In weeks three and four our lectures focused on the physiological and psychological elements of motivation and emotion. Having studied psychology for a fair amount of time and from having done research for past assignments I am aware that there are a number of people who stray away from the physiological side of psychology. While I agree that’s quiet cold and clinical to label define/describe an emotion or feeling as a biological reaction, I cannot at the same time, dispute the relevance of the effects that physiology has on the human psyche. In having said that, I find no use in pursing either psychological or physiological explanations alone, any real understanding is going to have to come from a combined consideration of both elements.
To put it simplistically, we have three major needs.
1. Physiological Needs, thirst, Hunger and Sex
2. Psychological Needs, autonomy, Competence and Relatedness.
3. Social Needs, achievement, Affiliation, Intimacy and Power.
In week three the focus of our studies was on physiological needs. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs it is shown clearly that Physiological needs come first, that is, we first seek to satisfy our basic physiological needs (water, food and breathing) in order to maintain life before we begin to pursue our psychological need (such as self-esteem or social affiliation).
For those unfamiliar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs the following picture explains the stages from basic physiological functioning up to the ideal achievement of self-actualisation.
Additionally, drives also play a part in satisfying our physiological needs. In order to refresh, most drive arises from a physiological need (i.e. thirst) creating a psychological drive in order to return the physiological state back to homeostasis. Here we were taught that there also exists what is known as a Negative Feedback Mechanism. Essentially, this is what sends the message to our body which says ‘Ok, the cells in my body are sufficiently hydrated now, stop drinking.’ Without such a mechanism, we would simply continue to drink, which would create a dangerous physiological state in our bodies. The body has a number of physiological mechanisms with which it regulates thirst. The readings from Reeve (Reeve 2009, pp. 83-8), state that a number of areas throughout the entire digestive tract, the kidneys and the liver send messages back and forth to the hypothalamus in order to regulate thirst and balance water homeostasis in the body. Additionally, a hormone from the kidneys, known as Antidiuretic hormone (ADH/Vasopressin) also works to vary the amount of water in the body. It would be worth remembering that the environment will influence thirst too! On a hot day your obviously going to sweat… losing water from your body, which in turn is going to make you thirsty in order to replenish that lost water. I would imagine having 300ml of fluid drained from an inflamed knee would also disrupt the bodies water balance… or maybe not, anyone care to shed some light on that? The later also partly being the reason why these journals were late, but then again, I don’t type with my legs so I’ll get on with it!
Drive stimulation can also come from Multiple Inputs and have Multiple Outputs. That is, sitting in your room studying you may begin to feel cold from a number of different inputs. These could be, the fact that its winter, the air-con is too low or that a window has been left open. How this drive is reduced could be dealt with in a few different ways. For example, in winter you may choose to put a jumper on or, if the choice is available to you, to simply turn the heating on. Clearly there is not only one goal directed behaviour for any one single given drive
Hunger is another drive which we covered during the third lecture and readings. The drive for hunger is quite similar to thirst, albeit different in some obvious ways. In the short term, hunger can be regulated by the level of sugar in the blood. The cells in our body require glucose in order to function and hence, they will consume glucose as energy! So, when the bloody sugar drops the liver sends a message to the ‘Lateral Hypothalamus’ (LH) which in turn creates the feeling of hunger. Hunger is also felt due to the release of a hormone called Ghrelin, which stimulates hunger. In this case the negative feed-back mechanism (or loop) is the release of a hormone from adipose (fat) cells called leptin. This is known as the ‘Lipostatic Hypothesis’. We also saw that hunger is quite a tightly regulated physiological process! It appears that the body sets its own optimum weight, known as the ‘set point theory’ (Reeve, 2009), and that the active process of trying to override a physiological process, with a psychological is not as easy, nor as effective. In some cases it ends up doing exactly the opposite of what it was intended to do! As mentioned previously, when one thinks I will only eat a small amount of food for breakfast, rather than I will eat when hungry (cognitive VS physiological) what commonly end up occurring is a ‘Restraint Release’ reaction. After days of dieting, a small slip toward ones physiological need leads to an all out binge!
Moreover, hunger is not as simple a drive as thirst, as water is a clear liquid and for the most part tasteless. It could be expected that one wouldn’t normally feel pleasure from drinking water. However the environment exerts a strong effect on hunger. People eat more when their cold, when there are novel foods at a party and will generally eat more in social situations, such as family or celebratory dinners (Reeve, 2009). It does appear that one can prevent unhealthy weight gain by self-regulating their food intake, being motivate to exercise and to be aware of how the environment around them may influence their hunger.
Why do people fail at self-regulation? We learnt that there are three primary reasons for this.
1. Underestimating Biology, people commonly underestimate how strong a motivational force biological urges are when they’re not currently experiencing them. Easy to say you won’t eat that pizza when your not hungry at this particular moment….
2. Standards, people can lack standards or their standards can often conflict, be unrealistic or inappropriate. Oh no!! I’m 55kg girls my age should be 40kg! I have to lose weight! On a personal note, I was once told I was severely underweight by a friend’s mother, men my age (28) and height (5’9”) should be at least 100kg… not 80.
3. Failure to monitor, becoming distracted, preoccupation, overwhelmed or intoxicated. Alcohol intoxication can lead to doing thing one normally wouldn’t do. Dieting can also become overwhelming leading to restrain-release binging.
Last but not least of the physiological drives is sex. An individual’s sexual drive rises and falls due to a number of factors. These include, hormonal, external/environmental stimulation, cognitive scripts and cognitive schemas. It would be imperative to mention that these factors may influence but they do not determine ones sexual behaviour.
Hormonally, androgens (testosterone) and estrogens have the greatest influence on sexual behaviour. Typically, androgens will exert a stronger influence on males, while estrogens will exert a stronger influence on females. However, it has been found that declining levels of androgens in both males and females is responsible for a decline in sexual motivation (Reeve, 2009).
There also exists an evolutionary perspective on sexual motivation. Hypothesising that males have shorter term sexual motivations, value youthfulness and chastity in mates, whereas females were more motivated toward long term investments, such as financial resources, status and ambition in their mates (Reeve, 2009). While the text book for this unit states these are sexist perspectives (which I feel they are) it also states empathically that these are the research findings… Personally, I can see these trends in some people; however, at this point in my life (and studies) I cannot accept this as the consensus. Discussion, anyone?
References
Reeve, J. (2009). Understanding motivation and emotion. USA: Wiley.
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