1. Motivation And Emotion April 25, 2008

2. Motivation, what is it?

3. One of the challenges for modern psychology is to understand what motivates people to act.

4. Motivation An urge or a need that leads to goal oriented behaviour. It directs our behaviours. The urge is triggered by a stimulus, so stimulus is the one which initiates need, and it results in behaviour.

5. Motivation is classified in 3 categories: biological, psychological, and social.

6. Biological Motivators We don’t learn about it, we’re born with it. Biological Motivators over any other type of drive. The drive: homeostasis

7. Psychological Motivations The drives are related to mental well being. Psychological drive may come from a desire to obtain/gain a missing piece of information. In essence: information is the food of curiosity. Example: Rumors - Infotainment.

8. 2 Psychological Drives Sex Aggression

9. Sex Biological or Psychological? The 2 reasons: Individual (not species) and arousal (not homeostasis).

10. Aggression Active Aggressive Manner (ex: confront) Passive Aggressive Manner (ex: rumor)

11. Social Motivators We’re not born with it, it is learned. David McClelland (Achievement Motive, 1953): Type A and Type B person. Final social motivator: Belongingness. People engage in behaviors because they feel a need to belong to a group. Positive Negative impacts.

12. Emotion One behavior may be linked to a variety of emotions (I.e: crying - sad, fear, happy). The ability to read emotion may lead to an improved understanding to a person’s behavior.

13. James-Lange Theory, 1880s William James (US), Carl Lange (Denmark). Some stimulus in the environment results in a physiological change which is then interpreted as an emotion. The process is instantaneous.