Week 1 SEM 2 (PSCHY 1) PDF

What do you think? ​ When we say we are motivated to do something, what do we mean? ​ Where does our motivation come from? ​ What factors influence motivation (increase or decrease it)? Motivation Factors that direct and energize the behaviour of humans and other organisms, aka our mo...

What do you think? ​ When we say we are motivated to do something, what do we mean? ​ Where does our motivation come from? ​ What factors influence motivation (increase or decrease it)? Motivation Factors that direct and energize the behaviour of humans and other organisms, aka our motives. Motivation has biological, cognitive, and social aspects. Motivation is a complex concept, so psychologists have developed a variety of approaches that seek to explain the motives that guide people’s behaviour. The Major Approaches To Motivation Instinct Approaches Instincts: inborn patterns of behaviour that are biologically determined, rather than learned. We are born preprogrammed with sets of behaviours essential to our survival (e.g., seeking out food, sexual partners for reproduction, babies crying or suckling). Those instincts provide the energy that channels behaviour in appropriate directions. Drive-Reduction Approaches Behavior is motivated by the need to reduce internal tension (disruption of equilibrium) caused by unmet biological needs. These unmet needs “drive” us to behave in ways that will reduce the tension, restore equilibrium. They work by “negative” feedback, that is one experiences an unpleasant feeling (hunger, thirst) until the need is met. Homeostasis The body’s tendency to maintain a steady internal state, which underlies primary drives. e.g., need for food, water, stable body temperature, sleep. Works like a home thermostat, homeostasis brings deviations in body functioning back to an optimal state using feedback loops. Receptor cells throughout the body constantly monitor temperature and nutrient levels, and when deviations from the ideal state occur, the body adjusts to try and return to an optimal state. Drive-Reduction Approaches Primary Drives Secondary Drives Hunger Knowledge Thirst Financial Well-Being Sleep Achievement Primary Drives: drives related to the biological needs or the need of the species as a whole. Secondary Drives: drives that prior experience and learning bring about. Drive-Reduction Approaches: Challenges They provide a good explanation of how primary drives motivate behaviour. However, they cannot fully explain a behaviour in which the goal is not to reduce a drive, but rather to maintain or even increase the level of excitement or arousal. ​ Q: Have you ever eaten when you were not hungry? ​ Q: Have you ever ignored the signals from your body that you need sleep? ​ Q: What about the “thirst for knowledge” or other more abstract drives? ​ Q: Where would thrill-seeking behaviour fit in the drive reduction model? Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs He believed a person must relatively satisfy the needs at the lower levels before moving on to higher order needs. e.g., If you’re starving or fear for your life, you won’t have the energy, attention to focus on relationships, accomplishments, or creative pursuits. Makes intuitive sense, but difficult to falsify. ​ Q: Can you think of examples of people who lacked the basic needs but still managed to pursue these higher goals? Abraham Maslow’s Healthy Self-Actualizers Maslow believed that people strive for a positive view of the self to realize their full potential. He argued that without a supportive environment, self-actualization cannot take place. e.g., poverty, neglect, abuse = thwart this potential. Self-actualized people distinguish between authentic values & those imposed by society. They carve their own path. Arousal Approaches: Beyond Drive Reduction Argue that we try to maintain certain levels of stimulation and activity, increasing or reducing them, as necessary. If our stimulation and activity levels become too high, we try to reduce them. If the levels of stimulation and activity are too low, we will try to increase them by seeking stimulation. People vary in the optimal level of arousal that they seek out, with some people seeking out especially high levels of arousal. Arousal & Performance: A Delicate Balance Incentive Approaches: Motivated by Reward Suggesting that motivation stems from the desire to obtain valued external goals, or incentives. Desirable properties of the external stimuli (e.g., grades, money, affection) account for the individual’s motivation. ​ BUT…is it all about the reward? ​ Do you do anything for the sheer love or enjoyment of it? Do you do anything purely to help someone else? Cognitive Approaches Suggest that motivation is a complex byproduct of people’s thoughts, expectations, and goals. Distinguishes between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. ​ Intrinsic motivation: we participate in an activity for our own enjoyment. ​ Extrinsic motivation: we do something to receive a concrete, external reward. Cognitive Approaches We are more likely to persevere, work harder, produce work of higher quality when motivation for a task is intrinsic, rather than extrinsic. Providing rewards for desirable behaviour may cause intrinsic motivation to decline and extrinsic motivation to increase, although this conclusion is controversial. ​ Q: Given this, why do we most of us spend so little time on intrinsically valuable tasks? Hunger: The Need for Food What factors influence why (and what) we eat? ​ What do you think? ​ Why do we eat? ​ What factors influence what, when, where, and why you eat? ​ Which of the motivation theories apply here? Obesity: An Epidemic or a Social Construct? Defined as body weight that is more than 20% above the average weight for a person of a given height. Most widely used measure of obesity is body mass index (BMI), which is based on a ratio of weight to height, BUT it is only one crude measure. People with a BMI greater than 30 are considered obese, whereas those with a BMI between 25 and 30 are overweight. What is the Canadian Reality? Over 63% of Canadians over the age of 18 are overweight. Almost ¼ would meet the BMI cutoff for obesity. Biological Factors Other species are far less likely to become obese. Why? Internal mechanisms regulate quantity and kind of food they desire. Given the choice of a variety of foods, many species choose a well-balanced diet. Complex mechanisms tell organisms whether they require food or should stop eating. It’s not just an empty stomach causing hunger pangs. Changes in levels of glucose are monitored by the hypothalamus, which regulates feelings of hunger. Biological Factors One hypothesis is injury to the hypothalamus affects weight set point. Weight set point is the level of weight that the body strives to maintain, which in turn regulates food intake. Acting as a kind of internal weight thermostat, the hypothalamus calls for either greater or less food intake. ​ Metabolism: rate at which food is converted to energy and expended by the body. ​ People vary with respect to their metabolic rate and that influences their ability to lose weight through eating and exercise. Social Factors in Eating Societal rules and conventions learned preferences dictate much of our eating behaviour. Portion distortion. North American portions are far too large. We eat on a schedule (e.g., lunch, dinner), even if we’re not hungry. We put roughly the same amount of food on our plates every day regardless of our level of daily activity. We eat for comfort, because we’re bored, to soothe sad feelings. We eat mindlessly, often while doing other things. Hyper Processed Food vs. Us ​ Q: What role do the food industry and government have in influencing our eating behaviour and rates of obesity? ​ Q: Is it really as simple as eating less and moving more? Food is designed (in labs) to be convenient, cheap, hyper-palatable, and hard to stop eating. The government has long provided subsidies to these industries, instead of to farmers or to make healthy food cheaper. There is profit to be made (particularly in the USA) by making people eat these foods (e.g., cue the diet industry, Ozempic, and health care bills). The Need for Affiliation No human is an island. Esther Perel “The quality of your relationships is what determines the quality of your life. The bonds and the connections that we make with other people, that we have established with them, gives us a greater sense of meaning, of happiness, of wellbeing, than any other human experience.” The Need to Belong: Affiliation Motive Affiliation: need to associate with and maintain social bonds with others = fundamental human need. Strong evolutionary component to bonds. We form bonds easily & resist their dissolution. We monitor our environment and interactions to make sure we are included/belong. Ostracism & fear of rejection: being ignored or excluded by valued others leads to pain & attempts to reconnect. Social Isolation: Public Health Crisis? Excerpt from Scientific American Article: “The number of people who perceive themselves to be alone, isolated or distant from others has reached epidemic levels both in the United States and in other parts of the world. Indeed, almost two decades ago, the book Bowling Alone pointed to the increasing isolation of Americans and our consequent loss of “social capital.” In the United Kingdom, 4 in 10 citizens report feelings of chronic, profound loneliness, prompting the creation of a new cabinet-level position (the Minister for Loneliness) to combat the problem.” Social Isolation: Public Health Crisis? Excerpts from Scientific American Article: “Loneliness can be deadly. Loneliness has been estimated to shorten a person’s life by 15 years, equivalent in impact to being obese or smoking 15 cigarettes per day. Biologists have shown that feelings of loneliness trigger the release of stress hormones that in turn are associated with higher blood pressure, decreased resistance to infection, and increased risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. Why are young people so lonely? Need for Achievement Represents a stable, learned characteristic in which satisfaction is obtained by striving for and attaining a level of excellence. High need for achievement seek out situations in which they can compete against some standard and prove themselves successful. Tend to avoid situations in which success will come too easily and situations in which success is unlikely. Low need for achievement tend to be motivated by a desire to avoid failure. Seek out easy tasks, being sure to avoid failure, or they seek out very difficult tasks for which failure has no negative implications. Emotions What do you think? ​ What is emotion? ​ Do we all have the same set of emotions? ​ Are we in control of our emotions, or do our emotions control us? What are emotions & why do we have them? The honest answers are, we aren’t sure or at least we don’t agree on what they are or why we have them. There are almost as many theories of emotion as there are emotions! Emotions are not a simple phenomenon, but are intertwined with motivation, cognition, neuroscience, etc. Emotions encompass both biological and cognitive aspects, so no single theory has been able to explain fully all the facets of emotional experience. Contradictory evidence challenges each approach, and therefore no theory has proved invariably accurate in its predictions. The Functions of Emotions 1.​ Prepare us for action: act as a link between events in our environment and our responses. 2.​ Shape our future behaviour: act as reinforcement or punishment. 3.​ Help us to interact effectively with others: act as a signal to observers, allowing them to better understand what we are experiencing and to predict our future behaviour. Determining the Range of Emotions One approach to organizing emotions is to use a hierarchy, which divides emotions into subcategories. Dr. Susan David & Dr. Brene Brown’s work challenge these hierarchies/distinctions! Determining the Range of Emotions Researchers suggest that a list of basic emotions would include, at a minimum, happiness, anger, fear, sadness, and disgust. Other lists include surprise, contempt, guilt, and joy. One difficulty in defining a basic set of emotions is that substantial differences exist in descriptions of emotions across cultures. e.g., Germans report experiencing schadenfreude, a feeling of pleasure over another person’s difficulties. Behavioural Components of Emotion Emotions are expressed through nonverbal behaviour (body language and facial expressions). Ekman’s research points to cross-cultural similarities in the ability to differentiate among facial expressions of emotion. 6 fundamental emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust. Argue this process is quick – almost automatic. Cross-cultural differences in emotions Significant cross-cultural similarities in emotion recognition but significant differences in how people think about, experience, regulate, & express emotions. e.g., socially engaging vs. socially disengaging emotions encouraged by certain cultures. Display rules: norms around the appropriate expression of emotions. Rules stipulate when, how, and to whom we can express emotions. ​ Q: Can anyone offer examples of display rules? Nonverbal Expression of Emotion Nonverbal leakage: unconscious spillover of our emotional states into our nonverbal behaviours. Powerful cue that we are trying to hide/suppress an emotion. I say, “Sure, that’s no problem” or “No, I’m not mad at you” but my body says otherwise. Clenched jaw, muscles in back tighten up, posture changes, eye movement changes. The body rarely lies. The Roots of Emotions We can describe the general physiological reactions that accompany emotions but defining the specific role that those physiological responses play in the experience of emotions has proved more challenging. Some theorists argue that specific bodily reactions cause us to experience a particular emotion. Other theorists argue that the physiological reaction results from the experience of an emotion. Three Models Of Emotion James-Lange Theory of Emotion States that we experience emotions as a reaction to bodily events that result from external situations. In turn, these bodily events are interpreted by the brain as particular emotional experiences. “We feel sorry because we cry….afraid because we tremble” ​ BUT…. Emotional experiences frequently occur even before there is time for certain physiological changes to be set into motion. Physiological arousal does not invariably produce emotional experience. Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion Noted flaws in James-Lange Theory: ​ Physiological changes occur too slowly to trigger our emotional responses. ​ Physiological arousal can occur without experience of emotion (e.g., when exercising) ​ People experience different emotions from the same patterns of physiological arousal (e.g., fear, joy, anger, sexual attraction). Argued that emotion occurs when the thalamus sends signals simultaneously to the cortex & autonomic nervous system. Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion Argued it is not necessary for different emotions to have unique physiological patterns associated with them—as long as the message sent to the cerebral cortex differs for each specific emotion. ​ However: We now understand that the hypothalamus and the limbic system, not the thalamus, play a major role in emotional experience. The simultaneous occurrence of the physiological and emotional responses, which is a fundamental assumption of the Cannon-Bard theory, has yet to be demonstrated conclusively. Schacter & Singer’s Two-Factor Theory of Emotion 2 psychological events required to produce an emotion: 1.​ After an emotion-provoking event, we experience undifferentiated or ambiguous state of arousal. 2.​ We seek to understand that arousal, so we look to our external environment for cues and our cognitive interpretation of the arousal = our emotional experience. Emotions are the labels we attach to our state of arousal. Misattribution of Arousal Dutton and Aron: Capilano Suspension Bridge Study Attractive female confederate approaches male visitors on one of two bridges (wobbly or sturdy), ostensibly to ask them to complete a survey. Gives them her phone # in case they have any questions. 30% of those approached on sturdy bridge called her later. 60% of those approached on wobbly bridge called her later. Experienced ambiguous physiological arousal, interpreted the arousal as attraction to attractive female, rather than fear of heights on wobbly bridge. Same principles as first dates on rollercoaster or to scary movies? Contemporary Perspectives on the Neuroscience of Emotions Researchers find that specific emotions produce activation of very different portions of the brain on PET scans. e.g., Participants undergoing PET brain scans were asked to recall events, such as deaths and funerals, that made them feel sad, or events that made them feel happy, such as weddings and births. Results: Happiness was related to a decrease in activity in certain areas of the cerebral cortex, whereas sadness was associated with increases in activity in particular portions of the cortex. These results are not without their critics/skeptics. Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Theory of Constructed Emotion Emotions are NOT hardwired brain reactions that are uncontrollable. Emotions are NOT built into your brain at birth, they are just built. Emotions are guesses that your brain constructs in the moment, and you have more control over those guesses than you might imagine. Using past experiences, your brain predicts and constructs your experience of the present world. Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Theory of Constructed Emotions Emotions that seem to be happening to you, are being made by you. The same physical sensation can lead to very different experiences (e.g., stomach rumble to cookies vs. test results in chair in doctor’s office or sweating and heart racing out of fear vs. sexual attraction). You are not at the mercy of mythical emotion circuits! Be the architect of your experience: teach your brain how to predict differently. Dr. Susan David: Emotional Agility Pushes back on the false distinction of good vs. bad emotions. All emotions serve a function. Tell us to ask, “What’s the func?” Pushes back on our culture of toxic positivity, in which we are shamed (and shame ourselves) for these “bad” emotions. So, we suppress them, we bottle them up. This amplifies them! We want difficult emotions to go away. She calls these “dead people’s goals.” Argues “discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life.” Dr. Susan David: Emotional Agility When we label our emotions accurately, we are better able to discern the precise cause of our feelings (e.g., stressed vs. disappointed). Our emotions are data, they are signposting for us the things we care about, the things we are missing or lacking in our lives. Emotions are data, they are not directives. We own our emotions, they don’t own us. Happiness: The Elusive Emotion What is it? How do we find it and keep it? What factors contribute to happiness? Give me your top 3! Why is Happiness such an elusive emotion? 3 key reasons humans aren’t designed to be happy: 1.​ Hedonic treadmill: we quickly adapt to new circumstances requiring ever greater “thrills” to achieve contentment (the more you have the more you want!) 2.​ Tendency to make upward rather than downward social comparisons 3.​ Asymmetry of affective experience: losing $50 dollars feels worse than finding $50 feels good. Dispelling the Myths about Happiness Factors that DO NOT Predict Happiness: ​ Money, age, parenthood, IQ, attractiveness Factors that MODERATELY Predict Happiness: ​ Health, level of social activity, and religious affiliation. Factors that STRONGLY Predict Happiness: ​ Relationship satisfaction, work satisfaction, genetics and personality.