Emotions and Motivation Quiz

Emotion and Motivation

• Emotion is a response involving physical arousal, expressive behavior, and conscious experience.
• The Latin root of "emotion" is "emovere" which means "to move" or "to migrate".
• This etymology captures the subjective experience of being moved, touched, or transported when experiencing an emotion.
• Emotions are universal but their experience is personal and varies from individual to individual.
• Emotions arise suddenly and decrease slowly.
• Emotions are aroused by stimuli, objects, or situations.
• Emotions have the quality of displacement.
• The core of emotion is feeling.
• The same emotions can be aroused by a number of different stimuli.
• An emotion can give birth to a number of similar emotions.

Affect

• Affect is an umbrella concept that encompasses a broad range of feelings including emotions and moods.

• Emotions are caused by a specific event, action, or object.

• Emotions are short-term.

• Emotions are brief in duration.

• Emotions carry information regarding the environment.

• Emotions are usually indicated by specific facial expressions.

• Moods are not related to a specific event.

• Moods are medium-term.

• Moods last longer than emotions.

• Moods carry information concerning a person's capacity to deal with environmental threats.

• Moods are not indicated by specific facial expressions.

Types of Emotions

• Positive emotions create pleasantness.
• Negative emotions create unpleasantness.

Theories on Emotion

Common Sense Theory of Emotion

• A stimulus leads to an emotion.
• The emotion then leads to bodily arousal through the autonomic nervous system.

James-Lange Theory of Emotion

• An event causes physiological arousal first.
• The interpretation of this arousal is what allows one to experience emotion.
• If the arousal is not noticed or is not given any thought, no emotion will be experienced based on that event.

Schachter-Singer Theory of Emotion

• An event causes physiological arousal first.
• One must identify a reason for this arousal in order to experience and label the emotion.

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

• An emotional stimulus produces concurrent, independent reactions (arousal and experience of emotion).
• These two processes happen at approximately the same time.

Lazarus Theory of Emotion

• A thought must come before any emotion or physiological arousal.
• One needs to think about a situation before experiencing an emotion.

Facial Feedback Theory of Emotion

• A stimulus causes arousal and a facial expression.
• This facial expression gives feedback to the brain about the emotion.
• The brain interprets the emotion and may intensify it.

Areas of Emotion: Limbic System

• The amygdala mediates major affective mood states, such as friendship, love, affection, fear, rage, and aggression.
• The hippocampus is responsible for memory, particularly turning short-term memory into long-term memory.
• The thalamus filters sensory information, controls mood states, and body movement associated with emotive states.
• The hypothalamus is the 'central control' for the pituitary gland. It regulates autonomic, emotional, endocrine, and somatic function. It is involved in stress and mood states.

Motivation

• Motivation is any influence that triggers, directs, or maintains behavior.
• In 2006, Franken defined motivation as the arousal, direction, and persistence of a person's behavior.

Four Kinds of Motivation

• Extrinsic motivation is outside motivation towards a goal.
• Intrinsic motivation is when one wants to do something.
• Positive motivation is towards a goal.
• Negative motivation is away from something.

Extrinsic Motivation

• Extrinsic motivation is fueled by external forces, like pay increases, course credits, or completion rewards.
• Tangible or intangible rewards or other outside influences are involved.

Intrinsic Motivation

• Intrinsic motivation stems from internal desires such as personal goals, success, and achievement.
• It's when one is engaged in an activity without outside suggestion or pressure; the motive is enjoyment or a sense of obligation.

Motivation Cycle

• Motivation involves a cycle of needs, drives, incentives, and rewards.
• Need is the lack of something desired.
• Drive is an internal state created by a need; it creates internal tension until needs are met.
• An incentive is an object, situation, or other stimulus that motivates behavior towards or away from the object.
• A reward is pleasantness or satisfaction after obtaining the incentive.

Theories on Motivation

Instinct Theory

• Instincts are biologically-built in impulses that lead to relatively inflexible behaviors called fixed-action patterns.
• All creatures are born with specific innate knowledge to survive.
• In animals, this often includes capacity and knowledge of how to survive.
• These innate tendencies are preprogrammed at birth and determined by genes.

Drive Reduction Theory

• According to Clark Hull, humans have internal biological needs that motivate behavior.
• These needs or drives are internal states of arousal or tension that must be reduced.
• Homeostasis is a state of balance or contentment.
• Drives are considered unpleasant, prompting efforts to reduce them and return to a balanced state of homeostasis.
• Conflicts can arise from multiple drives or attractive/unattractive choices. Common conflicts are approach-approach, avoidance-avoidance, and approach-avoidance.

Arousal Theory

• People desire an optimal state of arousal and often seek out either relaxing or exciting activities to maintain that optimal level.
• Arousal is a state of emotional, intellectual, and physical activity.
• The Yerkes-Dodson law states that performance is correlated to arousal; moderate levels of arousal are associated with better performance levels than low or high arousal levels. This performance-arousal relationship changes depending on the difficulty of the task.

Incentive Theory

• Behavior is motivated by outside reinforcement or incentives, versus internal forces.
• Incentives are rewards that motivate behavior.
• Intrinsic motivation: Motivation that comes from within, such as playing the piano because one enjoys it.
• Extrinsic motivation: Motivation that comes from outside the person such as a reward or threat.
• The over justification effect is when intrinsic motivation lessens due to increased external motivation.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• Maslow's theory is a theory of how different motivations apply at different times.
• Physiological needs (food, clothing, shelter, air) must be fulfilled first.
• Then follows safety needs (feeling safe, absence of pain, threat, or illness).
• Next, love and belonging needs (friendship, company, love, belonging) These are a first clear step up from physiological needs.
• After that are esteem needs (self-respect, achievement, recognition, prestige); then cues for personal worth.
• Finally, self-actualization is the fulfillment of one's full potential through personal growth and self-fulfillment.

Alderfer's ERG Theory

• Consolidates Maslow's hierarchy of needs into 3 categories; existence needs/physiological + security, relatedness (affiliation), and growth (esteem and self-actualization).

McClelland's Learned Needs

• Needs are acquired through interaction with the environment.
• There is no hierarchy, but rather degrees of each type of need or motive.
• Identified 3 motivators: achievement, affiliation, and power.