Grade 11 - Psychology

Chapter 9 – Motivation and Emotion

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 Learning Objectives
• To understand the nature of human motivation
• To describe the nature of some important motives
• To describe the nature of emotional expression
• To understand the relationship between culture and emotion
• To know how to manage your own emotions

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 Nature of Motivation
What is motivation?
What moves behavior
Motivation is derived from the Latin word ‘movere’ refers to movement of
activity
Motives are the general states that enable us to make predictions about
behavior in many different situations
Motivation is one of the determinants of behavior
Instincts, drives, needs, goals, and incentives come under the broad cluster of
motivation.

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 Motivation
Motivation - the process by which activities are started, directed, and
continued so that physical or psychological needs or wants are met.
• Intrinsic motivation - type of motivation in which a person performs
an action because the act itself is rewarding or satisfying in some
internal manner.
• Extrinsic motivation - type of motivation in which a person performs
an action because it leads to an outcome that is separate from or
external to the person.

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 The Motivational Cycle
The concept of need can be used to describe the motivational properties of
behavior.
A need is lack or deficit of some necessity.
The condition of need leads to drive. A drive is a state of tension or arousal
produced by a need. It energizes random activity. When one of the
random activities leads to a goal, it reduces the drive, and the organism
stops being active. The organism returns to a balanced state.

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The Motivational Cycle
Need

Drive

Arousal

Goal-directed Behavior

Achievement

Reduction Of Arousal

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Drive Reduction Theory of Motivation
• Need - a requirement of some material (such as food or
water) that is essential for survival of the organism.
• Drive - a psychological tension and physical arousal
arising when there is a need that motivates the
organism to act in order to fulfill the need and reduce
the tension.
• Drive-reduction theory - approach to motivation that
assumes behavior arises from physiological needs that
cause internal drives to push the organism to satisfy the
need and reduce tension and arousal.

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 Drive Reduction Theory of Motivation

• Primary drives - those drives that involve needs of the body such as hunger
and thirst.
• Acquired (secondary) drives - those drives that are learned through
experience or conditioning, such as the need for money or social approval.
• Homeostasis - the tendency of the body to maintain a steady state.

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 Types of Motives
Two types of motives :
Biological and Psychosocial
Biological motives are also known as physiological motives as they are guided
mostly by the physiological mechanisms of the body.
Psychosocial motives, on the other hand, are primarily learned from the
individual’s interactions with the various environmental factors.
However, both types of motives are interdependent on each other. That is, in
some kind of situations the biological factors may trigger a motive
whereas in some other situations, the psychosocial factors may trigger the
motive.
No motive is absolutely biological or psychosocial per se, rather they are
aroused in the individual with varying combinations.

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 Types of Motives
BIOLOGICAL MOTIVES PSYCHOSOCIAL MOTIVES
• Biological Causes of behavior- • Social motives are mostly learned or acquired
Hormones, Neurotransmitters, • Result from the individual’s interaction with
Brain structure. her/his social environment.
• Instincts (inborn patterns of behavior, an
urge to do something).
• Curiosity, flight, repulsion, reproduction,
parental care
• Instinct has an “impetus” which drives the
organism to do something to reduce that
impetus.
• Biological Needs are: Hunger, Thirst, & Sex • Psychosocial Needs are: Need for
Affiliation, Need for Power, Need for
Achievement, Curiosity and Exploration.

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 Biological Motives
The biological approach that organisms have needs (internal physiological
imbalances) that produce drive, which stimulates behavior leading to
certain actions towards achieving certain goals, which reduce the drive.
The earliest explanations of motivation relied on the concept of instinct.
The term instinct denotes inborn patterns of behavior that are biologically
determined rather than learned. (curiosity, flight, repulsion, reproduction,
parental care, etc.) Instincts are biologically determined and innate
tendencies that exist in both people and animals that direct behavior in
predictable ways. It refers to an urge to do something, like an “impetus”
which drives the organism to do something to reduce that impetus. Some
of the basic biological needs are hunger, thirst, and sex, which are
essential for the sustenance of the individual.

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 Biological Motives
HUNGER
• Events inside and outside the body may trigger hunger or inhibit it.
• Stomach contractions, which signify that the stomach is empty, a low
concentration of glucose in the blood, a low level of protein and the amount of
fats stored in the body stimulate hunger.
• Liver responds to the lack of bodily fuel by sending nerve impulses to the brain.
• The aroma, taste or appearance of food may also result in a desire to eat.
• Food intake is regulated by a complex feeding satiety system located in the
hypothalamus, liver, and other parts of the body as well as the external cues
available in the environment.
• Two regions of the hypothalamus involved with hunger - Lateral hypothalamus
(LH) and the Ventro-Medial hypothalamus (VMH).
• LH is considered to be the excitatory area.
• VMH is located in the middle of the hypothalamus, which is otherwise known as
hunger- controlling area.

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 Biological Motives
THIRST
When we are deprived of water for a period of several hours, the mouth and throat
become dry, which leads to dehydration of body tissues.
Processes within the body control thirst and drinking of water.
Motivation to drink water is mainly triggered by the conditions of the body: Loss of
water from cells and reduction of blood volume.
• When water is lost by bodily fluids, water leaves the interior of the cells.
• The anterior hypothalamus contains nerve cells called ‘osmoreceptors’, which
generate nerve impulses in case of cell dehydration.
• These nerve impulses act as a signal for thirst and drinking; when thirst is
regulated by loss of water from the osmoreceptors, it is called cellular-dehydration
thirst.

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 Biological Motives
SEX
Motivation to engage in sexual activity is a very strong factor influencing human
behavior.
It is different from other primary motives (hunger, thirst)
– sexual activity is not necessary for an individual’s survival
– Does not affect homeostasis
– sex drive develops with age
In case of human beings, the sex drive is very closely regulated biologically,
sometimes it is very difficult to classify sex purely as a biological drive.
Sexual drive in human beings is primarily stimulated by external stimuli and its
expression depends upon cultural learning.

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 Psychosocial Motives
Social motives are mostly learned or acquired.
Social groups such as family, neighbor hood, friends, and relatives do
contribute a lot in acquiring social motives. These are complex forms of
motives mainly resulting from the individual’s interaction with her/his
social environment.

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 Psychosocial Motives
1. Need for Affiliation
The need for friendly social interactions and relationships with others.
To maintain some form of relationship with others. Formation of group
or collectivity is an important feature of human life.
- Seeking other human beings and wanting to be close to them both
physically and psychologically is called affiliation. It involves motivation for
social contact.
- Need for affiliation is aroused when individuals feel threatened or helpless
and also when they are happy.
People high on this need are motivated to seek the company of others and to
maintain friendly relationships with other people.

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 Psychosocial Motives
2. Need for Power

The need to have control or influence over others.

- Need for power is an ability of a person to produce intended effects on the
behavior and emotions of another person.
- The various goals of power motivation are to influence, control, persuade,
lead, and charm others and most importantly to enhance one’s own
reputation in the eyes of other people.

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 Psychosocial Motives
David McClelland (1975) described four general ways of expression of the power motive.
First, people do things to gain feeling of power and strength from sources outside
themselves by reading stories about sports stars or attaching themselves to a popular
figure.
Second, power can also be felt from sources within us and may be expressed by externally
eg. building up the body and mastering urges and impulses.
Third, people do things as individuals to have an impact on others. For example, a person
argues, or competes with another individual in order to have an impact or influence
on that person.
Fourth, people do things as members of organizations to have an impact on others as in
the case of the leader of a political party; the individual may use the party apparatus
to influence others.
However, for any individual, one of these ways of expressing power motivation may
dominate, but with age and life experiences, it varies.

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 Psychosocial Motives
3. Need for Achievement

A need that involves a strong desire to succeed in attaining goals, not only
realistic ones but also challenging ones
- The desire of a person to meet standards of excellence
- n-Ach, energizes and directs behavior as well as influences the perception
of situations.

During the formative years of social development, children acquire

achievement motivation. The sources from which they learn it, include
parents, other role models, and socio-cultural influences.

Persons high in achievement motivation tend to prefer tasks that are

moderately difficult and challenging.

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 Psychosocial Motives
4. Need for Curiosity and Exploration

- The tendency to seek for a novel experience, gain pleasure by obtaining

information, etc. are signs of curiosity.
It is a motivational tendency to act without any specific identifiable goal. Curiosity
describes behavior whose primary motive appears to remain in the activities
themselves.
We are driven to explore the environment by our curiosity and our need for sensory
stimulation. The need for varied types of sensory stimulations is closely related to
curiosity. It is the basic motive, and exploration and curiosity are the expressions of
it.
We get easily bored with repetitive experiences. So we look for something new and
this drives our curiosity and exploration motive.
In the case of infants and small children, this motive is very dominant.

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

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Maslow's hierarchy of needs

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Maslow believed that lower needs in the hierarchy are dominant. Basic needs must be satisfied before
growth motives are fully expressed. Desires for self-actualization are reflected in various meta-needs.

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow proposed that human
beings must fulfill the more
basic needs, such as physical
and security needs, before
being able to fulfill the higher
needs of self-actualization and
transcendence.

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 Two aspects of Motivation
Frustration and Conflict:
• When motives are blocked
• More than one need or motives at a time

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 Frustration
Frustration occurs when an anticipated desirable goal is not attained and the motive is blocked.
It is an aversive state and no one likes it. Frustration results in a variety of behavioral and
emotional reactions like aggressive behavior, fixation, escape, avoidance, and crying.
 FRUSTRATION-AGGRESSION HYPOTHESIS proposed by Dollard and Miller.
It states that frustration produces aggression.
Aggressive acts are often directed towards the self or blocking agent, or a substitute.
Direct aggressive acts may be inhibited by the threat of punishment.

Main sources or causes of frustration are found in:

 Environmental Forces - physical objects, constraining situations or even other people who
prevent a person from reaching a particular goal,
 Personal Factors - inadequacies or lack of resources that make it difficult or impossible to
reach goals,
 Conflicts Between Different Motives

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 Conflict
Conflict occurs whenever a person must choose between contradictory needs, desires,
motives, or demands.
Three basic forms of conflicts, approach-approach conflict, avoidance-avoidance
conflict, and approach-avoidance conflict.
• Approach-Approach conflict comes from having to choose between two positives
and desirable alternatives. Eg, going for a movie or to go a party
• Avoidance-Avoidance conflict comes from choosing between two negatives, or
mutually undesirable alternatives. eg choosing between studying for exams and
failing in the exams
• Approach-Avoidance conflict comes from being attracted to and repelled by the
same goal or activity. These types of conflicts are also difficult to resolve due to its
ambivalence - a mix of positive and negative conflicts. E.g., wanting to eat when
one is overweight.
Many of life’s important decisions have approach-avoidance dimensions.

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 Conflict
A major source of frustration lies in motivational conflict.
In life, we are often influenced by a number of competing forces that propel us in
different directions. Such situations demonstrate the condition of conflict.
Hence, the simultaneous existence of multiple wishes and needs characterize
conflict.
In all the cases of conflicts, the selection of one option against the other depends
on the relative strength/importance of one over the other, and environmental
factors. Conflicting situations should be resolved after due consideration of
the pros and cons of each of the choices.

Conflicts cause frustration, which in turn, can lead to aggression.

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 Activity
Top 10:
– Write down your top ten things that are important to you in your life
(present things, future aspirations, goals, etc).
– After you have finished writing, using Maslow’s hierarchy,
label/categorize each of your top 10 according to Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs.

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 Emotion
Emotion - the “feeling” aspect of consciousness characterized by:
– certain physical arousal
– certain behavior that reveals the emotion to the outside world
– inner awareness of feelings
The term emotion is often considered synonymous with the terms ‘feeling’
and ‘mood’. Feeling denotes the pleasure or pain dimension of emotion,
which usually involves bodily functions. Mood is an affective state of long
duration but of lesser intensity than emotion.
Emotions are a complex pattern of arousal, subjective feeling, and cognitive
interpretation having physical as well as psychological consequences.
Emotion is a subjective feeling and the experience of emotions varies from
person to person.

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Difference between Motivation & Emotions
So, if hunger causes physiological changes that we CAN identify AND emotions like
fear and love cause identifiable physiological changes too, what’s the difference??
– Motivation is the SOURCE of our behavior
– Emotion is the FEELING associated with our behavior

Why it’s so confusing?

We intermingle motivation and emotions all the time, we also describe the reasons for
our behavior in terms of our emotions.
– Example:
Q. Why did you walk out of class?
A. I was angry.

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 How Emotions affect us
• Push & Pull us in different directions
• Function like biological drives: feelings energize us and make us pursue a
goal
• We behave in certain ways because it makes us feel good.
• Emotions can be incentives for our actions
• Help make decisions and communicate what is inside of us

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 Emotions
The SIX basic Emotions:

• Anger

• Disgust

• Fear

• Happiness

• Sadness

• Surprise

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 Emotions
Caroll Izard has proposed a set of TEN basic emotions:
• Joy
• Surprise
• Anger
• Disgust
• Contempt
• Fear
• Shame
• Guilt
• Interest
• Excitement

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 Emotions
According to Plutchik, there are eight basic or primary emotions. All other
emotions result from various mixtures of these basic emotions.
He arranged them in four pairs of opposites:

Joy – Sadness

Acceptance – Disgust

Fear – Anger

Surprise – Anticipation

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FIGURE 9.15 Primary and mixed emotions. In
Robert Plutchik’s model, there are eight
primary emotions, as listed in the inner areas.
Adjacent emotions may combine to give the
emotions listed around the perimeter. Mixtures
involving more widely separated emotions are
also possible. For example, fear plus
anticipation produces anxiety.

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 Quick Quiz
Identify the emotion each person in the photo is conveying:

A B C D

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 Quick Quiz
• The “quiz” you just took about expression of emotions was given to a
group of culturally diverse participants in a study.
– Five different cultures & a majority of the participants overwhelmingly
identified the photos they way in which the researchers expected
them to.
– 2nd study conducted in a remote part of New Guinea (relatively no
exposure to American culture) and they were able to identify the
photos in the same manner as the 1st study!

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 So What?
• These studies imply that certain basic facial expressions are innate (born
with)
• Blind & Deaf children affirm this belief, they too, like you and I, laugh &
smile when they are happy, frown & pout when sad, and clinch their fists
in anger even though they might not have been able to observe someone
doing this.

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 Emotions
Emotions vary in
• Intensity (high, low)
• Quality (happiness, sadness, fear)

Subjective factors and situational contexts influence the experience of

emotions.
• These factors are gender, personality, and psychopathology of certain
kinds. Evidence indicates that women experience all the emotions except
anger more intensely than men. Men are prone to experience high
intensity and frequency of anger.
• This gender difference has been attributed to the social roles attached to
men (competitiveness) and women (affiliation and caring).

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 Expression of Emotions
Emotion is an internal experience not directly observable by others. Emotions
are inferred from verbal and nonverbal expressions.
These verbal and nonverbal expressions act as the channels of
communication and enable an individual to express one’s emotions and to
understand the feelings of others.

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 Culture and Emotional Expression
The verbal channel of communication is composed of spoken words as well as other
vocal features of speech like pitch and loudness of the voice. These non-verbal
aspects of the voice and temporal characteristics of speech are called
‘paralanguage’.
Other non-verbal channels include facial expression, kinetic (gesture, posture,
movement of the body) and proximal (physical distance during face-to-face
interaction) behaviors.
Facial expression is the most common channel of emotional communication. The
amount and kind of information conveyed by the face is easy to comprehend as
the face is exposed to the full view of others. Facial expressions can convey the
intensity as well as the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the individual’s
emotional state. Facial expressions play an important role in our everyday lives.
Some research evidence support Darwin’s view that facial expressions for basic
emotions (joy, fear, anger, disgust, sadness, and surprise) are inborn and universal.

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 Culture and Emotional Expression
Bodily movements further facilitate the communication of emotions. Can you
feel the difference between your body movements when you feel angry
and movements when you feel shy?
Theatre and drama provide an excellent opportunity to understand the
impact of body movements in communicating emotions. The roles of
gestures and proximal behaviors are also significant in Indian classical
dances like Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kuchipudi, Kathak and others,
emotions are expressed with the help of movements of eyes, legs, and
fingers. The dancers are trained rigorously in the grammar of body
movement and non-verbal communication to express joy, sorrow, love,
anger, and various other forms of emotional states.
The processes involved in emotions have been known to be influenced by
culture.

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 Culture and Emotional Expression
Emotions are conveyed not only via face but also may be communicated through other non-verbal
channels as well, for example, gaze behavior, gestures, paralanguage, and proximal behavior. The
emotional meaning conveyed via gestures (body language) varies from culture to culture. For
example, in India, deep emotions are sometimes communicated via silence. This may convey
embarrassment during communication in Western countries.
Cultural differences have also been found in the gaze behavior. It has been observed that the Latin
Americans and the Southern Europeans direct their gaze to the eyes of the interactant. Asians, in
particular, Indians and Pakistanis, prefer a peripheral gaze (looking away from the conversational
partner) during an interaction.
The physical space (proximity) also divulges different kinds of emotional meaning during emotional
exchanges. The Americans, for example, do not prefer an interaction too close; the Oriental
Indians consider a close space comfortable for an interaction. In fact, the touching behavior in
physical proximity is considered reflective of emotional warmth. For example, it was observed
that the Arabs experience alienation during an interaction with the North Americans who prefer
to be interacted from outside the olfactory (too close) zone.

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 Culture and Emotional Labeling
There are certain basic emotions that are expressed and understood by all despite their
cultural and ethnic differences, and there are certain others that are specific to a
particular culture.
It is important to remember that culture plays a significant role in all processes of emotion.
Both expression and experience of emotions are mediated and modified by culture
specific ‘display rules’ that delimit the conditions under which an emotion may be
expressed and the intensity with which it is displayed.
Basic emotions also vary in the extent of elaboration and categorical labels. The Tahitian
language includes 46 labels for the English word anger. The Japanese produced varied
emotional labels for facial expressions of happiness (10 labels), anger (8 labels), and
disgust (6 labels). In Western literature, certain emotions like happiness, sadness, fear,
anger, and disgust are uniformly treated as basic to human beings. Emotions like
surprise, contempt, shame, and guilt are not accepted as basic to all.

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 Managing Negative Emotions
Emotions exist on a continuum. There are various intensities of emotion that can be
experienced by us -extreme elation or slight happiness, severe grief or just
pensiveness. However, most of us usually maintain a balance of emotions.
When faced with a conflicting situation, individuals attempt to adjust and derive a
coping mechanism either with task or defense oriented reactions. These coping
patterns help them prevent abnormal emotional reactions such as anxiety,
depression etc. Anxiety is a condition that an individual develops in case of failure
to adopt an appropriate ego defense.
Anxious individuals find it difficult to concentrate or to make decisions even for trivial
matters. The state of depression affects an individual’s ability to think rationally,
feel realistically, and work effectively. The condition overwhelms the mood state of
the individual. And he develops a variety of symptoms like difficulty in falling
asleep, increased level of psychomotor agitation or retardation, decreased ability
to think or concentrate, and loss of interest in personal or social activities, etc.

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 Managing Negative Emotions
Under demanding and stressful conditions, a lot of negative emotions like fear,
anxiety, disgust, etc. develop in an individual to a considerable extent. Such
negative emotions, if allowed to prevail for a long time, are likely to affect
adversely the person’s psychological and physical health.
This is the reason why most of the stress management programmes emphasize
emotion management as an integral part of stress management. The major focus
of emotion management techniques is the reduction of negative emotions and
enhancing positive emotions.

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 Positive Psychology Movement
Positive psychology movement
A viewpoint that recommends shifting the focus of psychology away from the negative
aspects to a more positive focus on strengths, well-being, and the pursuit of
happiness.
Positive psychology concerns itself with the study of features that enrich life like, hope,
happiness, creativity, courage, optimism, cheerfulness, etc.

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 Managing Negative Emotions
Effective Emotion management is the key to effective social functioning in modern times.

• Enhance self-awareness - Be aware of your own emotions and feelings.

• Appraise the situation objectively - Emotion is preceded by evaluation of the event.
• Do some self-monitoring - constant or periodic evaluation of your past accomplishments, emotional
and physical states, real and vicarious experiences.
• Engage in self-modeling - Be the ideal for yourself.
• Perceptual reorganization and cognitive restructuring - Try viewing the events differently and
visualize the other side of the coin.
• Be creative - Find and develop an interest or a hobby
• Develop and nurture good relationships - Choose your friends carefully.
• Have empathy - Try understanding other’s feelings too. Make your relationships meaningful and
valuable.
• Participate in community service – Help yourself by helping others.

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 Managing your anger
Anger is a negative emotion.
The major source of anger is the frustration of motives. However, anger is not a reflex,
rather it is a result of our thinking. Neither is it automatic nor uncontrollable and
caused by others but it is a self-induced choice that the individual makes.
Key points in anger management:
• Recognize the power of your thoughts.
• Realize you alone can control it.
• Do not engage in ‘self-talk that burns’. Do not magnify negative feelings.
• Do not ascribe intentions and ulterior motives to others.
• Resist having irrational beliefs about people and events.
• Try to find constructive ways of expressing your anger. Have control on the degree
and duration of anger that you choose to express.
• Look inward not outward for anger control.
• Give yourself time to change. It takes time and effort to change a habit.

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 Emotional Intelligence
Expressions of emotion depend on regulation of emotion for self or others. Persons who
are capable of having awareness of emotions for self or others and regulate accordingly
are called emotionally intelligent.
By emotional intelligence, we understand ‘the ability to monitor one’s own and other’s
emotions, to discriminate among them and to use the information to guide one’s
thinking and actions’ (Mayer & Salovey, 1999).
The concept of emotional intelligence subsumes intrapersonal and interpersonal elements.
The intrapersonal element includes factors like:
• Self-Awareness (ability to keep negative emotions and impulses under control)
• Self-Motivation (the drive to achieve despite setbacks, developing skills to attain targets
and taking initiative to act on opportunities).
The interpersonal element of emotional intelligence includes two components:
• Social Awareness (the awareness and the tendency to appreciate other’s feelings)
• Social Competence (social skills that help to adjust with others, such as team building,
conflict management, skills of communicating, etc.)

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 Enhancing Positive Emotions
Our emotions have a purpose. They help us adapt to the ever-changing environment and are
important for our survival and well-being. Negative emotions like fear, anger or disgust prepare
us mentally and physically for taking immediate action towards the stimulus that is threatening.
For example, if there was no fear we would have caught a poisonous snake in our hand. Though
negative emotions protect us in such situations but excessive or inappropriate use of these
emotions can become life threatening to us, as it can harm our immune system and have
serious consequences for our health.
Positive emotions such as hope, joy, optimism, contentment, and gratitude energize us and
enhance our sense of emotional well-being. When we experience positive affect, we display a
greater preference for a large variety of actions and ideas. We can think of more possibilities
and options to solve whatever problems we face and thus, we become proactive.
Positive emotions give us a greater ability to cope with adverse circumstances and quickly return to
a normal state. They help us set up long-term plans and goals, and form new relationships.

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 Enhancing Positive Emotions
Ways to enhance Positive emotions:

• Personality traits of optimism, hopefulness, happiness and a positive self-

regard.
• Finding positive meaning in dire circumstances.
• Having quality connections with others, and supportive network of close
relationships.
• Being engaged in work and gaining mastery.
• A faith that embodies social support, purpose and hope, leading a life of
purpose.
• Positive interpretations of most daily events.

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THE END

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