Study Guides - Summary Understanding Motivation and Emotion PDF

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Study Guide for textbook (first 7 chapters) and lectures...

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Textbook Review for Midterm NOTE: there may be questions that ask you to “imagine that you are an emotion and motivation researcher…” – and now that you know this, you can use this to help guide your studying (i.e., for each of the theories or research examples, imagine that you are the person conducting the research, or studying similar motivation/emotion processes – what would you be doing, how and what would you be looking for, what types of assumptions might you make, what would you observe about emotions and motivation, etc.) You do not need to know any formulas, but rather how concepts ‘work’ to explain human behaviour. There may also be questions that require you to apply your knowledge of theories and concepts we have discussed in class to real life situations (i.e., beyond rote memorization). Chapter 1 (plus lecture) What is motivation - defining it and why it is important, the science of motivation Motivation is wanting, it is a condition inside us that desires a change in the self or envviornment. Why is it important?-First-its very interesting, to give us insights on what we want and what other people want. As well as it helps us to set goals and plans for achievement. Second, it is valuable and useful, useful to know where motivation comes from, why it changes and under what conditions. We can then apply our knowledge to situations to gain valued outcomes. What causes behavior, and why does behavior vary in intensity What causes behavior: its difficult to understand what causes behavior; the big 2: boost of selfesteem (not a causal variable, only an effect) and to offer incentives but these are not effective Why does behavior vary in intensity: a person can be actively engaged in one time, yet the same person can be passive and listless at other times. It varies within the individual as well as among different people. Motivation sources Energy: behavior has strength, it strong and intense Direction: behavior has a purpose-guided toward some goal Persistence: behavior has endurance-sustains itself over time and across different situations Internal motives Needs: conditions within the individual that are essential for the maintenance of life, and the growth and well-being; hunger, thirst (biological) competence, belongingness (psychological). Needs serve the organism in two ways; 1. General wants and desires that motivate whatever behaviors are necessary for maintenance of life and well-being 2. Generating deep sense of need satisfaction but doing so. Cognitions: mental evens, (i.e., thoughts/beliefs), understanding who you are and who you are striving to become

Emotions: feelings of reactions to significant events in our lives, generate brief attention-getting bursts of adaptive behavior. Given a life event, emotions rapidly generate and sync 4 interrelated aspects of experience in a whole o Feelings: subjective, verbal descriptions of emotional experience o Arousal: bodily mobilization to cope with situational demands o Purpose: motivational urge to accomplish something specific at that moment o Expression: nonverbal communication of our own emotional experiences to others External events: environmental (money, events of appraisal), social (classroom, workplace), and cultural offerings that affect a person’s internal motives o Motivational power of incentives and rewards is actually traceable to the dopamine discharge that occurs in the subcortical brain when you expect the delivery of a valued reward, therefore it is the dopamine discharge and the cognitive expectation of a forthcoming benefit (internal process) not the extrinsic reward itself Expressions of motivation - How do we measure motivation (how do we study it) and how is it expressed through behaviour, incl. Table 1.2 How we study motivation: you cannot see a motivation, so we observe what is public and measurable to infer motivations. We can study it by; o Behavior: effort, persistence, latency all observable events that we can see to determine if motivation occurs

Four interrelated aspects of engagement Types of motives Application to practical problems (e.g., how is this useful in real life) Emotional: presence of positive emotions during task

Cognitive engagement: how strategically the person attempts to process info Agency: extent of pro-activeness and constructive contribution into the activity by asking questions and expressing preference Chapter 2 (plus lecture) Grand theories of motivation: will, instinct, drive (Freud's and Hull's theories) - know each generally, and their flaws (why they declined) Grand theory is used to explain an all-ecompassing theory that seeks to explain the full range of motivated action Will Descartes said once he understood the will, then understanding of motivation would inevitably unfold. Some people show more will power than others Instinct  Darwin’s biological determinism proved biology wih its most important idea (evolution) thus turning scietists away from will and toward mechanicalistic/genetic ones, as well as biological determinism ended the man-animal dualism that pervaded early motivation study. How animals use their resources (i.e., motivation) to adapt to the prevailing demands of an environment William James was the first psychologist to pioneer an instinct theory of motivation McDougall regarded instincts as irrational, impulsive* (difference between the two, was McDougalls rather extreme assertion that without instincts human beings would initiate no action) Drive: arose to replace instinct was drive, arose from within an intellectual climate of a functional biology, one that understood that the function of behavior was to service bodily needs. As biological imbalances occurred (e.g., lack of food, water), animals psychologically experienced these bodily deficits as “drive.” Freud’s drive theory: all behavior was motivated and the purpose of behavior was to serve the satisfaction of the biologically bodily needs. His view was that biological urges (e.g., hunger) were constantly and inevitably recurring conditions in the body that produced energy buildups within the nervous system. (think of a bathtub, in which energy (like consistently flowing water) continues to rise. As bodily drives continue to build up energy, the anxious urge to discharge that energy becomes increasingly urgent and expedient (or else the water would overflow). The higher the psychic energy rises, the greater the impulse to act. Adaptive behavior quieted the drive for a time, but the ever-constant buildup of nervous system energy would always return (i.e., the water’s inflow never shuts off). Drive therefore arose as a psychological emergency warning system that action needed to be taken. Freud summarized his theory in 4 components: Drive, Impetus, object, and aim. Built his case studies on drive theory from disturbed individuals

Hulls Drive Theory: Clarke drive was a pooled energy source composed of all current bodily deficits/disturbances. Similar to Freud: they had a purely physiological basis and bodoly need was the ultimate sirce of motivation (i.e., grand theory of motivation).Hulls outstanding feature was that with both the instint and the willm it was impossible to determine whether someone was motivated, however if an animal was deprived of basic needs, then drive would increase in proportion to the duration of that deprivation

o Drive was an increasing monotonic function of total bodily need, which itself was an increasing monotonic function of hours of deprivation. o If one knew which environmental conditions created motivation, then one could manipulate and predict motivational states in the lab Decline of Drive theory: both Freu and Hulls versions trested on three assumptions 1. Drive emerged from bodily needs 2. Drive energizes behavior 3. Drive reduction was reinforxing and produced learning  some motives emerged without any biological need-thus can energe from other sources other than bodily disturbances exteral sources of otivation could energize behavior learning often occurred without drive reduction (ex. Hungry rats learned even when reinforced only by a non-utitive saccharin reward. Other research demonstrated that learning occurred after drive induction (increase in drive), ex. Behavior was largely motivated by strivings for greater competence (rather than drive reduction) *Thus it became evident that drive reduction was neither necessary nor sufficient for learning to occur

Post-drive theory years - the rise of arousal theory and its central ideas, the inverted u-curve The rise of arousal theory: the rising disaffextion with drive theory was countered by a rising affection for arousal theory-arousal system in the brain. Centeral ideas in the study of arousal were: 1. Arousal represents a varety of processes that govern alertness, wakefulness, and activation 2. A persons arousal level is mostly a function of how stimulating the environment is 3. A moderate level of arousal concides with the experience of pleasure and optimal performance 4. People engage in strategic behavour to increase or decrease their level of arousal 5. When underaroused, people seek opportunities to increase their arousal 6. When overaroued, people seek opportunities to decrease their arousal These 5 principals can be organized into the “inverted U” relationship between performance and well being o Introduced by Yerkes and Dodson to explain the level of environmental stimulation and performance and wellbeing

o Low environmental stimulation produced bordem, high envoi stimulation produced tension and stress o Predicts when increases and decreases will lead to positive affect (approach) and negative affect (avoid) o The level of arousal came to be understood as “synonymous with a general drive state” o The grand theory was that people prefer an optimal level of arousal

Rise of the mini-theories - how mini-theories are different from having one grand theory Unlike a grand theory that seeks to explain all motivation, mini-theories limit their explanatory ambition to specific motivational phenomena. Mini-theories seek to understand or investigate one particular: · o motivational phenomenon (e.g., achievement motivation, the flow experience). o circumstance that affects motivation (e.g., failure feedback, role models). o theoretical question (e.g., What is the relationship between cognition and emotion?). A mini-theory explains some but not all motivated behavior.

Socially relevant questions - how mini-theories might apply or be relevant to various domains of psychology Unlike a grand theory that seeks to explain all motivation, mini-theories limit their explanatory ambition to specific motivational phenomena. Minitheories seek to understand or investigate one particular: · motivational phenomenon (e.g., achievement motivation, the flow experience). · circumstance that affects motivation (e.g., failure feedback, role models). · theoretical question (e.g., What is the relationship between cognition and emotion?). A mini-theory explains some but not all motivated behavior. History of the study of emotion - the questions that people care about Questions that people care about; o What is an emotion (i.e., define it)? o What causes an emotion? o How many emotions are there? o Are emotions constructive assets or dysfunctional liabilities? o Can we control our emotions—can emotions be self-regulated and managed? o What is the difference between emotion and mood?

o What is the relation between emotion and cognition? · What is the relation between emotion and motivation? Know Box 2 - the different perspectives and motives that emerge from them

Chapter 3 (plus lecture) Motivation, emotion, and neuroscience - Why is the brain important to motivation/emotion - i.e., neural basis, brain structures and how they are involved in motivation and emotion Why is the brain important to motivation/emotion? o Different brain structures, when stimulated, give rise to specific motivational and emotional states that help us cope with and adjust to what is happening Neural basis o Cortical Brain: o Outer cortical brain=the cerebral cortex (or cerebrum), buldging, wrinkled surface o Functions at conscious, deliberate, intentional level o Assoacited with rich motivations such as goals, plans, strategies, values, and beliefs about the self o Cortical brain is active asyou set a goal o Subcortical brain o Basic urges and impulses

o Emotion motivations such as hunger, thirst, anger, wanting etc o Ex., smelling a certain food generates an urge to approach the source of the felt pressure o These urges occu regardless if yu want them too, hence these are unconscious, automcatic and impulsive motivations o Bidirectional communication o Individual structures are linked together by a network of neural pathways (white matter) o These communication pathways allow the cognitive, motivational, and emotional states to arise in one area of the brain to inform, contribute, and change the cognitive, motivational, and emotional states that arise in another part of the brain o Motivation and emotional states are generated in a ‘bottom-up’ fashion as individual brain structures respond to environmental stimuli-typically generated by the subcortical brain o Dual process model: the bidirectional forces between basic motivations and cognitive control over these basic motivations and emotions Brain Structures and how they are involved in motivation and motivation o Reticular formation: key role in arousal and alertness, processes incoming sensory info o Amygdala: automatically and instantaneously detects and responds to emotionall significant and aversive events. Stimulation to the amygdala can result in emotional anger or fear and defensive behavior o Detects aversive characteristics in environment and relay emotional info to the cortical and subcortical brain regions o Overall threat-and reward-detecting function, ex. Gambling o Sends projections to almost every part of the brain, although only a small number of projections return info to the amygdala, hence this imbalance explains why negative emotion tends to overpower cognition more than cognition tends to regulate emotion o Striatum, nuclesus accumbens and ventral tegmental area are all apart of the reward center o Striatum: activation to the lower part (ventral) is the same as the experience of a reward-we learn what to like, what to prefer and want o Nucleus accumbens: is active during the experience of a pleasant state-activated by the release of dopamine which is released by a pleasant stimulus o Ventral tegmental area: manufacturing site for brain dopamine-starting point of the reward center o Basal Ganglia: makes a planned action more or less potent o Hypothalamus: 20 neighbouring and interconnected nuclei-regulates biological functions such as hunger, thirst, sex-natural rewards. Regulates the internal environment to adapt to environment o Insula: posterior insula receives and monitors bodily changes such as arousal and cravings. Anterior insula represents the “gut feelings”  also key brain structure involved in intrinsic motivation. Processes internal feelings, as well as others feelings

Prefrontal cortex, including BIS/BAS (Approach and Avoidance oriented brain structures) Prefrontal Cortex: two lobes (right and left) o Affect, goals, and personal strivings o Right lobe: generates negative emotion and avoidance motivation. Greater right symmetry tend to engage in avoidance-oriented experiences such as fear, depression, and internalization symptoms o Left Lobe: signals positive emotion and approach motivation (people who have a naturally greater activity in the left lobe at resting state tend toangage in more approachoriented behavior such as reward seeking, impulsivity, and aggression-dominace BIS/BAS o BAS (good things) o BIS (bad things)

Dopamine (how it’s involved in motivation/emotion) o The release of dopamine results in a reward feeling, pleasure, good Hormones (how each of the 3 mentioned are involved in motivation/emotion) o Cortisol: Stress hormone-activates during social threats (e.g., public speaking), relationship problems, and being interpersonally controlled. De-activates during social support. o Short-term adaptive function, as it mobilzes attention and energy in response to a social threat o Long-term exposure to stress takes a toll on the body which is called allostatic load o Allostatic load put individual at risk of negative biological outcomes, such as poor memory, impaired problem solving o Oxytocin: bonding hormone, o tend and befriend stress (ex. Counselling, confide in friends during stressful life events). o It increases the salience or attention-getting qualities of social interpersonal cues such as emotion recognition and empathy o It can be delivered to a person via squirt of a nasal spray o Testosterone: steroid hormone associated with high competition, status-seeking, and sexual motivation o Underlies mating effort o Same-sex competition o High levels of testosterone are associated with affairs, low levels are associated with better parenting

Chapter 4 (plus lecture) What is a need, consequences of needs being satisfied vs. neglected 3 types of needs – how are they different, where do they come from What is a Need?: condition within the person that is essential and necessary for growth, wellbeing and life Consequences of needs being satisfied vs neglected o Satisfied: maintains life and health, nurtures growth and promotes well-being o Neglected: threatens life and health, halts growth, and disrupts well-being Three Types of Needs & where they come from:

How they are different: o Through effects on the direction of behavior o Some generate deficiency motivation, whereas others generate growth motivation Fundamentals of regulation - drive, homeostasis, negative feedback, the inputs, outputs, and mechanisms involved Drive: tem used to depict the psychological discomfort stemming from underlying and persistent biological deficit Homeostasis: body’s tendency to maintain stable internal state Negative Feedback: refers to homeostasis’ psychological stop system, people eat and sleep but only until they are no longer hungry or sleepy, while drive activates behavior, negative feedback stops it Multiple Inputs: drive has multiple means of inputs and outputs

Mechanisms involves Intra-organismic Mechanisms: include all biological regulatory systems within the person that act in concert to activate, maintain, and terminate the biological needs that underlie drive o Brain structures, endocrine system, and bodily organs constitute 3 man categories of intra-organismic mechanisms o Study of intra-organismic mechanisms is the study of how internal physiological events cause biological need Extra-organismic Mechanisms: include all environmental influences that play a part in activating, maintaining, and terminating psychological drive o Cognitive, environmental, social, and cultural influences are the principal categories of extra-organismic mechanisms o The study of extra-organismic mechanisms is the study of how cognitive, environmental, social, and cultural events cause biological need Homeostatic Mechanism:

Thirst & hunger - the physiological processes involved Thirst Activation of thirst: arises in 2 different sources

o Intracellular: when the intracellular fluid needs replenishment, osmometric thirst arises, cellular dehydration causes osmosteric thirs, and cellular hydration stops it o Extracellular: When the extracellular fluid needs replenishment (e.g., after sweating, bleeding, or vomiting), volumetric thirst arises. Hypovolemia (reduction of plasma volume) causes volumetric thirst, and hypervolemia stops it. o Osmometric thirst is the primary cause of thirst activation o Thirst comes mostly from dehydrated cells Satiety Thirst: negative feedback prevents people to over drink Hypothalamus and Kidneys: hypothamus monitors intracellular shrinkage (low water levels) and releases a hormone into the blood hat sends a message to the kidneys to conserve its water o Hypothalamus also creates he psychological state of thirst that directs attention and behavior toward water-replenishing Hunger o Follows a depletion-repl...