Motivation and Emotion Explained

Motivation and Emotion

• Basic motivational concepts explained alongside affiliation and achievement.
• Hunger is explored as a key motivator.
• Theories and the physiology of emotion are examined
• Considerations are given to both expressing and experiencing emotion

Defining Motivation

• Motivation drives behavior, thought, and feelings
• Motivation energizes, directs, and sustains behavior.
• Extrinsic motivation is driven by external outcomes or rewards
• Intrinsic motivation is driven by internal satisfaction, challenge, or fun.
• Psychologists view motivated behavior from four perspectives: Instinct theory, Drive-reduction theory, Arousal theory, and Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Instincts and the Evolutionary Approach

• This approach suggests that people are governed by instincts similar to those of animals, where an instinct is a biologically determined and innate pattern of behavior

Drive-Reduction Theory

• Physiological needs create an aroused and motivated state called an incentive
• Increasing physiological needs lead to increased psychological drive to reduce those needs, achieving homeostasis.
• Motivation is driven by the need to reduce drives and is influenced by incentives
• Primary drives involve body needs like hunger and thirst
• Acquired drives are learned through experience, such as the need for money or social approval

Arousal Theory

• Some motivated behaviors increase arousal rather than decrease it
• Human motivation seeks optimal arousal levels, not its elimination.
• The Yerkes-Dodson law states that moderate arousal leads to optimal performance

Yerkes-Dodson Law

• Performance is related to arousal, where moderate arousal leads to better performance than too low or too high levels
• The optimal arousal level depends on task difficulty
• Easy tasks are performed best at high-moderate arousal, while difficult tasks are best at low-moderate arousal
• Sensation seekers need more arousal and complex experiences than the average person.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• A person must strive through several needs levels before self-actualization.
• Self-actualization is when a person has sufficiently satisfied lower needs and achieved their full human potential
• Peak experiences are moments of temporary self-actualization

McClelland's Theory

• Some psychological needs are affiliation, power, and achievement.
• Need for affiliation: the need for friendly social interactions and relationships with others
• Need for power: the need to have control or influence over others
• Need for achievement: desire to succeed in attaining goals, including challenging ones

Carol Dweck's Self-Theory

• Need for achievement is closely linked to personality factors and self-view
• "Self" refers to beliefs about one's abilities and relationships with others.
• Locus of Control:
  • Internal locus - People who believe they control what happens in their lives
  • External locus - People who feel their lives are controlled by others, luck, or fate.
• Those with a fixed view of intelligence often demonstrate an external locus of control when facing difficulty, leading to giving up or avoiding challenges
• A learned helplessness may be developed.
• Those with an intrinsic view of intelligence tend to show an internal locus of control, believing actions improve intelligence
• New strategies are often employed if challenges are faced.

Incentive Approaches

• Motivation explained as a response to external stimuli and their rewarding properties
• Incentives attract or lure people into action
• There may be no physical need when incentive is present.

Self-Determination Theory

• There are three inborn and universal needs that help people gain a complete sense of self and achieve healthy relationships:
  • Autonomy: independence and self-reliance
  • Competence: self-efficacy, mastery, and expectations for success
  • Relatedness: warm relations with others and the need to belong

Harnessing the Power of Motivation

• Research-based strategies for achieving goals include: setting concrete goals, sharing them, developing a plan, short-term rewards, monitoring progress, creating support, and transforming difficult behaviors into habits

Hunger

• Glucose is the form of sugar that provides energy for body tissues; low levels trigger hunger
• Set point is the weight thermostat setting; the body restores lost weight if it falls below this level
• Basal Metabolic Rate: Body's resting rate of energy output.

Hunger and Appetite Hormones

• Ghrelin: secreted by an empty stomach to increase appetite.
• Orexin: hunger triggering hormone secreted by the hypothalamus.
• Leptin: protein hormone secreted by fat cells to decrease hunger and increase metabolism.
• PYY: Digestive tract hormone that signals "I'm not hungry.”

Psychology of Hunger

• Hunger is influenced by body chemistry, brain activity, memory of the last meal, taste preferences, body cues, and environmental factors
• Situational influences such as larger plates and serving sizes cause people to eat more. Mindful eating and calorie awareness can reduce mindless eating.
• Effects and tips of eating heathy and obesity are considered.

Emotion and the Brain

• Emotion is the "feeling" aspect of consciousness characterized by:
  • Physical arousal
  • Behavior that reveals emotion to the outside world
  • Inner awareness of feelings
• Amygdala is a complex brain structure involved in various aspects of emotion, particularly fear conditioning
• Emotional stimuli travel to the amygdala via a fast, crude "low road" (subcortical) and a slower but more involved "high road" (cortical)
• Identifying emotion on other people's faces is primarily done by the right hemisphere
• Frontal lobes are involved: positive emotions = left; negative = right
• Anterior cingulate cortex aids in controlling emotions by distracting oneself.

Behavior of Emotion

• Facial expressions and emotions are universal, but expression varies by culture
• Differences in expression due to display rules varies by culture.
• Collectivistic cultures associate positive emotions with friendly, socially-engaged feelings
• Individualistic cultures associate positive emotions with disengaged feelings, such as personal pride

Labeling Emotion

• Interpreting subjective feelings by giving them a label (e.g., "I feel sad.”)

Early Theories of Emotion

• Common sense theory of emotion: a stimulus leads to an emotion, which then leads to bodily arousal
• James-Lange theory of emotion: Physiological reaction can lead to labeling of an emotion
• Facial feedback hypothesis: Facial expressions provide feedback to the brain which intensifies emotion
• Cannon-Bard theory of emotion: both physiological reaction and the emotion occur simultaneously

Cognitive Theories of Emotion

• Cognitive arousal theory: both physical arousal and labeling of that arousal based on cues from the environment must occur before emotion
• Cognitive-mediational theory: A stimulus must be interpreted (appraised) to result in a physical and emotional reaction.
• Interpretation of physiological arousal must be present.

Attribution of Arousal and "Scary Bridge" Study

• An example of misattribution arousal is thinking increased heart rate is attraction
• In this study, men were more likely to misinterpret arousal as sexual arousal on a scary bridge and call the interviewer

Theories of Emotion

• Emotions are categorized into the dimensions valence and arousal
• Valence: Positive or negative aspect of emotion
• Arousal: Level of calmness versus excitement
• Embodied Cognition is considered.

Expressing Emotion

• Facial expressions communicate, amplify, and regulate emotion.
• Behavioral feedback effect: behavior influences thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Adaptive Function of Emotions

• Negative emotions facilitate immediate corrective action
• Positive emotions support the broaden-and-build model
• Family tree models of positive emotion contain: Root being the Brain's reward center, the trunk being enthusiasm, the branches as neurotransmitters, and the leaves being emotions.
• Resilience includes: positive outlook and emotional wisdom.

Expressing and Experiencing Emotion

• Emotion is best understood as a biological, cognitive, and sociocultural phenomenon.

Pursuit of Happiness

• Biological factors are a part of happiness, such as traits being 50-80% heritable.
• Obstacles in happiness include: short lived pleasures that are on a hedonic treadmill, and direct pursuit can backfire.
• To optimizes happiness payoffs, goals should be important and personally valuable, reflect intrinsic needs, have moderate challenges, and share instrumental relationships
• Life experiences should be kept in mind.