PSYA02H3 Lecture : Chapter notes

• School: UTSC
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYA02H3
• Professor: Fornier

Document Summary

Motivation a general term for a group of phenomena that affect the nature, strength, or persistence of. Stimuli that have become associated with pleasant or unpleasant events motivate approach or avoidance behaviours. Being deprived of a particular reinforcer increases an organism"s preference for a particular behaviour. Our behaviour is motivated by situations that we tend to approach or to avoid. Situations that motivate our behaviour also provoke emotions. We are motivated to perform a behaviour to gain (avoid losing) a reinforcer or to avoid (escape) a punisher. Regulatory behaviour a behaviour that tends to bring physiological conditions back to normal, thus restoring the condition of homeostasis. Examples: eating, drinking, hunting, shivering, building a fire and putting on a warm coat. Homeostasis the process by which important physiological characteristics (such as body temperature and blood pressure) are regulated so that they remain at their optimum level. Deficits or imbalances motivate us because they cause us to perform the appropriate regulatory behaviours.