April 30

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April 30
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Levels of Analysis

• Between disciplines
• Physical (as in Physics)
• Chemical (as in Chemistry)
• Biological
• Psychological
• Sociological/Political/Economic
• Art, Language, Literature, Philosophy
• Within Disciplines
• e.g., in Biology
• Gene, cell, individual organism, species,
  ecosystem

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Levels of Analysis, Points of Viewin Psychology

• Physiological
• Cellular (action potential)
• CNS, PNS
• Cognitive
• Sensation and Perception
• Learning and Memory
• Developmental
• Social and Personality

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Levels of Analysis, Points of Viewin Psychology

• Another way to distinguish approaches to
  understanding psychology
• Cognition
• Emotion
• Motivation
• Behavior

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Motivation
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What is Motivation?

• Motivation
• An inner state that energizes and directs
  behavior toward the fulfillment of a goal
• These states (a) are dynamic, not static
• (b) derive from deprivation and
• deviation

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Approaches to Motivation

• Biological, physical requirements for existence,
  tissue deficits
• Hunger, thirst
• Evolutionary
• Survival, reproduction
• Social motives
• Belongingness
• Esteem
• Hierarchical (Maslows hierarchy of needs)

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Approaches to Motivation

• Instinct Theory (William McDougall, 1908)
• A fixed action pattern that is unlearned,
  universal in a species, and released by
  specific stimuli
• Imprinting
• Problem of circularity

Instinct for Starbucks
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Approaches to Motivation

• Instinct Theory (William McDougall, 1908)
• A fixed action pattern that is unlearned,
  universal in a species, and released by
  specific stimuli
• Problem of circularity
• Drive Theory (Clark Hull, 1943)
• Physiological needs arouse tension that motivates
  people to satisfy the need
• Deprivation and deviation

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Approaches to Motivation

• Arousal Theory (Fiske Maddi, 1961)
• People are motivated to achieve and maintain an
  optimum level of bodily arousal
• Homeostasis (deprivation and deviation)
• Incentive Theory (e.g., Atkinson, 1964)
• People are motivated to behave in ways that
  produce a valued outcome
• Expectancy X Value theories
• More cognitive than other approaches
• Pull vs. Push

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Clark Hulls (1943) Drive Theory

• Basic Concepts
• Drive a generalized state of activation, the sum
  of all sources of arousal (motivation)
• Drive is typically increased through deprivation
• Hunger drive could be increased by withholding
  food (hours of deprivation, lowering of
  free-feeding body weight)
• Thirst drive might be increased by withholding
  water (hours of deprivation) or increasing thirst
  (salty food) or water loss (perspiration)

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Clark Hulls (1943) Drive Theory

• Basic Concepts
• Drive a generalized state of activation, the sum
  of all sources of arousal (motivation)

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Clark Hulls (1943) Drive Theory

• Basic Concepts
• Drive a generalized state of activation, the sum
  of all sources of arousal
• Habit Strength how often a response has been
  reinforced in the past in a given situation
• classical conditioning
• association
• instrumental conditioning
• contingency

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Clark Hulls (1943) Drive Theory

• Basic Concepts
• Drive a generalized state of activation, the sum
  of all sources of arousal
• Habit Strength how often a response has been
  reinforced in the past in a given situation
• Excitatory Potential in a given situation, the
  likelihood that a response will in fact occur

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Clark Hulls (1943) Drive Theory

• Excitatory Potential Drive x Habit Strength
• (sEr D x sHr)
• Implications of the multiplicative relationship D
  x H
• If D 0, the response wont occur
• If H 0, the response wont occur

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Clark Hulls (1943) Drive Theory

• In a given situation, possible responses vary in
  habit strength, creating a habit hierarchy
• As drive increases, responses highest in the
  habit hierarchy (dominant responses) become more
  and more likely to occur, at the expense of
  non-dominant responses
• Increases in drive facilitate
• Dominant Responses

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How Do Novel Responses Ever Occur?

• How does behavior vary, and where do new
  behaviors come from?
• Creativity
• Curiosity
• Exploration
• In Hulls Drive Theory, each value varies around
  a central tendency, creating momentary changes in
  Excitatory Potential

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Variability and Overlapping Distributions

• Group averages
• Variability

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Habit HierarchiesD X H

• If Drive 1, var 1
• H1 4.0 E 4.0
• H2 3.5 E 3.5
• H3 3.1 E 3.1
• H4 3.0 E 3.0
• H5 2.0 E 2.0
• H6 1.0 E 1.0

• If Drive 10, var 1
• H1 4.0 E 40
• H2 3.5 E 38
• H3 3.1 E 34
• H4 3.0 E 30
• H5 2.0 E 20
• H6 1.0 E 10