1
Q
What are motivational states?
A
- psychological and physiological states that initiate the organism towards or away from specific goals
- lead to approach and avoidance behaviour
2
Q
What are approach behaviours?
A
motivational state stops once you acquire a goal
3
Q
What are avoidance behaviours?
A
motivational state stops once you avoid a goal
4
Q
What can biological motivational states further be broken down into?
A
- bodily sensations
- emotions
5
Q
What are bodily sensations?
A
- motivational states often triggered by internal (bodily) events
- have physiological arousal
- have dedicated, unambiguous neural signal that guides organism towards specific action
6
Q
What are emotions?
A
- motivational states often triggered by external word events
- marked by physiological arousal, cognitive interpretation and observable facial and bodily expression
7
Q
What are the 2 categories of motivational states?
A
- biological motivational states: automatic, minimal conscious control help us survive and reproduce
- Acquired states: learned, culturally defined, controlled and don’t directly contribute to our immediate survival
8
Q
What is the sympathetic nervous system?
A
prepares body for action/ threat
9
Q
What is the parasympathetic nervous system?
A
returns the body to its normal resting state
10
Q
What is the hypothalamus?
A
responsible for regulating bodily sensations, esp. arousal and hunger
11
Q
What is the amygdala?
A
plays a key role in emotional processes, esp. fear and reward
12
Q
What is the James Lange theory?
A
- a stimulus causes unique physiological reactions which produces a dedicated emotional experience in the brain.
- There is no confusion about what emotion you are experiencing.
13
Q
What is the cannon-bard theory?
A
- a stimulus triggers both physiological reaction and a separate brain-based emotional response.
- Arousal and emotion occur at same time, and there is no confusion about what emotion you are feeling.
14
Q
What was the amphetamine experiment?
A
participants are given amphetamines (increasing arousal) and either told that they were given a drug, or were told it was just water.
What should they experience?
15
Q
What was James-Lange’s hypothesis in the amphetamine experiment?
A
both groups experience arousal and therefore same emotion
16
Q
What was James-Lange’s hypothesis in the amphetamine experiment?
A
the water group should feel no emotion, since they have no association between drinking water and emotions.
17
Q
What were the actual results of the amphetamine experiment?
A
- all participants experienced emotions, but it differed by group
- drug group experienced arousal as a pleasant sensation
- water group felt agitated and unpleasant.
18
Q
What was the capilano suspension bridge experiment?
A
- participants cross the Capilano suspension bridge or a normal bridge, and then interact with an opposite-sex research assistant;
- they are later asked how attracted they were to them.
19
Q
What was James-Lange’s hypothesis in the capilano bridge experiment?
A
no increased attraction, since arousal is unambiguously from bridge
20
Q
What was Cannon Bard’s hypothesis in the capilano bridge experiment?
A
no increased attraction, since arousal is unambiguously from bridge
21
Q
What were the actual results of the capilano bridge study?
A
Capilano bridge group reported significantly higher attraction towards the research assistant than those crossing a normal bridge, misinterpreting their arousal from the bridge as attraction towards assistant.
22
Q
What is the 2 factor theory of emotions?
A
- emotions are interpretations
- emotions are best guesses from physiological reactions: we experience arousal, and then try to find out why, leading to an emotional state.
23
Q
What is the fast pathway?
A
- when we first observe a stimulus
- leads directly to the amygdala and makes us act fast and feel an initial jolt of fear or surprise.
24
Q
What is the slow pathway?
A
- separate process
- sends information to cortical regions of the brain
- assessing if the threat is real, what the source is, and can revise that emotion into happiness, sadness, etc.
25
What 2 roles do emotions serve?
- Internal (goals): guide us towards goals
- External (info): communicate to others our internal state
26
What are the 2 debates about emotions we feel?
1. emotional categories: are emotions separate from each other and precisely defined (categorical) or do emotions freely blend (non categorical)
2. Emotional universality: do all humans experience emotions in the same way (universality) or are there cross cultural differences (non-universality)
27
What is the discrete emotion theory?
- there is a limited number of universal core/primary emotions each associated with specific biological and evolutionary function
- 6 primary emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, disgust, fear
28
What is evidence for the universality of facial expressions?
same facial expressions are present in non-human animals and even new born babies
29
What is the fusiform face area?
brain area dedicated to facial recognition
30
What is Prosopagnosia?
- neurological problem leading to “face blindness”: the inability to recognize or properly perceive faces
- usually from damage to the FFA
31
What is constructed emotion theory?
- non-categorical and universalist
- all emotions are a mixture of two specific factors: arousal and valence.
- Emotions are always fluidly interpreted.
32
What 2 signals travel to the Hypothalamus to generate hunger?
- Leptin (not hunger signal): hormone secrete by fat cells once fat reaches genetically specified level
- Ghrelin (hungry signal): peptide secreted by stomach when it's empty; stretching stomach stops production of ghrelin
33
What are Leptin-mice?
mice whose DNA was altered so that their bodies do not produce leptin and never feel full
34
What are eating disorders?
clinically diagnosed psychological disorder defined by abnormal eating habits
35
What is obesity?
eating disorder characterized by excessive
36
What is bulimia nervosa?
eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by purging, but relatively normal weight
37
What is anorexia nervosa?
eating disorder characterized by severe anxiety about being perceived as fat and intense restriction of food intake, leading to dramatically low weight
38
What is DHEA?
- steroid that is later built into testosterone and estrogen
- the accumulation of DHEA is the (slow) onset of puberty
39
Which hormone produces sexual arousal in humans and non-human animals?
- animals: testosterone and estrogen
- humans: both male and females > testosterone
40
What is the human sexual response cycle?
- the stages of physiological arousal during sexual activity
- 4 phases: excitement, plateau, orgasm, resolution
41
What are the 3 theories on the origin of motivation?
- instinct: motivational states are evolutionary adaptations
- drive: motivational states are balancing acts for internal states
- incentive: motivational states are things we feel rewarded for
42
What is an instinct?
a non-learned (“innate”), complex behavior programmed throughout a species to increase the chance of survival and sexual
43
What are the problems with instinct theory of motivation?
1. motivational states aren't automatic
2. extreme proliferation of instincts
3. behavioural flexibilities
44
What is homeostasis?
tendency for a system to take actions to keep itself in a particular balanced state
45
What is drive?
- motivational states are caused by your body’s physiology in order to maintain homeostasis in various systems.
- Drives activate when something is out of balance.
46
What is the Yerkes - Dodson Law?
the U-shaped relationship between amount of arousal and performance on a task
47
What are the problems with drive theory of motivation?
1. We do things without need for homeostasis, or when we are already off-balance
2. somewhat good account of biological motivational states but struggles to explain acquired motivational states
48
What is incentive theory of motivation?
- we are motivated for things we receive rewards for, and motivated to avoid those that we are punished for.
- If expected reward/ perceived value of reward grows > so does motivation
- the longer we have to wait for reward, the less motivated we become
49
What is intrinsic motivation?
motivation marked by expected reward and value that is internal (e.g., personal enjoyment)
50
What is extrinsic motivation?
motivation marked by expected reward and value that is external (e.g., praise)
51
What is the over justification effect?
being offered an external reward for doing something we enjoy diminishes our intrinsic motivation to perform that action
52
What is procrastination?
- voluntary delay of an action despite being worse off for having made the delay.
- related to general tendency towards impulsivity, and negatively correlated with conscientiousness
53
What is the acquired motivational state of "need for belonging"?
- motivational state to be in social groups, feeling accepted by others, and connected physically and psychologically
- when you fail to satisfy it: loneliness, rejection
- longterm loneliness = negative health outcomes
54
What is the acquired motivation for achievement?
- a motivational state that drives us towards succeeding, and being recognized for our behaviour.
- performance orientation: focus on performance
- mastery orientation: focus on learning, improving
55
What is the acquired need for cognition?
motivational state that drives us to difficult, and challenging cognitive tasks, even for pleasure and to alleviate boredom.
56
What is emotion?
a temporary state that includes unique subjective experiences and physiological activity, and that prepares people for action
57
What are the 2 dimensions of emotion?
- arousal: how energetic the feeling is
- valence: how positive a feeling is
58
What is appraisal?
conscious or unconscious evaluations and interpretations of the emotion-relevant aspects of a stimulus or event
59
What are action tendencies?
- produced by emotions
- readiness to engage in a specific set of emotion-relevant behaviours
60
What is facial feedback hypothesis?
suggests that emotional expressions can cause the emotional experiences they typically signify
61
What is loss aversion?
the tendency to care more about avoiding losses than about achieving equal-size gains
62
What is terror management theory?
- a theory about how people respond to knowledge of their own mortality
- suggests that one way people cope with this is by developing a cultural worldview
63
What is the hedonic principle?
people are primarily motivated to experience pleasure and avoid pain
64
What is emotion regulation?
the strategies people use to influence their own emotional experience
65
What is reappraisal?
changing one’s emotional experience by changing the way one thinks about the emotion-eliciting stimulus
66
What is affect labelling?
putting one's feelings into words
67
What is suppression?
inhibiting the outward signs of an emotion
Psych 102
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