Biological and Social Motives Chapter 12, Section 2

Biological Motives Some behavior is determined by physiological needs. Biological needs are critical to survival. Eating is both psychological and biological.

Hunger Lateral hypothalamus (LH)/Ventromedial hypothalamus (VH). Glucostatic Theory: Hypothalamus monitors the amount of glucose available in the blood. LH fires to stimulate eating. Pancreas releases insulin. After eating, pancreas releases glucagon.

Hunger, (cont’d) Set-Point: Fluctuations in your weight from day to day. Your body maintains a stable weight. Psychosocial hunger factors: External cues Can contribute to eating disorders or emotional eating.

Social Motives Achievement motive: The desire to set challenging goals and to persist in trying to reach them, despite obstacles, frustrations, and setbacks. Fear of Failure: Choose easy tasks offering assured success or impossible tasks with no chance of success. People motivated by a fear of failure often find excuses to explain their poor performances in order to maintain a good self-image.

Social Motives, (cont’d) Fear of Success: People believe that being successful in all but a few careers is unlikely. Smart women experience this more, but men do experience it. Expectancy-value: Expectancy is the estimated likelihood of success; value is what the goal is worth. Competency theory: If a task is too easy or too hard, we don’t learn how competent we are.