Human Psychology &

Behavior
Motivation and Emotion
Explaining Motivation
How does motivation direct and energize behavior?

Motivation:

The factors that direct and energize the behavior of humans

and other organisms. Motivation has biological, cognitive, and social
aspects, and the complexity of the concept has led psychologists to
develop a variety of approaches. All seek to explain the energy that
guides people’s behavior in specific directions.
 Drive-reduction approaches: Satisfying our Needs
Drive-reduction approaches to motivation theories: suggesting that a lack of
some basic biological requirement such as water produces a drive to obtain that
requirement (in this case, the thirst drive).

A drive is motivational tension, or arousal, that energizes behavior to fulfill a

need. Many basic drives, such as hunger, thirst, sleep, and sex, are related to
biological needs of the body or of the species as a whole. These are called
primary drives. Primary drives contrast with secondary drives, in which
behavior fulfills no obvious biological need. In secondary drives, prior
experience and learning bring about needs. F
Homeostasis, the maintenance of a steady internal state, often underlies
motivational drives.

Arousal approaches to motivation: The belief that we try to maintain

certain levels of stimulation and activity, increasing or reducing them as
necessary.

Incentive approaches to motivation: Theories suggesting that motivation

stems from the desire to obtain valued external goals, or incentives.
Cognitive approaches to motivation: Theories suggesting that motivation is
a product of people’s thoughts and expectations—their cognitions.
Cognitive theories of motivation draw a key distinction between intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation causes us to participate in an activity for
our own enjoyment rather than for any concrete, tangible reward that it will bring
us. In contrast, extrinsic motivation causes us to do something for money, a grade,
or some other concrete, tangible reward. For example, when a physician works long
hours because she loves medicine, intrinsic motivation is prompting her; if she
works hard to make a lot of money, extrinsic motivation underlies her efforts.
 Maslow’s Hierarchy
Maslow’s model places motivational needs in a hierarchy and suggests that before
more sophisticated, higher-order needs can be met, certain primary needs must be
satisfied (Maslow, 1970, 1987). A pyramid can represent the model, with the more
basic needs at the bottom and the higher-level needs at the top. To activate a specific
higher-order need, thereby guiding behavior, a person must first fulfill the more basic
needs in the hierarchy.

The basic needs are primary drives needs for water, food, sleep, sex, and the like. To
move up the hierarchy, a person must first meet these basic physiological needs.
Safety needs come next in the hierarchy; Maslow suggests that people need a safe,
secure environment in order to function effectively. Physiological and safety needs
compose the lower-order needs.
 The Needs for Achievement, Affiliation and Power

The need for achievement is a stable, learned characteristic in which a person

obtains satisfaction by striving for and attaining a level of excellence.

Need for affiliation: An interest in establishing and maintaining relationships

with other people.

Need for power: A tendency to seek impact, control, or influence over others,
and to be seen as a powerful individual
Understanding the Emotional
Experiences
What are emotions, and how do we experience them?

 Emotions are broadly defined as feelings that may affect behavior and
generally have both a physiological component and a cognitive
component. Debate continues over whether separate systems govern
cognitive and emotional responses and whether one has primacy over
the other.
Function of Emotions

Among the most important of those functions are the following:

• Preparing us for action: Emotions act as a link between events in our

environment and our responses. For example, if you saw an angry dog charging
toward you, your emotional reaction (fear) would be associated with physiological
arousal of the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system, the activation
of the “fight-or-flight” response.
• Shaping our future behavior. Emotions promote learning that will help us make
appropriate responses in the future. For instance, your emotional response to
unpleasant events teaches you to avoid similar circumstances in the future.

• Helping us interact more effectively with others. We often communicate the

emotions we experience through our verbal and nonverbal behaviors, making our
emotions obvious to observers. These behaviors can act as a signal to observers,
allowing them to understand better what we are experiencing and to help them
predict our future behavior.
What are the explanations for emotions?

 James-Lange theory of emotion: The belief that emotional experience is a

reaction to bodily events occurring as a result of an external situation (“I feel sad
because I am crying”).

 Cannon-Bard theory of emotion: The belief that both physiological arousal and
emotional experience are produced simultaneously by the same nerve stimulus.
 Schachter-Singer theory of emotion: The belief that emotions are determined
jointly by a nonspecific kind of physiological arousal and its interpretation, based
on environmental cues.

 The most recent approaches to emotions focus on their biological origins. For
instance, it now seems that specific patterns of biological arousal are associated
with individual emotions. Furthermore, new scanning techniques have identified
the specific parts of the brain that are activated during the experience of
particular emotions.
How does nonverbal behavior relate to the expression of emotions?

Facial-affect program: Activation of a set of nerve impulses that make

the face display the appropriate expression.

Facial-feedback hypothesis: The hypothesis that facial expressions not

only reflect emotional experience but also help determine how people
experience and label emotions.