Motivation and emotion part 12-13 Flashcards
(27 cards)
What Are Primary and Secondary Emotions?
Think of emotions like tools in a psychological toolbox:
Basic Emotions = The “universal” tools we all have from birth.
Self-Conscious Emotions = Tools that need a mirror — you need to reflect on yourself or others.
Cognitive Complex Emotions = The tools that involve abstract thinking, like imagining future regrets or injustices.
____________________________
🔹 BASIC EMOTIONS
✅ Key Emotions:
Fear, anger, disgust, contempt, sadness, joy, and interest
These are:
Relatively easy to understand — they’re ubiquitous experiences (everyone feels them).
Inherent — part of everyone’s emotional repertoire, no matter age, gender, culture, or historical time.
Have clear and identifiable antecedents (you can usually trace what caused them).
They cause reliable downstream behavioral, cognitive, and social effects.
📊 There’s also a table with motivational urges for each — like:
Fear → Flee
Anger → Confront / Right a wrong
Disgust → Reject / Avoid contamination
Joy → Engage socially
Guilt → Make amends
etc.
🔹 FEAR (BASIC EMOTION)
🧠 Fear arises when a person interprets a situation as dangerous and threatening to their well-being.
Let’s break this down intuitively:
Imagine walking in the woods and seeing a snake — your brain says: “Danger! You might get hurt!”
It’s triggered by physical or psychological threats (like snakes or angry faces).
The core is the perception of being unable to cope.
It’s not entirely automatic – if you feel prepared, fear decreases.
Main function: protection – drives us to flee or freeze.
It also motivates learning of adaptive responses (like not walking near snake areas again).
🔹 FEAR vs ANXIETY (Basic emotions)
Think of fear and anxiety like fire alarms:
Fear is like a smoke alarm that goes off when there’s an actual fire.
Tied to a clear and identifiable threat.
Motivates specific coping actions like fleeing or avoiding.
Anxiety is like an over-sensitive alarm — it goes off even if there’s just burnt toast.
Linked to vague or unknown threats.
Produces general arousal and tension without a clear direction.
🔥 Key highlighted line:
Fear is functional and aids coping; anxiety keeps us on alert but doesn’t always enhance coping effectiveness.
🔹 PHOBIAS - linked to fear (Basic emotions)
Phobias are intense, irrational fears (overreaction as the threat is in reality not that high but you anticipate as it is) linked to specific objects or situations.
Like software bugs that make the whole system freeze at one file.
They usually fall into 4 categories:
Interpersonal fears – fear of rejection, criticism, conflict.
(psychological) Fear of death/injury/illness – blood, surgery, dying (germs and cleaniness)
Animal phobias – spiders, snakes, insects.
Agoraphobic fears – crowds, small spaces, being alone.
🧬 These fears are evolutionary — they helped our ancestors survive.
🔹 ANGER (basic emotions)
Anger energizes action.
Think of anger like a charged battery — when used well, it powers change; when misused, it explodes.
It motivates people to remove obstacles, defend themselves, assert control.
Unlike fear (which avoids), anger is about confrontation (fight part of fight-or-flight).
Can increase status and respect, especially when calling out injustice.
Can have constructive social effects (e.g. civil rights).
But also dangerous – can lead to aggression, yelling, alienation.
Key to anger’s usefulness: emotional regulation – channel it into constructive, not destructive responses.
🔹 DISGUST (basic emotion)
Disgust: The oldest emotion
It evolved to protect from contamination (rotten food, waste, germs).
🎯 Nine validated domains of disgust triggers:
Spoiled food, bodily waste, animals, sexual behaviors, death, gore, poor hygiene, disreputable people, moral violations.
It develops with age:
Infants: react to bad taste.
Adults: react to germs, moral violations (e.g. cheating), and the contagion effect — “This cockroach touched it, so now it’s ALL bad.”
⚖️ Disgust becomes a moral emotion:
Used in moralization – to resist temptation or judge others.
People with high disgust sensitivity often have harsher moral judgments.
➡️ Despite being unpleasant, disgust motivates positive behavior (cleaning, avoiding harm).
🔹 CONTEMPT (not a basic emotion)
Like disgust’s social twin, contempt targets people rather than objects( but is distinct in its origin and expression).
💣 Core Trigger:
A sense of moral superiority over another (e.g., someone taking credit undeservedly)
😒 Facial expression: Unilateral lip raise (only one side of the lip goes up).
🧠 Function: Enforces social hierarchy – signals “I’m better than you.”
💔 Highly toxic in close relationships:
Especially marriages.
Contempt from a partner predicts divorce with high accuracy.
Key takeaway:
Its social function is clear: to assert, “I’m above you.”
🔹 SADNESS (basic emotion)
Far from being just “bad,” sadness has adaptive benefits.
🎯 Useful Functions:
Turns attention inward – lowers arousal, encourages reflection.
Motivates repair – making amends, apologizing.
Social cohesion – fear of sadness encourages people to stay close.
🚨 Risk: If sadness becomes too strong or lasts too long:
It can lead to withdrawal under hopeless circumstances and pave the way toward depression.
🔹 SADNESS vs DEPRESSION (basic emotion)
Here’s the difference:
Sadness has motivational and social benefits.
Depression is debilitating and isolating.
🧠 Trigger:
Rumination — repetitive negative thoughts over time, especially after permanent loss.
🎯 Consequences:
Impaired social support – depression pushes people away.
Destructive behaviors – self-harm, binging, etc.
Erosion of motivation – no energy for positive actions or change.
🔹 BASIC EMOTIONS: JOY
🎉 Joy is the emotional result of positive outcomes, like:
Success
Personal achievement
Receiving love or affection
Experiencing pleasure
Think of joy like a “social glue” and a “stress antidote.”
✅ Functions of Joy:
🌐 Social Bonding:
Facilitates relationships by fostering smiles and positive interactions.
Strengthens social connections (e.g., between lovers, coworkers, teammates).
→ Imagine joy like a warm light — it attracts people, smooths interaction, and builds trust.
🧘 Soothing Function:
Balances negative emotions, reduces stress, and protects mental health.
Acts as a buffer to distressing events, maintaining well-being.
→ Like emotional insulation — joy cushions the blow of life’s setbacks.
🔹 BASIC EMOTIONS: INTEREST
🎯 Interest is the most prevalent emotion in daily life — like a compass constantly adjusting toward new tasks or stimuli.
🔍 Definition:
Driven by novelty, complexity, and curiosity, it leads to:
Desire to explore
Investigate
Learn
✅ Characteristics:
Motivates exploration
Facilitates learning and environmental engagement
✅ Functions of Interest:
📘 Motivates Learning and Achievement:
Promotes engagement and persistence in tasks.
Leads to better retention and academic success.
→ Like mental “fuel” that keeps you studying, coding, or exploring.
🔄 Replenishes Personal Resources:
Unlike forced effort, interest replenishes motivation and cognitive resources.
→ Think of interest like a self-recharging battery — the more you’re interested, the less drained you feel.
🧠 Key line:
Interest is a vitalizing force that drives exploration, learning, and engagement while protecting against exhaustion.
🔸 SELF-CONSCIOUS EMOTIONS: OVERVIEW
Now we shift from “universal survival emotions” to self-evaluative emotions.
📌 Core Idea:
Shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride do not arise in response to clear and specific antecedents (like fear or joy do). Instead:
These emotions arise out of cognitive processes that revolve around the evaluation of the self (Lewis, 2008).
That is, you feel these when you reflect on yourself and how you think others see you.
🔹 SHAME (SELF-CONSCIOUS EMOTIONS)
Shame happens when you feel like you’ve broken an important rule — either a moral rule (like lying or hurting someone) or a competence rule (like messing up a public performance).
🔑 Think of it like accidentally dropping your entire tray in the cafeteria — not just embarrassing, but you feel like you are the failure, not just that you failed.
🔍 Key Characteristics
Shame feels like you’re not good enough as a person — you might feel small, exposed, or fundamentally flawed.
It brings:
Emotional pain (like a punch to your self-worth),
Withdrawal (you want to disappear or hide),
Rumination (mentally replaying your mistake),
Confusion (you don’t know how to fix it).
💬 It’s not “I made a mistake” — it’s “I am a mistake.”
🔁 Motivational Model
Shame works like an internal warning system: “You don’t match the standards you believe in.”
It pushes two main reactions:
Withdrawal: You hide to avoid judgment and protect your self-image.
Restoration (but only if the situation feels safe): You try to fix what’s broken about yourself.
🧠 That’s why:
The primary motivational response to shame is to withdraw or hide.
🧭 However…
Shame isn’t just about suffering. It’s a kind of moral compass that shows you where you need to grow.
It gives feedback about how well your actions match your values.
💡 In the long run…
Shame, though painful, can help you become a better version of yourself.
Even negative emotions like shame can have beneficial roles in emotional development and self-regulation.
It teaches you what not to do again and can motivate change, maturity, and responsibility — if handled in a supportive environment.
🔹 GUILT (SELF-CONSCIOUS EMOTIONS)
If shame whispers, “I’m a bad person,” guilt says,
“I did a bad thing — but I can fix it.”
🔑 Guilt targets your actions, not your identity. It doesn’t crush your self-worth — it just tells you a line was crossed.
💡 Key Traits
Guilt is less painful and more constructive than shame.
Instead of attacking who you are, guilt makes you rethink what you did.
It’s about your behavior, not your whole self.
Imagine accidentally hurting a friend’s feelings — guilt makes you want to apologize, not hide.
✅ Motivates Repair
Guilt pushes you toward prosocial behaviors — actions that help others and heal relationships.
Like:
Apologizing
Confessing a mistake
Trying to make things right
Seeing it from the other person’s perspective
That’s why:
Guilt is closely linked with empathy — it helps you feel how others were affected.
🧭 Moral Signal
Guilt is your brain’s way of saying:
“You’ve gone against your own moral code — fix it.”
It’s a moral emotion triggered when you violate your own values, even if nobody else notices.
🤝 Social Function
Unlike shame (which isolates), guilt brings people back together.
It helps:
Preserve trust
Restore connections
Promote fairness and responsibility
In short:
Guilt keeps society running smoothly by encouraging people to make amends and do better.
🔹 EMBARRASSMENT (SELF-CONSCIOUS EMOTIONS)
Embarrassment is like an emotional flinch — a sudden reaction when you feel your social image has taken a hit.
It happens when:
You think others see you as awkward, clumsy, or flawed, like when you trip, say the wrong name, or spill something.
😳 Trigger
What’s important is this:
The feeling of embarrassment is not triggered by the blunder itself, but by the anticipation of negative judgment from others.
In other words, it’s not the act — it’s imagining how others see you because of it.
🔁 Key Functions of Embarrassment
Embarrassment helps repair your social image and show others that you’re aware of the mistake.
It sends a message:
“I didn’t mean to mess up.”
“I care about what you think.”
“It won’t happen again.”
We often show this through:
Blushing
Looking away
Apologizing
Nervous laughing
Self-grooming (e.g., fixing hair)
🤝 Social Benefit
Even though it feels awkward, embarrassment is socially helpful.
Showing embarrassment can lead to more positive judgments from others.
It signals sincerity and humility, which can actually increase likability and restore social harmony.
🔹 PRIDE (SELF-CONSCIOUS EMOTIONS)
Pride is a positive self-conscious emotion — it arises when you evaluate yourself and think,
“I did something good. I deserve respect.”
It’s a way of saying to others:
“I’m worthy of acceptance and status.”
🧍♂️ How Pride Is Expressed
Pride has a universal body language — it literally makes you look bigger to show confidence and attract recognition:
Slight smile
Chest expansion
Head tilted back
Arms raised
🧠 This posture signals dominance and achievement — like a victory pose after winning a game.
✅ Two Types of Pride
⭐ Authentic Pride
This comes from something you did — success that you feel responsible for.
Internal, controllable attribution:
“I worked hard → I succeeded”
💪 Leads to:
Confidence
Leadership
Persistence
Helping others (e.g., volunteering)
→ This type of pride builds character and relationships. It’s earned and prosocial.
🚨 Hubristic Pride
This version of pride is inflated and less grounded in effort.
Internal, uncontrollable attribution:
“I’m the best → I succeeded”
⚠️ Leads to:
Arrogance
Narcissism
Manipulation
→ This pride feels superior, not confident — it creates distance, not connection.
🧠 Key Difference
The difference lies in how success is interpreted:
Authentic pride: “I earned this.”
Hubristic pride: “I’m better than everyone.”
Knowing which kind of pride someone feels shapes whether they act prosocially or antisocially.
🔁 INTERRELATIONS of (SELF-CONSCIOUS EMOTIONS)
Evaluation Type: Positive evaluation of a behavior
Leads To: Authentic Pride
Outcome: Motivation, productivity, self-esteem
________________________________
Evaluation Type: Negative evaluation of a behavior
Leads To: Guilt / Embarrassment
Outcome: Desire to correct, apologize, or improve
________________________________
Evaluation Type: Negative evaluation of the self
Leads To: Shame
Outcome: Withdrawal, emotional pain, desire to restore self-image
________________________________
What Are Cognitive Complex Emotions?
These are emotions that:
Are shaped by your thoughts, interpretations, and evaluations.
Involve awareness of the self and others.
Are not “basic” emotions like fear or joy—those are automatic. These are more like mental algebra involving other people.
😤 Envy (Cognitive Complex Emotions)
🔹 “Envy is a painful emotion that arises when someone perceives that another person has something better.”
It starts with social comparison: you see someone with something (status, looks, grades), and it creates discomfort.
It has two types:
Benign Envy = “moving-up” motivation
You feel inspired or motivated: “Wow, they’re so good—I want to work harder to reach that.”
Think of seeing a classmate do well and deciding to study harder—not to sabotage them, but to match them.
Malicious Envy = “pulling-down” motivation
You feel bitter and want to bring them down: “They don’t deserve this. I hope they fail.”
The focus is on undermining the other, not improving yourself.
⭐ Key distinction: the belief about the deservedness of the other’s position.
If you think they earned it, you’re more likely to feel benign envy. If you think they don’t deserve it, malicious envy kicks in.
🙏 Gratitude (Cognitive Complex Emotions)
“Gratitude is a positive emotion that arises when a person receives something valuable, such as help, assistance, or guidance.”
To feel gratitude, the help must be:
Voluntary
Costly to the giver
Intentional
So it’s not just someone doing their job—it’s someone going out of their way for you.
🔹 “It serves as a benefit detector.”
It helps you recognize who’s good to you and strengthens bonds.
But! Gratitude can sometimes turn into:
Indebtedness = feeling you owe something back. This is a negative emotion.
🔹 “A simple act of kindness […] can lead to either gratitude and relationship closeness or indebtedness and a feeling of obligation, depending on how the recipient interprets the action.”
If you see the person as caring: gratitude.
If you feel like you owe them and it’s a transaction: indebtedness.
Imagine a colleague buys you coffee:
If you think, “How nice!” → Gratitude
If you think, “Ugh, now I owe them one” → Indebtedness
🌟 Hope (Cognitive Complex Emotions)
🔹 “Hope arises with a wish that a desired goal might be attained.”
Hope is future-focused. It’s about imagining positive outcomes, like:
“I hope I pass the exam.”
“I hope I get into grad school.”
But it’s not just wishing—it’s goal-related.
🔹 “To experience hope during goal striving, however, one does need to see the seeds of progress.”
Hope requires:
Belief that progress is possible (even small steps!)
A motivational function → it keeps you focused, engaged, and counteracts doubt
and to act as a counterforce to negative feelings that are otherwise associated with doubt that the
desired future goal will ever materialize
So hope acts like a battery that powers you when you’re chasing something meaningful, especially in uncertain situations.
😈 Schadenfreude (Cognitive Complex Emotions)
🔹 “Schadenfreude is a German word that entails taking pleasure at the misfortune of others.”
This is a malicious pleasure. You don’t just see someone fail—you enjoy it.
🔹 “Schadenfreude typically arises when the other person is disliked […] deserving of the misfortune.”
Let’s go with the example:
A bride you dislike falls in the pool.
Normally, you’d feel bad for her.
But if you think she’s arrogant, mean, or careless, you might feel: “Ha! She got what she deserved.”
It’s tied to judgment—you think their fall was deserved.
😞 Disappointment and Regret (Cognitive Complex Emotions)
These are decision-related emotions—they arise after something goes wrong.
🔹 “Disappointment and regret are decision-related emotions that emerge when a desired outcome fails to materialize.”
Now the difference:
Disappointment = Powerlessness
You made the right choice, but the outcome failed.
“I applied to the best program, but they didn’t accept me.”
It’s like a bad dice roll. You had no control.
🔹 “Disappointment reflects a sense of powerlessness, with no strong feeling of personal responsibility.”
Regret = Personal Responsibility
You believe you could’ve done something differently.
“I didn’t study enough, so I failed.”
It’s more motivating because it points to a mistake you can learn from.
🔹 “Regret is more motivating, often pushing the person to make better choices in the future.”
So:
Disappointment = sadness without control.
Regret = sadness + a lesson.
