motivation

• Motivation theories:

  • Instinct Theory: motivation comes from inborn automated behaviors, but only explains a fraction of behaviors
  • Drive Reduction Theory: motivation comes from biological needs and the desire to maintain homeostasis
  • Arousal Theory: motivation to seek an optimum level of arousal, according to the Yerkes-Dodson Law
  • Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: motivation is driven by needs, with lower level needs needing satisfaction first
• Biological basis of hunger:

  • Hunger originates from the brain, specifically the hypothalamus
  • Hypothalamus includes lateral and ventromedial parts that control hunger and feeling full
  • Set-point Theory: hypothalamus acts like a thermostat to maintain stable weight
• Psychological aspects of hunger:

  • Internal cues like stomach growling
  • External cues like appealing sights or smells
  • The Garcia Effect (taste aversion)
  • Eating disorders: Bulimia Nervosa, Anorexia Nervosa, Binge-eating disorder
• Sexual Motivation studies:

  • Kinsey’s studies on sexual behavior and the scale of sexuality
  • Masters and Johnson Study on the physiology of sex and the Sexual Response Cycle
  • Psychological factors in sexual motivation and sexual orientation
• Achievement motivation:

  • Intrinsic and extrinsic motivators
  • Management Theory: Theory X and Theory Y
  • Conflicting motives: approach-approach, avoidance-avoidance, approach-avoidance, multiple approach-avoidance
• Emotion theories:

  • James-Lange Theory: physiological response precedes experienced emotion
  • Cannon-Bard Theory: physiological change and cognitive awareness occur simultaneously
  • Two-Factor/Schachter-Singer Theory: cognitive labeling influences emotion
  • Common Sense Theory: emotion precedes physiological response
• Stress:

  • Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) and Life Changing Units (LCUs)
  • Seyle’s General Adaptation Syndrome: alarm, resistance, exhaustion
  • Psychophysiological illness and coping mechanisms
  • Aerobic exercise and biofeedback systems for stress management
• Personality:

  • Personality defined as a pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
  • Types of personalities: Type A, Type B
  • Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality by Sigmund Freud, including stages of psychosexual development
• Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
• Sigmund Freud
• Idea of libido moving to different parts of the body
• Stages of psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic, latent, & genital
• Personality
• Conscious: things we’re aware of
• Preconscious: things we can be aware of if we think of them
• Unconscious: deep hidden reservoir that holds the true “us” (desires & fears)
• Id
• Exists entirely in the unconscious (so we’re never aware of it)
• Our hidden true animalistic wants & desires
• Works on the pleasure principle
• Avoid pain & receive instant gratification
• Ego
• Develops after the id
• Works on the Reality Principle
• Negotiates between id & environment
• In our conscious & unconscious minds
• It’s what everyone sees as our personality
• Superego
• Develops last about the age of 5
• It’s our conscience (what we think the difference is between right & wrong)
• The ego often mediates between the superego and the id
• Defense mechanisms
• The ego’s most important job is to protect us from threatening thoughts in our unconscious
• One way it protects us is through defense mechanisms
• Different defense mechanisms
• Denial: not accepting the ego-threatening truth
• Repression: pushing thoughts into our unconscious
• Displacement:

  • Redirecting one’s feelings toward another person or object
  • Often displaced on less threatening objects
• Projection: believing that the feelings one has toward someone else are actually held by the other person and directed at oneself
• Reaction formation:

  • Expressing the opposite of how one truly feels
  • Cooties stage of Freud’s Latent Development