PSY 3109: Motivation and Emotion (Modules 1–5)

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the core concepts, theories, and processes of motivation science across Modules 1 to 5 (Introduction, Physiological Needs, Psychological Needs, Extrinsic Motivation, and Goals).

Motivation

Any internal process that gives behaviour its energy, direction, and persistence.

Energy (in Motivation)

A dimension of motivation indicating that behaviour varies in its strength or intensity.

Direction (in Motivation)

A dimension of motivation indicating that behaviour has purpose and is aimed toward achieving a specific goal or outcome.

Persistence (in Motivation)

A dimension of motivation indicating that behaviour varies in its duration or endurance over time.

Need

Conditions within the individual that are essential and necessary for the maintenance of life and for the nurturance of growth and well-being.

Cognition

Mental events—such as thoughts, beliefs, expectations, goals, and self-concept—capable of energizing and directing behaviour.

Emotion

Short-lived feeling-arousal-purposive-expressive phenomena that help individuals adapt to the opportunities and challenges faced during important life events.

Distal Causes of Behaviour

Remote, indirect, or historical factors that influence behaviour from a distance in time (e.g., an inspiring third-grade teacher).

Proximal Causes of Behaviour

Immediate, direct, and situational factors close in time that trigger behaviour (e.g., seeing an open laptop and study notes).

Effort

A behavioural expression of motivation defined as the exertion put forth during a task, representing the percentage of total capacity used.

Latency

A behavioural expression of motivation defined as the duration of time a person waits to get started on a task upon first being given an opportunity to do so.

Choice

A behavioural expression of motivation occurring when a person is presented with two or more courses of action and prefers one over the other.

Probability of Response

The number or percentage of occasions that a person enacts a particular goal-directed response given the total number of opportunities to do so.

Facial Expressions (as Motivation Expression)

Movements of facial musculature—such as wrinkling the nose, raising the upper lip, and lowering the brow—that communicate underlying emotional and motivational states.

Bodily Gestures (as Motivation Expression)

Nonverbal physical movements—such as leaning forward, changing posture, and intentionally moving limbs—that reflect motivation.

Engagement

The intensity and emotional quality of an individual's active involvement in an activity, comprised of behavioural, emotional, cognitive, and agentic dimensions.

Agentic Engagement

The proactive aspect of engagement where a person contributes constructively to and modifies their learning environment for the better (e.g., by asking questions and expressing preferences).

Electrodermal Activity

A psychophysiological expression of motivation characterized by electrical changes on the skin's surface in response to significant or threatening events.

Opponent Process

A motivational mechanism where an initial emotional experience triggers an opposing physiological rebound (e.g., the euphoric 'runner's high' rebound following pain).

Physiological Need

A biological condition that regulates bodily well-being and corrects tissue deficits and imbalances that pose potential threats to growth, well-being, and life.

Drive Theory (Clark Hull, 1943)

A historical motivational framework proposing that physiological deprivations and deficits produce biological bodily needs, which give rise to psychological drive that energizes behaviour.

Psychological Drive

The conscious psychological discomfort (characterized by tension and restlessness) produced by an underlying biological deficit that energizes and directs corrective behaviour.

Need-Drive-Behaviour Cycle

A seven-step biological regulatory cycle: (1) Satiated state, (2) Gradual physiological deprivation, (3) Bodily need, (4) Drive emergence, (5) Goal-directed behaviour, (6) Consummatory behaviour, and (7) Drive reduction.

Homeostasis

The tendency of the body to maintain a steady, ideal internal state of equilibrium.

Negative Feedback (in Physiological Drive)

A physiological stop system that terminates consummatory behaviour once the body returns to homeostatic equilibrium, operating as an opponent process to drive.

Intraorganismic Mechanisms

All the internal biological regulatory systems—neural, hormonal, and physiological—that act in concert to activate, maintain, and terminate biological needs.

Extraorganismic Mechanisms

All the non-biological cognitive, environmental, social, and cultural influences that play a role in activating, maintaining, and terminating psychological drive.

Psychological Need

An inherent psychological nutrient that is critical to mental health, personal growth, optimal functioning, and overall well-being.

Criteria for Basic Psychological Needs

Five criteria defining a psychological need: psychological (not physical), essential (leads to growth vs. ill-being), inherent (evolved and adaptive), distinct (not derived from other needs), and universal (applies across cultures, personality, and SES).

Self-Determination Theory (SDT)

A macro-theory of motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2000) proposing that optimal functioning and intrinsic motivation depend upon the satisfaction of three innate psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Autonomy

The psychological need to experience self-direction, personal endorsement, and volition in the initiation and regulation of one's behaviour.

Autonomy Support

An interpersonal style that nurtures autonomy by taking the other's perspective, providing explanatory rationales, acknowledging negative affect, using invitational language, and displaying patience.

Reactance

An increased motivational desire to enact a restricted behaviour resulting from a perceived limitation or threat to one's behavioural freedom.

Competence

The psychological need to be effective in interactions with the environment and to seek out, master, and extend skills through optimal challenges.

Flow

A subjective state of deep absorption and optimal engagement occurring when there is a harmonious match between high personal skills and high activity challenge.

Structure (Competence Support)

The provision of clear expectations, optimal challenges, progress-enabling guidance, constructive feedback, and high failure tolerance to support an individual's competence.

Zone of Proximal Development

The developmental range of tasks that a learner cannot yet perform alone but can accomplish successfully with guidance and assistance from a more knowledgeable individual.

Scaffolding

The temporary instructional support and guidance given to a learner that is gradually diminished as their self-sufficiency and competence increase.

Cognitive Evaluation Theory

A sub-theory of SDT stating that external events affect intrinsic motivation via two functional aspects: a controlling aspect (affecting perceived autonomy) and an informational aspect (affecting perceived competence).

Self-Serving Attributional Bias

The tendency to claim credit for one's successes while attributing failures to external circumstances, hindering learning from mistakes.

Self-Handicapping

The proactive creation of obstacles or barriers to one's own performance prior to an evaluative task to provide an external excuse if failure occurs.

Relatedness

The psychological need to establish close, warm emotional bonds with others and to feel cared for, loved, and valued within social connections.

Communal Relationships

Social connections grounded in genuine care and concern for the other person's welfare without expecting immediate reciprocation or tracking benefits given.

Exchange Relationships

Social connections governed by transactional terms where benefits are given with the explicit expectation of receiving comparable benefits in return.

Dual-Process Model of Need Satisfaction and Frustration

A motivational model showing that supportive relationships yield need satisfaction and adaptive growth, whereas thwartive relationships yield need frustration, ill-being, and defensiveness.

Intrinsic Motivation

Motivation that arises from an inherent and spontaneous inclination toward interest, exploration, and environmental mastery, emerging from psychological need satisfaction.

Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation that arises from environmental incentives and consequences to perform a behaviour ('Do X, get Y').

Operant Conditioning Matrix (Reinforcers & Punishers)

A 2x2 behavioural contingency model classifying stimuli into positive reinforcement ($+\text{R}$), negative reinforcement ($-\text{R}$), positive punishment ($+\text{P}$), and negative punishment ($-\text{P}$).

Positive Reinforcer

Any environmental stimulus that, when presented following a behaviour, increases the future frequency or probability of that behaviour.

Negative Reinforcer

Any aversive environmental stimulus that, when removed following a behaviour, increases the future frequency or probability of that behaviour.

Positive Punisher

Any aversive environmental stimulus that, when presented following a behaviour, decreases the future frequency or probability of that behaviour.

Negative Punisher

Any desirable environmental stimulus that, when removed following a behaviour, decreases the future frequency or probability of that behaviour.

Amotivation

A non-regulated state characterized by the complete absence of intentional motivation, competence, or personal endorsement toward an activity.

External Regulation

The least self-determined type of extrinsic motivation, where behaviour is enacted solely to obtain an external reward, avoid punishment, or meet an external demand.

Introjected Regulation

A type of extrinsic motivation where behaviour is performed due to internal pressures—such as avoiding guilt or shame or seeking self-worth—following partial internalization of an external demand.

Identified Regulation

A mostly autonomous type of extrinsic motivation where behaviour is enacted because the individual consciously values the activity as personally important or useful.

Integrated Regulation

The most autonomous type of extrinsic motivation, occurring when an individual fully assimilates and synthesizes external regulations with their values and core sense of self.

Internalization

The process through which an individual transforms an externally prescribed rule, behaviour, or value into an internally endorsed one.

Integration

The developmental process of harmonizing and synthesizing newly internalized values and behaviours into an individual's coherent sense of self.

Discrepancy Reduction

A reactive, deficiency-overcoming negative feedback system where environmental feedback flags a mismatch between present and ideal states, underlying the planning process.

Discrepancy Creation

A proactive, growth-pursuing feed-forward system where a person looks forward and envisions a prospective ideal state that does not yet exist, enabling goal setting.

Goal

A future-focused cognitive representation of a desired end state that guides behaviour toward accomplishing that end state.

Goal Difficulty

The extent of effort and challenge required to attain a goal, directly energizing and sustaining behaviour in proportion to how hard it is.

Goal Specificity

How clearly a goal informs the performer of precisely what to do, reducing ambiguity in thought and variability in performance.

Goal Congruence (Self-Concordance)

The degree to which a goal is authentic and fully endorsed by the self, leveraging personal resources to sustain and energize goal striving.

Goal Hierarchy

A hierarchical goal structure that links a broad long-term goal to intermediate sub-goals and concrete, immediate short-term operational actions.

Performance-Approach Goal

An achievement goal focused on demonstrating superior competence, outperforming others, and achieving public success.

Performance-Avoidance Goal

An achievement goal focused on avoiding public failure, incompetence, or negative evaluative judgments from others.

Learning (Mastery) Goal

An achievement goal focused on developing competence, overcoming challenges through effort, and making progress using intrapersonal standards.

Goal Striving

The ongoing process of attaining an established goal through effort, persistence, focused attention, and strategic planning.

Mental Simulations

The cognitive practice of visualizing aspects of a goal in one's mind, which is significantly more effective when focused on the process (goal striving) rather than the outcome (goal content).

Implementation Intentions

An 'if-then' plan specifying in advance when, where, and how goal striving will occur by linking a situational cue ('if') to an instrumental response ('then').

Planning Fallacy

The cognitive tendency to underestimate the time and resources required to complete a future task, often amplified by self-serving attributional bias after failing to meet a goal.

Framework for Understanding Motivation

A sequential model linking antecedent conditions (environmental events, social contexts) to motive status (needs, cognitions, emotions), which energize, direct, and sustain outcomes (behaviour, engagement, psychophysiology, brain activity, self-report), ultimately producing changes in life outcomes.

Distinguishing Needs

The biological classification of deficits based on the specific direction of behaviour they prompt to correct an underlying physiological imbalance (e.g., thirst directs behaviour toward fluids, hunger toward nutrients).

Seven Regulatory Processes (Drive Theory)

The interconnected components governing biological regulation: bodily need, psychological drive, homeostasis, negative feedback, multiple inputs/outputs, intraorganismic mechanisms, and extraorganismic mechanisms.

Need Satisfaction

The experiential fulfillment of basic psychological nutrients through supportive social contexts, promoting autonomous engagement, personal growth, internalization, vitality, and optimal functioning.

Need Frustration

The experiential thwarting or undermining of basic psychological nutrients by restrictive environments, predicting maladaptive behaviour, ill functioning, passivity, and defensiveness.

Volitional Action

A core dimension of autonomy characterized by the unpressured, self-directed freedom to initiate and regulate one's own actions.

Self-Endorsement

A core dimension of autonomy where an individual experiences complete psychological ownership and authentic alignment with their chosen behaviours and pursuits.

Self-Concordance

The degree to which an individual's goals, decisions, and pursuits align authentically with their core values, personal interests, and authentic desires.

Paradox of Choice

The phenomenon where presenting an overwhelming number of options diminishes engagement and decision-making, showing that autonomy thrives when options are meaningful, unconstrained, and limited in number.

Learned Helplessness

A maladaptive psychological state resulting from repeated autonomy thwarting where an individual comes to expect that environmental outcomes occur completely independently of their behaviour.

Optimal Challenge

A task condition characterized by a balanced match between moderate-to-high environmental demands and high personal skill levels, maximizing absorption and the likelihood of flow.

Controlling Aspect (Cognitive Evaluation Theory)

The functional feature of an environmental incentive or feedback that impacts perceived autonomy; when experienced as external pressure to think, feel, or act, it undermines intrinsic motivation.

Informational Aspect (Cognitive Evaluation Theory)

The functional feature of external feedback that communicates effectiveness; when positive, it enhances perceived competence and strengthens intrinsic motivation.

Failure Tolerance

A supportive environmental climate that treats mistakes as natural, valuable learning opportunities rather than negative outcomes to be punished or avoided.

Constructive Value of Errors

The developmental utility of mistakes, which prompts individuals to identify causes and remedies, improve coping strategies, and recognize when to seek external guidance and support.

Responsive Interactions

Interpersonal communications that satisfy relatedness by communicating understanding (authenticity), validation (liking and acceptance), and caring (genuine concern for well-being).

Benefits of Relatedness Satisfaction

Positive psychological and developmental outcomes resulting from secure emotional bonds, including enhanced classroom engagement, reduced dropout rates, elevated stress resilience, and greater well-being.

Reactions to Relatedness Frustration

Maladaptive emotional and behavioural responses triggered by social rejection or exclusion, including hurt feelings, emotional numbness, cognitive impairment, and aggression.

Reinforcer

Any environmental stimulus or event that increases the future frequency, intensity, or probability of the preceding behaviour.

Punisher

Any environmental stimulus or event that decreases the future frequency, intensity, or probability of the preceding behaviour.

Effectiveness of Punishers

While capable of producing immediate behavioural compliance, these disciplinary consequences often generate unintended negative emotionality, damaged social relationships, and modeled aggression.

Effectiveness of Rewards

Extrinsic incentives that successfully promote compliance on uninteresting tasks, though they risk undermining intrinsic motivation unless delivered unpredictably and intangibly.

Value-Enhancing Strategies

Motivational approaches providing explanatory rationales and personal relevance to help individuals internalize and identify with uninteresting but important activities.

Interest-Enhancing Strategies

Techniques used on tedious tasks to spark situational engagement, such as introducing an extra source of stimulation or setting a challenging goal.

Discrepancy (in Motivation)

An uncomfortable psychological mismatch between a person's present state and an envisioned ideal state, serving as a cognitive spring to action.

Goal Proximity

The temporal distance of an objective—categorized into distal (long-term) or proximal (short-term)—which impacts persistence and intrinsic motivation through the availability of frequent feedback.

Achievement Goals

Targets adopted when facing a standard of excellence, dictating whether competence is evaluated interpersonally against peers or intrapersonally against self-improvement.