Chapter 13

Chapter 13 – Motivation and Emotion - Motivation: a general term for a group of phenomena that affect the nature, strength, and persistence of an individual’s behavior What is Motivation? - We behave in a particular way to get something or to avoid something - Motivation is proactive (forward-looking); similar to concepts of reinforcements - Motivation can also be reactive (in response to conditions present at the time) - Biological Needs - Regulatory behavior: a behavior that tends to bring physiological conditions back to normal, thus restoring the condition of homeostasis o I.e. eating, drinking, hunting, shivering, building a fire, and putting on a warm coat - Homeostasis: process by which important physiological characteristics (such as body temperature and blood pressure) are regulated so that they remain at their optimum level - Regulatory systems have 4 essential features o System variable: variable controlled by a regulatory mechanism  I.e. temperature in a heating system o Set point: optimum value of the system variable in a regulatory mechanism  Set point for body temperature recorded is 37 C o Detector: in a regulatory process, a mechanism that signals when the system variable deviates from its set point o Correctional mechanism: in a regulatory process, the mechanism that is capable of restoring the system variable to the set point - Negative feedback: the effect produces by an action serves to diminish or terminate that action - Drive reduction hypothesis: a drive (resulting from a physiological need or deprivation) produces an unpleasant state that causes an organism to engage in motivational behavior - Drive: a condition, often caused by physiological changes or homeostatic disequilibrium, that energizes an organism’s behavior - Critiques of hypothesis o Almost always impossible to measure o If we examine our own behavior, we may find that many events we experience as reinforcing are also exciting, or drive increasing - Physiology of Reinforcement - Electrical stimulation of the brain is reinforcing because it activates the same system that is activated by natural reinforcers and by drugs that people commonly abuse - Optimum-Level Theory - Hypothesis that organisms will perform behavior that restores the level of arousal to an optimum level - 2 forms of exploration related to arousal o Diversive exploration – response to under stimulation (boredom) that increases the diversity of the stimuli the organism tries to come in contact with o Specific exploration – response to over stimulation (usually because of a specific need, such as lack of food or water) that leads to the needed item, thereby decreasing the organism’s drive level - Perseverance - The tendency to continue to perform a behavior even when it is not being reinforced - Effects of Intermittent Reinforcement o Experiencing failure in our past facilitates persistence of later performance, but only if failure is eventually followed by success o Extinction-induced aggression  Extinction causes other members of species to become eliciting stimuli for aggressive behavior and thereby establish the opportunity to aggress as a reinforcing stimuli - Overjustification Hypothesis o Superfluous application of extrinsic rewards to intrinsically motivated behavior will undermine intrinsic motivation o When children were told to draw, some were told they’d be given a reward, some weren’t told they’d be given a reward, and some didn’t get a reward o Those who were told they’d get the reward didn’t draw as much days after the experiment because they lost interest since there was no reward for them o Other kids didn’t stop - Learned Helplessness o Response to exposure to an inescapable aversive stimulus, characterized by reduced ability to learn a solvable avoidance task; thought to play a role in the development of some psychological disturbances o Learning that the consequences of behavior are independent of one’s behavior – an aversive outcome can’t be avoided Eating - What Starts a Meal? - Physiological Factors o Cannon and Washburn – eating begins when we have an empty stomach  Walls of an empty stomach rub together to produce ‘hunger pangs’  ‘rumble theory’ o Depletion of the body’s store of nutrients is a more likely cause of hunger o Short-term reservoir stores carbohydrates located in cells of muscles and liver  Glycogen: insoluble carbohydrate that can be synthesized from glucose or converted to it; stores nutrients o Long-term reservoir stores fats found beneath the skin and in various locations in the abdomen  Adipose tissue (fat tissue) consists of cells capable of absorbing nutrients from the blood, converting them to triglycerides (fats), and storing them  Keeps us alive during prolonged fasting o Glucostatic hypothesis: hunger is caused by a low level or availability of glucose, a condition that is monitored by specialized sensory neurons - Cultural and Social Factors o We learn when and what to eat due to habit - What Stops a Meal? - The physiological factors that stop a meal are divided into 2 groups o Those that arise from the immediate effects of eating a meal o Those that are produced by the longer-term consequences - Obesity - Social and physical complications - Difficult to treat - People need to be motivated to lose weight - Need to realize that weight reduction programs are designed for health reasons rather than aesthetic reasons - Unhappiness and depression seem to be effects of obesity, not causes - Habit plays important role in control of food intake - Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa - Anorexia nervosa: eating disorder characterized by attempts to lose weight, sometimes to the point of starvation o Decrease in eating o ‘loss of appetite’ o People limit their intake of food despite intense preoccupation with food and its preparation o Intense fear of becoming obese even if they are dangerously thin - Bulimia nervosa: loss of control over food intake characterized by gorging binges followed by self-induced vomiting or use of laxatives; accompanied by feelings of guilt and depression Sexual Behavior - Effects of Sex Hor