Motivation and Emotion
How is Emotion Related to the Topic of
Motivation?
Motivation is the biological, emotional, cognitive, or
social forces that activate and direct behavior.
Motivation is closely tied to emotional process, and
vice versa. Many forms of motivation have an
emotional component, which is involved in the
initiation and persistence of behavior.
Emotion is a psychological state involving three
distinct components: subjective experience, a
physiological response, and a behavioral or expressive
component.
Motivational Concepts and Theories
Over the past century, instinct, drive, incentive, arousal, and
humanistic theories were proposed to explain the general principles of
motivation.
Instinct theories: The view that certain human behaviors are innate and
due to evolutionary programming.
Drive theories: Behavior that is motivated by the desire to reduce
internal tension caused by unmet biological needs, such as hunger or
thirst.
Incentive theories: behavior that is motivated by the “pull” of external
goals, such as rewards, money, or recognition.
Arousal theory: the view that people are motivated to maintain an
optimal level of arousal that is neither too high nor too low.
Humanistic theory: the view that emphasizes the importance of
psychological and cognitive factors in motivation, especially the notion
that people are motivated to realize their personal potential.
Biological Motivation
Hunger is biological motive, but eating behavior is motivated by a complex
interaction of biological, social, and psychological factors.
The long-term matching of food intake to energy expenditure is energy
homeostasis. It also helps you maintain your baseline body weight.
Short-term signals that regulate eating; sometimes stopping to eat has become a
routine in our lives that most of us don’t give it much thought. But eating any given
meal has both physiological and psychological factors that are involved in motivating
our behavior.
Long-term signals that regulate body weight; researchers have discovered more than
20 different chemical messengers that monitor and help us maintain a stable body
weight over time. Internal signals, such as leptin, insulin, neuropeptide Y, and
corticotropin-releasing hormone, are in response to the hypothalamus in the brain
influencing eating behavior and the body’s energy expenditure.
Energy Balance
Energy Intake = Energy Expenditure
Excess Weight and Obesity
Overweight, obesity, and eating disorders are characterized by unhealthy body
weight and maladaptive patterns of eating disorders.
The most widely used method to determine weight status is the body mass index,
abbreviated BMI. A numerical scale indicating adult height in relation to weight. It
is possible to be overweight and very healthy, such as a bodybuilder.
The factors involved in becoming overweight at the simplest lever, is the only if
your caloric intake consistently exceeds your energy expenditure—the essence of
positive energy balance.
Eating disorders involve serious and maladaptive disturbances in eating behavior.
These disturbances can include extreme reduction of food intake, severe bouts of
overeating, and obsessive concerns about body shape and weight.
The two main types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa,
which usually begin during adolescence or early adulthood.
Psychological Needs as Motivators
According to the motivational theories of Maslow and of Deci
and Ryan, psychological needs must be fulfilled for optimal
human functioning.
The centerpiece of Maslow’s (1954, 1986) model of motivation
was his famous hierarchy of needs. He believed that people are
motivated to satisfy the needs at each level of the hierarchy
before moving up to the next level.
Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan (1985, 2000) have
developed self-determination theory, abbreviated SDT. Much like
Maslow’s theory, SDT moves up on the premise that people are
actively growth-oriented and that they move toward a unified
sense of self and integration with others.
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Deci and Ryan's Self-Determination Theory
Competence and Achievement Motivation
Competence and achievement motivation are
important psychological motives. In self-determination
theory, Deci and Ryan identified competences as a
universal motive.
You are displaying competence motivation when you
strive to use your cognitive, social, and behavioral skills
to be capable and exercise control in a situation.
However, achievement motivation is the drive to excel,
succeed, or outperform others at some task.
Emotion
Emotions are complex psychological states that serve many functions in human
behavior and relationships. It involves three distinct components: a subjective
experience, a physiological response, and a behavioral or expressive response.
Emotion process are closely tied to motivational processes. Emotions shape our
decisions by helping us choose which goal to pursue and how strongly to pursue it.
Charles Darwin published ‘The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals’ in
1872. He described the facial expressions, body movements, and postures used to
express specific emotions in animals and humans. He argued that emotions reflect
evolutionary adaptations to the problems of survival and reproduction.
Basic Emotions, are experienced with all humans, in every culture. The most
commonly cited as the basic emotions are happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise,
and disgust.
The Neuroscience of Emotion
Emotions are associated with distinct patterns of responses by the
sympathetic nervous system and in the brain.
The pounding heart, rapid breathing, trembling hands and feet , and
churning stomach that occur when you experience an intense emotion like
fear reflect the activation of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous
system.
Many brain areas are implicated in emotional responses, but the brain
structure called the amygdala has long been known to be important. Several
studies have shown that the amygdala is a key brain structure in the emotional
response of fear in humans. For example, people with amygdala damage lose
the ability to distinguish between friendly and threatening faces.
The Expression of Emotion
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The behavioral components of emotion include facial expressions and
nonverbal behavior.
Theories of Emotion
Emotion theories emphasize different aspects of emotion, but
all have influenced the direction of emotion research.
Theories of emotion differ in terms of which component of
emotion receives the most emphasis—subjective experience,
physiological arousal, or expressive behavior.
• The James-Lange Theory of Emotion
• Cognitive Theories of Emotion
The James-Lange Theory of Emotion
The perception of an environmental stimulus (such as a growling dog) causes
bodily changes (such as rapid heart beat and fast breathing). The brain perceives
those changes in behavior and identifies them as the emotion. The progression is
Evidence Supporting the James-Lange Theory
The facial feedback hypothesis supports the notion that our
bodily responses affect our subjective experience. The facial
feedback hypotheses states that expressing a specific emotion,
especially facially, causes us to subjectively experience that
emotion.
The basic explanation for this phenomenon is that facial
muscles send feedback signals to the brain. In turn, the brain uses
this information to activate and regulate emotional experience,
intensifying or lessening emotion. Collectively, the evidence for
the facial feedback hypothesis adds support for aspects of the
James-Lange theory.
Cognitive Theories of Emotion
Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer, was influential or short
time. Schachter and Singer (1962) agreed with James that
physiological arousal is a central element in emotion. But hey
also agreed with Cannon that physiological arousal us very
similar for different emotions. Thus, arousal alone would not
produce an emotional response.
According to the two-factor theory of emotion, emotion is
the result of the interaction of physiological arousal and the
cognitive label we use to explain our stirred-up state.
Thank You