little fear of rejection...) ### Conditions that involve affiliation and intimacy - Fear and anxiety (alone in the middle of the night) - Development of interpersonal relationships (new friendships, social groups) - Maintaining interpersonal networks (telephone, letters, etc.) ### Satisfying affiliation and intimacy needs - **Affiliation:** - When satisfied, emotions of relief is activated - High need for affiliation persons: - Avoid conflicts - Avoid competitive situations - Avoid talking about others negatively - Resist making high demands - Are unselfish - Are cooperative - **Intimacy:** - When satisfied, emotions of joy is activated - High need for intimacy persons like: - Deep - Meaningful - Close - Reciprocal relationships ## Power - **Impact (establish):** - **Control (maintain):** - **Influence (expand):** - **Power over:** - Persons - Groups - World ### Conditions that involve and satisfy the need for power - **Leadership and recognition:** - Active during classes, prefers small groups, submissive partners - **Aggressiveness:** - More arguments, competitive sports (our society inhibits overt expression of aggression) - **Influential occupations:** - Occupations of directing, rewarding, punishing people (teacher, diplomat, psychologist), - **Prestige possession:** - Power symbols (car, card, pistol) ### Leadership motive pattern - High need for power - Low need for intimacy - High inhibition (well controlled, self disciplined) - (E.g., military commander, traditional father, effective managers, etc.) - Productive, successful, highly rated - **But:** Same with low inhibition: Unproductive, unsuccessful, lowly rated