PART I: Motivation, Emotion, and Stress
UNIT 7: Motivation, Emotion, and Personality
Learning Targets
55-1 Describe the evidence that points to our human affiliation need—our need to belong.
55-2 Discuss how social networking influences us.
55-3 Discuss achievement motivation.
What do you think?
“Without friends, no one would choose to live,
though he had all other goods.”
Aristotle in his Nichomachean Ethics
Talk with your partner about whether you agree or disagree with Aristotle’s statement.
What is an affiliation need?
the need to build
relationships and to feel part of a group
the need to belong
What evidence supports affiliation as a survival tool?
Social bonds boosted our early ancestors’
chances of survival (evolutionary perspective).
Adults who formed attachments were more likely to survive, to reproduce, and to co-nurture their offspring to maturity.
Attachment bonds motivated caregivers to keep children close, calming them and
protecting them from threats.
(Esposito et al., 2013)
Can belonging boost health?
Having a social identity—feeling part of a group—
boosts people’s health and well-being.
(Allen et al., 2015; Greenaway et al., 2015, 2016)
What does the research show?
Having someone who rejoices with us over good news helps us feel better about both the news and the friendship. (Reis et al., 2010)
A stranger’s casual
thank-you can warm our heart.
(Williams & Bartlett, 2015)
Close friends can literally make us feel warm, as if we are holding a soothing bowl of warm soup.
(Inagaki & Eisenberger, 2013).
Discuss with a partner.
What was your most satisfying moment in the past week?
Here is what researchers found…
Researchers asked
the same question of American and South Korean university students, then asked them to rate
how much that satisfying moment had satisfied various needs.
(Sheldon et al., 2001)
In both countries, the peak moment had satisfied self-esteem and relatedness-belonging needs.
How do we create ‘us’?
and fanatic nationalism).
the need to connect…
Six days a week, women from the Philippines work
as domestic helpers in thousands of Hong Kong households.
On Sundays, they throng to the central business district to picnic, dance, sing, talk,
and laugh.
What does the research on isolation show?
Social isolation can put us at risk for mental decline and ill health. (Cacioppo et al., 2015)
Older adults make more doctor visits, if lonely, and are at greater risk for dementia.
(Gerst-Emerson & Jayawardhana, 2015; Holwerda et al., 2014)
Bereaved, we may feel life is empty
or pointless, and we may overeat to fill that emptiness. (Yang et al., 2016)
the pain of ostracism…
Ostracism, deliberate social
exclusion of individuals or groups
was demonstrated when White cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point ostracized Henry Flipper for years, hoping he would drop out.
He persevered in spite of their cruelty and in 1877 became the first African-American West Point graduate.
Consider this study.
After giving subjects a “personality” test, researchers
told some students that they were “the type likely to end up alone later in life,” or that people they had met didn’t want them in a group that was forming.
(Gaertner et al., 2008; Twenge et al., 2001)
They told other students that they would have “rewarding relationships throughout life,” or that “everyone chose you as someone they’d like to work with.”
What were the results?
Those who were excluded became much more likely to engage in self-defeating behaviors and to act in disparaging or aggressive ways against
those who had excluded them
(blasting them with noise, for example).
Talk about it with a partner.
Have there been times when you felt out of the loop with family and friends, or even ostracized by them?
How did you respond?
How many times in one day do you check your cell phone for texts or messages?
0-5
6-15
16 and over
56 times a day!
One research team’s phone app counted college students checking their cell phone 56 times a day. (Elias et al., 2016)
How have we changed how we connect?
Among 2014’s entering American college students, 94 percent were using social networking sites.
(Eagan et al., 2014)
The typical U.S. teen with a cell phone sends
30 texts a day.
(Lenhart, 2015)
Worldwide in 2015, 68 percent of adults used the Internet. (Poushter, 2016)
How does social networking �influence us?
By connecting like-minded people, the Internet serves as a social amplifier.
In times of social crisis or personal stress, it provides information and supportive connections.
It enables people to share their experiences and compare their lives with others, though it can be depressing when one garners few likes or has lots of bragging friends.
(Blease, 2015; Verduyn et al., 2015)
How has being online changed us?
Nature has designed us for face-to-face relationships, and those who spend hours online are less likely to know and draw help from their real-world neighbors.
Does electronic communication stimulate healthy self-disclosure?
When communicating electronically rather than face-to-face, we often are less focused on others’ reactions.
We are less self-conscious and thus less inhibited.
Sometimes this is taken to an extreme, as when bullies hound a victim, hate groups post messages promoting bigotry or crimes, or teens send photos of themselves they later regret.
More often, however, the increased self-disclosure serves to deepen friendships.
(Valkenburg & Peter, 2009)
What is narcissism?
Narcissism is a personality trait in which people feel self-important, self-focused, and self-promoting.
Narcissism is self-esteem gone wild.
Personality tests may assess narcissism with items such as “I like to be the center of attention.”
How does social media support narcissism?
People with high narcissism test scores are especially active on social networking sites
(Liu & Baumeister, 2016)
They collect more superficial “friends.” They offer more staged, glamorous photos.
They retaliate more against negative comments. And, not surprisingly, they seem more narcissistic to strangers.
(Buffardi & Campbell, 2008; Weiser, 2015)
Consider this study…
In one study, college students were randomly assigned either to edit and explain their online profiles for 15 minutes, or to use that time to study and explain a Google Maps routing.
After completing their tasks, all were tested.
Who then scored higher on a narcissism measure?
Those who had spent the time focused on themselves.
(Freeman & Twenge, 2010)
What are some of the negative outcomes of social media use?
In both Taiwan and the United States, excessive online socializing and gaming have correlated
with lower grades or increased anxiety and depression.
(Brooks, 2015; Lepp et al., 2014; Walsh et al., 2013)
47% of the heaviest users of the Internet and other media had mostly C grades or lower, compared to 23% of the lightest users. (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2010)
Young adults who used 7 or more social media platforms were 3x more likely to be depressed or anxious than those who used two or fewer.(Primack et al., 2016)
1. What Would You Answer?
Researchers studying the relationship between heavy Internet use and grades have found that
A. low use is positively correlated with grades.
B. high use is positively correlated with grades.
C. high use is negatively correlated with grades.
D. an illusory correlation exists between Internet use
and grades.
E. no correlation exists between these two variables.
AP® Exam Tip
Free-response questions on the AP® exam often ask students to apply psychological principles
to real-life situations.
It’s easy to
imagine a question that deals with
social media.
What is achievement motivation?
a desire for significant
accomplishment, for mastery of
skills or ideas, for control, and for
attaining a high standard
Consider this study:
Researchers followed the lives of 1528 California children whose intelligence test scores were in the top 1 percent.
Forty years later, when researchers compared those who were most and least successful professionally, they found a motivational difference.
Those most successful were more ambitious, energetic, and persistent.
As children, they had more active hobbies. As adults, they participated in more groups and sports.
(Goleman, 1980)
When a problem presents itself….
Having spent his life on the Scottish island of Raasay,
farming a small patch of land, tending its lighthouse, and fishing, Malcolm (“Calum”) MacLeod (1911–1988) felt anguished.
His local government repeatedly refused to build a road that would enable vehicles to reach his north end of the island.
With the once-flourishing population there having dwindled to two—MacLeod and his wife—he responded with heroic determination.
The road that grit built.
By hand, Malcolm
“Calum” MacLeod began to transform the existing footpath on his farm into a 1.75-mile road to town.
It took him 10 years.
What is grit?
passion and
perseverance in the pursuit of
long-term goals
When combined with self-control, gritty goal-striving can produce great achievements.
Which matters more, intelligence or�discipline (grit)?
In some studies of both secondary school and university students, self-discipline (grit) has surpassed intelligence test scores in predicting school performance, attendance, and graduation
honors.
For school performance, “discipline outdoes talent.” Angela Duckworth and Martin Seligman (2005, 2006)
What are some research-based strategies for realizing our goals?
Make the resolution.
Announce the goal to others.
Develop an implementation plan.
Create short-term rewards.
Monitor and record progress.
Create a supportive environment.
Transform hard-to-do behavior into must-do habits.
Write down your goal…
What goal would you like to achieve?
How might you use the seven strategies offered in this section to meet that goal?
2. What Would You Answer?
Research on achievement motivation has found that:
A. people who demonstrate grit tend to have lower
levels of achievement.
B. those with high levels of self-discipline have higher
levels of achievement.
C. achievement is simply due to ability.
D. people who keep their goals to themselves are more
successful than those who share them with others.
E. those who have a plan succeed less often than those who do not.
Learning Target 55-1 Review
Describe the evidence that points to our
human affiliation need—our need to belong.
Learning Target 55-1 Review cont.
Describe the evidence that points to our
human affiliation need—our need to belong.
Learning Target 55-2 Review
Discuss how social
networking influences us.
Learning Target 55-3 Review
Discuss achievement motivation.