Motivation and Emotions

Motivation and Emotion

MOTIVATION 

• A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior
• Instinct Theory: we are motivated by our inborn automated behaviors
• Drive-Reduction Theory: the idea that a psychological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need
• pulled by our incentives: a positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior

Hunger

• hunger is both physiological and psychological
• hunger does NOT come from our stomach
• it comes from the hypothalamus
• Lateral Hypothalamus: when stimulated it makes you hungry
• Ventromedial Hypothalamus: when stimulated you feel full

Eating Disorders

Bulimia Nervosa: characterized by binging (eating large amounts of food) and pruging (getting rid of the food)

Anorexia Nervosa: starve themselves to below 85% of their normal body weight

• see themselves as fat
• vast majority are women 

Achievement Motivation

• Intrinsic Motivators: rewards we get internally, such as enjoyment or satisfaction
• Extrinsic Motivators: reward that we get for accomplishments from outside ourselves (grades or money, or etc.) work great in the short run

Management Theory

• Theory X: 
• managers believe their employees work only if rewarded wit benefits or threatened with punishment
• think employees are extrinsically motivated 
• only interested in Moslow's lower need
• Theory Y:
• managers believe that employees are internally motivated to do good work and policies  should encourage the internal motive
• interested in Moslow's higher needs

Conflict

• approach-approach conflict: one must choose between 2 desirable or attractive goals
• avoidance-avoidance conflict: it refers to making a dream between 2 equally undesirable choices
• approach-avoidance conflict: occurs when there's one goal or even have both positive and negative effects
• multiple approach-avoidance conflict: it refers to when an individual is frequently faced with having to choose between 2 or more goals, each of which have an attractive and repulsive aspect.  

EMOTIONS

James-Lange Theory of Emotion 

• Experience of emotion is awareness of physiological responses to emotion- arousing stimuli
• we feel emotion because of biological changes caused by stress
• the body changes and our mind recognizes the feeling 

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

• Emotion- arousing stimuli simultaneously trigger:

   - Physiological responses

   -  Subjective experience to emotion

Schachter's Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

• to experience emotion one must:

   - Be physically aroused

   - Cognitively label the arousal

Lie Detectors

• Machine commonly used in attempts to detect lies
•  measures several different physiological responses accompanying

Catharsis

• emotion release
• catharsis hypothesis:

   - releasing aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges

Feel-Good, Do-Good Phenomenon

• people's tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood

Adaption-Level Phenomenon

• tendency to form judgments relative to a "neutral" level
• brightness of lights
• volume of sound 
• level of income

Relative Deprivation 

• perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself

Memory

Memory

Memory: The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information

The Memory Process

• Encoding: The processing of information into the memory system
• Storage: The retention of encoded material over time
• Retrieval: The process of getting the information of memory storage

Recall vs. Recognition

• With Recall - you must retrieve the information from your memory (fill-in-the blank test)
• With Recognition - you must identify the target from possible targets (multiple-choice test)

Flashbulb Memory

• A clear moment of an emotionally significant moment or event

Types of Memory

Sensory Memory

• The immediate, initial recording sensory information in the memory system
• Stored just for an instant, and most get unprocessed

Short-Term Memory

• memory that holds a few items briefly
• 7 digits (pus or minus 2)
• the info will be stored into long-term or forgotten 

Working Memory

• another way of describing the use of short-term memory is called working memory
• working-memory has 3 parts

1. Audio
2. Visual
3. Integration of audio and visual (controls where your attention lies)

Encoding

Encoding

Encoding: getting the information in our heads

Two Ways to Encode Info

Automatic Processing

• unconscious encoding of incidental information
• you encode space, time and word meaning without effort
• things can become automatic with practice

Effortless Processing

• encoding that requires attention of conscious effort
• rehearsal is the most common effortless processing technique
• through enough rehearsal, what was effortless becomes automatic

Things to remember about Encoding 

1. The next-in-line effect: we seldom remember what pason has just said or done if we are next
2. Info minutes before sleep is seldom remembered; in the hour before sleep, well remembered
3. Taped info played while asleep is registered by ears, but we do not remember it

Spacing Effect

• we encode better when we study or practice overtime
• DO NOT CRAM!!!  

Serial Positioning Effect

• our tendency to recall best the lost and first items in a list

Types of Encoding

• Semantic Encoding: encoding of meaning, like meaning of words
• Acoustic Encoding: encoding of sound, especially sounds of words
• Visual Encoding: encoding of picture images

Chunking 

• organizing items into familiar, manageable units
• often it will occur automatically