Motivation and Personality

• Evolutionary Instinct Theory explains motivation as innate drives to act a certain way, with behaviors rooted in instinct (in the 20th century)
• Instincts


  An inborn biological force that makes an organism do something (react a certain way to specific stimuli), psychoanalytic theory says the action must be done to maintain physical and psychological equilibrium
• Not all behaviors are justified from an evolutionary purpose - some are just evolutionary accidents or secondary artifacts, not everything is adaptive (contributing to an organism's fitness)
• Spandrels


  Aspects of architecture, something fancy
• Gould's conception of language and music as forms of human evolutionary "spandrels"
• Need


  Requirement for survival (food, water, shelter)
• Drive


  A behavior to obtain the need, like filling a cup from the sink for water
• Primary drives


  • Hunger, thirst, sleep, reproduction
• Secondary drives


  Learned drives for money/others
• Drive Reduction Theory doesn't explain how behaviors aren't connected with fulfillment of (any) drives - this is only explained by a motivation to seek excitement or thrill
• Arousal Theory


  Explains motivation from the excitement perspective - each of us have different levels of excitement that drive us
• Yerkes-Dodson Law


  Performance is optimal at modest levels of arousal - performance increases with mental arousal but only up to a certain amount
• Hard tasks are performed at lower arousal levels, and easier tasks are performed better at high levels of arousal
• Yerkes-Dodson predicts that people would best perform at a difficult task if they were at a modest level of arousal
• Opponent process theory


  Addictions move us away from baseline tendencies and are opposed by homeostatic responses (reduces the severity of the response)
• Incentive theory


  Emotions have an opposite state, stimuli that pulls people into learning
• Humanistic psychology


  We seek to be the best version of ourselves
• Freud focused too much on behaviorism being too limited by simple stimulus (Black Box) and that it ignored mental/emotional processes
• Self-actualization


  Reaching your full potential of your abilities, reached at the top of Maslow's hierarchy when all lower needs are met
• Self-actualized people accept who they are despite their problems, can develop good relationships with others, focus on problems not directly related to themselves, and have a good understanding of what is really important - live outside of social convention
• Peak experiences


  Moments of transcendent experiences when an individual feels more alive and aware of the truth
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs is based on having the most necessary needs accomplished first
• Transcendence


  The search for spiritual meaning beyond the immediate self
• Self-determination theory


  Describes 3 main needs: Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness
• Implicit motivation is accomplishing goals because they make you feel complete or satisfied, while explicit motivation is accomplishing goals because of external rewards
• Most tasks require both implicit and explicit motivation
• The USA stresses individualistic achievement and self-reliance, while several other countries say that stress interdependence and cooperation are vital
• Homeostasis


  The tendency of organisms to maintain steady states and describes the body's process of accomplishing this
• Dopamine


  A catecholamine that is made in the hypothalamus and adrenal medulla, involved in the brain's reward system
• Insulin


  Secreted by the Islet Cells in the Pancreas, controls blood sugar levels
• Glucagon


  Secreted by alpha cells as a response to blood sugar levels lowering, leads to glycogenolysis
• Hypothalamus


  Controls the pituitary gland and the VMH (ventromedial hypothalamus) which controls appetite
• Weight set point


  Body weight that we try to keep, influenced by the hypothalamus and connected to metabolic rate
• Basal metabolic rate (BMR)


  The rate of cellular respiration when the body is at rest, declines with age
• Body mass index (BMI)

  Over 25 = overweight, 30 = obese, calculated as weight (kg) / height (m)^2
• Younger stages/childhood have the highest BMR
• An individual who weighs 250 lbs and stands 5'8 is obese
• Eating disorders


  Characterized by disturbance in the perception of body image and self-esteem that implies food intake, and weight loss
• Anorexia nervosa


  Seen in young females who eat so that they have a low BMI (usually less than 18.5), with abnormal hormone secretion, weak heart, and obsession with exercising and food
• Bulimia nervosa


  "Binge" eating in a single sitting then making themselves throw up or taking laxatives in private, usually maintain normal weight