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Human Motivation and Emotion

46-332-01Dr. Fuschia SiroisLecture 12 Oct. 19, 2006Lecture 13 Oct. 24, 2006

Personal ControlExpectancies about

Can I do it?Will it work?

If both are high then behaviour becomes energized, directed, motivated

Is perceiving that you can control outcomes always beneficial?

When is perceived control helpful?When is perceived control harmful?What are the different types of control beliefs?

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Control-related constructs

Self-efficacy: individuals will tend to pursue tasks that they believe they can accomplish & avoid those that are perceived as exceeding their capabilitiesself-efficacy can increase with successful completion of tasks, and decrease with failurealso termed mastery or competencebased on social learning theory -reinforcement plays a sig. role in its acquisition

Bandura’s Reciprocal Determinism

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Sources of Self-EfficacyExperience - A person's past record of success and failure influences their belief in future success and failure (i.e., past success creating the belief of future success. Vicarious experience - People's belief in their ability to perform a behavior is influence by watching others succeed or fail at the same behavior, especially when the observer sees themselves as being similar to the model.

Persuasion - A person's belief in themselves may be momentarily influenced by words of encouragement (a "pep" talk).

Physiology - A person's physiological responses, such as nervousness, headaches, nausea, and sweating, may give a person feedback on their belief of future success or failure.

Effects of Self-Efficacy on Behaviour

Choice - People tend to chose activities at which they will succeed, and tend to avoid activities at which they believe they will fail.

Effort & Persistence - People will tend to put forth greater effort and persist longer if they believe that they will be successful.

Decision making – People remain effective in analytical thinking & problem solving during times of stress if they have strong efficacy

Emotionality - People that believe that they are likely to be successful, react to challenges and feedback with enthusiasm, optimism and interest

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Locus of Control

Locus of Control (LOC) beliefs are attributions about whether events are contingent upon internal or external forces Rotter suggests that internal and external LOC beliefs are dichotomous

Rotter’s test (forced choice)a. In the case of the well prepared student there

is rarely if ever such a thing as an unfair test.b. Many times exam questions tend to be so

unrelated to course work that studying in really useless.

Internal LOC

Internal LOC: self as responsible for outcomes/events

Positive: • takes credit for successes in life• learns from mistakes• doesn’t blame others, circumstances• able to engage in self- directed, independent

behaviorsNegative:• believe they can control things they can’t• may be a “control- freak”• failures may have more neg. impact - pessimism,

shame, linked to high internality• may resist the help of others if too internal

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External LOC

External LOC: others, chance, seen as responsible for outcomes/events

Positive: • failure doesn’t impact as much (not their fault)• protects from depression, blows to self-esteem• will turn to others for help when needed

Negative:• may repeat behaviors that were responsible for poor

outcomes because self not seen as responsible• sees self as powerless, at the mercy of others, fate• active coping skills, mastery not developed as much• less likely to engage in self-directed, independent behaviors

Control Beyond LOC

Desire for control: general control motivation interacts with

situational variables to explain behavioral differences

• individuals high in desire for control display belief in personal control in situation where outcomes are governed by chance - controlled vs. chance odds game

• those low in desire for control did not

• LOC is an expectancy for control based on attributions formed about the causes of events

• this is not the same as a desire for control (motivation), or a sense of self- determination

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Desire for Control

Desire for control (Burger & Cooper, 1979)• distinct from beliefs and expectations about

controllability of a situationModerates the effects of perceived control • Dental patients who had a high desire for control but

perceived that they had little control over pain, reported greater fear and distress higher levels of expected pain (Logan et al., 1991)

Discrepancies between control desire & beliefs can lead to lowered SWB

• mismatch between desire for control and perceived control in an elderly population predicted depression (Wallace & Bergeman, 1997)

Negative side of perceived control

Thompson, Cheek, & Graham (1988)control may not always reduce stress and arousal depends upon the meaning of control in a situationdistress may increase when control over an event is not possible, or when control attempts failhigh levels of control may be more detrimental than moderate levels

Absolute control beliefs vs. adaptive control beliefs

High levels of control often correlated with self-blame

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Learned Helplessness

Involves outcome expectanciesLike external/chance LOCLack of relation between behaviour and outcome causes "learned helplessness“Results of animals studies were paralleled in human studies

3 ComponentsContingency – control along a continuumCognition – biases, attributions, expectanciesBehaviour – coping along a continuum

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Learned Helplessness

Effects:Motivational deficitsLearning deficitsEmotional deficits

Depression & learned helplessnessIllusions of control?

Positive IllusionsPositive Illusions (Taylor & Brown, 1988)

1) self-enhancement2) unrealistic optimism3) exaggerated sense of personal control

Taylor suggests these illusions are essential to normal cognitive functioning and psychological well-beingDepression and positive illusions

Illusions of control?

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Illusory glow: Lewinsohn, Mischel, Chaplin & Barton (1980)

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Non-depressed Depressed

Performance evaluation

Self ratings

Observer

Positive Illusions

Explanatory Styles

Three qualities of explanatory style that determine optimism or pessimism are:1) Permanence - stable vs. unstable2) Pervasiveness - global vs. specific3) Personalization - internal vs. external

How would someone who is depressed explain an event in terms of these dimensions?

..how would an optimist explain them?

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Learned Optimism

Optimism (Seligman) : The belief that bad events are temporary, are not one's own fault, and are confined to present circumstancesSeligman (1998) warns that too much optimism can erode a sense of responsibility

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Optimism and Hope

Scheier & Carver suggest that positive expectancies cause a person to continue to work towards attaining their goals

Optimists report higher QoL than pessimistsOptimism predicts lower distress following surgeryOptimists have an “optimistic advantage”

Snyder suggests that hope provides 1) a way of thinking about multiple routes to a desired goal2) agentic thinking - i.e., thoughts about initiating action

“Successful people have high hope. Hope can be nurtured.”

Rick Snyder, The Psychology of Hope

HOPE results from having willpower (desire) and way power (a plan) for goals.

HOPE THEORY