The History of Motivation and Emotion

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The History of Motivation and Emotion

• Chapter 2

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I. Brief History of Motivation

• A. Aristotles Theory
• Causes of behavior efficient (trigger), final
  (purpose), formal (theory), and material (brain)
• B. Hedonism
• Pursue pleasure and avoid pain
• 1. Ancient Sources
• Socrates, Democritus, and Epicurus pleasure is
  to exceed pain in the long run.

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I. Brief History of Motivation

• 2. Later philosophers
• Hobbes on incentive motivation approach
  pleasing, avoid displeasings timuli.
• Locke on choice small immediate versus large
  delayed reward.
• Bentham on principle of utility
  increase/decrease in pleasure determines
  behavior.

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I. Brief History of Motivation

• 3. Sigmund Freud
• Pleasure principle pursue pleasure by sudden
  decrease in tension
• Reality principle circumstances determine when
  to attain pleasure.
• 4. Edward Lee Thorndike
• Law of effect satisfying consequences strengthen
  behavior dissatisfying consequences weaken
  behavior.

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I. Brief History of Motivation

• 5. Law of Effect Today
• Consequences refer to observables rather than to
  subjective states.
• 6. Current Trends
• Self control choose delayed rewards.
• Impulsiveness choose immediate reward.

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C. Evolution and Motivation

• 1. Charles Darwin
• Theory of evolution is based on variation and
  selection.
• Principle of variation values of a particular
  trait vary in frequency.
• Principle of selection environment selects
  values that aid survival.
• 2. Herbert Spencer
• Pleasure selects for behaviors that aid survival.
• Pain selects against behaviors that are
  detrimental to survival.
• 3. Instincts
• Inherited impulses that produce specific pattern
  of behavior.
• 4. Current Trends
• Smiles and laughs from play help child master
  social environment.

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D. Unconscious Motivation

• 1. Freuds Conscious-Unconscious Distinction
• Preconscious small room containing thought,
  feelings, sensations.
• Unconscious large room containing repressed
  impulses, instincts.
• Repression censor prevents impulses from
  entering small room.
• Consciousness impulses attract eye of
  consciousness in small room.
• 2. Motivational Instincts and the Unconscious
• Instincts originate in the body and exert
  pressure with the aim of being satisfied through
  interaction with an object.
• Three main Freudian instincts sex, death, and
  ego preservation.
• 3. Satisfying Unconscious Impulses
• Through jokes and through manifest and latent
  dream content.

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D. Unconscious Motivation

• 4. Current Trends
• Automatic processes behaviors carried out with
  little awareness.

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E. Internal Sources of Motivation

• 1. Drive concept
• Mechanism Woodworth's idea of how we do
  something.
• Drive stimulus that induced behavior and keeps
  it going.
• 2. Psychological Needs
• Inherent characteristic that indicates a
  psychological deficit.
• Primary or viscerogenic Murray's physiological
  needs.
• Secondary or psychogenic Murray's 22
  psychological needs.
• 3. Current Trends
• More needs postulated, which may be
  hierarchically arranged.

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F. Commonality among Instincts, Drives, and Needs

• All refer to internal sources of motivation that
  demand satisfaction.

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G. Environmental Sources of Motivation

• Incentives stimuli that attract or repel an
  individual.
• Tolman Honzik experiment reward decreases,
  nonreward increases maze errors.

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H. Environmental and Internal Sources Induce
Behavior

• Motivation depends on internal and external
  sources
• 1. Wardens Incentive-Drive Link
• Incentive (water) links with drive (thirst) to
  motivate behavior.
• Increased drive increases electrified grid
  crossings.
• Delayed incentive decreases electrified grid
  crossings.
• 2. Lewins Field Theory
• Psychological force motivation depends on
  valence of objects in life space, psychological
  tension, and psychological distance.

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II. Brief History of Emotion

• Historically, description of emotion shifted from
  outward to inward movement.
• A. Emotion as Subjective Feeling
• Personal feelings of affect that arise in
  consciousness
• B. Basic Emotions
• Early Greeks to Descartes to James considered
  basic emotions.
• Cognitive interpretations of stimulus changes
  determine emotions.
• C. Emotion as Impulses for Action and Thought
• Action readiness impulse to action of
  emotion-relevant behavior.
• Motor explosion nonadaptive response, e.g., jump
  for joy.
• D. Physiological Arousal
• It serves as the basis for feelings and action
  readiness for emotions.
• E. Facial Expression
• As indicator of emotional feelings.
• As signals used to satisfy social motives.
• Facial feedback hypothesis pattern of facial
  muscles is informational
• basis for emotional feelings.