Chapter 10

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Motivation

n All of the processes that initiate, direct and sustain behavior

• Activation: the initiation of motivated behavior

• Persistence: the faithful and continued effort put forth in order to achieve a goal or finish a project

• Intensity: the focused energy and attention applied in order to achieve a goal or complete a project

Motivation

n Motives

• Needs or desires that energize and direct behavior toward a goal

• Biological motives

n Unlearned motives

• Social motives

n Learned motives

n Includes cultural expectations

• Guidelines explaining how behaviors should be done

• Emotions

n Contain both learned and unlearned components

Explaining Motivation

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

• Incentive

n An external stimulus that motivates behavior

• Money or fame

• Intrinsic motivation

n Activities motivated without external rewards; activities done for the joy of doing them

• Extrinsic motivation

n Activities motivated by the pleasant or unpleasant consequences that follow them

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

Description

An activity is pursued as an end itself because it is enjoyable & rewarding

An activity is pursued to gain an external reward or to avoid an undesirable consequence

Example

n A person anonymously donates a large sum of money to a university to fund scholarships for deserving students

n Reading books because it’s fun

n A person agrees to donate a large sum of money to a university for the construction of a building provided it will bear the family name

n Reading books to avoid losing TV privileges

Biological Approaches to Motivation

n Instinct

• Term used to explain why spiders spin webs and birds fly south in the winter

• No true instincts motivate human behavior

n Drive-reduction theory

• Biological needs create internal states of tension or arousal – called drives – that organisms are motivated to reduce

n Drive

• An internal state of tension or arousal that is brought about by an underlying need and that an organism is motivated to reduce

Drive Reduction Theory

Biological Approaches to Motivation

n Homeostasis

• Natural tendency of the body to maintain a balanced internal state to ensure physical survival

n Body temperatures

n Blood oxygen and sugar levels

n Water balance

• A drive is created to restore the balance when out of balance

n Arousal

• A state of alertness and mental and physical activation

n No arousal - when a person is comatose

n Moderate arousal – normal day-to-day activities

n High arousal – when excited and highly stimulated

Arousal

Biological Approaches to Motivation

n Arousal theory

• Suggests that people are motivated to maintain an optimal level of alertness and physical and mental activation

• When arousal is at a less-than optimal level we do something to stimulate it

• When arousal exceeds optimal level we seek to reduce the stimulation

n Stimulus motives

• Motives that cause humans and other animals to increase stimulation when arousal is too low

n Curiosity

n Motive to explore

n Playing a video game while waiting raises arousal level

Biological Approaches to Motivation

n Performance on a task is best when the arousal level is appropriate to the difficulty of the task

n Higher arousal for simpler tasks

n Moderate arousal for tasks of moderate difficulty

n Lower arousal for complex tasks

Thirst and Hunger

n Primary drives

• Unlearned motives that serve to satisfy biological needs

n Thirst

• Extracellular thirst – when fluid is lost from body tissues

• Intracellular thirst – loss of water from inside body cells

n Governed by physiological variables such as amount of salt in body’s cells

n Internal and external hunger cues

• Two areas of the hypothalamus affect hunger

• Lateral hypothalamus (LH): “the feeding center”

n Stimulate the LH and animals will eat even when not hungry

n Destroy the LH and animals will initially refuse to eat

• Ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH): “the fullness center”

n Inhibits eating

n If removed, animals will eat themselves to obesity

n The hormone cholesystokinin also acts as a fullness signal

Hunger

Biological and Environmental Factors that Stimulate Eating

Biological

n Activity in ventromedial hypothalamus

n Raised blood glucose levels

n Distended (full) stomach

n CCK (hormone that signals satiety)

n Sensory-specific satiety

n Activity in lateral hypothalamus

n Low blood glucose levels

n Increase in insulin

n Stomach contractions

n Empty stomach

Environmental

n Unappetizing smell, taste, or appearance

n Acquired taste aversions

n Learned eating habits

n Desire to be thin

n Reaction to stress, unpleasant emotional state

n Appetizing smell, taste, or appearance

n Acquired food preferences

n Being around others who are eating

n Foods high in fat and sugar

n Learned eating habits

n Reaction to boredom, stress, or unpleasant emotional state

Variations in Body Weight

n Body Mass Index (BMI)

• A measure of weight relative to height

• BMI = [weight in pounds ÷ (height in inches x height in inches)] X 703

• Underweight = BMI under 18.5

• Overweight = BMI in excess of 25

• Obese = BMI over 30

• Number of overweight and obese Americans has increased dramatically

Variations in Body Weight

Hormones

n Leptin

• Key hormone controlling body fat

• Produced by body’s fat tissues

• Amount produced is a direct measure of body fat

• The more leptin produced, the higher the level of body fat

• Decrease in body fat causes lower levels of leptin

• Lower levels stimulate food intake

n When leptin levels increase sufficiently

• Energy expenditure exceeds food intake

• People lose weight

• Mice injected with leptin lost 30% of body weight within 2 weeks

n Mutation of gene that controls leptin can cause obesity and pituitary abnormalities

n Changes in leptin levels also affect immune and reproductive systems

Variations in Body Weight

n Heredity

• Heritability for body weight is between .50 and.90

n Metabolic rate

• The rate at which the body burns calories to produce energy

• Influenced by genes

n Fat-cell theory

• Obesity is related to number of fat cells in the body

• Normal-weight people have between 25 and 35 billion fat cells

• Overweight people have between 100 and 125 billion fat cells

n Set point

• weight the body maintains when neither trying to gain/lose weight

• Is affected by

n Number of fats cells in the body

n Metabolic rate

n Genes

n Fat cells send messages to hypothalamus on how much energy is stored

n Genes influence how much fat the hypothalamus believes is OK

Weight Loss Strategies

n Diets

• Recognize that appetite regulation is a complex process

• Must help people decrease energy intake (eat less) while increasing energy expenditure (exercise more)

• Only focusing on calories leads to:

n Initial weight loss

n Metabolic rate slows down to conserve remaining fat stores because fewer calories are being consumed

n Slower metabolic rate reduces dieter’s energy, leading to less exercise

• This effect is especially pronounced with popular low-carbohydrate diets

n Gastric bypass surgery

• Size of stomach is reduced

• 80% of patients lose weight below obese BMI

Weight Loss Strategies

n Mayo Clinic’s Six Weight Loss Strategies

n Make a commitment

n Be determined, persistent, and accept setbacks.

n Get emotional support

n Share goals with encouraging others.

n Set realistic goals

n Achieve a realistic weight over a long period of time.

n Enjoy healthier foods

n Make permanent changes in eating style.

n Get active, stay active

n Find activities you enjoy and can do during exercise.

n Change your lifestyle

n Design a lifelong plan for eating, exercise, etc.

Eating Disorders

n Mental disorders in which eating and dieting go far beyond the everyday extremes of overeating and dieting.

n Worldwide increase in the incidence

Anorexia nervosa

n An overwhelming, irrational fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, compulsive dieting to the point of starvation, and excessive weight loss

n Begins in adolescence, mostly female

n 1-4% of females between ages of 12 and 40

n Perceive their body as overweight even when emaciated

n Have a general tendency for distorted thinking

n Up to 74% suffer from another mental disorder

n 25% diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder

n May exercise relentlessly to accelerate weight loss

n May lead to amenorrhea (loss of menstruation) and gray matter in brain

n Difficult to treat due to a refusal to admit that anything is wrong

Eating Disorders

Bulimia nervosa

n Chronic disorder characterized by repeated and uncontrolled episodes of binge eating

n Binge eating by:

• Consuming larger amounts of food than most eat during the same period of time

• A feeling that one cannot stop eating or control the amount eaten

n Purging may consist of:

• Self-induced vomiting

• Use of large quantities of laxatives and diuretics

n As many as 50% of anorexics develop bulimia

n Many come from families in which there are frequent negative comments about physical appearance

Eating Disorders

Bulimia nervosa

n Physical problems

• Stomach acid eats away or may cause teeth to rot

• Delicate body chemical balance destroyed by use of laxatives and diuretics

• Chronic sore throat

• Dehydration, swelling of salivary glands, and hair loss common

n Depression, guilt, and shame common emotional components

n Appears in late teens and affects 1 in 25 women

n High rate of obsessive-compulsive disorder

n Often engage in other self-injurious behaviors

n 10-15% of bulimics are males

n Difficult to treat

• May have comorbid personality disorder

Achievement Motivation

n Thematic Apperception Tests (TAT)

• A series of pictures of ambiguous situations

• Person is asked to describe:

n What is going on in the picture

n What the person(s) are thinking about and feeling

n What the outcome of the situation is likely to be

• Stories are presumed to reveal the test-taker’s needs and the strength of those needs.

Achievement Motivation

Goal orientation theory

Achievement motivation depends on which of four goal orientations an individual adopts:

• Mastery Approach

n Study and engage in behaviors to increase their knowledge and overcome fears

• Master-avoidance Approach

n Exhibit behaviors necessary to avoid failing to learn

• Performance-Approach

n Try to surpass the performance of peers to enhance own self-worth

• Performance-Avoidance Approach

n Measure their performance against peers and will work to the point where they are equal with them

Students who adopt mastery orientations are less likely to procrastinate and are more likely to get higher grades.

Emotion

Identifiable feeling state involving

• Physiological arousal

• Cognitive appraisal

• Outward behaviors

• Canon-Bard Theory

n An emotion-provoking stimulus is transmitted simultaneously to the cerebral cortex

n Provides the conscious mental experience of the emotion

n Sympathetic nervous system causes the physiological arousal

Emotion

Emotion

Theories of Emotion

Emotion and the Brain

The Expression of Emotion

The Expression of Emotion

The Expression of Emotion

Gender Differences in Emotion

Gender Differences in Emotion

Emotion and Love