Chapter 9

Motivation and Emotion

 Motivation
• Motivation: the process by which activities
are started, directed, and continued so
that physical or psychological needs or
wants are met
– extrinsic motivation: a person performs an
action because it leads to an outcome that is
separate from or external to the person
– intrinsic motivation: a person performs an
action because the act is fun, challenging, or
satisfying in an internal manner
Instinct Approaches to Motivation
• Instincts: the biologically determined and
innate patterns of behavior that exist in
both people and animals
• Instinct approach: approach to motivation
that assumes people are governed by
instincts similar to those of animals
Drive-Reduction Theory of Motivation
• the first theory for motivation
• Drive theories of motivation are based on the
concept of drives, which are hypothetical states
of tension or discomfort that motivate (or ‘drive’)
an organism to engage in behaviors that will
maintain a state of physiological stability
(homeostasis). The theories have been
influential but also have limitations, in that they
do not necessarily provide an adequate
explanation for all types of behavior.
Drive-Reduction Theory of Motivation
• Drive-reduction theory: assumes behavior arises
from physiological needs that cause internal drives
to push the organism to satisfy the need and
reduce tension and arousal
Drive-Reduction Theory of Motivation
• Note: While the drive-reduction theory of motivation was once a
dominant force in psychology, it is largely ignored today. Despite
this, it is worthwhile for students to learn more about Hull’s ideas in
order to understand the effect his work had on psychology and to
see how other theorists responded by proposing their own theories.
• Need: a requirement of some material (such as
food or water) that is essential for survival of the
organism
• Drive: a psychological tension and physical
arousal arising when there is a need that
motivates the organism to act in order to fulfill
the need and reduce the tension
Drive-Reduction Theory of Motivation

• Primary drives: involve needs of the body

such as hunger and thirst
• Acquired (secondary) drives: learned
through experience or conditioning, such
as the need for money or social approval
• Homeostasis: the tendency of the body to
maintain a steady state
Homeostasis

In homeostasis, the body maintains balance in the body’s physical states. For
example, this diagram shows how increased hunger (a state of imbalance)
prompts a person to eat. Eating increases the level of glucose (blood sugar),
causing the feelings of hunger to reduce. After a period without eating, the
glucose levels become low enough to stimulate the hunger drive once again,
and the entire cycle is repeated.
 Three Types of Needs
• Need for achievement (nAch): involves a strong
desire to succeed in attaining goals—not only
realistic ones, but also challenging ones
• Need for affiliation (nAff): the need for friendly
social interactions and relationships with others
• Need for power (nPow): the need to have
control or influence over others

McClelland's Human Motivation Theory is also known as Three

Needs Theory, Acquired Needs Theory, Motivational Needs Theory,
and Learned Needs Theory.
Arousal Approach to Motivation

• Stimulus motive: a motive that appears to

be unlearned but causes an increase in
stimulation, such as curiosity
• Arousal theory: theory of motivation in
which people are said to have an optimal
(best or ideal) level of tension that they
seek to maintain by increasing or
decreasing stimulation
 Arousal Approach to Motivation

• Yerkes-Dodson law: law stating performance

is related to arousal; moderate levels of
arousal lead to better performance than do
levels of arousal that are too low or too high
– This effect varies with the difficulty of the task
 easy tasks require a high-moderate level
 more difficult tasks require a low-moderate level
Arousal and Performance
The optimal level of arousal for task performance depends on the difficulty of
the task. We generally perform easy tasks well if we are at a high–moderate
level of arousal (green) and accomplish difficult tasks well if we are at a low–
moderate level (red).
 Arousal Approach to Motivation
Sensation seeker: one who needs more arousal than
the average person. Sensation seeking is a personality
trait defined by the search for experiences and
feelings, that are "varied, novel, complex and intense",
and by the readiness to "take physical, social, legal,
and financial risks for the sake of such experiences."
Incentive Approaches to Motivation

• Incentives: things that attract or lure

people into action
• Incentive approaches: theories of
motivation in which behavior is explained
as a response to the external stimulus and
its rewarding properties
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

• Self-actualization: the Drive-Reduction Theory of

Motivation expanded
point at which people
have sufficiently
satisfied the lower
needs and achieved
their full human potential
- seldom reached
• Peak experiences: times
in a person’s life during
which self-actualization
is temporarily achieved
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow proposed that human beings must fulfill the more basic needs, such as
physical and security needs, before being able to fulfill the higher needs of self-
actualization and transcendence.
 Self-Determination Theory of Motivation

• Self-determination theory (SDT): the social context

of an action has an effect on the type of motivation
existing for the action. Concerns people's inherent
growth tendencies and innate psychological needs.
It is concerned with the motivation behind choices
people make without external influence and
interference.
• Intrinsic motivation: type of motivation in which a
person performs an action because the act itself is
rewarding or satisfying in some internal manner
 Hunger: Bodily Causes
• Insulin and glucagon: hormones secreted by the
pancreas to control levels of fats, proteins, and
carbohydrates in the bloodstream
– insulin reduces the level of glucose in the
bloodstream
– glucagon increases the level of glucose in the
bloodstream
• Leptin: hormone that signals the hypothalamus that
the body has had enough food and reduces the
appetite while increasing the feeling of being full
 Hunger: Bodily Causes
• Hypothalamus plays role in hunger
– responds to levels of glucose & insulin in the body
– leptin: hormone that signals the hypothalamus that
the body has had enough food and reduces the
appetite while increasing the feeling of being full
Obese Laboratory Rat
The rat on the left has reached a high level of obesity because its
ventromedial hypothalamus has been deliberately damaged in the
laboratory. The result is a rat that no longer receives signals of being
satiated, and so the rat continues to eat and eat and eat.
 Hunger: Bodily Causes
• Weight set point: the particular level of
weight that the body tries to maintain
• Basal metabolic rate (BMR): the amount of
energy expended while at rest in a neutrally temperate
environment, in the post-absorptive state (meaning that
the digestive system is inactive, which requires about
twelve hours of fasting). ...
• Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR); the number of calories
you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day.

• BMR decreases with age and with the loss of lean body
mass.
• Daily Calorie Needs are based on your activity level.
 BMR
The Harris Benedict Equation is a formula that uses your
BMR and then applies an activity factor to determine your
total daily energy expenditure (calories). The only factor
omitted by the Harris Benedict Equation is lean body mass.
Remember, leaner bodies need more calories than less
leaner ones.
 Hunger: Social Causes

• Social cues for when meals are to be

eaten
– Cultural customs
– Food preferences
– Use of food as a comfort device or escape
from unpleasantness
 Some people may respond to the anticipation of
eating by producing an insulin response
 Obesity

• Obesity: the body weight of a person is 20

percent or more over the ideal body weight
for that person’s height (actual percents
vary across definitions)
– biological causes include heredity, hormones,
and slowing metabolism with age
– overeating is a major factor as food supplies
stabilize in developing countries and Western-
culture lifestyles are adopted
 Obesity
BMI is a person's weight in kilograms (kg) divided by his or her
height in meters squared. The National Institutes of Health (NIH)
now defines normal weight, overweight, & obesity according
to BMI rather than the traditional height/weight charts.
 Obesity
BMI is a person's weight in kilograms (kg) divided by his or her height in
meters squared. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) now defines normal
weight, overweight, & obesity according to BMI rather than the traditional
height/weight charts.
 Elements of Emotion
• Emotion: the “feeling” aspect of consciousness characterized
by:
– certain physical arousal
– certain behavior that reveals the emotion to the outside world
– inner awareness of feelings

Emotion, in everyday speech, is any relatively brief conscious

experience characterized by intense mental activity and a
high degree of pleasure or displeasure. Scientific discourse
has drifted to other meanings and there is no consensus on a
definition. Emotion is often intertwined with mood,
temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation.
 Elements of Emotion
• Which parts of the brain are involved
in various aspects of emotion?
– The amygdala
 the amygdala is a complex
structure with many different nuclei
and subdivisions, whose roles have
been investigated primarily through
studies of fear conditioning
 emotional stimuli travel to the
amygdala by both a fast, crude “low
road” (subcortical) and a slower but
more involved cortical “high road”
The “Low Road” and “High Road”
When we are exposed to an emotion-provoking stimulus (such as a shark), the neural signals travel by two pathways to
the amygdala. The “low road” is the pathway underneath the cortex and is a faster, simpler path, allowing for quick
responses to the stimulus, sometimes before we are consciously aware of the nature of the stimulus. The “high road”
uses cortical pathways and is slower and more complex, but it allows us to recognize the threat and, when needed,
take more conscious control of our emotional responses. In this particular example, the low road shouts, “Danger!” and
we react before the high road says, “It’s a shark!”
 Elements of Emotion

• Which parts of the brain are

involved in various aspects
of emotion?
– other subcortical and
cortical areas
 hemisphere
 frontal lobes
 anterior cingulate cortex
 lateral orbitofrontal cortex;
 Emotion
• Psychological research has classified six
facial expressions which correspond to
six distinct universal emotions:
• disgust,
• sadness,
• happiness,
• fear,
• anger, and
• surprise
Facial Expressions of Emotion
Facial expressions appear to be universal. For example, these faces are consistently interpreted as
showing (a) anger, (b) fear, (c) disgust, (d) happiness, (e) surprise, and (f) sadness by people of
various cultures from all over the world. Although the situations that cause these emotions may differ
from culture to culture, the expression of particular emotions remains strikingly the same.
Facial expressions appear to be universal.
Which of the six basic expressions is this?

Its disgusting.
Facial expressions appear to be universal.
Which of the six basic expressions is this?

Its happy time.

Facial expressions appear to be universal.
Which of the six basic expressions is this?

Its fear.
Facial expressions appear to be universal.
Which of the six basic expressions is this?

Its surprising.
Facial expressions appear to be universal.
Which of the six basic expressions is this?

Its sad.
Facial expressions appear to be universal.
Which of the six basic expressions is this?

I am angry.
 Elements of Emotion
• Facial expressions can vary across different
cultures - people from different cultures perceive happy, sad or
angry facial expressions in unique ways, according to new research
published by the American Psychological Association.

– Have been thought to be universal

– display rules - although facial expressions are pretty universal
across the world, emotional display rules, in terms of how much
emotion you should express, tend to vary greatly across cultures.

• Labeling Emotion
– Interpreting the subjective feeling by giving it a label
Theories of Emotion
 Common Sense
Theory of Emotion
• Common sense theory of emotion: a stimulus
leads to an emotion, which then leads to
bodily arousal
 James-Lange Theory of Emotion

James-Lange theory of emotion: a physiological

reaction leads to the labeling of an emotion
Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion
Cannon-Bard theory of emotion: the
physiological reaction and the emotion are
assumed to occur at the same time
 Cognitive Arousal Theory of Emotion
Cognitive arousal theory: both the physical arousal and the
labeling of that arousal based on cues from the environment
must occur before the emotion is experienced

Schachter and Singer’s cognitive arousal theory is similar to the James-Lange theory but adds
the element of cognitive labeling of the arousal. In this theory, a stimulus leads to both bodily arousal and the labeling of
that arousal (based on the surrounding context), which leads to the experience and labeling of the emotional reaction.
 Facial Feedback Hypothesis
• Facial feedback hypothesis: facial expressions
provide feedback to the brain concerning the
emotion being expressed, which in turn causes and
intensifies the emotion

In the facial feedback theory of emotion, a stimulus such as this snarling dog causes
arousal and a facial expression. The facial expression then provides feedback to the
brain about the emotion. The brain then interprets the emotion and may also intensify it.
 Cognitive Mediational Theory
Cognitive-mediational theory: a stimulus must be
interpreted (appraised) by a person in order to result in
a physical response and an emotional reaction

In Lazarus’s cognitive-mediational theory of emotion, a stimulus causes an immediate

appraisal (e.g., “The dog is snarling and not behind a fence, so this is dangerous”). The
cognitive appraisal results in an emotional response, which is then followed by the
appropriate bodily response.
Comparison of Theories of Emotion
Comparison of Theories of Emotion (Cont’d)

This theory has clearly been the most

widely accepted theory of emotion.
The End Chapter 9
Motivation and Emotion