Motives, Needs, Drives, and Incentives
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Motive - Hypothetical state that activates
behavior and propels one towards goals
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Need - Physiological and psychological
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Physiological needs - Oxygen, food, drink,
etc.
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Psychological needs - Achievement, power,
self-esteem, etc.
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Not necessarily based on a state of deprivation
and may be acquired through experience
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Drive - Arises from needs
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Physiological drives are the psychological
counterparts of physiological needs
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Incentive - Something capable of being
desirable or satisfying for its own sake
Theoretical Perspectives on Motivation
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Instinct Theory - Behaviors are characteristic
of a species and do not rely on learning
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Instinct - Inherited disposition; activates
certain behaviors to attain certain goals
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Ethologist - Studies behavior patterns
characteristic of certain species
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Fixed-action Patterns (FAPs) - Response
to stimuli known as releasers
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Releaser - Stimulus that elicits a
FAP
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James and McDougall - Theorized that
people have various instincts that foster self-survival and social behavior
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Freud - Theorized that instincts of
sex and aggression create psychic energy or a feeling of tension
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Drive-Reduction Theory - Behaviors
are reactions to drives; the main goal of action is to reduce tension
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Hull - Theorized that rewards are pleasant
because they reduce drives
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Primary drives - Hunger, thirst, and
pain; do not need to be learned
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Trigger tension and activate behavior
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We learn responses to partially or completely
reduce the drive
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Acquired drives - Acquired or learned
through experience
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Humanistic Theory - Behavior is motivated
in part by the conscious desire for personal growth; people will tolerate
pain, hunger, and other sources of tension to achieve personal fulfillment
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Self-actualization - Self-initiated
striving to become what one is capable of being
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - Maslow
theorized that people would travel up the Hierarchy through their lives
so long as they did not encounter insurmountable social or environmental
obstacles
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Physiological needs - Hunger, thirst,
warmth, elimination of fatigue and pain
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Safety needs - Protection from the
elements, crime, and financial hardship
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Love and Belonging needs - Love, acceptance,
intimate relationships, friends, social groups
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Esteem needs - Achievement, prestige,
status, competence, approval
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Self-actualization - Fulfillment of
one’s unique potential
Physiological Drives
Physiological Drives - Unlearned
drives with a biological basis (primary drives)
Learning influences what behavior is used
to satisfy drives
Homeostasis - Tendency of the body
to maintain a steady state
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Hunger
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Mouth - Provides a sense of satiety
- satisfied; fullness
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Stomach Contractions - Hunger pangs
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Blood Sugar Level - Drops with the
deficit of food
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Hypothalamus - Also plays a role in
hunger
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Ventromedial Nucleus - Central area
on the underside of the hypothalamus, functions as a stop-eating center;
problems cause an organism to become hyperphagic (eat excessively)
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Lateral Hypothalamus - On the side
of the hypothalamus, functions as a start-eating center; problems cause
an organism to become aphagic (undereat)
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Receptors in Liver - Sensitive to blood-sugar
levels, food deprivation causes receptors to send messages to the
brain
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Thirst
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Dry Mouth Theory - It was once thought
that receptors in the mouth determined thirst
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Regulation in Kidneys - Fluid depletion
reduces the flow of blood through the kidneys, which secrete a hormone
to signal the hypothalamus
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Hypothalamus - Osmoreceptor cells in
the brain shrivel and trigger thirst; produces ADH
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ADH (Antidiuretic Hormone) - conserves
body fluids by increasing reabsorption of urine
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Receptors in Mouth and Throat - signal
hypothalamus to pause in drinking
Stimulus Motives
Stimulus Motives - Motives to increase
the stimulus on an object
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Sensory Stimulation and Activity
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Sensory Deprivation - Research method
that systematically decreases the amount of stimulation on sensory
receptors; sensory deprivation is intolerable; people seek different levels
of stimulation
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Exploration and Manipulation
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Novel Stimulation - Unusual source
of arousal or excitement; people are motivated to seek it
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People explore and manipulate their environment
for reduction of primary drives or for their own sake
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The Search for Optimal Arousal
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Arousal - General level of activity
or motivation in an organism
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Optimal Arousal - The level of arousal
at which we function best
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Fiske and Maddi - Theorized that people
behave in ways to increase their arousal when their levels are too
low and ways to decrease their arousal when their levels are too high
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Yerkes-Dodson Law - A high level of
motivation increases efficiency in the performance of simple tasks, whereas
a low level of motivation increases the efficiency in the performance of
complex tasks
Social Motives
Social Motives - Learned or acquired motives
Henry Murray - Developed Thematic Apperception
Test (TAT)
David McClelland - Helped pioneer assessment
of need for achievement; found that motives measured by the TAT permit
the production of long-term behavior patterns
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Need for Achievement (nAch)
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Behavior of individuals with high nAch
- Tend to earn higher grades, and take positions of higher risks, decision
making, and the chance for great success
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Development of nAch - Children who
develop a high nArc are encouraged to show independence and responsibility
at an early age
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Need for Affiliation (nAff)
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Stanley Schachter - Experimented on
anxiety’s effect on nAff
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Theory of Social Comparison - People
look to others for cues about how to act in confusing or unfamiliar situations;
a high nAff may indicate anxiety
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Need for Power (nPower)
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Need for Power - The need to control
organizations and other people
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McClelland and Pilon - Found that high
nPower adults were more likely to have parents who were permissive toward
their children’s sexual and aggressive behavior
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Qualities of individuals with high nPower
- More likely to be members of important comittees and hold prominent offices
in organizations
Emotion
Emotion - A state of feeling
that can have physiological, situational, and cognitive components
Sympathetic Arousal - Rapid heartbeat
and breathing, sweating, muscle tension; usually affiliated with a sense
of danger
Parasympathetic Arousal - Usually
affiliated with anger or a wish for revenge in a frustrating or insulting
situation
Lie Detectors - Monitor physiological
signals of emotional states, correlating certain signals with lying or
truthfulness; often inaccurate due to the variety of motivations that can
produce the same physiological effect; e.g., nervousness due to lying vs.
nervousness due to the importance of being read as truthful
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Emotional Development
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Katherine Bridges’ Theory - Emotions
develop as babies age
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Newborns - One emotion only: diffuse excitement
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3 Months - Distress and delight
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6 Months - Distress differentiates into fear,
disgust, and anger
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12 Months - Delight differentiates into elation
and affection
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2 Years - Jealousy develops from distress;
joy develops from delight
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Alan Sroufe - Advanced Bridges’ theory
by studying causes of emotions: e.g., jealousy requires a sense of possession
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Carroll Izard - Theorized that infants
are born with discrete emotional states, and learn to express them as they
age
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Expressions of Emotion
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Smiling - Universal sign of friendliness
or approval
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Baring Teeth - Universal sign of anger
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Paul Ekman - Studied universality of
expressions; most were found to be common to all humans
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The Facial-Feedback Hypothesis
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Facial Feedback Hypothesis - Facial
expressions affect what emotions a person feels; expression intensifies
the emotion while repression lessens it
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McCanne and Anderson - Tried to create
more unbiased tests of the facial-feedback hypothesis
Theories of Emotion
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James-Lange Theory
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William James and Karl G. Lange - Suggested
that emotions follow behavioral responses rather than cause them; responses
are instinctive behavior patterns
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Walter Cannon - Argued that emotion and action
are not discrete
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Cannon-Bard Theory
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Walter Cannon and Philip Bard - Suggested
an event triggers an emotion and a response simultaneously
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Theory of Cognitive Appraisal
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Stanley Schachter - Found that all
emotions have approximately the same arousal pattern; theorizes that variation
is only in strength of the impulse and actions are largely dependent on
our cognitive appraisal of the situation; the way we appraise is influenced
by many factors, including other people’s reactions if they are present
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Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer
- Found that appraisal of the same emotion can be drastically different
in different situations
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Rogers and Decker; Maslach - Reproducing
the Schachter-Singer experiment, got different results
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Evaluation of Emotion Theories
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Emotional responses vary more than any one
theory allows depending on the situation; therefore, no emotional theory
is currently accepted as completely correct
Love
Passion Cluster - The level
of romantic love including fascination, sexual desire, exclusiveness
Caring Cluster - The level of romantic
love including being a champion or advocate and giving the utmost for one’s
significant other
Romantic Love - An intense, positive
emotion involving:
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Arousal in the form of sexual attraction
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A cultural setting that idealizes love
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The actual or fantasized presence of a person
considered to be attractive
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Caring
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The belief that one is “in love”
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Romantic Love in Contemporary Western Culture
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Portrayal of Love in Western Culture
- First seen by children in tales such as Sleeping Beauty, Snow White,
Cinderella, etc.; then in romantic novels, television shows and films,
and personal accounts from friends and family
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What the absence of romantic love in some
cultures means - Romantic love is not necessarily fake, it simply requires
knowledge of a behavior pattern before it can be enacted
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Styles of Love
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Clyde and Susan Hendrick - Developed
a love-attitude scale suggesting six styles of love among college students
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Eros - Romantic love, commitment
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Ludus - Game-playing love; “I keep
my lover up in the air about my commitment”
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Storge - Friendship-love; “The best
love grows out of enduring friendship”
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Pragma - Pragmatic or logical love;
“I consider whether my lover would be a good parent”
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Mania - Possessive, excited love; obsession
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Agape - Selfless love; put lover’s
interests before one’s own
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What makes up a “normal” relationship
- Most romantic relationships are a mixture of the six types of love
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Love and Arousal
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Istvan and Griffitt - Strong arousal in the
presence of a reasonably attractive person may lead to the belief that
we are experienceing desire
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Valins - Found that believing one was aroused
was more important than actually being aroused in labelling certain models
as more attractive than others
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