Unit 7-Motivation and Emotion Flashcards
Emotions
Emotions are universal reactions which physiological displays are found in all cultures. Emotions allow us to display feelings that are evoked when important things happen to us, for example to feel happy, sad, proud, and fearful; but it consists of more than feelings. Emotions typically arise as reactions to important situational events, once activated; they generate feeling, arouse the body into action, generate motivational state and express themselves publicly.
Four components of emotions
Emotions are also considered to be multidimensional, which means they exist as subjective, biological, purposive and social phenomena. The four components of emotions as mentioned above are interrelated and as they co-occur they greatly influence each other
First dimension of emotion
is the feeling component. This component gives emotion its subjective experience that has both meaning and personal significance. In both intensity and quality, emotion is felt and experienced at the subjective and phenomenological level. The feeling aspect is rooted in cognitive or mental processes. For example if we experience a life event as death, it produces the emotion sadness. When we are sad we might feel negative, feel distressed or aversive and this is what will relate to the feeling component of the emotion sadness.
The bodily arousal component
includes our biological and physiological activation, including the activity of the autonomic and hormonal systems as they prepare and regulate the body’s adaptive coping behaviour during emotion. Bodily arousal and physiological activation are so intertwined with emotion that any attempt to imagine an angry or disgusted person who is not aroused is nearly impossible. When emotional, our body is prepared for action and that is true in terms of our physiology (heart rate, epinephrine in the blood stream) and musculature (alert posture and clenched fist).
The purposive component
gives emotion its goal-directed motivational state to take the action necessary to cope with the emotion-causing circumstances one faces. The purposive aspect explains why people benefit from their emotions. A person without emotions would be at a substantial social and evolutionary disadvantage than the rest of us.
The social-expressive component
is emotion’s communicative aspect. Through postures, gestures, vocalizations and facial expressions, our private experiences become public expressions. During the expression of emotion, we nonverbally communicate to others how we feel and how we interpret the present situation. For example a person answers the telephone; we can tell what the news is from the other end by just watching their facial expression and how they react nonverbally to the news they have received. We can say then that emotions engage our whole person – our feelings, bodily arousal, sense of purpose and nonverbal communications. They are also short lived, feeling-arousal-purposive-expressive phenomena that help us adapt to the opportunities and challenges we face during important life events.
Weird diagram thingy
Social-Expressive
* Social Communication
* Facial Expression
* Vocal Expression
Bodily Arousal
* Physiological Activation
* Bodily Preparation for Action
* Motor Responses
Sense of Purpose
* Goal Directed Motivational State
* Functional Aspect
Feelings
* Subjective Experience
* Phenomenological Awareness
* Cognition
The James Lange Theory
claims that our emotional experience is a result of our perceived bodily changes. According to the theory, the perception of an environmental stimulus (such as a growling dog) causes bodily changes (such as rapid heartbeat and fast breathing). The brain perceives those changes in behaviour and identifies them as the emotion.
Cannon Bard Theory
is called the Cannon Bard theory or emergency theory. This theory states that bodily changes do not cause emotional reactions, rather the two occur simultaneously. Cannon-Bard theory argues that the thalamus, a lower brain stem structure (part of the limbic system) is necessary for emotional responses. The thalamus sends messages to the cortex for interpretation of the emotion and simultaneously to the sympathetic nervous system for appropriate physical responses. According to the Cannon-Bard theory, then, the identification (experience) of an emotion occurs at the same time as the activation of bodily responses and not because of them (as the James-Lange theory proposed). The progression is
Third theory of emotion - Schachter- Singer two factor
is the Schachter-Singer two factor theory. This theory proposed that experiencing an emotion requires both emotional arousal and cognitive activity (perception, reasoning, memory) to understand the reason for the arousal (that is, to appraise the stimuli) so that the emotion can then be appropriately identified. (The process of labelling the stimuli producing an emotion is called attribution). The two factor theory concluded that although individuals usually are aware of the reason for their aroused emotional state, if the reason is not apparent, they search their environment for clues to help them interpret the emotion.
Attribution
The process of labelling the stimuli producing an emotion
Importance of emotions
All humans have basic emotional needs and in order to take good care of ourselves, it is important that we know what our needs are. Our emotions help us to know what our needs are through what we feel. Expressing emotions is psychologically healthy, lack of expression leads to anxiety which can have negative psychological effects. Emotions are the key to set boundaries. In order to protect ourselves we have to set boundaries with other people. If you feel uncomfortable with a person, your emotion is important because it will alert you about your feelings; it is a form of internal communication that helps you to understand yourself. You can then take the necessary steps to protect yourself and set the necessary boundaries. We have to be aware that our emotions are stored in the body. When we block our emotions, we don’t feel or hold unto a bad feeling but we are damaging our health. Research has shown that strong emotions even cause changes in the biochemistry of the body. These biochemical changes represent the physical or material aspect of the emotion.
Motivation
is a condition that energizes behaviour and gives it direction. It is a general term for a group of phenomena that affect the nature, strength or persistence of an individual’s behaviour. Motives are internal experiences - needs, cognitions and emotions that energize the individual’s approach and avoidance tendencies.
Internal motives comprise
needs, cognitions and emotions.
Needs
these are conditions within the individual that are essential and necessary for the maintenance of life and for the nurturance of growth and well-being. Hunger and thirst are two (2) biological needs that arise from the body’s requirement for food and water. Needs serve the organism by generating wants, desires, and strivings that motivate whatever behaviours are necessary for life. Specific types of needs include biological needs, psychological needs and social needs.
Cognitions
refer to mental events such as beliefs, expectations and the self-concept. Cognitive sources of motivation revolve around the person’s ways of thinking. Specific cognitive sources of motivation are plans and goals, expectancies and the self.
Emotions (short version)
these are short-lived, subjective-physiological-functional-expressive phenomena that orchestrate how we react adaptively to the important events in our lives.
External events
are environmental incentives that attract or repel the individual to engage or not to engage in a particular course of action. These environmental incentives have the capacity to energize and direct behaviour. The incentive of money, or a horrible odour gains the capacity to direct behaviour to the extent that it signals that a particular behaviour will likely produce rewarding or punishing consequences.
Theories of Motivation
Instinct Motivation
When psychologists first sought to explain motivation, they turned to instincts, inborn patterns of behaviour that are biologically determined rather than learnt. According to instinct approaches, to motivation, people and animals are born with pre-programmed sets of behaviours essential to their survival. These instincts provide the energy that channels behaviour in appropriate directions. Hence, sex might be explained as a response to an instinct for reproduction, and an exploratory behaviour may be viewed as motivated by an instinct to examine one’s territory.
Drive Reduction Approaches
When psychologists first sought to explain motivation, they turned to instincts, inborn patterns of behaviour that are biologically determined rather than learnt. According to instinct approaches, to motivation, people and animals are born with pre-programmed sets of behaviours essential to their survival. These instincts provide the energy that channels behaviour in appropriate directions. Hence, sex might be explained as a response to an instinct for reproduction, and an exploratory behaviour may be viewed as motivated by an instinct to examine one’s territory.
Drive reduction theory/ Homeostasis
Homeostasis is the process by which an organism strives to maintain some optimal level of internal biological functioning by compensating for deviations from its usual, balanced internal state. For example, is our bodies need liquids in order to achieve some optimal level of functioning, we experience thirst and seek out water.
Arousal Approach
Arousal Approach: Beyond Drive-Reduction
seeks to explain behaviour in which the goal is to maintain or increase arousal or excitement. According to this approach, each of us tries to maintain a certain level of stimulation and activity. If stimulation and activity levels are too low, we will try to increase them by seeking stimulation. People vary in the levels of stimulation they need, with some people needing especially high levels of arousal. These people may try to avoid boredom by seeking out challenging situations.
Incentive Approach
Incentive Approaches: Motivation’s Pull
to motivation attempt to explain why behaviour is not always motivated by an internal need, such as a desire to reduce drives or to maintain an optimal level of arousal. Instead of focusing on internal factors, incentive approaches explain motivation in terms of the nature of the external stimuli, the incentives that direct and energize behaviour. So in this view, behaviour is largely influenced by external stimuli as the motivation for the behaviour.
Psychologists now believe that the external incentives work in tandem with the internal drive reduction to respectively ‘push’ and ‘pull’ behaviour.
Maslow Needs
In Maslow’s view, our most basic needs are Physiological Needs, including the need for food, water, oxygen, rest and so on. If our physiological needs are met, we find ourselves motivated by needs found in the next level- Safety Needs, including the need for security and comfort. Once these are met, we can move on to our attachment needs, the need to love and to be loved, to have friends and to be a friend. This is the Need for Love and Belongingness. Then we need to satisfy our need to believe in ourselves and believe in our self-worth; these are our Esteem Needs. We are motivated to achieve needs higher in the hierarchy only first after satisfying lower needs, we are able to lead a life free to pursue Self- Actualisation.
