Motivation Flashcards
What are Tinbergen’s 4 questions?
How is it caused? (motivation)
How does it develop?
What is its function?
What was its origin and how did it evolve?
Using the red deer example, how is aggression caused and what is its function?
Aggression is caused by internal and external factors. Internal factors include a spike in testosterone causing aggression. External factors include the proximity of stags. The function of aggression is to increase mating and fitness.
What are the motivational systems that behaviour is classified into?
Promoting survival (maintaining internal body state and dealing with world outside body) Promoting reproductive success
Define ‘motivation’
A psychological drive that encourages action towards a particular goal
What is a ‘sign stimulus’? Give an animal example.
A sign stimulus is a signal which causes instinctive (fixed action patterns) of behaviour. For example, male stickleback will attack those with red bellies and court those with swollen bellies
Describe both Freud and Lorenz’s energy model theories.
Freud (catharsis) - the ID is the source of 3 energies. Anger is an internal energy which is released through aggressive behaviour
Lorenz (psychohydraulic model) - action specific energy builds since last performance of the action and the likelihood of aggression increases with time since last encounter. Energy is dissipated by action. The intensity of anger decreases through encounter, and motivation is low at the end.
Using thirst as an example, describe drive theory.
Drive theory explains why we do things. it suggests that thirst is an intervening variable between the cause of thirst and the behaviour motivating us to drink.
Describe control theory using thirst as an example.
Control theory suggests feedback motivates behaviour. for example, the function of thirst is to maintain optimum fluid volume and salt balance. The internal causes are dry mouth which initiates drinking, stomach volume inhibits drinking. These are the physiological factors inside the ‘black box’.
What do the laws of causality suggest?
We get more enjoyment when percieved intersts are the cause of our actions, and less enjoyment when perceived interests are the cause of external incentives.
What are the 2 forms of complex reasoning? describe them.
Formal thinking - you fully reject/accept one side of an argument by polarising contradictory propositions and then choosing only one proposition to believe
Dialectical thinking - you accept contradictions by viewing them in a mulit-dimensional way.
Describe Li, Sheldon, and Liu’s (2015) experiment into complex reasoning.
They gave wooden blocks to Ps and asked them to make a certain shape. They gave £1 for each shape made successfully within the time limit. Ps with high dialectical thinking had little change in intrinsic motivation when extrinsic motivation changed. Ps with low dialectical thinking had more intrinsic motivation when extrinsic motivation low and less when high.
Define ‘aggression’. What are its 3 functions?
aggression is behaviour with the goal of threatening or harming another individual. It’s 3 functions are protective, parental and competitive.
Describe the pattern of agnostic behaviour.
Agnostic behaviour starts with a display and then esculates slowly. Most end without physical contact which reduces injusry risk.
Define resource holding power using an example.
RHP is the ability of an animal to win a fight. For example when shrimps fight, one tends to be larger and the other smaller. The smaller one will retreat, contact is most likely between same sized shrimps. Therefore, there is a visual assessment of size.
Describe intention signals using an example.
These signal the likelihood of attack and the likelihood of the competitor fleeing. For example, harlequin ducks are extremely liley to retreat if another extends their neck at them.
