Understanding Human Motivation What Makes People Tick?

by Laming, Donald

• ISBN13: 9780631219835
• ISBN10: 0631219838
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-08-29
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Understanding Human Motivation is a lively presentation of how factors such as biological nature, instinct, past experience, and society determine what we do. Draws on many different domains of human behavior and links together many motivational factors such as fear, sex, consciousness, and rage. Illustrates the theoretical bases of motivation through real-life examples and case studies. Written in accessible manner for use in courses.

Author Biography

Donald Laming was formerly Senior Lecturer in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge. He has written several previous books, Information Theory of Choice-Reaction Times (1968), Mathematical Psychology (1973), Sensory Analysis (1986), and The Measurement of Sensation (1997).

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	xii
INTRODUCTION: THREE FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS	1	(10)
What is "Motivation"?	2	(1)
How Can We Study Human Motivation?	3	(3)
The use of anecdotal material	3	(3)
Three Fundamental Ideas	6	(3)
Quasi-mechanical behavior	6	(1)
Personal view and camera view	6	(1)
Social extrusion	7	(1)
Some omissions	8	(1)
The Plan of this Book	9	(2)
Questions for discussion	10	(1)
1 DETERMINISM AND FREE WILL	11	(10)
Determinism	12	(2)
Psychological theory treats behavior as determinate	13	(1)
Free Will	14	(7)
Questions for discussion	20	(1)
2 TERROR	21	(17)
The Origins of Fear	23	(2)
Components of Fear	25	(5)
Two stages in the genesis of fear	27	(3)
Fear as Instinct	30	(3)
Pathological fear	32	(1)
The Experience of Fear	33	(2)
Companionship	33	(1)
Military combat	34	(1)
Being in control	34	(1)
Training and skill	35	(1)
The Persistence of Fear	35	(2)
The persistance of memory	35	(1)
Recurrence of fear	36	(1)
Questions for discussion	37	(1)
3 SEX	38	(22)
Personal View and Camera View	40	(5)
Which view - personal view - personal view or camera view?	42	(1)
Lay psychology	43	(2)
Sexual Behavior is Quasi-Mechanical	45	(6)
"Mechanical"	45	(1)
"Substantially mechanical"	46	(1)
Acquisition of patterns of sexual behavior	47	(2)
The pleasure principle	49	(2)
Some Questions about Sexual Behavior	51	(9)
1 What are the extraneous signals which trigger sexual behavior?	51	(1)
2 What other signals or social constraints act to modify sexual behavior?	52	(1)
3 What about the intense feelings that accompany sexual activity?	53	(1)
4 What has this to do with the survival of the species?	54	(2)
5 What about the variation in sexual behavior from one adult to another?	56	(1)
6 Does sexual behavior have to match between male and female?	56	(1)
7 How much of our sexual behavior is innate and how much acquired?	57	(2)
Questions for discussion	59	(1)
4 CONSCIOUSNESS	60	(21)
Two Views of What People Do	61	(1)
The Meaning of "Consciousness"	62	(7)
Philosophical inquiry into consciousness	64	(1)
The neural signature of consciousness	65	(2)
Personal view and camera view	67	(2)
The Relationship of Subjective Experience to Objective Observation	69	(12)
The split brain	75	(4)
Why is consciousness important to the study of motivation?	79	(1)
Questions for discussion	80	(1)
5 BOREDOM	81	(22)
The Political Background	82	(2)
"Brainwashing"	83	(1)
Sensor Deprivation	84	(12)
Hallucinations	85	(7)
Disturbances of perception	92	(2)
Cognitive deficits	94	(2)
What does it all signify?	96	(1)
Boredom	96	(7)
Boredom at work	97	(1)
Leisure activities	97	(5)
Questions for discussion	102	(1)
6 SOCIAL CONVENTIONS	103	(21)
Milgram's Experiments	104	(7)
Proximity of teacher and pupil	104	(2)
What is going on?	106	(2)
Relaxation of the conflict	108	(1)
The importance of social structure	109	(2)
Social Conventions	111	(6)
Social conventions are different in different societies	113	(3)
Social conventions also differ between subgroups within the one society	116	(1)
Understanding Milgram's Results	117	(3)
Military obedience	119	(1)
The Stanford County Prison Experiment	120	(4)
Questions for discussion	123	(1)
7 THE RATE FOR THE JOB	124	(16)
How Much Do Different People Earn?	124	(16)
1 People doing the same job get paid the same (irrespective of how well they do it), unless, sometimes, sometimes, they happen be women	125	(1)
2 Those people closest to the money are paid the most	125	(3)
3 If someone can earn more by negotiating a private deal, well, good luck to her or him	128	(11)
Boardroom pay	130	(4)
MP's financial interests	134	(3)
What has this chapter really been about?	137	(2)
Questions for discussion	139	(1)
8 LONELINESS	140	(16)
The Experience of Being Alone	140	(7)
Applications of research into social isolation	143	(1)
Brainwashing	144	(3)
Feral Children	147	(6)
What may we conclude from the attempted rehabilitation of these three children?	151	(2)
Conclusions on Social Isolation	153	(2)
Questions for discussion	155	(1)
9 THE MORAL SANCTION	156	(18)
The Moral Sanction	157	(10)
An experimental study of extrusion	157	(2)
Whistleblowers	159	(3)
Examples from the wider society	162	(5)
Some Interim Conclusions on Extrusion	167	(7)
1 Extrusion is spontaneous	167	(2)
2 Moral constraints are subconscious	169	(5)
3 The sanction of extrusion is powerful	174
4 The underclass	171	(2)
Questions for discussion	173	(1)
10 PEER PRESSURE	174	(21)
Social Conformity	174	(3)
Informational and Normative Influences	177	(4)
Informational influence	178	(1)
Normative influence	179	(1)
Group cohesiveness	180	(1)
What Happens if the Majority is Not Unanimous?	181	(4)
Inversion of majority and minority	184	(1)
How Large Does the Majority Have to Be?	185	(7)
Individual differences between participants	186	(2)
Interrogation by the police	188	(4)
Summary	192	(3)
Questions for discussion	194	(1)
11 THE CROWD	195	(15)
The Problem	195
The flashpoint	196	(1)
"Group mind"	197	(1)
The random evolution of crowd behavior	197
1 Social Attitudes, Standards, Conventions Evolve	191	(7)
2 Social Conventions Can Evolve Rapidly	198	(4)
3 The Evolution of Social Conventions is Essentially Random	202	(3)
Rumor	202	(1)
Public protest	203	(2)
4 The Likelihood of Disorder, of Riot, Depends on the Crowd's Reason for Being	205	(2)
5 The Likelihood of Disorder, of Riot, also Depends on the Social Setting	207	(2)
Summary	209	(1)
Questions for discussion	209	(1)
12 RAGE	210	(20)
Why Are People Aggressive?	211	(2)
Frustration	212	(1)
Negative affect	212	(1)
Retaliation	213	(1)
Aggression as Instinct	213	(1)
The "terrible twos"	213	(1)
Instrumental and Emotional Aggression	214	(1)
Experimental Methods	215	(5)
The Buss aggression apparatus	216	(2)
The effects of alcohol	218	(2)
Aggression in Everyday Life	220	(8)
Domestic violence	220	(2)
Road rage	222	(1)
Social cognition	223	(2)
Crowding	225	(1)
Three principal factors	226	(2)
Summary	228	(2)
Questions for discussion	229	(1)
13 ... AND ARE WE PROVOKED TO VIOLENCE BY THE MEDIA?	230	(15)
Video Nasties	230	(1)
"Copycat" Murders	231	(3)
Boxing	234	(2)
The effect of watching a boxing match	235	(1)
Neighbor Disputes	236	(2)
Sympathetic motivation	237	(1)
Suicides	238	(1)
The Long-Term Effect of Television Violence	239	(4)
Summary	243	(2)
Questions for discussion	244	(1)
14 MONEY	245	(17)
Two ways to become rich	246	(1)
The Psychopathic Personality	247	(1)
Machiavellianism	248	(14)
The $10 game	249	(1)
The con game	250	(2)
Pawnbroking	252	(1)
Eye contact	253	(1)
Credibility when lying	253	(3)
Pyramid selling	256	(1)
Commissions for financial services	257	(4)
Questions for discussion	261	(1)
15 GAMBLING	262	(16)
The Prevalence of Gambling	262	(6)
Rationality	264	(1)
The estimation of probabilities	265	(3)
Blackjack	268	(2)
How gamblers play blackjack	269	(1)
Roulette	270	(2)
Betting systems	271	(1)
Luck	272	(4)
Personal view and camera view	274	(2)
Sales Promotions	276	(2)
Questions for discussion	277	(1)
16 HUMAN MOTIVATION: HOW DOES IT WORK?	278	(6)
Three Fundamental Ideas	278	(3)
Personal view and camera view	278	(1)
Quasi-mechanical behavior	279	(1)
Social conventions	280	(1)
How Does it All Work?	281	(3)
Hormones	282	(2)
References	284	(18)
Index	302