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Emotion and Motivation

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What is emotion? What is the relationship between emotion and motivation? Provide an example.

How do evolutionary history and personal history impact behavior? Provide an example.

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Solution Summary

By responding to the questions, this solution examines aspects of emotion and motivation. Examples are provided.

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RESPONSE:

1. What is emotion? What is the relationship between emotion and motivation? Provide an example.

"The word emotion includes a broad repertoire of perceptions, expressions of feelings and bodily changes." There is no consensus on the definition of emotion, but many proposed theories (http://library.thinkquest.org/26618/en-1.4.1=What%20are%20emotions.htm).

In a dictionary of psychology, Drever (1952) defines emotion this way:

Emotion: Differently described and explained by different psychologists, but all agree that it is a complex state of the organism, involving bodily changes of a widespread character-in breathing, pulse, gland secretion, etc. -and on the mental side, a state of excitement or perturbation, marked by strong feeling, and usually an impulse towards a definite form of behavior. If the emotion is intense there are some disturbances of the intellectual functions, a measure of dissociation and a tendency towards action of an ungraded or protopathic character. Beyond his description, would mean an entrance into the controversial world?(as cited in Hillman, 1999, p. 8).

This definition implies there is general agreement about the description of emotion as a complex state of an organism of varying intensity including:

a. widespread bodily changes,
b. a mental state of excitation or perturbation
c. strong feeling
d. an impulse (usually) towards a specific form of behavior (Hillman, 1999).

However, theoretically, there are differences in how to explain more exactly the description of this more complex state. This is perhaps why emotions are often discussed based on the proposed contradictory theories. However, there are some common themes that help to clarify the concept of emotion, including the following aspects of emotions:

1. Emotion is a feeling that is private and subjective. Humans can report an extraordinary range of states, which they can feel or experience. Some reports are accompanied by obvious signs of enjoyment or distress, but often these reports have no overt indicators. In many cases, the emotions we note in ourselves seem to be blends of different states.
2. Emotion is a state of psychological arousal an expression or display of distinctive somatic and autonomic responses. This emphasis suggests that emotional states can be defined by particular constellations of bodily responses. Specifically, these responses involve autonomously innervated visceral organs, like the heart or stomach. This second aspect of emotion allows us to examine emotions in both animals and human beings.
3. Emotions are actions commonly "deemed", such as defending or attacking in response to a threat. This aspect of emotion is especially relevant to Darwin's point of view of the functional roles of emotion. He said that emotions have an important survival role because they generated actions to dangerous situations (http://library.thinkquest.org/26618/en-1.4.1=What%20are%20emotions.htm).

In addition other researchers add two others aspects: motivational state and cognitive processing, as mentioned above.

Motivation and Emotion

For example, a motivational state is directly related to emotional states. If you are motivated to succeed, you perceive the situation and might feel satisfied and feel the physiological arousal associated with excitement.

Each theory of human behavior has an implied motivation for emotion and behavior. For example, based on instinct theory, sociobiology states that natural selection favors social behaviors that maximize reproductive success, so our emotions are aligned with this motivational state. Thus, the primary motivating force for living organisms (including humans) is to pass on our genes from one ...

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