MotivationMotivationMotivationMotivation takes many forms, but all involve inferred mental processes that select and direct our behavior.Drive is used for motivation that is assumed to have a strong innate component and plays an important role in survival or reproduction. Hunger, thirst, sexMotive used more for the mechanism involving learned needs. Need for achievement, or the desire to play video games. Some motivated behaviors eating, drinking and sexual behavior have roots in biology and learning. Conscious motivation or unconscious motivation. – Motivated individuals may or may not be aware of the drives or motives underlying their behavior. – Freud’s theory emphasized unconscious motivation.Instinct Theory – Instincts are specific inborn behavior patterns characteristic of an entire species -- accounts for regular cycles of animal activity, salmon traveling upstream. Instincts in human behavior – Freud felt life instincts such as sex and death instincts such as aggression or destruction created tension within the organism in the form of psychic energy. We are then driven to reduce this tension. “Road rage” for example is a modern example of the death instinct.-- People take their unconscious anger with them behind the wheel of a car. Anthropologists today down play instinct believing much behavior is learned, not inborn and note that human behavior is rarely rigid, inflexible, unchanging and characteristic of the specifies. A preferred term today is fixed-action pattern – unlearned behavior that occurs throughout a species and is triggered by identifiable stimuli. Drive is the uncomfortable state of tension that moves an organism to meet abiological need. A biological need produces a drive. The drive, then, motivates the animal to act to reduce the drive level. Once you get to a desirable state you are said to have a condition called homeostasis.Homeostasis is the state of balance and stability in which the organism functions effectively.Drive reduction doesn’t explain all motivated behavior. Sometimes we seek activities that heighten tension or arousal. Both humans and other animals, in the absence of any apparent deprivation or drives, act merely to increase stimulation. Both engage in play – behavior that is satisfying in itself, rather than a means of reducing a drive. Animals explore and manipulate their environment simply for the sake of the experience. We jump out of planes, explore rather than eat sometimes. These activities are rewarding in themselves. Incentive theory: -- being aroused by external stimuli. (Being lured into a bakery by the aroma of bread fresh from the oven) In humans may be self-induced by mental imagery. Picture your goal – can motivate you to study for a good grade – or motivate you to train for a gold medal. Can be inducedby negative incentives, fear of feelings of shame for dropping out of a marathon race, fear of developing an addiction to drugs.Advertisers know that incentive stimuli (such as a commercial for tasty tacos) can activate a biological driver such as hunger. Cognitive theory and locus of control:Julian Rotter asserted that the likelihood of someone engaging in a given behavior (such as studying for an exam instead of partying) is determined bytwo factors:1. One’s expectation of attaining a goal follow that activity2. The personal value of that goal. Our expectations depend largely on our locus of control – our belief about our ability to control things that happen to us. If you believe that studying hard will lead to good grades, you have an internal locus of control – and you will behave differently from those who believe that grades depend of luck or the teacher’s biases.People who believe that their fate hangs on whim or luck have an external locus of control.Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation:One gets more pleasure and happiness from intrinsic activates.External rewards cause decreased emotional involvement and negative feelings. Higher intrinsic motivation is linked to higher school achievement and psychological adjustment in individuals. Primary Drives:Biological needs that trigger a corresponding state of psychological arousal. Unlearned drives are hunger, thirst and sex—common to all animals including humans. They are strongly influenced by stimulus within the bodythat is part of our biological programming for survival.Hunger: a psychological state of hunger is different from the biological need for food. Two centers in the brain are important in the hunger response: 1. The hunger center stimulates eating 2. The satiety center reduces the feeling of hunger. Both are located inthe hypothalamus.It is believed that the brain monitors the level of glucose in the blood. A fall in the glucose level stimulates neurons in the hunger center. The brain also monitors fatty acids (acids from fat) and amino acids (acids from protein)The hormones that the brain monitors include cholecystokinin (CCK) insulin and leptin. When glucose levels rise, the pancreas releases insulin, a hormone that most body cells need in order to use the glucose they receive. Insulin may provide a satiety signal. Recently researchers have identified a mechanism in the brain that may be responsible for obesity. The theory states that fat cells produce a hormone called leptin, which travels in the bloodstream and is sensed by the hypothalamus. High levels of leptin signal the brain to reduced appetite, orto increase the rate at which fat is burned. Research with mice suggests that a defective gene may fail to regulate the level of leptin in the brain and be partly responsible for obesity. Replacing this hormone in obese animals results in a rapid loss of body fat. Receptors in the stomach know how much food the stomach is holding and how many calories that food contains. These receptors signal the satiety center and make us feel less hungry. Three regions of the hypothalamus play primary roles in detecting and reacting to the blood’s signals about the need to eat. Three areas are:Ventromedial nucleus “stop eating center”– activity fibers passing through here tells an animal there is no need to eat. If a rat’s ventromedial nucleus is electrically or chemically stimulated, the animal will stop eating. If it is destroyed the animal will eat ravenously, increasing its weight up to three fold. Lateral hypothalamus: “start eating center”: When electrically stimulated rats