Motivation and emotion part 6 Flashcards
(38 cards)
What is the three Broad Perspectives of Motivation Psychology?
The biological
The behavioral
The cognitive
These aren’t exclusive—like three apps running in the background, each theory can influence our understanding of behavior in different ways, and researchers often toggle between them.
Right now, biological and cognitive approaches are getting the most attention from researchers (Palmero, 2008).
🔍 What do biological theories focus on?
“To biological theories, motivation is understood as the cause that elicits behavior as far as it is biologically determined.”
They apply biology to understand why we’re motivated:
Brain structures: Different parts of the brain play roles in emotional arousal, reward, fear, etc.
Example: The hypothalamus is like your body’s thermostat—it motivates you to eat when energy is low.
Neurochemical systems: Chemical messengers like dopamine and serotonin influence your drive and pleasure.
Dopamine is the “go-get-it” chemical. It motivates you to act to achieve goals (like getting food or a reward).
These biological mechanisms are shaped by:
Genetic history: Traits passed from your ancestors.
Personal history: Your unique biology (illnesses, development).
Physiological correlates: Physical signs (like heart rate or hormones) tied to motivation.
👉 The goal is to establish causal relationships between biology and behavior.
🧬 Evolutionary Theories (A part of biological theories)
These zoom out and ask: Why did certain motivations evolve at all?
✅ Key highlighted title:
Natural Selection (Charles Darwin)
✅ Highlighted sentence:
“In its early stages, Darwin’s theory had to compete with the two major orientations of the time: creationism and Lamarckism.”
🧬 Evolutionary Theories (A part of biological theories) –> Darwin’s Natural Selection, Creationism and Lamarckism.
Darwin: “Individuals with genetic characteristics that allow them to better interact with their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, transmitting those characteristics to future generations.”
Think of evolution like a survival game. If you have a “helpful tool” in your genes, like strong legs to run from predators, you’re more likely to survive and have kids. Your kids might inherit that “tool.” Over many generations, these helpful traits become more common—that’s natural selection.
Competing Ideas:
Creationism:
Life was created by a supernatural being.
Rejects evolution by natural processes.
Lamarckism:
Organisms change during their lives to adapt, and these changes are passed to offspring.
Example: If a giraffe stretches its neck to reach trees, its baby will have a longer neck.
(This has been scientifically disproven but was an important theory in history.)
Explain Creationism and Lamarckism
Creationism:
Life was created by a supernatural being.
Rejects evolution by natural processes.
Lamarckism:
Organisms change during their lives to adapt, and these changes are passed to offspring.
Example: If a giraffe stretches its neck to reach trees, its baby will have a longer neck.
Analogy of lamarcism
🐢 Intuitive Analogy: The Giraffe Neck Example
Imagine a population of giraffes that feed on leaves high up in trees:
Step 1: A giraffe stretches its neck every day to reach higher branches.
Step 2: Over its life, the giraffe’s neck gets longer from all the stretching (just like muscles grow from use).
Step 3 (Lamarckism): The giraffe passes its longer neck to its babies.
🧠 So the “use” of a body part makes it stronger, and that new strength is inherited.
Now flip it:
If a body part is not used, it gets weaker and might disappear over generations (called disuse).
Example: A mole that stops using its eyes underground could have babies with smaller or no eyes.
🎓 But Wait—This Isn’t How Inheritance Actually Works!
Modern genetics, based on DNA, disproves Lamarckism:
You can’t change your genes by stretching or using your body.
Your muscles, scars, or learned skills aren’t coded into your DNA.
Only genetic mutations or recombinations (random events in DNA) can be inherited.
📌 For example:
If you spend your life at the gym and build huge muscles, your baby won’t be born more muscular—unless your genes already favored that.
🐘 Theory of Use and Disuse (Also Lamarck)
Theory of use and disuse - Lamarck
✅ Highlighted sentence:
“The environment has a force to which individuals must adapt.”
“Body parts, or body functions, tend to be maintained and further developed. Parts, organs, or functions that are not used atrophy.”
Think of this like going to the gym:
If you use a muscle (like your biceps), it gets stronger.
If you don’t use it, it gets weaker and smaller.
Lamarck believed the environment “pushed” organisms to adapt, and if they used a trait a lot, it became stronger—and that strength was passed to their babies. (Again, now we know genetic inheritance doesn’t work this way, but this idea helped develop early evolutionary thinking.)
Natural Selection (Charles Darwin)
🔹 KEY CONCEPT:
“Organisms are motivated to act in ways that increase their chances of survival and reproduction.”
✅ Darwin’s Theory:
Traits that increase survival and reproduction (fitness) are passed on genetically.
Organisms that don’t adapt to their environment will not pass on their genes.
“Environment → Genes” = The environment selects which genes survive.
🧠 Analogy: Survival is Like a Filter
Imagine nature is like a game show:
Many contestants (organisms) enter, but only those with the best “skills” (traits) survive to the next round (reproduction).
The game rules are made by the environment—cold weather, predators, food availability, etc.
🔁 The “winners” reproduce, and their helpful traits get filtered into the next generation.
Natural Selection (Charles Darwin)
🔹 Slide Quote:
“Darwin suggests that… there are no phylogenetically independent species… there is an interconnected evolution.”
–>
Darwin says it doesn’t make sense to view species as totally separate from one another; evolution connects all species. They influence each other, and their changes happen in a shared, interacting system.
🧠 Think of evolution like a group dance—no species moves completely on its own. They evolve in sync with predators, prey, and environmental pressures.
🔹 Slide Quote:
“Darwin also defends the ideas of effort and conflict… to obtain the food they need to survive.”
–>
Darwin also believed that survival depends on how hard individuals work and compete. Those who fight harder or are more active in getting food are more likely to survive.
🧠 Imagine hunger as a motivational fuel—animals that act on it faster or smarter have a better shot at living and passing on their traits.
Evolution or Learning?
“Some motivated behaviors are genetically determined, others are learned throughout an individual’s life, and even others can be understood as a combination.”
Think of behavior as being driven by:
Hard-wired instincts (genes)
Life experiences (learning)
Or a mix of both
🧠 Analogy: Behavior as a Recipe
Your actions are like making food:
Some recipes come from your genes (like pre-installed apps).
Some you learn by experience (like learning to cook watching YouTube).
Some are mixed—your genes give you the tools, and your environment teaches you when/how to use them.
Evolution wants one thing: adaptation = survive + pass on genes.
Evolution or learning? (Adaptation is understood as a strategy)
“Adaptation is understood as a strategy that increases the probability of survival, even beyond the individual’s own existence: surviving through descendants.” (descendants = Next in line generation)
🧠 Motivation is like a relay race: your goal isn’t just to run your leg well, but to pass the baton (your genes) to the next runner—your descendants.
🐾 Ethological Theories
What is Ethology?
“A branch of biology that studies the biological aspects of the behavior of individuals in their natural environment.”
This means observing animals (and humans) in real life—not labs—to understand instinctive, evolutionary behavior.
🔹 Key quote:
“Some behaviors are genetically pre-programmed.”
Ethology shows we have built-in instincts—behaviors that don’t need to be learned.
🧠 Analogy: Behavior Like Pre-installed Apps
When you get a new phone, it comes with built-in apps.
Similarly, many animals are born with pre-installed behaviors—like birds knowing how to build nests or babies knowing how to suckle.
Ethological Theories 🧪 Instinctive Behavior = 2 Phases:
- Appetitive Phase (Search/Approach)
“Carries out a series of actions and strategies to achieve a desired goal.”
🧠 Like: A predator stalking its prey
It plans, moves quietly, chooses timing.
- Consummatory Phase (Execution)
“Execution of specific behavioral patterns… once the goal has been achieved.”
🧠 Like: The attack and capture
These are fast, automatic, and often genetically wired.
Lorenz’s Hydraulic Model (Energy Model)
🔹 KEY QUOTE:
“After obtaining and accumulating energy, the probability of the behavior appearing increases.”
🧠 Analogy: Like pressure in a balloon
The more energy builds up, the more likely the balloon will pop—or in this case, the behavior bursts out.
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This helps explain the timing of instinctive behaviors—why they show up when they do.
“As internal energy builds up, the chance that the behavior will happen goes up too.”
🧠 Analogy: Think of it like water in a kettle.
The more pressure builds inside, the more likely the steam will force its way out—just like behavior being triggered when motivation gets strong enough.
What are the 🧬 Three Components of Lorenz’s Hydraulic Model (Energy Model)
- Accumulation of Energy
“The energy refers to internal drive or motivation… hunger, mating, territory.”
Think of this as gas building up in a tank.
- Threshold of Response
“The more energy… the lower the response threshold.”
Like if you’re starving, even the smell of food is enough to make you act.
- Behavior Release
“Once the threshold is crossed… behavior is released.”
You snap, and the behavior erupts.
The dog has accumulated so much energy (shoe example)
“The dog has accumulated so much energy… it produces the behavior spontaneously.”
✅ Rephrased with Explanation:
The dog has built up so much internal drive (like excitement, boredom, or instinctive hunting energy) that it has to release it somehow, even if the usual trigger (like prey) isn’t there. So it bites a shoe, not because the shoe is prey, but because its urge to act has overflowed.
🧠 How Is This Possible? (Biological Logic)
Let’s break it down step-by-step using the Lorenz hydraulic model from your earlier slides:
🧬 What’s Happening in the Dog’s Brain?
Accumulated energy = unmet instinct
The dog’s brain has a built-in behavior system (e.g. the prey drive).
That system gathers energy when not used—like emotional or neurological pressure building up over time.
No outlet = overflow
If this energy isn’t released in a natural way (e.g. chasing prey), it reaches a threshold.
At this point, even a non-relevant stimulus (a shoe) can trigger the behavior.
Spontaneous release
Like a balloon popping or a kettle whistling when too full, the behavior bursts out on the nearest object, even if it doesn’t make sense.
♻️ 5. Homeostasis and Regulation
“Homeostasis is a dynamic balance that continually adjusts to adapt to internal and external changes… Survival depends on this balance.”
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Homeostasis is your body’s way of staying balanced—like keeping temperature, hunger, or hydration just right.
When something changes inside or outside (too hot, too hungry), your body adjusts to fix it. If it can’t, survival is at risk.
🧠 Analogy: Your body is like a smart thermostat—it automatically turns on heating or cooling (behaviors) to keep everything at the perfect setting.
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🧠 Analogy: Your Body Is Like a Thermostat
When it’s hot, you turn on the AC. When cold, the heater.
Homeostasis keeps internal conditions stable (temperature, hunger, etc.)
If your body gets too far from ideal, it creates motivation to fix it:
Cold? You shiver.
Hungry? You eat.
Thirsty? You drink.
What are the 🔬 Two Types of Homeostasis Theories?
Peripheral Theories
“Signals from organs like stomach, liver, circulation influence behavior.”
🧠 Like “warning lights” on your dashboard telling you something’s off.
Central Theories
“Highlights the function of the brain… managing adaptive responses.”
(It highlights the function of the
brain in regulating homeostasis and
motivation, managing adaptive
responses to internal and external
changes in the body.)
🧠 Your brain is the control center. It interprets signals and decides how to act.
Biological Theories – Current Situation
“Neurobiological approaches… focus on locating the biological substrate of homeostatic mechanisms and approach and avoidance motivational systems.”
✅ Explained Simply:
Modern biology looks at where in the brain and body motivation comes from—especially:
How we stay balanced (homeostasis)
What makes us move toward rewards (approach)
And away from danger (avoidance)
🧠 Biological Theories – Current Situation (Approach and Avoidance)
“These two systems—approach and avoidance—are often studied through behavioral activation and inhibition.”
Approach means your brain and body get activated to go after something positive (like food, goals, or connection).
Avoidance means your system puts the brakes on to protect you from something negative (like pain or danger).
🧠 These two forces guide how we react—whether we feel excited to act or afraid to back off—based on what we expect will happen.
⚡️ Neurobiology of the Activation Process of (Approach and Avoidance)
🔹 Key Point:
“Motivated behavior results from changes in the level of activation.”
✅ In Simple Terms:
When something important is noticed (food, threat, opportunity), your body and brain wake up to deal with it.
🧠 Analogy: Alarm System
Imagine you’re home and the alarm detects motion:
If it’s a friendly signal, you go open the door (approach).
If it’s a threat, you hide or fight (avoid).
Same thing in your brain—activation happens when your body gets ready to act.
🔹 Slide Detail:
“The organism detects a relevant stimulus… takes action to approach or avoid it.”
✅ That’s the moment when decision and action are triggered based on motivation.
What is the💥 Three Effects of Activation?
🔹 Activation has implications:
Physiological, Cognitive, and Motor
Type: Physiological
Meaning: Body gets ready
Example: Heart rate increases, pupils dilate
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Type: Cognitive
Meaning: Brain evaluates meaning
Example: “Is this a threat or a reward?”
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Type: Motor
Meaning: Prepares to move
Example: Muscles activate, body tenses to run or act
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