Chapter 10 | Emotion and Motivation

Question 1

Emotion (Affect)

Answer 1

An immediate, specific negative or positive response to environmental events or internal thoughts.

Typically have a triggering event & prompt changes in thought and behavior.

Three components -
- Physiological response (heart beating fast, sweating)
- Behavioral response (eyes/mouth opening wide)
- Bodily states based on feelings

Involves the activation of the autonomic nervous system to prepare the body to meet environmental challenges.

Question 2

Feeling

Answer 2

The subjective experience of the emotion (being scared) but not the emotion itself.

Question 3

Mood

Answer 3

Diffuse, long-lasting emotional states that do not have an identifiable trigger or a specific behavioral and physiological response.

Refers to people’s vague senses that they feel certain ways.

Question 4

Feeling V. Mood

Answer 4

Getting cut off in traffic can make a person angry (emotion), but for no apparent reason, a person can be irritable (mood).

Question 5

Primary emotions

Answer 5

Innate, evolutionary adaptive, and universal emotions.

Examples - anger, fear, sadness, disgust, happiness, surprise, contempt

Question 6

Secondary emotions

Answer 6

Blends of primary emotions, feelings about emotions, or emotions that relate to culturally specific values or concepts.

Examples - remorse, guilt, shames, jealousy, pride, love, contentment

Question 7

Circumplex model

Answer 7

One system in which emotion is classified.

Emotions are plotted along two continuums - valence (how negative or positive they are) & arousal (how activating they are).

Question 8

Arousal

Answer 8

Generic term used to describe physiological activation (increased brain activity) or increased autonomic responses (quickened heart rate, increased sweating or muscle tension).

Question 9

Valence V. Arousal

Answer 9

Examples -

1. You lost a $1 bill in your pocket. This makes you unhappy, so you will judge it to have negative valence. Might make you slightly aroused.
2. You find a million dollar lottery ticket. This makes you very happy, so you will judge it to have positive valence. Your arousal will probably skyrocket.

Question 10

Limbic System

Answer 10

(1937) Neuroanatomist James Papez proposed that many subcortical brain regions are involved in emotions.

(1952) Physician/Neuroscientist Paul MacLean expanded the list of regions and called it the limbic system.

Many limbic structures are not central to emotion & many brain structures outside are involved in emotion.

Used in a rough, descriptive way rather than as a means of directly linking brain areas to specific emotional functions.

Question 11

Insula

Answer 11

Receives and integrates somatosensory signals from the entire body.

Involved in the subjective awareness of bodily states, such as sensing your heartbeat, feeling hungry, or needing to urinate.

Particularly active when people experience disgust or observe facial expressions of disgust in other people.

Activated in emotions including anger, guilt, and anxiety.

Question 12

Amygdala

Answer 12

Processes the emotional significance of stimuli and generates immediate emotional and behavioral reactions.

(Joseph LeDoux) The processing of emotion in the amygdala involves a circuit that has developed over the course of evolution to protect animals from danger. Most important brain structure for emotional learning.

People with amygdala damage do not develop conditioned fear responses to objects associated with danger.

Question 13

How information reaches the amygdala

Answer 13

1. “Quick and Dirty” System - processes sensory information nearly instantaneously. Travels quickly through the thalamus directly to the amygdala for priority processing.
2. The Slower Path (More deliberate & more thorough evaluations) - sensory material travels from the thalamus to the cortex. Information is scrutinized in greater depth before it is passed along to the amygdala.

Fast system prepares animals to respond to a threat in case the slower pathway confirms the threat.

Example - You shied away from a blurry movement in the grass only to realize it was the wind and not a snake.

Question 14

What is the amygdala involved in?

Answer 14

Emotional events stored in memory.

The perception of social stimuli.

Emotional content of facial expression.

Question 15

Polygraph (Lie Detectors)

Answer 15

An electronic instrument that assesses the body’s physiological response to questions.

Records numerous aspects of arousal, such as breathing rate and heart rate.

Used to determine a person’s level of emotionality (autonomic arousal) when confronted with certain information.

Example - Lying is stressful for most people, so autonomic arousal should be higher when people are lying than when they are telling the truth.

Question 16

How is the polygraph flawed?

Answer 16

Physiological arousal is not specific to lying. People may become nervous because the procedure is new and scary or they’re upset because someone thinks they’re guilty when they’re innocent.

The polygraph cannot tell whether or not a response is due to lying, nervousness, or anything else.

They are easy to cheat by counting backward by sevens or pressing your feet to the floor during critical questions.

Interviewer must rely on their judgement whether or not the arousal indicates deception. Judgement is influenced by the investigator’s preexisting beliefs.

Question 17

James-Lange Theory

Answer 17

A theory of emotion stating that people perceive specific patterns of bodily responses and as a result of that perception feel emotions.

Question 18

Cannon-Bard Theory

Answer 18

A theory of emotion stating that information about emotional stimuli is sent simultaneously to the cortex and the body and results in emotional experience and bodily reactions, respectively.

Question 19

Schachter-Singer Two-factor Theory

Answer 19

A theory of emotion stating that the label applied to physiological arousal results in the experience of an emotion.

Question 20

Misattribution of Arousal

Answer 20

When people misidentify the source of their arousal

Question 21

Strategies to regulate emotions

Answer 21

Suppression - people do not respond to the emotional stimulus

Rumination - thinking about, elaborating on, and becoming stuck in a cycle of undesired thoughts or feelings

Suppression & Rumination are unhelpful.

Reappraising - reminding yourself that such events are “just (neutral term)”

Self-distracting - creating a mental distance between yourself and the emotional stimulus

Humor - beneficial to short-term and long-term health

Refocus your attention - focus on something less emotional or on your own physical sensations

Distract yourself - doing something other than the troubling activity or thinking about something not stressful

Question 22

The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) - Chales Darwin

Answer 22

Argues that expressive aspects of emotion are adaptive because they communicate feelings.

Question 23

Display rules

Answer 23

Rules learned through socialization that dictate which emotions are suitable in given situations

Question 24

Ideal affect

Answer 24

Emotional and affective states that people want to feel or that cultures especially value.

Question 25

Motivation

Answer 25

A process that energizes, guides, and maintains behavior toward a goal

Question 26

Need

Answer 26

A state of biological, social, or psychological deficiency.

Question 27

Need hierarchy

Answer 27

(1940s) Abraham Maslow proposed an influential “need theory” of motivation. He believed that people are driven by many needs, which are arranged into a need hierarchy.

Basic survival needs must be met before people can satisfy higher needs.

Hunger / Dehydration > Achievement

Question 28

Self-actualization

Answer 28

A state that is achieved when one’s personal dreams and aspirations have been attained.

Question 29

Homeostasis

Answer 29

The tendency for bodily functions to maintain equilibrium.

Question 30

Yerkes-Dodson Law

Answer 30

The psychological principle that performance on challenging tasks increases with arousal up to a moderate level. After that, additional arousal impairs performance.

Question 31

Incentives

Answer 31

External objects or external goals, rather than internal drives, that motivate behaviors.

Question 32

Extrinsic motivation

Answer 32

Motivation to perform an activity because of the external goals toward which that activity is directed.

Example - doing an activity because it makes you money.

Question 33

Intrinsic motivation

Answer 33

Motivation to perform an activity because of the value or pleasure associated with that activity, rather than for an apparent external goal or purpose.

Example - doing an activity because it is enjoyable.

Question 34

Pleasure Principle

Answer 34

Sigmund Freud proposed that people are encourages to seek pleasure and avoid pain.

Question 35

Hedonism

Answer 35

Human’s desire for pleasantness and avoidance of unpleasantness.

Pleasure motivating behavior helps to understand a criticism of biological drive theories.

If biological drives explain all behaviors, why do animals engage in behaviors that do not necessarily satisfy biological needs?

Question 36

Challenging goals

Answer 36

Edwin Locke and Gary Latham (1990) developed a theory challenging and specifying goals that are the best, if they are not difficult. Challenging goals encourages effort, persistence, and concentration. Goals that are too easy or too hard can undermine motivation and lead to failure.

Question 37

SMART

Answer 37

Describes goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time bound (Doran 1981).

Clearly defined so the person pursuing the goal knows when it has been achieved. Helps people divide large projects into smaller chunks and ensure clear feedback ont heir progress.

Question 38

Self-efficacy

Answer 38

The belief that efforts toward a goal will result in success.

Question 39

Achievement motive

Answer 39

The desire to do well relative to standards of excellence. Student high in achievement motivation sit closer to the front of the classrooms, score higher on exams, and obtain better grades in courses relative to their career goals.

Question 40

Self-regulation

Answer 40

The process by which people direct their behavior toward the attainment of goals.

Question 41

Need to Belong

Answer 41

Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary (1995) hypothesized that humans have a fundamental motive to make and maintain interpersonal attachments that has evolved for adaptive purposes.

Question 42

Balance theory

Answer 42

The idea that people are motivated to achieve harmony in their interpersonal relationships. A triad is balanced when the relationships are all the same direction or if two relationships are negative and one is positive.

Question 43

Cognitive dissonance

Answer 43

The unpleasant feeling of being aware of holding two conflicting beliefs or a belief that conflicts with a behavior.

Question 44

Self-affirmation

Answer 44

A need for a sense of self that is coherent and stable.

Question 45

Core values

Answer 45

Strongly held beliefs about the enduring principles that are most important and meaningful. Values promote emotions and actions when they are aroused or threatened.