Motivation

and emotion

Dr. Irene Karayianni

Approaches

Instinct

Drive-reduction

Arousal

Incentive

Cognitive

Needs hierarchy

Instinct approaches: born to be motivated

Drive-reduction approaches: satisfy needs

a lack of some basic biological need such as lack of water produces a

drive to push us to satisfy that need (in this case, seek water).

Drive: a motivational tension, or arousal, that energizes behavior to

fulfill a need

• Primary - related to biological needs. Homeostasis, the body’s

tendency to maintain a steady internal state, underlies primary

drives

• Secondary - behavior fulfills no obvious biological need

cannot fully explain a behavior in which the goal is not to reduce a drive but rather

to maintain or even increase the level of excitement or arousal

Arousal approaches

Incentive approaches

BUT: sometimes we seek to fulfill needs even when incentives are not apparent

Complementary to drives approach

Cognitive approaches: thoughts are behind motivation

Intrinsic motivation Extrinsic motivation

Mashlow’s hierarchy: ordering motivational needs

To sum up…

Human needs and motivation: eating, drinking

The motivation behind hunger and eating

Source: World Health Organization

(BMI) – the weight in kgs divided by the square of the height in meters (kg/m2) – is a commonly used index to classify overweight and obesity in adults. WHO defines overweight as a BMI equal to or more than 25, and obesity as a BMI equal to or more than 30

Source: World Health Organization

Definition of obesity in different cultures and through time

Biological factors in hunger regulation

• Other species are unlikely to become obese

• Complex biological mechanisms tell organisms whether they require

food or should stop eating - changes in the chemical composition of the

blood

– Low Glucose levels hungry

– High insulin levels fat accumulation

– Ghrelin hungry

• Hypothalamus monitors glucose levels

– Weight set point - the particular level of weight that the body

strives to maintain

• Genetics - metabolism

Social factors in eating

USA France

The roots of obesity

• oversensitivity to external eating cues based

on social factors, coupled with insensitivity

to internal hunger cues

• overweight people have higher weight set

points (higher leptin levels)

• Fat cells - weight-set-point hypothesis

• nature of the environment

Eating disorders

Anorexia nervosa Bulimia

Binge eating

Need for achievement

Measuring achievement motivation

Need for affiliation

Need for power