Intro to Motivation & Emotion Flashcards
Define Motivation
Wanting
A condition inside us that desires change (in self or environment)
Change behaviour, thoughts, feelings, self concept, surrounding environment, quality of relationships etc.
Motivation, motion, emotion are derived from what Latin Verb?
movere: “to move”
Two key reasons we study motivation
- It is interesting
- It can help us improve our lives and the lives of others
Describe the 5 steps of motivational science
- Reality:
◦ Observing behaviour
a) Identify relations that exist among naturally occurring phenomena (what causes the phenomena, what the phenomena itself causes)
Eg. Achievement motivation
◦ Explain why those relationships exist
Eg. Why does challenge lead some people to strive for achievement while it leads others to be anxious and avoidant? - Theory
◦ Develop theory or framework to organize observations in attempt to describe, understand and explain what we observed - Hypothesis
◦ Develop hypothesis based on theory
◦ A prediction about what will happen if the theory is correct - Data
◦ Data collection to determine if the hypothesis is in fact valid and if the theory does do a good job of predicting the behaviour we observed in natural environments
◦ A validated theory can inform interventions and applications in real-world settings - Application
◦ Develop ways to apply this knowledge in order to modify the reality
What is the first perennial question and what are the 5 subquestions?
- What causes behaviour?
◦ Why does behaviour start?
◦ Once begun, why is behaviour sustained overtime?
◦ Why is behaviour directed toward some goals yet away from others?
◦ Why does behaviour change its direction?
◦ Why does behaviour stop?
What is the second perennial question?
- Why does behaviour vary in its intensity?
◦ Behaviour varies both within and between individuals
What are the most popular theories of motivation which people embrace?
◦ Self esteem & Praise
- No empirical evidence to support
- Increasing student’s self esteem does not produce subsequent increases in academic achievement
- Self esteem is not a causal variable: it is an effect, a reflection of how our lives are going
◦ Incentive & Rewards
Motives
Internal processes that energize, direct, and sustain behaviour
3 Types of Motives: Energy, Direction, Persistence
◦ Energy: Behaviour has strength
◦ Direction: Behaviour has purpose
◦ Persistence: Behaviour has endurance
Thus, the study of motivation concerns the internal processes that gives behaviour its energy, direction and persistence
What do internal motives determine?
Internal motives determine behaviour
What are the 3 internal motives?
◦ Needs
◦ Cognition
◦ Emotion
These drive behaviour
What often drive internal motives?
◦ External events
◦ Social contexts
Internal Motives: Needs
◦ Conditions necessary to sustain life, growth, and well being
◦ Generate wants, desires, strivings that motivate whatever behaviours are necessary for the maintenance of life
Eg. Food & water (biological need)
Belongingness & interpersonal relationships (psychological need)
Internal Motives: Cognitions
◦ Thoughts, beliefs, expectations, plans, goals, strategies, appraisals, attributions, and the self concept
◦ Motivate based on striving to meet expectations, follow through on plans etc.
◦ Cognitive sources of motivation revolve around the person’s way of thinking
Eg. Only individuals who make 100K a year are successful
Internal Motives: Emotions
◦ Complex reactions to significant events in our lives
◦ Emotions generate brief attention getting bursts of emergency like adaptive behaviour
◦ Emotions allow us to react adaptively to the important events in our lives such as life’s challenges to our survival and well being
◦ Eg. Encountering threatening event: we rapidly and automatically feel afraid, heart rate increases, urge to escape arises, corner of lips drawn backwards in such a way others can recognize and respond to our fear experience.
Emotions: What are the 4 interrelated aspects of experience?
◦ Feelings: Subjective, verbal descriptions of emotional experience
◦ Arousal: Bodily mobilization to cope with situational demands
◦ Purpose: Motivational urge to accomplish something specific at the moment
◦ Expression: Nonverbal communication of our emotional experience to others
Motives: External events & social contexts
◦ Environmental, social, and cultural offering that affect a person’s internal motives
Motives: What are some examples of environmental events?
◦ Specific attractive stimuli: money and events such as being praised
◦ Unattractive stimuli: foul odour, or unattractive event such as being yelled at
Motives: What are some examples of social contexts?
◦ Social contexts include general situations such as classroom or workplace climate, parenting style or a culture at large
Motivation vs. Influence
◦ Influence:
- Parents wanting to know how to get a child to clean their room
- Workplace managers wanting tips on how to persuade employees to make more sales = not motivation
◦ Motivation: Private, unobservable (internal) experience
◦ We only simply observe what is public and measurable and infer motivations
5 Ways To Measure Motivation
Which ones are the most typically relied on?
- *Behaviour
- *Engagement
- *Psychophysiology
- *Brain Activations
- *Self-report
*most typically relied on
Expressions of Emotion: Behaviour
◦ Can express the presence, intensity and quality of motivation
Expressions of Emotion: Behaviour
How do we observe if someone’s motivated or how can we evaluate if one person is displaying higher levels of motivation than another?
◦ Simple answer: You can’t.
- Motivation is a very private and internal experience
- When you look out at a group of people you can’t see the goals they are striving for and you can’t see the motivation they have to achieve those goals
- Rather you have to observe what is made public and available to you and infer their motivation from these observations
What is one way motivation and emotion can be inferred?
What are the 7 aspects of behaviour and what do they express?
◦ By observing individuals behaviours
Effort
◦ Intense effort vs. Lackadaisical effort
Persistence
◦ Long persistence vs. Fragile persistence
Latency
◦ Short latency vs. Long latency
Choice
◦ When presented with two or more courses of action, preferring one course of action over the other
Probability of Response/Occurrence
◦ High probability vs. Low probability
Facial Expressions
◦ Facial/gesture expressiveness vs. Minimal facial/gesture expressiveness
Bodily Gestures
◦ Individual pursuing one specific goal-object in lieu of another vs. individual pursuing an alternative goal-object
These 7 express presence, intensity, and quality of motivation
