5 Steps to a 5 AP Psychology, 2010-2011 Edition - Laura Lincoln Maitland [106]
Physiological motives are primary motives such as hunger, thirst, pain, and sex influenced by biologic factors, environmental factors, and learned preferences and habits.
Hunger—increases with stomach contractions, low blood sugar, high insulin levels that stimulate the lateral hypothalamus (LH); high levels of the neurotransmitters norepinephrine, GABA, and neuropeptide Y that stimulate the paraventricular hypothalamus (PVN); environmental factors such as the sight and smell of desired foods, and stress. Stimulation of the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) stops eating behavior.
Set point—a preset natural body weight, determined by the number of fat cells in our body.
Anorexia nervosa—eating disorder most common in adolescent females characterized by weight less than 85% of normal, abnormally restrictive food consumption, and an unrealistic body image.
Bulimia nervosa—an eating disorder characterized by a pattern of eating binges involving intake of thousands of calories, followed by purging, either by vomiting or using laxatives.
Thirst—increases with mouth dryness; shrinking of cells from loss of water and low blood volume which, stimulate the lateral hypothalamus; and sight and smell of desired fluids.
Pain—promotes avoidance or escape behavior to eliminate causes of discomfort.
Sex—necessary for survival of the species, but not the individual. Testosterone levels in humans seem related to sexual motivation in both sexes. Sexual orientation refers to the direction of an individual’s sexual interest.
• Homosexuality—a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another person of the same sex.
• Bisexuality—a tendency to direct sexual desire toward people of both sexes.
• Heterosexuality—a tendency to direct sexual desire toward people of the opposite sex. Masters and Johnson described a pattern of four stages in the biological sexual response cycle: sexual arousal, plateau, orgasm, and resolution.
Social motives are learned needs, such as the need for achievement and the need for affiliation, that energize behavior acquired as part of growing up in a particular society or culture.
Need for achievement—a desire to meet some internalized standard of excellence, related to productivity and success. People with a high need for achievement choose moderately challenging tasks to satisfy their need.
Affiliation motive—the need to be with others; is aroused when people feel threatened, anxious, or celebratory.
Intrinsic motivation—a desire to perform an activity for its own sake.
Extrinsic motivation—a desire to perform an activity to obtain a reward such as money, applause, or attention.
• Overjustification effect—where promising a reward for doing something we already like to do results in us seeing the reward as the motivation for performing the task. When the reward is taken away, the behavior tends to disappear.
Social conflict situations involve being torn in different directions by opposing motives that block us from attaining a goal, leaving us feeling frustrated and stressed.
Approach-approach conflicts—situations involving two positive options, only one of which we can have.
Avoidance-avoidance conflicts—situations involving two negative options, one of which we must choose.
Approach-avoidance conflicts—situations involving whether or not to choose an option that has both a positive and negative consequence or consequences.
Multiple approach–avoidance conflicts—situations involving several alternative courses of action that have both positive and negative aspects.
Emotions are psychological feelings that involve physiological arousal (biological component), conscious experience (cognitive component), and overt behavior (behavioral component). Physiological arousal involves stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system and hormonal secretion. The limbic system is the center for emotions; the amygdala influences aggression and fear, and interacts with the hypothalamus. Basic emotions