Motivation Social Psychology

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MotivationSocial Psychology

• PS111, April 16, 2008

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Clark Hulls (1943) Drive Theory

• Excitatory Potential Drive x Habit Strength
• (E D x H)

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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?
• For some sources of new behavior, we can go
  outside of the boundary conditions of Drive
  Theory
• Creativity
• Curiosity
• Exploration
• In Hulls Drive Theory, each value for E varies
  around a central tendency, creating small
  momentary changes in Excitatory Potential

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Habit HierarchiesD X H

• If Drive 1, var 1
• H1 4.0 E 4.0
• H2 3.8 E 3.8
• H3 2.8 E 2.8

• If Drive 10, var 1
• H1 4.0 E 40
• H2 3.8 E 38
• H3 2.8 E 28

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Drive, Task Complexity, and Performance

• On simple, familiar tasks, the dominant response
  is correct
• On difficult, novel tasks, the dominant response
  is incorrect
• As drive increases, performance improves on
  simple tasks and deteriorates on difficult tasks

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Habit HierarchiesD X H

• If Drive 1, var 1
• H1 4.0 E 4.0
• H2 3.8 E 3.8
• H3 2.8 E 2.8

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Habit HierarchiesD X H

• If Drive 1, var 1
• H1 4.0 E 4.0
• H2 3.8 E 3.8
• H3 2.8 E 2.8

• If Drive 10, var 1
• H1 4.0 E 40
• H2 3.8 E 38
• H3 2.8 E 28

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Drive, Task Complexity, and Performance

• Simple and complex tasks can be used to detect
  changes in drive (arousal)
• The Stroop task (Stroop Stroop)
• Cat Girl Wagon Girl Cat Wagon
• Red Blue Green Green Red Blue
• Red Blue Green Blue Red Blue

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The Stroop Task

• Whats up with that???
• Discussion questions
• Using Drive Theory, and the language and terms of
  Drive Theory, explain what happened on the
  different versions of the Stroop task.
• Using Drive Theory, predict what would happen to
  performance on the three versions of the task if
  you found out there would be a pop quiz, worth
  25 of your grade, coming up in 10 minutes.

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Social Psychology!!!
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Changing Gears The Effects of Groups on
Performance

• Question do people perform better when they are
  alone, or with others?
• Two paradigms
• Coaction (all engaged in the same activity)
• Audience (being observed by others)

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Triplett (1898)
Triplett noticed that cyclists were faster
racing in groups than against the clock
Coaction
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Triplett (1898)
Audience
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Triplett (1898)

• Triplett theorized that racing together releases
  the competitive instinct, increases arousal, and
  improves performance
• Consistent with this hypothesis, when children
  were asked to wind fishing reels, either by
  themselves or in groups (coaction), those in
  groups wound faster

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Effects of Groups on Performance

• Unfortunately, many subsequent studies of
  performance alone and in groups generated a very
  inconsistent set of findings (a mess!!)
• Sometimes performance was better in groups,
  sometimes it was better when alone, and no one
  understood why

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The Zajonc solution

• Robert Zajonc
• Zajonc
• Science
• Zajonc, R.B. (1965). Social facilitation.
  Science, 149, 269-274.
• Hypothesis The mere presence of conspecifics is
  a source of arousal.
• Drive Theory tells us how arousal affects
  performance on simple and difficult tasks

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Zajonc (1965) Theory of Social Facilitation
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Blatta Orientalis
Photophobic