1. Emotion and Motivation
Chapter 8
Emotion and Motivation

2. What Is Emotion?
Emotion – A four-part process consisting of physiological arousal, cognitive interpretation, subjective feelings, and behavioral expression

3. What Do Our Emotions Do For Us?
Emotions have evolved to help us respond to important situations and to convey our intentions to others

4. The Evolution of Emotions
Emotions have survival value and have been shaped by natural selection
Individuals vary tremendously in emotional responsiveness
Emotions are not entirely programmed by genetics

5. Mrs. B. and the 7 Basic Emotions!
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Happiness
Contempt
Surprise
Sadness

6. Cultural Universals in Emotional Expressions
Can’t remember those? Then how about this mnemonic device! A (anger) Dog (disgust) Fears (fear) His (happiness) Shadow (surprise) Cats (contempt) Squirrels (sadness)
There are, however, huge cultural differences in the context and intensity of emotional displays

7. Cultural Universals in Emotional Expression
Display rules – Permissible ways of displaying emotions in a particular society

8. The Emotion Wheel

9. Where Do Our Emotions Come From?
The discovery of two distinct brain pathways for emotional arousal has clarified the connections among the many biological structures involved in emotion and has offered solutions to many of the long-standing issues in the psychology of emotion

10. The Neuroscience of Emotion
The biological mechanisms at work behind our emotions include:
The limbic system
The reticular formation
The cerebral cortex
The autonomic nervous system
Hormones

11. James-Lange theory Cannon-Bard theory Two-factor theory
Stimulus: Big Bad Wolf
Physiological arousal trembling increased heart rate
Emotion fear
Physiological arousal trembling increased heart rate
Emotion fear
Cannon-Bard theory
Stimulus: Big Bad Wolf
Cognitive interpretation “Wolves scare me!”
Physiological arousal trembling increased heart rate
Two-factor theory
Emotion fear
Stimulus:
Big Bad Wolf

12. Psychological Theories of Emotion
Cognitive appraisal theory – Theory that individuals decide on an appropriate emotion following the event
Opponent-process theory – Theory that emotions have pairs; when one is triggered the other is suppressed

13. Arousal, Performance, and the Inverted “U”
Describes the relationship between arousal and performance; both low and high levels of arousal produce lower performance than does a moderate level of arousal
The Inverted “U” Function – Describes the relationship between arousal and performance.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

14. Arousal, Performance, and the Inverted “U”
Sensation seekers – Individuals who have a biological need for higher levels of stimulation than do other people

15. How Much Control Do We Have Over Our Emotions?
Although emotional responses are not always consciously regulated, we can learn to control them

16. Developing Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence – Ability to understand and control emotional responses
Emotional control can be achieved by learning

17. Detecting Deception People can also control their emotions to deceive
Do “lie detectors” really work?
Polygraph – Device that records the graphs of many measures of physical arousal; often called a “lie detector” really an arousal detector

18. Motivation: What Makes Us Act as We Do?
Motivation takes many forms, but all involve inferred mental processes that select and direct our behavior

19. Motivation: What Makes Us Act as We Do?
Motivation – All processes involved in starting, directing, and maintaining physical and psychological activities

20. How Psychologists Use the Concept of Motivation
Connects observable behavior to internal states
Accounts for variability in behavior
Explains perseverance despite adversity
Relates biology to behavior

21. Types of Motivation Drive – Biologically instigated motivation
Motive – Internal mechanism that directs behavior (often used to describe motivations that are learned, rather that biologically based)

22. Types of Motivation
Intrinsic motivation – Desire to engage in an activity for its own sake
Extrinsic motivation – Desire to engage in an activity to achieve an external consequence (e.g. a reward)

23. Rewards Can Sometimes Squelch Motivation
Overjustification – The process by which extrinsic rewards can sometimes displace internal motivation, as when a child receives money for playing video games

24. Types of Motivation
Conscious motivation – Having the desire to engage in an activity and being aware of the desire
Unconscious motivation – Having a desire to engage in an activity but being consciously unaware of the desire

25. Theories of Motivation
Instinct theory – View that certain behaviors are determined by innate factors
Fixed-action patterns – Genetically based behaviors, seen across a species, that can be set off by a specific stimulus

26. Theories of Motivation
Drive theory – View that a biological need (an imbalance that threatens survival) produces drive
Drive Reduction Theory – An action that reduces the drive
Homeostasis – The body’s tendency to maintain a biologically balanced condition

27. Theories of Motivation
Locus of control – An individual’s sense of where his or her life influences originate–internally or externally

28. Maslow’s Humanistic Theory
Hierarchy of needs – The notion that needs occur in priority order, with the biological needs as the most basic

29. How Are Achievement, Hunger, and Sex Alike? Different?
No single theory accounts for all forms of motivation, because each motive involves its own mix of biological, mental, behavioral, and social/cultural influences

30. Measuring the Need for Achievement
Projection – Process by which people attribute their own unconscious motives to other people or objects
Need for achievement (n Ach) – Mental state that produces a psychological motive to excel or reach some goal

31. A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Achievement
Individualism – View that places a high value on individual achievement and distinction
Collectivism – View that values group loyalty and pride over individual distinction

32. Hunger Motivation The multiple-systems approach to hunger

33. Hunger Motivation The multiple-systems approach to hunger
Set point – Refers to the tendency of the body to maintain a certain level of body fat and body weight
Lateral Hypothalamus
Ventromedial Hypothalamus
Eating Disorders
Weight control is a complex issue with no simple answers

34. Thirst and Pain
Volumetric thirst – A drop in extracellular fluid levels
Osmotic thirst – A drop in intracellular fluid levels

35. The Scientific Study of Sexuality
Kinsey interviewed 17,000 Americans concerning their sexual behavior
Masters and Johnson
Sexual response cycle – Four-stage sequence of arousal, plateau, orgasm, and resolution occurring in both men and women

36. Phases of Human Sexual Response

37. Sexual Motivation
Virtually any stimulus that becomes associated with genital touch and orgasm can become a conditioned stimulus that motivates sexual activity
Sexual scripts – Socially learned ways of responding in sexual situations
Both learning and genetics affect our sexual behaviors

38. The Origins of Sexual Orientation
Sexual orientation – One’s erotic attraction toward members of the same sex, the opposite sex, or both sexes

39. Motives in Conflict
Approach-approach conflict – A conflict in which one must choose between two equally attractive options
Approach-avoidance conflict – A conflict in which there are both appealing and negative aspects to the decision to be made

40. Motives in Conflict
Avoidance-avoidance conflict – A conflict in which one must choose between two equally unattractive options
Multiple approach-avoidance conflict – A conflict in which one must choose between options that have both many attractive and many negative aspects

41. How and Why Do We Experience Stress?
The human stress response to perceived threat activates thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and physiological arousal that normally promote adaptation and survival

42. Stress and Stressors
Stress – A physical and mental response to a challenging or threatening situation
Stressor – a stressful stimulus, a condition demanding adaptation

43. A Model of Stress

44. Traumatic Stressors
Traumatic stressor – a situation that threatens one’s physical safety, arousing feelings of feel, horror, or helplessness

45. Catastrophe
Cohen and Ahearn identified five stages that occur in the wake of natural disasters
Psychic numbness
Automatic action
Communal effort
Letdown
Recovery

46. Posttraumatic Stress
Posttraumatic stress disorder – delayed stress reaction in which an individual involuntarily re-experiences emotional, cognitive, and behavioral aspects of past trauma

47. The Physical Stress Response
Acute stress – A temporary pattern of arousal caused by a stressor with a clear onset and offset
Chronic stress – A continuous state of stressful arousal persisting over time

48. The Physical Stress Response
Fight-or-flight response – A sequence of internal processes that prepares the organism for struggle or escape
Tend-and-befriend model – stress response model proposing that females are biologically predisposed to respond to stress by nurturing and protecting offspring and seeking social support

49. The Physical Stress Response
General adaptation syndrome (GAS) – A pattern of general physical responses that takes essentially the same form in responding to any serious chronic stressor

50. The General Adaptation Syndrome
Alarm Reaction
Alarm reaction – the body mobilizes it’s resources to cope with a stressor
Exhaustion
Illness/death
Exhaustion – the body depletes it’s resources
Resistance
Resistance – the body seems to adapt to the presence of the stressor
Successful Resistance
Level of
normal resistance

51. Stress and the Immune System
Immune system – bodily organs and responses that protect the body from foreign substances and threats

52. Stress and the Immune System
Psychoneuroimmunology – Multidisciplinary field that studies the influence of mental states on the immune system
Cytokines – Hormone-like chemicals facilitating communication between brain and immune system

53. Personality and Stress
Type A – behavior pattern characterized by intense, angry, competitive, or perfectionistic responses to challenging situations
Type B – behavior pattern characterized by a relaxed, unstressed approach to life

54. Psychological Responses to Stress
Learned helplessness – Pattern of not responding to noxious stimuli after an organism learns that its behavior has no effect

55. Psychological Responses to Stress
Resilience – Capacity to adapt, achieve well-being, and cope with stress, in spite of serious threats to development

56. Motivating Yourself
Flow – An intense focus on an activity, accompanied by increased creativity and near-ecstatic feelings
Involves intrinsic motivation