Chapter 8

Motivation and
Emotion

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Motivation
! Arousal: An organism’s level of activation or excitement
! Motivation: The process that arouses, directs, and
maintains behavior
◦ What causes behavior has been a concern of psychology from its
beginnings
! Instincts: Unlearned, complex patterns of behavior that
occur in the presence of certain stimuli
◦ Popular explanation for behavior early in the history of psychology
(e.g. James, 1890; McDougall, 1908)
● As lists of possible human instincts grew, problems with the idea became
evident

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 Needs and Drives

Term Definition
Need A lack or shortage of some biological essential that is required for
survival, arising from deprivation.
Drive A state of tension, arousal, or activation directing an organism to
engage in behavior to satisfy the drive by reducing the underlying
need.
Secondary drives Drives derived from an organism’s learning experience. Most human
drives are secondary drives.
Primary drives Drives based on unlearned, physiological needs.

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

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 Culture, Needs, and Job Performance
! Maslow’s arrangement of needs in a hierarchical fashion
reflects the values of Western culture
◦ Focus on the individual working hard to overcome obstacles and to
achieve
! Business has become increasingly global in nature, must
consider how motives may relate to worker performance in
different cultures
◦ Worker concerns for physiological and safety needs may be most
relevant in countries where uncertainty exists in the economy
◦ Esteem may be more important in “masculine” cultures and
belongingness in “feminine” cultures

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 ! Incentives: External stimuli serve as motivating agents

◦ Incentives motivate behavior
◦ Adding a positive, external incentive can reduce a behavior a
person already enjoys
! Incentives closely relate to principles of operant
conditioning
◦ Behaviors are controlled by their consequences
◦ Motivated by what leads to reinforcement (positive incentives), and
not by what leads to punishment or failure of reinforcement
(negative incentives)

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Equilibrium
! Motivation to reach and maintain a state of balance which
can involve
◦ Physiological processes that need to be kept at some level
◦ Balance among thoughts or cognitions
! Homeostasis: A state of balance within our internal
physiological reactions
◦ A physiological process has a balanced set point of operation which
is a level of activity that is “normal or most suitable”
◦ When homeostasis is disrupted we are motivated to do what we can
to return to our set point

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! Arousal: An overall level of activation or excitement

◦ May change from day to day or within the same day
◦ Arousal theories of motivation claim that there is an optimal level of
arousal that organisms are motivated to maintain
● There is a “best,” or most efficient, level of arousal (e.g., optimal level of
arousal to do well on an exam)
● Optimal levels of arousal vary from person to person

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The Yerkes-Dodson Law

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! Cognitive Dissonance Theory: We are motivated to maintain a
state of balance among ideas or beliefs.
◦ Cognitive dissonance: A state of tension or discomfort that exists when
we hold and are aware of inconsistent cognitions
● When dissonance is aroused we are motivated to bring about a change in
our system of cognitions
◦ The theory doesn’t predict what will happen, but it does predict that
cognitive dissonance will produce motivation to return to a balanced
state of cognitive consonance

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 The Hunger Motive and Eating Disorders

! Feelings of hunger correlated closely with stomach
contractions, but are not important in producing hunger
drive
! The hypothalamus and the liver are involved in the hunger
drive
◦ Two regions in the hypothalamus are involved in food intake
● The ventromedial hypothalamus is a “no-eat” center that lets us know
when we’ve had enough food
● The lateral hypothalamus is an “eat” center that gives rise to feelings of
hunger
! People often respond to external cues such as how a food
smells, tastes, or looks
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 ! A person who refuses to maintain a normal weight has an

eating disorder
◦ The two most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and
bulimia nervosa
● Separate disorders, but a person can show symptoms of both at the
same time
◦ At least 30 million Americans of both genders and all ages suffer
from eating disorders with a vast majority being women
◦ There is an increasing rate of eating disorders in boys, younger
children, and children of color

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! Anorexia nervosa is characterized by an inability (or refusal)

to maintain a normal body weight and amounts to self-
starvation
◦ Fear of becoming fat despite low body weight
◦ Person stays thin by eating less, being physically active, or both
◦ Mortality rate of 20 percent
◦ Around 5 to 10 percent will die within 10 years, and 18 to 20 percent
with 20 years
● Mortality rate drops to 2 to 3 present if treated
◦ Individuals aged 15 to 24 with anorexia have a risk of dying that is 10
times higher than that of same-aged peers without anorexia
◦ Male anorexics are more likely to die from anorexia than females
because the disorder is often diagnosed later in males

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 ! Bulimia nervosa is characterized by episodes of binge eating

followed by purging
◦ Purging usually involves self-induced vomiting or the use of laxatives
to rapidly rid the body of just-eaten food
◦ Binge-eating episodes are often well planned, anticipated with
pleasure
● Involve rapidly eating large amounts of high-calorie, sweet-tasting food
◦ Bulimic is very likely to be female, upper class, and concerned about
weight
◦ More than half of bulimics have a mood disorder (e.g., depression)
or an anxiety disorder

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! Eating disorders have several interacting causes

◦ The value that Western cultures place on thinness
● Models in the media are often excessively thin, an ideal that few young
women can meet
● Media portrayals have a modest effect on eating disorder symptoms
◦ Distorted body perceptions also relate to eating disorders
● Anorexics see themselves as fat even though they are just the opposite
● Anorexics show a greater tendency to interpret information about their
bodies negatively than non-anorexics
◦ Personality also relates to eating disorders
◦ Strong needs for achievement and approval, and self-oriented
perfectionism

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 ◦ Physiological and genetic links also exist

● Anorexics show lower levels of serotonin and tryptophan in the brain
than normal-weight individuals
● Relatives of patients with eating disorders are four to five times more
likely to develop an eating disorder than are people in the general
population
! Treatment for anorexia nervosa usually involves medical
interventions focusing on body weight and nutrition
! No effective drug treatments exist
! Family based psychotherapy is more effective than
individual therapy
! Outlook for bulimia is better than for anorexia

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 Psychologically Based Motives

Motive Definition
Need to achieve (nAch) The acquired need to meet or exceed a standard of excellence in one’s
behaviors.
Need for power The need be in control, to be in charge of both the situation and other
people.
Need for affiliation The need to be with others, to work with others toward some end, and to
form friendships and associations.
Need for intimacy The need to form and maintain close affectionate relationships.
Loneliness A subjective, psychological state that arises when there is a discrepancy
between relationships we would like to have and those we actually have.

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 The Experience of Emotion

! The experience of emotion involves four factors

◦ An experience of a subjective feeling which you may label (e.g., fear
or joy)
◦ A cognitive reaction where you recognize what has happened
◦ A physiological reaction involving glands, hormones, and internal
organs
◦ An overt behavioral reaction

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Defining and Classifying Emotions

! Emotion: An experience that includes a subjective feeling, a
cognitive interpretation, a physiological reaction, and a
behavioral expression
! Izard proposed that there are six primary emotions: joy,
interest, sadness, anger, disgust, and fear
◦ Other psychologists disagree on the number of primary emotions
! Psychologists agree that
◦ Emotions are valenced states: Emotions can be classified as being
either positive (e.g., relief and joy) or negative (e.g., fear and anger)
◦ Emotions involve physiological arousal

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 ! The physiological response of an emotion involves the central

and autonomic nervous systems
! Emotional arousal involves activation of the sympathetic branch
of the autonomic nervous system
◦ Many of the autonomic responses are automatic
◦ Some effects are direct and others operate via the endocrine system

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Autonomic Physiological Reactions

Fear Stimulus Produces the Following Autonomic Reactions
Pupils of your eyes dilate, letting in as much available light as possible, increasing visual sensitivity
Heart rate and blood pressure are elevated
Blood is diverted away from the digestive tract toward the limbs and brain, and digestion stops
Respiration increases, becoming deeper and more rapid
Moisture is brought to the surface of the skin in the form of perspiration; as it evaporates, the body
is cooled, thus conserving energy
Blood sugar levels increase, making more energy readily available
Blood will clot more readily than usual

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The Brain and Emotional Reactions
! The limbic system is involved in physiological emotional
reactions
◦ Most involved in emotional responses that call for defensive or
attacking responses
◦ Positive emotions are associated with activity in the left side of the
amygdala
◦ Negative emotions are associated with increased activity in the right
side of the amygdala
! Cerebral cortex mainly involved in inhibiting emotions
◦ Interprets impulses from lower centers and other information and
modifies and directs the emotional reaction

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Expressing Emotion
Facts About Emotional Expression
Non-human animals have many instinctive and ritualistic patterns of behavior to communicate
emotion.
Humans express their emotional states in a variety of ways, including verbal communication
and body language.
Facial expressions are cues to emotion in animals, especially mammals as well as in humans.
Students from the United States, Argentina, Japan, Brazil, and Chile agree on identification of
six facial expressions (happiness, disgust, surprise, sadness, anger, or fear).
Some emotional expressions can be identified universally across cultures (e.g., happiness), but
others (e.g., disgust) are more difficult to identify.
Moving one’s facial muscles into the positions associated with emotional expression can cause
distinctive physiological changes associated with an emotional state.

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Chapter 8
! Figures and Tables

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