The Concept of Motivation

  • Describes forces acting on or within organism to initiate and direct behaviour
  • Constant flow of behaviour directed toward diff goals; thus, motivation is directed toward one behaviour and then another
  • Explains diffs in intensity of behaviour: higher motivation = more intense behaviour
  • Indicates persistence of behaviour: highly motivated behaviour = persistent o Highly motivated behaviour will be persistent even if intensity of behaviour is low i.e. hungry monkey will press lever to get banana reward very persistently at a low rate of responding b/c persistence and not fast responding pays off
  • Explains why behaviour happens in one situation and not another

The Measurement of Motivation

  • Instead of measuring motivation directly, we manipulate a stimulus (S) condition and measure a behaviour in form of response (R)
  • Intervening variable: links stimulus and response (helps us to relate them) o e. links deprivation (S) to behaviour change (increase speed of running) of rate (R)

o One reason why motivation is difficult to study: we can only infer the existence of motivation by observing changes in relationships

  • Motivation is a performance variable: temporary nature of motivation
  • If motivation is too low = absent behaviour and vice versa

Characteristics of Motivation

Activation

–    Activating properties of motivation

  1. Production of behaviour some minimal amount of motivation is assumed to be present and vice versa (most easily seen here)

–           Motivation is behaviorally activating, but behaviour does not have to be overt o i.e. if animal freezes (no overt behaviour) when seeing predator, there is still motivation i.e. behavioural indexes (hear rate, adrenaline, etc.)

  1. Persistence
  • e. humans persistence in behaving certain way even if chances of success are low
  • How persistent behaviour is depends partly on available alternative behaviours o e. when monkey is put in chamber for hrs., lever pressing will probably be learned if no other options are available and it will persist vs. if other

options are available i.e. peeking out window, they may opt for this and lever pressing will be less consistent

o In multiple-response situations, continued persistence is likely to reflect motivational strength

  1. Vigor

–           Does not always mean high motivation (as w/other characteristics) o i.e. in experiment where rats had to press a level w/certain amount of force to get food, motivation is partly due to learning vs. just vigor

  1. Direction
  • Direction that certain behaviour takes i.e. going to fridge when hungry
  • Preference test: test done to determine which is more motivating object o Can be best way to determine which of multiple alternatives is most motivating b/c motivational indexes like persistence and vigor may not show any differences

The Study of Motivation: Categories of Analysis

Nomothetic vs. Idiographic

  1. Nomothetic approach (dominating approach)
  • Development of general or universal laws across wide range of situations
  • Usually studies groups of humans or animals and finds how they are similar o e. identifying brain structures such as hypothalamus b/c hypothalamus is involved in motivation of rats and humans
  1. Idiographic approach
  • Understands behaviour by looking at how people differ from each other
  • Seen in humanist and actualization theorists

Internal vs. External

  1. Internal

–     Needs: internal sources of motivation that activate and direct behaviour to items in environment that alleviate a state of deprivation o Usually physiological needs i.e. food, but can be social

  1. External

–           Goals: external sources of motivation of goal objects or social relationships o i.e. helping behaviour depends on present people; presence of others = inhibited helping responses

Mechanistic vs. Cognitive

  1. Mechanistic: view that says processes that control motivation are blind and mechanical, triggered automatically by changes in internal or external states
  2. Cognitive: view that’s says processes that control motivation are controlled by rational, purposeful thoughts

Levels of Analysis (know all)

Physiological Analysis

–     Concerned w/brain’s control of motivated states; motivation studied by:

  1. Electrodes (wires) were introduced in many parts of rat’s brain to electrically simulate parts of brain o If rat pressed lever, current would be applied to electrode; electrical simulation was seen as powerful reward, thus, rats pressed lever many times

o Shows that brain circuits may be active when reward occurs

  1. Chemically stimulating brain after inserting canula (tiny tube) into certain brain region, injecting solution and noting how motivation changes as a result
  2. Make lesion in brain: surgically removing some portions of it and observing how (or if) motivation is altered
  3. Record brain’s natural activity during many motivated states:
    1. Electroencephalograph (EEG): neurons (group of brain cells) and single neurons are recorded using depth electrodes
    2. Positron-emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): study brain too
  • Measures should get consistent results, but do not always

Individual Analysis

  • In animal research: deprivation (48 hrs.) is used to alter motivational state of organism
  • In human research: induce motivational state through specific instructions i.e. achievement studies: tell participants they failed task or complete questionnaire to indicate their own motives o Research is usually done w/group of individuals and nomothetic approach is taken in context of behaviour

o i.e. Bandura experiment showed some motivated behaviours are learned through observation, such as aggression

Social Analysis

  • Our behaviour is influenced by situational factors (i.e. if we are at party or in classroom) and by presence of others o e. studies show participants are motivated to conform to group decision even if its wrong

Philosophical Analysis

  • Motivation is aversive state: that behaviour seeks to overcome (motivation is [-]) o e. Freud said motivational states create tension, which individuals try to reduce
  • Self-actualization by Maslow: motivation is a positive state pushing individual to be all he/she can become; humanist approach
  • Both are examples of philosophical analysis b/c: 1) dependent on theorists philosophy: humans are evil vs. humans are good and 2) hard to test experimentally

Major Constructs in Motivation

Energy

  • Energy: drives behaviour; proposed to be:

o General: one source of energy exists for all behaviour; or o Specific: each behaviour has its own energy source i.e. water-directed behaviour would occur during thirst

Physiological mechanisms

  • Biological approach: motivational mechanisms are genetically programmed or “wired in” organism; 2 approaches:
  1. Instinct approach o Proposes energy accumulates within organism and leads to motivated state, then, preprogrammed behaviours occur to reduce motivation
    • Triggering of “wired-in” or innate behaviours is usually attributed to specific stimuli in environment that have effect of releasing behaviour
    • Evolutionary psychology: examined motivated behaviours of humans as adaptations to environmental conditions that existed long ago and can lead to specific behaviours, changes in physiological states or even cognitions
  2. Circuits in brain monitor state of body and activate behaviours when changes are detected
    • Activation of brain circuits = motivation of responses; can be innate or learned
    • e. specialized detectors measure changes in blood glucose and trigger hunger motivation when glucose levels dropped

Learning

  • Stresses role of incentives in controlling goal-directed behaviour
  • Examines ways where classical and operant conditioning may be involved in development of motive states
  • Modeling behaviour: motives learned through observation; may be basis for much of human motivation behaviour

Social Interaction

  • There is power of group in motivating us to conform and power of authority figures in motivating us to obey
  • Presence of others reduces likelihood person will provide help in emergency situation
  • Thus, presence of others alters our motivation

Cognitive Processes

  • Kind of info we take in and ways in which info is processed influence our behaviour
  • Active info processing: emphasized by Heider’s balance theory, Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory and Bem’s self-perception theory
  • Attribution theory: also emphasized role of cognition in interpretation of others’ behaviours and indicates our behaviour will be based on these interpretation

The Activation of Motivation

  • Peripheral/local receptors: monitor physical states
  • Central receptors in brain: monitor conditions such as blood glucose, which trigger corresponding motivational states; against peripheral theory

Homeostasis

  • Idea that optimal level exists for various states of body; most commonly accepted purpose for motivation
  • When body deviates from optimal level, motivational circuits are triggered by receptors monitoring these states and behaviours that will bring body back to optimal level are begun

Hedonism

  • Assumes we are motivated by pleasure and pain
  • Learn to approach pleasurable situations and avoid non-pleasurable ones
  • Proposes pleasure and pain exists along continuum where what is pleasurable or non-pleasurable will change as conditions change o e. offer of more dinner right after finishing big meal is not pleasurable
  • Does not explain motivations that result in self-destructive behaviours

Growth Motivation

  • Idea that humans are motivated to reach full potential physically, psychologically and emotionally
  • Self-actualization by Maslow: describes motivation to strive for personal fulfillment
  • Effectance motivation/personal causation: need to control or have effect on environment; aspect of growth motivation

Philosophical and Physiological Roots of Motivational Theory

Philosophical Antecedents

–     Aristotle proposed 2 important ideas:

  1. Free will aka determinism: all behaviour is result of antecedent variables: conditions that precede behaviour
  2. Blank state: led to proposal that behaviours are learned

–     Nature-nurture controversy: acquisition of behaviour through experience vs.

heredity (nature) o Aristotle’s theory suggests nurture (experience) o Today it is believed behaviour is combo of both

  • Descartes
    • Dualism: human behaviour is partly result of free, rational soul (will) and partly result of automatic, non-rational processes (instinct)
    • Animals have no soul, thus are automatons: mechanical beings
    • This mechanistic approach and proposal of innate ideas became basis for instinct psychology
  • Locke
    • Representative of British approach
    • Proposed ideas come from nurture (experience); 2 sources of ideas for this:
  1. Conversion of sensation into perception: conversion of sensation of light

(nanometers) to perception of colour (i.e. green)

  1. Reflection: happens when mind gets knowledge of its own operations
  • Ideas can be simple or complex b/c simple idea: elementary unit of thought vs. complex idea: can be reduced to simple ideas; association of simple ideas to one another o Association: very fundamental axiom in psychology
  • Functional autonomy: many motives are learned through association; “higher”

(complex) motives learned through association of more basic ones

Physiological Antecedents

  • Sensory and Motor Nerves
    • Sensory fibers of mixed nerve (has sensory and motor fibers) enter spinal cord on posterior side and motor fibers exit cord on anterior side
  • Specific Nerve Energies
    • Doctrine of specific nerve energies: realization that diff fibers must carry diff kinds of info; important b/c showed that nervous system is active, interpreting mechanism
  • Electrical Nature of the Nerve Impulse
    • Energy passing along nerve is electrical
    • It is possible to study function of nervous system through experimental procedures
  • Localization of Function
    • Phrenology: particular mental abilities are located in specific regions of brain; excess of ability = enlargement of that specific part of brain- discredited, but lead to:

o Localization of function within various areas of brain

  • Motivational theory has been strengthened by discovery that activity within hypothalamus is related to changes in many motivational states

The Flow of Ideas about Motivation

  • 1800s: distinguishing between behaviour of animals and humans used Descartes’s dualistic distinction: animal motivated to behave based on having instinctive motives but no rational vs. humans motivated to behave based on having rational and instinctive motives
  • 1890s: human behaviour regarded as instinctive, downplaying free will part of dualistic nature; thus, strong behaviourist position w/idea that behaviour was largely reaction to environment and response (S-R) o 1920s: drive theory came out of behaviourism: idea that motivated behaviour was in response to changing bodily needs acted upon by finding items in environment that would reduce drive
  • Hull proposed quasi-mathematical theory indicating components for activation of behaviour and how components interact to produce behaviour
  • 1960s: researchers argued behaviour based on active processing of info vs. S-R
  • Proposed that human motivation can be understood as relation 2 basic metaphors: (1) machine metaphor: motivation is involuntary and reflex like and

(2) Godlike metaphor: humans were created by God in image of God

Evolution and Motivation

  • Reproduction and genetic info: fundamental processes of life that behaviours can be traced back to
  • Motivation for specific behaviours (i.e. mating rituals) can be traced to fundamental processes of life

Life

  • Activity of organisms encompasses:
  1. Reproduction: living organisms replicate themselves to maintain genetic info
  2. Metabolism: conversion of energy for survival o More passing on of genetic info = more likely info will exist in future; thus biological imperative= evolves: all organisms are motivated to replicate themselves

o Organisms that do not replicate themselves make intellectual decision (vs. biological decision) Mitosis and Meiosis

–    Reproduction occurs through

  1. Mitosis
    • Single cell divides into 2 identical daughter cells
    • Asexual: same genetic info in each new cell i.e. bacteria do this
  2. Meiosis o 2 specialized cells (each w/half # chromosomes of normal cell) are produced by F and M and combine to form new cell w/genetic info from both cells
    • gametes: sex cells: ova and sperm: each have 23 chromosomes; at conception, ovum and sperm come together to form zygote w/46 chromosomes
    • Sexual reproduction: new cell multiplies to produce living organism genetically diff from parents but carries genes from both

–     Motivation serves reproduction of genetic info of individual b/c primary motives (i.e. hunger) and human motives (i.e. achievement) and serve to enhance life to increase chances of reproduction

Sex

  • Sexual motivation is a mechanism by which an organism would actively seek out a partner
  • Organisms w/strongest sexual motivation = more successful in finding suitable partners and successfully mating become the norm

The Advantages of Sexual Reproduction

  • Sexual reproduction exists and is retained b/c it provides competitive advantage that life requires
  • Sexual reproduction is advantageous b/c: (1) makes recombination of genes that provides greater diversity of genes for survival in uncertain and changing environment and (2) allows repair of genetic info within gene pool o B/c of (1), sexually reproducing species should evolve faster in changing environmental conditions = competitive advantage

o People w/recessive genes may be covered by dominant gene and survive; but if recessive gene is lethal, person would die early and feature of this gene and its occurrence in population’s gene pool would be limited

The Pleasures of Sex

  • Pleasure of sexual behaviour provides chance for sexual reproduction to be successful b/c if processes were painful, fewer people would engage in this behaviour

Interim Summary

  • Most fundamental motive for all living organisms: reproduction
  • Other motives keep individual alive long enough to reproduce successfully (i.e. of additional motive: self-actualization)
  • Reproduction is primary operating principle carried on by living organisms – If all motivation is assumed to be aimed at successful reproduction of one’s genetic info, then problem of understanding motivation is how motivation (always present) is focused at diff times (not when we are and when we are not motivated)

Higher Motives?

  • Maslow’s self-actualization system: higher motives become force later in life after prime reproductive period has passed

Evolution

  • Progressive change of organisms across time
  • People w/inherited genes that give them advantage in environment = better chances of living long enough to reproduce and vice versa
  • Natural selection has influence on 3 characteristics of genes
  1. Viability o Whether gene that expresses certain behaviour will increase chance person will live long enough to reproduce
    • Genes that increase viability stay in gene pool
    • Distress calls: loud sound baby chicks make when separated from mom so mom can find chick; exists today b/c increases viability of chicks who used the call
  2. Fertility o Mating success

o Mating rituals: made by species to determine who will be selected for mating

i.e. dance to attract mating partner

  1. Fecundity o # of offspring produced
    • Gene that increases fecundity is retained and vice versa (if gene decreases fecundity it will eventually be removed from gene pool)
    • Fecundity increases # of offspring, but they may not all live to reproduce o Humans produce fewer offspring but have higher chances to live to reproduce (so fecundity is not only strategy for passing on genetic info)

Sexual Selection

  • Natural selection that occurs when there is competition for mates
  • Usually selection pressure made on genes of male species o Usually affects fertility as any physical or behavioural advantage (i.e.

bright colouration) in males = greater mating success

Male versus Female Sexual Strategies

  • Why sexual selection is pressure usually made on genes of M:
  1. Females have limited # of “gene packets” available to be passed on
  2. Offspring must be maintained before capable of maintaining themselves
  • Thus, above concerns make mate choice more important for F than M

Mate Selection in Humans

  • Parental investment model: women are attracted to men who have resources to support them and children they produce b/c women have larger investment in their offspring than do men
  • Display their resources: men have to be motivated to do this in order to be a competitive mate
  • Reproductive value: competition should revolve around youthfulness and health indicated by physical appearance and attractiveness of woman according to evolutionary theories
  • Some types of behaviours are genetically determined i.e. positive phototaxis moth’s attraction to light or result of experience
  • Study of genetically motivated behaviour is often discussed under topic of instinct: genetically programmed behaviour that happens when circumstances are appropriate and require no learning of behaviour

Instincts, Emotion, Thoughts and Behaviour

  • 3 important components in behaviour

The Authors’ Bias

  • Motivation is multiply determined: no one theory can explain all motivational states
  • Motivation appears to be overdetermined
  • What we know now can quickly change b/c of constant new info