jimtrue.com : school : PSY1012 : Chapter Twelve: Motivation & Work
Posted by Jim True on April 3, 2006 5:22 PM. Last Updated October 22, 2006 9:23 PM
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Chapter Twelve: Motivation & Work
Drop-dead deadline for Individual Experience paper is Monday, April 10th
Motivation
- Motivation
- a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior
- Some of us are more driven than others to get good grades, make more money, etc.
- Instinct
- complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned
- As human beings, very few of our motivations are instincts; they are learned.
- Instincts example: Salmons spawn upstream. Baby ducklings imprint on the first creature they see.
- Drive-Reduction Theory
- the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need
- The need motivates the drive which motivates the drive-reducing behavior to satisfy the need.
- Need (eg for water or food) -> Drive (hunger, thirst) -> Drive-reducing behaviors (eating, drinking)
- Homeostasis
- tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state
- regulation of any aspect of body chemistry around a particular level
- Incentive
- a postive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior
- Reward beyond homeostasis motivates beyond the regular drive.
- incentive tied to a drive makes it a very big drive
- Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
- begins at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied
- then higher-level safety needs become active
- then psychological needs become active
- Table of Needs [top down]
- Self-actualization needs - Need to live up to one's fullest and unique potential
- Esteem needs - Need for self-esteem, achievement, competence and independence; need for recognition and respect from others
- Belongingness and love needs - Need to love and be loved, to belong and be accepted; need to avoid loneliness and alienation
- Safety needs - Need to feel that the world is organized and predictable; need to feel safe, secure and stable
- Physiological needs - Need to satisfy hunger and thirst
- Physiological -> Safety -> Belongingness and Love -> Esteem -> Self-actualization
Motivation - Hunger
- Stomach contractions accompany our feelings of hunger
- Signal - the stomach growls
- Glucose
- the form of sugar that circulates in the blood
- provides the major source of energy for blood tissues
- when its level is low, we feel hunger
- Set Point
- the point at which an individual's "weight thermostat" is suposedly set
- when teh body falls below this weight, an increase in hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may act to restore the lost weight
- Basal Metabolic Rate
- body's base rate of energy expenditure
- The hypothalamus controls eating and other body maintenance functions
- lateral hypothalamus is the 'start eating' center; okay we're hungry
- ventromedial hypothalamus is the 'stop eating' center
- Table 12.1 - The Appetite Hormones
| Insulin | Hormone secreted by pancreas; controls blood glucose |
| Leptin | Protein secreted by fat cells; when abundant, causes brain to increase metabolism and decrease hunger. |
| Orexin | Hunger-triggering hormone secreted by hypothalamus. |
| Ghrelin | Hormone secreted by empty stomach; sends "I'm hungry" signals to the brain. |
| PYY | Digestive tract hormone; sends "I'm NOT hungry" signals to the brain. |
- "Comfort Foods" increase serotonin levels
Eating Disorders
- Anorexia Nervosa
- when a normal-weight person diets and becomes significantly (>15%) underweight, yet, still feeling fat, continues to starve
- usually an adolescent female
- body dysmorphia - even though they were wasting away, they see themselves as fat
- Bulimia Nervosa
- disorder characterized by episodes of overeating, usually of high-calorie foods, followed by vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive exercize
Forces affecting Sexual Motivation
- Physiological stimuli (the chemistry), imagined stimuli (fantasy), external stimuli (things we view, erotic material, pornography [creates unrealistic expectations]) -> sexual motivation
- Normal human behavior; nature's way of getting us to procreate
- Factors affecting Teen Pregnancy: Ignorance, guilt related to sexual activity, minimal communication about birth control, alcohol use, and mass media norms of unprotected promiscuity
- Pornography - can create unrealistic expectations, view person as sexual objects; men use external stimuli more than women and fantasize more than women.
- Kinsey did study in 1948; determined there is no such thing as 'normal' sexual behavior
- Sexual Orientation
- an enduring sexual attraction toward members of either one's own gener (homosexual orientation) or the other gender (heterosexual orientation)
- Simon Levay's work discovered that sexual orientation is partly biological; studied the hypothalamus from deceased hetero and homo sexual men. Cell clusters studied were larger in gay men. No proof as to whether being gay creates the larger cell cluster or if it's that way from birth (chicken and egg syndrome)
- Biological Correlates of Sexual Orientation [Table 12.2]; hormones, brain differences, genetic influences
- Has it always existed? Yep, throughout history and is not going away; nurture (the environment) may make a group of people change due to social influence or bias. Increasing evidence that sexual orientation is predominately biological. Fukiyama ('Our Post Human Future')
- Physiological
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