LESSON 4: STATES OF CONCIOUSNESS

CONSCIOUSNESS
 Consciousness refers to a person’s awareness of the
sensations, thoughts, and feelings that he is experiencing at a
given moment.
 Consciousness is the subjective understanding (not
observable to others) of both the environment around us and our
private world.
 Consciousness can range from our perceptions while fully
awake, to the dreams we have during sleep, with wide variations
in how much aware we are of outside stimuli.

1. THE NORMAL, WAKING CONSCIOUSNESS

 Waking consciousness is not a single, simple state. It can
vary from an active to a passive state.
 In more active states, we systematically carry out mental
activity, thinking and considering the world around us. There may
even be some kind of silent self-talk
 In more passive states, we do not intentionally focus on
anything, but thoughts and images come to us more spontaneously.
 Vigilance refers to a state where there is a readiness
(alertness) for new stimuli. There are different ways by which
people can be kept alert. To keep from falling back into vacant
staring, people can orient themselves to their tasks, reminding
themselves where they are, what time it is; they squirm, scratch,
adjust clothing, tap with their fingers. All these can keep their
consciousness fully alert.

2. MODIFICATIONS OF THE WAKING CONSCIOUSNESS

 The familiar waking consciousness can be subjected to
various degrees of distortion by excessive fatigue and lack of
sleep, by disease (fever), and by drugs. Dependent on the
severity of the distortions, some altered states of consciousness
may appear. Although various kinds of altered states of
consciousness produce widely disparate effects, all share some
characteristics.
 Among them are:
a. An alteration in thinking, which becomes shallow, illogical
or impaired in some ways.
b. The sense of time becomes disturbed.
c. There is an experience of loss of self-control. People will
do things that they would never otherwise do.
d. There is a sense of ineffability – the inability to
understand an experience rationally or describe it in words.

3. SLEEPING: LIVING IN DARKNESS

 The Function of Sleep

 Sleep is one of the most important behaviors of man. Man
cannot do without it, and it monopolizes roughly one third of his
lifetime.
 Sleep, in general, seems necessary for human functioning.
Indeed, a lack of sleep makes people feel irritable; it affects
their concentration leading to a lower performance on all kinds
of tasks, and it slows substantially the sensory reaction time.
 It is reasonable to expect that the body would require a
tranquil “rest and relaxation” period in order to revitalize
itself, “to charge one’s batteries.” This is what the people
commonly believe, and what is referred to by the “restorative
function of sleep”.

 The Circadian Rhythms

 It came from the Latin “circa diem” or “around the day”.
 These are biological processes that occur repeatedly on
approximately a twenty-four hour cycle.
 Sleep and waking, for instance, occur naturally to the beat
of an internal pacemaker, which works on a cycle of about twenty-
four hours.
 Several other bodily functions such as body temperature,
also work on circadian rhythms.
 These circadian cycles can be quite complex. For instance,
sleepiness occurs not just in the evening, but throughout the day
in regular patterns. Most of us get drowsy in the early afternoon
- regardless of whether we have eaten a heavy lunch. The dip in
alertness is due solely to time of the day.
a. Circadian cycles are powerful – as anyone who has worked a
night shift knows well. Even after a full night’s work, people
often have trouble sleeping during the day.
b. Circadian rhythms can be modified – although the process is
not easy, as people who have suffered from a jet lag will
testify.

 The Stages of Sleep

 People consider sleep a time of quiet tranquility, as they
set aside the tensions of the day and spend the night in
uneventful slumber. However, a closer look at sleep shows that a
good deal of activity occurs throughout the night, and what at
first appears to be an undifferentiated state is, in fact, quite
diverse.
 Much of the knowledge of what happens during sleep comes
from the analysis of brainwaves measured by the
electroencephalogram (EEG), which evaluates the electrical
activity within the brain.
 Instruments that measure muscle and eye movements also
reveal a good deal of physical activity during sleep and dreams.
 People progress during a night’s rest through several
cycles, each of them made up of four distinct stages of sleep.
 Each cycle lasts about 90 minutes, and each stage is
associated with a unique pattern of brain waves.

1. Stage 1 – Sleep (quiet sleep stages)

 When people first go to sleep, they move from a waking state
in which they are relaxed with their eyes closed – sometimes
called stage 0 sleep – into stage 1 sleep, which is characterized
by relatively rapid, low-voltage brain waves.
 This is actually a stage of transition between wakefulness
and sleep, and the EEG pattern of the brainwaves is quite similar
to the one that occurs when people are awake and fully alert.
 During stage 1, images sometimes appear; it is as if people
were viewing still photos. However, true dreaming does not occur
during this stage.
2. Stage 2 – Sleep
 After a few minutes in stage 1, sleep becomes deeper, and
people enter into the stage 2 sleep, which is characterized by a
slower, more regular wave pattern.
 However, there are also momentary interruptions of sharply
pointed waves called, because of their configuration “sleep
spindles.” It becomes increasingly difficult to awaken a person
from stage 2 sleep, which makes up about half of the total sleep
of people in their early twenties.
3. Stage 3 – Sleep
 As people drift into stage 3 sleep, the brain waves become
slower, with an appearance of higher peaks and lower valleys in
the wave pattern.
4. Stage 4 – Sleep
 By the time sleepers arrive in the stage 4 sleep, the
pattern of the brainwaves is even slower and more regular, and
people are least responsive to outside stimulation.
 It takes about half an hour to go from stage 1 to stage 4.
At least in the beginning of the night, the sleeper stays in
stage 4 for some 30 to 40 minutes.

 The REM Sleep ( the dreaming phase)

 Several times a night, at the end of each sleeping cycle
(returning from higher stages back to stage 1), something curious
happens: the heart rate increases and becomes irregular, the
blood pressure rises, the breathing rate increases, and males
have erections.
 Most characteristics of this period is the back and forth
movement of the eyes, as if the person were watching an action-
filled movie. This period of sleep is called rapid eye movement
or REM sleep.
 The duration of the REM sleep is quite short at the end of
the first sleep cycles of the night, but becomes longer towards
the morning.
 The total duration of the REM sleep is a little over 20% of
an adult’s sleeping time.
 REM sleep is usually accompanied by dreams which, whether
people remember them or not, are experienced by everyone during
some part of the night.
 In about 80% of awakenings during the REM sleep, the people
reported that they were dreaming. Reports on dreams after being
awakened from a non-REM sleep stage, are very few.
 There is good reason to believe that REM sleep plays an
important role in everyday human functioning.
 People deprived of REM sleep (by being awakened every time
they begin to display the physiological signs of the stage) show
a rebound effect when subsequently allowed to rest undisturbed.
With this rebound effect, REM-deprived sleepers spend
significantly more time in REM sleep than they normally would. It
is as if the body requires a certain amount of REM sleep in order
to function properly.

5. DREAMING
 Dreams are successions of images that occur during the REM
sleep. Most of the dreams people have are referring to
everyday events as going to the market or preparing a meal.
But people more easily remember afterwards the more exciting
ones.
 Unusually frightening dreams, called nightmares, are not
readily forgotten in the morning. And even more frightening
than nightmares are called night terrors, instances in which
a sleeping individual experiences a profoundly frightening
emotion and wakes up, in some cases screaming in horror.
 Often the fear I s so real that people cannot go back to
sleep immediately and need time to regain their emotional
composure.

 Why do people dream?

  Whether dreams have a specific function is a question
that scientist have considered for many years. Many
hypotheses have been set up, and different
interpretations have probably shed light on one or
another aspect of the function of dreaming, but no
theory has thus far given a final and comprehensive
explanation.
 Among the most important theories we can mention:
a. The Unconscious Wish Fulfillment Theory (Freud – 1900).
 Dreams represent unconscious wishes that a dreamer
wants to fulfill. Since these wishes are threatening to
the dreamer’s conscious awareness, the actual wishes –
called the latent content of the dream – are disguised.
 The manifest content of the dream – the story in the
dream – has at first glance little to do with its
latent content which can only be discovered through a
process of dream analysis. (symbolization)

b. The Reverse Learning Theory (1983)

 According to this theory, dreams have no meaning
whatsoever. Instead, they represent a kind of reverse
learning, in which we flush away unnecessary
information that we have accumulated during the day.
 Dreams then are a kind of mental housecleaning of the
brain, but have no meaning in and of themselves.
c. The Dreams-for-Survival Theory (1990)
 Dreams permit information, critical for our daily
survival to be reconsidered and reprocessed during
sleep. In this theory, dreams do have a meaning. They
represents concerns about our daily lives, illustrating
 the uncertainties, indecisions, ideas, and desires of
our lives.
d. The activation-Synthesis Theory (1988)
 The most influential current explanation for dreaming
considers dreams as a by-product of fundamental
biological activity.
 The brain produces random electrical energy during the
REM sleep, possibly due to changes in the production of
particular neurotransmitters. This electrical energy
randomly stimulates memories lodged in various portions
of the brain. Because we have a need to make sense of
our world, even while sleep, the brain takes these
chaotic memories and weaves them into a logical story
line, filling in the gaps to produce a rational
scenario.
 This theory does not reject the earlier view (Freud)
that dreams reflect unconscious wishes. It believes
that the particular scenario that a dreamer produces is
a clue to the dreamer’s fears, emotions and concerns.
Hence, what starts out as a random process, culminates
in something meaningful.

o Dreams may provide clues about the things that

on some level of consciousness are most
important to us.
 Daydreams
 Daydreams are fantasies that people construct while
awake. Consequently, daydreams are more under people’s
control, and therefore their content is often more
closely related to immediate events in the environment.
  Except in those rare cases in which a daydreamer is
unable to distinguish a fantasy from reality,
daydreaming seems to be a normal part of waking
consciousness. Indeed, fantasy may contribute to the
psychological well-being of some people by enhancing
their creativity and by permitting them to use their
imagination to understand what other people are
experiencing.

6. SLEEP DISTRURBANCES
a. Insomnia: an inability to get to sleep or stay asleep,
especially when chronic. Insomnia can due to a particular
situation such as the breakup of a relationship, concern
about a test score, or a loss of a job. But in some cases of
insomnia there is no obvious reason or cause. Some people
are simply unable to fall asleep easily, or they go to sleep
readily but wake up frequently during the night.
b. Sleep Apnea: a sleep disorder characterized by a difficulty
in breathing and sleeping simultaneously. The result is a
disturbed sleep as the person is constantly reawakened when
the lack of oxygen becomes great enough to trigger a waking
response. Not surprisingly, such a disturbed sleep results
in complaints of sleepiness the next day. Sleep apnea may
account for the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a
mysterious killer of seemingly normal infants who die while
sleeping.
c. Narcolepsy: an uncontrollable need to sleep for short
periods during the day. No matter what the activity- holding
a heated conversation, exercising, or driving – the
narcoleptic will suddenly drift into sleep. People with
 narcolepsy go directly from wakefulness to REM sleep,
skipping the other stages. The causes of narcolepsy are not
known, although there may be a genetic component, with
narcolepsy running in some families.
d. Sleepwalking (somnambulism) and Sleep talking
(somniloquacity): they are two fairly harmless sleep
disturbances. Both occur during the stage 4 sleep and are
more frequent in children than in adults. In most cases,
sleep talkers and sleepwalkers have a vague consciousness of
the world around them, and a sleepwalker may be able to walk
around some obstruction in a crowded room in an agile
fashion. Unless a sleepwalker wanders into a dangerous
environment, sleepwalking poses little risk. Moreover, the
conventional wisdom that one shouldn’t awaken sleepwalkers
is wrong: no harm will come from waking them up, although
they will probably be quite confused.

7. SLEEPING BETTER
 Some suggestions for sleeping better, and even for
overcoming insomnia (the most frequent sleep disturbance)
can be helpful:
a. Exercise during the day; not surprisingly, it helps to be
tired before going to sleep.
b. Choose a regular bedtime and then stick to it. Adhering
to a habitual schedule helps your internal timing
mechanism regulate your body better.
c. Don’t use your bed as an all-purpose area. Leave
studying, reading, eating, watching TV, etc. some other
area. By following this advice, your bed will be a cue
for sleeping.
 d. Avoid drinks with caffeine (such as coffee, tea and some
soft drinks) after lunch; their effects can linger for as
long as eight to twelve hours after they are consumed.
e. Drink a glass of warm milk at bedtime. Milk contains the
chemical tryptophan, which helps people go to sleep.
f. Avoid sleeping pills. They can be temporarily effective,
but in the long run sleeping pills may cause more harm
than good, since they disrupt the normal sleep cycle.
g. Try not to go to sleep. Part of the reason people have
difficulty falling asleep is that they are trying too
hard. A better strategy is to go to bed only when you
feel tired. If you don’t get sleep within ten minutes,
get out of bed, and do something else, returning to bed
only when you feel tired. This process should be
continued, all night if necessary. But in the morning,
get up at your usual hour and do not take a nap during
the day. After a 3 to 4 weeks on this regimen, most
people become conditioned to associate their beds with
sleep – and fall asleep rapidly at night.
h. In some cases the learning of systematic relaxation
techniques can help to unwind from the day’s stresses and
tensions.

8. HYPNOSIS AND MEDITATION AS ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

a. Hypnosis
 Hypnosis is a state of heightened susceptibility to the
suggestions of others.
In some respects, it appears that a person in a
hypnotic trance is sleep, but he is not: the brainwaves
are different from those during sleep, and they person
is fully attentive to the hypnotist’s suggestions which
he carries out even when they may be bizarre or silly.
  At the same time, people do not lose all will of their
own when hypnotized. They will not perform antisocial
behaviors, and they will not carry out self-destructive
acts. They will not reveal hidden truths about
themselves, and they are capable of lying. Moreover,
people cannot be hypnotized against their will –
against popular misconceptions.
 There are wide variations in people’s susceptibility to
hypnosis. About 5 to 20 percent of the population
cannot be hypnotized at all, while some 15 percent are
very easily hypnotized. Most people fall in between.
The ease with which a person is hypnotized is related
to a person’s high ability to concentrate and to become
completely absorbed in what he is doing, unaware of
what is happening around him.
 At present, most researchers in the field are convinced
that hypnosis is a state of consciousness that differs
significantly from other states, i.e. it is an “altered
state of consciousness”.
 The characteristics that differentiate people under
hypnosis from others are:
 An increase ability to recall and reconstruct
images,
 A lack of initiative, and ability to accept
uncritically suggestions that clearly
contradict reality,
 Changes in electrical activity in the brain.

Psychologists working in many different areas have found hypnosis

to be reliable, effective tool. Among the applications are:
 a. Control of pain – patients suffering from chronic pain may
be given suggestions, while hypnotized, that their pain is
eliminated or reduced. Hypnosis has proved to be
particularly useful during childbirth and dental procedures.

b. Psychotherapy – hypnosis is at times used during treatment

for psychological disorders. It has given good results to
decrease anxiety, to modify thoughts that are self-
defeating, to remove tensions and induce relaxation.

c. Law enforces uses – witnesses and victims are sometimes

better able to recall details of a crime when hypnotized.
However, the legal status of hypnosis is still unresolved,
because in some cases the accurate recall of specific
information increases – but so do also the number of errors.

CHAPTER 5: HUMAN LEARNING AND MEMORY

What is learning?

 Learning is a relatively permanent change in

behavior brought about by experience.
 This may defined as a process that brings about
change in an individual’s way of responding as a
result of practice or other experiences.

VARIABLES IN HUMAN LEARNING

1. INDIVIDUAL VARIABLES
  Among many individual variables affecting the course
of learning, the intelligence, motivation, emotional
state and maturational level of the learner have
been shown to be of most importance.

a. Intelligence
 The concept “intelligence” is familiar to everyone. It
refers to a general capacity of a person to understand
the world, to think rationally, and to use resources
effectively when faced with challenges. An index of
this kind of general intelligence is the well-known IQ.
 More recently, the concept of intelligence got
broadened again to move away from the ability or
abilities to solve strictly intellectual problems. It
is argued that the concept of intelligence also has to
include a person’s ability to effectively cope with
social relations, emotional challenges, awareness of
himself, sensitiveness for the feelings of others, and
self-initiated activity. This kind of intelligence is
now indexed as EQ.
 It is evident that a person’s level of intelligence in
its different meanings affects his process of learning
to make it more easy or difficult, more effective or
ineffective.

b. Motivation
 When behavior is motivated, it means that it is
directed toward a specific goal, called an incentive.
Incentives are of two kinds: those are intrinsic to the
material learned, and those that are extrinsic to the
material. An individual is motivated by an intrinsic
 incentive when he learns to do something because of the
satisfaction he gets in doing it. He is motivated by an
extrinsic incentive, when he learns some task because
of an external reward.
 Learning that is motivated by intrinsic incentives is
superior over learning motivated by extrinsic
incentives. However, it would be a mistake to take a
position of extreme opposition to the use of extrinsic
incentives. The judicious use of both types of
incentives probably is best.
c. Emotions
 The learning process is greatly affected by negative
emotions like tension and anxiety. Their effect,
however, appears to depend on two factors: the
intensity of the emotions as well as on the degree of
complexity of the task.
o The intensity of the emotions – the
relationship between the intensity of the
emotions and the effectiveness of the learning
process is curvilinear: a lower intensity is
beneficial to the learning task. It keeps
people on their toes. But a higher intensity of
emotions interferes with the learning: the
learners become more concerned, even obsessed,
with his emotions rather than with the task to
be learned.
o The complexity of the task – for simple
learning tasks the foregoing effect of emotions
is almost negligible, but it increases in
proportion to a higher degree of task
complexity.
d. Maturation
  The effectiveness of learning a particular task also
depends on the learner’s stage of development. Similar
to motor behaviors like walking and talking for which
an appropriate physical development is needed, so it is
with many learning tasks: to maximize learning, the
placement of learning tasks at certain age/grade levels
according to the development of the children is
necessary. Psychologists prefer to talk “readiness” for
the learning of specific tasks.

2. TASK VARIABLES
 There are some factors related to the task to be
learned which affect the learning process.

a. Difficulty of Material
 It is obvious that more difficult material requires
more time and practice to master it. What is not so
obvious, however, is the progress of the learning
process as a function of the difficulty of the
material.
 It has been established that easy material is learned
rapidly at first, and much more slowly in the later
trials of the learning process. Difficult material, on
the hand, tends to be learned more slowly in the
initial stages, and more rapidly in the later stages.
To offset discouragement, the learner should be aware
of this factor.
b. Meaningfulness of the Material
 Learning is substantially facilitated when the material
is meaningful to the learner. The more meaningful it
is, the faster it is learned. Meaningful material
 possesses association values, and hence it is easier to
figure out links and connections in the mind. Before a
student memorizes something, he should first of all try
to fully understand its meaning.
c. Serial Position Effect
 The position of the subject matter I a list of material
to be learned, has been found to affect learning.
Materials at the beginning and towards the end of a
series are easily learned. Materials in the middle of
the series are learned with greater difficulty. The
mere position of the material in the task affects the
learning of it.

3. METHOD VARIABLES
 The third major category of variables related to
human learning includes those factors
a. Active versus Passive Learning
 Active learning involves recitation, outlining, and
self-testing of the material to be learned, while
passive learning limits itself to merely reading the
material from the beginning till the end. The
reconstruction process of the material by the learner
is responsible for the superiority of the active
learning.
b. Massed versus Distributed Practices
 Practice is “massed” when the total amount of the time
for learning is done in one interval; it is
“distributed” when the same amount of time is spread
out over several time intervals.
c. Knowledge of Results
  Many studies dealing with this variable indicate that
learning does not occur in the absence of knowledge or
result, which involves the principle of feedback.
Knowledge of the results is very important factor in
learning and it does this in two ways:
1. Feedback permits the learner to strengthen his
correct responses, and to correct his errors. The
more immediately the feedback is given, and the
more detailed and specific it is, the faster the
learning.
2. Feedback serves as an incentive for learning. A
person who knows how he is doing, becomes much
more interested in the learning task.
d. Whole versus Part Learning
 The whole method tends to be more effective: when the
material is so meaningful that it easily hangs
together; when the learner is intelligent enough to
learn things quickly.
 The part method is more advantageous: when parts can
easily be separated from the total context; when the
whole is so large that it needs a further breakdown;
when the learner needs encouragement to go on; this
method gives more immediate feedback and a sense of
achievement.

TYPES OF LEARNING

a. Classical Conditioning
 The simplest form of learning is classical
conditioning. It requires the association of two
stimuli, with one gradually acquiring a significance it
did not possess before.
  Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), a Russian physiologist and
Novel Prize awardee, was the first to conduct
systematic studies on conditioned response.

CS --- UCS --- UCR --- CS --- CR

Discrimination – refers to eliciting different responses to

two different stimuli.

 Responses that are no longer reinforced tend to

disappear form the organism’s selection of behavior.
This is called extinction.
 Spontaneous recovery refers to the return of a
conditioned response following experimental extinction,
after periods of reinforcement.

b. Instrumental Conditioning/ Operant conditioning

 This is another kind of simple learning, involves a
response that is habitually given in a stimulus
situation from a selection of many responses.
 It differs from classical conditioning.
 In classical conditioning, the dog always received food
(reinforcer) in the learning situation. His behavior
had nothing to do with feeding. In instrumental
conditioning, the behavior of the animal in the
learning situation was the basis of the reinforcing
reward. Nothing is given until response is emitted.
 It involves the selection of a response from among a
series of responses. It needs the strengthening of a
stimulus-response association by following the response
with a reinforcing stimulus.
 E.L. Thorndike (1874-1949) initiated instrumental
conditioning experiments. He used cats and a puzzle box
 that they can escape from by turning a knob or pulling
a string. In later years, a device called the Skinner
Box, named after B.F. Skinner, was widely used in
laboratory studies. A fully equipped Skinner box is a
device containing a bar to press, a string to pull, a
button to peck, or some other device which, if
appropriately triggered, automatically supplies the
animal with a measured amount of food.
 Four kinds of instrumental conditioning:
1. Primary reward condition – the learned response id
instrumental in obtaining a biologically significant reward,
such as a pellet of food, or a drink of water.
2. Escape conditioning – the learned response is instrumental
in getting out of a place one prefers not to be in.
3. Avoidance conditioning – the learned response is
instrumental in avoiding a painful experience.
4. Secondary reward conditioning – the instrumental behavior to
a stimulus which has no biological utility by itself but
which has in the past been associated with biologically
significant stimulus.

Reinforcement – it is any stimulus that will maintain or increase

the strength of a response. A strong response is one that is very
likely to occur every time the stimulus is presented.

Positive and Negative reinforcement – positive reinforcement

refers to any pleasant or desirable consequence that, if applied
after a response, increases the probability of that response.
Negative reinforcement occurs in both escape and avoidance
learning. In escape learning, behavior is strengthened by the
elimination of an unpleasant condition that already exists;
hence, the organism escapes an aversive situation. Avoidance
learning occurs as an organism learns to prevent an expected
unpleasant event from happening.

Reward and punishment – as learning and motivation are

inseparable, intrinsic or extrinsic rewards are necessary in
conditioning the learning. Emotional attitudes and factors can
have a profound effect on learning efficiency. Learning should be
based on rewards or positive reinforcement, and that aversive
stimulation should be used as little as possible.

SOCIAL COGNITIVE LEARNING

 Albert Bandura (1925-present) explained social cognitive

learning theory as how we learn in everyday life. This
theory brings together behaviorist and cognitive principles
by focusing on human learning as a continuous interaction
between the individual and the social environment in which
he or she lives.
 According to social learning theorists, we do much more than
merely respond automatically and blindly to what is
happening in the environment.
 Human beings, not only have sight but also insight,
foresight, and hindsight, and we use all three in
interpreting our experiences.
 We learn not only through our own direct experiences with
repetition and reward, but also by watching what happens to
other people and by just being told something. One of
Bandura’s main departures from traditional learning theory
is his emphasis on observational learning – the ability to
learn by watching other people’s behavior.

Four Mechanisms by Bandura:

 a. Attentional process – factors that determine whether one
will pay attention to a particular model or not.
b. Retention process – the various ways one files what have
been observed for possible use later.
c. Motor reproduction – transformation from watching or doing.
d. Reinforcement – particularly the anticipation of rewards as
a motivational factor.

MEMORY

 In the most general terms: memory is the process, which

makes the available to the individual something he has
learned previously.
 To carry out this process, the person goes three phases
during which one encodes, stores, and retrieves information.
 Each of the three stages represents a different process, and
is essential to be able to recall something.
1. Encoding (Fixation) – the process by which the information
(new knowledge) is initially recorded in a form usable to
memory. This encoding process will be more effective under
two conditions:
a. Information with an emotional significance will be
encoded more effectively.
b. Information with associations to things already known
will be encoded more effectively. We use the nets woven
by past experience to capture new information.
2. Retention – it is the “storing process” of what was
acquired. It depends on the encoding process: well-encoded
material is better retained.
 Decrease in retention is forgetting.
 Why do we forget? It was thought the theory of decay
that there was a loss of information through the nonuse
 over a period of time. However, subsequently it was
found that decay is not able to account for forgetting.
 At present, most research suggests that interference is
the key process in forgetting. Interference is the
phenomenon by which recall is hindered because of other
information already in memory, which displaces or
blocks the information out.
 The interference can be of double nature:
a. Retroactive interference – new learning interferes
with the recall of information learned earlier.
b. Proactive interference – information learned earlier
interferes with the recall of material learned
later.
3. Retrieval (Remembering) – the process by which material in
memory storage is located, brought into awareness, and used.
 Retrieval can take place in different ways:
a. Recall – the process of drawing from memory a
specific piece of information for a specific
purpose.
b. Recognition – the process of acknowledging prior
exposure to a given stimulus.
c. Reintegration – the process wherein one remembers
not only a specific event, but also all the details
and circumstances of this event with its setting in
time and place.
 CHAPTER 6: MOTIVATION

EXPLAIN

1. The concept of motivation

 It comes from the Latin word “movere”, or move.
 Describes the wants or needs that direct behavior
toward a goal.
 Human behavior is invariably directed toward certain
ends or goals.
 It is the willingness of doing something especially in
behavior.
 It is an internal or external desire of a person to
achieve his life goal.
 Like that of other animals, much of man’s behavior is
directed toward goals closely related to the
satisfaction of his basic physiological needs, and
early in life his behavior is dominated entirely by
these needs.
 The infant is not motivated by such things as money,
prestige or a desire to be socially acceptable. As the
infant grows, however, new motives appear.
  The child may be motivated by a desire to surpass an
older brother, or by a wish to impress his playmates.
 To be sure, the physiological needs present in infancy
still motivate him.
 As the individual grows older, his motives become more
numerous and complex. He wants to be with others to
love and to be loved. He looks forward to have his own
family, he strives to be accepted and appreciated, to
be promoted to a higher position, and to become an
outstanding professional. He even asks himself and
others questions about his own existence: he wants to
know the meaning of his life, of suffering, of death.
 All these are instances of motivated behavior. The term
“motivation” is a broad term covering all the factors
that direct and energize behavior.

2. Characteristics of Motivated Behavior

 In general, motivated behavior has some features that
differentiate it from behavior that is not motivated.
a. Motivated behavior is instigated.
 Something sets off a behavioral sequence. The
instigator can be either a deficit within the organism
or some external object that triggers the behavior. To
understand a motive better, it is important to know the
conditions that arouse it. This does not imply,
however, that the person is always aware of these
arousal conditions and the motivation affected by it.
Motivates can be at work on a subconscious level.
b. Motivated behavior is directional.
 Once a motivated behavioral sequence has been set off,
the behavior carries a person toward or away from
 something. It moves toward what may satisfy the person,
or away from what is undesirable. It can be said that
motivated behavior leads to a goal. It is always goal
oriented.
c. Motivated behavior is selective.
 A motivated individual is sensitive to those parts of
the world that have a relevance to his needs. Depending
on the intensity of the need condition, he becomes more
sensitive to whatever may be instrumental to satisfy
this need, and less sensitive to whatever does not meet
this need. This aspect of motivated behavior implies
that such a behavior is adaptive and flexible. It is in
function of the problem to be solved.
d. Motivated behavior is homeostatic.
 Originally, homeostasis was thought of as the process
of maintaining an internal physiological equilibrium.
Certain mechanisms are built into the body that tends
to preserve a constant equilibrium.

TWO PRIMARY TYPES OF MOTIVATION

a. Extrinsic Motivation
 It is a geared toward external rewards and reinforcers.
 It is more about financial incentives, status, and
public recognition.
b. Intrinsic Motivation
 It refers to a behavior that is driven by internal
rewards.
 It involves doing something because it’s personally
rewarding to you.
 It is more about personal growth, sense of duty, and
the recognition of purpose.
WHAT ARE THE BIOLOGICAL DRIVES?

Biological (physiological) drives

 These are associated with bodily needs that produce a

restless activity which continues until tissue needs
are satisfied.

Example of biological drives:

 Hunger - When the state of hunger arises, there will be

activity. Internal processes involve a reaction of the
hypothalamus to the chemical state of the blood.
 Thirst - People can live for many weeks without food,
but they cannot survive without water. The thirst drive
is a regulatory device which serves to control the
intake of water into the body, maintaining constant
water content.
 Sex - Sex is not a vital motive, it is dealt with
special social restriction and control. The internal
processes of the sex motive involve the secretion of
androgens for males and estrogen for females. Different
cultures affect sexual interest and activity.
 Air hunger - Air is the most basic requirement of the
human body and as a need, it must be continuously
satisfied. Severe oxygen deprivation or anoxia can
result in feeblemindedness or other abnormalities.
  Warmth and Cold - These are regarded as drives because
they serve as powerful motives that keep a person
striving to maintain them at a satisfactory level. Body
temperature must not get too high or too low.
 Pain - It acts as a drive because pain indicates a
danger to the organism, and is related to the need for
protection or safety. Experiences that bring pain makes
us learn to avoid them.
 Rest and sleep - Sleep drive is related to rest drive,
but they are not identical. During sleep, the nerve and
brain centers are stimulated by chemical within the
body.

HULL’S DRIVE REDUCTION THEORY

 Clark Leonard Hull is the proponent of this theory (1884-

1952).
 (May24, 1884-May 10, 1952)
 He was an American Psychologist who sought to explain
learning and motivation by scientific laws of behavior.
 He is known for his work in drive theory.
 It is derived from one concept of homeostasis, which is the
tendency to maintain internal body balance or state of
equilibrium.

DRIVE REDUCTION THEORY

  It focuses on how motivation originates from biological
needs or drives.

WHAT ARE THE PSYCHOSOCIAL MOTIVES?

 Psychosocial needs are acquired and learned from past

experiences. New goals or values are acquired as one
matures.

 Environment and social norms affect the development of

psychosocial needs and its satisfaction.

Example of Psychosocial Needs

a. Affiliation - People need the company of others, but

there are different motives for affiliation.
Example:
Clubs, churches, exclusive organization
b. Dependency - People depend on others to have someone to
look up to, to turn someone for help, or to be accepted
and loved.
 c. Social Approval - Social approval is learned in early
childhood training when parents establish what is right
and what is wrong for the child. As children grow older,
they try to conform to the norms set by the group they
are in.
d. Status - An individual’s status motives depend on one’s
own makeup and on the group or society one belongs to.
Status motives are of different kinds. (prestige and
power)
Example:
New dress, cellphone, new house
e. Security - People depend on other people or things and
conditions for security. The feeling involves being able
to hold on to what one has, like money, partner’s
affection, job, etc. It is important in people’s lives as
it stabilizes people’s physical and social life.
f. Power - Some people desire recognition, to be influential
and in control. These individuals work to meet high
standards – sometimes with indifference to matters of
comfort, convenience, approval or monetary reward.

WHAT IS COMPLEX MOTIVE?

 People encounter complex motives as they perform their work

from day to day.

 There drives and goals connected in adverse ways in the

satisfaction of a single goal.

Example:

A poor boy who becomes a millionaire starts with

physiological drives. To drive off hunger, he starts working
to earn money for food, so money becomes a secondary goal.
WHAT IS GORDON ALLPORT’S FUNCTIONAL AUTONOMY OF MOTIVE?

 GORDON WILLARD ALLPORT. He was an American Psychologist. He

was born on November 11, 1897 and died in October 9, 1967.
He was one of the first Psychologists to focus on the study
of the personality, and is often referred to as one of the
founding figures of personality psychology.
 It is the idea that drives can become independent of the
original motives for a given behavior.

WHAT IS UNCONSCIOUS MOTIVE?

 We are often not aware of our goals and, consequently, we

are unable to explain why we seek them.
 Many motives remain unconscious because they have no way of
entering our awareness.
 Sometimes, we remain unaware of very strong motives because
of repression.
 Sigmund Freud introduced the term “repression” to explain
the “active forgetting” of unpleasant memories.
 Repression occurs when a thought, memories, or feeling is
too painful for an individual, so the person unconsciously
pushes the information out of consciousness and becomes
unaware of its existence.
 In conclusion: Different people may perform the same act but
for entirely different motives. For each person, a single
act is often of several motives.

MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF HUMAN NEEDS

 Abraham Harold Maslow was an American Psychologist who was

best known for creating Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He was
born on April 8, 1908 at Brooklyn, New york and died in June
8, 1970 at California, USA.
Maslow (1943, 1954) stated that people are motivated to achieve
certain needs and that some needs take precedence over others.
Our most basic need is for physical survival, and this will be
the first thing that motivates our behavior. Once that level is
fulfilled the next level up is what motivates us, and so on.
1. Physiological needs - these are biological requirements for
human survival, e.g. air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, warmth,
sex, sleep.
If these needs are not satisfied the human body cannot function
optimally. Maslow considered physiological needs the most
important as all the other needs become secondary until these
needs are met.

2. Safety needs - Once an individual’s physiological needs are

satisfied, the needs for security and safety become salient.
People want to experience order, predictability and control in
their lives. These needs can be fulfilled by the family and
society (e.g. police, schools, business and medical care).
For example, emotional security, financial security (e.g.
employment, social welfare), law and order, freedom from fear,
social stability, property, health and wellbeing (safety against
accidents and injury).
3. Love and belongingness needs - after physiological and safety
needs have been fulfilled, the third level of human needs is
social and involves feelings of belongingness. The need for
interpersonal relationships motivates behavior
Examples include friendship, intimacy, trust, and acceptance,
receiving and giving affection and love. Affiliating, being part
of a group (family, friends, work).
4. Esteem needs are the fourth level in Maslow’s hierarchy -
which Maslow classified into two categories: esteem for oneself
(dignity, achievement, mastery, independence) and the desire for
reputation or respect from others (e.g., status, prestige).
Maslow indicated that the need for respect or reputation is most
important for children and adolescents and precedes real self-
esteem or dignity.
5. Self-actualization needs are the highest level in Maslow's
hierarchy, and refer to the realization of a person's potential,
self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.
Maslow (1943) describes this level as the desire to accomplish
everything that one can, to become the most that one can be.
Individuals may perceive or focus on this need very specifically.
For example, one individual may have a strong desire to become an
ideal parent. In another, the desire may be expressed
economically, academically or athletically. For others, it may be
expressed creatively, in paintings, pictures, or inventions.

The expanded hierarchy of needs

It is important to note that Maslow's (1943, 1954) five-stage
model has been expanded to include cognitive and aesthetic needs
(Maslow, 1970a) and later transcendence needs (Maslow, 1970b).
Changes to the original five-stage model are highlighted and
include a seven-stage model and an eight-stage model; both
developed during the 1960s and 1970s.
1. Biological and physiological needs - air, food, drink,
shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.
2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law,
stability, freedom from fear.
3. Love and belongingness needs - friendship, intimacy, trust,
and acceptance, receiving and giving affection and love.
Affiliating, being part of a group (family, friends, work).
4. Esteem needs - which Maslow classified into two categories:
(i) esteem for oneself (dignity, achievement, mastery,
independence) and (ii) the desire for reputation or respect from
others (e.g., status, prestige).
5. Cognitive needs - knowledge and understanding, curiosity,
exploration, need for meaning and predictability.
6. Aesthetic needs - appreciation and search for beauty, balance,
form, etc.
7. Self-actualization needs - realizing personal potential, self-
fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences. A
desire “to become everything one is capable of becoming”(Maslow,
1987, p. 64).
8. Transcendence needs - A person is motivated by values which
transcend beyond the personal self (e.g., mystical experiences
and certain experiences with nature, aesthetic experiences,
sexual experiences, service to others, the pursuit of science,
religious faith, etc.).

Characteristics of self-actualized people

 Although we are all, theoretically, capable of self-

actualizing, most of us will not do so, or only to a limited
degree. Maslow (1970) estimated that only two percent of
people would reach the state of self-actualization.
 He was especially interested in the characteristics of
people whom he considered to have achieved their potential
as individuals.
 By studying 18 people he considered to be self-actualized
(including Abraham Lincoln and Albert Einstein) Maslow
(1970) identified 15 characteristics of a self-actualized
person. 
Characteristics of self-actualizers:
1. They perceive reality efficiently and can tolerate
uncertainty;
2. Accept themselves and others for what they are;
3. Spontaneous in thought and action;
4. Problem-centered (not self-centered);
5. Unusual sense of humor;
6. Able to look at life objectively;
7. Highly creative;
8. Resistant to enculturation, but not purposely unconventional;
9. Concerned for the welfare of humanity;
10. Capable of deep appreciation of basic life-experience;
11. Establish deep satisfying interpersonal relationships with a
few people;
12. Peak experiences;
13. Need for privacy;
14. Democratic attitudes;
15. Strong moral/ethical standards.
ALDERFER’S ERG THEORY

 CLAYTON PAUL ALDERFER was an American Psychologist and

consultant known for further developing Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs. He was born on September 1, 1940 at Pennsylvania,
USA and died on October 30, 2015.

Existence

 It is concerned with providing basic material existence

requirements of humans.
 Satisfied by factors such as food, air, water, pay, working
conditions, safety, security, etc.
Relatedness

 Satisfied by meaningful social and interpersonal

relationships.

Growth

 Satisfied by making creative or productive contributions.