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Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Motivation and Emotion

Chapter Review

MOTIVATIONAL STATES

  • When explaining why people and other animals do what they do, early theorists emphasized genetically endowed instincts. Other theorists have emphasized homeostatic mechanisms that monitor the organism’s internal environment and work to maintain stability in that environment. Deviations from homeostasis create an internal state of biological and psychological tension called a drive.

THERMOREGULATION

  • Homeostatic control is evident in many settings, including thermoregulation. When an endothermic organism is cold, thermoregulation activates the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, which leads to increased heart rate, vasodilation, a slowing down of digestion, and other effects. When the organism is overheated, thermoregulation triggers the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, which has the opposite effects.

HUNGER, EATING, AND OBESITY

  • Homeostatic mechanisms also play a crucial role in the control of eating. Each person seems to have a biologically determined set point for his or her weight, and several mechanisms work to maintain that set point. Some of these mechanisms are in the liver; others depend on glucoreceptors in the hypothalamus; still others rely on signals from the adipose cells. When full of fat, these cells release leptin, a chemical that causes the organism to stop eating.
  • This multiplicity of signals provides safety for the organism, because each signal provides a “backup” system in case the other signals fail. In addition, the various signals play different roles, with some monitoring long-term needs, some providing an index of immediate status, and some serving to potentiate other signals. Social signals also play an important role in governing eating.
  • Some cases of obesity are produced by genetically rooted differences in a person’s set point; other cases involve changes in metabolic efficiency. Obesity in some people may represent the operation of “thrifty genes” that code for slower metabolism. These genes were helpful in ancient times when food was scarce, but the same genes now promote unhealthy weights, thanks to the fact that we live in a world in which food is usually always available.

THREAT AND AGGRESSION

  • Our response to threat is controlled by biological mechanisms centered on the operations of the autonomic nervous system. When we are threatened, the sympathetic branch activates the body by (among other steps) increasing the available metabolic fuel and accelerating the fuel’s utilization by increasing heart rate and respiration. This emergency reaction was once understood as preparing us for “fight or flight,” but actually it gets us ready for a number of different responses.
  • Virtually every species shows some sort of aggression, and in most species, physical aggression is more prevalent in males, perhaps because of the influence of the hormone testosterone. Human aggression is commonly triggered by complex beliefs and symbol systems, and, in this regard, it seems different from aggression in other species. Humans vary in how aggressive they are, with some of the variation due to an individual’s personality, and some due to the social and cultural setting.

SEXUAL BEHAVIOR

  • Like all motivated behavior, sexual behavior is shaped by a mix of biological factors and cultural influences. The timing of sexual behavior, for example, is heavily influenced in most species by the estrus cycle, but the influence of this cycle is much less for humans than for other animals.
  • The human sexual response cycle has four phases: excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution.
  • A wide range of factors influence sexual behavior, and there appear to be widespread differences between the genders in the factors that govern mate preference. Men typically place greater emphasis on youth and physical attractiveness, whereas women place greater emphasis on social and financial status.
  • Sexual preferences are rooted in childhood. One important determinant of sexual preference is genetic makeup. While it is clear that other factors shape sexual preferences, it is not clear what these nongenetic factors are or how they operate.

MOTIVES BEYOND DRIVES

  • Whereas drives motivate us to reduce unpleasant tension states, other motives lead us to achieve positive goals.
  • One nondrive motive is the motive to belong.Benefits of social support include tangible and emotional support. Another important nondrive motive is the motive to achieve.

THE DIVERSITY OF MOTIVES

  • According to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, people strive for higher-order needs only when lower-order needs are satisfied.
  • Many different types of aversive stimulation activate a common brain network called the pain matrix. Positive goals that we seek to obtain are called incentives. Two important incentive states are wanting and liking.

EMOTION AND EMOTION REGULATION

  • Emotions involve changes in our behavior, including our facial behavior. The expression of emotion in the face may be universal (i.e., the same across cultures), although cultures certainly differ in their display rules.
  • Emotions also involve changes in how we feel, and theorists have offered various schemes for classifying these feelings. People in different cultures certainly describe emotions in different ways. Whether people in difficult cultures all feel the same emotions, however, remains a matter for debate.
  • Our bodily state changes when we are emotional. According to the James-Lange theory, emotions arise from our bodily reactions. The Cannon-Bard theory proposes that both emotion and the bodily reaction are caused by brain activity triggered by a suitable stimulus. According to the Schachter-Singer theory, emotion arises from the way we interpret our bodily reactions. Current evidence suggests there may be fewer distinctions than we might expect among emotions in the bodily changes produced. There are, however, changes in the brain that distinguish the various emotions, and this is a topic scrutinized by affective neuroscience.
  • Emotions serve many purposes. For example, joy can help us recover from stress and can broaden our attentional focus. Negative emotions, in contrast, seem to focus attention. Emotion also promotes memory, perhaps because the bodily arousal promotes memory consolidation. Emotions also serve a social function, helping to convey our feelings to other people.
  • It is often important to regulate our emotions—either by means of cognitive reappraisal or by means of suppression. Both decrease the emotional expression, but reappraisal seems to dampen emotion without exacting a cognitive or physiological cost. The ability to regulate emotions develops over the course of childhood.
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