Cast Away Analysis.
This movie has concepts from Chapters 1-4.
Watch the movie. Take notes.
Next, write your comment. Your comment does not need to provide an overview of the movie (we have all seen it). Your comment should be an in-depth analysis of one or more principles from your text. You should use scenes and characters to provide examples of textbook concepts. Your comment should reflect that you are in an upper division, university level Motivation and Emotion course and clearly link elements from the movie to the textbook. This is a comprehensive assignment (linking course lectures, textbook, and the movie) and you cannot do that in just a few short paragraphs.
BE SPECIFIC. At the bottom of your comment, please put a list of the ME terms you used.
Cast Away is a great demonstration of the concepts from the book. It is a movie about a man named Chuck who survives a plane crash and ends up trying to survive on an island, changing his motivation to support more basic drives.
One particular scene demonstrating the concepts was when he successfully made a fire. Prior to this scene, he failed an attempted to start a fire, which resulted in psychological anguish and a physical injury. After throwing some things in rage and yelling, he made another attempt. After seeing some smoke, he realized he has to reduce the air exposure, so he dug out some sand to put one stick into and continued. He eventually makes smoke again, indicating some fire has started, and blows on it to spread the flames. When the stick lit ablaze, he reacted with laughter and joyous screaming as he picked up the stick and added material to fuel it. We learn in the next scene that he made a large fire with the stick.
Let’s examine his behavior step by step. He was stranded on an island, trying to make a fire after previously failing. His motivational status was affected by his needs, emotions, cognitions, and external events. His needs were partly biological, because he needed food and heat to maintain homeostasis. He also had the psychological need of competence, because he needed to be sure he could perform this essential job properly, and a social need of achievement, because success would influence his moral (in this case, it would be deficiency motivation, because he was driven to fix a deficit). Emotionally, he was feeling frustrated (as shown by his earlier outburst). His cognitions may have included the belief that he had a chance at survival if he could start a fire, and the expectation that fire would eventually start by rubbing dried sticks. Finally, the external events shaped his motivation status, because he was stranded in an isolated place without many resources. This meant he would have to keep trying until he accomplished his goal, to survive, which means all of these factors were influencing an approach behavior (to start a fire).
With this motivation behind him, his behavior was energized and directed toward another fire-building attempt. His motivation can be clearly noticed by his behavior on the second attempt. He showed effort by vigorously rubbing the stick, in spite of his hand injury, choice by trying again shortly after failure, attention through his bodily position and facial gestures (he is hunched over the stick with his face and eyes squinted, staring intently at the stick as he rubs), and his persistence through trying again and building it into a large fire. He was actively engaged behaviorally (his effort, persistence, etc.), emotionally (expressing frustration when the smoke started, then stopped), cognitively (strategizing a better position to create a flame and adding material to fuel the flames once they sprouted), and vocally (his joyful laughing and shouting when he accomplished his goal). Thus, his behavior was reinforced.
Another way to indicate his motivation would be from his physiology, although it’s impossible to tell his physiological state by just looking at his behavior. However, we can use what we know about physiological structures controlling emotions to get an idea. For instance, his hippocampus and amygdala (negative emotions) were likely active during his fit of rage, the reticular formation (choice) when he started again, and medial forebrain bundle and orbitofrontal cortex (positive emotions) after his successful attempt. We may also assume cortisol (from failure and success) and dopamine (from success) played prominent roles in his behavior. These intraorganismic mechanisms (i.e. his brain structures, organs, and neurochemicals) combined with extraorganismic mechanisms (location and resources of the island) to stimulate his drive to influence his behavior (to go back to the sticks and try to make a fire again). In short, the specific situation aroused the man’s motivation in a number of ways to influence him to act in such a way to reach a harmonious state.
It was interesting to see how Chuck’s motivation adapted him to his struggle against nature. This movie did a good job demonstrating what influences our motivation, and the lengths we go to satisfy it. Overall, I was satisfied on an informative level, as well as an entertaining level.
Terms: Needs, physiological needs, psychological needs, social needs, deficiency motivation, emotions, cognitions, belief, expectation, external events, competence, achievement, homeostasis, approach behavior, behavior, effort, attention, facial gestures, persistence, behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, cognitive engagement, vocal engagement, physiology, hippocampus, amygdala, reticular formation, medial forebrain bundle, orbitofrontal cortex, cortisol, dopamine, intraorganismic mechanisms, extraorganismic mechanisms, drive
The movie Cast Away brilliantly demonstrates motivational theories and concepts at its finest example. The classic grand theories of motivation are apparent throughout the film, as well as the newer mini theories. Watching the main character, Chuck, develop throughout the movie and seeing how his motivation and needs changed help better put these fairly new concepts into practice.
Even though the grand theories did not do a sufficient job at defining motivation, each did offer a piece of the complex puzzle. For example, the instinct theory was evident throughout the entire film whenever Chuck used his surrounding resources to survive. According to this theory, animals and humans have instincts to adapt to their environment. Chuck was able to act on his instincts in order to survive and adapt to the new environment on the island. An example of when he first used his instincts was when he first arrived on the island and used drift wood to spell HELP on the sand, since writing it out in the sand turned out to be a failure. In that example, his instinct was to get help from others, since humans are normally social creatures who help each other out, in order to survive, and in order to do this he used resources from the environment to carry out this action, even though in the end it didn’t actually work. Another example of when he used his instincts was anytime he went hunting for food. Why would he continue to hunt for food instead of just giving up? Well his instinctual needs of eating took over and controlled his behavior into doing the hunting.
The other grand theory that I noticed during the movie was the theory of the drive. This theory states that as biological imbalances occur, animals psychologically experienced bodily deficits as drive. An example of this is when Chuck used his drive when his hunger set in. The scene where a coconut fell upon the ground demonstrated this drive because he tried getting it open using different techniques until it worked. In this example, his body was running low on sugars which triggered his psychological drive into a negative affect (he was getting frustrated that the coconut was not opening). Eventually he used rocks as tools to pry open the coconut and once when he devoured the insides of it, his body was slowly returning back to homeostasis. This example of the coconut may also describe the physiological need process. Step by step, he was in a satiated state before the plane crashed; over the next day as he was drifting off towards land his physiological deprivation of thirst and hunger was gradually setting in; when he reached the island and took time to check out his surroundings his physiological needs turned into a prolonged deprivation; his psychological drive set in after intense anxiety and negative emotions set in; he then when around the island and came upon a coconut, where his goal was to crack it open to eat and drink; he then proceeds by opening the coconut using hand tools from rocks and takes a small drink from the coconut; eventually his drive for thirst is slightly reduced until his satiety state kicks in.
The same type of process can be said about the three principles that influence motivational behavior. Such as the day to day events, the biochemical agents, and the specific brain structures used to produce a motivational or emotional arousal. For example, the plane crash was the unexpected environmental event. The biochemical agents involved were most likely the hormone cortisol and other neurotransmitters that send messages to the brain telling it to turn on survival mode. These agents stimulate the brain structures, in this case mainly the hypothalamus, telling the body it needs to find food while regulating body temp. Lastly the motivational state to stay alive and behave in a way to meet physiological and psychological needs is aroused, producing the behavior to crack open the coconut and make a spear to kill fish and crabs. Another example of this process can be said when he finally made a fire. In this scene, Chuck has been trying for days to sustain a fire. After several failed attempts and a few injuries, he finally catches a spark. The spark of fire was the unexpected pleasant event. The biochemical agent was dopamine, which was evident because his face lit up with joy as he yelled with excitement. Dopamine then activated the limbic system which controls emotions, also producing his excitement, which led to the aroused emotional state and positive affect. From this experience, he was able to learn how to recreate a fire and eventually got the hang of it because the dopamine at that first event activated his reward system and memory into doing it again.
As I stated previously, humans are social creatures. Therefore, social needs were especially evident in this movie since he was alone on an island for 4 years with no other human contact. Since he has no source to gain human interaction to satisfy his social needs of achievement, affiliation, or intimacy, he painted a face on a volleyball and called him Wilson. A scene from the movie which stuck out to me that I think demonstrated his social needs was after Chuck got the rope down from the cliff and was talking to Wilson in the cave. Chuck began explaining the time when he was going to use that rope to hang himself, but decided not to because the test log didn’t work out. Chuck then told him that he’d much rather try his chances on the raft then stay on the island another day. After a much heated debate with Wilson, Chuck kicked him out of the cave in anger. That scene showed how much Chuck was projecting his own feelings onto an inanimate object in order to deal with his problems, as well as feel satisfied from talking to something. He also used Wilson as a source of achievement, as in something he can share his achievements with. Chuck developed an intimate relationship over the course of the movie. Once on the raft when he realized he lost Wilson, he cried and cried and kept saying sorry, as if he let down a really important friend.
Chuck had a motivation to survive that was outside of his basic physiological needs. His extrinsic motivation was to be able to see Kelly again. During the movie, he kept the picture of her in the locket by his bed and looked at it each night before he slept. He eventually drew her picture on the cave wall. This picture symbolized more than just his love for her, but it also gave him a sense of hope and a sense of future. This became apparent again after he built the raft and the ship came by, he reached out his hand and kept repeating “Kelly”.
Chuck mentioned toward the end of the movie when he was talking with his friend from FedEx that he tried to hang himself, but that would have failed and he would have instead bled to death on the rocks. Basically, he said that nothing was in his control or power, not even his own death. The only thing he knew from that point was that he had to stay alive and keep breathing. This demonstrated his willpower to stay alive, even through all that he lost that was the only thing he could currently control. Then once he realized he also lost Kelly when he came back home, he had that same willpower he developed from the island to keep breathing because tomorrow is always a new day.
TERMS: instinct theory, drive theory, psychological drive, homeostasis, satiated state, physiological deprivation, psychological drive, three principles, biochemical agents, cortisol, neurotransmitters, hypothalamus, motivational state, dopamine, limbic system, positive affect, reward system, social needs, achievement, affiliation, intimacy, extrinsic motivation, willpower
The movie Castaway embodies the very essence of Motivation. This entire movie has thousands of examples of the character Chuck being motivated by various structures to do the things he needed to do. One of my favorite examples of this was at the end of the movie when he is talking to Stan after seeing Kelly again. Chuck is talking about how he tried to commit suicide and the reason for this was that he had control over nothing. As we have read autonomy is Psychological Need. Need is any condition within the person that is essential and necessary for life and well being. Chuck stated his need for autonomy, in this case the when, where and how he would die, causes him to try and commit suicide. When he discovered that the fall would not kill him even this need was taken away. Next he describes how he was motivated to keep breathing and to stay alive. The best quote in this movie that really sums of Chuck's motivation after this point is when he says.
"Tomorrow the sun will rise, and you never know what the tide will bring in"
I felt this really said something about his motivational state after his attempted suicide. His motivation was simply to stay alive, I believe that having no control over how he would die, or so he thought, that he decided to take control over how he would live. Not so much in the sense of how his life was for those four years but in terms of staying alive just to stay alive.
Another great example of need in this movie is the social need. When Chuck attempts to make fire and he gets frustrated and throws the volleyball, with blood, he sees a face. Chuck then from this point talks to the ball and connects to it like a regular human being. This represents the social need entirely. The human species is a social animal, we need communication. The use of the volleyball, Wilson, also seemed to help Chuck keep motivated when he was trying to get off the island when he knew how little time he had. Chuck made a strong connection to Wilson as the drive for social need pushed him. The ball Wilson was helping in motivate Chuck in ways like, making Chuck angry and this pushed him to prove Wilson wrong about surviving the trip home. He also provided Chuck with 'doubts' that made Chuck think and keep his wits when he needed them to survive.
A really big motivator for Chuck to get off the island and survive was Kelly. The watch that was given to him before he left was always with him. This is an example of extrinsic motivation. These include environmental influences that play a part in activating drive. This need to see Kelly again was ultimately what got him off the island and back home to Memphis. Another great example of this motivation is the wings symbol. When Chuck was first going through the packages he didn't open the one with the wings on it and at the end of the movie he wrote "this package saved my life". I believe this wings were a symbol to Chuck that he had something like a guardian angel. This is why he drew the wings on the sail he found. The wings kept his drive going to get off the island.
Finally i think what was really represented in this movie was the idea of willpower. Chuck showed willpower in almost every scene while on the island. He also showed willpower at the end when he says he lost Kelly all over again and he knew he needed to keep breathing. Kelly also showed will power during the scene where she shows Chuck all the information she collected during his absence relating to where he was and how to find him. while she may have finally given in and moved on she kept all the things even after she was married. She even says in the end that "I always knew you were alive" it took a lot of willpower to fight against everyone telling her Chuck was dead and willpower or motivation to keep her searching for me after four years.
The biological needs were also show in this movie. You have the hunger and thirst regulation that lead Chuck to fish, and make fire and to crack coconuts. His desire to eat is what made him continue to try and make the fire. His thirst need kept him trying to crack coconuts in the beginning and what helped him to drink dirty water when he needed too. Pain motivated Chuck to knock out his tooth when it hurt and the infection could have lead the death. Hunger is controlled by the leptin in our bodies and is secreted when we are hungry. Thirst is regulated by our cells when they get dehydrated either intracellular or extracellular, and pain is regulated by endorphins. Dopamine is also involved when Chuck made fire or figures out how to get off the island he is rewarded by a shot of dopamine which is regulated by the hypothalamus. Opposite of this Chuck get cortisol the stress hormone when he first arrives on the island and is trying to survive and also when he tries to save Wilson.
Terms: Drive, motivation, extrinstic, willpower, social needs, psychological needs, intracelluar, biological, extracellular, reward, dopamine, hypothalamus, endorphins.
Cast Away is a very good movie that showed many of the concepts that we have seen in the book and in our lectures. The main premise of the movie is that it is about a man named Chuck who survived a plane crash and was stranded on an island by himself, excluding Wilson. It was about his struggle to survive and get back home.
The first thing that I want to talk about with Cast Away is the physiological needs that I noticed in the movie. Soon after Chuck landed on the island he started searching for water. There was an obvious thirst that was arising in him. He went out looking for coconuts and he tried and failed a couple of times trying to crack the shell open. He tried throwing it against rocks and tried smashing it with rocks. Because he was so thirsty, he did not give up on it. He finally figured out how to crack one open and then messed up and let all of the water hit the ground. He finally figured out an optimal way of getting a coconut open without spilling or losing water. There were also other scenes where he would drink water out of puddles and off from leaves because he was thirsty. The reason he kept trying was because his body was below the optimal homeostatic level. Homeostasis is what level the body needs to be in order to survive. Until Chuck got to a certain level where he wasn't so thirsty, he did not worry about anything else. All he thought about was that he was thirsty and he wanted to satisfy his thirst.
Sort of along the same lines as what I was talking about was that Chuck had a drive to him to survive. We learned that drive is the view that behavior was motivated to the extent that it served the needs of the needs of the organism and restored a biological homeostasis. I sort of touched upon this but it doesn't only deal with thirst. Chuck was obviously a very motivated person to begin with. He was a systems analyst for FedEx and seemed to be very successful at it. He travelled often and seemed to like his job. He was very driven when it came to his job. When he was on the island he was very driven to survive. There were obviously times where he thought about giving up. He talked about the time that he almost committed suicide by hanging himself off the cliff. He also talked about how at some points he wished that he should of let himself bleed out when he was severely cut on the leg. What also goes in hand with this thinking is the idea of willpower. Drive and willpower are different but similar in their ways. Chuck had a lot of willpower that was demonstrated often in the movie. One thing that seemed minor but was very important that showed his willpower was how he had the will not to open that one package. He was going to deliver that package back to the original owner and he showed some motivation to achieve that. And as we all know, he did exactly that.
There was obviously an example of extrinsic motivation in the movie. I have not touched upon the fact that Chuck was in a serious relationship with a woman named Kelly. Before he got on the plane, he sort of proposed to her. He was extra motivated to get home because he wanted to see Kelly again. The book says that intrinsic motivation is better than extrinsic motivation and I agree with it most times. But in this case I think that extrinsic motivation is the ultimate motivation. I don't think that Chuck could have survived if he didn't have this motivation of coming home to see his girlfriend. He was intrinsically motivated to survive because that was in him but he was also extrinsically by the thought of seeing Kelly again.
We have sort of touched upon the idea of people needing to meet certain social needs in order to be a healthly individual. I understand we will talk more about this in later chapters but it is important to touch upon it now. First of all, achievement is a very important thing for someone to feel. An example of this in the movie is when he makes fire for the first time after working on it for a very long time. What I remember most is him in the night standing around his fire and yelling 'I have made fire'. He was very proud of making something by himself and it helped the fact that he needed fire to live. Another part of social needs that is very important is the idea of intimacy. Obviously living on an island by himself did not give him many options to talk and communicate with people. This is where Wilson comes into play. He created Wilson from a volleyball because he didn't want to be lonely. He talked with him and it was really his only friend. Obviously a volleyball can't talk back to him but he acted like he had entire conversations with him. Then what really stuck out to me was when he lost Wilson when trying to get back home. He cried his eyes out because he lost his intimate friend on that island.
Something that we can't see but I think is important to talk about is dopamine release. Dopamine release generates good feelings. There aren't a ton of good feeling parts in the movie but there are some. When he comes back home and sees Kelly for the first time he is very happy. You can guess that some sort of dopamine release was involved at that time. Another part could be when he seen the ship on the island and he was thinking that he would get off but obviously he didn't. These parts in the movie most likely shows some sort of dopamine release.
There are obviously a lot of different examples in this movie that shows motivation and some of the things we talked about in the first few chapters. I could have gone on to talk about the motivation of building the raft or the motivation to remove the bad tooth from his mouth. This movie was a great example of these first few chapters.
Terms: Motivation, Dopamine, Physiological Needs, Needs, Willpower, Extrinisic, Intrinsic, Achievement, Social Needs, Intimacy
THe very first thing I noticed in the movie was Chuck’s motivati0n and drive to get on the raft right when the plane crashed. He had a lot more strength and will power if you will to save his life. This is a physiological need that kicked in when he was submerged under water and had no other choice than to fight for his life or drown. His instincts kicked in and he was able to pull himself onto the raft in the middle of the ocean and in the middle of an extremely dangerous storm, where in normal circumstances he probably wouldn’t have this much strength and drive. Another thing that was very obvious right when he got on the island was his social need. The only thing he did for the first part of his time there was call out for other people, look for others, write help in the sand and look at the picture of his girlfriend in the stop watch. He needed other people to help him and every one of his needs at this time was focused on fulfilling his social needs. This continues throughout the movie with him putting a face on Wilson the volleyball and actually talking to him like it was a real person.
Another one of his major physiological needs was hunger. This was a progressive need throughout the film, and started with him first finding a coconut and having no idea what to do with it or how to get the liquid out of it. He just threw it a few times and when he finally broke a rock trying to open it, he realized he had something sharp to cut it open with. The need at this time wasn’t too strong yet though because it was kind of like, I didn’t get it, oh well. There wasn’t a ton of motivation behind the need at this point. This becomes a stronger need as the days go on and he begins to do things like work harder for the coconut milk and hunt for his food by trying to “spear” fish.
There are quite a bit of extrinsic motivators for Chuck in this film too. One of them is the watch his girlfriend gave him and the picture of her in it. This gives him the drive every day when he wakes up and the motivation he needs to keep going even when he goes to sleep. I think another one of his extrinsic motivators is the Fed Ex boxes and packages around him. Fed Ex is a big part of his life and seeing them everyday reminds him where he came from and why he is there. Once he opens the boxes there are even more extrinsic movtivators in things like the card to Johnny that says the most beautiful thing in the world is the world itself, this just reminds him that there are other people out there and there is love. Another extrinsic motivator is when he starts his first fire. He is so excited and sees more than just a fire, but food and possibly the chance for someone else to see him. The antecedent is him wanting to eat, the behavior is him starting the fire, and the reward or consequence is him getting to eat a crab and satisfy his hunger.
His biological needs in this film showed quite a bit. When he first stabbed the craw dad looking thing he thought he found some dinner, only to find out it only contained a little slime. He didn’t give up though, he proceeded to build a fire and still look for food. He eventually builds a fire and is able to have his first real food; crab, after having only really coconut milk. This is something he probably would have never eaten on a normal day before he crashed on the island. This need became easier for him when he was there for four years, he eventually was able to catch fish very easily knew how to cook and eat them because it was something he had been doing for years.
One of Chuck’s intrinsic motivators I think would have to be love. He knows what he had with Kelly, and he keeps looking at her picture, but also thinking about her. She is giving him the willpower to keep fighting every day.
When he acts as a dentist and knocks out his own tooth, he actually knocks himself out for a while. This is because he actually blocked some of the pain receptors in his mid brain, & I believe this is in the hypothalamus. This was a tough part for me to watch, but it shows how strong his need was. He didnt make it to the dentist when he was home, but when it got bad enough, he was motivated to get rid of the tooth by himself. Ouch! Great movie.
Terms Used: Drive, motivation, physiological need, instinct, social need, hunger, extrinsic motivators, biological needs, intrinsic motivation, will power, antecedent, behavior, reward, consequence, mid brain, hypothalamus.The
Many shows on the discovery channel nowadays are focusing some of their airtime towards tales of ultimate survival in the harshest of climates and against all odds. I have viewed some of these programs because I always wonder if they get home and I get hooked. The longest I have seen before is 75 days lost at sea. It is always hard to see the peril in peoples faces when they are presented with huge barriers and unspeakable doubts. Cast Away took place over a four year period of doubtful survival. I can't even imagine the type of anguish, helpless, lowly, and eventually joyful feelings he went through.
One of the first cases of motivation and physiological needs I came across was when he was in Moscow and again at dinner during Christmas. I am referring to the times that he aggravated the tooth that would eventually become infected and bring a world of hurt. Just like we have the presence of mind to go without eating for hours because we know food is readily available whenever, Chuck ignores the pain in his tooth because he is busy with work, and family. His brain ignores the pain. Give it a couple months and that nagging pain turns into an intense pain that his mind can no longer ignore. So he turns to his only option, he knocks it out himself with no anesthetic or pain killers. His brain stopped fighting it and his physiological needs took over.
During the very beginning of his new solitary lifestyle he his swept into an instinctual autopilot. He starts searching for food and gathering resources as if he was a robot. And like a robot he wasn't always thinking clearly. He imagined noises(coconuts) were dangers and when he found said coconuts he broke them open with no means to collect the milk or cut off the meaty inside. He was also terrible at starting fires, trying to escape the island on the yellow raft, and catching fish. It is fairly safe to say that cortisol was coursing through his body to deal with the stress and his amygdala and hippocampus were working hard during his first few weeks in response to all of his anger, fear, and overall negativity towards being stranded. Despite these pitfalls he came across, his drive to survive this situation gave him focus and his clear mind developed sound techniques for getting what he needed. His adventure trying to escape led him to learn the ways of the ocean, its tides, its ebb and flow, the power of waves, and the direction of the winds. When he needed food he came to realize chasing fish was hopeless and he practiced spear throwing and caught his food. His next problem was cooking food and heat for his cave shelter. After failing several times and injuring himself he used his thoughts to reason out why his fire wasn't starting and he creates fire for himself and Wilson. His drive to satisfy his needs drove his thinking, and coordinated his corresponding actions.
Speaking of Wilson, we run into an extraorganismic mechanism that allows to Chuck to deal with his semi-permanent situation. Along with Kelly as a distant motivator, Wilson was someone to keep Chuck psychologically intact. Even though it seemed like he was going rather insane he wasn't even close. Wilson was somebody to talk to, yell at, protect, to focus him. He realized his problem with the fire because he thought Wilson was mocking him. He protected Wilson as if he was a person. Wilson motivated him to find materials for the raft. He eventually cried when he lost Wilson because he lost his close source of psychological balance.
Another large part of surviving his four year journey to hell and back was the role played by his hormones and the adaption of those hormones to the new environment. When he was at home before his plane crash he was not necessarily affected by food in a hormonal way and the worst thing happening to him was a late delivery truck. However, when he was stranded things changed drastically in the way he reacted to events. Food and water began to release the flood gates for dopamine and he couldn't be happier to find fish or rain water. On the flip side he was experiencing very large serotonin deficiency resulting in a deep depression. He came very close to hanging himself and the only reason he didn't was because the tree wouldn't hold him which even took away his power to choose. The power to choose is extremely potent and he found himself helpless because he couldn't even choose to die the way he wanted to.
This brings us to a final point about extrinsic motivators. There were several in the story like Wilson or the wings on the side of the Fedex box he refused to open because it meant something to him. Of course his largest motivator was Kelly. He knew he had an obligation to, "just keep breathing" as he put it. An unselfish motivation can be one of the most powerful in my opinion because you feel as though you are being held accountable and don't want to let someone down. That is why I believe Cast Away is a real triumph of motivation and emotion in the human spirit.
Terms Used: Motivation, Physiological, amygdala, hippocampus, cortisol, drive, extraorganismic, Serotonin, dopamine.
Cast Away was a movie full of motivation in many ways I had not noticed before. In this movie, Chuck survives a plane crash in the middle of an ocean and learns to live very primitively before being found and taken back into civil society.
The first instance of motivation I noticed was during plane crash scene. Chuck left during Christmas to board a FedEx plane. While in route the plane encounters a violent storm in the middle of the ocean. Chuck notices the pilots can't make radio contact and they are 200 miles off course. He tries to play it off and goes to the bathroom to splash some water on his face. All the sudden an explosion happens and the plane starts to descend. Now Chuck knows something is seriously wrong. In this instance we see that Chuck is experiencing major stress, panic, and fear. Biochemically, there was probably an increase in cortisol, a stress hormone, throughout his body. As it was said in Chapter 3, the amygdala detected the threat to Chuck's life, and recognizing the danger of the situation. This helped Chuck regulate his emotions for the sake of self-preservation and helped him rationalize the event.
The ultimate source of Chuck's motivation was Kelly, his longtime girlfriend. He had kind of proposed before he left on the plane, but it wasn't official yet. Kelly had given Chuck her grandfather's pocket watch with a picture of herself inside of it. This was Chuck's most valued possession while living on that island. Kelly was an example of extrinsic motivation. She was an environmental influence that helped activate his drive. She was the reason Chuck left the island; he had to get back to Memphis to see her. He never lost his motivation to do this and it is present in the movie. He always put her picture next to his bed at night, he drew her several times inside on the cave wall, and when he was drifting in the middle of the ocean and saw the ship, he yelled for Kelly. Another source of extrinsic motivation was the FedEx package with the wings on the box. Chuck never opened this package and even delivered it to the owner with a note saying, "this package saved my life." That package symbolized something to Chuck whether it be angel wings or something else. It was a psychological motivator to get him off the island. He painted them onto the "sail" of his raft, they were almost like a warrior fighting against the waves. It was Chuck's way of fighting, maybe. It was definitely a behavior he exhibited throughout the entire movie. He fought to live.
There were many obvious physiological needs - for example thirst. On the plane (before crashing) Chuck was satiated; he had just eaten a big Christmas dinner. His body gradually gets depleted of its nutrients and after Chuck has reached the island he begins to realize that he is thirsty. A physiological need develops - this is a need that is essential for life, growth and well being. This need turns into a psychological drive. Chucks starts by finding (goal directed motivated behavior) and drinking (consummatory behavior) from coconuts. His first attempt was unsuccessful, spilling the juice all over, but he was motivated enough to try again. Only this time he uses the sharp edge of a rock. He gets smart and starts collecting water in empty coconuts and puts a plug in them to save it for later. He is helping his body maintain homeostasis so his drive is reduced. The same cycle of events can be used with hunger. Chuck recognized his hunger (physiological deprivation), the need to eat intensifies making him uncomfortable (psychological drive), which motivates him to try fishing with a spear, eat a raw crab, and eat coconut meat (behavior), and he so he ate what was available to him (consummatory behavior). Thirst and hunger needs can also be viewed in terms of biochemicals. When he finally began to master hunting and collecting water (and storing it) there was probably a release of dopamine occurring in his brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that generates good feelings from incentives and rewards. He had good feelings and was excited about his great hunts. For example, when he finally was able to get a fire going he cooked a crab over it and told Wilson that the crab was better cooked than raw. Since Chuck had dopamine released he was emotionally positive which further enhanced his creative functioning and insightful problem solving. Chuck also received the full reward because he liked crab and wanted it as well. It was a great accomplishment for him.
Overall this movie showed me many insights to motivation that I had now previously seen watching the movie. It was interesting to see how simple some forms of motivation are and how it will impact the rest of our lives. In Chuck's sake, his motivation saved his life and his sanity.
TERMS: cortisol, biochemical, hormone, extrinsic motivation, drive, thirst, satiety, physiological need, psychological drive, goal directed behavior, consummatory behavior, homeostasis, dopamine, neurotransmitter, reward
Cast Away is a really great movie when it comes to looking at motivation to survive. There is a lot of concepts that were explained more in this movie, through Chuck to make them more applicable to real life. In Cast Away, Chuck gets into a plane crash and has to learn the ways of the island to survive.
The first thing I noticed was his physiological needs kicked in. Thirst is a huge part of the body and you need water to survive. He found coconuts, and it took him a while to learn how to open them but he kept trying over and over again because he needed to drink the coconut water and eat the fruit. It was no longer his choice, his brain said he needed to do it. Chuck continuously looked for water and drank rain water out of leaves or holes. This is because his body had lost its homeostatic balance and he had lost most likely over 3% of his water and he was dehydrated.
The concept drive was seen throughout the whole movie. Drive was a grand theory that isn't proven to explain all motivated behavior, but it still explains some. The 3 fundamental assumptions that Freud and Hull concluded on for drive theories was that drive emerged from bodily needs, drive energized behavior and drive reduction was reinforcing and produced learning. In the movie Chuck needs, food and water and shelter his basic bodily needs were calling out and so he had to use whatever means necessary to satisfy those needs. One example that comes to mind is when drive causes him to make shoes out of leaves and clothes, because he had cut his foot badly and he knew that he would need something to cover his feet so he could walk somewhat comfortably. An example of reinforcment and learning through drive is when Chuck is trying to open the coconut to get the nutrients, he has to keep trying different ways so he doesn't smash it and lose all of the nutrients inside. Once he got it open he was reinforced and this produced learning how to open the coconut correctly to preserve as much of the nutrients as possible.
There was also external motivation shown in this movie. Before Chuck's plane crashed, he had basically proposed to his girlfriend Kelly, telling her he would be right back. She had given him a pocket watch that had her picture in it. Chuck had been obssessed with numbers and time and this seemed like the ideal gift for him. While Chuck was on the Island, he had that pocket watch open and continued to look at Kelly's face. That was driving him to get home, and to not give up. He wanted to be with her again and that caused him to continue building rafts, and eventually leaving the island which led to him being rescued on the boat.
There are three functions that motivate are behaviore. Specific brain structures, biochemical agents, and day to day events. In this movie the event was the plane crash which stimulated the biochemical agent cortisol, the stress hormone. Once he landed his hypothalamus told the brain that his body was out of balance and needed nutrients which led to him to search for food and water. The neurotransmitter dopamine was shown in this movie a couple of times. An example is when Chuck is relentlessly trying to make a fire, and its not working the way he is doing it, he even gets injured in the process. But instead of giving up his drive for warmth, food, and to signal help kept him tyring different ideas. Once Chuck saw that smoke and when he finally got it to turn into fire, you see how happy he is. He is singing and dancing because that dopamine release is stimulating his pleasure spot in his brain. Getting the fire to actually work was a type of reward for Chuck.
Human beings are naturally social. On this island there is no signs of humans anywhere. Chuck has to make do with a volleyball he names Wilson. This is because Oxytocin is released. This hormone is called the bonding hormone. Its the reason you talk out loud to your friends about your problems. Since Chuck didn't have any real friends on the island, Wilson served as that outlet. By talking to Wilson, Chuck could say his ideas out loud and I beiliev Wilson was his conscience. He could talk out his problems and help figure out a solution if he thought someone (Wilson) would help him and agree with his plans.
This movie was a prime example of all of the things we have been learning about, brain sturcutres, physicoloigical and social needs, drive, and overall the motivation to survive.
Terms: homeostasis, physiological needs, thirst, hunger, drive, grand theory, external motivation, brain structures, biochemical agents, day to day events, coritsol, hypothalamus, dopamine, neurotransmitters, hormone, oxytocin
Cast Away had many concepts that we have talked about in class and had some very good examples. The best one that came to my mind while watching the movie was physiological needs. While, this is not the first one, but this is one of the most important concepts because without Chuck being able to find food and hydration he would not be able to survive. When Chuck was first getting from the plane to the island and throughout the next day, you could tell that finding a way to get food and hydrate was one of his main concerns. The reason why is was one of his main concerns is because if you are doing a lot of work and your hydration level lowers 2% you become hungry and if it lowers 3% you become dehydrated. Chuck also can’t just drink any fluids on the island. It was important to be able to find fluids that were safe to drink before he became too dehydrated to find some.
Drive is another concept that is very relevant to the movie Cast Away. There were many examples in the movie, such as, Chuck’s drive to get back home to see Kelly. Chuck was driven to find a way to get from the scene of the plane crash to the island, so that he could find a way to get someone to rescue him. He was also was driven to continue to stay alive and use every resource he had to be able to figure out where he may be located at and when it was the best time for him to leave the island towards the end of the movie, to be able to get back to the United States and see Kelly. And even after he met her husband in the airport, he had the drive to go after her and visit her at her house.
Another great example of drive was when Chuck was trying to make fire and he was continuing to fail, but he kept trying because he knew that fire was going to be a vital asset to his survival, and after a while of trying, Chuck was able to make his fire.
Another concept that was shown in Cast Away was extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation was shown when Chuck was picking up all the FedEx packages and then he noticed a cliff and something made him go up and he found another FedEx package. But, this package was different from all the other ones that he had found; this package had a pair of wings on the front, this package was very important to him and it was the only one of the packages he found that he did not open while on the island. When Chuck got back, he hand delivered the package to the house that sent it, but nobody was home, so he left it at the door with a note that said, “This package saved my life.” To Chuck this package was more than a package and it was an extrinsic motivator to get the package back to its sender unopened.
Terms Used: Drive, Extrinsic Motivation, physiological needs, thirst, hunger
The movie Cast Away has always been a favorite of mine because I love that stupid Wilson volleyball and how determined Chuck is to survive. But watching it now for class has made me have a whole new appreciation for it. It can teach us many things about motivation and it helped me to understand some of the book concepts in more detail.
During one of the beginning scenes where the plane is having problems Chuck obviously is under a lot of stress even though he tries to play it cool. During this time of stress and anxiety a stress hormone called cortisol is probably running rampant throughout his body. The amygdala in our brains will detect threat and Chuck’s life is at risk so the amygdala is being activated to send messages or impulses to the body. Having these messages sent will help Chuck to stay calmer than he would without it and to help save his life as the plane is crashing.
The love story about Kelly in the movie has always touched me and hated how they don’t end up together because Chuck and Wilson tried so hard to get home. Kelly was Chuck’s primary motivation in surviving and getting off the island. This is known as extrinsic motivation because she is an environmental influence that kept his drive alive. Keeping her in his mind and seeing a picture of her daily helped to maintain his focus. He knew that he had to do whatever it took to survive on the island to get home to her.
Chucks instincts helped him to create ideas and behaviors to keep him alive. After the plane crashed Chuck used the drift wood around to spell out the word Help, this was an example of the instinct theory. Because people have instincts to cry out for help so they don’t have to do difficult things alone. After the initial shock of being stranded Chuck’s other instincts come out for survival. Ones like finding food to eat and starting a fire to stay warm. His cognitions about survival were right, although it took him awhile to start the fire. The hippocampus and amygdala were probably active in the process of making the fire because they deal with the negative emotions, which Chuck was having at the time. After he successfully starts the fire is orbitofrontal cortex came into play because is causes positive emotions to happen. Dopamine was released through his body after making a fire making him relax slightly and happy for a bit on his triumph. He made the fire and tried to find food to fulfill his physiological needs of survival. And his psychological needs were somewhat met with Wilson and the picture of Kelly.
Some other things Chuck did to fulfill his physiological needs, like thirst and hunger, were finding the coconuts, getting them down so he could drink some of the juice. He collected the coconuts to put water in to save for later. He also makes himself a spear to go hunting for fish with. After a few tries he is successful and can have a small meal. He gets the most out of the raw fish as he can. By eating and drinking some he has maintain his homeostasis, making him function better. Although clearly at the end of the movie it is very evident how much weight he has lost, since being on the plane after his large holiday dinner.
It is extremely wonderful to know that I have a brain and body that will overcome my fears to help me fulfill my physiological and psychological needs. I viewed Cast Away in a whole new light watching it looking for these aspects. It was a wonderful movie to watch to apply all the concepts we have been learning in class, such as: drive, motivation, and needs.
Terms: motivation, dopamine, amygdala, hippocampus, orbitofrontal cortex, cognitions, extrinsic motivation, cortisol, stress, instinct theory, physiological needs, psychological needs, drive, thirst, hunger, homeostasis.
“Cast Away” displays multiple examples that are related to motivation and emotion. In fact, nearly everything he does throughout the movie could be analyzed and compared to ideologies from our text. I would like to start with one of the first scenes. Jack gave a child a snickers candy bar, cd player and an Elvis Presley CD as a reward for delivering his first fed ex package. The boy was given a positive incentive for good behavior. The antecedent was being given the package, the behavior was delivering the package and the consequence was receiving a reward.
Later, when he was on the plane and the pilots told him to buckle up; he saw the grandfather’s locket on the floor. Despite the fact that the plane was crashing, he still got out of his seat to grab it. Clearly, his motive to get it was comfort. There wasn’t a need for the locket, because it wasn’t going to save him from the crash, but he still needed it as a source of comfort.
He was clearly an educated, motivated individual to begin with, which was a benefit to him for his survival. Human beings are innately motivated to master tasks. Once he reached the island, he was deprived of human contact, food and water. He primarily sought to find his three physiological needs. He started screaming for help, hoping there would be others on the island, and once he found the coconuts he beat them to a breaking point so he could relieve his thirst deprivation.
Not long after being on the island, he tried to think of ways to commit suicide that were less painful than others. This is an example of avoidance tendencies. The undesired goal he was avoiding was getting off the island. The reason I say it was undesirable is because he knew his chances of getting through the tide alive were slim to none, and if he did, there was no saying how long he would be on the ocean with no food or water. Although his chances were better to try, he would rather hang himself, because it would have been less painful than getting an infection from the coral, drowning or eaten by a shark.
According to Darwin, much of animal behavior seemed to be unlearned, automated and mechanistic. With or without experience, animals adapted to their prevailing environments, this is proposed as instinct. Jack showed instinctual behavior by teaching himself knew things and adapting to the environment. For example, he taught himself how to spear a fish and make fire and rope out of the materials he had available. These were all essential to his survival and his instincts helped him adapt.
However, this took some time. He wasn’t the master of spearing his food right away. This leads me to talk about Freud’s Drive Theory. The source was his bodily deficits primarily hunger and thirst. His impetus was the increasing discomfort of feeling hungry, which drove him to seek food that would reduce his drive and discomfort. Drive reduction led him to create goals and achieve them to better his well-being, such as, figuring out ways to make fire which in turn kept him warm and cooked his food or using leaves and broken coconuts to increase his supply of rain water. Once the body is satiated, we have less motivation/drive to seek bodily needs.
We talked about the benefits of dopamine in our system and how it can be triggered. In the picture provided, fire was the environmental cue that triggered dopamine release. In this particular situation, he was having a hard time in the beginning, but when he realized he was accomplishing his goals, he was extremely happy and more productive.
During the process of trying to make fire, he became extremely stressed when he cut himself and he threw the volleyball, because of this stressor there would have been a significant amount of cortisol release. Wilson was the outcome of his rage, which led him to seek support and nurturance from the volleyball, even though he knew Wilson wasn’t alive. In this situation, the hormone oxytocin was playing a big role in his attempt to bond with the volleyball.
Terms: Antecedent, behavior, consequence, incentive, reward, motive, physiological needs, thirst, hunger, motivated, satiated, deprivation, avoidance tendencies, instinct, Freud’s Dive Theory, impetus, goals, drive reduction, dopamine release, environmental cue, cortisol, oxytocin
The movie Cast Away is a brilliantly written movie that shows a ton of motivational and emotional aspects. It is a movie that entails a highly motivated man by the name of Chuck Noland that loves his job working as an executive for FedEx. One night while traveling overseas his FedEx plane crashes leaving him stranded on a deserted island where he is forced to overcome the challenges of dehydration and starvation for almost 5 years.
The first thing I want to talk about is how Chuck was a very well motivated and emotional man when it came to his job, far before the plane crash. This is seen when he is in Russia standing in front of all the employees giving a speech on how important it is to be on time all the time. The passion and tone in his voice gives you that verbal description of emotional experience. When he had a package with an egg timer delivered to prove how long and slow it took to receive the package that was his way of expressing how he felt about his job and what it should mean to the others. During this event he’s voices his beliefs and expectations of how important it is to be on time and we see that throughout the movie. Within this scene you can see how driven he was both cognitively and emotionally. Later you can see his engagement, when he get news of how one of the FedEx trucks is stuck and won’t be able to make it on time, he has everyone unload and load the trucks packages right there in the street where the truck is stuck to make the dead line and departure time.
The scene as the plane goes down Chuck is handed an inflatable life raft while at the same time grabbing on the safety nets in the plane to keep from getting thrown around like a rag doll into the way of the fly cargo. As the plane hit the ocean water the cabin is immediately flushed with water that sends Chuck hurling through the plane. Moments later the plane is ripped in two under its own pressure creating an exit that Chuck quickly swims to and releases the raft that rapidly inflates and pulls him to the surfaces, only after the tool bag attached is severed from being caught. Once Chuck has surfaced he pulls himself up into the raft were he instinctively wraps his arm around the rafts rope, all the more while enduring the storm and its effects on the ocean water. He continues to do so tell he loses consciousness and reawakes on the sandy shore or the island. Now if we take this scene apart we can the parts of the grand theory in work. Chuck’s will to act when it came time to inflate the raft, instinct to grab and hang on to the ropes and adapt to the prevailing demands of the ocean waves, and the drive to live through the storm on the open waters and not once let go of his only means of survival. Granted we could look into a large range of mini-theories that could focus on say: expectancy x value, reactance, or even effectance motivation theory, but the grand theory does a sufficient enough job at defining motivation in the sense of contributing to the basics of human survival, instinct and drive.
Another scene or two that do a bang up job at depicting a few concepts was when Chuck first ventured out to look for food and water. He started off with trying to get the drinking water out of the coconuts by just smashing the thing on a rock, which just leads to failure and a loss of water. Eventually he learns to make smaller cuts with an ice skate that allow him to drink the nectar of his hard work. So we can probably say that his thirst at this point caused a potent enough biological deficit to generate a psychological drive. That his need for thirst was due to a low intracellular level that brought rise to osmometric thirst which was later brought back to a homeostasis basal state through cellular hydration. The process of how he goes about getting the water reflects the arousal of the reticular formation to the cortex lead to the hypothalamus sending hormones to the pituitary gland which than secreting the hormone cortisol. The cortisol triggered the old primitive structure of the amygdale to the threatening event which leads to the first thing that came to mind, smash the coconut on a rock. Next time when he used the skate he was given another way to obtain water which gave rise to the stimulation of the orbitofrontal cortex. Hunger is another great need that is widely seen in this movie. Until he able to store up enough water for an extended period of time his hypothalamus is going to release hormones into the blood plasma as a message to the kidneys to conserve water until the intracellular shrinkage is back to a homeostasis level. As I stated earlier his first attempt at food was through eating coconuts, a fast and short-term appetite. His stomach was more than likely producing ghrelin the hunger-causing hormone, which was due to a low blood glucose level detected by the liver. That then sent a signal to the lateral hypothalamus along with the environmental influences that released cortisol triggered the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical system to eat and it wasn’t until he was able to start a fire that he could cook fish or crab to stimulate the VMH, the negative feedback system for short-term hunger.
Terms: cognitively, emotionally, engagement, grand theory, will, instinct, drive, expectancy x value, reactance, mini-theories, effectance motivation theory, biological deficit, thirst, intracellular, osmometric thirst, homeostasis, cellular hydration, hypothalamus, cortisol, reticular formation, pituitary gland, amygdale, orbitofrontal cortex, kidneys, intracellular shrinkage, omeostasis, short-term appetite, ghrelin, liver, lateral hypothalamus, environmental, adrenocortical system, pituitary, negative feedback, VMH, hunger
Cast Away is a great example of a movie depicting several raw human emotions throughout and tells the story of one mans triumph of will to survive. His main motivation throughout the movie is to survive. This motivation gave his behavior energy and direction. Having never really having to think about basic survival, the main character Chuck discovers many things about himself that he had not known before. Grand Theory’s like Drive and Instinct theories from the text in chapter two are touched upon during the movie. The text explains that instinct is an unlearned behavior that has energy and purpose. Chuck had never hunted for food, made a fire, or created a shelter before in his life thus these things are not something he learned. But being hungry and cold motivated him to engage in these behaviors. Freud’s drive theory is another simplified concept that can be applied to the movie explaining these behaviors. Chuck’s source of drive is his body does not have enough food. This gives his the feeling of extreme hunger causing psychological discomfort. The object of his drive can be seen as the sea crabs that would satisfy his bodily deficit. Upon eating the crabs he is satisfied removing the bodily deficit. These two simple theories don’t go far in explaining his emotion or motivation and I will use more modern theories later on to better clarify how Chuck dealt with being hungry.
Chapter four talks extensively about physiological needs and psychological drive, and uses hunger as an example demonstrating these concepts. I will attempt to take points from movie that best demonstrated these three concepts.
We see Chuck is constantly hungry several ways in the movie. He looks in discomfort had his stomach, he hunts and eats things he would normally never eat, and in one cut in the movie Chuck goes from being a robust, large man to a slim, more defined body. From this visual apply a few theories concerning long-term energy balance. By this weight lose, the lipostatic hypotheses tells us that his fat stores have dropping below its normal homeostatic balance. This leads to the secretion of ghrelin, which is the hormone that tells us that we are hungry. He is never really getting enough food to satisfy him which would cause a release of leptin, which would tell him that he is full. . Just from noticing this abrupt weight loss we can formulate these two hormones are having an influence on his body causing him to be constantly hungry. This hypothesis also shows the demonstration that his fat cell size and his fat cell numbers are both decreasing.
Set-point theory is a more long term theory of energy balance. It states that the body has a natural point of comfortable body weight that the body tries to maintain this point. Hunger arises when we go below this point when fat cell size decreases. This theory states that Chuck would be constantly hungry being below his natural set-point.
Having firmly established that Chuck is constantly hungry, let’s use to concept to demonstrate some fundamentals of regulation. Physiological needs are biological deficient conditions. So hunger is not a physiological need. Without calories the body enters a state of low glucose levels, shrunken fats cells, and ghrelin release. Those are physiological needs. Psychological drive is the expression of biological need. Thus, being hungry is a psychological drive. This drive gives us motivation in the form of energy and behavior. The energy spent is directing the behavior of hunting for food, which is depicted when Chuck is trying to stab at crabs in the ocean.
The body wants to be at homeostasis. We are motivated to expend energy and behavior is a manner that gets the body in this state. This explains why Chuck is compelled to satisfy his physiological needs through his psychological drive. Negative feedback stops the body’s physiological needs. Chuck’s drive to not be hungry guided his hunting and eating behavior. The negative feedback comes when Chuck finally eats just enough to satisfy his short term hunger, which quells the physiological need. We see this demonstrated in the movie when Chuck is seen eating, he looks very satisfied and content. He can now sit and relax not having to look for food.
This movie does a good job showing one man’s struggle to meets several of his most basic needs. After meeting the basic needs, hunger and thirst, Chuck befriends a volleyball he names Wilson to meet his new need to be social. But this artificial friend is not enough. Chuck is ultimately compelled to build a raft and return to civilization. This demonstrates how after meeting your basic needs, you move on to other needs to be met. Cast Away does a good job of showing Chuck come full circle. The bulk of the movie focusing on Chuck attempting to survive alone on this island meeting basic needs making a great example to relate to the early concepts we have learned in our Understanding Motivation and Emotion textbook, especially chapter four’s focus on physiological needs.
Terms: Motivation, Grand Theory, Drive, Instinct, Physiological Needs, Psychological Drive, Hunger, Ghrelin, Leptin, Set-Point Theory, Homeostasis, Negative Feedback.
Cast Away involves a man named Chuck who ended up on an island for four years after a terrible plane crash causing him to switch his motivational systems to become aversive in nature, which involve him feeling pain, hunger, distress, fear, dissonance, anxiety, pressure, helplessness, and so on throughout this film.
Incentives, which are an external event or stimulus that energizes and directs approach or avoidance behavior, consistently appear within this movie. One example being the clock he receives from his to-be-fiancé Kelly that keeps him from hanging himself on top of the hill as well as surviving the whole disastrous experience. After keeping the clock open with her picture inside of it every night, it motivates him to get up and stay alive the next day. He shows this by teaching himself survival skills through fishing, collecting water from coconuts and leaves, as well as finding shelter. Another incentive that keeps Chuck motivated is the volleyball he discovers from a FedEx package. After cutting his hand and picking up the ball to throw it in anger, blood is shed on the volleyball causing Chuck to see a face and create this character ‘Wilson’ satisfying his social need of not being alone.
This whole movie is wrapped around the idea of a deficiency need of chuck, which is when life goes on just fine until some state of deprivation that cause anxiety, frustration, pain, stress, and relief. When Chuck first arrives at the beach after floating through the storm in his raft, he awakens with exhaustion and anxiety on his face by looking around in wonder while squinting his eyebrows, wiping his face, crawling out of the raft and falling to get up, as well as being “wide-eyed” the whole time. He displays frustration when looking at the beeper and Kelly’s clock that are both broken, but slight relief that Kelly’s picture is still in contact. He displays stress/anxiety/fear when he walks around the island and realizes that it is a lonely place by shouting, “Help!” and “Anybody?” several times. Throughout the movie he gains growth needs, which are motivational states that energize and direct behavior to advance development such as seeking out challenges or improving interpersonal relationships. He displays these needs by building a fire, finding shelter, making shoes from clothes, discovering the island, and making Wilson. At the end of the movie, he is rescued after escaping and his growth needs throughout his time at the island have led to a relief of his deficiency need of being there in the first place.
Although you cannot measure Chuck’s brain structures within the movie and what is being used to help his psychological needs, you can assume which parts he is using at certain times. He mostly uses his cerebral cortex, which is associated with cognitive functions such as thinking, planning, and remembering. When he is building a boat at the end, he first realizes that direction of the wind when the “wings” he found previously fall over (against the tides). He begins to think over the situation, and then starts to plan by getting up and shouting, “This could work!” as he then turns to building a sturdy boat to escape. Once the boat is built and he and Wilson are on it making their escape through the local island waves, he unties the wings at a strong tidal wave because he remembers the direction of the wind to take him over the wave and into the ocean.
A few other brain structures being used to meet his needs are that of the hypothalamus, the orbitofrontal cortex, the amygdala, and the anterior cingulate cortex. The hypothalamus helps regulate Chuck’s physiological needs of thirst and hunger. After trying several attempts of opening the coconuts, he continues to try for several minutes to receive a tiny amount of water, and displays his satisfied quench by sighing/smiling afterwards, which slightly helps him keep a balanced homeostasis. This also happens when he smiles and groans after eating crab by the fire. Chuck’s orbital cortex comes into play when he needs to make choices, such as whether or not to keep swimming to save Wilson when Wilson falls off the boat. After struggling in the water by keeping the boat in distance as well as trying to reach Wilson, Chuck has to eventually make a decision to let Wilson go and preside back to his boat in order to survive. Chuck’s Amygdala is most likely activated consistently throughout the film for this part of the brain regulates emotions such as fear, anxiety, and anger. Chuck shows fear of what is to happen next when he is drifting away from the island after the boat has reached over the waves by crying and staring at the island until it is no longer in view. He displays anxiety when building that boat and needing extra rope, which is at the top of the hill wrapped around the dumby in which he tested for his own suicide, by saying to Wilson that he will not go up there, but shaking he does so as he removes the rope from the dumby. Chuck’s amgydala is also activated when he tries building a fire and cuts himself with the stick after trying for several minutes causing him to get up quickly, kick anything near by, scream, and reddening of his face. Lastly, Chuck’s positive side of his Anterior Cingulate Cortex, which controls day-to-day mood, volition, and making choices, is constantly activated everyday when he gets up in the morning and decides to keep surviving on the island. At the end of the movie he proves this to be true because he says, “Tomorrow the sun will rise, and who knows what the tide will bring”, meaning he must stay positive everyday and make good choices with whatever phenomena comes his way.
Terms: motivational systems, incentives, deficit and growth needs/motivations, constructs, cerebral cortex, hypothalamus, orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, physiological needs, psychological needs, social needs, homeostasis, thirst and hunger, fear, anxiety, exhaustion, confusion, pain, stress, relief, frustration, anger
There are many different topics pertaining to motivation available in Cast Away. The majority of this movie is spent with our main character, Chuck, on an abandoned island. Being alone on this island brings out the most basic of motivations and drives for Chuck. One of the very first things we learn in the movie is that his girlfriend Kelly is very important to him. Motives are internal like needs, cognitions, and emotions. Most of this movie is spent focused on Chuck’s needs even though he was still experiencing the other two. There are also external events that are environmental, social, and cultural. Chuck’s environment influenced his behaviors and motivations greatly due to the lack of items available in his environment. What Chuck views as needs changes greatly throughout the movie as he learns that physiological needs are the most important.
The first physiological need that Chuck experiences is thirst. This is evident because when chuck discovers the coconuts, the first thing he tries to do is open them to get their milk out. We later see him also trying to drink the rainwater the plants caught during a storm. Chuck, however, didn’t realize he was thirsty until after the hypothalamus made him aware while also communicating with the kidneys. Every time he gets some sort of fluid, his need for thirst is decreased slightly. However, there is very little availability of drinking water so he is never fully satiated.
Chuck also experiences hunger. Since there was very little availability of food, his main focus was less on short-term appetite and more about long-term energy balance. He was forced to expend energy every time he felt hunger. He first realized he was hungry after his liver detected that that his blood-glucose level was low. After his liver detected a low level of blood-glucose, it sent a message to his hypothalamus, which then brought the hunger to his attention through the use of the hormone ghrelin. When he first was looking for how to get food (other than the coconut meat) it took him very long periods of time. Especially because the first time he went fishing he had to find a stick and sharpen it to the point that it could penetrate something. After creating a spear, he then had to practice throwing it. His first attempt at fishing with a spear didn’t work at all. However, after 4 years we see him killing a fish with a perfect shot of a spear.
One of the three basic principles of the brain is that specific brain structures generate specific motivations. One of the very important brain structures is the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus was at play throughout the entire movie in secreting hormones to adapt to the environment. Some of the hormones it secreted included adrenaline when Chuck was afraid after hearing the noise of the coconuts dropping on one of his first nights on the island. Another hormone it secreted was dopamine when Chuck was happy that he started a fire. We could tell Chuck was happy at this point because he was smiling, yelling in a happy manner, and his eyes were wide open and “lit up” also in a happy manner. The amygdala was also at work by responding to every threatening experience Chuck had. The amygdala responded by alerting the other parts of the brain so that they may each do their part in handling the threat. One of the threatening experiences that would have caused the amygdala to react include his first attempt at leaving the island when the raft is punctured and he ends up with a severe cut on his thigh. Another threatening experience was as simple as when he cut his hand while trying to make fire right before he created “Wilson”. The amygdala is also in action during emotionally significant events which would probably include his attempt at suicide by hanging even though we didn’t witness it and also when he loses Kelly again after returning back to the U.S.
I’ve discussed physiological needs and brain functioning. However, there are other needs that were evident in this movie. We haven’t learned about them in this course yet but this movie is a good example of social needs. It first becomes evident that Chuck needed someone else around when he put the face on “Wilson”. Throughout the rest of the movie, he holds full conversations with Wilson. We can tell his conversations are with Wilson because Chuck is the only actual person on the island. He is making “eye contact” with the face on the volleyball and we only hear one side of the conversation, which implies that the other half of the conversation is coming from Wilson but actually occurring in Chuck’s thoughts.
Terms Used: Motivation, Drive, Motives, Internal, Needs, Cognitions, Emotions, External Events, Environmental, Social, Cultural, Behaviors, Physiological Needs, Thirst, Hypothalamus, Kidneys, Hunger, Short-Term Appetite, Long-Term Energy Balance, Blood-Glucose Level, Ghrelin, Brain, Hormones, Adrenaline, Dopamine, Amygdala, Social Needs
Cast Away is a film expressing the needs, wants, motivation and emotion of a man stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. Tom Hanks plays the character Chuck in the film where he overcomes numerous struggles to survive with the help from our unaware and aware motivational systems. The behavior expressed throughout the film is real to the social context of the film.
Before Chuck leaves on the plane to assist in the delivery of these packages as a requirement of his occupation him and his wife exchange Christmas gifts and he receives from her a watch and after crashing he places her picture inside. I feel Kelly was a source of motivation to survive, throughout the time on the island he was referencing and staring at the watch and photo comforting him with the knowledge that he had love back home. The wanting to be back home and with Kelly is obviously something Chuck desired and would have to wait for, but this wait was part of the motivation to survive. Chucks ability to motivational adapt benefited him in the sense that after being stranded for four years he was still able to fulfill his biological needs for survival.
The brain has a unique ability to be able to adapt the emotional and motivational abilities of oneself to the new social context and environmental/physical change. Chuck has to change his motivations to attempting to get off the island. Initially as many of us would have done he took the raft he found from the crash and attempted to make it off the island. With finding the raft I am sure there was a trigger in his reward system giving him hope he could make it off. After failing the first time the release of hormones were more than likely very negative and depressing for Chuck, decreasing his thoughts of survival. Due to Chuck being stranded on the island he knew he had to develop ways in which he could suffice his needs. The physiological needs are needs because without partially rewarding hunger and thirst needs Chuck would die. These needs were achieved by the making of a fire, breaking coconuts, and building shelter. Homoeostasis was achieved and stabilized through the onset of motivational drive, allowing Chuck to be able to develop the skill to hunt and gather and survive without minimal clothes, shelter and food. An example of Chuck sufficing the thirst need was when the hypothalamus sent hormones through the blood to conserve water inside his body. When he was able to open up the coconuts and taste the liquid he expressed happiness, which I am sure was experienced because he was able to meet one of his needs.
While on the island the change and fluctuation of hormones was affected by the social context and lack of social interaction. Chuck fell into a state of depression at times, meaning he was lacking serotonin and dopamine, limiting his ability to want to survive and still be motivated to survive. One of the main extraorganismic mechanisms which played a huge role in motivated Chuck to survive was Wilson. Chuck recognized Wilson as a volleyball and developed him into social relationship and a way to express cognitive drive to interact with others. These social and cognitive mechanisms are a way for the body to express to Chuck that there are needs which need to be sufficed while stranded on the island. Because Chuck was stranded and unable to receive the entire amount of things to achieve his needs, I don’t feel like he was struggling to self-regulate his psychological needs. If there was a time when Chucks needs were not being met it was because there was a lack of resources available for him to access on the island.
Chuck in Cast Away was able to overcome so many obstacles to achieve the needs and homeostasis to survive through extraorganismc mechanisms. Our bodies have internal abilities to drive ourselves to achieve survival in even the most difficult social and environmental situations. After being rescued the hormones and change of the social and environmental settings again changes the way in which he attempts to achieve survival when reaching his “normal” life.
Terms: source of motivation, want, motivational adaptation, social context, environmental/physical change, hormones, needs, physiological needs, Homoeostasis, Motivation, drive, hypothalamus, serotonin, dopamine, extraorganismic mechanisms, cognitive, social
This movie unquestionably relates to motivation and emotion, as well as the rest of the topics we have read about and discussed in the class so far.
Chuck, a FedEx Executive survives a plane crash that leaves him stranded on a desert island by himself (well of course until Wilson comes along). Through his struggles he embarks on a journey that affects him emotionally and physically as he is trying to survive to make it back to his girlfriend, Kelly. This movie demonstrates how Chuck survived his endeavor and how he used the information we have learned to do that.
There were multiple parts of the movie that really related to the book and class lecture. It is kind of funny because I have seen this movie multiple times, but never realized so many little details until I was looking for things that related to motivation and especially physiological needs.
This movie really reminded me of Chapter four, when it came to the topic of needs. Throughout the movie we saw Chuck experience thirst, hunger and probably even a need for sex. Yet I think the movie really concentrates on the thirst and hunger. I think that it is ironic that Chuck was experiencing a deficit of water, yet he was surrounded by it; yet he obviously could not survive on sea/salt water, but I thought that was an interesting part of the movie, it definitely showed some irony. This also relates to the hunger issue. He is on an island, which of course does not mean he has a food amount of food, yet there are many trees/plants and even animals, yet he could not really trust to eat any of them, considering they may be poisonous. This was all a process of learning how to survive on a deserted island, and he needed motivation to make it through that. For sex, this was obviously pretty impossible since he was the only person on the island, but this was not an extreme need for him at that time. He needed food and water to survive, but not sex. I think this is interesting because I’m sure there a lot of men (or women I suppose) who would choose sex over food and water, but in this situation that was not the case. His body had a physiological need for food and water and not for sex (in this situation). The food and water in this case were especially important so that Chuck could meet homeostasis.
There were many other parts of the movie that really depicted motivation. The first one that I came up with was the part with the fire. Chuck knew that he had to make a fire to survive. Survival was definitely one of the main things driving his motivation, and keeping him going. Chuck had tried to make a fire multiple times, yet nothing was working, and this affected him in some psychological way, such we distress and even some injury to himself. Once he tries again, he finally sees some smoke. He responded in a behavior of laughter, yelling, and cheering. This sent his psychological needs the other way to joy and happiness, instead of distress. I think that this part of the movie motivated Chuck to keep going, and strive to survive. Since he had learned to make a fire, this drove him to making more and more, which got bigger and bigger. He eventually even made very large fire, which would affect his need for achievement and success. I think that this part of the movie really puts the motivation almost behind him, and gives him enough strength to get through this journey and to help him survive. Power would play in role in this as well. He does not have the power to control certain things, which makes him frustrated (as it would any person). He couldn’t find the power and control to make a fire, a raft, or somehow get off this island. He eventually felt so powerless the only thing he had power over was his attempt at suicide (which didn’t go too well). The tree he was planning on using could not even hold him, so he could not even control or have the power to choose how he died. All of these emotions could trigger hormone and psychological imbalances.
During his time of the movie, as he is feeling achievement and distress, there are many parts of his brain that are actively working which we have read about in the textbook. When he was attempting to make the fire the first few times, and failing, his hippocampus was probably working since that triggers negative emotions. Yet, when he succeeds at making the fire, dopamine probably kicks in a plays a role in the behaviors he was expressing, since it brought him happiness. His experiences and emotions affected his brain and body differently throughout the whole movie. Also, I am assuming that his hormones played a huge role while he was going through this scary situation and new environment.
Another need that Chuck demonstrated throughout the movie was the need for social interaction. He was stuck on a stranded island by himself. Going from a high end job with a lot of interaction with people, and a girlfriend to going to a stranded island with no one in sight can be very stressful. The need for social interaction was so intense that he ‘made’ a friend, Wilson. Even though Wilson is a volleyball, Chuck interacted with him as though they were friends. He gave him a name, and when talking he referred to things as ‘ours’ and ‘we.’ Another example that comes to mind with Wilson is when Chuck wakes, and Wilson is not there with him, yet floating in the water. Chuck panics as though one of his best friends is drowning in the water. This definitely portrays a need for social interaction; considering a volleyball became his best friend who had made an emotionally attachment to.
As we have seen, there have been many examples of motivation throughout this movie, yet I would say the most significant, deep motivation would be Kelly. He knows that he needs to survive to get back to her. I think this is his largest drive through the whole movie, even though it is not directly shown, such as the fire, and his need for food and water. The inner motivators that are not openly depicted can possibly be the most powerful, which is what I realized from this movie.
TERMS: Motivation, Emotion, Physiological Needs, Thirst, Hunger, Sex, Needs, Drive, Psychological Needs, Homeostasis, Dopamine, Hippocampus, Behavior, Social Need, Power, Achievement
Cast away is a great movie staring Tom Hanks as Chuck in the film. Chuck is the main character and has a job with Fed-ex overseeing delivery's. Just before Chuck is able to formally propose to his girlfriend Kelly, his plane crashes in the ocean leaving him stranded on an uninhabited island. Many different motivational and emotional factors that we have learned about first hand so far this semester come into play while he is stuck on the island.
Many different types of motivation come into play when Chuck arrives on the island. Chuck is extrinsically motivated to create a help sign and create a fire. This extrinsically motivates him because he will get rescued and be able to cook food and do various other things with fire as a reward. The environment that Chuck is in does a good job at Externally regulating him. The environment does this by forcing him to eat coconuts, make shoes, gather water, open most of the Fed-Ex packages, and spear fish.
Chuck also creates feelings of relatedness when he makes Wilson. Having a non-existent social life dawns on him more and more throughout the stranded arrangement. Chuck copes with this with Wilson (soccer ball), who acts as an imaginary friend for Chuck.
Chucks behavior is very survival oriented. Fighting through pain various times, he continues with goal-oriented tasks no matter what it cost him. The grand theories can help us understand Chucks behavior for a great majority of this movie. First, is his Will which can be referred to as the motivator. Chuck has a strong will to survive, get rescued, and get back home to his girlfriend, Kelly. The greatest source (motivator) for Chucks willpower is Kelly. She is what keeps him going, seeing her again keeps him motivated to survive and strive for freedom from the island. Next, is instinct. It was made popular by Charles Darwin that certain instincts are endowed to living organisms by genetics. That being said, instincts are caused by a certain stimulus that creates a specific behavior. In the grand scheme of things it's Chucks instinct to survive. A more in depth description of evolutionary instinct within this film pertains to Chuck seeing sticks and ember causing him to try and make a fire, which he succeeds. Last of the grand theories is Drive. Most of chucks behavior is caused by Drive. Drive is created in order to motivate the organism to satiate various bodily requirements. These include food, water, and sleep. Chuck receives various psychological drives that cause him to do a specific behavior. When he is hungry, a psychological drive makes him seek out food, which he finds in the form of coconuts and crabs.
Probably the most well-known neurotransmitter is dopamine. Dopamine is the feel-good neurotransmitter. It's release happens when we do something that gives us some kind of reward. Chuck is probably pretty deprived of dopamine throughout this situation but we can all agree that high levels of dopamine were probably released when he created fire and opened coconuts which caused him to eat more and more coconuts and basically worship the fire.
To go more in detail about things that were previously mentioned early on in this blog post, we must now talk about physiological needs. The physiological needs that are made relevant by Chuck are hunger and thirst. At first, Chuck is fairly well fed and hydrated. As time goes on he eventually becomes deprived of both. This then turns into a bodily need that has amplified so much that it creates a psychological drive. After awhile, Chuck is extremely motivated to find food and water. So much so that he consumes water from puddles and leaves to satisfy his thirst. Also, he struggles to get food from coconuts and crabs. After he satisfies his needs, the process then repeats.
Psychological drive is what motivates his behavior to find food and water. These 'drives' can be pointed out as hunger and thirst. They also intensify the longer the need goes unanswered.
Finally, all this comes together with the term homeostasis. This simply means the body tries to maintain a normal internal state. Chuck is constantly trying to maintain an adequate bodily state to ensure his survival. Many of these behaviors have already been mentioned. A biological mechanism created to battle over-eating and drinking to much water is negative feedback. This is one thing that I'm not sure Chuck ever fully experiences on the island, maybe in some other form he does however.
Terms: Motivation, Extrinsically motivated, External regulation, Relatedness, Coping mechanism, Goal-oriented, Grand theories: Will, instinct, and Drive, Stimulus, Psychological drive, Dopamine, Physiological need, Homeostasis, and Negative feedback
The movie “Cast Away” was a movie that explored the idea of extreme survival. Not only what happens to a man physically when he is stranded, but also how his well-being is tested. Chuck, the main character, before the plane crash was a motivated, strong willed man, whom had every opportunity to him because he was so persistent. Persistence, as we have learned in class, has been one of the main predictors of success in life. This characteristic of Chuck foreshadows his success in getting off the island and being found.
Taking the whole movie into consideration, I realized he had changed in behavior and emotion starting from the initial plane crash to when Chuck departed from the island. At first, he didn’t really know what to do. He wandered around, picking up packages, and trying his hardest to find other signs of life. After he found a friend in Wilson, started a fire, and was able to eat, he seemed to turn his situation around. He was able to focus on important tasks that would help him get off the island. I was actually surprised with his ability to figure out where he was by doing the math with hours and distance flown. I believe this difference was evident because he was under so much stress in the beginning. His stress hormone level of cortisol was high. As we learned in class, high levels of cortisol can hinder intellectual thinking.
In life food and water are two main necessities. While Chuck was beginning is his stay on the island, he soon realized that he needed to eat. This clearly shows the cycle of how an event can cause motivation, which leads to action being taken. The environment event wood be the lack of food, the biochemical agent is Ghrelin that flows into the bloodstream because of the lack of nutrients. Ghrelin than stimulates the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus has been found to be very important in thirst, hunger, and mating. After the hypothalamus is stimulated, motivation occurs from the feeling of hunger. In the movie, Chuck realizes he needs to eat. This motivates him to go into the ocean to find food. This is an example of a physiological need that’s included in the drive theory. This movie provides many examples of physiological needs.
While Chuck is stranded on the island, he has no opportunities to have human contact. This affected him in many aspects that relate with chapters 1-4. First, the lack of human contact does affect how he would eat. He doesn’t have the environmental influences and accessibility that he would normally. This creates a change in the motivation for eating. He begins eating more on the basis of necessity to survive, rather than for enjoyment. Another aspect that the lack of human contact created was within the concept of belongingness. He was lacking having that connection with someone else. This is an example of an antecedent. That drive needs the contact and the behavior is creating a friend in his volleyball, Wilson.
There were also many examples in the movie of what I deciphered as “instinct”. After he got off the floating boat, he built himself a shelter and he searched and found coconuts. I see this as instinct because it was soon after he hit land. Over the stay on the island his shelter and food improved greatly. This is a learned behavior, where at first it was in his instinct to protect himself.
The final main point that I would like to make is about autonomy. He shares with his friend at the end of the movie that he was going to commit suicide by hanging himself on the island. He discussed that he wanted to do this because he had no control over anything else in his life at the time. This lack of control caused a motivation in him to want to gain control. Taking his life would be the only source of this power and control.
Overall, this movie is a great example of basic physiological needs and what a person will and can be motivated to do when it is necessary.
Terms used: persistence, cortisol, hypothalamus, Ghrelin, Three Principles of day-to-day motivation, physiological needs, drive theory, environmental influences, belongingness, antecedent, behavior, drive, instinct, autonomy
An aspect of motivation that was clearly seen in this movie was the motivation for water. Chuck was stranded on an island with no modern access to freshwater. In order for him to survive he needed water because of his intracellular and extracellular need for water. The cells and the area surrounding the cells in the human body require water, and without water the body will not function. Thirst probably began for Chuck when he was still on the plane if he was not consuming a fluid, and continued to increase to stage of the Need-Drive-Behavior cycle which is performing this behavior. Chuck’s dehydration became so severe that he was willing to go to any means to get some freshwater. The need was likely increased by the external events of the waves crashing and all the water surrounding him that he was unable to consume.
Chuck searched for freshwater before he searched for food. This shows that his need for water was greater than his need for food. This is likely because the intracellular and extracellular dehydration cannot pull water from other sources, unlike hunger which can take the long-term energy supply that is stored up in the body. Chuck’s first attempt at getting water was when he tried to crack open a coconut to get the liquid inside. After all of his work he only got a small amount of water that actually made it into his mouth. This small taste was likely external factor which increased his desire even more, since the small amount didn’t some close to returning him to a satiated state. Chuck was forced to come up with a more creative way to get the water out of the coconut without spilling the water out. He then tediously made a small hole at the top of the coconut so he could successfully drink the liquid without it spilling over the side. Typically in our society our desire for water does not reach the point of extreme thirst that we would be motivated to strenuously create a hole in a coconut.
Chuck’s thirst may have temporarily been satiated, but it wasn’t long before he cycled back to stage five of the Need-Drive-behavior cycle and was in desperate need of water. Chuck was motivated find more ways to get fresh water. When it rained Chuck placed something out to catch rain, as well as drinking off the leaves that held water. Later, when Chuck found the cave he found a pool of murky water that on most occasions people in industrialized countries would never even consider drinking, but since the need for water was so high, it motivated him to drink it. It is clear through watching Chuck’s actions that thirst is a highly motivated behavior and it is essential for survival.
Another aspect of motivation that was seen was Chuck’s need for companionship. Chuck was stranded on this island with no other humans and seemingly no animals (besides birds), which meant that he has no way of interacting with a living being. When Chuck’s was cut he threw the volleyball that had washed up on shore and made a bloody handprint. When the pain went down he noticed his hand print made a face on this Wilson brand volleyball. From then on he had a new friend named Wilson. In our society most grown (sane) men do not make friends that they talk to on a daily basis out of objects like volleyball’s, but typically that strong motivation for a companion isn’t there, because we are surrounded by other people and animals. In this situation Chuck had the motivation for this behavior, and it was apparent that he was emotionally attached to this volleyball as if he were a real person when he lost him. Chuck tried to swim after Wilson, but realized he was already too far and he began to cry at this loss.
There were many different examples of motivation in this movie. In addition to the motivations I explored there was Chuck’s motivation for living which was to see his girlfriend, motivation for trying to push his tooth out with and ice skate, motivation for working so much, motivation for food, motivation for building a raft, and so many more. Every behavior that Chuck did had a motivation behind it whether big or small he did everything for a reason.
Terms: Motivation, emotion, external events, drive, Need-drive-behavior cycle, intracellular, extracellular, thirst, satiated,
I have to admit the first time I saw Cast Away I was not a very big fan of the movie. After watching it a second time (for this class) I have to say that I had a different view point about the movie and I loved it. I am much older now then the first time I watched it and I have definitely learned more about our physiological and psychology needs. After reading the chapters 1-4 it really made me feel more appreciative towards this movie.
After watching what Chuck went through to ultimately make it back safely to civilization, I realized how much we need specific factors in our life, such as; a drive in life.Drive kicks in for most people when the body needs to service the body's needs. In Chuck's case he showed his drive throughout the entire movie. Something inside of him drove him to fight for survival. I have to say that not everyone has drive in their life. But without drive in this movie, Chuck would not have survived.I believe drive comes from within. In times of need you can really see what you're made it and how driven you are. I believe Chuck's drive and motivation is what saved him.
Secondly, I think Chuck showed many signs of motivation. A motive is an internal process that energizes and directs behavior. One major factor in Chuck's life was his girlfriend, Kelly. Before he was stranded he told her he loved her multiple times. He also had a watch with her picture in it that he would stare at and think of her. I think she is one of the major reasons he was motivated to survive. Chuck also showed a need for social interaction and socialization. Wilson, the volleyball, played a big part in this movie. He was Chuck's friend and the person Chuck would talk to everyday. You could tell they had a connection when it came down to it and the volleyball floated away and Chuck was devastated. I honestly felt bad for Chuck while that was happening, as silly as that sounds because really that's all he had.
Chuck had many needs while he was stranded on the island and he found a way to find will. He had willpower throughout his entire time on the island. Will is something in the mind that thinks, plans and forms intentions that proceed to actions. Will helped him strive to do everything he could to survive. He had the willpower to find food, make shelter and find something to drink.
Everyone has psychological drive but in Chuck's case he had to fight for survival everyday. Chuck's psychological drive was more intense than most people because he had to find his own food, shelter and water. Which really brought me to wonder if he ever experienced any negative feedback throughout his time on the island. Negative feedback is related to a stop system. When you are full you stop eating and when you drink too much water you stop drinking water. I really hope at times Chuck did experience negative feedback because then he would have plenty of food at the time and feel satisfied.
Intraorganismic mechanisms played a huge role in this film for Chuck. Intraorganismic mechanisms are systems within the body that activate and maintain the physiological needs that underline drive. Without his drive, will and motivation Chuck would not have made it off that island alive.
Terms: Drive, motivation, will, psychological drive, negative feedback, intraorganismic mechanisms
In the movie Cast Away one of the most memorable challenges that Tom Hanks “Chuck” faced was creating fire. He tried numerous times with various techniques. At first he attempted to make fire by swirling the stick back and forth between his two hands in a circular motion against another piece of wood. After that method was proven unsuccessful he took a stick with a spear shape at the end and rubbed it back and forth on a piece of wood with flammable materials towards one end to catch fire. This is a perfect example of all the behavior expressions of motivation mentioned in Chapter 1. He was attentive to building a fire by focusing all of his concentration on that task at hand. Effort was put forth, especially after injuring his hand at a previous attempt. There was somewhat of a latency period after he injured his hand. He waited until the next day to attempt to make fire again. Chuck was persistent at trying new methods when his previous ideas failed. He may have felt that the only choice he did have was to create fire. Even though I’m sure in that situation it would be difficult to maintain a hopeful outlook on being rescued. Chuck’s probability of response occurred once. He was able to make fire more than once after he finally learned an effective method. His facial expressions were very dramatic, as expected. His eyes widened, mouth dropped with excitement, smiles filled with joy and pride. Chuck’s bodily gestures included standing up quickly, running around with joy and intent to share his accomplishment. Dances of victory also followed his fire creation.
Chapter 3 discusses the motivated and emotional brain. Researchers have found that when an unexpected pleasant event occurs, dopamine is released and circulated into the brain circuit which stimulates limbic structures to feel good, causing a positive effect. The scene where fire was created could be related to this concept as well. However, I will focus on a different scene. When Chuck had only been on the island for a few days, packages began to drift on shore from the plane that crashed. He collected them for a few days and then I think he realized that he was going to be stuck on that island for awhile. This caused him to open the packages. The packages contained a variety of items that could be useful for his hunter/gatherer lifestyle. Tooling from the dress was used as a net to catch fish. Ice skates were used to cut materials and the laces were used to help create a bandage for his wound. The volleyball was used as a source of companionship, which was probably what he needed the most. Finding all of these uses from everyday items was an unexpected pleasant event that led to dopamine being released in the brain which stimulated limbic structures and resulted in a pleasurable outcome. If those items were not made available to Chuck, he would have had a much more difficult time on the island. It seemed that there were no man made materials on that island when he arrived. Without those amenities, surviving for four years would have been more of a challenge.
Chuck’s determination to survive and make it home to his girlfriend, Kelly, is an example of extrinsic motivation. He was very much in love with her before he left to get on that plane, as demonstrated by him “proposing” before he left. He risked his life when the plane was crashing by letting go of the safety net in order to get the pocket watch that was given to him from Kelly. Her picture remained in the pocket watch through the crash and the commotion of finally making it to land. Chuck kept the watch with him at all time and constantly looked at her picture as motivation. Another figure used to keep Chuck motivated was Wilson, the volleyball. Wilson would be considered an extra-organismic mechanism that kept Chuck company and helped him from feeling lonely and stir crazy. Without Wilson and Kelly motivating Chuck to go on, he could have lost hope and discontinued his efforts to be rescued.
Chapter 4 mentions self-regulation of psychological needs. In the book the examples given involve how self-regulation fails when trying to control one’s appetite, sexual impulses, and back pain. In Cast Away, Chuck is forced to self-regulate. The book says people fail at self-regulation because 1.) people routinely underestimate how powerful a motivational force biological urges can be when they are not currently experiencing them, 2.) people can lack standards, or they have inconsistent, conflicting, unrealistic, or inappropriate standards, 3.) people fail at self-regulation because they fail to monitor what they are doing as they become distracted, preoccupied, overwhelmed, or intoxicated. Chuck had to acquire strong motivational forces in order to survive and maintain strength. If he would have failed at self-regulation, he would have stopped hunting for food, lost motivation to build fire, and would have given up hope for being rescued. His standards had to change because he knew that his life had just turned upside down. If he would have kept his normal standards, such as, sleeping in a bed, having a house, have accessible resources and so on, he would not have survived. Chuck was able to monitor very closely what he was doing because there was nothing to distract him. He was the only person on the island and had to hunt, gather, seek shelter, and so on. He was the sole provider for himself, even when that meant creating Wilson for his own mental well-being.
TERMS: behavior, expressions, motivation, attentive, effort, latency period, persistent, probability of response, facial expressions, bodily gestures, emotional, dopamine, brain circuit, stimulates, limbic structures, positive effect, pleasurable outcome, extrinsic motivation, extra-organismic, self-regulation, psychological needs, self-regulation, standards, monitor, well-being
Cast Away is full of concepts from motivation and emotion and I think the most obvious of them concern physiological needs. Being stranded on an uncharted island with no source of food, water, shelter, or companionship can motivate someone to do whatever is needed to survive.
There were many examples of physiological needs present in the movie. One example in the movie that I thought was very important to Chuck’s motivation was when he cracked open his first coconut. You couldn’t see it in the video but after many hours without water, Chuck was experiencing the sensation of thirst. Thirst is a motivational state that readies the body to perform behaviors necessary to replenish water deficit. This is exactly what happened in the coconut scene. It was evident that Chuck had never cracked open a coconut, but he was motivated to do so in any way that he could. He threw the coconut against a rock wall, smashed it with a rock, and eventually cracked it open with a sharp rock. That was a lot of work for a little bit of coconut milk, but his behavior was directed to satisfy his thirst.
Multiple inputs were also evident in the coconut scene and are often taken for granted. We don’t really care about why he was thirsty; we just know that he was thirsty enough to exhaust his energy to open a coconut. It may have been the fact that I was looking for reasons behind his behavior, but there were many factors for Chuck’s thirst. For example: he had a large dinner before the plane ride, was swimming in salt water after the crash, had nothing to drink for a long time, and woke up baking in the sun. Basically what I’m saying is that there is much more to thirst then the craving for water.
Another example of physiological needs in the movie was when Chuck got hungry. I saw several instances of him failing to get food but he kept with it. As a FedEx executive living in Memphis, I’m sure Chuck didn’t have much experience as a fisherman or survivalist. That didn’t stop him because he attempted to spear fish and eat raw coconut with a sore tooth. Both of these are examples of motivated behavior and drive.
Drive is a function of behavior that services bodily needs (thirst, hunger, sex). Drive can also be defined as the motivational concept that stands between causes and behaviors. An example of drive is when Chuck dove in the water to try and catch a fish. The cause of his behavior was his need of hunger and his psychological drive led him to jump in the water.
A concept of motivation and emotion present in the video was brain functioning. Brain functions are something that we can’t see without an fMRI, but we have an understanding of what they are and the behaviors that each area of the brain causes. Two examples in the movie that I saw concerned his reticular formation and anterior cingulate cortex. There are hundreds if not thousands more examples of brain functioning throughout the movie but I found these two to be somewhat interesting.
The reticular formation is involved in arousal and the process of awakening the brain’s motivational and emotional concerns. Basically what that means is that this is the part of the brain that acts as an alert system. An example in the video that I saw was when Chuck got on edge when he heard a noise in the woods. He prepared himself to run or fight whatever it was but it happened to be a falling coconut. It was one of many examples of his reticular formation at work but this one particular scene was humorous to me.
The anterior cingulate cortex is a little more complicated to explain than the reticular formation but is evident throughout the entire video. The anterior cingulate cortex controls day-to-day mood and our choice making ability. The scene that I saw the anterior cingulate cortex in its fullest light is the scene where Chuck considers suicide. Thoughts of suicide are due in part to decreased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, which causes states of depression.
In summary, Cast Away is full of motivation and emotion concepts and the ones that I explained are only a small percent. Motivation and emotion is a very complicated field of study and going through a simple movie such as Cast Away made me realize that there are many factors to our behavior that we may not even be aware of. Overall, this video is a great example of our basic physiological needs and shows what people will be motivated to do when necessary.
Physiological needs, thirst, hunger, multiple inputs, motivation, emotion, reticular formation, drive, anterior cingulated cortex
Cast Away
The movie Cast Away is an amazing story of a man overcoming a fatal accident and finding the motivation to survive. The main source for this motivation seems to be present throughout the movie and that is his love. Chuck had just proposed to his girlfriend right before taking off on the plane that separated them for years. Chuck seemed to be very involved with his career and was planning on slowing down but was a little too late. It is clear that she motivated him to stay alive because he keeps her little picture with him on the island and looks at it with his flash light every night. Keeping the image in view at all times was like a constant reminder of what he was living for and what he had to get home to. The first two chapters discussed a lot of theories, more specifically will, instinct, and drive. A part in the movie that stood out when it came to such theories is when Clark was out in the ocean and ran into the flight attendant’s dead body floating in the ocean. His mind has already gone through enough trauma, but yet he retrieves the body and makes use of anything he can find on the man. He makes himself shoes and finds a flashlight in the pocket and does a good job at remaining motivated to survive and work with what he has. After taking what he can to live from the man who lost his chance, Clark still has the sincere instinct to bury the flight attendant with the picture he finds of the father and his sons. This made me realize that no matter what Clark had to do to survive; he still couldn’t get rid of his emotions from the accident. There was no one there to join, but he still felt obligated to respect the death and give the man a proper burial and I believe that is something down deep in humans that is instinctual. Chapter 3 covered more biological aspects of motivation and emotion involving the brain. This, to me, was apparent in Clark after he is found and brought home. It has been years since he has seen the love of his life who thought he had been dead the whole time. The scene when he comes back and everyone is waiting for him throws his emotions for a loop and he has no control. It reminds me of post-traumatic stress disorder because he has been disconnected with the real world for so long and is not sure how to react. I especially think of this when he is back home with a bed available and yet he sleeps on the floor with his flash light shining on the girls picture…he can’t seem to escape. Being stranded on an island alone for years takes a toll on his mental health and he lost control of his emotions. Chapter 4 goes back to drive theories and talks about the physiological needs of thirst, hunger, and sex. In the beginning when Clark is on the island he begins to experience these needs. He ends up coming across coconuts and struggles through but find a way to crack it open with a rock. The physiological need of thirst forces Clark to find any way to survive.
Terms: motivation, emotion, instinct, will, drive, thirst, hunger, physiological needs,
The movie Cast Away demonstrated so many motivation concepts. Chuck had many drives; the drive to find water, the drive to find food, to drive to get off the island, the drive to survive. Chuck also had physiological needs; food, water, and probably sex, but this was a PG-13 movie. The first physiological need that I noticed was thirst. Chuck tried to find a source of water to drink almost right away after being stranded. Since a person would die after two days without water, finding a source of water was crucial for survival. Chuck found coconuts, but they had a hard, green outer shell and he could not break it. Chuck tried to through the coconuts against a rock wall, hit rocks against it, eventually he was able to cut through it with a rock. Then Chuck had that coconut. He hit it against the rock and broke, letting all of the liquid out before he could drink it. Chuck learned that he had to drill a hole into the coconut with a rock and drink it from the hole so it would not spill. Another time when Chuck was thirsty is when it first stormed on the island, he went into a cave for shelter, the rain leaked through a creak in the cave and pooled into a puddle. The puddle was dirty, and mucky, but Chuck was thirsty enough to drink it.
These cases of Chuck drinking water are due to intraorganismic mechanisms. Because Chuck did not have easy access to a water source, his intracellur fluids were depleted, so the hypothalamus releases a hormone through the blood plasma and sends a message to the kidneys saying reserving water. The hypothalamus created a conscious psychological state of thirst in Chuck and brought his attention to being thirsty. Eventually the psychological drive for water motivated Chuck into goal directed behaviors to satisfy his thirst. This is demonstrated when Chuck went into the forest and found water on leaves on the ground and basically lapped it up like a dog. He also found water on leaves in trees and poured to water into a coconut to save for later.
Chuck tried spearing some fish in the beginning, but was unable to catch any. He did not seriously try to find a food source for a few days. This tells that his physiological need for hunger was not as severe as his physiological need for water. After awhile, Chuck's blood glucose level must have been low enough that the liver sent a message to the lateral hypothalamus and created the psychological feeling of hunger. Chuck used the netting from the dress that was in one of the boxes to catch little fish. Chuck did not like the little fish and the little fish did not satisfy his physiological need of hunger. He then speared a crab, but when he cracked open its limbs, a gooey liquid came out instead of a solid meat. Chuck then had to create a fire to be able to heat his food. This was an extraorganismic mechanism.
Chuck tried many times to create a fire, but failed. He hurt himself trying and became upset and almost gave up. But he tried again and was looking elsewhere when he realized that he got some smoke. It was because the wood was cracked and got air in. Dopamine was released when he was got the nice surprise that the wood had started to smoke, creating good feelings in Chuck. The smoke was an incentive for Chuck to continue to try making fire. Dopamine was released with the anticipation of the reward, in this case fire. Dopamine was also released when Chuck received the reward of a fire and was able to cook the crab and eat it. Giving him good feelings and satisfying his physiological need of hunger.
Chuck had a couple of external motives motivating him. He had Kelly and the FedEx box with the wings on it. Kelly and his love for her was the main external motive motivating him to stay alive and get off the island. Chuck had the picture of Kelly in the pocket watch that he kept open almost always to see her picture and kept it by his bedside. Chuck also drew pictures of Kelly on the cave walls to remind him of her. When Chuck was on the raft and the cargo ship was next to him, even though he was on the verge of passing out, he called out Kelly's name. The FedEx box with the wings on it was like hope to Chuck and an important factor getting off the island. This was proven when Chuck painted to wings on the half port-o-potty as he used it for a sail. Also when he went to return the box and he wrote a note to the owner saying, this box saved my life.
TERMS: drive, motivation, physiological needs, thirst, intraorganismic mechanisms, psychological drive intracellur fluids, hypothalamus, goal directed behavior, hunger, extraorganismic mechanism, dopamine, incentive, reward, external motives
After watching the movie Cast Away, one of the things I noticed was the different things that were motivating the main character, Chuck, to emit certain behaviors. I feel like in order to understand his behavior fully, one needs to look at it throughout the movie.
Throughout the movie, Chuck appears to be a person motivated by intragonismic mechanisms, but I think Chuck is more motivated by extraorganismic mechanisms. Throughout the entire movie, Chuck seems to depend on outside factors to keep him motivated and to give him the necessary drive to get things done to keep living.
During the first scene, Chuck appears to be a very motivated person. He is shown giving a speech to a group of workers about how important it is to be attentive to the clock. Chuck is being motivated by the drive to do well at his job and wants others to be as motivated as he is. Chuck is using his tone and body language to motivate those around him. Although Chuck is the one motivating others, he is being motivated by the clock.
Something else that motivated Chuck was Wilson. The scene were Wilson was created was very interesting. Chuck is trying to make fire so he can fulfill his hunger need more adequately. At this point, Chuck is being motivated by the physiological need to eat. At this point in time he has been on the island for a fairly long time and he is starting to feel the affect that not eating is having on him. His motions while trying to start the fire are very sluggish and slow. Chuck ends up hurting himself and losing his temper. When he calms down, he appears to be very defeated by the negative feedback he was given when try to start a fire.
Chuck then creates Wilson. After placing Wilson where he can watch Chuck, Chuck starts trying to make fire again. This time, has he tries to make fire, he talks to Wilson. Chuck appears to be more driven to create fire now that he has an audience. He becomes more focused and shows more emotion in general. This pattern continues throughout the movie. Chuck’s dependence on Wilson is shown most clearly when Wilson falls off the raft. Once he loses Wilson, Chuck appears to just give up and be content to float aimlessly on the open ocean.
One of Chuck’s first displays of motivation on the island is when he buries the body of one of the crew members. There were multiple inputs driving Chuck to bury the body. The first being the social expectation that he will care for the body, even though there is no one else around. Chuck is also motivated by Albert’s family. This is shown when he places the picture in the pocket of Albert’s shirt.
The most motivating factor is Chuck’s girlfriend Kelly. Chuck seems to depend on her picture to give his the drive to survive. Whenever Chuck feels lost, he simply looks at the picture and becomes motivated again. This doesn’t change when he gets off the island. When he is in the hotel, he feels somewhat lost and needs to feel something familiar. So, he sets up his hotel room much like the island, and stares at the picture of Kelly while turning the light on and off, just like he did on the island. That action seems to give him the motivation to keep trying.
Even though Chuck is a very motivated person, it appears to me that his motivation is not from himself, but from outside sources.
Terms:motivated, attentive, drive, intragonismic mechanisms, extraorganismic mechanisms, physiological, need, hunger, negative feedback, emotion, multiple inputs
I had not seen the movie Cast Away before viewing it for this class. However, simply from the title I could tell that motivation would play a strong part in helping someone out of a difficult situation. Chuck’s needs are pushed to their limits throughout his time on the island. He suffers from physiological deficits of thirst and hunger. We see Chuck act in panic throughout the first couple scenes on the island. He is desperate to replenish his food and water supply in his body. He scavenges around the island to find means of food and water from rain water dripping of leaves, to finding different methods of cracking coconuts open. His motive in the beginning of his time on the island is to keep himself alive until he is rescued. After a while on the island Chuck adapts to the environment. Keeping his body in homeostasis becomes easier by adapting to his new life and learning new techniques. Catching fish, starting fire and drinking dirty water are all things Chuck is now motivated to do in order to stay alive. The scenes of Chuck attempting to start a fire show his frustration at its high point. Chuck knows that to stay alive he needs to have a way to make fire. The fire will allow him to cook food, keep warm, and send help signals. He is unsuccessful many times before getting a fire going. However he is motivated by the physiological needs as well as psychological. To help sustain his psychological needs the fire provides a sense of protection and offers light at nighttime.
In the middle of the movie we see Chuck four years later. Now he has adapted to his surroundings and knows how to survive with the resources available. His need for social interaction is at an all time high. Chuck draws faces on the wall of his inhabited cave and talks to a volleyball that washed up on shore with him. He names the ball Wilson and talks to it like a friend. Chuck had a very interactive life before the crash, surrounded by people all the time. His need to have a relationship was very strong. Having someone, or I should say something, to talk to and discuss plans, thoughts, and feelings with was important to him. When interacting with Wilson, Chuck received pleasure through a boost of dopamine. The dopamine he received while talking to Wilson increased as the time went on as Chuck gained more and more pleasure simply from the volleyballs presence. Wilson’s presence gave Chuck feelings of comfort. There is a time in the movie when Chuck gets frustrated and kicks the ball out of the cave. After a few seconds he is motivated by the need for social interaction once again and retrieves the ball from the ocean. While sailing out to be rescued Wilson falls off of the raft and floats out of reach. Chucks desperately tries saving the ball because of his fear of being alone on his journey. However, it is interesting when Chuck is rescued and brought back to his old life he draws away from crowds. The social interaction is too overwhelming for him.
A key motivator for Chuck to get off the island was his girlfriend, Kelly. The locket Kelly had given Chuck before his departure played a huge role in his success. He was able to have a visual of what he was working towards. He knew that once he got off the island he would be able to see Kelly and possibly continue and life with her. His motivation here stems again from social needs. His natural human desire to be in a relationship and to share life with individuals he cares for is enough to keep pushing on.
When I first saw Chuck on the island our in class discussion on persistence came to my mind. Most people in the situation Chuck was in would have given up, or like he considered, they would have taken their own life. Fortunately Chuck was a dedicated individual who possessed a lot of intrinsic motivation. We saw this display of this type of motivation throughout the beginning of the movie. Even before his struggles on the island, Chuck was a very determined and hardworking person motivated by his own self-growth, interest, and curiosity. Fortunately he was able to carry this motivation with him throughout his time on the island. Chuck is a person with a high amount of motivation at an intense level. Our text says “to flourish, motivation needs supportive conditions.” Chuck did not exactly inhabit supportive conditions on the island. This says a lot about his type and intensity of motivation. He can be motivated without seeing results immediately and can thrive on little to nothing for a very long time.
Terms: Motivation, physiological needs, thirst, hunger, homeostasis, psychological needs, social needs, dopamine, persistence, intrinsic motivation, types of motivation, intensity of motivation
Cast Away is a movie about a married man who's plane crashed in the ocean and is now stuck on an island. During his struggle to stay alive on the island he faces many challenges which he must overcome to stay alive. Many scenes and situations have concepts that we have gone over in class in them.
Chuck gets washed up on the island and immediately faces life or death situations. Human beings must eat. Chuck realizes this very soon thanks to the hunger causing ghrelin which is a hormone created in the stomach that circulates in the blood and detected by the brain. When Chuck went for an extended period of time with no food his stomach created this hormone. The hypothalamus constantly monitors ghrelin and its levels in our blood especially when nutrients are low, which means the body needs to replenish itself. The high levels of ghrelin stimulated Chuck's hypothalamus to create the psychological experience of hunger which motivated him to go to the ocean for food.
Another physiological need that he must satisfy is thirst. Chuck's Hypothalamus lets him know that he is in need of some H2O. This is evident when Chuck sees the cocoanuts and frantically attempts to get the milk/meat out of them. Another example from the movie shows him passionately drinking from tree leaves in an attempt to satisfy this bodily need. Clark Hull's drive theory sums up the previous examples. Chuck's physiological deprivations and deficits were going unsatisfied. The biological deprivation became potent enough to maintain his attention and produce psychological drive. This “drive” is a theoretical term used to depict the psychological discomfort coming from his underlying hunger and thirst deficit. Drive directed his activity towards satisfying this bodily need.
Being stuck on the island for as many years as he was would cause any person to become a touch disoriented with reality. Chuck finds a volleyball in one of the packages he opens. This volleyball would be Chuck's only “friend” on the island. It has a handprint as a face and has the name brand Wilson on the ball which Chuck appropriately names him. I feel that he uses the volleyball to satisfy his social need of intimacy. He talks to Wilson almost daily and almost uses him as an object to challenge him to succeed. He often tells Wilson about his accomplishments and how he achieved them even though “Wilson doubted him”.
The last motivator that I feel got him through this whole ordeal was his girlfriend Kelly. This extrinsic motivator I believe was the most powerful of all...love. The locket that he had of her was a daily reminder of why he must stay alive and what was waiting for him back home.
Terms: extrinsic motivator, social need, intimacy, physiological need, hypothalamus, deprivations, deficits, biological deprivation, psychological drive, discomfort, hunger, thirst, drive, satisfy, ghrelin, hormone, motivation
“Cast Away” is a brilliant film depicting a middle-aged man who is stranded on a small island for over four years. In order to survive, Chuck learns to adapt to his new environment by utilizing what little resources he has, including skate blades and the netting from a dress. In many ways, this movie reminds me of the Gary Paulsen books that depict the harshness of nature and how humans can adapt and survive in the wilderness. In this type of setting, our basic needs are put in the spotlight. Things like food and water are no longer easily accessible. There are no fast food restaurants or grocery stores. Instead, Chuck is motivated to find ways of attaining food and water without the luxuries of modern society. In my analysis of this film, I will explore two basic physiological needs; thirst and hunger, and use clips from the film to demonstrate how these motivational constructs operate.
The first need that appears in the film is thirst. A need is a condition within the individual that is essential and necessary for the maintenance of life and for the nurturance of growth and wellbeing. A physiological need, such as thirst, hunger, or sex, is required to prevent bodily harm to the individual. Humans will die within two days without water, and therefore, Chuck’s first motive once on the island is to find water. A motive is an internal process that energizes and directs behavior, which includes needs, cognitions, and emotions. After a day on the island, Chuck starts to become dehydrated from a lack of water and hot from the continued sun exposure. These external influences are called multiple inputs, or the different sources of motivated behavior. Once a physiological deficit starts to accumulate, a bodily need arises. If this need is not addressed, the need is intensified which gives rise to psychological drive, or the psychological discomfort that stems from unmet physiological need. At this point, water is all Chuck can think about. In one particular scene, he is using rocks to break open coconuts in order to get a few ounces of water. He spends hours on a task that produces little results. But due to his physiological need and the thirst drive, Chuck is determined to satiate his need. Once Chuck has found enough water to fulfill his physiological need, his drive is reduced for the time being. The mechanism that ceases motivation after a physiological need has been met is called negative feedback, or the homeostasis physiological stop system.
The second physiological need depicted in the movie is hunger. The specific scene I am referring to is where Chuck is desperately trying different (raw) fish and crab to find the nutrients that his body needs. Hunger is actually a complex mechanism that includes a short-term appetite and a long-term energy balance. Short-term appetite is the temporary hunger cues that regulate the initiation of meals, the size of meals, and the termination of meals. Short-term appetite relies primarily on the glucose levels in the bloodstream. Cells need to use glucose for energy, which will lead to glucose levels to decrease. The liver will detect this deficit and it sends hormones, or chemical messengers, to the lateral hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is a brain structure that regulates a range of important biological functions, including eating, drinking, and mating. Once the hypothalamus is signaled, it will create the drive for hunger. Chuck’s drive for hunger is so strong that he eats little raw fish and is so motivating that he spends hours/days trying to create a fire. Once he manages to start a fire, he is able to have a larger meal that fulfills his need for nutrients. Once this need is met, the tension felt from this powerful drive dissipates. It is likely that two things happened once Chuck finished his satisfying meal; cortisol, the stress hormone, likely dropped because the tension created by the psychological drive has been removed and dopamine, the neurotransmitter in the brain that is associated with reward, may have been released. All of these mechanisms together may have contributed to that “ahh” moment when Chuck is sitting by the fire with his large catch and a full belly.
Like I have stated previously, this film is unique because it places a human in an extreme situation where basic needs, such as food and water, are not readily available. This is ironically shown at the end of the film when a feast is prepared for Chuck’s return and he is dumbfounded by the abundance of large crab legs and other dishes. When placed in a situation like Chuck was, humans will go to great lengths to get their basic needs met, even if that means licking water off a leaf that was on the forest floor or eat the gooey insides of a crab. Our body does not like to stray from its harmonious state of homeostasis, or the body’s tendency to maintain a stable internal environment. Once the scale gets tipped, the body will act upon the brain to motivate us into action. Due to their biological origin, these drives are near impossible to ignore.
Terms: need, physiological need, motive, multiple inputs, psychological drive, negative feedback, short-term appetite, hormones, hypothalamus, cortisol, dopamine, homeostasis
Chapters three and four discussed brain mechanisms and physiological mechanisms. Cast Away brings many of the topics discussed in those chapters to life. When Chuck first gets on the island, he seems to be at a homeostatic level. Homeostasis is a state where the body’s needs are met and are in balance. He had just had Christmas dinner with some family. He must have had enough food and water in his system, because the first thing he did on the island, was set up a camp and make a help sign. His body’s store of food and water starts to decrease as he expends his energy making the help sign. His body then signals that he needs food and water. A drive is built to create the motivation necessary for him to go through the actions of finding food and water. Eventually, the need for water is so intense that he drinks water from leaves and other seemingly unsanitary sources that would not be anyone’s first choice. He eventually got enough water in his system to receive negative feedback from his body. He started to collect water is a coconut shell to save for later. The thirst he must have felt most likely was from lack of intracellular fluids, which is the water inside of each cell. We also get a first glimpse at his intense hunger when he eats a small fish that is still alive. He does not cook the fish or get rid of the scales and bones. We discussed in class that we eat more when we have a variety of flavors. This leads us to eat for reasons other than necessity. There are signs that Chuck did this before he was on the island by the amount of extra body fat he had. Once he is on the island, eating is an activity done purely to stay alive. There is not enjoyment of the flavors, simply the fact that it is providing the body with glucose that is necessary to keep his body running. Chuck also must have a decent amount of ghrelin in his blood. Once the body reaches a low point of body fat, ghrelin is released into the system. This creates hunger. Since Chuck has been on the island for four years, he is very skinny. We also discussed in class how a person has a set amount of fat cells once they reach adulthood. What changes in our fat cells is their size. After four years on the island, Chuck’s fat cells are probably about as small as they can get. They may remember how big they could get, making him feel constant hunger.
Chuck shows many different behavioral expressions of motivation. It is very obvious that he is intensely focused on everything he does on the island; it has all of his attention. There is very little idle time where he is just resting. I noticed this most when he was building his raft and when he was first looking for food and water. He puts forth all of his effort in everything he does. What comes to mind when I think of a time when he showed effort is when he was trying to make his first fire. His hands were bleeding and raw, but he persevered until he was successful. This also shows persistence. He did not take any breaks when he was trying to make fire. He worked at it with the same intense amount of effort and attention until the task was complete and his fire was made.
Another thing I noticed about Chuck’s motivation in the movie was the switch from him being mainly extrinsically motivated to intrinsically motivated. At the beginning of the movie, Chuck is very successful at his job. He seems to be too involved in work. He even drops everything on Christmas for work. His extrinsic motivators may have been money or moving up the corporate ladder. Once he is on the island, Chuck’s motivation seems to be mainly intrinsic. Everything he does, he does to meet his needs and serve his emotions. We mostly see Chuck meeting his needs, but we see some emotion from him when he looks at his picture of his fiancé and when he talks to Wilson.
Terms: Brain Mechanisms, Physiological Mechanisms, Homeostatic Level, Drive, Negative Feedback, Intracellular Fluids, Glucose, Ghrelin, Behavioral Expressions, Attention, Effort, Persistence, Extrinsic Motivation, Intrinsic Motivation
Cast Away is a great movie that depicts many aspects of motivation and emotion. Chuck’s motivation in this movie comes both from his internal motives and external events. He is internally motivated by his needs, cognitions, and emotions.
Psychological needs are internal motives. Chuck has some psychological needs that he needs to meet in order to continue to function. When Chuck arrives on the island and realizes that he is stranded there, he is alone. He does not have anyone to talk to or share his experiences with. His social needs of affiliation, intimacy, and companionship are not being met. Therefore, he is driven to meet these needs. He creates Wilson to fill his need for affiliation and companionship. His function, or what he wanted to accomplish at that moment, was to create a companion. Wilson becomes his confidant and friend. Humans are social beings and we need interaction with others to keep us healthy. Wilson assures Chuck that he is not alone: They are in it together. Chuck gets a sense of belonging with having Wilson as a companion. Wilson is an outlet for Chuck and allows him to express his emotions. He tells Wilson of his feelings of fear, anger, hope, dismay, and excitement.
Chuck was aware that Wilson was a volleyball, but his psychological need and drive to seek companionship overruled this knowledge. This can be seen in the scene in the cave when Chuck becomes angry with Wilson. He yells at him and then kicks him out into the storm. A few moments later, he realizes what has done and runs out after Wilson. He calls to him and is relieved when he finds him. He feels remorse for treating Wilson that way. Wilson was the only thing he had and was the only one he could talk to. Without Wilson, Chuck would have been alone.
Under ordinary circumstances, like the ones Chuck lived under back in Memphis, he never would have named a volleyball, much less talk to one. He would have been seen as crazy if he had. Also, in Memphis, he did not have the need or the drive, subsequently, to create a companion out of a volleyball. This just goes to show that motivation cannot be separated from the context in which it occurred.
In addition to internal motives, Chuck is also motivated by external events. An external event he faces while on the island is a lack of drinking water. The hypothalamus monitors water levels in the body. It then tells the brain when fluids are low, and the brain releases a hormone. This hormone sends a signal to the kidneys in order to conserve water. When water levels are low, the hypothalamus creates the experience of thirst.
The rise and fall of psychological drive can be seen in the Model of Need-Drive-Behavior Sequence. The sequence is demonstrated many times throughout the movie in regards to thirst. The example that I will used occurs shortly after Chuck arrives on the island. He surveys his surroundings and yells for help. He writes “help” in the sand and with logs.
This sequence starts out with a gradually developing physiological deprivation of water. At this point, Chuck is not aware of his thirst. A prolonged physiological deprivation produces bodily needs. He faces a biological need of water. The need intensifies, leading to psychological drive. Chuck is sweating and he is hot. He has been yelling for help and doing manual labor under the blazing sun. This leads him to be driven by his thirst. Next, he engages in goal-directed motivated behavior in an attempt to gratify his drive. He sees a coconut and is driven to get the coconut milk out of the coconut because it is better than nothing. His first attempt is a massive failure because he loses the coconut milk as he opens it up. He persists in his task and soon develops a better way to open the coconut: He drives a sharp rock into the top of the coconut by hitting it with another rock. This allows him to access the coconut milk without spilling it everywhere. He consumes what coconut milk he can, and as a result, his drive is reduced. He stops drinking the coconut milk because he is no longer driven to.
Terms: motivation, internal motives, external events, biological need, drive, thirst, psychological needs, social needs, affiliation, intimacy, companionship, belonging, expression, emotions, feelings, function, hormone, hypothalamus, kidneys, psychological drive, the model of need-drive-behavior sequence, persistence
Cast Away
One of the things that always struck me about this movie and even after watching it again with the motivation aspect in mind was Chuck’s need to make a friend. The internal motive of need for companionship was so imbedded in his psych that he made that friend out of a volleyball and called him Wilson. This “relationship” continued to grow or become more real when Chuck would constantly talk to Wilson getting his opinion on things. There was one scene when Chuck and Wilson got into some sort of fight and Chuck threw Wilson out of his cave and almost immediately had to go and find him. When he was frantically searching for Wilson it was evident by his facial expressions that he was worried. This behavior made it plain to see that Wilson was actually more than just a ball that Chuck talked to but really meant something to him. Another scene where this was shown was when Wilson drifted away from the boat when the two were at sea and Chuck tried desperately to save him but couldn’t let go of the raft. He cried and kept saying over and over how he was sorry. It also seemed that after that point we saw Chuck laying down more, not seeming to fight as much for survival. It was almost like he had given up because his companionship was gone.
Another concept I thought about during the movie was that of the grand theories, which include will, instinct and drive. At the end of the movie Chuck is talking to his friend about how he tried to kill himself. He also said that after he realized he wouldn’t have succeeded a knowledge came over him that he had to survive, even though he knew he had no control over anything he had discovered his will of what he truly wanted and that was to survive. We also saw his instinct kicking in when we saw him adapting to his environment. When he first got on the island he had no tools he had no means of getting food and yet latter in the movie we saw how he adapted. We saw how he made a knife-like thing out of a skate and how he used sharp rocks. We even saw how he became a pretty skilled fisherman by killing a fish with a spear with little effort and how at the beginning of the movie he couldn’t do it. Lastly we saw drive. Once Chuck had figured out that he wanted to live towards the end of the movie we saw how diligently he worked at trying to build his own raft/ boat and have it done on time to make it off the islands when the winds were right. This drive was so great that he overcame his fear of where he tried to kill himself to get the extra rope he needed.
A scene that also stuck out in my mind was when Chuck made fire. He tried for a long time and even hurt himself doing it but when he finally succeeded he was so happy and that happiness continued out throughout that whole day and into the night when we saw him dancing around. This incorporates dopamine and motivated action. He tried so hard to get something and when he finally succeeded dopamine had to have been released and he was so happy. This action and behavior was also probably controlled by the medial forebrain bundle, which is associated with pleasure and reinforcement. The pleasure part is clear with how happy Chuck was and the reinforcement comes into play when he tried over and over to achieve something and finally did.
Another set of principles that were very easy to follow in this movie were the fundamentals of regulation. Chuck from the very beginning of arriving at the island had the physiological need of both hunger and thirst. This need caused the psychological drive of wanting to satisfy the thirst and hunger. He found the solution when he discovered the coconuts. The coconut milk was enough to keep him alive but not enough to satisfy him or return his body back to homeostasis. This was shown when he kept looking for water on the leaves and when he tried to eat a raw crab and little fish. In fact his body probably did not receive negative feedback telling him he was satisfied until after he made the fire and cooked himself a crab and was able to eat some food.
Terms: need, internal motives, behavior, grand theories, will, instinct, drive, dopamine and motivated action, medial forebrain bundle, fundamentals of regulation, physiological need, psychological drive, homeostasis, negative feedback
The movie, Cast Away, told the story of Chuck Noland’s struggle to survive fours years on a deserted Pacific island after a plane crash and his efforts to return home. Throughout the movie, Chuck struggled to achieve his needs, which are the essential and necessary conditions for an individual to live, grow, and maintain a sense of well-being. Some examples of basic physiological needs that I saw Chuck strive for include hunger and thirst. Those two basic needs are controlled by the hypothalamus, which also monitors and controls other various parts of a person that motivates them to engage in certain acts or experience certain sensations.
Thirst, is a motivational state that makes people aware that they need to replenish their body with water. Chuck experienced thirst early on and had no means to a fresh water source. Luckily, Chuck was able to eventually come across coconuts and managed to open them, however, the sweet milk didn’t fully replenish his thirst. It wasn’t until Chuck started drinking and collecting water from leaves after it would rain. Later on in the movie, Chuck adapts to his new environment on the raft as he collects water into coconuts by using his makeshift sail as a funnel during the rain. By adapting to those various conditions, Chuck was able to manage his thirst and allow his body to achieve some level of homeostasis.
Chuck also experienced hunger while he was stranded on the island. Hunger is experienced when gherlin, a hormone, is created and released by the stomach into the blood stream. Once gherlin reaches the hypothalamus, the hypothalamus sends the body a message that makes a person aware of their hunger and they feel the urge to eat. However, in Chuck’s case it was difficult to find food without proper means to get it. Chuck became resourceful, by using ice skates he found in one of the washed up packages to carve a spear. From then on Chuck was able to find an adequate amount of food by spearing crab and fish to keep up his blood glucose levels, and have an efficient amount of energy to live.
Another reason Chuck was able to continue living and make it off the island was because of his girlfriend Kelly. During his whole ordeal, Chuck managed to keep the keep the pocket watch she gave him with his favorite picture of her inside of it. By looking at that picture he would receive a rush of dopamine into his system. When the dopamine was released, it triggered Chuck to experience positive feelings, which he would then associate to looking at the picture and think of how good he felt around Kelly. Chuck also experienced a huge release of dopamine when the scrap of material washed up on shore and he discovered it could be made into a sail/shelter that could help him make a more efficient mechanism to leave the island.
All of these examples, along with many more examples throughout the movie show that Chuck had a strong amount of intrinsic (internal) and extrinsic (external) motivation to go on to eventually escape the island. Overall, I felt that this movie was perfect for showing the class examples of what we covered in chapters 1-4. I feel like this movie was also great for showing everyone that they have the ability to be motivated even under some of the harshest conditions.
Terms Used: needs, physiological, hunger, thirst, hypothalamus, motivation, homeostasis, gherlin, hormone, blood glucose level, dopamine, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
In the movie Cast Away many forms of motivation and emotion are shown. The first one I noticed was on the plane. The flight attendant touched the shoulder of Chuck’s friend to ask how his wife is doing. What motive she had was sympathy to satisfy the need of compassion. Also, when Chuck buries Albert, compassion is there. Chuck has a motive to show respect for the dead.
Chuck experiences fear when he wakes up to noises. We know this by how he grabs a stick for protection. Fear can be shown by facial expressions, sudden movements, and alertness. Happiness fills Chuck when he finally gets a fire started. We know this by how he is singing joyously. Happiness is noticed by simple gestures like, smiling, laughing, and excitement. He shows anger when he cuts his hand open. Chuck yells, jumps around, kicks, and throws things. These are all reactions to anger.
A need he is trying to suffice is companionship. He names the volleyball Wilson, and makes a face out of his blood mark. This shows how he is lonely. A lot of survival motives arise in this movie. Chuck throws a cocoanut to crack it open for water. This is because he has a need of thirst. He also drinks from little pools of water and dew dripping from leaves. He has a high motive to do this because his hydration needs are not met. Chuck makes use out of whatever he finds from the boxes of mail. The dress was made into a fish catcher, so he could eat. When a person needs food, their motives kick in high gear to do whatever they can to live.
I would say living is his motive, also with the physiological needs requiring to be met. An example from earlier in the movie of a motive to live would be when he was trying to get a boats attention to be rescued. He tried waving them down and spelling “help” in the sand. Chuck also shows pain from his tooth bothering him. He physically rubs his cheek, showing he is in pain.
Chuck needs to gain back his homeostasis, or state at which all levels of needs are satisfied. All the examples I provided of him trying to survive were showing that he was not at the content state.
Terms used: Motives, needs, fear, happiness, anger, thirst, physiological needs, homeostasis,
After watching Cast Away in class, I was greatly disappointed that I wasn’t able to catch the end of it, or even get to the part where Tom Hanks, or Chuck, looks like an anorexic mountain man. Despite my somewhat limited viewing of the movie I still saw many ties back to the principles covered in our class. Though I’m sure there are several I have passed over but the ideas I will focus on will include our brain and the environment that surrounds it and our basic needs, hunger and thirst, and their driving motivational forces.
First I would like to examine what was happening in Chuck’s environment and how it was affecting his brain concerning hunger. Before being stuck on a island Chuck was an overweight individual. We see scenes of him at Christmas with his girlfriend’s family to a Christmas feast before his abandonment. In this situation he was probably ignoring what his ventromedial hypothalamus was telling him, which is an area of the brain that tells us when we are full. The textbook said that without this system an organism will tend to overeat and may double in body weight. In addition to this the lateral hypothalamus is working overtime by causing Chuck to respond to the sight and taste of the food around him, even though he may only be somewhat hungry, he may eat more than needed. Both of these are examples of short-term appetite hunger and how it was working surrounding Chuck pre-casting away. On the other hand we have long-term energy balance as described by two theories. The lipostatic hypothesis, which maintains that our body monitors the mass of our fat and encourages eating when this dips, and the set-point theory, in which our fat cells are held constant but they fluctuate in size and motivate hunger when they are smaller than usual. In FedEx Chuck he would have had a large fat mass, which should cause weight loss motivation, as explained by the lipostatic hypothesis. However, the set-point theory better describes Chuck’s status. Because he is large he still has the same number of fat cells but they are rather large in size and therefore he requires more food to maintain his fat cells at their happy level of homeostasis. In addition to these internal hormonal factors affecting Chuck’s weight, as we learned in chapter 3, there is a complex combination of brain structures, hormones, and environmental factors. In Chuck’s case one environmental factor that would motivate eating behaviors would be the high stress that he was under all the time. In the first 10 minutes of the film he speaks of living and dying by the clock, how time is out to get us, how it is unforgiving, he travels 18 hours across the world, and many other stressful and goofy time situations. First, stress has been shown to have many negative health side effects and it also something that causes us to eat, in a sense to cope. Another factor, his constant traveling, would certainly mess with his metabolism because it created situations in which he would always be snacking because food was always available to him and he did not have a set time to eat, let alone time to eat healthy foods. At the end of this it is obvious to see that Chuck had a lot of things in life that kept him from experiencing hunger, his job, his level of comfort(the state of homeostasis he had grown accustomed to), and unconscious factors. Little did Chuck know that this was all about to change with a trip over the Pacific. (lightning, thunder, boom, crash, swim, float)
Now we have Chuck on a deserted island by himself after crashing into the ocean, having to swim for his life, and eventually being washed up on shore half conscious. He goes several days before he gets any nutrition from some coconut milk after many hours of hard work. By this point and time Chuck would be very hungry. His hypothalamus would be going nuts when he drank the coconut milk, giving him immense pleasure from the food and motivating him to get more. At the same time he would have been experiencing motivational forces from his body according to the lypostatic hypothesis and set point theory. His normal fat mass(sounds horrible, but is scientifically correct) would have been lower than normal after a few days, motivating him to eat according to the lypostatic hypothesis. In addition the set-point theory says his fat cells would not have decreased in number but would have been much smaller than they are used to being and thus motivating him to eat. Good thing for Chuck he had plenty of coconuts to eat for a while. However, he knew that these wouldn’t last forever and he would have liked to get to know where he was because at the time he didn’t know he was on an island. I would say that Darwin’s theory of instinct came into play here in the movie. Chuck’s basic instinct was to survive and in this case the way to survive in his mind was to find a way out, not knowing that there was no way off the island. This instinct caused the behavior of walking around the island over coral, bloodying his feet, and to the top of a mountain to take in his surroundings and to fully appreciate the gravity of his situation. After taking all of this in and realizing that he is utterly alone in this predicament it causes his cerebral cortex, left prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulated cortex kicked in to help him devise plans for survival, make difficult choices(like burying Albert), and to approach these circumstances with a positive motivated attitude because if he didn’t he would die. From these thought processes and other physiological factors that motivated him to push himself to do what was necessary to survive. Hunger drove him to kill and cook crabs, eat fish, and coconuts despite the difficulties involved. Thirst motivated him to think of creative ways to capture rain water to drink and to find the spring in the mountain. In the end it was amazing to see how detailed everything we had learned about related back to the movie Cast Away to give me a fuller understanding and appreciation for the things Chuck did while on the island.
Terms: Hunger, Thirst, cerebral cortex, left prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulated cortex, instinct, hypothalamus, stress, homeostasis, lipostatic hypothesis, set point theory, long term energy balance, short term appetite, ventromedial hypothalamus, lateral hypothalamus, motivation
While stranded on the island, one of Chuck's first motivations was to find fresh drinking water as it was necessary for his survival. The thirst aspect of Chuck’s Need-Drive-Behavior cycle probably began as he originally felt thirsty on the plan and developed a need for water. He then was driven to look for water after the crash so that he could meet his need and elicit the consuming behavior of water. When Chuck’s need for water became more severe, his drive significantly increased.
The inputs that would increase his thirst might be: the heat, stress, the fact that he is yelling a lot, the amount of time since he had his last drink, the presence of the salty ocean water constantly flowing,the taste of the salt water that he almost drown in, and the fact that he knows he needs water to stand any chance of survival. He had a strong internal motive for survival and satisfying the need of giving his body water nourishment that would help him to survive.
Being on a deserted island without other humans or a society outside of himself, extraorganismic mechanisms held significantly less of a role and intraorganismic mechanisms became the primary base of Chuck’s drive or motivations as his hormones/ endocrine system, brain structures like the hypothalamus, and organs constantly signaled that he needed food and water to survive. The glucose and insulin in his system would tell him that he is hungry. His stomach may also start to ache and his brain may be signaling that his energy is depleting.
In addition to his motivation to find and consume water, he was also motivated to start a fire as it would help to satisfy several of his needs, emotions, cognitions, and aid his external events like his physiological needs to stay warm, see in the dark, cook food and boil water, create smoke for rescuers to see, and more. When he finally had success making a fire it was a huge moment as he had been discourages psychologically and physically by his prior failure and now he was extremely excited and motivated to continue working to survive.
In working to make the fire in the first place, Chuck’s needs were biological as he needed the fire to prepare his food and water and to maintain homeostasis necessary for survival.
Starting the fire also played a strong psychological role in Chuck’s survival on the island as it raised his moral. It gave him some confidence that he might be able to survive and meet his need for competence.
For the most part his basic needs for food, water, fire, survival were all deficiency motivations as he was motivated to achieve fulfillment of his deficits that were, hunger, thirst, and comfort. His cognitions in the beginning were that he could survive if he could obtain the basic needs that are food, water, and shelter. His cognitions also most likely included fear and anger in the beginning as he struggled with the frustrations of figuring out how to survive. Emotionally he was drained and as just stated, frustrated, angry, and afraid.
The external events on the island are where he found his motivation to use resources that were around him, though there weren’t many. The external events included his new environment (wood for fire, rocks and an iceskate for removing his tooth, a cave for shelter, etc). His incentive was survival and the climate and resources effect that environment as well.
He also had a persistence form of engagement. He was persistent in all of his efforts and he saw them through to his satiation or until the end where he achieved his goal or need. He also sought reinforcement in terms of success (for example when he finally got the fire started that was reinforcement for all of his work). He engaged persistently until he obtains the reinforcement of satiating his needs. Though he constantly fought failure and injury (such as his hands while rubbing the sticks) he was still driven to learn and adjust in order to reach success. He also engaged his bodily gestures or position as he learned to block the wind and move his hands and the stick in a way that would start the fire. He put a great deal of effort into starting the fire and engaged in many ways to reach his goal and satisfy his needs.
Further engagement was: he behaviorally watched his body position and motions in his persistence, effort, and attention while rubbing the sticks to start the fire. He emotionally was interested and passionate about starting the fire as it was his key to survival and his current focus of his interest. He cognitively developed strategies for rubbing the sticks, positioning his body, digging in the sand, and creating ways of generating a bigger flame and keeping the fire going once it started. Vocally, he celebrated when he finally reach a point of success and achieved his goal of starting the fire. After all of his engagement, the achievement was the reinforcer for all of his work, he created fire!
Throughout and in the end, perhaps his greatest motivation was his underlying desire to stay alive to see the woman he loves. Naturally and socially he would try to stay alive as dying is morally unacceptable and painful in his mind and the culture from which he came. However, outside of himself, he wanted to live to be home with the woman he wanted to marry. This touches on his emotional, internal motives in which he feels love and desire and it’s his drive or reaction to an important life event. She is a huge part of his feelings, his functions, his expression, and his physiological preparedness. These four aspects of emotion in terms of internal motives revolve around his keeping of his loves picture and his efforts to get back to her and his emotional connections that motivate him to do whatever it takes to survive.
“Cast Away” is a film of going from one motivation to the next. Starting with simple drives like getting packages where they belong on time so that socially, people wouldn’t get mad and the business is a success. Than to the need and drive to survive by starting a fire and getting food/water which transitioned to his need for companionship and a society or social relationships that he developed in talking to himself and his volleyball, Wilson. Onward to his desire to not just stay alive, but to get home to the society to which he belongs and the people he loves. Constant drive/motivation is what helps Chuck survive and make it back to Memphis.
Terms: elicit, Need-Drive-Behavior cycle, consume, extraorganismic mechanisms, intraorganismic mechanisms, input, drive, motivations, need, internal motive (emotion-feelings, expression, function, & physiological preparedness), thirst, biological, homeostasis, physiologically needs, psychologically needs, competence, deficiency motivation, cognitively, emotionally, hormones, glucose, insulin, hypothalamus, brain structures, organs, stomach, endocrine system, socially, morals, persistence, satiation, engagement (behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and vocal), reinforcement, bodily gestures, effort, attention, interest-(all aspects of engagement),
I didn’t really see much connection between the film and the four chapters we’ve read or the material we have discussed so far. I noticed that several of the posts here talked about how motivated Chuck (Tom Hanks) was; yet to me, it seemed like he did very little by way of actually trying to get off the island until - four years later on - the wall of the Porta-Potty (that is what that was, right?) washed up on the shore.
At the very beginning, Chuck does appear to be a very motivated guy. He pushes himself in his job (when he and Kelley are comparing their Day Planners, it is clear that he spends a lot of time on the road, presumably travelling to different FedEx facilities and helping them to solve problems), and he is also shown trying to get the Russians pumped up (yelling, gesticulating, running around) so that they will do their jobs better. He is presented as a problem solver, someone who can find solutions and get things done. After he is marooned on the island*, however, that drive seems to completely dry up and vanish. He makes a ‘HELP’ sign in the sand, and then later makes one attempt to paddle the plane’s emergency life raft out to sea - but that was pretty much all we see of him attempting to get off the island until four years later, when he builds the raft.
And I’m not really sure what finally motivated him to do that. Was it that he had thought escape was completely impossible until Fate delivered that scrap of metal (plastic?) to him? That seems like quite a leap to me. Perhaps we are only meant to assume that he made numerous other attempts; yet that seems like sloppy filmmaking to me. Finding that sheet of plastic really seemed to light a fire under him, as he then immediately started to assemble the materials to build a raft. My question, though, is why he hadn’t done some of this (e.g., braiding rope, cutting logs, etc.) prior to that.
There are signs that he is thinking methodically while he is on the island, such as when he creates a solar calendar in the cave and when he talks about the weather patterns. Perhaps these allude to other, unseen attempts to get off the island. But the only plan we ever really hear about in detail was his (flawed) plan to kill himself.
In terms of the three primary bodily needs discussed in chapter 4 (e.g., water, food, and reproduction), there were a few scenes that relate to two of them. Chuck probably swallowed a lot of seawater when the plane crashed and then in the life raft during the storm. However, he seemed to spend more time looking for FedEx packages that were washing up from the crash than he did trying to ensure that his immediate needs (water, food, shelter) were met. (And as he did not immediately open said packages to check for items that might be of use in meeting those needs, I am guessing that doing so was fulfilling more of a social need for him, keeping him connected to his former identity.) Eventually though, he did show signs of dehydration (chapped and cracked lips, and - unless it was his bad tooth bothering him? - signs of having a swollen tongue), and when the coconut fell DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF HIM, he attacked it and greedily drank the meager coconut milk with gusto. He also seemed very thirsty when he found that rainwater had pooled in the leaf of a plant, happily lapping it up quickly - though he apparently had not considered devising a means to catch the rainwater (say, in the raft) prior to that.
(I don’t mean to be pedantic and pick the movie apart, but it is mentioned that Chuck liked to fish - which to me, suggests that he should have some knowledge about The Great Outdoors and at least minimal survival skills.)
Apparently, Chuck also ate the coconut, though this was never shown (at one point he complains about how sick he is of eating coconut). He also appeared to be quite ravenous when he finally speared a crab, devouring it raw. (Again, since he had experience fishing, I am surprised that he never contrived any other kind of fishing equipment besides the spear - and later, the net. Sure, eventually he became adept with the spear - but why disregard a skill set that you already have? I just think that it would have been more likely and more reasonable for him to fashion some kind of fishing line, rather than exert so much effort trying to learn to hunt with a spear.)
Chuck hadn’t even attempted to construct any kind of shelter prior to finding the cave - despite the frequent inclement weather.
Aside from the physiological needs and concomitant psychological drives (e.g., thirst, hunger, and sex), it also seems clear that Chuck had social needs, as well: gathering up the FedEx packages as I mentioned, and also he really seemed to develop a dependence on his imaginary friend, Wilson. He not only talked to the volleyball, but actually argued with it - responding, it seems, to a voice he only heard in his head. And when he thought it was lost (both when he threw it from the cave, and later when it fell off the raft), Chuck seemed to be quite distraught and frantic, blindly throwing himself into peril (running down the rocks in the dark, or jumping into the water) in order to recover it.
There were really only four points in the film where Chuck actually seemed motivated to me: the fierce way he tore into the coconut; the way he tried over and over to start a fire; when he eventually started building his raft; and when he jumped into the water to try to ‘save’ Wilson.
*Did you hear about the ship carrying 75,000 gallons of red paint that collided with a ship carrying 50,000 gallons of blue paint? All of the sailors were marooned. (That’s okay, my girlfriend didn’t get it, either.)
Terms: physiological needs, psychological drives, social needs, motivation, thirst, hunger, sex, effort, plan, methodical
The first aspects of motivation and emotion I will discuss in relation to the movie Cast Away are those from Chapter 4: Physiological Needs. The first, and perhaps most obvious, is thirst. The day after he washed up on the island his body began feeling the effects. Chuck experienced the double-depletion model of thirst activation. Osmometric thirst arose as the intracellular fluid needed replacing. When extracellular fluid needs replenishment volumetric thirst arises. This is experienced when one losses blood or vomits. Because Chuck lost blood through numerous injuries his body was surely feeling volumetric thirst. The feeling of thirst drove Chuck to goal directed behavior. The goal: get water and quench thirst. He first tried to do this by cracking open a coconut but failed. His behavior continued until he found a more efficient way. Eventually he learned to save water from leaves.
The next physiological need Chuck faced was hunger. Again, to satisfy this need for survival, Chuck engaged in goal directed behavior. This time the goal was for food. Over the four years he was stranded on the island he became a master fisherman.
Both of these needs were experienced due to multiple inputs and multiple outputs. Chuck experienced thirst and hunger due to bodily reason as well as environmental ones. We discussed in class how we as a society don't really understand the feeling of hunger because food is so readily available to us. What Chuck experienced was a whole new level of hunger for him. He needed to fulfill his thirst and hunger for pure survival reasons.
A few external factors that played a role in motivating Chuck's survival were Kelly, Wilson, and the FedEx packages. Obviously his love for Kelly was what kept him going throughout the ordeal. He kept her picture near him every night and never let his hope of seeing her waver. Wilson provided a need that we have not yet discussed in class but was obvious to me. His role in motivation was intimacy. He provided a social need that Chuck could not get because he was alone on the island. The FedEx packages were another motivator. Perhaps related to a psychological need of competence. In the beginning of the movie he was so focused on getting packages delivered and being good at his job and you see this come full circle at the end when he delivers the one package he never opened. The note enclosed says "This packages saved my life. Thank you." These examples prove what motivation external factors can have on our behavior.
Terms: Need, thirst, hunger, multiple inputs/outputs, physiological need, psychological need, social need, osmometric thirst, volumetric thirst, environmental influences
The movie “Castaway” is a great example of how motivation, emotion, and drive are constantly being used in everyday life. There are numerous instances in the movie where motivational processes and underlying drives that give steam to actions. One example occurs early on in the movie when Chuck and his girlfriend Kelly are having Christmas dinner with her family. Chuck experiences intense tooth pain while chewing his food, which he had been enjoying, as viewers could tell by watching his demeanor and facial expressions. This experience relates to the steps in chapter three which state that: first, an environmental event takes place (pressure is put on am unhealthy or infected tooth by chewing), second, the pressure on the tooth causes a release of neurotransmitters and hormones which then stimulate the brain (most likely the amygdala), which will finally send the message of pain, causing Chuck to stop chewing and wince.
An example of emotional drive, powered by the limbic system, occurs when Chuck is on the plane that eventually crashes, and during the intense commotion and obvious instability of the aircraft, Chuck still feels the psychological need which pushes him physically to unbuckle his seatbelt and risk injury to grab the pocket watch given to him by his girlfriend Kelly. The amygdala, which detects emotionally threatening situations and events, utilizes one part to regulate the act of self-preservation. This happens initially on the life raft that Chuck uses after the plane crashes and burns. Chuck shows emotions of determination and will to live when he avoids the blast from the engine and clings dearly to the raft for safety and survival. Also, with the writing of HELP in the sand, Chuck attempted to attract attention in order to be rescued, showing determination in his drive to survive when he tried more than once.
Biological needs were shown throughout this film, due to the fact that Chuck was without any modern convenience, which we all take for granted most of the time. A need, we have learned, is any condition within a person that is necessary for growth and well-being, and in order to sustain life. The first and most important need (or deprivation of) we saw Chuck face head on was thirst. His body, through the hypothalamus, senses the danger of dehydration, and sends the body into action, attempting to achieve homeostasis. We see Chuck growing thirsty as he begins licking his lips, as thirst is a consciously experienced motivational state. The physiological need triggers the psychological drive which then motivates Chuck’s body to begin searching for water to drink. He finds the green fruit and after numerous attempts and problem solving tactics (trial and error), he uses a stone wedge to cut the fruit open. Another biological need experienced shortly after Chuck is marooned is that of hunger. He uses cognitive ability to think of ways to get food. He utilizes a long stick to try to harpoon fish to eat. When doing this, the strong drive for hunger causes him to ignore the fact that he is bleeding as his feet get cut again and again by sharp rocks and coral in the ocean water.
When Chuck comes across the floating body of one of his co-workers, a pilot on the plane, it is assumed that his septo-hippocampal circuit came into play. This part of the brain would cause Chuck to feel anxiety about the situation because he most likely anticipated how the obviously dead man would look.
Later in the movie, we see Chuck display the “fight-or-flight” response when he saw the light in the distance and proceeded to paddle his half-inflated life boat toward it. The waves continuously crashed up on him, but in the face of imminent danger the pituitary gland (which is the master gland of the endocrine system) released the hormone Chuck needed to push on and not give up.
When Chuck kept using Kelly’s picture to emotionally motivate himself or feel better, most likely he was experiencing a serotonin and endorphin release, which both made him feel happy for the time being. Also short-lived was the anger Chuck experienced when he cut himself while trying to make fire. In this case, the right prefrontal lobe generates the negative feelings he felt, causing him to give up his goal for a while.
The human being’s need for interpersonal relationships was apparent when Chuck befriended Wilson. We need and crave the social aspects involved with conversation and companionship. When Chuck makes fire for the first time, he probably experienced a major dopamine release (good feelings). He showed wanting before and liking after he achieved his goal. His incentive was to gain warmth and be able to cook food. Afterward, his reward was he had warmth and was able to cook crab and fish and enjoy his meal. So when he eats the crab, his medial forebrain bundle (pleasure center) is stimulated and this is a positive reinforce. There are many motivators and drives shown in this movie. It was very interesting to watch this a second time and really pay attention to see them all.
Terms: needs, incentives, social, interpersonal relationships, right prefrontal lobe, cerebral cortex, endorphin, dopamine, limbic system, motivation, drive, amygdala, hypothalamus, septo-hippocampal, pituitary, endocrine system
Desperate times call for desperate measures. When we are put in situations where we feel like our lives are in danger. We will do things we wouldn’t normally do to satisfy our basic physiological needs.
Cast away adequately displays motivation and emotion. The movie follows the life of a man named Chuck who is stranded on a deserted island for 5 years forced to find efficient ways to get food, water shelter and just survive. Chuck is a highly motivated man, this is apparent from the start of the movie when he is at work directing his FedEx employees to work faster and be on time. You can tell he has a lot of drive to be successful in his job. He wanted the boxes to be delivered faster than other companies. He was motivated to be the best, because being the best gave him a sense of accomplishment and pride creating dopamine in the brain.
Chucks amygdala made him aware that he was in danger when the plane was crashing; he made the conscious decision to put a mask on so he wouldn’t die and to get the raft, which he later floats on the island with. The grand theories are used frequently throughout the movie. Chuck has the will to survive he is highly motivated to get back to his girlfriend Kelly. Upon arriving on the island chuck instincts for survival kick in. He knows in order to survive he has to change his mindset and behavior.
Not long after Chuck is on the island his physiological needs need to be met. He knows in order to survive he must get something to drink, by this point he is beyond thirsty and dehydrated. He must find water to replenish his cells through osmosis, the water passes through intracellular and extracellular fluids to hydrate cells. If the body doesn’t get rehydrated then he is putting his body in harm and can potentially die. Chuck is so motivated to quench his thirst; he collects coconuts and starts hitting them together to try to retrieve water. He does this for hours before successfully getting water from them. He uses a rock and tries to cut the coconut open. At this point Chuck is a mental state of desperation and even uses an ice skate blade from a package washed upon shore. In order to get water chuck does crazy things that he wouldn’t do if he wasn’t in the middle of a deserted island environmental factors come into play. Chuck drinks murky water from cave floors and even tries to create a system using morning dew from leaves as a funnel to direct water into a drilled coconut. This ends up being very efficient for him. Chuck didn’t care how he got water he was only concerned about getting his homeostasis level back to a healthy balance by drinking water. Water is released through breathing, respiration and even bleeding. Chuck sustains multiple injuries and bleeds, not to mention he sweats in the sun, so he must find a way to replenish his fluids.
Chuck then must take care of another physiological need, hunger. He must find something to eat. Food is essential for his nourishment health and life. He is so hungry and has a need to satisfy his hunger. Chuck goes into the ocean and eats a raw fish. This is an action clearly motivated by the will to live and hunger. Chuck hates the taste of that which motivates to try to find something that taste better, Using a spear which he created with a stick and the blade of an ice skate he catches a crab and realized it taste awful. The brain structure the hypothalamus is where one feels pleasure when they eat or drink. Our bodies and mind need some enjoyment when eating. The motive to find good food was to experience pleasure and fuel the body. This motive further motivated Chuck to create fire. Chuck was very ambitious when it came to try to create fire. He experienced man emotions, he tried so long to create fire with a stick and some bark, he became angry, frustrated and even lost hope for a while. He began to scream. But Chuck doesn’t give up and eventually created fire. This brings him so much joy. He is able to cook the crab and enjoy a good meal for once. Chuck needs to satisfy his psychological and physiological needs. He begins to adapt to the wild life and his mindset is in survivor mode he must survive to get back to Kelly. Love is a big intrinsic motivator to return to humanity. Chuck wants nothing more than to return to Kelly.
Chuck like any other human being experiences social needs while on the island. The septal area is what controls humans needs for social contact. He needs to talk to someone and is so desperate for human interaction; He creates Wilson from a volleyball that he found in a FedEx package. He makes a face on it with blood and a rock. He treats Wilson like he is an actual human being, he fights with him and even cries when Wilson is lost at sea.
Overall many intrinsic and extrinsic motivations were a factor in Wilsons will to survive and get back to humanity.
keyterms:Thirst activation,osmosis ,extracellular and intracellular,.Negative feedback, thirst satiety,Environmental influences,Hunger-Hypothalamus- Septal area-
Dopamine –Psychological needs,amygdalaSocial needs-achievement power
Psychological drive-underlying need for biological need
Homeostasis- need for balance in body equilibrium
Cast away wonderfully demonstrated the fundamental themes of motivation and emotion. Before Chuck landed on the island his motivation and emotions were quite different than when he was on the island. Before the crash, he was motivated by his job, which he seemed to love. He took it very serious, and the employees seemed to respect and like him. He was motivated to spend time with his girlfriend who he loved. He was very caring and gentle to her. His personality as a whole seemed to be rather easy going yet driven at the same time. After the crash, with good reason, Chucks motivation and emotions changed considerably. His motivation came from the need to survive and get off the island. His emotions changed to someone who was much more serious and would get angry more easily. This was seen during the different time he would get frustrated and would yell or throw things. While he was on the island the stresses of the situation changed his demeanor and his personality.
On the island, Chuck had many needs for him to survive and thrive. Some were met and some were not. One of the main needs that Chuck had to deal with was his physiological needs. Chuck was forced to search for fresh water which he found on leaves. He also learned to drink the coconut milk. Food was difficult for him to find at first. Especially food that he would be willing to eat. At first he was not too adventurous with the food. Soon enough he became very hungry and the things he was willing to eat changed. This is an excellent example of how the environment influences our eating behavior. Before Chuck was on the island it is doubtful he would have ever considered eating raw fish right out of the ocean. After being on the island long enough he was hungry enough to pick the fish up out of the ocean and eat it raw. Eventually he made fire and was able to cook the food. His social needs were not fulfilled on the island. He had a strong desire for intimacy, which was made clear when he painted a face on the volleyball and pretended it was his friend. Chuck's cleary had deficiency needs more than growth based needs while on the island. This was demonstrated by his frustration, stress, anxiety, and tension that he portrayed though different ways such as screaming, crying, and throwing things.
This movie also demonstrated how resilient our bodies are to changes in the environment and streses put on the body. Homeostatis was clearly demonstrated during Chuck's time on the island. While there, Chuck's body was put through a very large change. His water intake grately decreased. His food intake and variety decreased. He was cut and wounded at different times, and he was forced to face the harsh weather that the occured on the island. Through his stay there, his body managed to adapt and adjust accordingly.
A good example of dopamine release and reward was clearly demonstrated when Chuck make fire for the first time. There was no denying the fact that a dopamine release occured. This was a huge success which up to that point had been a fruitless and painful journey. Chucks incentive was to have fire and be able to cook his food. During the failed attempts he had cut his hand really bad and was very frustrated. When he finally was able to create the fire his joy was uncontainable and he celebrated with singing and dancing.
The ending was very interesting to me. On the island Chuck was surrounded by water, where he lost his hope. This was seen when he tried to kill himself. At the end of the movie he is standing in the middle of a four way stop and is surrounded by nothing but fields his face demonstrates that he has found hope again. Hope for love and hope for life.
Terms: needs, physiological needs, thirst, hunger,social needs, intimacy, deficiency needs, growth based needs, homeostatis,environmental influences, dopamine release and reward,incentive, motivation, emotions
During all of the movie (at least, the part I saw during class), everything that Chuck is motivated to do has a lot of energy. The opening scene showed a man with extremely high need for achievement and efficiency. There was a lot of energy directed towards making sure his workers got the packages sorted and shipped in an extremely efficient, quick manner. He seemed almost obsessive with how worked up he got about clocks.
I saw this carry over a bit when he was first stranded on the island. Before doing anything else, he checked his pager and his pocket watch to see if they were working. Since time and quickness consumed his life before the crash, he needed to feel connected to the world by holding onto that one thing that was always so constant for him. I think this could be seen a little bit as a social need and he was motivated to find connections to the world to confirm that he was still human. This behavior was also exhibited in his collecting and sorting of the FedEx packages and sheltering them from the rain. There was no real purpose in not opening them right away. For all he knew, there could have been incredibly useful things in there. Instead, he held on to them not for a physiological need, but because it was a routine that kept him grounded somewhat. His need to remind himself that he was alive and still part of a group were motivated by social and psychological needs. Eventually, practicality and the motivation to better his chances of survival win out and he opens all but one of the packages to use what he finds inside. Even though he is still intent on being found, he realizes that he needs to keep his body and mind functioning so that when rescue does happen he will be alive for it.
The same thing happened when he found the body of the pilot. Social taboos say robbing a corpse is probably a bad thing, but his motivations for the flashlight to see and the shoes to protect his feet had more energy than his motivation to stick to his social graces and leave the body untouched. He was still motivated to stick to social norms to still consider himself part of a group that instead of leaving the body in the water, he expended the precious little energy he had to dig a grave and bury the man. Even though he was completely alone and nobody would ever know, he felt motivated to stick to the rules of society.
The coconut and fire scenes reminded me a lot of behavior modification class as well as this class. Most obviously, water is going to be the first physiological need that a person will experience, especially if they've been soaking in a salty ocean. His body was deprived of water enough that he would try over and over to open coconuts until finally and extinction burst-type display of behavior would reveal to him that cutting open the outside of the coconut would make it significantly easier to get to the water inside. He wasn't thirsty enough to run down to the ocean and start drinking (most likely due more to the fact that the salty water would only make him thirstier), but he was desperate enough to focus all of his energy on breaking open coconuts and finding rainwater to drink.
The fire-building scenes were very similar. After he learned to successfully hunt for crabs and fish to eat, he knew he would need a way to cook them. He tried over and over for an entire day and into the next, going so far as experiencing another set of behaviors similar to an extinction burst that ended with him slashing open his palm on the stick he was using. However, his brain and blood chemistry was driving his motivation with a lot of energy towards obtaining food he could eat without getting sick so he continued on with making the fire until it finally worked. I think that if he would have gone much longer without being able to produce a fire, he would have resorted to raw fish and crabs. When he caught several small fish in his dress-net thing, he ate one raw and despite the look on his face, he didn't spit it out because he was so hungry and his need for food was so great. His body was demanding that it reaches homeostasis and would have increased the energy for the motivation to eat enough that Chuck would have eventually eaten almost anything in order to satisfy his needs.
Chuck's mind needed something to be happy about to restore itself to a more functional state, and his celebration of making fire shows how much he had needed that dopamine rush as a reward for accomplishing such a difficult task. This is what motivates him to dance around and sing once the fire is well-established.
Eventually, his social needs kicked in when his physical needs had been met and he needed someone around to satiate his need for a companion and a sense of belonging. This motivated him to draw a face on the volleyball and begin talking to it as if it were alive.
Terms: energy, need/s, hunger, thirst, dopamine, social/psychological/physiological needs, motivation, homeostasis, satiate, behavior
Cast Away does a brilliant job representing the first 4 chapters of our book. Through out the movie you can see many motivations and emotions that drive Chuck (Tom Hanks) to do the things that he does to survive. I think the most obvious topic that is connected to the chapters was physiological needs.
In chapter 4 we discussed the idea of hunger needs and most important for Chuck, energy needs. Hunger is one of the most powerful physiological need we have as human beings. It was interesting through out the beginning how Chuck was unwilling to eat somethings, but the more hungry he became overtime, the more likely he was to try unusual and unappetizing things. Chuck eat raw fish from the ocean to regain his hormonal balance to fulfill his energy needs. Along with hunger needs, Chuck needs with his thirst needs as well. Chuck drinks dirty water and find ways to collect water from leaves in order to regain his homeostasis for thirst.
You can really see in this movie the multiple inputs/multiple outputs model in this movie. There were so many things that Chuck did on the island to fulfill more than more need, like building the fire. Not only to have some heat for his body, but also to cook things that he was eating. You could really see his emotions in this scene because he became frustrated and lost hope while trying to fulfill two basic physiological needs. Chuck is very motivated in this scene to achieve his goal in order to regain his body's homeostasis from hunger.
Another interesting pack of the movie that supports psychological needs is Chucks needs for hope through out the movie. During the fire building scene and other times on the island, Chuck appears to lose hope and/or his hope is dwindling. However at the end of the movie, you can see by the look on his face that he has regain his hope and has a sense of autonomy back and self-worth, in hopes that life will get better.
Terms used: Motivations, emotions, physiological needs, hunger, energy, needs, hormonal, balance, thirst, homeostasis, multiple inputs/multiple outputs model, psychological needs, hope, autonomy, self-worth.