Motivation and Emotion

Motivation

A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior.

Drive Reduction Theory

The idea that a physiological need creates an aroused state (a drive) that motivates us to satisfy the need.

Physiological Need

A basic bodily requirement.

Homeostasis

A tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level.

Incentive

A positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates (or pulls) behavior.

Yerkes-Dodson law

The principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a “just right” or moderate point, beyond which performance decreases.

Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s levels of human needs, beginning with physiological needs. Often visualized as a pyramid, with basic needs providing the foundation supporting higher-level needs.

Glucose

The form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues. When its level is low, we feel hunger.

basal metabolic rate

The body's resting rate of energy output.

Set Point

The point at which the “weight thermostat” may be set. When the body falls below this weight, increased hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may combine to restore lost weight.

Settling Point

The level at which a person's weight settles in response to caloric intake and energy use; influenced by both environment and biology.

Obesity

Defined as a body mass index (BMI) measurement of 30 or higher, which is calculated from our weight-to-height ratio. (BMI provides general anchors and does not apply to all people equally.)

Need to Belong

The need to build and maintain relationships and to feel connected to a group.

Self-Determination Theory

The theory that we feel motivated to satisfy our needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness.

ostracism

Deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups.

achievement motivation

The desire for significant accomplishment, for a command of skills or ideas, for control, and for attaining a high standard.

Grit

In psychology, passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals.

Intrinsic Motivation

The desire to perform a behavior well for its own sake

extrinsic motivation

The desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment.

Emotion

A response of the whole person, involving (1) bodily arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and, most importantly, (3) conscious experience resulting from one’s interpretations.

James-Lange theory

The theory that our experience of emotion occurs when we become aware of our physiological responses to an emotion-arousing stimulus.

Cannon-Bard theory

The theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion.

Two-Factory Theory

Schachter and Singer’s theory that to experience emotion we must (1) be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal.

polygraph

A machine often used in attempts to detect lies; it actually measures emotion-linked changes in perspiration, heart rate, and breathing, which are not always tied to lying.

facial feedback effect

The tendency of facial muscle activation, alone, to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness.