AP Psychology 4.6-4.7: Motivation and Emotion

Motivation

Motivation is the set of wants or needs that directs behavior toward a goal.

How do intrinsic and extrinsic motivation differ?

Intrinsic motivation comes from the personal satisfaction or enjoyment of an activity. Extrinsic motivation comes from external outcomes such as money, grades, approval, or avoiding punishment.

Overjustification effect

The overjustification effect is the reduction of intrinsic motivation when an external reward is introduced for an activity that was already enjoyable. A person may become dependent on the external reward to continue the behavior.

How can external rewards affect intrinsic motivation?

Tangible rewards such as money are more likely than verbal praise to reduce intrinsic motivation, especially when the reward is expected. Unexpected rewards and intangible rewards such as praise may have less negative impact or may even support intrinsic motivation.

What classroom conditions tend to increase students’ intrinsic motivation?

Belonging, respect, student control, challenging but achievable activities, meaningful rationales, and reduced emphasis on external evaluation tend to promote intrinsic motivation.

How can culture influence motivation?

In collectivistic cultures, behavior may be strongly motivated by responsibilities to family or the broader group rather than by individual rewards or goals.

Instinct theory of motivation

Instinct theory proposes that behavior is driven by species-specific, unlearned patterns that promote survival. The theory was criticized because much human behavior is shaped by learning and conditioning.

Why was the instinct theory of human motivation criticized?

Human behavior varies substantially with learning and experience, and some behaviors once labeled instinctive were shown to result from associative learning. This made it difficult to identify a consistent set of uniquely human instincts.

Homeostasis

Homeostasis is the maintenance of a relatively stable or optimal internal condition in a biological system. Receptors detect deviations, a control center processes the information, and effectors help restore balance.

Drive theory of motivation

Drive theory states that deviations from homeostasis create physiological needs, which produce psychological drive states that motivate behavior to restore balance.

How does drive theory explain hunger?

A decrease in blood glucose creates a physiological need and the drive state of hunger. Hunger motivates food-seeking and eating, which help restore blood glucose toward its normal level.

Habit in drive-reduction theory

A habit is a recurring behavioral pattern. If a behavior successfully reduces a drive, that behavior becomes more likely to be used when the same drive occurs again.

Arousal theory of motivation

Arousal theory proposes that people seek an individually appropriate or optimal level of stimulation. Underarousal can motivate stimulation-seeking, whereas overarousal can motivate behaviors that reduce stimulation.

Yerkes-Dodson law

The Yerkes-Dodson law states that the relationship between arousal and performance depends on task difficulty: simple tasks are generally performed best at higher arousal, while complex tasks are performed best at lower arousal.

Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is a person’s belief that they are capable of successfully completing a particular task. High self-efficacy generally promotes challenging goals, persistence, and resilience after setbacks.

How does self-efficacy influence motivation?

People who expect that they can perform a behavior successfully are more likely to attempt difficult tasks, persist through obstacles, and set ambitious goals.

Need for achievement

The need for achievement is a social motive that drives accomplishment, performance, and success.

Need for affiliation versus need for intimacy

The need for affiliation motivates positive interaction and connection with others. The need for intimacy motivates the development of deep, meaningful relationships.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s hierarchy organizes motives from basic biological needs to increasingly psychological and social needs. The traditional levels are physiological needs, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.

What are the levels of Maslow’s traditional hierarchy from lowest to highest?

Physiological needs come first, followed by safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Maslow proposed that lower-level needs generally require substantial satisfaction before higher-level needs become dominant.

Self-actualization

Self-actualization is the pursuit of realizing one’s full potential. Maslow viewed it as an ongoing, lifelong process achieved by relatively few people.

Self-transcendence in Maslow’s revised hierarchy

Self-transcendence is a proposed level above self-actualization involving meaning, purpose, or sacrifice directed beyond the self, such as working to improve other people’s lives.

What is a major limitation of Maslow’s hierarchy?

The hierarchy is difficult to test objectively and does not always match real-world behavior. People may pursue higher-level goals even when lower-level needs are not fully satisfied.

Satiation versus satiety

Satiation is the feeling of fullness and satisfaction that ends an eating episode. Satiety refers more broadly to the signals that suppress hunger and delay additional eating after food consumption.

How do physiological signals initiate and stop eating?

Empty-stomach contractions and low blood glucose contribute to hunger signals. After eating, increased blood glucose, gastrointestinal signals, and hormones such as leptin promote fullness and inhibit further eating.

Leptin

Leptin is a hormone released by fat cells that contributes to satiety signaling. It is one of several chemical signals integrated by the brain to regulate eating.

Which brain regions integrate hunger and satiety signals?

Several areas of the hypothalamus and hindbrain help integrate physiological signals related to hunger and fullness. Their activity contributes to whether feeding behavior occurs.

How do caloric intake and energy expenditure affect body weight?

When caloric intake exceeds energy expenditure, excess energy is stored primarily as fat. When energy expenditure exceeds intake, stored fat can be mobilized as an energy source.

Metabolic rate

Metabolic rate is the amount of energy the body expends over a given period. Individual differences in metabolic rate affect how readily calories are used or stored.

Set-point theory of body weight

Set-point theory proposes that each person has a genetically influenced preferred body weight that the body resists changing through compensatory adjustments in energy intake or expenditure.

What are limitations of set-point theory?

Evidence does not support all of its predictions, such as consistent metabolic-rate changes after major weight loss. The theory also inadequately accounts for social, environmental, and economic influences on body weight.

How do genes and environment jointly influence obesity risk?

Body weight reflects gene–environment interactions as well as the balance between calories consumed and expended. Access to food, neighborhood safety, physical-activity opportunities, and socioeconomic conditions can strongly affect that balance.