Answers and Explanations to the Motivation and Emotion Quiz


1. Lorens (1965) found that newly hatched greylag geese would follow any large moving stimulus presented to them shortly after hatching. This is known as:
instinct
survival
sociobiology
imprinting
Correct Answer = imprinting
Explanation = there appears to be a critical time period during which many young animals form a bond to a mother figure. This figure does not have to be the actual mother, but can be anything or anyone that is in the right place, at the right time, and engages in the right behaviors. For example, Lorens performed all the behaviors of a mother figure right from birth (this is key that he was there right from birth and stayed there) such as feeding the chics, grooming and playing with them, etc. As a result, the young chics viewed Lorens as the mother figure and did what they would have done with an actual goose mother - they followed him around, mimicked his behaviors, etc., a process known as imprinting.

2. Which of the following is NOT a biological motive that operates within a homeostatic cycle (is not regulated by homeostasis)?
sex
hunger
body temperature
thirst
Correct Answer = sex
Explanation = while sex may be biologically motivated, it is not a drive that is regulated biologically. For example, when your body temperature elevates to a point that is outside your body's "normal" range, there is a biological response (i.e., sweating) that brings your body temperature back into the proper range. The human body does not have the same type of response for the regulation of the sex drive.

3. After you are full from a large dinner you find that you are still motivated to have a rich desert (oh no...you never do this). Which theory best explains this behavior?
homeostasis
drive
incentive
arousal
Correct Answer = incentive
Explanation = your body will let you know when it needs food by making you feel hungry. This is a drive, since you are being pushed from within to behave in a certain way. However, when there is some external stimulus that is pulling you toward something and to act in a specific way, you are experiencing an incentive. In the question above, you are not in need to of food (according to your body), but the rich desert is an external stimulus that pulls your to eat it.

4. According to Maslow, when belongingness and love needs are met, the person is next motivated by ______ needs, which include self-respect,and the approval and recognition of others.
esteem
physiological
cognitive
self-actualization
Correct Answer = esteem
Explanation = in order to get other people to respect and like us, it is first necessary for us to respect and like ourselves. Once we respect and like ourselves, thus satisfy esteem needs, it is more likely that we will gain the respect of others. These needs are the esteem needs that Abraham Maslow referred.

5. After a male has had sex with a female there is a period of time where he is uninterested in sexual activity with her. However, if a novel female is introduced he will become sexually motivated. This is called:
the Coolidge Effect
male rhythms
sociobiology
being a pig
Correct Answer = the Coolidge Effect
Explanation = the story goes something like this...President Coolidge and his wife were touring a chicken farm and were each taken on separate guided tours. While in one of the chicken coups, the first lady asked why in each coup there were many chickens, but only one rooster. The guide told her that the reason is that one rooster has remarkable stamina. The first lady instructed one of her aids to go tell the president about the prowess of these roosters. When told about the stamina of each rooster, the president told the aid to go back to the first lady and say that the reason is that each rooster can be with lots of chickens. Thus, the coolidge effect - men take a while to become sexually motivated after having sex with a woman, but can become sexually motivated very quickly after sex with the introduction of a new woman...just like chickens!

6. People do things (like work) for all different reasons. Some work for money, some work for power, and some work for satisfaction. Internal motivation that causes us to do something because we receive self-satisfaction is called:
humanistic
intrinsic
sociobiological
optimum arousal
Correct Answer = intrinsic
Explanation = Lepper, Greene, and Nisbett (1973) assigned children who enjoy drawing pictures to either draw for fun or draw for reward groups. What they found was that children asked to draw for reward began considering drawing as work instead of play that was enjoyable. Originally, drawing was intrinsically motivating to all the children (the drew because they found it fun). But since they were now getting rewarded for drawing, the children in the reward group eventually found drawing extrinsically motivating since they were getting something in return for drawing and you get rewarded for work, not play.

7. According to psychological research, a man who has not had sex with his mate for a week will have a higher sperm count if his mate has been:
following his/her normal schedule but has not desired sex
teasing him for a week
home with the flu
away for the week
Correct Answer = away for the week
Explanation = there seems to be some physiological basis for that old saying, "absence makes the heart grow fonder". According to psychologists, the absence of a man's sexual partner has a psychological effect that triggers a physiological response; increased production of sperm. It is possible that the anticipation of being with the partner, the longing for contact with the partner, and the knowledge that they will be together all influence the production of sperm. The same can not be said in response to frustration that can occur from being teased, or from having an ill partner.

8. Ekman and Friesan studied facial expressions across several cultures and found that many facial expressions were recognized across different cultures, which suggests that facial expression are:
culturally based
innate
learned behavior
arbitrary
Correct Answer = innate
Explanation = how could villagers in a small tribe, living in he jungles of a far away country exhibit the same facial expressions as those in industrialized countries? The answer is that humans are hard wired to exhibit several facial expressions to signify specific emotions. For example, humans smile in response to something funny, enjoyable, or pleasurable. This response is common across cultures, races, and religions, making it something humans are born with...thus, innate.

9. The ______ theory of emotion claims that we experience emotion because we are able to formulate a perception when we experience some type of autonomic arousal (i.e., for example, we begin to tremble and thus we perceive that we are afraid - "I feel afraid because I tremble").
Cannon-Bard
Opponent-Process
James-Lange
Sociobiology
Correct Answer = James Lange
Explanation = according to both James and Lange (the two actually proposed the same theory at approximately the same time which lead to the name, James-Lange theory of emotion), emotion occurs because our bodies automatically respond to environmental stimuli (like the presence of a bear). We then interpret this physical response into some subjective emotion. So, something in the environment occurs, our bodies automatically respond to it, and then we perceive some emotion in response to the physical behaviors.

10. All of the following are complaints that the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion lodged against the James-Lange theory EXCEPT:
physiological arousal may occur without emotional arousal
cognitive interpretation of arousal is too slow
people who are experiencing different emotions often have identical autonomic arousal
visceral (internal organ) changes are too slow to come before the conscious experience of emotion
Correct Answer = cognitive interpretation of arousal is too slow
Explanation = Cannon and Bard had many complaints about the James;Lange theory of emotion, but one thing they could not say was that humans are unable to interpret information fast enough. Quite the contrary, Cannon-Bard indicated that it is the visceral (or physiological) response that occurs too slowly and thus makes the James-Lange theory implausible.
 
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