Emotions and Motivations

• Affect is the experience of feeling or emotion.
• Emotions is a mental and physiological feeling state that directs our attention and guides our behavior.
• Motivations is a driving force that initiates and directs behavior.
• Biological Motivations refers to the motivations that originate from biological needs.
• Arousal is our experiences of the bodily responses created by the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system (ANS).
• Personal and Social Motivations: Motivations that originate from personal or social desires, such as approval, acceptance, achievement, or risk-taking.
• Drives refers to the internal states that are activated when physiological characteristics are out of balance.
• Goal is the cognitive representation of desired state or our mental idea of how we'd like things to turn out.
• Five Basic Emotions: Fundamental emotions

  • anger
  • disgust
  • fear
  • happiness
  • sadness
  • surprise
• Limbic System is the part of the brain that plays a crucial role in controlling basic emotions.
• Secondary Emotions is the emotions that are determined in part by arousal and in part by cognitive appraisal or interpretation.
• Fast Emotional Pathway is the pathway through the limbic system that allows for rapid emotional response.
• Slow Emotional Pathway is the pathway through the frontal lobes in the cortex that allows for more refined emotional responses.
• Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion: A theory of emotion suggesting that the experience of an emotion is accompanied by physiological arousal.
• James-Lange Theory of Emotion: A theory of emotion suggesting that our experience of an emotion is the result of the arousal that we experience.
• Two-Factor Theory of Emotion: A theory of emotion arguing that the arousal we experience is the same in every emotion and that all emotions are differentiated only by our cognitive appraisal of the source of the arousal.
• Three Theories of Emotion

  1. James-Lang Theory
  2. Cannon-Bard Theory
  3. Two-Factor Theory
• Misattribution of Arousal is the tendency for people to incorrectly label the source of the arousal that they are experiencing
• Principle of Excitation Transfer is the phenomenon that occurs when people who are already experiencing arousal from one event tend to also experience unrelated emotions more strongly.
• Facial Feedback Hypothesis: Proposes that the movement of our facial muscles can trigger corresponding emotions.
• Intrapersonal Functions of Emotion: The role that emotions play within each of us individually
• Social and Cultural Functions of Emotion: The role that emotions play in the maintenance of social order within a society.
• Interpersonal Functions of Emotion: The role emotions play between individuals within a group.
• Nonverbal Communication: Communication, primarily of liking or disliking, that does not involve words.
• Functions of Emotion

  1. Intrapersonal Function
  2. Interpersonal Function
  3. Social and Cultural Function
• Emotions Influence Thoughts refers to the emotions are connected to thoughts and memories, they color the emotions felt at the time the facts occurred.
• Emotions Motivate Future Behaviors refers to the emotions prepare our bodies for immediate action, influence thoughts, and can be felt, they are important motivators of future behavior.
• Signal Value to Others: Emotions have signal value to others and influence others and our social interactions.
• Sympathetic Nervous System is the part of the autonomic nervous system that gets activated during emotions and motivations.
• Operant Learning: Theories that suggest motivations lead us to engage in certain behaviors because they make us feel good.
• Cognitive Appraisal are cognitive interpretations that accompany emotions.
• Valence is the pleasantness or unpleasantness of emotions.
• Amygdala is the part of the limbic system that plays a crucial role in emotion.
• Thalamus: Plays a crucial role in the processing of emotional responses.
• Formula for Emotion

  Emotion= Arousal + Cognition
• Primary Emotions: Basic emotions that are determined largely by the limbic system.
• Cognitive Analysis is the process of analyzing and integrating emotional responses in the frontal lobes of the cortex.
• Emotional Stimulus is a stimulus that triggers an emotional response.
• Emotional Circuits: Circuits in the limbic system that create corresponding physical reactions when an emotional stimulus is experienced.
• Spinal Injuries: Injuries that can reduce the experience of arousal and emotional responses.