Understanding Motivation and Emotion chapter 1 Introduction PDF

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Understanding Motivation and Emotion Chapter 1: Introduction Motivation and Emotion Movere (latin) = to move. motivation, emotion and motive.

Motivational science Research on motivation and emotion seeks to construct theories about how motivational processes work. A theory is an intellectual framework that organizes a vast amount of knowledge about a phenomenon so that the phenomenon can be better understood and explained. The study of motivation and emotion exist to answer the Why? questions of behavior, thought, and feeling. Without an answer to why, we are left only with the description of behavior, and description without explanation is ultimately unsatisfying. (Bernard and Lac 2013, 574). Reality (In all its complexity)

Representation

Theory (As created by motivational psychologists)

Hypotheses (As derived from the theory)

Application

Recommended Applications: (How to support and enhance motivation and emotion in applied settings)

Data (To test the adequacy of each hypothesis)

Figure 1.1: Illustration of Theory

Two personal questions What causes behavior? We see people behave, but e cannot see the underlying cause or causes that generated their behavior.

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Why does the behavior start? Once begun, why is behavior sustained over time? Why is behavior directed towards some goals yet away from others? Why does behavior change its direction? Why does behavior stop?

Motivation’s first perennial question – What causes behavior? – can be elaborated into the study of how motivation affects behavior’s initiation, persistence, change, goal directedness and eventual termination. Why does behavior vary in its intensity? Behavior varies in intensity, and its intensity varies both within the individual and between different individuals. When motivation varies, behavior varies.

Subject matter The study of motivation concerns those internal processes that give behavior its energy, direction, and persistence. - Energy implies that behavior has strength. - Direction implies that behavior has purpose. - Persistence implies that behavior has endurance. Motives are internal experiences: Antecedent conditions *External events *Social Contexts

Needs

Internal motives

Cognitions

Emotions

Energized, goal-oriented, and persistent (motivated) action

Antecedents provide supportive conditions under which motivations and emotions can rise and increase, and antecedents provide the frustrating conditions under which motivations and emotions fall and decrease. Internal motives A motive is an internal process that energizes, directs, and sustains behavior. The difference between a general motive versus specific need, cognition or emotion is the level of analysis. Needs, cognition and emotion are three types of motives. Needs are conditions within the individual that are essential and necessary for the maintenance of life and for the nurturance of growth and well-being.

Cognitions refer to mental events, such as thoughts, beliefs, expectations, plans, goals, strategies, appraisals, attributions, and the self-concept. Cognitive sources of motivation revolve around the person’s ways of thinking. Emotions are complex but coordinated feeling-arousal-purposive-expressive reactions to the significant events in our lives. - Feelings: subjective, verbal descriptions of emotional experience. - Arousal: bodily mobilization to cope with situational demands. - Purpose: motivational urge to accomplish something specific at that moment. - Expression: Nonverbal communication of our emotional experience to others. External events and social contexts External events are environmental, social, and cultural offerings that affect a person’s internal motives. Includes specific attractive stimuli (money, being praised), unattractive stimuli (foul odor, being yelled at) and general situations (classroom/workplace climate). Motivation versus influence Influence is an interpersonal process that occurs under various names such as persuasion, compliance, conformity, obedience, and leadership. When you influence people, you persuade them to respond favorably to your specific request.

Expressions of motivation We need to answer questions regarding how motivation expresses itself. Motivation is a private and unobservable (internal) experience. You cannot directly see another person’s motivation. We can observe what is public and observable to infer motivations: Behavior Seven aspects of behavior express the presence, intensity and quality of motivation: effort, persistence, latency, choice, probability of response, facial expressions, and bodily gestures. Seven behavioral expressions of motivation and emotion Effort Exertion put fourth during a task. Percentage of total capacity used. Persistence Time between when a behavior first starts until it ends Latency Duration of time a person waits to get started on a task upon first being given an opportunity to do so Choice When presented with two or more courses of action, preferring one course of action over the other Probability of response Number (or percentage) of occasions that the person enacts a particular goal-directed response given the total number of opportunities to do so Facial expressions Facial movements, such as wrinkling the nose, raising the upper lip, and lowering the brow Bodily gestures Bodily gestures, such as leaning forward, changing posture, and intentionally moving the legs, arms and hands Engagement

Engagement refers to how actively involved a person is in a task. It is a multidimensional construct that consists of four distinct, yet intercorrelated and mutually supportive, aspects of behavior, emotion, cognition and agency. Extent of Engagement: four interrelated aspects of engagement Behavior - On-task behavior - Effort - Persistence Emotion Presence of: - Interest - Enjoyment - Enthusiasm

Cognition

Agency

Absence of: - Distress - Anger, anxiety - Frustration - Using sophisticated learning strategies - Seeking conceptual understanding rather than surface knowledge - Self-regulation, such as planning - Contributing constructively into and changing the environment for the better - Asking questions - Expressing preferences

Psychophysiology The nervous and endocrine systems manufacture and release various chemical substances (hormones, neurotransmitters etc.) that provide the biological underpinnings of motivational and emotional states. Psychophysiology refers to the process by which psychological states produce downstream changes in the body’s physiology. It’s the study of the interaction between bodily and mental states. Five psychophysiological expressions of motivation and emotion Hormonal activity Chemicals in saliva or blood, such as cortisol or catecholamines Cardiovascular activity Contraction and relaxation of the heart and blood vessels Ocular activity Eye behavior – pupil size, eye blinks and eye movements Electrodermal activity Electrical changes on the surface of the skin Skeletal activity Activity of the musculature, as with facial expressions, bodily gestures, or shifting one’s weight from side to side Brain Activations Brain activations underlie every motivational and emotional state. Changes in brain activations are just like changes in behavior, engagement and psychophysiology.

Self-report Another way to collect data of motivation is to ask. People can typically self-report their motivation. But there are also pitfalls to this. It is not always accurate.

Framework to understand motivation and emotion Antecedent conditions - Environmental events - Social contexts

Need

Motive status

Cognition

Energizing, directing, and sustaining: -behavior -engagement -psychophysiology -brain activity -self-report

Changes in life Outcomes: -performance -achievement -learning -adjustment -skill, talent -well-being

Emotion

Ten unifying themes The scientific study of motivation includes a wide range of assumptions, hypotheses, theories, findings, and domains of application. 10 unifying themes can be identified to bring all this information together: Motivation and emotion benefit adaption and functioning When faced with an ongoing and changing stream of opportunities and threats, people need the means to take the corrective action necessary to preserve and enhance their functioning and well-being. Motivations and emotions serve as the means for such corrective action. Motivational and emotional states provide a key means for individuals to cope successfully with life’s inevitable, changing, and somewhat unpredictable demands. When motivation sours, personal adaption, functioning, and well-being all suffer. People who feel helpless in exerting control over their fates tend to give up quickly when challenged. Motivation and emotion direct attention Motives have a way of gaining our attention so that we attend to one aspect of the environment rather than to another. Motives prepare us for action by directing attention to select some behaviors and courses of action over others. Motives capture attention, interrupt what we are doing, and impose a motive-congruent priority into our thinking, feeling, and behaving. Motivation and emotion are “intervening variables” Motivational and emotional processes arise in response to environmental events, and, once aroused, cause behavior and outcomes. Motivation and emotion are variables that intervene between causes and effects to explain why that underlies cause-effect relations.

Motivational and emotional states “intervene” between environmental causes and lifeoutcome effects to explain why the antecedent affects the outcome. Motives vary over time and influence the ongoing stream of behavior Motivation and emotion are dynamic processes – always changing, always rising and falling. It is helpful to think of motivation as a constantly flowing river of needs, cognitions, and emotions. Motives strengths change over time; people forever harbor a multitude of motives of various intensities, any one of which might grab attention and participate in the stream of behavior, given appropriate circumstances; and motives are not something a person either does or does not have, but instead, these motives rise and fall as circumstances change. Types of motivation exists Motivation theorists emphasize that types of motivation exist. A complete motivational and emotional analysis of behavior answers both the questions “How much?” and “What type?”. Motivation includes both approach and avoidance tendencies. A full understanding of the human motivation includes an appreciation for both approach and avoidance tendencies. We are not always consciously aware of the motivational basis of our behavior Motives vary in how accessible they are to consciousness ant to verbal report. Some originate in language structures and the cortical brain and are thus readily available to our conscious awareness. Other motives have their origins in nonlanguage structures and the subcortical brain and are therefore much less available to conscious awareness. Motivation study reveals what people want Motivational study reveals the contents of human nature. Theories of motivation reveal what is common within the strivings of all human beings by identifying the commonalities among people from different cultures, life expectancies, ages, historical periods, and genetic endowments. The study of motivation informs us what part of want and desire stem from human nature but also what part stems from personal, social and cultural learning. It reveals what part of motivation and emotion is universal and inherent versus what part is enculturated and acquired. To flourish, motivation needs supportive conditions A person’s motivation cannot be separated from the social context in which it is embedded. Recognizing the role that social contexts play in people’s motivation and well-being, motivation researchers seek to apply principles of motivation in ways that allow people’s motivation to flourish. Four areas of application are stressed: - Education - Work - Sports and exercise - Therapy When trying to motivate others, what is easy to do is rarely what is effective Everyone tends to have better success in motivation others when they put aside their directives and commands and instead work diligently to understand why the other person

currently does not want to do that particular task and instead ask the other for input and suggestions. There is nothing so practical as a good theory Theories provide a conceptual framework for interpreting behavioral observations, and they function as intellectual bridges to link motivational questions and problems to satisfying answers, solutions and applications.

Summary The journey to understand motivation and emotion begins by asking the perennial question, “What causes behavior?”. This general question invites the more specific questions that constitute the core problems to be solved in motivation study. The subject matter of motivation concerns those internal processes that give behavior its energy, direction, and persistence....