chapter 13: motivation and emotion...... motivation and emotion case study: ... motivation answers...

Motivation and Emotion

Original Content Copyright by HOLT McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.

Chapter 13: Motivation and Emotion

Case Study: The Happiness of Nations

Section 1: The Psychology of Motivation

Section 2: Biological Needs: Focus on Hunger

Section 3: Psychological Needs

Section 4: Emotions

Simulation: Applying What You’ve Learned



We often hear statistics about how nations rank against

each other in areas such as economy, population, or size.

But we rarely hear about how happy a nation’s people are.

One psychologist set out to learn which nation had the

happiest citizens and what made them that way. Denmark

leads the list, and the United States appears in the top 20

percent. The happiest countries shared characteristics

such as personal and political liberty, and confidence in the

honesty and efficacy of the government. Some

governments have worked to increase the happiness levels

of their nations.

Case Study: The Happiness of Nations



The Psychology of Motivation

• Motivations can be analyzed as needs and drives.

• Psychologists have developed several different theories

of motivation, including instinct theory, drive-reduction

theory, humanistic theory, and sociocultural theory.

Section 1 at a Glance



Motivation answers why people do the things they do. A

motive is a stimulus that moves a person to behave in

ways designed to accomplish a specific goal.

• Need: a condition in which we

require something we lack

• Biological needs: filled to

survive; oxygen, food, sleep

• Psychological needs: not

necessarily based on

deprivation and can be learned;

achievement, self-esteem

Needs

Motivation

• Needs give rise to drives:

forces that motivate an

organism to take action

• Biological need for water gives

rise to the thirst drive

• Biological drives are

experienced as psychological

Drives



Drive-reduction Theory

• People and animals experience a drive arising for a need as an

unpleasant tension. They learn to do whatever will reduce that

tension, such as eating to reduce the hunger drive.

• Homeostasis: tendency to maintain an internal state of equilibrium

• Drive-reduction theory does not explain all motivation.

Instinct Theory

• Instinct: behavior patterns genetically transmitted from generation to

generation

• Also called “fixed-action patterns”

• Not all animal behavior is purely instinctive, some is learned.

• Psychologists once believed all human action was instinctual, but

today most do not.

Theories of Motivation



Sociocultural Theory

• Even if basic drives such as hunger are inborn, cultural experiences

and factors influence the behavior that people use to satisfy those

drives.

Humanistic Theory

• Humanists argue that humans are also motivated by the conscious

desire for personal growth and artistic fulfillment. In fact, they may

outweigh our drive to meet more basic needs.

• Self-actualization: the need to become what one believes he or she

is capable of being

• Maslow believed that striving to become or do something meaningful

is as essential to human well-being as food. He created a hierarchy

of needs, from basic physiological to self-actualization.

• Critics argue the hierarchy does not apply to everyone.

Theories of Motivation



Biological Needs: Focus on Hunger

• Biological needs such as hunger involve both

physiological and psychological factors.

• Obesity has many causes but also many solutions.




Biological needs are based mainly on body tissue needs,

such as the needs for food, water, air, temperature

regulation, and pain avoidance. They can be complex

because they also involve psychological factors.

• The acts of chewing and

swallowing provide certain

sensations that help satisfy the

hunger drive.

• The hunger drive is usually fully

satisfied when the body digests

food.

The Role of the Mouth

The Hunger Drive

• It was once believed that

hunger pangs were the cause of

hunger.

• Now researchers know that

hunger pangs play a role in

hunger but are not the main

factor in signaling hunger.

The Role of the Stomach



The Hypothalamus

• The level of sugar in the blood and

the hypothalamus are key

influences on feelings of hunger.

• The hypothalamus is a part of the

brain that regulates body

temperature and various aspects of

psychological motivation and

emotion.

• Different parts of the hypothalamus

control the urge to begin eating and

to stop eating.

Psychological Influences

• In human beings, psychological as

well as biological factors affect

feelings of hunger.

• Learning that certain amounts of

food or drink will produce a feeling

of well-being and relaxation can

cause people to eat and drink

when they feel upset.



• More than 6 out of 10 adult

Americans are overweight, while 3

out of 10 are obese: weighing

more than 30 percent greater than

their recommended weight.

• Obese people suffer more illnesses

than non-obese, including heart

disease, stroke, diabetes, gall

bladder disease, gout, respiratory

problems, and certain kinds of

cancer.

• Weight control is often elusive for

most obese people.

Causes of Obesity

• It seems to run in families, but is

not necessarily inherited.

• Certain genes may prevent the

message of having eaten enough

to reach the brain.

• Genes also determine how many

fat cells a person has.

• Genes determine metabolic rate.

• Psychological factors such as

stress and personal circumstances

such as family gathering can

increase food intake.

Obesity



Losing Weight

• Psychologists and other

professionals have worked to

devise strategies for weight loss.

• Not everyone should lose weight.

• A sound diet is one that is sensible,

realistic, and well planned.

• Eating foods that are low in fat sets

a good precedent for a lifetime of

healthful eating.

• Nutritional information is important.

• Exercising helps burn calories and

increase metabolism.

Keeping Weight Off

• Many people who lose weight

struggle not to regain weight.

• Maintaining a new, more healthy

weight requires ongoing work.

• An increase in self-esteem and the

adoption of a new, life-long

approach to eating and exercising

are important factors in keeping

weight off.



Psychological Needs

• All people seek sensory stimulation.

• Some people feel driven to high achievement.

• People seek to balance their beliefs, actions, and

thoughts.

• Humans are motivated to be social.




• We experience psychological

needs as well as biological needs.

• Some psychological needs

motivate us to reduce tension or

stimulation. Other psychological

needs actually lead us to increase

the amount of stimulation we

experience.

• Stimulus motives: the desires for

stimulation

Sensory Deprivation

• Sensory deprivation: the absence

of stimulation

• Students who were placed in a

situation of sensory deprivation

became bored and irritable,

reported hallucinations, and quit the

study early.

• They reported extreme boredom

and disorientation for some time.

Stimulus Motives



Exploration and

Manipulation

• Most people are motivated to

explore their immediate

surroundings.

• Once people become sufficiently

comfortable with their environment,

they seek new stimulation.

• Do people and animals explore and

manipulate their environment

because these activities help them

meet the needs for food and

safety? Or do they explore simply

for the sake of new stimulation?

• Many psychologists believe that

exploration and manipulation are

reinforcing in and of themselves.



Achievement motivation: the drive to get ahead, tackle

challenging situations, and meet high personal standards of

success

People with higher achievement motivation make better grades

and make more money than others.

• Performance goals: specific goal;

extrinsic rewards (good grades,

good income)

• Learning goals: knowledge goal;

intrinsic rewards (self-

satisfaction)

Types of Goals

Achievement Motivation

• The attitude of parents and

caregivers plays a crucial role.

• Parents may encourage a child

to find his or her own answer, or

may reward good grades and

punish bad grades.

Development of Achievement

Motivation



Cognitive Consistency

• Cognitive consistency: thinking and behaving in a way that fits

what an individual believes and how others expect that individual to

think and behave.

• Most people prefer that the “pieces” of their lives fit together, and feel

better when the important relationships in their lives are stable and

orderly.

• Many psychological needs are aimed at reducing stimulation or

tension, especially in interactions with other people. These types of

psychological needs are based on people’s need to maintain a

balance between their personal beliefs, actions, and thoughts.

Making Things Fit



Cognitive-dissonance Theory

• Cognitive-dissonance theory: people are motivated to reduce the

inconsistency of their thoughts and behaviors.

• Suggests that people having a basic disagreement may seek to

reduce the dissonance by trying to pretend the differences between

them are unimportant or even by denying that the differences exist

Balance Theory

• Balance theory: people need to organize their perceptions, opinions,

and beliefs in a harmonious manner.

• Maintain cognitive balance by holding consistent views and having

friends who hold similar views.

• When someone we care about disagrees with us, an uncomfortable

state of imbalance arises.



• Affiliation: the desire to join with others and be part of something

larger than oneself

• People make friends, join groups, and participate in activities with

others.

• Affiliation motivation helps keep families, groups, and nations

together.

• Sometimes a strong need to affiliate may be a sign of anxiety.

• The desire to affiliate with a group can lead people to disregard their

own perceptions.

Affiliation



Emotions

• Emotions have biological, cognitive, and behavioral

components.

• Facial expressions of emotion are the same around the

world.

• Psychologists have developed several different theories

of emotion.




• Emotions: states of feeling

• Positive emotions such as happiness and love make life worth living,

while negative emotions such as fear and sadness can make life

difficult.

• Some emotions arise in response to a situation.

• Emotions have biological, cognitive, and behavioral components.

• Theories try to group emotions into different categories or determine

how many emotions there are.

The Nature of Emotions



Anger

• A common response to an insult or attack, it can make a person seem

out of control.

• Most people get angry at an alleged offense, especially those that

seem deliberate or thoughtless.

• Small annoyances such as a loud noise or bad odor can cause anger.

• Being assertive instead of hostile can diffuse anger.

Happiness

• James said that the motive behind everything that people do is “how to

gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness.”

• People who are happy think the world is a happier, safer place, make

decisions more readily, and report greater satisfaction with their lives.

• Happier people are more likely to help others.



• People can “read” other people’s faces and tell what emotions they

are feeling by their expressions.

• Cross-cultural evidence suggest that facial expressions are probably

inborn.

• Certain facial expressions seem to suggest the same emotions in all

people.

• Smiling appears to be a universal sign of friendliness and approval,

while baring the teeth may be a universal sign of anger.

• Darwin believed that the universal recognition of facial expressions

had survival value by communicating motivation.

Facial Expressions



The Commonsense Approach

• A person quickly interprets a situation, and the interpretation triggers

body sensations that signal a feeling, or emotion. The emotion, in

turn, triggers a behavior.

• Most psychologists agree that thoughts (the appraisal of a situation)

come before feelings and behavior.

• Three important theories of emotion are the James-Lange theory, the

Cannon-Bard theory, and the theory of cognitive appraisal.

The Opponent-process Theory

• Opponent-process theory: emotions often come in pairs, with one

emotion being followed by its opposite.

• Extreme sadness may follow extreme happiness.

Theories of Emotion



The James-Lange Theory

• People’s emotions follow, rather than cause, behavioral reactions.

• Certain situations trigger reactions, called instinctive bodily response

patterns.

• Suggests people can change their feelings by changing behaviors.

The Cannon-Bard Theory

• Emotions accompany the bodily responses that are aroused by an

external stimulus.

• Situations trigger both behaviors and emotions at the same time.

The Theory of Cognitive Appraisal

• All emotions have similar bodily response patterns.

• Maintains that the way people label an emotion depends on their

cognitive appraisal of the situation.



• The theories of emotion are quite different from each other.

• It is possible that a behavioral reaction pattern could come before,

along with, or after an emotional response.

• The truth may lie in a combination of theories.

• In short, people are complex, thinking beings who evaluate

information both from their personal situations and from their bodily

responses to those situations.

Evaluation of the Theories

chapter 13: motivation and emotion...... motivation and emotion case study: ... motivation answers...

Documents