Motivation and emotion part 8 Flashcards
(26 cards)
Why Are Emotions Hard to Define?
From the first quote:
“Almost everyone thinks they know what an emotion is until they try to define it. At that point, no one claims to be able to understand it.”
(Wenger, Jones, & Jones, 1962, p. 3)
This highlights a central paradox: we feel emotions all the time, but when asked to define them precisely — scientifically — we struggle. It’s like trying to define what “music” is without using examples. You know it when you hear it, but breaking it down is tricky.
What Is an Emotion?
From the slides:
Emotions typically arise as reactions to important life events.
Once stimulated, emotions generate feelings, activate the body for action, generate motivational states, and produce recognizable facial expressions.
Let’s break that down like a machine with four parts. Imagine an emotional reaction is like an alarm system:
Sensor: Something happens — a life event (e.g., failing a test or seeing a snake). STIMULI
Signal: The brain interprets this and activates an emotion.
Action: You feel something, your body prepares to act, and you show it on your face.
Motivation: The emotion urges you to do something (run away, cry, fix something).
__________________________________
Emotions are short-term phenomena, related to feelings, stimulation, intention and expression, which help us adapt to the opportunities and challenges we face during significant life events.
This ties everything together. Emotions:
Happen quickly
Involve multiple body and mind systems
Help us survive and adapt
Think of an emotion as your personal survival assistant — constantly scanning your life and helping you respond fast.
What Is an Emotion? Continued
Emotions are multidimensional.
Think of emotions like a diamond with multiple facets. Each facet shows a different dimension of the same core experience:
- Subjective
Emotions are subjective feelings — they make us feel a particular way.
Analogy: Like wearing tinted glasses. Only you see the world through them — that’s your internal experience of sadness, anger, joy, etc.
- Social
Emotions are social phenomena. They send postural and vocal signals that communicate the intensity of our emotion to others.
Analogy: Like turning on a signal light in traffic — when you’re angry, sad, or scared, your body “signals” this to others through posture, tone of voice, and facial expressions.
- Biological
Emotions are biological reactions. Mobilizers that prepare the body to adapt.
Analogy: Like your car’s engine revving up when you press the gas — fear speeds up your heart, anger pumps adrenaline, etc., to get your body ready for action.
- Intentional
Emotions are intentional agents, much like hunger, which has a purpose.
Analogy: Just like hunger pushes you to find food, fear pushes you to escape, anger to defend, sadness to reflect or seek help.
what is meant by ““None of these dimensions adequately define the emotion.”?
🧠 The Core Idea:
This sentence means that while each dimension of emotion — subjective, social, biological, and intentional — captures part of what emotions are, no single one can fully define what an emotion is on its own.
Let’s go into each, using analogies.
🔹 1. Subjective (Feelings)
This dimension tells us how the emotion feels to us inside. For example, sadness feels heavy, joy feels light.
🧠 Why it’s not enough: You can feel something without showing it, acting on it, or even knowing why it happened. Subjective feelings alone don’t explain where the emotion came from, what it does to your body, or how others see it.
🧠 Analogy: It’s like describing a car only by how it feels to sit inside — warm, soft seats — but ignoring the engine, wheels, or destination.
🔹 2. Social
Emotions send signals to others — through facial expressions, voice tone, posture.
🧠 Why it’s not enough: You can express an emotion without actually feeling it (like faking a smile), or feel an emotion without showing it (like hiding fear). So this doesn’t capture the full internal or physiological story.
🧠 Analogy: Like judging a book by its cover — it might tell others something, but not everything inside is visible.
🔹 3. Biological
Emotions cause bodily reactions: heart rate changes, hormone release, etc.
🧠 Why it’s not enough: These reactions happen in many states, not just emotional ones. Your heart might race because you drank coffee, not because you’re afraid. Biology tells us the “how” but not always the “why.”
🧠 Analogy: Like describing music only by its sound waves — technically correct, but it misses the emotional meaning.
🔹 4. Intentional
Emotions are goal-directed — they happen about something, like being angry at someone or afraid of something.
🧠 Why it’s not enough: Not all goal-directed states are emotions. Hunger is goal-directed (find food) but isn’t an emotion. Intentionality explains purpose, not bodily activation or feelings.
🧠 Analogy: Like saying a knife is only about “cutting” — but forgetting its shape, material, or how it’s used.
🧬 Emotions Have Components
Let’s relate each component to one complete emotional event — imagine you’re embarrassed after tripping in public:
Subjective (Sentimental) Component
“The sentimental component has both meaning and personal importance.”
You feel humiliation and care deeply because it’s you who fell — not someone else.
Body Stimulation
“Involves physiological activation, body preparation for action and motor responses.”
Maybe your face flushes, heart races, you instinctively look around or try to cover up.
Intentional Component
“Guides actions to confront situations (goal-directed).”
You might try to fix it — laugh it off, or quickly leave — that’s the action tied to the emotion.
Social-Expressive Component
“Refers to how emotions are communicated through postures, gestures, and facial expressions.”
You might grimace, look down, or nervously smile — others see these cues.
📈 The SADNESS Model (Image Breakdown)
From your diagram, sadness is broken into:
Feelings: Aversive, distressing
Bodily responses: Low energy, slow heart rate
Purpose: Motivate action to fix or understand the failure/loss
Behavior: Crying, facial expressions
Neural Activation: Increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (involved in self-reflection, loss)
Everything is interlinked — feel → think → act → signal → reflect → repeat.
👁️🗨️ FEAR Model (Image Breakdown)
This diagram shows four branches around FEAR:
Feeling — Panic or dread
Bodily Response — Adrenaline, muscle tension
Purpose — Avoid danger
Behavior — Running, freezing, fighting
It’s a survival system in motion.
Relationship Between Emotion and Motivation
“Emotions act as motivators by energizing and directing behavior, similar to needs and cognitions.”
🔧 Analogy: Emotions as the Coach and Whistle of Behavior
Imagine you’re an athlete on a field:
Needs are like your hunger or thirst — they make you want to move.
Cognitions are your game plan — they decide how to move and where to go.
Emotions are your coach yelling from the sidelines and the whistle blown in your ear — they give you the energy, urgency, and direction to act right now.
Example:
“Anger channels your strength and energy to take action toward specific goals — like breaking through a barrier or standing up against unfair treatment.”
If someone treats you unfairly, anger doesn’t just make you feel bad — it physically prepares your body (faster heart rate, tensed muscles) to confront the situation. The goal of the emotion is to push you toward correcting the wrong.
_______________________________________
Emotions also act like a personal feedback system that constantly tells you how well things are going in your life.
🔧 Analogy: Emotions as Your Body’s Mood Thermometer
When you’re feeling joy, it’s like the thermometer showing a warm, sunny day — everything’s going well (like being included or achieving something).
When you’re feeling distress, it’s like the thermometer showing a storm warning — something’s wrong (like being rejected or failing).
This internal “weather report” helps you adjust your actions — stay the course, seek help, fight, or flee — depending on what your emotion is “reporting” back to you.
What Causes an Emotion?
This is the classic chicken-and-egg debate:
“Is emotion primarily a biological or cognitive phenomenon?”
Let’s break down the two camps:
🧬 Biological View (Slide with the crying baby):
“Emotions are something that happens to us and we act emotionally even before we are aware of that emotionality.”
🧠 Key Point: Emotions are innate, automatic, hardwired in the brain.
🔧 Analogy: Reflexes Before Thought
Think of jumping when you hear a sudden loud noise. You don’t think “that’s scary” — you just react.
💡 Emotional circuits like the amygdala can react to danger before the thinking brain (cortex) even catches up.
__________________
🧠 Cognitive View (Slide with the man, thought bubble, scared face):
“Individuals cannot respond emotionally unless they first cognitively evaluate the meaning and personal importance of an event.”
🧠 Key Point: Emotions depend on appraisal — how you interpret the situation.
🔧 Analogy: Judging Before Reacting
You see a dog → think “it’s friendly” = feel safe.
You see the same dog → think “it’s aggressive” = feel fear.
The emotion depends on what you think the situation means.
Which One Is Right: 🧬 Biological View or 🧠 Cognitive View?
Answer: Both.
🧩 Part 3: The Two Systems Perspective
“One of them is an innate, spontaneous, physiological system…
The second is a cognitive system based on experience.”
This theory solves the chicken-and-egg problem by saying:
Emotion has TWO parallel systems:
System: Biological
Type: Fast, automatic
Description: Based on evolution, survival instincts (e.g., subcortical pathways, like amygdala)
_________________________
System: Cognitive
Type: Slow, interpretive
Description: Based on individual learning and meaning (e.g., cortical pathways)
Plutchik’s Emotion Feedback Loop (1985)
Emotions aren’t just caused by thoughts (cognition) or instincts (biology) alone — they’re part of a continuous, interactive cycle that feeds back into itself.
Plutchik’s theory says that emotions unfold in stages, each one influencing the next:
A significant event happens
You think about it (cognition)
Your body reacts (arousal)
You begin to feel something
You get ready to act (preparation for action)
You show it (facial expression, voice, posture)
You do something (behavior)
🔁 Then that behavior loops back and changes what you think, feel, or do next — starting the process over again.
Key Point: Each part of the cycle (thoughts, body, feelings, actions) is both a cause and a result — they influence each other in a loop, not in a straight line.
What Ends an Emotion?
“Emotions arise as reactions to significant life events…”
They end when either:
🔹 1. The significant life event is removed
“For example, if seeing a needle at the doctor’s office induces fear, leaving the office and the needle behind can eliminate that fear.”
🔹 2. Coping behavior resolves the event
“Fear of a spider can be resolved by removing it.”
🔧 Analogy: Fire and Fire Extinguishers
Take away the flame (remove the cause) → the fire dies out.
Spray foam on the fire (cope actively) → also ends the fire.
Emotional episodes are situational and temporary — they end when the trigger is gone or when we’ve dealt with it.!!!!!!!!!
How many emotions are there?
It depends: Biological or Cognitive?
This question has no single correct answer. Why? Because it depends on the perspective you’re using to define emotions.
🧠 Biological vs. Cognitive Orientation on emotions
✳️ Biological orientation emphasizes emotions
This means it focuses on primary emotions—the most basic, built-in ones like anger, fear, etc.
It downplays secondary or acquired emotions, meaning it sees those as less central or important.
Imagine emotions like apps on your phone:
Primary emotions are like factory-installed apps—basic and universal.
Secondary emotions are like downloaded apps—shaped by your personal, social, and cultural “downloads.”
🧠 Cognitive orientation:
It recognizes the importance of primary emotions, but also says: “Wait! There’s more!”
It highlights that much of what is interesting about emotional experiences comes from individual, social and cultural experiences.
So where biology says “you’re born with it,” cognition says “you also learn it from life.”
So specificly 🧭 How many emotions are there?
“The answer varies depending on the perspective.”
From the biological perspective: there are about 2–10 basic emotions.
From the cognitive perspective: emotions form a broader emotional repertoire acquired through personal and cultural experiences.
🔹 The six common emotions are:
Fear, Anger, Sadness, Disgust, Joy, and Surprise.
Think of these six like primary colors—you can mix them (with life experiences) to get a whole rainbow of emotional shades.
🟰 Intermediate view (Ekman, 1994a):
“Each basic emotion is not a single emotion, but a family of related emotions.”
Analogy: Think of “anger” not as one emoji, but a whole family—irritated, annoyed, furious. They’re all “siblings” in the anger family.
🔹(Ekmann) So this bridges biology with cognition: the core emotion is innate, but the sub-emotions (in the same family) are influenced by context, culture, and learning. (combination of biological and cognitive)
Define 😱 Fear
Fear arises from the perception of a threat to well-being, whether psychological or physical, and the anticipation of harm.
Feeling of vulnerability = you don’t feel strong enough to face it.
Perception of lack of ability to confront the threat = you feel helpless.
So, fear is related to feeling overwhelmed by a threatening situation.
🔧 Analogy: Think of your brain as a house alarm. Fear is when the system senses a break-in—real or imagined—and starts blaring, even if it’s just a strong wind.
Define 😢 Sadness
Sadness arises from experiences of separation or failure, such as the loss of loved ones, exam failures, or rejections.
It can also come from being separated from valued places or statuses—like moving away from home.
Because the sensation is so aversive, sadness motivates the individual to initiate whatever behavior is necessary to avoid it happening again.
💡 Think of sadness as emotional pain—it’s like a bruise on your feelings. And just like a physical bruise, it teaches you to be careful to prevent future injury.
Define 😡 Anger
Anger arises from restriction, betrayal, rejection, or unwarranted criticism.
It boosts energy and a feeling of control.
It motivates you to fight against injustice.
It shows up verbally or non-verbally, directly or indirectly.
🧨 Analogy: Anger is like emotional fuel—it powers you up to break down barriers or defend yourself when you’re treated unfairly.
Define 🤢 Disgust
Disgust varies according to culture, and relates to contaminated, deteriorated, or rotten objects.
Babies: react mostly to bitter/sour.
Children: react to offensive objects.
Adults: react to poor hygiene, clotted blood, etc.
The function of disgust is rejection. It helps you actively discard what feels harmful—physically or mentally.
🧼 Disgust is like your brain’s garbage disposal—it filters out what feels toxic to your system.
Define 😊 Joy
Joy is linked to success and interpersonal interaction, opposite to sadness.
Makes us optimistic, socially active, and strengthens relationships.
It is social glue that promotes formation and strengthening of relationships over time.
☀️ Joy is like emotional sunshine—it energizes connection, motivates growth, and makes people want to be around each other.
🧠 Why don’t the emotions just go away and leave me alone?
Good question! Nobody wants to feel anxious, sad, or jealous.
But—emotions aren’t here to make us feel good. They exist because they do something useful.
🔬 Charles Darwin and the Origin of Emotional Function
Work on the utility or function of emotion began with Charles Darwin’s The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872).
That book argued that:
Emotions help animals adapt to their environment.
Darwin believed emotions are evolutionary tools, just like claws, wings, or camouflage.
Emotions are survival equipment.
Fear → Helps you escape danger.
Anger → Helps you confront threats.
Sadness → Signals loss; pulls in social support.
Joy → Strengthens bonds, reinforces good behavior.
So instead of thinking “emotions are annoying”, Darwin would say:
“Emotions are signals. They’re like warning lights on a dashboard.”
🛠️ Coping Function: Emotions Help You Handle Life
Emotions evolved to help animals survive and adapt to their changing physical and social environment.
Each emotion is related to behaviors that facilitate adaptation and fulfill fundamental life tasks.
This is your golden phrase for exams.
🧠 Analogy:
Think of each emotion like a tool in a Swiss army knife:
You wouldn’t use scissors to cut a tree, or a saw to write a letter.
Each emotion is specialized for a specific kind of problem.
What is the ❗ Big Conclusion on emotions?
“There are no such things as bad emotions.”
“Joy is not necessarily a good emotion, and anger and fear are not necessarily bad emotions.”
🔁 Why?
Because emotions are functional, not moral.
Joy could be harmful (e.g., feeling joy when others suffer = sadism).
Sadness could be helpful (e.g., helps process grief, signals you need support).
💭 Thought Prompt (Exam/Reflection Use):
Can you think of a case in which Joy would not be positive?
→ Example: Feeling joy when cheating on a test might reinforce unethical behavior.
Or where Sadness would not be negative?
→ Example: Sadness after losing a job might motivate someone to pursue a better path.
What is the 👥 Social Function of Emotions?
In addition to having a role in coping, emotions satisfy social functions
— (Izard, 1989; Keltner & Haidt, 1999; Manstead, 1991)
The 4 Social Functions of Emotions:
1. They communicate our feelings to others.
E.g., Your sad face tells your friend you need comfort.
- They influence the interaction of other people with us.
E.g., Anger makes others back off; joy draws others in. - They invite and facilitate social interaction.
E.g., Laughing invites others to laugh with you—shared bonding. - They create, maintain and dissolve relationships.
E.g., Guilt or shame may repair damage; contempt may break bonds.
🧠 Analogy:
Think of emotions like social “currency” or “body language vocabulary”:
We “spend” emotions to signal intent, needs, or feedback in social exchanges.
