Define motivation
- driving force behind behaviour
- energises us, directs us towards goals and sustains behaviour
Two types of motivation
- Primary/biological/innate (satisfy basic needs)
- built into biology (universal)
- consequences of deprivation (physical illness, death)
- e.g. hunger, thirst, sex, sleep - Secondary / psychosocial
- acquired through experience (individual)
- consequences of deprivation (unpleasant emotions, psychological trauma)
- e.g. status, power, achievement
Motivation psychodynamic approach - Freud’s drive/instinct model
- Sex/libido (life) : satisfy needs for pleasure
- Aggression (death): protect self and others
Motivation psychodynamic approach - 2 additional needs
- relatedness (independent of sexual desires): friends and acquaintances
- self-esteem: driven to feel good about selves
Motivation psychodynamic approach - modern reconceptualisation of drives
Wishes: desired states, positive feelings
- obvious/conscious = hope self will do well
- less obvious/not cons. = hope others fail
Fears: undesired states, negative emotions
- obvious/conscious = fear of doing poorly
- less obvious/uncons. = if I don’t do well, parents won’t love me
Motivation psychodynamic approach - conscious vs unconscious
Conscious motives
- consciously aware of
- flexible and controllable
- assessed via self report
Uncons. motives
- expressed overtime without awareness
- assessed via projective tests (e.g. Thematic Apperception Test)
Thematic Apperception test
- Present image
- What is happening? Who are the people? What led to this? What happens next?
- responses tell something about unconscious motivations, ppl project fears and wishes onto stimuli
- sometimes highly predictive of future outcomes
Motivation behavioural approach
- Avoid “motivation” label
- Operant conditioning: reward and punish
- Though internal state influences reinforcement (hungry vs satiated rat)
Motivation behavioural approach - Drive-reduction theory
Behaviour is motivated by desire for drive-reduction:
homeostasis (equilibrium) -> biological needs (food, water) -> drive (internal state of tension) -> goal-directed behaviour (action taken) -> need satisfied
- Limitation: doesn’t focus on external incentives and ignores other cognitive processes (wants, plans)
Motivation Cognitive approach
Goal setting theory
- goal = desired outcome
- motivates behaviour
- maximum job performance occurs under certain conditions:
1. discrepancy between has/wants
2. specific
3. challenging
4. belief in ability
5. commitment
6. continuing feedback for progress
Motivation cognitive approach - expectancy-value theory
Motivation is a joint function of value and expectancy
value = how much the goal matters to you
expectancy = how much you believe in own ability
Motivation cognitive approach - self-determination theory
Extrinsic motivation = behaviour performed due to external force and external outcomes (e.g. losing weight)
Intrinsic motivation = behave for own sake, personal interest & enjoyment (e.g. hobbies)
*INTRINSIC OVER EXTRINSIC
3 fundamental needs:
- competence: feel effective and capable
- autonomy: feel free from external control
- relatedness: need to belong
Motivation Humanistic approach
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
- motivated by desire for own growth
- if needs not met, can’t be motivated by needs at next level
top to bottom of triangle:
- self-actualisation
- esteem
- love/belonging
- safety
- physiological
Motivation - Psychosocial Motives
Universal goals ppl pursue includes: -relatedness -agency - achievement
Psychosocial motives - Relatedness
Important for physical/mental health
- lack of social relationships/supprot -> depression, sickness, mortality
- Attachment: physical and psychological proximity to others -> comfort and pleasure
- Intimacy: desire for closeness -> self-disclosure
- Affiliation: interaction with broader social networks -> obtain support, share experiences
Psychosocial motives - Agency
- Achievement motivation
- Power, competence, autonomy, self-esteem
Psychosocial motives - Achievement
- Drive to succeed and avoid negative outcomes
- varies from person to person
- 3 motives to achieve goals:
1. performance-approach goal: motivation to attain goals and meet socially defined statement
2. performance-avoidance goals: avoid failure, especially when publicly observed
3. mastery goals: desire to master ability
Emotion
Evaluative response to situation involves: - physiological arousal - subjective experience - behavioural/emotional expression
Emotions - basic
- Universal
- all other emotions deprived from these
- all theorists list: anger, fear, happy, sad, disgust
- some include:surprise, interest, guilt, anticipation, contempt, shame, joy
Emotion - physiological arousal
Experience emotion
- arousal: when situations induce emotions e.g. muscle tension, sweaty palms
- common sense: I tremble because I am afraid (bear -> fear -> trembling )
- James-Lange: I feel afraid because I tremble (bear -> trembling -> fear)
- Cannon-Bard: I simultaneously tremble and feel afraid (bear -> brain activity -> trembling and fear)
Emotion physiological arousal - Schacter-Singer 2 factor theory
- Emphasised cognitive appraisals (how we evaluate environment + how we evaluate informs us of what emotions we are experiencing)
- Appraisal of situation used to identify which emotion
- Physiological changes due to any random changes in environment, therefore cognitively appraise context of situation to label physiological responses as reflecting particular emotion
- bear -> trembling -> cognitive appraisal -> fear
Emotion - subjective experience
- What it feels like to experience particular emotions
- Varies in intensity (content vs happy vs ecstatic)
- Individuals differ in intensity
- extreme upper end bell curve = severe personality disorders
- extreme lower end = no emotional states, indifferent - Emotional experience varies in valence
- positive affect: try to pursue pleasant emotions, drives pleasure seeking behaviour
- negative affect: avoid unpleasant emotions, drives avoidance - Individuals differ in preference for emotion (e.g. anger unpleasant and pleasant (horror movies, reality tv))
Emotional Expression
- Overt behavioural signs of emotion
- Different ways emotions are expressed: facial expressions, posture, gestures, tone of voice
- Facial expressions- can assess valence and intensity of emotion from face - also influences emotional expression
Emotion regulation
Efforts to control emotional states Regulate emotion before and after occurs - reframe: prepares us to experience emotion - suppress Gender difference - Men inhibit fear/sadness - Women inhibit anger Social upbringing norms
