Psychology 110 Lecture 8 Motivation & Emotion 1-31-02

What makes us do what we do? Motivation involves goal-directed behavior

Begs question, being pushed vs. being pulled (later is goal directed)

1. Needs
2. Biological - Madison, 1968
1. Hunger, thirst, sex, temperature, excretory, sleep/rest, activity, aggression
2. Social - Murray
3. Achievement, affiliation, autonomy, nurturance, dominance, exhibition, order, play
3. Hunger and Eating
1. Shared motive with animals, easy to study
1. Brain regulation
2. Hypothalamus midbrain (old), present in all animals
3. Lateral hypothalamus, lesion, and no hunger
4. Ventromedial hypothalamus, lesion, eat themselves into obesity
5. Paraventricular nucleus, regulator
6. Together turn eating on and off, part of complex structure
2. Blood chemistry
1. Glucose sensitive cells glucostats, detect blood sugar, in liver to hypothalamus via vagus nerve
3. Stomach signals from stretching, stapling
1. Hormonal
2. Insulin via pancreas, sight & smell stimulate insulin production Rodin, 85
3. Leptin caries information to hypothalamus on fat storage
4. Complex controls, can be manipulated physically, chemically, surgically
4. Hunger and Environment
1. Learned preferences and habits
2. Cultural/ethnicity - persistence of habits
3. Preference though classical conditioning, attraction and aversion
1. Social factors affect habits
2. Food-related cues
3. Attractiveness basis of haute cuisine
4. Stress, arousal affects eating: final exam week
5. Advertising
6. Effects of fast food, social, economic, health
1. Obesity, overweight, pandemic in America
2. Significant health problem
5. Genetic factors 61%male and 73% female effects
1. Adoption studies show favor birth parents
2. Set point theory
3. Balance maintains weight in normal people
1. Dietary restraint
2. Cognitive control until disrupted
6. Sexuality
1. Hormonal regulation
2. Female estrogens-constellation estrogen, progesterone, males androgens-testosterone
3. Levels correlate with sexual activity, motivation
4. Pheromones
1. Very important in other species, gypsy moth 2 mile range
2. Women and estrous cycle synchronization
5. Aphrodisiacs, never proven, placebo effects
6. Erotic materials
1. Pictures cause physiological arousal males & females
2. Most porn aimed at males, show women in subordinate or demeaning roles
3. Inconclusive whether porn has effect on criminal sexual activity
7. Shaping sexual attitudes and behavior
1. Aggressive and child porn may increase tendency
2. Prevalence of rape
1. Only 11% by complete strangers
2. Power as much as sex
7. Attractiveness of partners
1. Multiple partners enhance performance (Coolidge effect)
2. Many secondary and evolved behaviors
3. Evolutionary analysis
1. Triver's 72 parental investment theory
1. Relative investment importance in choosing mate
1. Women more discriminating because they live with the consequences
2. Gender differences in sexual activity
3. Differences in pursuit, men want more partners, more inclined to casual, prostitution
4. Gender differences in mate preferences
5. Not conscious strategies, but expressed behaviors
6. Women favor financial/providing; men favor physical attractiveness
7. Gender differences in jealousy
2. Women fear emotional infidelity, men fear sexual infidelity
3. Evolutionary theory supported by literature, but is it selective perception
4. Other social and role factors may shape more than evolution.6