Emotions and Motivations in Life
Emotion is a complex state of feeling that come as a result of physical and physiological balances that influence thoughts and behavior. It is associated with phenomenon which include temperaments, personality, moods and motivations. Therefore, David G. Myers says that human emotions involves physiological arousal, expressive behaviour, and conscious expression. On the other hand motivation is a state of mind that display energy and enthusiasm which drives a person to work in a particular way to meet the desired goals. It is known to a force that pushes one to work in an extreme level and maintain focus even if the situation is not favorable. (Garske, & Arkes, 1982) Therefore it translate into a particular type of behavior, which may be conditioned or unconditioned. The behavior of humans and animals are governed by principles that are governed by theories that support why emotion and motivation exist. As a matter of fact the two aspects co-exist.
The principals that govern human and animal behavior are favorable environment, incentives which are mainly external, internal motivation, willingness to get involved in a particular action. All this principle are dependent on the theories that support how people are affected by action, respond to stimulus and processes the feedback after responding to the stimulus. In this case I will discuss the principle one by one and illustrate how it impact my life.
Behaviour is significantly a product of its immediate surrounding environment. A place where someone or an animal resides in mainly influence how they behave. If the environment change the environment the behavior will change. This principle is supported by behaviorist who says that an action is always conditioned to occur in a certain way. For example a dog always salivates when it is its sees meat. The owner may decide to introduce a sound to communicate that it is time to receive the meal. Hence when the bell is rang the dog will associate the sound with meat. Later the owner rings the bell but does not offer the meal. The dog will still salivate because its response is still condition to the bell. This would continue until it disassociate the sound of the bell with provision of meat. That is referred to as unconditioned response. In my life I associate this with love life. When love exists between two individual and gift are the implication of its existence it will bloom. In the absence of the gifts it would mean that the feeling does not exist anymore. Charles Darwin a naturist psychologist asserts the principle by implying that emotions evolve to allow humans and animal to survive and reproduce (Carver & Scheier, 2002). The emotions are adaptive to the environment hence can manipulate behavior. If I meat an attractive lady who displays social attributes, the probability of making friendship with her would be higher than the one wearing a stone-face.
Behavior is strengthened or weakened by its consequences. Some behaviors occur in order to seek attention. Like a student in a class would behave in a certain way in order to be identified. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory asserts that. In the third level of the hierarchy of needs in the pyramid is social (belonging and love) need. This show the need of affiliation, association and friendship (Graham & Weiner, 1996). When a student feels that they miss such from classmates, teacher or parent they would behave in a certain way to seek attention. The reaction of all the parties involve will either condition the behavior or unconditioned it.
The ultimate response of a behaviour is positive than negative. People always respond better if not best to positive reinforcements rather than negative reinforcement (Malott, 2015). In everyday life if people appreciate what is done for them then the action would continue for a very long time. For instance if I am in love with a lady and I buy her a flower and chocolates. Her response would make me continue to gift her or stop. If the gift cheers her up, then I would always find a reason to continue with the act of showering her with gifts. In the even that she rejects them I would stop the act and go further to avoid her.
Whether a behavior has been punished or reinforced is identified by the result of the behaviour in the future. If a desired or undesired behavior are repeated then they have been reinforced. If the behavior seize then the behavior has been unconditioned (Landy, 1989). The only way to prove that reinforcement or conditioning has occurred is observing what happens to the behavior in future. In my case the behavior of buying gifts to ladies would stop because of rejection. In this case I would be reinforced not to be giving gift because they attract rejection.
In the society people’s behavior is governed by the above principles and would behave in ascertain manner. For instance people would show reverence in the house of worship because they are reinforce to act that way before the lord. On the other had people would show aggressive behavior in pubs and clubs because the society dictates so. Human are always motivate to behave in a certain manner either from with or without hence every time an action is done, one should always consider the consequences.
Reference
Garske, J. P., & Arkes, H. R. (1982). Psychological theories of motivation. Brooks/Cole.
Graham, S., & Weiner, B. (1996). Theories and principles of motivation. Handbook of educational psychology, 4, 63-84.
Landy, F. J. (1989). Psychology of work behavior. Thomson Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.
Malott, R. (2015). Principles of behavior. Psychology Press.
Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2002). Control processes and self-organization as complementary principles underlying behavior. Personality and social psychology review, 6(4), 304-315.