Psychology Motivation and Emotion Terms

Instinct theory

Motivation results from the innate, biological unlearned responses found in

almost all members of a species

Drive Reduction Theory

Motivation satisfies needs; once the need is met, a state of balance is

restore

Arousal Theory

People are motivated to achieve and maintain an optimal level of interest and energy

Incentive Theory

The theory that motivation results from rewards and punishments

Cognitive Theory

The theory that motivation is affected by how we interpret or think about our own or others' actions

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs

The view that basic human motives are ordered or tiered; the lower biological motives must be met before advancing to higher mental needs

Homeostasis  

The body's tendency to maintain a relatively balanced and stable internal state - drive reduction returns us to this state

Sensation Seeking

the trait of people who go after novelty, complexity, and intense sensations, and who may take risks in the pursuit of such experience

Achievement Motivation

 The desire to excel, especially in competition with others

Ed Deci  

esigned experiments demonstrating that incentives (extrinsic motivation) can interfere with intrinsic motivation (love of a task) and performance

Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation for a task or activity based on rewards or threats of punishment

Intrinsic Motivation

Motivation for a task or activity based on internal, personal satisfaction

Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose

three elements of motivation advanced by Daniel Pink as more powerful motivators than incentives

Carol Dweck

discovered growth and fixed mindsets and how they affect our learning

Fixed Mindset

People believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are unchanging traits; they are less likely to improve, respond to feedback or enjoy others' success

Growth Mindset

believing we can get better through hard work and good strategies; this produces improvement

Emotional Intelligence

The capability of individuals to recognize their own emotions and those of others, discern between different feelings and label them appropriately, use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, and manage and/or adjust emotions to adapt to environments or achieve one's goals.

James-Lange Theory

A theory of emotion suggesting that the subjective experience of emotion results from physiological arousal, rather than being their cause in this view, each emotion is physiologically distinct

Facial Feedback Hypothesis

The hypothesis that movements of the facial muscles produce and/or intensify our subjective experience of emotion

Cannon-Bard Theory

 A theory proposing that emotions and physiological arousal occur simultaneously; in this view, all emotions are physiologically similar

Schachter's Two Factor Theory 

 theory that emotion depends upon two factors- physiological arousal and cognitive labeling of that arousal 

Plutchik’s Circle of Primary and Secondary Emotions

visualizes the spectrum of emotions and how they relate to each other

Positive Psychology 

  the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves

Martin Seligman

 promoter within the scientific community for the field of positive psychology; believes happiness is made up of 3 elements - pleasure, meaning and absorption.

Sonja Lyubomirsky

Suggests that a lot of a person's level of happiness is determined by genes and people tend to return to that level. She calls this concept the hedonic treadmill (we keep on moving to maintain a static level of happiness). Nevertheless, some happiness remains within one's control.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 

recognized and named the psychological concept of flow, a highly focused mental state associated with creativity and happiness

Dan Gilbert

Believes our expectations of what will make us happy (and what has made us happy) are often distorted by the ways the mind works.

Ed Diener

Studied happiness across cultures and discovered that wealth only mildly correlated with happiness. Social connection is strongly associated with happiness

Tal Ben-Shahar

theorizes that happiness is the result of balancing current and future satisfaction by focusing on process

Paul Ekman

A pioneer in the study of emotions and their relation to facial expressions. Discovered that 6 basic emotions are expressed the same everywhere.

Basic Emotions 

anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise - emotions that evolved and are expressed with the same expressions across the world

Display Rules

a social group or culture's informal norms about how to appropriately express emotions

Polygraph

An instrument that measures emotional arousal, which supposedly reflects lying versus truthfulness. In reality "lie detectors" aren't very reliable.

Micro-expressions

momentary expressions that can be used to detect deception

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Love

 Theory that different types of love are made up of combinations of intimacy, passion, and commitment

Intimacy 

Close familiarity or friendship; closeness.

Symmetry

factor of attraction - sides of face being close to the same (a reflection of health)

Golden Ratio 

 ratio of 1 to 1.618 that plays a role in human perception of beauty

Romantic Love  

 passion and intimacy

Companionate love

is a kind of bond that is characterized by a deep commitment to one another, such as in a long-term marriage where the passion has left but not the deep affection for one another

Consummate love 

combination of all three: intimacy, passion, and commitment

Attachment 

early connections to caregivers that create a pattern that may repeat in romantic relationships

Sexual Orientation 

who we are attracted to; research suggests that romantic relationships, norms and expectations for attraction are significantly less scripted for people who are LGBTQ+