hello everybody my name is Iman welcome back to my YouTube channel today we're going to cover chapter five for our MCAT Behavioral Science playlist this chapter is titled motivation emotion and stress and in this chapter we're going to cover three objectives the first objective is about motivation here we're going to Define motivation as the purpose or driving force behind our actions and to really understand this we're going to cover a couple of theories they're going to include include Instinct Theory arousal Theory Drive reduction theory and need based theories then we'll move on to objective two which is titled emotions here we're going to discuss the three elements of emotion in addition to Universal emotions and the Adaptive role and theories of emotion before we cover the role of the lyic system in regulating emotion then for our third objective we'll talk about stress here we'll cover cognitive appraisal of stress types of stressors as well as the physiological emotional and behavioral responses to stress with that being said let's go ahead and get started with objective one titled motivation like I said earlier motivation is the purpose or driving force behind our actions motivation can be categorized based on what drives people to act these drives can be external forces such as rewards and punishments or they can be internal forces where the behavior is personally gratifying now external forces these are coming from outside oneself they create extrinsic motivation extrinsic motivation can include rewards for showing a desired Behavior or avoiding punishment if the desired behavior is not achieved now motivation that comes from within oneself this is referred to as intrinsic motivation this can be driven by interest in a task or just pure enjoyment now in this objective we really want to discuss the primary views of motivation and kind of to foreshadow we're going to discuss how the primary views of motivation include instincts that elicit natural behavior they're going to include the desire to maintain optimal levels of arousal they're going to include the drive to reduce uncomfortable States and they're also going to include the goal of satisfying both physiological and psychological needs now with that we can begin to understand motivation through a couple of theories starting off with Instinct Theory early attempts to understand the basis of motivation really focused on instincts which are innate fixed patterns of behavior in response to stimuli now a according to the Instinct theory of motivation people are driven to do certain behaviors based on evolutionary programmed instincts this theory was one of the first to describe motivation and it was derived from Darwin's theory of evolution and actually William James the father of modern Psychology was one of the first to write about human instincts in his 1890 publication called principles of psychology so in short Instinct theory of motivation says that people are driven to do certain behaviors based on evolutionarily programmed instincts so that's Instinct Theory next up is arousal Theory now another factor that influences motivation is arousal this is the psychological and physiological state of being awake and reactive to stimuli arousal involves the brain stem it involves the auto automic nervous system and it also involves the endocrine system and it really plays a very important role in behavior and cognition arousal theory states that people perform actions in order to maintain an optimal level of arousal so what that means is that if the arousal level Falls below the optimal level then the person is seeking to increase their arousal level however when the arousal level rises above their Optimum level then one is seeking to decrease arousal Additionally the jks Dotson law it postulates this u-shaped function between the level of arousal and performance and this law states that performance is worse at extremely high and low levels of arousal and it's optimal at some intermediate level we can see that in this figure right here the x axis is arousal from low to high the Y AIS is performance from weak to strong and we notice that at low arousal levels and at high arousal levels performance is weak however there is an optimal arousal and Optimal Performance region when you are at low AR uh arousal weak performance what you would want to do is increase attention and interest if you are at high arousal and weak performance then your performance is probably being impaired because of strong anxiety again the goal is that in order to perform actions one must maintain an optimal level of arousal and so you're aiming to be in a region that allows for that now the optimal level of arousal it's going to vary between different types YP of tasks okay so lower levels are optimal for highly cognitive tasks while higher levels are optimal for activities that require physical endurance and stamina so again arousal theory states that people perform actions in order to maintain an optimal level of arousal the next Theory we want to discuss is Drive reduction theory drives are defined as internal states of tension that activate particular behaviors for focused goals drives are thought to originate within an individual Without Really requiring any external factors to motivate Behavior so in other words drives help humans survive by creating an uncomfortable State and ensuring motivation to eliminate this state or to relieve this internal tension created by unmet needs and on that note of of unmet needs needs well there's two things we want to talk about in this realm primary drives and secondary drives primary drives include things like the need for food water and warmth and primary drives motivate us to sustain bodily processes in homeostasis homeostasis is the regulation of the entire internal environment to maintain an optimal and stable set of conditions in homeostatic regulations external factors are going to be encountered that might affect that regulation but the system is going to react to push the body body back to its optimal State and homeostasis is usually controlled by negative feedback loops now I usually like to explain negative feedback loops using a real life example and I think the best one is when we think about the thermostat so a thermostat is set to a desired temperature and then sensor monitors the air temperature in relation to that set desired temperature if the air temperature gets too cold then the heater will turn on and if the temperature gets too warm the heater will turn off and negative feedback loops in the body operate the same way when our bodies are lacking nutrients and energy feedback systems are going to release hormones that create a hunger drive and motivate eating and then after you consume that delicious food and our full feedback is sent to the brain to turn off the hunger drive and that way you eat when you need it all right and you stop eating when you're full and it's all done through this negative feedback system now we also have seen other kinds of negative feedback systems in our MCAT Journey when we talked about the endocrine system we saw that there is negative feedback in the endocrine system like you see here in this depiction now with that out of the way additional drives that are not directly related to biological processes these are called secondary drives so we said primary drives they motivate us to sustain bodily processes in homeostasis but then additional drives that are not directly related to biological processes these are called secondary drives these drives are thought to stem from learning so the drive to go to medical school and become a physician that is an example of secondary drive and you future doctors will do exactly that so Drive reduction theory in short to put all of this into context it really explains that motivation is based on the goal of eliminating uncomfortable states with that we can move on to need based theories needs are also motivators that influence human behavior and through this lens motivation can be described as how we allocate our energy and resources to best satisfy these needs motivation thus determines which behaviors are most important to pursue how much effort will be taken and for how long the effort will be maintained now Abraham baslo he observed that certain needs will yield a greater influence on our motivation and he established what is referred to as maso's hierarchy of needs he classified needs into five groups and designed different levels of priority to each group this is what you see in this pyramid scheme right here the first first four levels of the pyramid they correspond to physiological needs Safety and Security love and belonging and self-esteem the highest level of the pyramid it corresponds to self-actualization or the need to realize one's fullest potential masau theorized that if the lowest level of need is not met motivation to meet that need will be the highest priority and then once that need is me uh once that need is met if additional needs exist they will be satisfied based on priority so for example a person's most basic motivation will be to satisfy physiological needs this includes breathing food water sex sleep homeostasis Etc then this is followed by the need to establish a safe and secure environment so security of body employment resources Etc and then it's love and belonging and so on and so forth another need based motivational theory is the self-determination Theory this emphasizes the role of three Universal needs one autonomy this is the need to be in control of one's actions and ideas two competence this is the need to complete and Excel at difficult tasks and three relatedness this is the need to feel accepted and wanted in relationships now before we end off objective one there are just two other theories of motivation that we want to know for the MCAT but we only need to know these very briefly so we have the incentive Theory and the expectancy value Theory so the incentive Theory explains that behavior is motivated not by need or arousal but by the desire to pursue re rewards and to avoid punishment and then the expectancy value Theory it states that the amount of motivation needed to reach a goal is a result of both the individual's expectation of success in reaching the goal and the degree to which they value succeeding at that goal so with that we've covered everything we need to know in our first objective now we can move into our second objective On Emotion emotion is a natural instinctive State of Mind derived from one's circumstances mood or relationships with others what does psychology have to tell us about emotions that is the goal of objective two and we're going to start by discussing the three elements of an emotion you have the physiological response the behavioral response and the cognitive response so let's go over each one of these starting off with the physiological response one a feeling is first experienced arousal is stimulated by the autonomic nervous system system the physiological component is going to include changes in your heart rate your breathing rate skin temperature and blood pressure and while it might be hard to always recognize these changes and Associate them with an emotion in everyday life these changes are real and they have been detected in laboratory settings then we have the behavioral response the behavioral component of an emotion includes facial expressions and Body Language so for example a smile a friendly hand gesture or even a subtle head tilt towards someone that's commonly recognized as warm and happy signals on the other hand a frown RBF looking downwards those are all recognized as sad or avoidant signals then we have the cognitive response the cognitive component of emotion this is the subjective interpretation of the feeling being experienced and determin ation of one's emotion this is going to be largely based on memories of past experiences and the perception of the cause of the emotion now that we've covered the three elements of an emotion let's talk about Universal emotions so Darwin made the argument that emotions are a result of evolution and so emotions and their corresponding expressions are Universal he explained that all humans evolve the same set of facial muscles to show the same Expressions when communicating emotions regardless of their society or culture of course this sparked an ongoing discussion of the relationship between emotion and culture among both psychologists and sociologists Paul emman described actually a set of basic emotions that are recognized by societies around the world and then over time psychologist have revised this list and so what we can see here is the seven universal emotions that we need to know for the mcap so let's go over these we're going to go over the emotion and we're also going to go over the facial expression cues for that emotion so first and foremost we're going to talk about happiness or enjoyment the facial expression cue for this is a smile or wrinkling around the eyes and raised cheeks then we have sadness sadness the facial cues for sadness is obviously a frown and your inner eyebrows are kind of pulled up and together then we have contempt the facial expression cues for this is that you know one corner of the mouth tends to be pulled upwards then we have surprise the facial expression cues for surprise is you have widened eyes your eyebrows are pulled up and curved your jaw opens then then we have fear here your eyes also widen eyebrows pulled up and together and the lips are pulled towards the ears then there is disgust and the facial expression cues for disgust is nose wrinkling and or raising of the upper lip and then last but certainly not least we have anger and the facial cues for anger is you're glaring eyebrows pulled down and together and your lips are pressed tightly together now again while emotions are experienced universally it is argued that they can be affected greatly by culture and cultural dissimilarities in Emotion include varying reactions to similar events differences in the emotional experience itself the behavior that's exhibited in response to an emotion as well as the perception of That Emotion by others within Society now now something else that's really important for us to talk about is the Adaptive role of emotion so in accordance with Darwin's thoughts on universal emotion The evolutionary perspective states that everything we do think and feel is really based on Specialized functional programs that are designed for any problem we encounter these programs are functionally coordinated in order to produce a cohesive response and are thought to be evolutionary adaptations due to situations that are encountered over the history of the human species in the hopes to guide sensory processing physiological response as well as behavior in addition to that different emotions are thought to have evolved in during different periods in history so keeping all that in mind the three components of an emotion Universal emotions and adaptive role of emotions what we want to talk about next is theories of emotions so let's set the stage for discussing theories of emotion early psychologists they believe that the cognitive component of emotion led to the physiological component which then produced the behavioral component so in other words the feeling of anger started with perception of a negative stimulus which caused physiological changes like increased skin temperature which then resulted in Behavior such as yelling now this explanation assumes that feeling precedes arousal which precedes action so that's our starting point here as we discuss different theories of emotion we're going to start off with the James L Theory so William James the founder of functionalist theory he viewed the progression of these emotional elements a little differently and so did Carl L and they developed a theory of emotion that was called the James Lang theory of emotion and according to this Theory a stimulus results first in physiological arousal which leads to a secondary response in which the emotion is labeled so James believe that when peripheral organs receive information and respond that resp response is then labeled as an emotion by the brain so for example a car cutting you off on the highway is a stimulus for elevated heart rate and blood pressure and increased skin temperature these physiological responses result in the cognitive labeling of anger I must be angry because my skin is hot and my blood pressure is high and so by extension an emotion would not be processed without feedback from the peripheral or organs this theory predicts that individuals who cannot mount a sympathetic response like patients with spinal cord injuries should show decreased levels of emotion however further Studies have proven this claim to be false all right so that's our first Theory the next one we want to talk about is Canon Bard Walter Canon and Philip Bard they developed another scheme for explaining emotional components that they called the B theory of emotions in an attempt to CH to to test this first Theory James lch Theory Canon studied the expression of emotion and its relationship to feedback from the sympathetic nervous system using cats whose afferent nerves had been severed he hypothesized that physiological arousal and feeling and emotion they occur at the same time not in sequence and so severing the feedback should actually not alter the emotion experienced in this Theory a person will respond with action After experiencing the emotion both mentally and physically now Bard he was a student of canons he further explained that when exposed to a stimulus sensory information is received and then set to both the cortex and the sympathetic nervous system simultaneously by the phalus and so the Canon Bard theory of emotion it states that the cognitive and physiological components of emotion occur simultaneously and then they result in the behavioral component of emotion or action so I am scared because I see a snake and now my heart is racing let me out of here so that's like a thought that could happen like that all right now critics of James Lang Theory they cite this study that was done by Canon Bard the the severed afret nerve study as support for the Canon b Theory but there are also weaknesses in this Theory as well just like there was weaknesses in the James Lane Theory so the Canon b Theory it fails to explain the vagus nerve which is a cranial nerve that functions as a feedback system conveying information from the peripheral organs back to the central nervous system now last but not least we're going to cover the third Theory this is the Sha uh the shash singer Theory I think that's how you pronounce the name forgive me if I've mispronounced this and this is also termed the cognitive arousal Theory or the two Factor Theory it states that both arousal and the labeling of arousal based on environment must occur in order for an emotion to be experienced so I am excited because my heart rate is racing and everyone else seems happy so what's unique to this theory is this aspect of cognitive appraisal to feel an emotion one must consciously analyze the environment in relation to nervous system arousal so to study this um St shter and Jeremy singer they gave injections of epinephrine or Placebo to groups of subjects that were either informed ignorant or misinformed they also manipulated external cues in the study by having an actor either act happy or act angry they observed that epinephrine did result in increased physiological arousal however they also discovered that the environment and cognitive processing affected the emotion that was experienced by the subjects so the misinformed and ignorant groups they experience the highest level of emotion and so they explain this by stating that a subject experiencing physiological arousal with no explanation or with a misleading explanation will attribute that arousal to the surrounding environment and then label themselves happy or angry based on the emotion and the behavior of the actor and so we can summarize everything that we've learned about these three theories here all right so we have the theory what's the first response what's the second response so for the James Lane your first response nervous system arousal second response conscious emotion for the Canon Bard Theory all right you have a stimulus first response to that is nervous system arousal and conscious emotion and the second response is going to be some sort of action and for the last Theory after stimulus the First Response will be nervous system arousal and cognitive appraisal and the second response is going to be conscious emotion with that we can go ahead and move into a discussion on the limbic system experiencing emotion is a complex process that involves many parts of the brain the most notable of these circuits is the lyic system this system is made out of the amydala the thalamus the hypothalamus the hippocampus and the fornex septal nuclei and parts of the cerebral CeX it plays a large role in both motivation and emotion and we've discussed the lyic system in previous chapters in this playlist as well as in the MCAT biology playlist however let's just refresh our memory the amydala is a small round structure that signals the cortex about stimuli related to attention and emotion it processes the environment it detects external cues and it learns from the person's surroundings in order to produce emotion this region is also associated with fear and it plays a role in human emotion through the interpretation of facial expressions the thalamus it functions as a PR preliminary sensory processing station and it routes information to the cortex and other appropriate areas of the brain the hypothalamus it's located between the thalmus it synthesizes and releases a variety of neurotransmitters and it serves many Homa uh homeostatic functions it's also involved in modulating emotion now the hippocampus within the temporal lobe is primarily involved in creating l longterm memories along with the functions of the amydala and the hypothalamus the storage and retrieval of emotional memories is really key in producing an emotional response the hippocampus also AIDS in creating context for stimuli to lead to an emotional experience now when an emotion is experienced sensory systems they transmit this information into both the explicit memory system that's primarily controlled by the hippocampus in the medial temporal lobe and the implicit memory system that's controlled by the amydala both memory systems are used for both the formation and retrieval of emotional memories now the conscious or the explicit memory is the memory of experiencing the actual emotion so like remembering that you were happy at your high school graduation or you were sad when when you lost a loved one those are all explicit memory the unconscious or implicit memory is referred to as emotional memory this is the storage of the actual feelings of emotion associated with an event now the ability to distinguish and interpret others facial expressions this is primarily controlled by the temporal lobe with some input from the occipital lobe as well this function is actually lateralized so the right hemisphere is more active when Discerning facial expressions than the left there are also gender differences so women demonstrate more activation of these brain areas than men then we want to talk about the prefrontal cortex this prefrontal cortex is the anterior portion of the frontal lobe It's associated with planning intricate cognitive functions it's also associated with with expressing personality and making decisions the prefrontal cortex also receives arousal input from the brain stem coordinating arousal and cognitive States it's been demonstrated that the left prefrontal cortex is associated with positive emotions and the right prefrontal cortex with negative emotions now the dorsal prefrontal cortex that's associated with attention and cognition while the ventral prefrontal cortex connects with regions of the brain that's responsible for experiencing emotion now one more thing that we want to State and talk about is that the autonomic system is also related to emotion we've made many statements to this point already in this chapter right the autonomic system is also related to emotion specific physiological reactions are associated with specific emotions skin temperature heart rate breathing rate and blood pressure are all affected when you're experiencing emotion now with that being said we can move into our last and final objective on stress in all aspects of life at all times of the day we make decisions overcome challenges and continue forward and it is our response to challenging events be they physical emotional cognitive or behavioral that defines stress the first thing that we want to discuss in objective three is cognitive appraisal of stress cognitive appraisal is the subjective evaluation of a situation that induces stress and this process consists of two stages stage one or primary appraisal is the initial evaluation of the environment and the associated threat this appraisal can be identified as irrelevant benign positive or stressful if primary appraisal re reveals a threat then stage two appraisal begins secondary appraisal is directed at evaluating whether the organism can cope with this stress this appraisal involves the evaluation of three things one harm or damage caused by the environment two threat or the potential for future damage caused by the event and three challenge or the potential to overcome and possibly benefit from the event individuals who perceive themselves as having the ability to cope with the event are going to experience less stress than those who don't but in general appraisal and stress levels are personal because individuals have different skills abilities and coping mechanisms this leads us to talking about types of stressors a stressor is a biological element external condition or event that leads to a stress response common stressors include environmental factors daily events workplace or academic settings social expectations chemical and biological stressors stressors can also be psychological stressors are classified as either causing distress or causing ESS distress occurs when experiencing unpleasant stressors whereas ustus is a result of positive condition and it can include things like life events graduating from college getting married scoring a perfect score on your MCAT which you're going to do but while they are positive any event requiring a person to change or adapt their lifestyle obviously leads to some sort of stress now stress level fun fact can be measured in quote unquote life change units in a system called the social Readjustment rating scale now the followup up to all this is what's the physiological response to stressors so when subjected to stress the body initially responds via the sympathetic nervous system the fight ORF flight response initiates an increase in heart rate and a decrease in digestion with all available energy being reserved for reacting to the stressful event now the sequence of physiological responses is called the General Adaptation Syndrome and it consists of three distinct stages that you see here in this figure and that we're going to talk about now first is alarm or the initial reaction to a stress stressor and the activation of the sympathetic nervous system shortly after the hypothalamus is going to stimulates the pituitary to secrete adrenocorticotropic hormone this hormone stimulates the adrenal glands to produce cortisol which maintains the steady supply of blood sugar that's needed to respond to stressful environments now the hypothalamus also activates the adrenal medula which secretes epinephrine and norepinephrine to activate the sympathetic nervous system the next stage is resistance in which the continuous release of hormones allows the sympathetic nervous system to remain engaged to fight to fight the stressor and then last a person is going to experience exhaustion when the body can no longer maintain an elevated response with sympathetic nervous system activity at this point individuals become more susceptible to illnesses and medical conditions and organ systems can actually begin to deteriorate in extreme cases death can also result so with that point obviously it's really important to learn to cope and manage your stress and strategies for coping with stress really falls into two categories problem focused strategies involve working to overcome a stressor such as reaching out to family and friends for social support confronting the issue head on and creating and following a plan of problem solving actions emotionally focused strategies they Center instead on changing one's feelings about a stressor and they include taking responsibility for the issue or engaging in self-control or distancing oneself from the issue engaging in wishful thinking and using positive reappraisal to focus on positive outcomes instead of the stresser if you're feeling stressed studying for the MCAT or going through school please make sure that you reach out to a professional to get the help you need so that you are always taking care of your body and your mind I know studying for the MCAT is an extremely stressful time but I'm here with you and if you need anything you can always reach out and with that we have finished chapter five on motivation emotion and stress I really hope this was helpful let me know if you have any questions comments concerns down below other than that good luck happy studying and have a beautiful beautiful day future doctors