Emotion and Motivation Flashcards
What is emotion?
An emotion is a mental and physiological state that directs our attention and guides our behaviour
What is the Evolutionary theory ?
It suggests that emotions evolved because they had adaptive value
What is the James-Lange theory?
It suggests that emotional states arise directly from physiological arousal.
What is the Cannon-Bard theory?
It suggests that physiological arousal and emotional experience can occur simultaneously and independently
What is Scachter-Singer’s Two-Factor theory?
It suggests that people’s experience of emotion depends on two factors: physiological arousal and the cognitive interpretation of that arousal
What is the Cognitive-appraisal theory?
Lazarus’s (1982) theory suggests that our emotions are a result of our evaluation of an event or situation
What is LeDoux’s theory of emotion?
That some emotions require no cognition.
A fear stimulus is processed by the brain through one of two paths:
1) Short pathway: thalamus –> amygdala
- Quick
- Beneficial in survival situations
2) Long pathway: thalamus –> cortex –> amygdala
- Slower
- Allows for further appraisal
What does the limbic system include?
The hypothalamus, the thalamus, the amygdala, the hippocampus
What is the hypothalamus’s role in emotion and memory?
It activates the sympathetic nervous system that is a part in any emotional reaction
What is the thalamus’s role in emotion and memory?
It serves as sensory relay center. It projects its neurons to both the amygdala and the higher cortical region for further processing
What is the amygdala’s role in emotion and memory?
It processes emotional information (especially fear) and sends that information on to cortial structures
What is the hippocampus’s role in emotion and memory?
It integrates emotional experience with cognition and enables memory storage
What is happiness?
Happiness consists of 3 distinct elements:
1) A pleasant life
2) A good life
3) A meaningful life
Happiness can be defined as an enduring state of mind consisting of joy, contentment, positive emotions and a sense of meaning and value
What makes people happy?
- Family / social relationships
- Level of education
- Religion
- Good physical health
- Reasonable standards of of living and work
- Personality
What is subjective wellbeing?
Diener (1984) developed the model of subjective wellbeing.
It consists of a persons cognitive and effective evaluations of their life as a whole
There are two key areas in the SWB model:
- Life satisfaction
- Affective balance
What is psychological wellbeing?
This theory was developed by Carol Ryff
1) Self-acceptance
2) Personal growth
3) Purpose in life
4) Environmental mastery
5) Autonomy
6) Positive relations with others
What is the Broaden-And-Build theory?
It was developed by Fredrickson (2004). It focuses on the importance of positive emotions in building resiliency and development
What is the flow experience?
It is defined as a psychological state of optimum engagement and focus on an activity
There are 6 characteristics of a flow state:
1) Intense and focused concentration
2) Merging on action and awareness
3) Loss of reflective self-consciousness
4) A sense that one can control one’s actions
5) Altered experience of time
6) Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding
What are some benefits of the flow state?
- Can accelerate learning process and increase productivity and efficiency
- Can increase persistence, creativity and a desire to challenge yourself
- Feelings of competence and self-confidence
- Reduce anxiety and stress and promote well-being
- Create a sense of purpose and meaning
What is mindfulness?
It is a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment and acknowledging one’s feelings, thoughts and body
It is self-regulation
What is the cognitive evaluation theory?
CET explains the effects of external consequences on internal motivation
There are two types of motivation:
1) Intrinsic
2) Extrinsic
What is Intrinsic motivation?
It is when someone participates in an activity or complete a task because they internally motivated, and will benefit from it
What is Extrinsic motivation?
When someone participates in an activity or task because they will receive something in return, or because there may be negative consequences if they do not complete the task
What is the achievement goal theory?
It suggests that people seek competence and will be more motivated to achieve when they have clear goals
There are two particular goals that acheivement goal theory focus on:
1)Task-orientated
2) Ego-orientated
What is the self-efficacy theory?
It is a personal judgement on how likely you will succeed in a task of activity.
People with higher self-efficacy are more likely to participate in activities, make greater effort towards tasks and succeed in those tasks
What is the goal-setting theory?
It states that people are more motivated to complete their tasks when they have set goals that are clear, are challenging, are complex enough and appropriate time allocated, they can commit fully to and that they receive feedback on
