Motivation and Emotion
Motivation and emotion questions test motive types, Maslow's sequence, arousal theory and the classic emotion theories.
Motives
Biological motives include hunger, thirst, sleep, sex and temperature regulation. Psychological and social motives include achievement, affiliation, power and curiosity. Maslow's hierarchy runs physiological, safety, belonging, esteem and self-actualisation; lower needs usually dominate first, but the order is not rigid.
Theories of motivation
Drive-reduction theory (Hull) says needs create drives that push behaviour toward homeostasis. Arousal theory, with the Yerkes-Dodson law, says moderate arousal is best, and optimal arousal is lower for complex tasks. Incentive theory emphasises external rewards; cognitive theories emphasise expectations and goals.
Emotion
Components are physiological arousal, subjective feeling, cognitive appraisal and expressive behaviour. James-Lange: bodily changes come first and produce emotion. Cannon-Bard: arousal and emotion occur simultaneously. Schachter-Singer two-factor theory: undifferentiated arousal plus a cognitive label yields the specific emotion. Lazarus emphasises appraisal; facial-feedback theory says expressions shape feelings.
Worked example
A person given adrenaline feels her heart race. At a party she labels it excitement; in a dark alley she labels it fear. Reasoning: Schachter-Singer, because the same arousal is interpreted using contextual cues, producing different emotions.
Traps
- Maslow's order is not absolute; needs can overlap.
- James-Lange says arousal precedes emotion; Cannon-Bard says they are simultaneous.
- Yerkes-Dodson predicts lower optimal arousal for difficult tasks.