Psych Chap 11 Motivation and Emotion
Workplace motivation (three models)
-Extrinsic motivation: Motivation that comes from outside the person and usually involves rewards and praises. Widely used to get people to do things they wouldn't normally do or don't like doing. Requires the reward to be constant. The bar must constantly be raised, or motivation drops. -Intrinsic motivation: Motivation that comes from within a person and includes the elements of challenge, enjoyment, mastery, and autonomy. Four components: Challenge: How much do you enjoy the thrill and excitement of new challenges? Enjoyment: How much pleasure do you receive from the process of doing the task? Mastery: Do you gain a sense of accomplishment and pride in doing a difficult task? Autonomy and self-determination: Do you believe that you are free to determine much of what you do and how you do it? -Perceived organizational support: How much employees believe that the organization appreciates and supports their contributions and well-being
Key areas of emotion processing
AMYGDALA: Anatomically, the amygdala has connections with many important brain regions, including structures that appear to be involved in emotion and memory: the hypothalamus, which controls the ANS; the hippocampus, which plays a crucial role in memory; the thalamus, which receives information from the sense organs; and the cerebral cortex. The amygdala appears to contribute to appraisal of the emotional significance of stimuli, with a specialized function for noticing fear-relevant information PREFRONTAL CORTEX: studies show that the prefrontal cortex is one of the more active regions of the brain in the experience of emotions. Damage to the left prefrontal cortex results in depression According to EEG studies that measure cortical activity, clinically depressed people show less activity in the left prefrontal cortex than do nondepressed people The prefrontal cortex plays a key role in emotional appraisal—probably due to its involvement in planning, impulse control, and working memory. Research in affective neuroscience shows that the prefrontal cortex is crucially involved in evaluating the relevance of events in the world to oneself, which is what happens when one is appraising a situation. Brain imaging studies show that when people are asked to think of their own name the medial prefrontal cortex is activated more than when they are asked to think of names of fictitious characters ANTERIOR CINGULATE CORTEX: The anterior cingulate cortex is involved in emotion-related thought and, most likely, appraisal. A meta-analysis of more than 55 brain imaging studies concluded that the anterior cingulate cortex is active when people either recall or imagine emotional experiences. Other evidence points to the anterior cingulate cortex being closely linked to the appraisal and expression of emotion. The anterior cingulate cortex is also the brain region that is active in both physical pain and the pain of rejection or exclusion. Anatomical studies of primate brains indicate that pathways between the anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala and portions of the prefrontal cortex are important to emotion regulation. HYPOTHALAMUS: The hypothalamus is well known as a pleasure or reward center, as such it is involved in the feeling of emotions. Animals will forgo food and drink to receive stimulation there, and humans report feeling pleasure when this region is stimulated. Also, the hypothalamus plays a key role in directing various other areas of the brain involved in emotional responses, such as the ANS, hormone systems, and muscular action. INSULA: The insula is the brain structure most involved in interoception, or the perception of sensations arising within the body. In fMRI studies, the insula is active during the experience of pain and empathy for another's pain Insular activity is reduced when women attempt to regulate their disgust with reappraisal —OXYTOCIN: Well known for its role in lactation and bonding in mammals. Plays a broad role in positive emotional states, especially those involving affiliation or connection. makes people better at recognizing facial expressions of happiness.
Eating Disorders
ANOREXIA NERVOSA: involves an extreme fear about being overweight that leads to a severe restriction of food intake This caloric restriction typically does not allow a person to maintain at least 85% of the low end of his or her ideal weight—that is, a BMI about 16 or less. At its core, anorexia involves an extremely distorted body image, with the person believing he or she is too heavy regardless of how thin he or she really is. BMIs in the range of 15 or less can lead to death, and about 4% of those who suffer from anorexia will die from the disorder BULIMIA NERVOSA: prone to binge eating and feeling a lack of control during the eating session. Binge eating involves eating much more food at one time than the average person would, such as having a half gallon of ice cream as a late-night snack. A person with bulimia regularly engages in self-induced vomiting, the use of laxatives or diuretics, strict dieting or fasting, or vigorous exercise in order to prevent weight gain. The causes of anorexia and bulimia are unknown, although a number of factors appear to put people at risk for this disorder, such as reactivity to stress, genetics, epigenetics, social pressure, and personality. In short, they result from both nature and nurture. Women are much more likely than men to develop such disorders. Women with eating disorders show higher physiological reactivity to stress.
Achievement (need to excel)
Achievement motivation is defined as a desire to do things well and overcome difficulties and obstacles. Atkinson (1964) argued that the tendency to achieve success is a function of three things: motivation to succeed, the expectation of success, and the incentive value of the success Expectation of success is an individual's evaluation of the likelihood of succeeding at a task. Your evaluation of your performance in this course consists of two beliefs: whether you have the ability to do well and what the actual outcome is likely to be. These two beliefs may not match. For instance, some students may see themselves as quite capable of doing well, but because of some missed classes, they may not obtain a high grade for the course. Incentive value stems from two factors. First, success at the task has to be important to you. Second, the more difficult the task and the lower the odds of succeeding at it, the more meaningful and satisfying it'll be if you do succeed. The incentive value for doing well in introductory psychology differs, depending on what a good grade in the course means to you.
Affiliation (need to belong)
Affiliation is our need to belong. As we saw in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, human needs extend beyond the physiological needs of hunger and sex. The need for social contact and belonging—what psychologists call affiliation—and the need to excel and compete with others—what psychologists call achievement—are universal. Being accepted by others increases our self-esteem, whereas being rejected lowers it. people who do not feel as though they belong are more prone to depressive disorders, acts of anger, and explosive/violent episodes, as well as more likely to be suicidal.
Sexual orientation (Alfred Kinsey)
Alfred Kinsey proposed a radically new view of sexual orientation: It exists on a continuum from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual The hypothalamus is substantially smaller in gay men than in straight men- about the size of a woman's. We cannot know if the size of this brain region causes homeosexuality or not. genetic research suggests that sexual orientation is partly under genetic influence, at least in men. Studies of twins indicate that genetics plays a bigger role in determining sexual orientation in men than in women. For women, environmental factors seem to have a strong influence on sexual orientation. Research suggests that females exposed to high levels of testosterone in utero and who therefore have congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) are more likely to develop non-heterosexual orientation compared to female fetuses exposed to lower levels of testosterone Another example of prenatal hormone exposure comes from the finding that the odds of homosexual orientation in males increase with each male pregnancy of the mother. This is known as the fraternal birth order effect. The explanation seems to be that with each male birth, there is less androgen (testosterone) exposure to the male fetus and this affects development of sexual orientation
intrinsic motivation
Although flourishing in life certainly involves positive emotions, reaching a certain states of lasting well-being depends as much on how we lead our lives as what we do to simply feel good. People who live a well-lived life are also characterized by finding meaning in life. There is a purpose to their actions, and well-being stems from a balance between positive emotions and sense of motivation. As is true of Maslow's self-actualizing people, they often are driven by a sense of purpose beyond their own personal lives. They find meaning in their lives in general and even in negative and tragic experiences, which tend to be associated with life satisfaction and happiness. Historically, the search for meaning has been associated with spirituality, which also appears to play a role in people's search for a lasting sense of well-being.
Obesity BMI
Any definition of being overweight must consider both height and weight. Therefore, in evaluating an individual's weight, the U.S. government and medical doctors use body mass index (BMI), which is determined by dividing weight by height squared to yield a weight-to-height ratio. The ideal BMI is between 19 and 24, with 25 to 29 considered overweight and 30 or above considered obese. BMI can be misleading because it dos not take muscle mass into account, therefore there is a new measurement introduced in 2017 called the Body Volume Indicator (BVI) which not only considers height and weight but more importantly mass distribution around the waist, known as belly fat. This is a more valid index of healthy weight than BMI since belly fat is the most direct predictor of health outcomes. Weight gain is subject to environmental influence, but biological factors also play a role. Genes appear to be responsible for about 70% of adult weight In addition, in some obese people the gene that produces the hormone leptin, which normally suppresses appetite, has suffered a mutation and therefore does not function properly Genes also control the number of fat cells a person has, which has been set by childhood and adolescence and does not change much after that. Each year about 10% of our fat cells die, but they are replaced by roughly the same number of new ones. Dieting does not change this. When people diet, they are not decreasing the number of fats cells they have but rather how much fat each cell stores.
Incentives
Any external object or event that motivates behavior. In general, drives come from the body, whereas incentives come from the environment.
Biology of sexual behavior
As is true of many physiological drives, such as hunger, the hypothalamus plays a crucial role in sexual behavior. In humans, lesions in the back portion of the hypothalamus lead to a decrease in sexual behavior, whereas electrical stimulation of the same region leads to an increase in sexual behavior, especially in males. In addition, the part of the hypothalamus involved in sexual behavior is larger in men than in women Brain regions involved in orgasm include the somatosensory cortex, nucleus accumbens, limbic system, cerebellum, hypothalamus, and prefrontal cortex Testosterone, the major male sex hormone, controls sex drive in both men and women. ——The role of testosterone in the female sex drive was discovered accidentally when women whose adrenal glands had been removed lost their sex drive
Hypothalamus and hunger
As with almost all behavior, many regions of the brain are involved in eating. The hypothalamus regulates all basic physiological needs and acts as hunger's sensory detector. The body signals the hypothalamus about the nutritional needs of the cells. Various parts of the hypothalamus in turn send signals to different brain regions to either start or stop eating
EMOTION
Brief, acute changes in conscious experience and physiology treat occur in response to a meaningful situation in a person's environment Emotional events are remembered better than non emotional events.
(4) The Heirarchical Model (Maslow)
Combines drives and incentives. Needs range from the most basic physiological necessities to the highest, most psychological needs for growth and fulfillment -At the lowest level of the hierarchy are physiological needs, such as the needs for food, water, oxygen, and adequate body temperature. -At the next level are safety needs, which include physical security, stability, dependency, protection, and freedom from threats, such as war, assault, and terrorism. We need to be fed and out of danger's way before we can pay attention to higher-level needs. lThe third level consists of the love and belongingness needs, including the desire for friendship, sex, a mate, and children, as well as the desire to belong to a family or social group. The fourth level in Maslow's hierarchy of needs is the need for esteem—that is, the need to be liked, appreciated, and respected by other people as well as oneself. The need for esteem is behind the desire to achieve and succeed. The top level in the hierarchy is the need for self-actualization, the full realization of one's potentials and abilities in life. Only when lower needs have been satisfied can people focus on higher needs. ================ Pyramid: -Self Actualizations -Esteem needs -Love and belongingness needs -Safety and security needs -Physiological needs ================= KENRICK NEW MODEL The new model builds on the basic needs—physiological, safety (protection), love and belongingness (affiliation), and esteem—and replaces self-actualization with three types of reproductive goals: acquiring a mate, retaining Page 411a mate, and parenting. In addition, in the new model, the levels overlap rather than replace earlier needs, clarifying that they do not go away but can be activated whenever needed.
Dieting (Traci Mann)
Dieting does not work in the long term. Traci Mann and colleagues (2007) conducted a meta-analysis of 31 high-quality published studies on long-term weight loss from dieting and reported that diets work only for a minority of the population. People typically lose about 5 to 10 pounds within the first 6 months they start dieting. Within 2 to 5 years, however, the vast majority has not only gained all of the weight back but also weigh more than when they started dieting. Most dieters in the studies would have been better off if they did not diet at all.
Weight loss tips
Eat slowly—it takes 20 minutes after eating before your brain knows you are full. Write down what you eat for at least 1 month. Monitor your weight regularly (at least a few times a month). Choose low-fat and/or whole-grain foods (a low-glycemic diet) as snacks. Eat breakfast every day. Follow a healthy and realistic eating pattern—don't set ridiculous goals for yourself. Eat what you want but in moderation. Stop eating when you feel full. Page 416 Drink lots of water, which, among other things, fills your stomach and decreases a tendency to overeat. Ensure at least moderate physical activity each day totaling approximately 30 minutes (could be as short as three 10-minute sessions). Get support from your friends and family. Get good sleep.
neurocultural theory of emotion
Ekman's explanation that some aspects of emotion, such as facial expressions and physiological changes associated with emotion, are universal and others, such as emotion regulation, are culturally derived. Display rules: learned norms or rules, often taught very early, about when it is appropriate to show certain expressions of emotion and to whom one should show them The first empirical support for display rules came from a study comparing disgust expressions in American and Japanese students (Ekman, 1972; Friesen, 1972). Both groups viewed a film showing a very graphic medical procedure, but in two different conditions: in the presence of an authority figure and alone. When alone, both groups felt perfectly comfortable expressing the obvious response—disgust. When in the presence of an authority figure, the Japanese students did not show disgust, and they masked their responses with non-Duchenne (fake) smiles. American students, however, showed about the same level of disgust in both conditions. The expressive differences between groups emerged in a situation in which the cultures had very different norms about expression, but not in the solo viewing condition.
Emotions as a process
Emotions emerge in response to situations we encounter in the world or in our thoughts, called antecedent events. Not everyone responds to the same situation in the same way. An individual evaluates the antecedent event to determine whether it is potentially harmful or beneficial as per such criteria as safety or personal goals. Depending on the results of that appraisal, he or she may experience an emotional response. The emotional response in turn produces changes in physiology, behavior, expression, and felt experience. As the reverse-curved arrow suggests, the process can move in the other direction as well. That is, the activation of facial and physiological responses might enhance the emotion, becoming yet another kind of input for a new emotional experience.
(3) Evolutionary model
Focuses on internal drive states. The biological purpose of any living organism is to survive and reproduce (perpetuate the species). The processes of natural and sexual selection have shaped motivation over time to make all animals, including humans, want those things that help them survive and reproduce. As a result, the major motives involve basic survival and reproduction needs and drives: hunger, thirst, body-temperature regulation, oxygen, and sex. We don't have to learn these behaviors. They are automatic and instinctive. Desires, wants, and needs have been shaped over the course of human evolution to guide behavior either toward adaptive or away from maladaptive actions
Hormones and Neurochemicals
Hormones and neurochemicals also play a role in hunger. Some of these substances stimulate appetite; others suppress it Two of the numerous hormones that stimulate appetite are neuropeptide Y (NPY) and ghrelin. When an animal is hungry or underfed, NPY is released in the hypothalamus to stimulate appetite. Ghrelin stimulates the release of dopamine (the feel-good neurotransmitter) and sends hunger signals to the brain, thereby stimulating hunger. Ghrelin levels rise when we are hungry and fall drastically after we eat. Endocannabinoids are marijuana-related naturally occurring neurochemicals that can also increase appetite. Blocking receptor sites for endocannabinoids leads to a decrease in eating and to weight loss =============== Increase appetite: NPY Ghrelin Endocannabinoids Decrease appetite: Insulin Leptin ================ One of the most important hormonal effects on hunger comes from insulin, which is produced by the pancreas. Rising glucose levels stimulate insulin production; insulin in turn transports glucose out of the blood and into the cells. As a result, hunger decreases. Leptin is produced by fat cells and inhibits neurons in the hypothalamus that contain NPY (appetite stimulant), thereby signaling the body that it has had enough to eat
Culture and sexual behavior
In a classic study of sexual behavior and culture, Clellan Ford and Frank Beach studied attitudes toward sex before and after marriage in 190 cultures. They identified three kinds of societies in terms of sexual attitudes. First, restrictive societies restrict sex before and outside of marriage. Second, semirestrictive societies place formal prohibitions on pre- and extramarital sex that are not strictly enforce. Third, permissive societies place few restrictions on sex.
Appraisal in the emotion process (Tong)
Initiates the process by which emotions are elicited. The evaluation of a situation with respect to how relevant it is to one's own welfare; drives the process by which emotions are elicited. Appraisal need not be a conscious, deliberate thought process. Most of the time it probably occurs automatically, outside of awareness, and it may occur in an instant Appraisal drives the process by which emotions are elicited Examples of appraisal dimensions include control (how much control you feel you have in a situation), agency (whether you or someone else made something happen), pleasantness, and fairness. The type of appraisal that occurs determines the type of the emotion generated. Fear, for instance, arises in situations of uncertainty and over which we feel we have little control
Drives
Occur when our bodies are deficient in some internal need.
Broaden and build model
Positive emotions, such as contentment, happiness, love, and amusement, solve different kinds of adaptive problems. According to the broaden-and-build model, positive emotions widen our cognitive perspective, making our thinking more expansive and enabling the acquisition of new skills and enhance well-being. Negative emotions promote a narrow, vigilant way of looking at the world. Play, for example, especially the rough-and-tumble play of animals and young children, is a kind of fun that helps develop physical and strategic skills, which may be useful for hunting, escaping, or defensive fighting. What evidence do we have that positive emotions broaden and build? Several studies suggest that positive emotions broaden one's attentional focus. When in positive moods, people perform poorly on tasks of selective attention that require a narrow focus but better on tasks that require a broader attentional focus. Positive emotions enhance attention to visual information in the outer edges of a visual display, compared to the center
Types of affect
Psychologists use the term affect to refer to a variety of emotional phenomena, including emotions, moods, and affective traits. Emotions make us pay attention, forcing us to set priorities and deal with life-relevant situations, connect with others, and attain our goals MOODS: Changes in affect that fluctuate throughout the say or over several days. We experience moods both physiologically and psychologically, and they tend to last longer than emotions. Moods make certain emotions more likely to occur than others. AFFECTIVE TRAITS: Enduring aspects of our personalities that set the threshold for the occurrence of particular emotional states, such as hostility (which potentials anger) or anxiety, (which potentials fear.)
Regulation of emotion
Refers to the cognitive and behavioral efforts people use to modify their emotions. Attempts at such may occur at the beginning or the end of the emotion process. An example of emotion regulation that can occur early in the emotion process is REAPPRAISAL, in which people reevaluate their views of an event so that a different emotion results EXPRESSIVE SUPPRESSION: The deliberate attempt to inhibit the outward display of an emotion. Instructing people to suppress their negative emotions can decrease the experience of negative emotion, but it increases activation of the sympathetic nervous system and sustains the emotional process.
Gender and Casual Sex
Research consistently shows that men are more willing to engage in and are more interested in casual sex. For instance, in a meta-analysis of 177 studies of gender and sexual attitudes and behavior published between 1966 and 1990, Oliver and Hyde reported that men, on average, have much more positive attitudes toward casual sex and are slightly more likely to approve of premarital or extramarital sex. A follow-up meta-analysis of research published between 1993 and 2007 found similar but somewhat smaller gender differences in casual sex collected data from more than 16,000 men and women in 52 nations and 6 continents and found universal support for men preferring more variety and greater number of sexual partners than women in both the short-term and long-term. PARENTAL INVESTMENT THEORY: Parental investment theory offers an explanation for the gender difference in attitude toward casual sex. If pregnancy results, the cost of having sex is quite different for men and women. Biologically, the only assured contribution from men to parenthood is the act of sex itself. If a woman becomes pregnant, however, her contribution includes 9 months of carrying the fetus, a good portion of which might involve pregnancy sickness; the painful labor and delivery; and approximately 18 years of caring for the child. Therefore, women would be less motivated to have sex with little emotional commitment—a single sexual encounter could have consequences that endure a lifetime.
Human Sexual Response (Masters and Johnson)
Sexual behavior is defined as actions that produce arousal and increase the liklihood of orgasm. Master and Johnson were the first scientists to study the human sexual response systematically and directly. One of their major findings was that men and women go through four stages of sexual arousal, but do so somewhat differently. Excitement phase: The major signs of the initial excitement phase are vaginal lubrication in females and erection in males. Plateau phase: the excitement level remains high but is preorgasmic. In men, the plateau phase might be rather short, but orgasm almost always follows. In women, the plateau phase often lasts longer than in men but is not necessarily followed by orgasm. Some women stay in the plateau phase for a while, then pass to the resolution phase without achieving orgasm. Women are capable of multiple orgasms, while men always have a refractory period immediately following orgasm.
Needs
States of cellular or bodily deficiency that compel drives. What your body seeks, such as water, food, and oxygen
Subjective experience of emotion
The changes in the quality of our conscious experience that occur during emotional responses. When people talk about how an emotion feels, they are referring to subjective experience. Each emotion creates a unique feeling: Anger feels different from sadness, which feels different from happiness. The subjective aspect of emotion draws on bodily changes, as well as effects on cognition, for emotions can activate associations with images and memories of significant events.
Self actualization
The full realization of one's potentials and abilities in life.
Emotional response
The physiological, behavioral/expressive, and subjective changes that occur when emotions are generated. PSYCHOLOGICAL: The physiological system responsible for changes during an emotional response is the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which governs structures and processes over which we have little conscious control, such as changes in heart rate and blood pressure and the release of hormones. The ANS plays a crucial role in emotional response because it activates other systems that are needed for action, including the circulatory and respiratory systems. One elicited, emotions engage the ANS almost immediately Survival/harm emotions engage the sympathetic branch of the ANS Positive emotions engage the parasympathetic branch of the ANS BEHAVIORAL: Expressed through verbal and nonverbal means, such as facial behavior and vocal intonation. —Facial expressions: (Tomkin) Tomkin's studies backed Darwin's assertion that the facial expressions of certain "basic" emotions, are universal and common to all human beings. One problem with these early studies on emotion recognition, however, is that all the participants lived in literate, industrialized cultures. Maybe the findings of cross-cultural consistency in facial expression recognition reflected the spread of the popular media rather than the existence of a universal human skill. People in Japan and the United States might have agreed on the emotional meaning of certain expressions because they had seen portrayals of actors in movies. The only way to resolve this question was to collect data from preliterate people who were isolated from industrialized society, which is what Ekman did by studying an isolated, preliterate group: the Fore tribe from Papua New Guinea. The most recognizable facial expression of emotion is the smile of happiness. But only certain smiles indicate truly felt enjoyment, such as the DUCHENNE SMILE
Homeostasis
The process by which all organisms work to maintain physiological equilibrium, or balance around an optimal set point.
Life satisfaction
The word happiness often refers to a brief emotion, but it can also refer to life satisfaction, our overall evaluation of our own lives and how we are doing. Psychologists consider life satisfaction to be a subset of subjective well-being, which also includes satisfaction in domains such as career, family, finances, and social networks. Maslow's hierarchical model of motivation offers a useful framework for a discussion of motivation and happiness, since both basic and higher-level needs contribute to life satisfaction.
Self Concious Emotions
Types of emotions that require a sense of self and the ability to reflect on actions; they occur as a function of meeting expectations (or not) and abiding (or not) by society's rules. include shame, guilt, humiliation, embarrassment, and pride, require a sense of self and the ability to reflect on one's own actions PRIDE: has a recognizable expression, which involves body movements such as a smile, head tilt upward, and a slightly expanded chest. This behavior is recognized as pride by children and adults in America and by people in a preliterate, socially isolated tribe in West Africa. These cross-cultural recognition data from a very diverse group suggest that this pride expression may be common across the globe. pride is an emotion associated with superiority over others and higher social status-- even in cultures that do not value such differences. There also seems to be a difference in the display of pride between boys and girls. EMBARRASSMENT: (Keltner) Involves an unintentional revelation about yourself to someone else. Often makes one feel self conscious- as though they have violated some social rule Keltner describes the facial expression of embarrassment, which he argues appeases and placates those who have seen one's mistake. The embarrassment expression involves a sequence of facial and gestural actions, each of which may correspond to some sort of social function In Keltner, Feinberg, and Willer's study, they found that people who expressed more embarrassment were more concerned about others in social situations and more generous in their offerings of money to others
(1) Drive reduction model
When our physiological systems are out of balance or depleted, we are driven to reduce this depleted state Drive is the perceived internal state of tension that arises when our bodies are lacking in some basic physiological capacity, such as food or water. Central to drive reduction is the idea of maintaining physiological balance, or homeostasis. Whether they know it or not, all bodies aim to maintain physiological equilibrium around an optimal set point, the ideal, fixed setting of a particular physiological system
Gender and emotion
Women talk more about emotions than men Women outperform men in accurately recognizing facial expressions of emotions, especially those which are more subtle. Women are often more expressive and smile more than men. studies reported that women in general show greater left amygdala activation to fear and negative affect, whereas men show greater left amygdala activity to positive emotion
(2) Optimal arousal model (Yerkes and Dodson)
Yerkes-Dodson law: The principle that moderate levels of arousal lead to optimal performance. According to the optimal arousal model, we function best when we are moderately aroused, or energized. Both low and high arousal/energy levels lead to poor performance EX., if you are too relaxed, you may not have the motivation to prepare for your speech, if you are too nervous, your voice might quiver or you might forget what you were going to say. if you are mildly excited and/or challenged by the task, however, you are energized and motivated but not incapacitated by too much arousal The optimal arousal model of motivation argues that humans are motivated to be in situations that are neither too stimulating nor not stimulating enough. Support for the optimal arousal model comes from sensory deprivation research. ========================================================================= Classic research from the 1950s demonstrated that people could not remain in sensory deprivation for more than 2 to 3 days, even if they were paid double their daily wage for each day they remained in the tank. After long periods of sensory deprivation, people begin to hallucinate, their cognitive ability and concentration suffer, and they develop childish emotional responses. Sensory deprivation in rodents shrinks the brain regions most involved in the senses that have been deprived, another example of the plasticity of the brain
Glucose
a simple sugar in the blood that provides energy for cells throughout the body, including the brain, is the most important source of energy for the body. Although fat and protein provide their own forms of energy, some organs, including the brain, can use only glucose. Our blood sugar level drops when we don't eat for long periods, and the hypothalamus, which monitors glucose levels, will trigger the drive to obtain food.
Basic emotions
anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise The basic emotions are not single stages; rather, they are categories or groups of related emotions, what Ekman describes as emotion families. For instance, the fear family, which includes anxiety, trepidation, and nervousness, may arise in response to a threat to physical safety. The happiness family includes joy, contentment, elation, amusement, and exhilaration, among others.
The fact that sexual orgasm cannot occur unless the areas of the brain involved in fear and anxiety are shut down illustrates what basic feature of emotions versus drives?
emotions can override biological drives
facial feedback hypothesis
posits that sensory feedback from the facial musculature during expression affects emotional experience Sensory neurons from the face do innervate key emotion areas of the brain, especially the amygdala research suggests that our facial expressions enhance our emotional feelings. People report feeling a particular emotion when they pose on their faces the muscular movements of that emotion expression
Emotional intelligence
the ability to recognize emotions in oneself and others, empathic understanding, and the skills for regulating emotions in oneself and others, which may be at least as important to one's success in life as academic achievement. Socioemotional learning (SEL): PATHS program (providing alternative thinking strategies)
Set point
the ideal fixed setting of a particular physiological system, such as internal body temperature For example, if we get too cold, we shiver to warm up as the body tries to warm itself with physical activity. Set point is the "happy medium"
Flow (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi )
the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity When in flow states, people are not aware of time passing and are very absorbed in the task in which they are engaged—so much so that they lose a sense of being separate from the task itself
=========HUNGER==========
the natural physical drive to eat, prompted by the body's need for food The rate at which we consume energy is known as METABOLISM Hunger has four biological components: the stomach, the blood, the brain, and hormones and neurochemicals. Although stomach contractions correspond with hunger pangs, they do not cause hunger. People who have had their stomachs removed still feel hunger because it involves more than the stomach.
Motivation
the urge to move toward one's goals, an energetic push toward accomplishing tasks, such as getting dinner, getting rich, and getting lucky. Results from needs, drives, and incentives
James-Lange theory of emotion
theory proposing that emotions result from our interpretations of our bodily reactions to stimuli our perception of the physiological changes that accompany emotions creates the subjective emotional experience. Without the perception of bodily changes, they argued, there is no emotional experience. Moreover, the changes that accompany different emotional states are unique. We experience fear as feeling different from sadness because we perceive different body changes for each emotion—in short, "I am trembling, and therefore I am afraid; or I feel a lump in my throat, and therefore I am sad." The James-Lange theory is not without its critics, most notable among them Walter Cannon, who argued that feedback from bodily organs is not specific enough to account for the varieties of emotional experience.