Chapter 10: Motivation and Emotion - Psychology

**Chapter 10: Motivation and Emotion** **Maslow's hierarchy of needs** - Self-actualization - Morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts - Esteem - Self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others, respect by...

**Chapter 10: Motivation and Emotion** **Maslow's hierarchy of needs** - Self-actualization - Morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts - Esteem - Self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others, respect by others - Love/belonging - Friendship, family, sexual intimacy - Safety - Security of body, of employment, of resources, of morality, of the family, of health, of property - Physiological - Breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion **Two theoretical approaches to motivation** - Evolutionary perspective - Humanistic perspective **The evolutionary approach to motivation** - What is your goal of life? - To reproduce - To enhance the survival of the species - What motivates you to set this goal? - Biological/psychological needs (those who have these needs will reproduce) - How do you accomplish this goal? - To maximize the number of offspring - To maximize the chance of survival of the offspring **Evolutionary bases of behaviour** - Four observations that drive the theory of evolution: - Organisms vary in endless ways: size, speed, strength, visual/hearing abilities, digestive processes, wisdom, etc - Some of these characteristics are heritable -- can be passed down from one generation to the next - Availability of resources can never catch up with the rate of reproduction -- competition for resources occur within and across species - A heritable trait will become prevalent if this trait enhances the survival of an organism and its offspring - Giraffes with long necks have advantages over giraffes with short necks **Natural selection** - Posits that heritable characteristics (ex. The long neck of a giraffe) that provide a survival or reproductive advantage are more likely than alternative characteristics (ex. short neck) to be passed on to subsequent generations - "Long neck" is selected whereas "short neck" is eliminated over time - The gene pool of a population changes gradually as a result of natural selection (there are more and more long-neck giraffes in the giraffe population) - It takes thousands to millions of generations for one trait to be selected over another **Fitness and adaption** - Fitness - Refers to the reproductive success (number of descendants) of an individual organism relative to the average reproductive success in the population - Adaptation - An inherited characteristic that increased in a population (through natural selection) because it helped solve a problem of survival or reproduction during the time it emerged - Inherited characteristics: biological traits, behaviours, motivation, cognition **Directional selection** - FOR: one extreme trait, AGAINST: the other extreme **Stabilizing selection** - FOR: moderate traits, AGAINST: both extremes **Disruptive selection** - FOR: both extremes, AGAINST: moderate traits **Batemans principle** - Variance among females in mating success is low; variance among males in mating success is high (ex. Variance in sex partners enhances reproductive success) - In females, one mating is enough to fertilize all their eggs; in males, reproductive success is based on the number of times they have mated - Nearly all females in a population mate and have offspring, relatively few males mate successfully - Those males that do mate tend to mate with many females - A few males have very high reproductive output - Many males have little or no reproductive output - Females are choosier when picking a mate than males - Males show greater elaboration of behaviours and structures used in attracting mates than do females - Ex. Bird's mating dance - Females may prefer certain males for a variety of reasons: - Physically strong/with more elaborate ornamentation - Possession of resources - With long-term commitment - Females that carefully select their mates are at a lower risk of losing their reproductive investment - Natural selection favours females that choose males that enhance the likelihood of her offspring's success -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Biological reality Evolutionary significance Behavioural outcomes --------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Males Reproduction involves minimal investment of time, energy, and risk\ Maximize reproductive\ More interest in\ Offspring \# has no\ success by seeking more sexual partners with high reproductive potential uncommitted sex;\ upper limits\ greater number of sex partners over lifetime; look for youth and\ Unsure of whether\ attractiveness in\ offspring is one's own partners. Females Reproduction involves substantial investment of time, energy, and risk\ Maximize reproductive success by seeking partners willing to invest\ Less interest in\ Offspring \# has upper limits\ material resources in\ uncommitted sex;\ 100% sure of whether offspring is one's own one's offspring smaller number of sex partners over lifetime; look for income, status, and ambition in partners.\ Better late than\ pregnant! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **Harem** - In a human society, a "harem" refers to the place in which an elite man (ex. King, royal, and upper-class family head) houses his wives, pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic servants, enslaved women, and other unmarried female relatives - In the animal kingdom, a "harem" is an animal group consisting of a dominant male drives off other males and maintains the unity of the group. As juvenile males grow, they leave the group. The dominant male mates with the females as they become sexually active and drives off competitors, until he is displaced by another male **Ideas reflected in the structure and order of a harem** - Males maximize reproductive success by seeking a large number of sexual partners - Females maximize reproductive success by seeking a partner with high status and resource - Males expect security from a partner **Summary of the evolutionary approach to motivation** - Evolutionary psychology studies traits that have been shown to be universal in humans - Research focuses on commonalities between people of different cultures (ex. To identify cultural universals) - A trait could have ended as an adaptation or a by-product of a behaviour - The goal of life is to reproduce (ex. Reproductive success is the central idea of evolutionary psychology) - An adaptive trait is one that enhances reproduction **[Humanistic approach to motivation ]** **Motivation** - The driving force within individuals by which they attempt to achieve a goal in order to fulfill some needs or expectations **The humanistic approach to motivation** - What is your (ultimate) goal of life? - To self-actualize (to live to full potential, to achieve personal dreams and aspirations) - What motivated you to set this goal? - Need for achievement - How do you accomplish this goal? - Set a SMART goal - Self-discipline - Have grit - Have resilience **SMART goal** - Specific - Measurable - Achievable - Realistic - Time bound **Self-discipline: delayed gratification** - The ability to delay gratification in childhood is related to: - Overall success in life - Social competence and resilience 10 years later - Better school grades and higher SAT scores - Better physical health - Better personal finances - Less substance abuse and fewer criminal offences **Hot vs cold cognition** - Hot cognition - Thoughts, behaviours, and decisions are affected by emotions or immediate physiological needs - Act on impulse - "I will eat fast food now because I am hungry" - Cold cognition - Think critically and make decisions based on logic and evidence - Delay gratification - Give yourself a reason why you shouldn't do something - "Fast food is unhealthy. I will go home to make a low-carb dinner" **Grit** - People with grit have: - Deep passion for their goals - Willingness to keep working toward their goals - Perseverance - Grit is a better predictor than intelligence for achieving long-term academic goals - Grit is also a predictor for grades in college - People with less grit tend to: - Get discouraged more easily - Get sidetracked from their goals by new interests **Need for achievement: a summary** - People high in need for achievement tend to: - Set challenging (but not overly difficult) and specific goals - Have a high level of self-regulation - Divide specific long-term goals into concrete short-term goals - Have a high level of self-efficacy (expectation that your efforts will lead to success) - Have more realistic career aspirations - Delay gratification - Have grit **Fear and anger** - Bio-chemically identical. They differ in the behavioural responses of an individual - When people are in extreme anger, they are fearless **Three components of emotion feeling angry is...** +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | **Component** | **Description** | +===================================+===================================+ | Physiological arousal | Heart beating fast, sweating | +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | Cognitive appraisal of the | - Being offended, | | situation | discriminated, victimized, | | | etc | | | | | | - Interpreting others having | | | negative motives | | | | | | - Recalling other traumatic or | | | enraging events | | | | | | - Being oversensitive to | | | comments | +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | Behavioural reactions | Screaming, yelling, swearing, | | | name calling, hitting, slapping, | | | throwing things, sarcasm, etc | +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ - Each emotion is a complex pattern of changes, including physiological arousal, feelings, cognitive processes, and behavioural reactions, made in response to a situation perceived to be personally significant **The evolutionary approach to emotion** - Charles Darwin believed that: - Emotional expressions are universal - Emotional responses are serving some adaptive functions - Emotions are inherited, specialized mental states designed to deal with a certain class of recurring situations (attacked by predators, falling in love, etc) - Book of Darwin: The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals **7 (or 6) primary emotions)** - Fear - Disgust - Happiness - Surprise - Anger - Sadness - (and contempt) - They are not extensions of other emotions - They are not a combination of other emotions - Ex. Resentment is a combination of love and hate **Universality of emotion** - Conclusion: people all over the world, regardless of cultural differences, race, sex, or education, express basic emotions in much the same way and are able to identify the emotions others are experiencing by reading their facial expressions - Note: the claim of universality is focused on some basic primary emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, and disgust. Sometimes it is hard to label an emotion without the context **The biological approach to emotion** - The limbic system (a subcortical region) is key to the processing of emotions - Hypothalamus -- homeostasis - Thalamus -- relays info, sensory gateway - Amygdala -- emotion - Hippocampus -- memory conversion - Example of slow path: - See/hear some bad news and gradually figure out its implications - Example of the fast path: - See a snake and experience fear right away **The fast path** - How amygdala hacking happens - The stimuli goes directly to thalamus, and it then goes right to amygdala before a signal reaches the neocortex to process - This survival mechanism lets us react to things before the rational brain has time to mull things over - The case of SM demonstrates that damage to the amygdala resulted in the inability to experience fear (and only fear); but the individual could experience sadness, happiness, disgust, and anger - Low emotion -- calm, relaxed - High emotion -- anger, fear, excitement, love, hate, disgust, frustration) **Theories of emotion** - Common sense belief - Emotional feeling is the cause of physiological arousal (or action) - Examples: - We are afraid, then we tremble - We are angry, then we raise our voice - James-Lange theory of body reaction: - Physiological arousal (or action) is the cause of emotional feeling - Examples: - In a dangerous situation, our body trembles, then we feel afraid (the body is the first thing to respond to the situation) - When we are offended, we raise our voice, then we feel angry (we act before we feel) - Cannon-Bard theory of central neural processes: - Subcortical brain activity in the thalamus is the cause for both physiological arousal and emotional feeling - These theories describe the sequence of biological and psychological responses to a stimulus (what happens first, what happens next); they do not explain why a particular emotion is formed (ex. How do you know that you are angry, excited, or anxious when your heart is pounding?) **Problems with James-Lange theory** - Physiological arousal is an action performed by the autonomic nervous system - ANS responses are too slow to be the source of split-second elicited emotions **Cognitive appraisal theories of emotion** - These theories hold that different emotions are sharing similar arousal symptoms - Example: - Increased heartbeat, fast and shallow breathing, sweating, trembling, tightened muscle all apply to feeling angry, afraid, excited, or sexually aroused **Schachter's two-factor theory** - One of the cognitive appraisal theories - Holds that the experience of emotion is the joint effect of autonomic arousal and cognitive appraisal, with both parts necessary for an emotion to occur - Context matters **Everyday application** - In anger-provoking situations, people physically aroused from alcohol, high temps, vigorous sports, etc., experience more intense hostility than those who are not physically aroused - This misattribution of arousal is best explained by cognitive appraisal theories of emotion (ex. The two-factor theory) Read 10.1, 10.2, 10.4, 10.8-10.11