Chapter 5

Motivation and Emotion

Motivation
Motivation can be defined as: “an internal force
or state that energizes, directs and sustains
(maintains) behavior toward the goal.”
A Model of Motivation

Need Drive Goal directed

behavior

(NEED REDUCTION) relief Goal

Basic motivation process
Needs- Need: Internal deficiency; causes
drive
Goals: - are milestones that a person believes
will lead to satisfaction of needs.
Expectations: - also come into play, because
humans have a strong tendency to anticipate
that certain behaviors will result in predictable
outcomes; that is, achieving the goals.
Motives and drives: - are the energizers of
action to achieve the goal.
Behavior:- is directed at achieving the goal
Monitoring of outcomes: - enables the person
to evaluate whether the behavior originally
perceived as appropriate achieved the intended
Functions of Motivation
• Increases an individual’s energy and
activity level.
• Directs an individual toward certain
goal.
• Promotes initiation of certain
activities and persistence in these
activities.
• Affects the cognitive process an
individual employs. It increases the
likelihood that people pay attention
to something.
Types of Motives
Primary and secondary motives
Primary motives are rooted in the physiological state of the
body or aroused by physiological departure from the
homeostatic conditions of the body. Fore example, hunger,
thirst, sleep, sexual, the motive to avoid pain, etc.
Secondary motives are called acquired or social motives,
because they are learned in the social environment and
usually involve other people. Some of the common social
motives include the need for achievement, affiliation, social
approval, power, respect, recognition, prestige, money, etc.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic motives

Intrinsic motivation occurs when we act without any
obvious external rewards. We simply enjoy an activity or see
it as an opportunity to explore, learn, and actualize our
potentials. It is the motivation arises from internal factors
such as a child’s natural feeling of curiosity, exigent,
confidence and satisfaction when performing a task.
Theories of Motivation
Instinct Theory
Instinct
complex behavior that is rigidly patterned
throughout a species and is unlearned
All creatures are born with specific innate
knowledge about how to survive.
Animals are born with the capacity and
often times knowledge of how to survive
by spinning webs, building nests,
avoiding danger, and reproducing. These
innate tendencies are preprogrammed at
birth, they are in our genes, and even if
the spider never saw a web before, never
witnessed its creation, it would still know
how to create one.
 Drive Reduction Theory
DRIVE REDUCTION THEORY: Physiological
needs drive an organism to act in random or
habitual ways until its needs are satisfied.

Need Drive-reducing
Drive
(e.g., for behaviors
(hunger, thirst)
food, water) (eating, drinking)

Hull suggests that all motivations are linked to

basic biological needs.
Arousal (optimal-level) Theory
Arousal theory states that we are driven to
maintain a certain level of arousal in order to
feel comfortable.

Arousal refers to a state of emotional,

intellectual, and physical activity.

This theory says there is a certain optimal or

best level of arousal that is pleasurable. It is
different from the above theory, however,
because it doesn't rely on only a reduction of
Homeostasis
Psychoanalytic Theory
As part of this theory, he believed that humans
have only two basic drives: Eros and Thanatos, or
the Life and Death drives.

According to Psychoanalytic theory, everything we

do, every thought we have, and every emotion we
experience has one of two goals: to help us survive
or to our destruction. This is similar to instinct
theory, however, Freud believed that the vast
majority of our knowledge about these drives is
buried in the unconscious part of the mind.
Incentive theory
Incentive theories are “pull theories” of
motivation; because of certain characteristics
they have the goal objects pull behavior toward
them. The goal objects which motivate
behavior are known as incentives (rewards).
Cognitive (Expectancy) Theory
Cognitive theory of motivation focuses on the role of our
thoughts, expectations, and understanding of the world.
Each person is assumed to be a rational decision maker
who will expand effort on activities that lead to desired
rewards. Individuals are thought to know what they want
from work and understand that their performance will
determine whether they get the rewards they desire.
Assumptions
• In choosing between different courses of action people
are influenced by their expectations of whether the
action will result in a favorable outcome for themselves
• People are capable of weighing up the odds about
whether acting in certain way will result in a favorable
outcome.
• Other things being equal, people will try to behave in a
way that gives the maximum return to themselves
Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs
Physiological Needs: - are the most basic of all
and arise from internal physical imbalances such
as hunger, thirst, warmth and shelter; they need to
be satisfied at; their fulfillment is necessary for
survival.
Safety and security needs:- which are at the
next level, consist of security, freedom from pain
or harm, emotional security and well-being,
fairness, predictability and order.
Affiliation Needs/Social Needs: - are prompted
by the strongly social nature of humans. Most
people enjoy feelings of belonging, friendship or
being loved, which can only be satisfied through
social interaction. Needs of this type provide the
motivation to be part of a group, an experience
that gives us the opportunity to form meaningful
relationship and to gain (and give) support from
Esteem Needs: - which are sometimes called
‘ego’ needs, are located at the next level
upwards and are often split down into two sub-
types. Needs for self-esteem concern an
individual’s view of him or herself, for instance
having a sense of self-respect, self-confidence
or doing something that is meaningful and
worthwhile in a competent way. Esteem by
others-is needed because a considerable part
of our self-concept is obtained from signals
about ourselves that we get from other people,
and if other people indicate that their view of
us as favorable as the one that we hold of
ourselves, it is a highly rewarding experience.
Satisfaction of these needs results in a sense of
adequacy; thwarting them produces feelings of
inferiority and helplessness.
 Self-actualization Needs: - is the realization of one’s
full potential in Maslow’s words, “to become more and
more what one is, to become everything that one is
capable of becoming.” Self-actualized people have the
characteristic of: being one’s true self, achieving one’s
highest potential, wanting knowledge and wisdom, being
able to understand and accept oneself and others, being
creative and appreciative of beauty in the world, happy,
realistic, problem-oriented, democratic, independent,
and fulfilling a mission or purpose in life.
 According to Maslow, nobody has ever reached the peak
of his pyramid. We all may strive for it and some may
even get close, but no one has achieved full self-
actualization. Self-actualization means a complete
understanding of who you are, a sense of completeness,
of being the best person you could possibly be. To have
achieved this goal is to stop living, for what is there to
strive for if you have learned everything about yourself,
if you have experienced all that you can, and if there is
no way left for you to grow emotionally, intellectually,
Frustration and conflicts of Motives
Although there are many ways in which
motives can be frustrated-that is, prevented
from being satisfied- conflict among
simultaneously aroused motives is perhaps the
most important reason why goals are not
reached.
Sources of conflicts motivation
Environmental frustration: - by making it difficult
or impossible for a person to attain a goal,
environmental obstacles can frustrate the satisfaction
of motives. An obstacle may be something physical,
such as a locked door or lack money. Or it may be
people.
Personal Frustration: - unattainable goals can be
important sources of frustration. These are largely
learned goals that cannot be achieved because they
are beyond a person’s abilities.
Conflict-produced frustration: - a major source of
frustration is found in motivational conflict, in which
the expression of one motive interferes with the
expression of other motives. Life is full of conflicts
and the frustration arising from them.
This type of frustration is the one that causes the most
persistent and deep-seated frustration in many
Approach-Approach conflict: - is a conflict
between two positive goals—goals that are equally
attractive at the same time.
Avoidance-Avoidance conflict: - involves two
negative goals and is a fairly common experience. A
boy must do his arithmetic homework or get a
spanking.
Approach-Avoidance conflict: - is often the most
difficult to resolve because a person is both attracted
and repelled by the same goal object. Because of the
positive valence of the goal, the person approaches
it; but as it is approached, the negative valence
becomes stronger.
Multiple approach-avoidance Conflict: -
Many of life’s major decisions involve multiple
approach-avoidance conflicts, meaning that
several goals with positive and negative
Emotion
Psychologists usually define it in terms of a
combination of cognitions, physiology, feelings,
and actions.
Emotions shape our relationships and color our
daily activities. Emotion is characterized by
physiological arousal, and changes in facial
expressions, gestures, posture, and subjective
feelings. The word “emotion” derives from the
Latin word meaning “to move.”
Physiological
arousal
The Expression of Emotion
Vocal qualities: The vocal features of speech,
other than the words themselves are called
prosody. Prosodic features include rate, pitch,
and loudness. You can use the same spoken
words to express different emotions by simply
altering the prosodic features of speech.
Body movement: Body movements convey
emotions. The emotional cues provided by
body movements are distinct from those
provided by facial expressions or physical
appearances. The ability to decode nonverbal
behavior is very important in social interaction.
Facial expressions: Research has shown that
Primary (Basic) Emotions
Robert Plutchik (2003) has identified eight
primary emotions. These are fear, surprise,
sadness, disgust, anger, anticipation, joy, and
trust (acceptance).
Basic emotions are unlearned and universal;
they are found in all cultures, are reflected in
the same facial expressions, and emerge in
children according to their biological timetable
of development.
Culturally universal expressions
Types of Emotion
Emotion can be classified as positive and
negative feelings. Positive emotions include
happiness, joy, excitement, love, etc. whereas
the negative emotions include sad, stress,
anxiety, frustration, disgust, hate, anger, fear,
depression, etc. Whilst the positive emotions
are very important for the survival of human
being, the negative emotions are mostly threat
for the well-being of human being.
Functions of Emotions
• Preparing us for action. Emotions act as a
link between events in our environment and
our responses.
• Shaping our future behavior. Emotions
help us learn information that improves our
chances of making appropriate response in
the future.
• Helping us interact more effectively with
others. The emotions we experience are
frequently obvious to observers, as they are
Theories of Emotion
The James-Lange Theory of Emotions:

According to the James-Lange theory, your

interpretation of a stimulus evokes autonomic
changes and sometimes muscle actions. Your
perception of those changes is the feeling
aspect of your emotion. After bodily arousal
and behavior occur, you can feel your
pounding heart, rapid breathing, flushed face,
and sweating; this is what makes up the
experience of emotion.
 Sight of Pounding Fear
oncoming heart (emotion)
car (arousal)
(perception of
stimulus)
Cannon-Bard theory of emotion
According to the Cannon-Bard theory,
emotional feelings and bodily arousal occur at
the same time.
Pounding
heart
(arousal)
Sight of
oncoming
car
(perception of
stimulus)

Fear
(emotion)
Schachter-Singer theory of
emotion
According to Schachter-Singer theory
of emotion, two things must happen in
order for a person feel an emotion: 1)
the person must first experience
physiological arousal; 2) there must
then be a cognitive interpretation or
explanation of a physiological arousal
so that the person can label it as a
specific emotion.
 Pounding
heart
(arousal)

Sight of Fear
oncoming (emotion)
car
(perception of
stimulus)

Cognitive
label

“I’m afraid”
The Lazarus Theory
According to this theory, a cognitive appraisal
is the first step in an emotional response, and
all other aspects of an emotion, including
physiological arousal, depend on that cognitive
appraisal.
Facial Expressions
Facial-feedback hypothesis: facial
expressions not only indicate a
person’s emotional state, they
also influence the physiological
and subjective components of the
emotion