Psychology of Emotion: Motivation, Evolution, Culture, Appraisals, and Biology

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering theoretical models, evolutionary functions, cross-cultural aspects, cognitive appraisals, and neurobiological foundations of emotion and motivation.

Motivation

Energy that is directed toward achieving some goal, involving activation, intensity, and persistence.

Intrinsic Motivation

Motivation to engage in an activity that is done for its own sake, such as for pleasure or interest.

Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation to perform an activity driven by external pressures, demands, rewards, or punishments.

Self-Determination Theory

A motivational theory conceptualizing motivation not as a simple dichotomy, but as a continuum moving from non-self-determined behavior (external regulation) to self-determined behavior (intrinsic motivation).

Regulatory Focus Theory

E. Tory Higgins's theory stating that people pursue goals through two distinct motivational systems: a promotion focus and a prevention focus.

Promotion Focus

A motivational orientation focused on growth, advancement, accomplishments, and approach-oriented behaviors, naturally associated with pleasant feelings.

Prevention Focus

A motivational orientation focused on security, safety, responsibilities, and avoidance-oriented behaviors to prevent negative outcomes.

Features of Emotion

Core characteristics indicating that emotions are functional responses to stimuli that involve subjective experience, appraisal, physiological changes, changes in mental processes and behavior, and distinctive expressions.

Bodily Humors

Classical Greek and Roman conceptualization linking emotions, personality, and physical illness to bodily fluids.

Passions of the Soul

Renaissance and Enlightenment concept dividing emotional phenomena into primitive passions (e.g., love, joy, hatred) and nonprimitive blended passions (e.g., pride = love + joy) that move the soul to prepare the body for motion.

James-Lange Theory of Emotion

19th-century theory proposed by William James and Carl Lange asserting that emotion-provoking events elicit specific bodily changes, and the perception of those bodily changes constitutes the emotional feeling.

James' "Bear in the Woods" Example

William James's classic illustration showing that seeing a bear triggers physical preparation to run, and the perception of this bodily action is the feeling of fear.

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

Theory stating that emotion-provoking events simultaneously and independently elicit emotional cognitions, feelings, physiological arousal, and behavior.

Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory

A theory of emotion proposing that physiological arousal is general across emotions, requiring cognitive appraisal of the situation to label and determine the specific emotional feeling.

Misattribution of Arousal

The psychological phenomenon where individuals incorrectly identify the source or cause of their physiological arousal, using situational cues to interpret their emotional state.

Basic/Discrete Emotions Theory

The perspective that emotions are categorically distinct, evolved entities, each serving a specific adaptive function with innate universal nonverbal expressions and distinct physiological profiles.

Core Affect

A continuous neurophysiological state defined along the basic continuous dimensions of valence (pleasantness) and physiological arousal.

Circumplex Model of Affect

A dimensional model in which feelings are arranged on a two-dimensional circular space defined by axes of valence (pleasure-displeasure) and arousal (activation-deactivation).

Evaluative Space Model

A model proposing that emotions are mapped onto separate dimensions of positive activation and negative activation, permitting the experience of emotional ambivalence.

Component Process Model

Scherer's model positing that emotions are produced by continuous, all-purpose interpretations of the environment across multiple appraisal dimensions that dynamically alter cognition, physiology, and behavior.

Psychological Construction Theory

Barrett's theory positing that emotion categories are not innate, objective packages in nature, but learned concepts constructed from loosely correlated processes including core affect and cognitive categorization.

Comprehensiveness

A criterion of a good scientific theory defined by its ability to explain all established facts and empirical observations within its domain.

Heuristic Value

A criterion of a good theory referring to its capacity to stimulate new ideas and guide researchers toward novel discoveries and hypotheses.

Parsimony

A criterion of scientific theories stating that a model should require as few premises, assumptions, or explanatory constructs as necessary.

Instinct Theory of Motivation

An early evolutionary view proposing that human behavior is driven by innate biological instincts triggered by environmental cues, which elicit emotions and behaviors.

Drive Theory

Clark Hull's theory proposing that biological deprivations create an internal pool of energy (drive) that energizes habitual, previously rewarded behaviors to satisfy bodily needs.

Renovated Pyramid of Fundamental Motives

Kenrick et al.'s (2010) revised hierarchy of human motives that integrates evolutionary biology, placing parenting, mate retention, and mate acquisition atop physiological and social needs.

Natural Selection

The evolutionary process by which disadvantageous genetic mutations are removed from a population while beneficial mutations spread across generations.

Adaptation

A beneficial, gene-based characteristic that has become species-typical as a result of natural selection.

Adaptive Function

An evolutionary term indicating that a characteristic increases reproductive lifespan, offspring count, or the survival and reproduction of genetic relatives.

Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness (EEA)

The specific ancestral time and environmental conditions in which a particular adaptation was selected and spread through a population via natural selection.

Evolutionary By-Product

A neutral characteristic that emerges as an incidental side effect of a beneficial genetic adaptation without having been directly selected for.

Intrapersonal Functions of Emotion

Ways in which an emotional experience directly benefits the individual's own survival and reproductive fitness, such as fear motivating flight from a predator.

Interpersonal Functions of Emotion

Social functions of emotion that support committed, cooperative, and interdependent relationships essential for survival and passing on genes.

Affect Infusion Model

Forgas's (1995) theory stating that emotional feelings act as informative signals about environmental safety or problems, influencing information processing depth and mood-congruent cognition.

Dyadic Affect Infusion/Diffusion Model

Goldring and Bolger's (2021) model positing that one partner's emotional state influences how the other person interprets emotions and processes social information.

Superordinate Neural Programs

An evolutionary view that emotions are overarching coordination programs in the brain that activate relevant information-processing subprograms and inhibit others to resolve adaptive problems.

Phylogeny of Emotions

Randolph Nesse's (2004) evolutionary model proposing that modern emotions differentiated over time from primitive states of generalized arousal reacting to threat and opportunity.

Post Hoc Theorizing

The problematic scientific practice of fabricating an evolutionary explanation for an already observed phenomenon rather than using theory to predict novel phenomena in advance.

Culture

A unique meaning and information system, shared by a group and transmitted across generations, that allows the group to meet survival needs, pursue well-being, and derive meaning.

Power Distance

Hofstede's cultural dimension measuring the degree to which members of a society accept and expect unequal distributions of power and hierarchy.

Uncertainty Avoidance

Hofstede's cultural dimension indicating the extent to which a society feels threatened by ambiguous, unpredictable, or unknown situations.

Masculinity vs. Femininity

Hofstede's cultural dimension comparing societies that prioritize competition, wealth, and success with those that emphasize relationships, caring, and quality of life.

Long- vs. Short-Term Orientation

Hofstede's cultural dimension measuring whether a society focuses on delayed gratification of material, social, and emotional needs or values immediate fulfillment.

Indulgence vs. Restraint

Hofstede's cultural dimension contrasting cultures that permit relatively free gratification of desires to enjoy life with those that control gratification through strict social norms.

Individualism vs. Collectivism

Hofstede's cultural dimension contrasting cultures focused on the autonomous self and immediate family with cultures prioritizing cohesion and duties to an extended in-group.

Cultural Dialectics

Discrepancies, tensions, or competing perspectives existing between the differing values and norms held across distinct cultural reference groups.

Jodo

A Japanese emotion-related concept that encompasses states such as being considerate, motivated, and lucky in addition to basic affective states.

Semteende

A Fulani cultural concept that refers specifically to social situations in which people might feel embarrassment or shame, rather than denoting an internal feeling state alone.

Pe'a Pe'a

A Tahitian concept describing a state of being sick, fatigued, or troubled by physical causes, used in contexts where Western cultures identify sadness due to loss.

"Hollywood" Love Concept

Ann Swidler's identified romantic love concept characterized by sudden love at first sight, destiny, a unique soulmate ("the one"), and intense, flashy passion.

"Prosaic" Love Concept

Ann Swidler's identified romantic love concept describing affection that grows gradually over time based on compatibility, shared effort, and lasting commitment.

Litost

A Czech emotion term defined as a state of torment and grief caused by a sudden, devastating insight into one's own miserable self.

Schadenfreude

A German emotion concept describing the feeling of pleasure, satisfaction, or enjoyment derived from witnessing another person's misfortune.

Amae

A Japanese emotion term signifying a pleasurable dependence on another person, characterized by the comfort of behaving childishly and being indulged.

Liget

An Ilongot emotion concept combining anger, passion, and vital energy, experienced during states of insult, frustration, envy, or competitive pride.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (Strong Version)

The linguistic determinism proposition that language strictly determines thought, meaning people cannot experience emotions for which their language lacks words.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (Weak Version)

The linguistic relativity proposition that language shapes and influences emotional experience, making lexicalized emotions easier to recognize and express.

Colexification

The linguistic phenomenon where multiple distinct semantic concepts expressed by different words in one language are represented by a single word in another language.

Lajya

An Odia word that colexifies the concepts of shame (arising from moral failure) and embarrassment (arising from awkward public attention) under a single term.

Hypercognized Emotions

Emotion categories for which a culture possesses an elaborate network of concepts, rich vocabulary, and extensive social distinctions.

Hypocognized Emotions

Emotion categories for which a culture and language have little cognitive elaboration, minimal cultural attention, and limited vocabulary.

Vertical Society

A society that attends closely to status hierarchy, expecting and encouraging emotions and behaviors that acknowledge and respect differences in social rank.

Horizontal Society

A society that minimizes attention to status differences, seldom acknowledging rank differences publicly and encouraging egalitarian norms.

Linear Epistemology

An Aristotelian philosophical orientation assuming that knowing something means understanding what is constant, unchanging, clear-cut, and distinct about it.

Dialectical Epistemology

An East Asian epistemological tradition emphasizing that reality is holistic, constantly changing, interrelated, and capable of containing opposing truths simultaneously.

Neurocultural Theory of Emotion

Paul Ekman's model proposing that basic emotions possess innate, universal facial affect programs, but are moderated by culturally learned display rules.

Cultural Display Rules

Culturally prescribed norms that regulate the management and modification of emotional expressions, specifying whether to intensify, deintensify, neutralize, or mask them.

Emotional Labor

The occupational requirement to display specific organizationally mandated emotional expressions (e.g., constant positivity in customer service), which can cause psychological stress.

Emotion Scripts

James Russell's concept of culturally learned cognitive schemas detailing what events, appraisals, feelings, and behaviors typically co-occur in an emotion episode.

Levels of Analysis in Emotion

Keltner and Haidt's framework proposing that emotional functions are more universal at intra-individual and dyadic levels, and more culturally variable at small group and cultural levels.

Cognitive Appraisal (Arnold)

Magda Arnold's assertion that cognitive evaluation of a situation is the defining feature, immediate cause, and initiating mechanism of emotional experience.

Core Relational Themes Approach

Richard Lazarus's model proposing that each discrete emotion is elicited by an appraisal of a prototypical, universal transaction with the environment.

Appraisal Dimension Approach

Klaus Scherer's approach proposing that emotional experiences are generated by continuous evaluations across specific universal questions such as certainty, control, and goal conduciveness.

Primary Appraisal

The evaluation of an event regarding its relevance to an individual's personal goals, values, well-being, and ego-involvement.

Secondary Appraisal

The evaluation of an individual's coping resources, perceived control, agency, and capacity to handle an emotional encounter.

Core Relational Theme of Anger

In Lazarus's model, the cognitive appraisal of experiencing a demeaning offense against oneself or one's group.

Core Relational Theme of Fear

In Lazarus's model, the cognitive appraisal of facing an immediate, concrete, and overwhelming physical danger.

Core Relational Theme of Guilt

In Lazarus's model, the cognitive appraisal of having transgressed a personal moral or ethical imperative.

Core Relational Theme of Sadness

In Lazarus's model, the cognitive appraisal of experiencing an irrevocable, permanent loss.

Core Relational Theme of Disgust

In Lazarus's model, the cognitive appraisal of being exposed to or ingesting an indigestible, contaminating object or offensive idea.

Core Relational Theme of Happiness

In Lazarus's model, the cognitive appraisal of making demonstrable progress toward achieving an important personal goal.

Core Relational Theme of Pride

In Lazarus's model, the cognitive appraisal of taking personal credit for a valued object, achievement, or social standing.

Core Relational Theme of Hope

In Lazarus's model, the cognitive appraisal of fearing the worst while simultaneously yearning for a better outcome.

Core Relational Theme of Anxiety

In Lazarus's model, the cognitive appraisal of facing an uncertain, ambiguous, and existential threat.

Facial Action Coding System (FACS)

An anatomically based coding system developed by Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen that uses numeric Action Units to classify facial appearance changes caused by each muscle movement.

Facial Expression Dialects

Subtle, culture-specific variations in facial muscle movements during emotional expressions that lead to higher emotion recognition accuracy among ingroup members.

Posture in Intense Emotion Recognition

Aviezer et al.'s finding that when identifying the positive or negative valence of intense emotional reactions, bodily posture cues reliably discriminate valence while facial expressions become ambiguous.

Pride Nonverbal Display

A recognized dominance display comprising postural expansion, head lift, and arms placed akimbo or raised, reliably recognized across Western and isolated traditional cultures.

Event-Related Potentials (ERPs)

Rapid electrical voltage deflections extracted from EEG recordings that correspond precisely in time to sensory, cognitive, or emotional processing events.

Error-Related Negativity (ERN)

An ERP component occurring approximately 100 milliseconds after an individual commits an error in a task, which is heightened in anxious and worry-prone individuals.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

A neuroimaging method detecting changes in oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin to infer localized neuronal activity with high spatial resolution.

Reverse Inference

The logical error of concluding that a specific psychological state occurred merely because a brain area known to activate during that state showed increased activation.

Klüver-Bucy Syndrome

A syndrome resulting from bilateral anterior temporal lobe and amygdala removal, characterized by loss of normal fear responses, hyperorality, and inappropriate social approaches.

Urbach-Wiethe Disease

A rare genetic condition causing bilateral calcification damage to the amygdalae, resulting in an absence of fear toward dangerous stimuli, though panic can still be triggered by suffocation.

Emotional Facilitation of Memory

The psychological phenomenon whereby emotion-eliciting stimuli are remembered with greater accuracy and vividness than neutral stimuli, mediated by amygdala-hippocampus interactions.

Hypothalamus

A brain structure located below the thalamus that functions as the body's homeostatic regulator, controlling the autonomic nervous system and neuroendocrine stress axes.

Nucleus Accumbens and VTA

Key dopaminergic structures in the brain's mesolimbic pathway that support reward anticipation, incentive learning, and approach behavior.

Insula

A cortical fold located between the temporal and parietal lobes that processes interoception (visceral bodily sensations) and plays a prominent role in feeling states and disgust.

Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)

Anterior cortical region mediating executive function, decision-making, and impulse control, which downregulates amygdala reactivity during cognitive reappraisal.