Motivation, Emotion, and Stress Nicole Harris
● Drive theory states that our bodies generate a drive for the basic needs of living like food, water and shelter, and require satisfaction to return to a level of homeostasis, or a preferred, steady state of being.
○ Primary drives are defined by biology (hunger, thirst).
○ Secondary drives are learned (money, car)
● YerkesDodson law contends that easy tasks are best performed at a high level of arousal while that same arousal distracts from a difficult problem
● Opponentprocess theory is an extension of arousal theory and is often used to explain addiction. It s uggests that emotional reactions to a stimulus are followed by opposite emotional reactions.
○ It postulates that repeated exposure to the stimulus will cause less of an initial reaction and a stronger opposing reaction.
i.
This may explain why drugs give diminishing returns after prolonged use yet the effects of withdraw become more intensified and unpleasant.
● Carl Rogers and
Abraham Maslow claimed people simply strive to be the best they can be. Viewing oneself within the environment and social sphere leads to goalsetting. ○ Selfactualization at the top of Maslow's hierarchy are selfactualization needs where people have reached their full potential and have become all that they can be. According to Maslow, few people in history are said to have selfactualized.
● People seek to reach their potential, specifically in relation to others. Autonomy
(independence) and competence (being able to take care of oneself) are the end goals. They simply want to achieve success
○ Intrinsic motivators: motivation that comes from within .
○ Extrinsic motivators: motivation that comes from outside of a person.
● Hans Selye was a Hungarian doctor who was the first person to identify stress as a medical issue and its effects on people. Known as the "father of stress
research" he first developed his theory after observing how all subjects responded in the same way no matter what the stimuli or stressor was.
○ He concluded that the patients were manifesting a physical response to negative emotions they were experiencing due to the stressor.
○ General Adaptation Syndrome i s a term used to describe the body's shortterm and longterm reactions to stress.
i.
Alarm
Upon perceiving a stressor, the body reacts with a
“fightorflight” response and the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated as the body’s resources are mobilized to meet the threat or danger.
ii.
Resistance
The body resists and compensates as the
