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1 Chapter 6: Energy, Arousal and Action Assigned reading: Pp 201 – 215; 222 – 234; & 241 – 243 (ppt covers other pages in the chapter) Arousal does not imply sexual attraction (although it can…). You can think of it as a level of awareness or alertness. 2 ANXIETY AS A DRIVE • Piano recital vs. Solo at Carnegie Hall • Free throws at a game vs. State tournament • An exam in class vs the GRE/ACT/Bar exam Spence and others have shown that anxiety can act as a drive (p204) and that minimal amounts is a good thing. However, there is a threshold in which it can be detrimental. If you are an actor and you aren’t at all nervous, you might not give as good as a performance as you would if you were a little nervous – your senses are hightened, your more aware, more cognizant and excited. However, too much and that anxiety become stage fright, possible vomiting and lack of talking. Take my high school basketball team…..we practiced free throws at practice day after day… however, during a game the anxiety is a little higher and our percentage of made free throws was slightly higher during games than during practice. However, during the state tournament with thousands of people in the stands and a state championship on the line, the anxiety (drive) was much higher and our percentage was extremely low. Another wrench in this system, however, is how well you shoot free throws to begin with. For example, Shaquille O’Neil’s (not very good at free throws) threshold between anxiety being helpful and detrimental is lower than Karl Malone’s who holds many records for free throw shooting percentages. 3 Freud’s contributions • Can be seen in folklore, myth • Dynamic unconscious Freud believed that events – behavioral and mental – reflect the summation of dynamic forces (p 220). Notice the distinction between preconscious and The Subconscious -preconscious is when you choose to not think about something anymore – you see a gross scene on t.v. and decide to NOT think about it anymore….1
Chapter 6:
Energy, Arousal and Action
Assigned reading: Pp 201 – 215; 222 – 234; &
241 – 243
(ppt covers other pages in the chapter)
Arousal does not imply sexual attraction (although it can…). You can think of it as a
level of awareness or alertness. 2
ANXIETY AS A DRIVE
• Piano recital vs. Solo at Carnegie Hall
• Free throws at a game vs. State tournament
• An exam in class vs the GRE/ACT/Bar exam
Spence and others have shown that anxiety can act as a drive (p204) and that
minimal amounts is a good thing. However, there is a threshold in which it can be
detrimental. If you are an actor and you aren’t at all nervous, you might not give as
good as a performance as you would if you were a little nervous – your senses are
hightened, your more aware, more cognizant and excited. However, too much and
that anxiety become stage fright, possible vomiting and lack of talking.
Take my high school basketball team…..we practiced free throws at practice day
after day… however, during a game the anxiety is a little higher and our percentage
of made free throws was slightly higher during games than during practice.
However, during the state tournament with thousands of people in the stands and a
state championship on the line, the anxiety (drive) was much higher and our
percentage was extremely low.
Another wrench in this system, however, is how well you shoot free throws to begin
with. For example, Shaquille O’Neil’s (not very good at free throws) threshold
between anxiety being helpful and detrimental is lower than Karl Malone’s who
holds many records for free throw shooting percentages. 3
Freud’s contributions
• Can be seen in folklore, myth
• Dynamic unconscious
Freud believed that events – behavioral and mental – reflect the summation of
dynamic forces (p 220).
Notice the distinction between preconscious and The Subconscious – preconscious
is when you choose to not think about something anymore – you see a gross scene
on t.v. and decide to NOT think about it anymore. Freud’s subconscious, however,
that contains repressed memories has memories that are thrown so far into the
abyss of the conscious that only trained psychoanalysts can recover it. *repressed
memories have NEVER been recovered under scientific scrutiny, btw – NEVER!!*.
Freud’s contribution’s:
Were unable to be verified under scientific scrutiney
Are often able to be ‘fitted’ into whatever the crises/problem is.
Were often assumed to be successful because the people feel better once a
solution is given to their issue. However, this does not mean that the solution
provided was correct/accurate. ( “a patients assent to a Freudian interpretation is no
guarantee of its correctness” p 221)
But,
They were intriguing, about sex and can fit to any problem. So, the theories stuck
around for longer than most would without scientific evidence. 4
Optimal arousal theory
• Hull…. Vs. optimal arousal theory
Trying to find the perfect balance of arousal.
Optimal level of
arousal
Level of arousal
Efficiency on a task
Hull’s theory hinges on the fact that a Drive (d) exists. Optimal arousal theory does
not require this.
The main point of Optimal Arousal is this: there is a perfect amount of arousal… not
too much, not too little. It is the most pleasant, most effective and one the organism
seeks to attain/maintain.
There is a relationship between difficulty/ease (level of efficiency) of a task and the
arousal level that produces the most optimal effect. (called the Yerkes-Dodson law)
The effect is a inverted U shaped function – easy tasks (high on efficiency) can
handle a lot of pressure (you can still tie your show when you are in front of 10,000
people, on stage with your favorite movie star watching (this is to illustrate that you
feel a lot of arousal). Hard tasks (low efficiency) can not handle a lot of arousal).
Then of course, if you aren’t good at a task (its too hard/efficiency is low), it doesn’t
matter if there is a lot or a little arousal… you will still be bad. It’s the tasks that you
are great at, you will do best with a medium levels of arousal (optimal levels). It’s
the tasks that you are just OKAY at (the blue squares on the U function), not
great/not bad, that will show the greatest range of performance as the arousal
levels changes. 5
Two more schematics
These are two more schematics of the idea that arousal that is too high or too low is not optimal. A
little arousal is needed to be alert/aware. Too much results in emotional arousal that often manifests
itself as stress.
Again,
The optimal level of arousal is:
lower for more difficult or intellectually (cognitive) tasks
higher for tasks requiring endurance and persistence
I believe one of you stated that you wanted to learn from this class how to motivate others…. Well, if
you want to teach those who work for you a new task, you must assume their efficiency is very low
and therefore, arousal should be on the minimal end to foster learning and not stress. On the other
hand, if you are going over old information that should be well known to your staff/students/kids, you
need to be sure their arousal (interest/awareness) is high to get maximum learning effects.
If you are studying new information, you may need to turn off the radio, go to the library, not watch
t.v. etc. However, once you are just reviewing the information, you can do so while watching t.v.,
listening to the radio or watching your daughter play with her toys.
Check out this link to read information on optimal arousal for driving speed/saftey.
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/arousal.html (if you actually read these lectures and do check out the
site, shoot me an email with a short summary (1 paragraph) of what the site determined for a bonus
5 points to your total points. 6
Seeking optimal arousal
• Too much is too much
– Too much = unable to perform
– Too little = deficits
Optimal arousal levels is popular for many reasons, it does agree with both Hull and
Freud *in a general way*. Too much of anything, including arousal, is a bad thing.
We work to maintain this optimal level (when its low, we work to raise it and vice
versa).
Think of auto-erotic asphyxiation as it relates to sexual activity. There are couples
who engage in this behavior b/c of the heightened state that it allows for. However,
too much of this can result in permanent brain damage or death, whereas there is
an optimal level. Less than the optimal level results in no effect… so, again, there is
an optimal level of arousal that people seek when engaging in this behavior.
Same for drinking coffee to stay awake (optimal), but too much can result in
abdominal pain and discomfort. Or, too much arousal from the combination of
drugs/sexual activity can result in the inability to get an erection.
Too little arousal can also be detrimental. Sensory deprivation is an example of this.
A group of people wearing sensory deprivation goggles (that don’t allow any visual
information to enter), blocked earphones and tubes over their hands so they
couldn’t touch anything. They were placed on a cot. The first few hours were okay,
but the people eventually became very irritable and unhappy. 7
Optimal arousal theory
• Only 1 level?
• Sokoloff
Habituation.
There is 1 optimal level of arousal for each task at hand, not 1 optimal level of
arousal in general.
Sokoloff had human subjects in various states of arousal sit in a quiet room. Then a
tone would play loudly. At first this generated a response, especially if played at
steady intervals and timeframes. Eventually this response diminished. The slow
decrease of a response when the stimulus is presented repeatedly is known as
habituation. If, however, the tone appeared too early, late, or not at all, ,the next
tone would result in a large response. Therefore, its the deviation (or surprise) of
the tone that results in a response. The tone is considered an ‘event’ because it
creates an arousing situation and this is usually the result of a surprise value.