Emotion and motivation

An emotion is a complex subjective experience in reaction to a personally significant event (e.g., joy, sadness, pride). Emotional states consist of three core components: physiological arousal, cognitive appraisal, and behavioral expression. The biological basis of emotion involves complex neural networks and autonomic nervous system activity. From an evolutionary perspective, emotions serve an adaptive purpose by promoting survival and social communication, and they are often categorized either as innate emotions (e.g., anger) or those that are learned and shaped by culture (e.g., shame). Various theories of emotion seek to explain how these components interact to produce emotional experiences.

Motivation is the conscious or unconscious internal state that initiates and directs behavior, arising from innate biological drives (e.g., hunger) and/or acquired sociocultural needs (e.g., affiliation). Various theories seek to explain how motivation affects human behavior, such as the drive-reduction theory and Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Emotions are complex subjective experiences that consist of physiological, cognitive, and behavioral components. They can arise from external stimuli, such as grief from watching a sad movie, or from internal thoughts, such as joy from recalling a happy memory.

Primary and secondary emotions

• Primary emotions (innate and universal)
  • The exact list of core primary emotions varies across theorists, but commonly includes:
    • Joy
    • Sadness
    • Anger
    • Fear/anxiety
    • Surprise
    • Disgust
    • Contempt
  • The facial expressions associated with primary emotions are consistent across cultures.
  • Facial Action Coding System: an overview of the facial muscles involved in each primary emotion, used to identify and distinguish between them
• Secondary emotions (acquired and sociocultural)
  • Shaped by the interaction between sociocultural norms and primary emotions
  • Common secondary emotions include:
    • Shame
    • Guilt
    • Pride
    • Embarrassment
    • Jealousy
    • Remorse
    • Anger

Social smile
Joy is expressed through smiling or laughing. A social smile is one made in response to social stimuli, particularly faces and voices. Social smiling typically first appears in infants around 6–8 weeks after birth.

The three components of emotion

• Physiological component: the body's response to an emotion (e.g., trembling or increased perspiration when afraid)
• Cognitive component: the subjective experience and interpretation of the emotion
• Behavioral component: the way an emotion is expressed
  • Expressive component: The experience of an emotion leads to specific expressions in one's facial muscles, gestures, voice, and/or posture.
  • Motivational component: The experience of an emotion prompts an action.

Biological basis of emotion

The generation and experience of emotions is mediated by the interaction among the limbic system, the reticular activating system, and the autonomic nervous system.

• Limbic system
  • Thalamus: acts as a sensory relay station, sending information to both the amygdala and higher brain regions for processing
  • Hypothalamus: regulates autonomic and endocrine functions in response to emotional stimuli
  • Hippocampus: responsible for memory formation and integration of emotional experiences with cognitive functions
  • Amygdala: plays a central role in rapidly processing emotional information, particularly fear and anxiety
• Reticular activating system: manages alertness and arousal levels, thereby influencing the intensity of the emotional experience
• Autonomic nervous system
  • Controls involuntary physiological responses associated with emotion
  • Regulated by the hypothalamus
  • Sympathetic nervous system: controls fight-or-flight responses to stressful or exciting stimuli (e.g., increased blood flow to muscles, increased heart rate)
  • Parasympathetic nervous system: controls rest-and-digest functions, enabling the body to store energy (e.g., increased stomach activity, decreased blood flow to muscles)
• Physiological markers of emotion: distinct and measurable bodily changes that accompany emotional states (e.g., anger or embarrassment can cause flushing of the face due to increased blood flow)

The adaptive role of emotion

Emotions are considered adaptive because they guide behaviors that promote an individual's ability to thrive and survive.

• Key adaptive functions include:
  • Prompting behavior that protects the individual from harm
  • Facilitating communication: Using universal facial expressions to convey one's feelings allows for understanding across different cultures.
• Yerkes-Dodson law
  • States that emotions affect arousal levels, which in turn impact performance on various tasks
    • Performance increases with mental or physiological arousal but declines due to stress or anxiety when arousal is too high.
    • Performance is optimal at a moderate level of arousal.

Theories of emotion seek to explain how they are generated and interpreted. Some theories emphasize cognition, while others focus on the perception of physiological changes as the primary source of an emotional experience. No single theory fully explains emotion; instead, it is helpful to apply different theories depending on the context.

• Schachter-Singer two-factor theory
  • States that an emotional experience is the result of two steps: the perception of nonspecific physiological arousal in response to a stimulus followed by the cognitive appraisal that determines the emotion
  • Stimulus → arousal → cognitive appraisal → emotion
  • Example: Hearing a loud noise in a dark parking garage triggers physiological reactions (e.g., shaking and increased heart rate), which the brain then interprets as the emotion of fear.
• James-Lange theory
  • States that the physiological response to a stimulus causes an emotion, and that self-perception of the response rather than cognition constitutes the emotion
  • Stimulus → arousal → emotion
  • Example: Hearing a loud noise in a dark parking garage triggers physiological reactions (e.g., shaking and increased heart rate), which are then experienced as the emotion of fear.
  • Explains reactions in acute danger situations, in which a person often becomes fully aware of the danger only after noticing their physiological response
• Cannon-Bard theory
  • States that a stimulus simultaneously and independently triggers both a physiological response and the subjective experience of an emotion
  • When a stimulus is perceived, the thalamus sends signals to the cerebral cortex, producing the conscious emotion, and to the hypothalamus and autonomic nervous system, generating the bodily response.
  • Stimulus → arousal and emotion
  • Example: Hearing a loud noise in a dark parking garage generates the conscious experience of the emotion of fear simultaneously with the physiological reaction (e.g., shaking and increased heart rate).

Motivation is the internal state that initiates and directs behavior.

Factors that influence motivation

• Instincts: innate, fixed patterns of behavior through which a given species responds to environmental stimuli (e.g., a newborn's instinct to breastfeed)
• Needs: physiological (e.g., thirst, hunger, cold) or psychological (e.g., self-actualization) requirements
• Arousal: a state of physiological or psychological activation
• Drives: urges that motivate behavior aimed at reducing physiological tension
  • Primary drives
    • Instinctual, evolutionarily determined, and serve to preserve the individual or the species
    • Divided into homeostatic (physiological) and nonhomeostatic drives
      • Primary homeostatic drives include hunger, thirst, and the need for sleep.
      • Primary nonhomeostatic drives include sexuality and curiosity.
  • Secondary drives
    • Learned throughout life
    • Common secondary drives include:
      • Power
      • Possession
      • Social recognition
      • Achievement
      • Affiliation

Substance dependence
Substance dependence acts as a powerful biological motivator. Some drugs activate the brain's reward system, particularly dopamine pathways, creating an intense motivation for drug-seeking behavior that can override other essential drives.

Theories of motivation

• Drive-reduction theory
  • Proposes that an unmet biological need creates a state of tension, motivating actions to reduce the tension and restore homeostasis
  • Restoring homeostasis often works via negative feedback loops
  • Example: The feeling of thirst motivates an individual to drink water. Drinking water satisfies the physiological need for hydration, which in turn reduces the drive of thirst and ceases the drinking behavior.
• Incentive theory
  • States that motivation is primarily driven by environmental factors and their interaction with internal needs
  • Behavior is motivated by a desire for positive incentives (rewards) and avoidance of negative ones (punishments).
• Achievement motivation (need for achievement)
  • Definition: the desire to pursue success, excel at challenging tasks, and meet a high standard of excellence
  • Individuals differ in their need for achievement, which influences how they set goals, handle challenges, and respond to success or failure.
  • Individuals with high achievement motivation:
    • Are driven by intrinsic motivation and personal mastery
    • Choose moderately challenging tasks
    • Have high self-efficacy and a high internal locus of control
  • Individuals with low achievement motivation:
    • Are driven by the desire to avoid failure rather than to succeed
    • Choose very easy or very hard tasks to avoid blame for failure
    • Have low self-efficacy and a high external locus of control
• Cognitive theories
  • Emphasize the role of thoughts, beliefs, and expectations in motivating behavior
  • Cognitive dissonance
    • Describes the psychological tension an individual experiences when their actions conflict with their beliefs or values
    • Discomfort motivates a drive to reduce tension by either changing behavior to align with beliefs or altering beliefs to justify behavior.
• Need-based theories
  • According to Abraham Maslow, motivation is driven by the desire to satisfy a hierarchy of needs, which can be expressed as a pyramid.
  • According to this theory, lower-order needs must be met before an individual can pursue higher-order needs.
  • Needs from peak to base:
    • Self-actualization (e.g., creativity or pursuit of meaning in life)
    • Esteem (e.g., recognition from others or self-confidence)
    • Love and belonging (e.g., family or friendship)
    • Safety needs (e.g., financial security or protection from violence)
    • Physiological needs (e.g., hunger or thirst)

Motivational conflicts

According to Kurt Lewin, a motivational conflict arises when there are two competing motives of similar intensity, complicating decision-making. These motives can either be a desire for a stimulus (appetence) or avoidance of a stimulus (aversion).

• Approach-approach conflict: The individual must choose between two desirable alternatives.
• Avoidance-avoidance conflict: The individual must choose between two undesirable alternatives.
• Approach-avoidance conflict (ambivalence conflict): The individual must decide about a single alternative that has both positive and negative aspects.
• Double approach-avoidance conflict (double ambivalence conflict): The individual must choose between two alternatives, each of which has both positive and negative aspects.