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Textbook Chapter and Multimedia
Part of the Motivation and Emotion assessment for this unit, I have completed a textbook chapter which you can read about at: Paraphilia.

I also completed an accompanying multimedia presentation, which is a 5 minute summary of my Textbook chapter, which you can watch at: [http://screenr.com/Hsc. Multimedia Presentation]

Introduction and Wikiversity

In life, as in football, you won't go far unless you know where the goalposts are Arnold H. Glasgow

Why did i go to a lecture today? Why do i study? why did i choose to wear a dress instead of those jeans? In each of these questions there is some sort of motive for me to engage in those behaviours. In the first Motivation and Emotion tutorial, as a group we were asked to define motivation. Our group agreed that motivation could be defined as a need or want, an interest or desire that drives someone in a certain direction. We were also asked to define emotion, which was a lot more complex in comparison to defining motivation, as stated in Reeve (2009) Everyone knows what emotion is, until asked to give a definition. I found it difficult to define emotion as emotions seem so basic and natural in everyday situations. Nevertheless, emotions are said to be multidimensional (Reeve, 2009), they exist as subjective, biological, purposive, and social phenomena. When we are emotional,we portray identifiable facial, postural, and vocal signals that communicate the quality and intensity of our emotionality to others.

I am fascinated to study and learn about Motivation and Emotion this semester. However, i am nervous about this subject being based around wikipedia. I lack every single technology skill there is! So this semester whilst being informative and interesting, it will be a challenge for me personally!Studying motivation provides an opportunity for me to grasp both a theoretical and practical understanding, as well as a personal understanding. Whenever a person asks a question they are searching for something and the question is asked to help them find it. When a person asks something they open themselves up in the hope of getting what they are looking for. Therefore, through studying motivation and emotion this semester i hope to achieve a better understanding of the daily questions i ask and the reasons behind these questions and behaviours.

The study of motivation bases around providing answers to two questions:
 * 1) What Causes behaviour?
 * 2) Why does behaviour vary in its intensity?

The four processes that are capable of giving behaviour strength and purpose as well as its energy and direction are:
 * 1) Needs: Needs are conditions within the individual that are essential and necessary for the maintenance of life and for growth and well being.
 * 2) Cognitions: Cognitions are mental events, such as beliefs, expectations and self-concept, that represent ways of thinking
 * 3) Emotions: Emotions are short-lived, subjective, physiological,functional and expressive phenomena that organise feelings, physiology, purpose and expression into a coherent response to an environmental condition, such as a threat.
 * 4) External Events: External events are environmental incentives that energise and direct behaviour toward those events that signal positive consequences and away from those that signal aversive consequences.

Motivation is a private, unobservable, and seemingly mysterious experience (Reeve, 2009). Instead, we are able to observe what is public and observe this information to identify such motivations. Motivation can also be expressed in four ways:
 * Behaviour: There are eight aspects of behaviour that portray the presence, intensity and quality of motivation.
 * 1) Attention
 * 2) Effort
 * 3) Latency
 * 4) Persistence
 * 5) Choice
 * 6) Probability of Response
 * 7) Facial Expressions
 * 8) Bodily Gestures.

The presence and intensity of these behaviours can portray the presence of an intense motive.

 *  Engagement: Engagement relates to the behavioural intensity, emotional quality and personal investment in another person's involvement during an activity.
 * Brain Activations and Physiology:As we prepare to engage in various activities, our brain sites become activated and the nervous and endocrine systems manufacture and release various chemical substances that provide the biological underpinnings of motivational and emotional states (Reeve, 2009). To measure such neural and hormonal changes, researchers use blood tests, saliva tests, psychophysiological equipment and machines.

 * Self-Report: Another way to collect data to infer the presence, intensity and quality of motivation is to just ask! People can usuallyl self-report their motivation, as in an interview or questionnaire.

History of Motivation

Grand Theories Will: the belief that understanding a person's will then you will discover their motivation Instinct: Instincts expressed themselves through inherited bodily reflexes. Reeve (2009) states that instincts are irrational and impulsive motivational forces taht oriented the person twoard one particular goal. Drive: Drive motivated whatever behaviour was instrumental to servicing the body's needs.
 * Freud's Drive Theory: Four components regarding Freud's Drive Theory

 * The source of drive was rooted in the body's physiology- in a bodily deficit. Once it reached a threshold level,bodily deficit became psychological drive.
 * Drive had motivational properties because drive had an (impetus) force that possesed the aim of satisfaction, which was the removal of the underlying bodily deficit.
 * The individual experienced anxiety, and it was this anxiety which motivated the behavioural search for an object capable of removing the bodily deficit (Reeve, 2009).
 * Hull's Drive Theory: Drive was a pooled energy source composed of all current bodily deficits/disturbances (Reeve, 2009). Motivation had a purely physiological basis and bodily need was the ultimate source of motivation. Hull argued that motivation could be predicted before it occurred.Hull also argued that if a response was followed quickly by a reduction in drive, learning occurred and habit was reinforced (Reeve, 2009).

Week Three: Brain & Physiological needs
What do you first associate when you hear the word "brain"? Most people associate the brain with cognitive and intellectual functioning, including thinking, learning and decision making. However, the brain is further associated with motivation and emotion!

 * 1) Specific brain structures (hypothalamus, amygdala) generate specific motivational states.
 * 2) Biochemical agents (neurotransmitters, hormones) stimulate these brain structures
 * 3) Day to day events (a letter from a friend, dense traffic) are the events in our lives that stir brain-stimulating biochemical agents into action

Brain Structures associated with Positive Feelings and Approach Motivation:

 * Hypothalamus
 * Medial forebrain bundle
 * Meptal area
 * Orbitofrontal cortex
 * Nucleus accumbens
 * Medial prefrontal cortex
 * Left prefrontal cortex.

Brain Structures associated with Negative Feelings and Avoidance Motivation:

 * Amygdala
 * Hippocampus
 * Right prefrontal cortex.

The four motivationally relevant neurotransmitter pathways are dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine and endorphin. The dopamine pathway is important as its primary motivational function is to generate positive feelings and it explains the biolgoy of incentives, reward, motivated action, addictions and liking versus wanting (Reeve, 2009). The brain detects soem events as biologically significant and releases dopamine that generates good feelings and stimulates goal-directed behaviour (Reeve, 2009). Dopamine release is a neural mechanism by which motivation is translated into action!

A need is any condition within the person that is essential and necessary for life, growth and well-being (Reeve, 2009). When needs are nurtured and satisfied, well-being is maintained and enhanced. The process involving "needs" reminds me of the process of Maslow's hierarchy of Needs. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a theory in psychology which is portrayed through a pyramid. The pyramid illustrates the most important and fundamental needs at the bottom and the need for self-actualisation at the top. This is related to physiological needs as food and water are the most basic and important needs for us to obtain, which would be at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Hull's Drive Theory: According to drive theory, physiological deprivations and deficits give rise to bodily need states, which in turn give rise to a psychological drive, which motivates the consummatory behaviour that results in drive reduction (Reeve, 2009).Hull conceived of all motivation as coming originally from biological imbalances or needs. The organism was thrown into movement (was motivated) when it needed something that was not present at its current location. A need, in Hull's system, was a biological requirement of the organism. Hunger was the need for more energy. Thirst was the need for more water. Motivation, to Hull, was aimed at making up or erasing a deficiency or lack of something in the organism.Hull used the word drive to describe the state of behavioral arousal resulting from a biological need. In Hull's system, drive was the energy that powered behavior. Drive was an uncomfortable state resulting from a biological need, so drive was something the animal tried to eliminate. The animal searched for food in order to reduce the hunger drive. Hull believed the animal would repeat any behavior that reduced a drive, if the same need occurred again. Therefore Hull's theory was called a drive-reduction theory of motivation.

Thirst, Hunger and Sex are all Physiological Needs.

THIRST Reeve (2009) states that thirst is the consciously experienced motivational state that readies the body to perform behaviours necessary to replenish a water deficit. It is the loss of water, below an optimal homeostatic level, that creates the physiological need that underlies thirst. Thirst arises as a physiological need because our bodies continually lose water through perspiration, urination and breathing. Drinking behaviour is influenced through extraorganismic variables, such as water availability, sweet taste, addictions to alcohol and caffeine (Reeve, 2009).

HUNGER Food deprivation does activate hunger and eating. However, hunger regulation involves both short-term daily processes operating and long-term processes operating under metabolic regulation and stored energy. Hunger and eating are affected by cognitive, social and environmental influences. (Reeve, 2009). According to the Glucostatic Hypothesis, glucose deficiency stimulates eating by activating the lateral hypothalamus. Glucose excess inhibits eating by activating the ventromedial hypothalamus. Furthermore, according to the Lipostatic Hypothesis, shrunken fat cells initiate hunger, whereas normal or larger fat cells inhibit it.

SEX Sexual motivation rises and falls due to hormones, external stimulation, external cues, cognitive scripts, sexual schemas and evolutionary presses. (Reeve, 2009). Sexual motivation in a male incorporates that desire reflects physiological forces such as a linera triphasic sexual response cycle

DESIRE-AROUSAL- ORGASM

Sexual motivation in women is said to be more complex. Womens sexual response revolves around intimacy needs, the correlation between genital response and psychological desire is low, and sexual scripts and schemas are heterogeneous (Reeve, 2009).

Week Four: Psychological & Social Needs
Reeve (2009) states that there are three psychological needs which must be satisfied for psychological growth to be achieved. These include:

Autonomy: is the need to experience self-direction and personal endorsement in the initiation and regulation of one’s behaviour.

Competence: is the need to be effective in interactions with the environment

Relatedness: A psychological need to establish bonds and attachments with others.

These three needs rely on an organismic approach to motivation. The general approach to organismic motivation is that human beings possess a natural motivation to learn, grow, and develop in a way that is healthy and mature, and they do so when environments involve and support their psychological needs.

What I found interesting regarding autonomy, competence and relatedness was how I could easily relate this to my own learning and lifestyle. Beginning university reflected a desire to implement and challenge my personal academic skills. I recognised the change in motivation I had to strive for development and improvement within my academic assessment. Furthermore, I function at a higher level knowing I am confident and capable of completing an activity thoroughly, in contrast, if I have any doubt or feel incapable of completing an activity at a regarded level I plummet and feel incompetent. My learning is highly related to the competence need for positive feedback and the perception of progress. I particularly found interesting reading about relatedness, as I regard myself as someone who seeks to connect with others and to establish close and emotional bonds with people. I rely heavily on relationships and the need for social interaction. Consequently, when my surrounding relationships and social bonds are troublesome, I feel distressed and dissatisfied.

Social Needs: Social needs arise from the individual’s personal experiences and unique developmental, cognitive and socialisation histories eg achievement, affiliation, intimacy and power. Quasi-needs are situationally induced wants and desires that are not actually full-blown needs in the same sense that physiological, psychological, and social needs are, eg needing money at the store, a band-aid after a cut, an umbrella in the rain. Similar to what I reflected on above, I think of myself as someone with a high need for intimacy. My relationships have a positive affect on me, I feel confident and content. I am known for my “chatter” I love to talk and make conversation. I also thoroughly enjoy listening to others. To me, relationships are a meaningful and important life experience. They shape who you are and who you can be.

Week Five: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation and Goal Setting
Extrinsic Motivation: Arises from a “do this and you will get that” behavioural contract, it exists in an “in order to” motivation. Because the answer is always the offering of an attractive environmental incentive (to get money) or the removal of an aversive environmental incentive (to end criticism) extrinsic motivation is an environmentally created reason to initiate or persist in an action (Reeve, 2009).

The study of extrinsic motivation revolves around three concepts of incentives, consequences and rewards.

 * Incentive: is an environmental event that attracts or repels a person toward or away from a particular course of action.
 * Consequences:involve reinforcers and punishers.
 * Rewards: is any offering from one person given to another person in exchange for his or her service or achievement.

Cognitive Evaluation Theory:the theory explains how an extrinsic event (money, grade, and deadline) affects intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, as mediated by the event’s effect on the psychological needs for competence and autonomy.

Reeve (2009) states that intrinsic motivation is the inherent propensity to engage one’s interests and to exercise one’s capacities and, to seek out and master optimal challenges. When people are intrinsically motivated, they act out of interest “for the fun of it” and for the sense of challenge the activity provides. Intrinsic motivation leads to benefits to the individual which include: Persistence, creativity, conceptual understanding, and subjective well-being. The higher the person’s intrinsic motivation, the greater will be his or her persistence on that task. When I first began regularly going to the gym I wasn’t necessarily enjoying it, I was rather “forcing” myself to do it for results. Consequently, I soon lacked motivation and began dreading to have to go to the gym, and nonetheless stopped going altogether. However, now as I participate in exercise or the gym I enjoy it, I look forward to it and I challenge myself because I want to. Now I have a lasting routine and I have stuck by it for a while now, which is because I have a higher intrinsic motivation to attend to exercise or the gym which therefore leads be to persist at it.

Creativity is also enhanced by intrinsic motivation. It was said that people will be most creative when they feel motivated primarily by the interest, enjoyment, satisfaction, and challenge of the work itself, rather than by external pressures. In between my full time university schedule I work casually in retail. I previously worked for three years in a retail franchise, and there was consistent pressure on you to perform and have a high average dollar as well as multi rate. Whenever my bosses were down to observe how we engage with the customers and how we sell I always underperformed. This was due to me feeling as though I was being watched and evaluated, and I found myself not performing “naturally”. I also identified that I wasn’t satisfied nor was I interested in the clothing I was selling. Hence, my lack of interest and enjoyment for the clothing was represented in my selling skills. However I have changed companies and I am now working in a higher end fashion company. I love their clothing and wearing their clothes and I also enjoy selling their clothes to people. I find myself a lot more creative in the outfits I put together on customers and myself because I am interested in take pleasure in it. I can identify myself having higher intrinsic motivation in my new job which influences me to be more creative at work due to my interest and satisfaction in my job.

Intrinsic motivation enhances a learner’s conceptual understanding of what they are trying to learn. Reeve (2009) states that when high, intrinsic motivation promotes flexibility in one’s way of thinking, active information processing and tendency to learn in a way that is conceptual rather than rote. I think all university students, and for that matter all “learners” can identify with this concept. When an individual is motivated to learn and wants to learn they feel less pressure and tension then an individual who does not have as high intrinsic motivation. An individual who lacks the intrinsic motivation and does not necessarily want to learn, they are a lot more rigid, and in some sense, more pressured to learn. For example, I remember (sorry James!) when I was studying for statistics I didn’t have as high intrinsic motivation to study for it, I didn’t enjoy it as much as other subjects, and I was studying because I had to pass it. My studying was slightly different, as I was focusing so much on memorising, and I became tense and frustrated when I couldn’t remember or understand concepts. However, at the same time I was studying for psychopathology, which I found really interesting reading and studying about the different psychological disorders. Thus, I had higher intrinsic motivation to learn and I wanted to study for it because I found it interesting. In comparison to studying for statistics, I was a lot more relaxed and calm which allowed me to engage and consume a lot more information.

Pursuing intrinsic goals leads to better functioning and higher psychological well-being than does pursuing extrinsic goals. Reeve (2009) states that people who are intrinsically motivated are more likely to say things like “I feel energised” and “I look forward to each new day” than are people who are extrinsically motivated. I have always had the belief that as long as you do something you love or your passionate for you can be successful. Furthermore, one of my goals in life is to have a job in which I am passionate for and enjoy. I believe in the concept that pursuing intrinsic life goals will lead to self-actualisation, greater subjective vitality, less anxiety and depression, greater self esteem and higher-quality interpersonal relationships. Being and feeling content and with yourself reflects in your day to day experiences. If an individual is working in a job which they find boring and tedious, and are pursuing extrinsic motivation (eg money) it can be understood that they would not feel as satisfied, as someone who looks forward to their job and/or finds it interesting. Reeve (2009) states that extrinsic motivation arises from environmental incentives and consequences, such as food, money, praise, attention, stickers, gold stars, etc). Instead of engaging in an activity to experience the inherent satisfaction it can bring, extrinsic motivation arises from some consequence that is separate from the activity itself.

Reeve (2009) stated that when an extrinsic event is presented in a relatively controlling way (given to gain compliance), it increases extrinsic motivation but decreases intrinsic motivation because of its detrimental effects on autonomy. When an extrinsic event is presented in a relatively informational way (given to communicate a message of a job well done), it increases intrinsic motivation because of its favourable effect on competence. Using a situation at work again, the staff members are rewarded gift vouchers as incentives if a sale is over $640 ($20 gift voucher) 1001 ($40 gift voucher) $1500 ($60 gift voucher) and the rewards increase as the sale increases. Consequently, the gift voucher increases intrinsic motivation because a sense of competence arises when you close an expensive sale, knowing you did that individually with your skills. Furthermore, the gift voucher incentive is presented in a non controlling manner and the reward of a gift voucher is a communicated as a job well done. Therefore, this situation increases intrinsic motivation because of its favourable effect on competence, and therefore increases the likelihood of repeated behaviour. Four types of extrinsic motivation exist:
 * 1) External Regulation: reflects the least self-determined type of extrinsic motivation
 * 2) Externally Regulated: behaviours are performed to obtain a reward or to satisfy some external demand.
 * 3) Introjected Regulation: reflects some self-determination because the person acts as if he was carrying other peoples’ rules and commands inside his head to such an extent that the introjected voice generates self-administered rewards and punishments.
 * 4) Identified Regulation: represents mostly internalized extrinsic motivation integration is the most self-determined type of extrinsic motivation, and it involves the self-examination necessary to bring new ways of thinking and behaving

The four types of extrinsic motivation are important because the more self determined is the persons extrinsic motivation, the greater is his or her functioning in terms of performance, social development and psychological well-being.

Goal Setting and Goal Striving: The cognitive study of motivation concerns itself with the cognition-action sequence. There are four elements in the cognition-action sequence: plans, goals, implementation intentions and mental simulations.

People are aware of the present state of their behaviour, their environment, and the status of the events in their lives. People also envision ideal states for these same behaviours, environments, and events. When a present-state-versus-ideal-state mismatch exists, incongruity (or discrepancy) produces a general corrective motivation that gives rise to plan-directed behaviour capable of reducing (or removing) the discrepancy (Reeve, 2009). When discrepancies generate corrective motivation, people either generate a plan that will advance their present behaviour up to its ideal or they revise the plan to reverse the ideal state down to something closer to the present state (Reeve, 2009).

Week Six: Control Beliefs and The Self
Reeve (2009) stated “the motivation to exercise personal control over one’s outcomes in life emanates from the expecations people harbour as to how much or how little influence they have in producing desired events and in preventing undesired events”.

Expectations: Efficacy: “Can I do it”?

Outcome: “Will it work?”

Self efficacy is the individuals belief that he “has what it takes”. Self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and behave. Such beliefs produce these diverse effects through four major processes. They include cognitive, motivational, affective and selection processes. This weeks reading was on personal control beliefs, i was particularly interested and curious to do further reading and research regarding “self efficacy”.

Bandura (2004) stated that a strong sense of efficacy enhances human accomplishment and personal well-being in many ways. People with high assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided (Bandura, 2004 ). Such an efficacious outlook fosters intrinsic interest and deep engrossment in activities (Bandura & Benighta, 2004). They set themselves challenging goals and maintain strong commitment to them. They heighten and sustain their efforts in the face of failure. They quickly recover their sense of efficacy after failures or setbacks. They attribute failure to insufficient effort or deficient knowledge and skills which are acquirable. They approach threatening situations with assurance that they can exercise control over them. Such an efficacious outlook produces personal accomplishments, reduces stress and lowers vulnerability to depression. In contrast, Bandura (2004) further stated that people who doubt their capabilities shy away from difficult tasks which they view as personal threats. They have low aspirations and weak commitment to the goals they choose to pursue. When faced with difficult tasks, they dwell on their personal deficiencies, on the obstacles they will encounter, and all kinds of adverse outcomes rather than concentrate on how to perform successfully. They slacken their efforts and give up quickly in the face of difficulties. They are slow to recover their sense of efficacy following failure or setbacks. Because they view insufficient performance as deficient aptitude it does not require much failure for them to lose faith in their capabilities. They fall easy victim to stress and depression.

Reading on self-efficacy i was reflecting on my personal sense of “self efficacy”. I found myself in the middle of a "strong sense of self efficacy" and "doubting my self efficacy". I have always had a negative habit of critising and doubting my capabilities. During my university years, i can remember countless times of putting off difficult tasks due to the intimidation of not being able to complete them soundly. Additionally, i do unfortuantly, take a undesirable mark/grade personally. However, I can relate myself to someone with high self efficacy, for example, i do set myself challenging goals and when i do begin/start these goals (assignments, exercise, exams) i maintain a strong commitment. Self-beliefs of efficacy play a key role in the self-regulation of motivation. Most human motivation is cognitively generated. People motivate themselves and guide their actions anticipatorily by the exercise of forethought (Reeve, 2009). They form beliefs about what they can do. They anticipate likely outcomes of prospective actions. They set goals for themselves and plan courses of action designed to realize valued futures.

There are three different forms of cognitive motivators around which different theories have been built (Reeve, 2009). They include causal attributions, outcome expectancies, and cognized goals. The corresponding theories are attribution theory, expectancy-value theory and goal theory, respectively. Self-efficacy beliefs operate in each of these types of cognitive motivation. Self-efficacy beliefs influence causal attributions. People who regard themselves as highly efficacious attribute their failures to insufficient effort, those who regard themselves as inefficacious attribute their failures to low ability. Causal attributions affect motivation, performance and affective reactions mainly through beliefs of self-efficacy (2009).

In expectancy-value theory, motivation is regulated by the expectation that a given course of behavior will produce certain outcomes and the value of those outcomes (Reeve, 2009). But people act on their beliefs about what they can do, as well as on their beliefs about the likely outcomes of performance. The motivating influence of outcome expectancies is thus partly governed by self-beliefs of efficacy. There are countless attractive options people do not pursue because they judge they lack the capabilities for them. The predictiveness of expectancy-value theory is enhanced by including the influence of perceived self- efficacy (Reeve, 2009).

The capacity to exercise self-influence by goal challenges and evaluative reaction to one's own attainments provides a major cognitive mechanism of motivation (Reeve, 2009). Evidence shows that explicit, challenging goals enhance and sustain motivation. Goals operate largely through self-influence processes rather than regulate motivation and action directly. Motivation based on goal setting involves a cognitive comparison process (Reeve, 2009). By making self-satisfaction conditional on matching adopted goals, people give direction to their behavior and create incentives to persist in their efforts until they fulfill their goals (Reeve, 2009). They seek self-satisfaction from fulfilling valued goals and are prompted to intensify their efforts by discontent with substandard performances (Reeve, 2009).

Motivation based on goals or personal standards is governed by three types of self influences. They include self-satisfying and self-dissatisfying reactions to one's performance, perceived self-efficacy for goal attainment, and readjustment of personal goals based on one's progress (Reeve, 2009). Self-efficacy beliefs contribute to motivation in several ways: They determine the goals people set for themselves; how much effort they expend; how long they persevere in the face of difficulties; and their resilience to failures (Reeve, 2009). When faced with obstacles and failures people who harbor self-doubts about their capabilities slacken their efforts or give up quickly. Those who have a strong belief in their capabilities exert greater effort when they fail to master the challenge (Reeve, 2009). Strong perseverance contributes to performance accomplishments.

The Self There are four basic problems which occupy the self:
 * 1) Defining and creating the self,
 * 2) Relating the self to society
 * 3) Discovering and developing personal potential,
 * 4) Managing or regulatign the self.

The notions of self-concept, identity, agency and self regulation tell the basis of how the self generates motivation by highlighting the self-s cognitive structures, social relationships, and strivings from within, and self-monitoring.

Motivation and Self Schemas All through your life you meet people and often need to introduce yourself. The ways in which you classify or introduce yourself depend on the situation or context you are in. Maybe you will describe yourself as the daughter of..,, or a student studying…, of maybe an employee working for… You may even explain yourself in terms of a group or race. This description may be an suggestion of what you aim to be, similar to an ideal self. Often an ideal self can motivate you and impact on your behaviour.

Self-Schemas generate motivation in two ways

1)Self schemas once formed, direct an individual’s behaviour in ways that elicit feedback consistent with the established self-schemas (Reeve, 2009). For example, if a person identifies themselves as humorous that person directs their future behavioru in interpersonal domains in ways that produce feedback that confirms that “i am a humorous person” self-schema. This is because self-schemas direct behaviour in ways that confirm our established self-view (Reeve, 2009). Therefore, feeback that is inconsistent with the established self-schema produces a motivational tension. Reeve (2009) states that when people behave in self-schema consistent ways, they experience a comfort from the consistency and self-confirmation, when people behave in self-schema inconsistent ways, they experience tension from the inconsistency and self-disconfirmation (Reeve, 2009). The idea regarding self-schema consistency is that if a person believes they are humourous however they are told that they are serious, that contradictory feedback generates a motivational tension (Reeve, 2009). This tension motivates the self to resotre consistency. This experience of tension from the inconsistency of the self-view reminded me of the Self Discrepancy Theory, which states that discrepancies between the actual self and the ideal self result in dejection emotions (disappointment, dissatisfation, sadness), discrepancies between the actual self and the ouut self leads to agitation (fear, threat, restlessness and anxiety)(Reeve, 2009).

Self-discrepancy Theory

Actual self -How you currently are

Ideal self - How you would like to be

Ought self - What you think you should be

2)Self schemas also generate motivation to move the present self toward a desired future self (Reeve, 2009). Using myself as an example, the student (me) wants to become a psychologist so I do whatever actions are necessary for advancing from being a student to a psychologist. “Student” constitutes the present self, while “psychologist” constitutes the ideal self. This can further be applied to motivation by further applying it to the discrepancy creation.  In discrepancy creation the individual deliberately sets a higher goal- an idea state that does not yet exist except in the individuals mind. This provides a motivational basis for action.

Present StateIdeal State.

Week Nine: Nature of Emotion

Nature of Emotion

Emotions are multidimensional. They exist as subjective, biological, purposive, and social phenomena (Reeve, 2009). Five Questions on Emotion 1)	What is an emotion? 2)	What causes an emotion? 3)	How many emotions are there? 4)	What good are the emotions? 5)	What is the difference between emotion and mood?

What is Emotion?

Emotions have a four-part character in that they feature dimensions of feeling, arousal, purpose and expression (Reeve, 2009). Feelings give emotions a subjective component that has personal meaning. Arousal includes biological activity such as heart rate that prepares the body for adaptive coping behavior. The purposive component gives emotion a goal-directed sense of motivation to take a specific course of action. The social component of emotion is its communicative aspect, as through a facial expression. Emotion is the psychological construct that coordinates and unifies these four aspects of experience into synchronized, adaptive pattern.

What causes an emotion?

Have you ever had the experience of being in a car when it spins out of control on a wet road? Almost instantly upon the car spinning off track, you experience an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, your pupils dilate, etc. In addition, just before i began writing this, i tripped down stairs (not properly falling down) however, afterwards, i thought of this chapter when it spoke about emotion. This is because as i tripped i remember my stomach turning, my heart rate increased, this is because i began to feel fear, fear of falling down the stairs. Through this experience, i can ask- what causes emotion?

According to the biological perspective, emotions arise from bodily influences such as nerual pathways in the brain’s limbic system. In contrast, according to the cognitive perspective emotions arise from mental events such as appraisals of the personal meaning of the emotion-causing event. Both cognitive and biology cause emotion: both biology and cognition cause emotion. One way is called the two parallel emotion systems, which is an innatespontaneous, and primitive biological emotion system and an acquired, interpretive and social cognitive emotion system. The second way both cognitive and biology cause emotion is that emotion occurs as a dynamic, dialectical process rather than the linear output of either the biological or cognitive system.

How many emotions are there?

According to the biological perspective human beings possess small amount of basic emotions (2-10). In comparison, the cognitive perspective, human beings possess a much richer, more diverse number of emotions rather than just the basic emotions. Personally, i believe that we do possess basic emotions, emotions in which we experience regularly and we are familiar with. However, i think emotions can be on a continuum, they vary in intensity. Furthermore, i think emotions are definately associated with experience. There will be situations and occurrences in our lives which we have never faced or experienced before, and these experiences can activate emotions which we have never experienced before. I am leaning to the cognitive perpective, as experiences are limitless so are emotions.

What good are emotions?

Reeve (2009) states that emotions serve a purpose. From a functional point of view, emotions evolved as biolgical reactions that helped us adapt successfully to fundamental life tasks, such as facing a threat. Furthermore, Reeve (2009) suggests that the emotion that arises during an important life task serves a goal-directed purpose that has coping and social purpose. This reminds me the fight or flight theory. If we use again, a car spinning out of control in the wet we experience the emotion “fear”, fear of losing control. The fear we experience is a motivation for defense. It is a warning sign for physcial harm. Using the emotion “fear” and the fight or flight theory as an example, we can see that emotion can serve as a coping or goal directed purpose. Reeve (2009) also states that without an appropriate emotional repertoire, people would function poorly in their physical and social environments. People however, still need to regulate their emotions. This can relate to the previous “self efficacy” and “control”, for example how well an individual is able to regulate their emotions i think can be associated with their personality and how self controlled and self efficiant they are. Sometimes you can relate specific emotions to individual personality traits.

What is the difference between emotion and mood?

Emotions: Arise in response to a specific event, motivate specific adaptive behaviours, and are short-lived.

Moods: Arise from ill-defined sources, affect cognitive processes, and are long-lived. Mood exists as a positive or as a negative affect state. Positive affect refers to the everday, low level, and general state of feeling food.

Week Ten: Aspects of Emotion
Aspects of Emotion:

“Facial Feedback Hypothesis: asserts that the subjective aspect of emotion is actually the awareness of proprioceptive feedback from facial action. The facial feedback hypothesis appears in two forms strong and weak. According to its strong version, posed facial expressions activate specific emotions, such ahtt smiling activates joy. According to its weak version, exaggerates adn suppressed facial expressions augment and attenuate naturally occurring emotion. Facial management moderates emotional experience, as people can intensify or reduce their naturally ongoing emotional experience by exaggerating or suppressing their facial actions” (Reeve, 2009).

Following from the facial feedback hypothesis i investigated further in regards to whether facial expressions are universal as well as basic emotions. A study was conducted to find out if certain emotions are universal. Researchers studied whether the sounds associated with emotions such as happiness, anger, fear, sadness, disgust and surprise are shared amongst different cultures. The results of their study provide further evidence that such emotions form a set of basic, evolved functions that are shared by all humans. The participants in the study were people from Britain and from the African tripe called Himba, a group of over 20,000 people living in small settlements in northern Namibia (Nauert, 2010). Participants in the study listened to a short story based around a particular emotion. At the end of the story they heard two sounds, such as crying and laughter, and were asked to identify which of the two sounds portrayed the emotion being expressed in the story. Participants from both groups seemed to identify the basic emotions, anger, fear, disgust, amusement, sadness and surprise, the most easily recognisable. This can be further suggested that these emotions and their vocalisations are alike across all human cultures (Nauert, 2010). One positive sound was particularly well recognised by both groups of participants, laughter. Listeners from both cultures agreed that laughter indicated amusement.Previous studies have shown that smiling is universally recognised as a signal of happiness, raising the possibility that laughter is the auditory correspondent of smiles, both communicating a state of enjoyment (Nauert, 2010). However, it is possible that laughter and smiles are in fact quite different types of signals, with smiles functioning as a signal of generally positive social intent, whereas laughter may be a more specific emotional signal, originating in play (Nauert, 2010).

Week Eleven: Personality and Emotion
Two personality characteristics are related to happiness, extraversion and neuroticism. However the personality characteristic that explains “Who is happy?” is extraversion. Reeve (2009) states that extraverts are happy because they have a stronger behavioural activating system (BAS) that makes them highly responsive to signals of reward in the environment.

I was interested in the relationship between extraversion and happiness so I did more in-depth research. Vallereux (2006) argued that extraverts may be more sensitive to rewarding social situations than introverts, and that this may manifest inteself as greater feelings of happiness by extraverts. It was further suggested that extraverts and introverts both enjoy social situations though extraverts select more social situations, resulting in greater happiness. Vallereux (2006) conducted a study to test both the reward-sensitivity hypothesis as well as the situation-selection hypothesis. 109 respondents were used to test the 2 hypotheses. The results showed support for the situation selection hypothesis, however not as much significant support for reward-sensitivity. Another study emphasises the link between genes and personality contribution to personality. It was suggested that genes contribute up to 50% of the variance in happiness, and genetic influence on happiness is essentially conveyed via personality. A sample of 973 twin pairs found that the heritable differences in happiness were pretty well explained by the differences in personality, particularly the dimensions of neuroticism, extraversion and conscientiousness. It was further advised for people who would like to be more “happier” and raise their levels of well-being they should practice the kinds of behaviours that characterise calm, conscientious, extroverts. “Try to be active and social, even if with just a few people. Practice things you find emotionally challenging, maybe even keeping a diary to help you keep a sense of reality, and allow you to reflect on which strategies work, and which don’t”

Sarah lives for excitement. She becomes incredibly bored when life becomes too predictable. Sarah has many friends but no tolerance for anyone dull. She enjoys meeting exciting new people, even if she knows hey are unreliable. Sarah smokes both cigerattes adn marijuana and drinks heavily, parties all the time taking illicit drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy. She doesn’t worry about going to bed with someone she has just met. Sarah enjoys gambling, often losing more than she can afford.

Sarahs behaviour represents sensation seeking. Sensation seeking is defined as the need for varied, novel, complex and intense sensations and the willingness to take physical soicla, legal and financial risks fo rhte sake of such experiences (Reeve, 2009). To attain such sensations, sensation seekers seek new experiences as in sex and drugs, and they engage in risk-accepting behaviour, such as gambling (Reeve, 2009). It has been suggested that risk-taking is linked to neuroticism, a personality trait (reference). It has been illustrated as an expression of neurotic conflict, a form of acting out or counter-phobic behaviour. Furthermore, it has also been suggested that high-risk behaviours like reckless driving, is an example of expressing aggressiveness and hostility. Additionally, it might be just an expression of a generalised need for activity itself, as the case with hyperactive individuals, who provide their own stimulation through activity to overcome boredom. It has further been suggested that people are more inclined to engage in risky behaviours because of genetic mutations in the brains dopamine system. Sensation seekers have been noted to have low levels of monoamine oxidase (MAO). Dopamine has been associated with sensation seeking. Dopamine contributes to the experiences of reward and facilitates approach behaviours (Reeve, 2009). Sensation seekers tend to have relatively high levels of dopamine, therefore, their biochemistry favours approach over inhibition. In contrast, they also have relatively low levels of serotonin, therefore their biochemistry fails to inhibit them from risks and new experiences.

As exam period is creeping closer than I would prefer, I can notice myself becoming increasingly stressed. Therefore, as I was reading about arousal and stress in this week’s reading I was finding it highly relevant. Reeve (2009) states that arousal and stress are two motivationally based responses to stimulating, demanding environments. I can relate to two examples which associate both arousal and stress. The first example is when I worked by first shift at my new job. Everything was new, the whole system was unfamiliar to me and I felt I was being watched the whole time. Consequently, this was a challenging experience, in which I tried to cope and adapt to my new environment, as I was tried to cope I could feel my heart racing and my attention focusing specifically on the task at hand. Secondly, relating back to exam period, as I begin to study I realise how much material I need to learn and get through in a certain amount of time, I also realise I need to schedule time to complete other assignments as well as study for my other exams. This consequently leads to a high increase in stress and tension. As I become aware of how stressed I feel, I also become aware of my bodily functions and how they turn my attention specifically to completing and getting through my exam period. Both these examples illustrate how the bodily responses to stimulating and demanding environments constitute the biological underpinnings of felt arousal and felt stress (Reeve, 2009). When stimulation is high, the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary system activates the sympathetic nervous system to expend energy. When stimulation is low, the system activates the parasympathetic nervous system to conserve energy. When demands and challenges are high, the adrenal gland secretes corticosteroids, the most motivationally important of which is cortisol (Reeve, 2009). As long as the person continues to experience stress, cortisol continues to be released (Reeve, 2009). Then successful coping inhibits cortisol relearse, the person has the psychological experience of decreased stress. When unsuccessful coping fails to stop the release of cortisol, the person has the psychological experience of increased stress (2009).

Week Twelve: Unconscious Motivation
Unconscious Motivation:

Freudian Unconscious:

Freud proposed the metaphor “the psyche as like an iceberg” only the upper 10% of it is invisible (conscious), the rest is submerged and unseen (unconscious). Freud believed that the individual must express strong unconscious urges and impulses, though in a disguised form (Reeve, 2009). The unconscious is therefore a “shadow phenomenon” that cannot be known directly but can be inferred only from its indirect manifestations (Reeve, 2009).

The Conscious: “Short term memory” or “consciousness” includes all the thoughts, feelings, sensations, memories and experiences that a person is aware of at any given time.

The Preconscious: Stores all the thoughts, feelings adn memories that are absent from immediate consciousness but can be retrieved into consciousness with a little prompting (you are aware of but are not currently thinking about your name or what colour ink these words are printed).

Unconscious: The mental storehouse of inaccessible instinctual impulses, repressed experiences, childhood (before language) memories, and strong wishes and desires.

The Freudian view of the unconscious can be illustrated through dreaming. Freud believed that daily tensions continually increased in the unconscious and were expelled during dreaming. Dreamed provided an opportunity for accessing the unconscious’ wishful core (Reeve, 2009). A dreams storyline represents its manifest content (its face value and defensive facade). The symbolic meanings of the events in the storyline represent its latent content (underlying meaning and wishful core) (Reeve, 2009).

Dual-Instinct Theory: Freud viewed motivation as regulated by impulse-driven biological forces. Reeve (2009) states that the human body was seen as a complex energy system organised for the purpose of increasing and decreasing its energies through behaviour. Freud emphasises two catgories: Instinct for life and instincts for death. Instincts Eros (the life instincts) maintains life and ensures individual and species survival. These are instincts for self-preservation. Instincts Thanatos (the death instincts) pushes the individual toward rest, inactivity, and energy conservation. Freud gave primary emphasis to aggression. Reeve (2009) stated that when focused on the self, aggression manifests itself in self-criticism, sadism, depression, suicide etc. These bodily based instinctual drives toward life and death provide the energy to motivate behaviour.

Week Thirteen: Growth & Positive Psychology
What better way to finnish a semester with Positive Psychology! Reeve (2009) states that positive psychology looks at people's mental health and how they live their lives to ask ,"What could be?". Furthermore, positive psychology focuses on building people's strengths and competencies to develop psychological wellness (Reeve, 2009). The goal of positive psychology is to show what actions lead to experiences of well-being, to the development of positive individuals who are optimistic and reilient, and to the creation of nurturing and thriving insitutions and communities. Reeve (2009) mentioned that positive psychology acknowledges the important role in the effort to cure or reverse these human pathologies. I have been interested in positive psychology, and this is my first time to engage in readings relating to positive psychology. Consequently, i found this video stream of Martin Seligman, the founder of positive pscyhology.

Seligman (2004) stated that positive psychology should be just as concerned with strength as in weakness, as interested in building the best things in life as in reparing the worst as well as just as concerned with making the lives of people fulfilling and with nurturing high talent as with healing pathology. I found this greatly inspiring, as i think the more society as a whole, including people we look up to, our role models etc become more positive it can have a slight domino effect on others. I find when i am around and engaging with individuals who are content and positive i am more likely to be and feel more positive. In contrast, when i am engaging with individuals who are down or negative i am more likely to feel or behave that way. Therefore, i believe that it could be so influential having someone as a psychologist trying build someones "strength" then discussing why they feel "down". This is not to say or specify as a treatment, just as a general manner of speech.

Seligman (2004) also acknowledges in the video that the difference he found between people who are really happy in comparison to "us" or everybody else, is that people who are really happy are also really social. This can be related to the week on "personality", we discussed how a personality characteristic, extraversion, is associated with "Who is happy". Furthermore, extraversion is related to sociability, and the preference for and enjoyment of other people and social situations.

Self-actualisation refers to the full realisation and use of one's talents, capacities and potentialities (Reeve, 2009). Furthermore, is is a process of leaving behind apprehensiveness, defensive appraisals, and a dependence on others that is paired with the parallel process of moving toward courgae to create, make realisic appraisals, and acheive autonomous self-regulation (Reeve, 2009). Carl Rogers stated that the organism has one basic tendency and striving, to actualise, maintain and enhance the experiencing self (Reeve, 2009). Rogers recognised the continuation of specific human motives and even the existence of clusters of needs like those proposed by Maslows hierarchy, but he emphatically stressed the holistical proposition that all human needs serve the collective purpose of maintaining, enhancing and actualising the person (Reeve, 2009). Rogers believed all of us live in two worlds, the inner world of the actualising tendencies and organismic valuation and the outer world, of social priorities, conditions of worth, and conditional regard.

Humanistic psychology follows the assumption that human nature is inherently good. What if human nature wasn't such at all, what if human nature was malevolent, selfish, aggressive? as well as evil, or some-what evil? Reeve (2009) defines evil as the deliberate, voluntary, intentional infliction of painful suffering on another person without respect for his or her humanity or personhood. Carl Rogers argued that if caretakers provided consistent nurturance and care, and if they established a connectedness with those they cared for, then individuals would choose good over evil (Reeve, 2009). It was suggested that human beings behave malevolently only to the extent that they have been injured or damaged by their experience. Furthermore, other humanists see more ambiguity in human nature. They argue that benevolence and malevolence are part of every individual. This idea illustrates that under one set of social conditions, the actualising tendency pairs itself with life-affirming values and adopts constructive ways for relating and behaving. However, in contrast, under another set of conditions, the actualising tendency pairs itself with malicious values and leads to cruelty and evil behaviour (Reeve, 2009). Reeve (2009) states that when people desire to act in ways that promote evil, they possess a malevolent personality. It is suggested that evil develops through
 * 1) Adults shame and scorn the child such that the child comes to the conclusion that he or she is flawed and incompetent as a human being.
 * 2) The child incubates a negative self-view and comes to prefer lies and self-deciet over critical self-examination
 * 3) A transition occurs from being a victim to becoming an insensitive perpetrator
 * 4) The person initiates experimental malevolence
 * 5) The malevolent personality is forged through a rigid refusal to engage in critical self-examination.

The actions of Ulysses Handy were deliberate, voluntary and intentional infliction of painful suffering on another person, illustrating "evil". However, relating back to what Carl Rogers argued, caretakers who provided nurturance and care to individuals, then they would consequently choose good over evil, we can question the validity of this argument through the case of Ulysess Handy. It was stated that Ulysses mother was a loving, devoted mother, therefore showing no implications in the nurturance of the child Handy. Furthermore, Ulysses childhood signified consistency, devotion as well as faith. In regards to Carl Rogers, Ulysses hypothetically should have "chosen" good, rather than evil. So why didn't he? Through this short case study we can illustrate the consistant debate regarding nature versus nurture. It is portrayed through this case study that both nature and nurture may have a influence in the cause of "evil".

Week Fourteen: Summary and Conclusion
Explaining Motivation

Through the semester we have discussed theories of motivation which explain why we do what we do. Each theory illustrates a significant aspect which explainshuman wants, desires, fears and strivings. For example, the Achievement Motivation Theory explains why people sometimes react to a standard of excellence with positive emotion and appreaoch behaviour but other times show negative emotions and seek only to avoid it (Reeve, 2009). In addition, Learned Helplessness Theory, discusses why people turn increasingly passive and self-defeating when they are exposed to an environmnet in which htey think offers them little or no personal control (Reeve, 2009). In general, motivation theories provide understanding and explanations to why we do what we do and why we want what we want (Reeve, 2009). Motivation and Emotion has been a unique, engaging, challenging subject. I was fond of beginning and learning about Motivation and Emotion and learning about what influences my individual motivation as well as other peoples.

An understanding of motivation and emotion includes the ability to predict what effect various environmental, interpersonal, intrapsychic and physiological conditions will have on motivation and emotion.

The two questions that define the effort to apply motivational principles are "How do i motivate myself?" and "How do i motivate others?". Motivationally empowering self and others involves amplifying strengths and repairing weaknesses (Reeve, 2009). Amplifying strengths involves nurturing, supporting and developing motivational resources so that people can use these resources to improve their functioning (Reeve, 2009).

To conclude, how do you generate a sense of initiative within yourself? Reeve (2009) states that needs, energy and direction might arise from a perception of competence or a need for achievement but might fall from a perception of incompetence and the fear of failure.

Increasing motivation involves the developmental effort to build effectance motivation, strong and resilient self-efficacy beliefs, a mastery motivational orientation, robust personal control beliefs, achievement strivings, a healthy sense of self and identity, sense of competence, an autonomy causality orientation, mature defense mechanisms, goal-setting caacities, self-regulation abilities, interests and preferences, an optimistic explanatory style and build and broaden one's capacity for positive affect (Reeve, 2009). The more one develops strong, resilient and productive inner motivational resources, the more frequently they will experience strong, resilient and productive motivational states (Reeve, 2009).

Thankyou so much James for your patience and kindness!! It was so relieving at times having you there at those late hours of the night! I was eager to learn about motivation and emotion as a subject. Particularly, the straight foward question of "What motivates someone?". The textbook was great! i loved the simplicity and the explanations. Furthermore, i found the textbook a lot more "hands on" in comparison to straight a theoretical basis. This is shown specifically in the last chapter. The chapter focuses on using your knowledge and adapting it to situations. I also really enjoyed the idea of the textbook chapter! It was a great chance for students to choose a topic they wanted to write about, which ironically would have increased their intrinsic motivation as they would have generally wanted to study the topic. Unfortuantly, i found the wikipedia concept really difficult. After so many trials and errors i still found the concept confusing to grasp.I am disapointed as i usually go well in written tasks, but i struggled with the technology and that threw me off. All in all, it was a great idea and a great outcome!! Thanks James!

title: User:CEB


text:
User:Bails

Introduction
Motivation and Emotion begins!

For me, this is a particularly poignant class to culminate my time at University. Motivation has always been an aspect of psychology that interests me. I am fascinated at the varying levels of motivation that individuals possess. Why can some people get up at 5am and go to the gym every day, when others struggle to make it out of bed by midday? Hopefully this class provides some answers, and equips me with techniques to improve my own erratic levels of motivation.

'Would you like to see the motivation and emotion textbook chapter on Salf Sabotage? Click here! ' For a visual summary of that chapter Click Here!

Two perennial Questions
The course began by asking two fundamentally critical questions about motivation:

What causes behaviour?

To understand motivation we have to understand;
 * Why people begin a behaviour?
 * Why they sustain that behaviour?
 * Why the behaviour is directed towards some goals and away from others?
 * Why does behaviour change directions?
 * Why does behaviour stop?

Motives, therefore, are merely an internal process that energises and directs behaviour. These motives can be categorised into four separate catagories:

Needs – Needs are motives that are essential to an individual’s survival. For example, humans need sleep, food, water

Cognitions – Thoughts, beliefs, morals. Any mental process that dictates our behaviour

Emotions – Emotions dictate how we react to important events in our lives

External events – Environmental events are interactions with our social environment that can dictate behaviour

There are four main cannons for quantifying motivation, which allow us to measure the varying levels in motivation between individuals. They are:

Behaviour – Attention, Effort, Persistence, Latency, Persistence etc.

Engagement – Intensity of behaviour, emotion and personal investment.

Brain and Physiology Activations – Hormonal, chemical and neural changes in the body and brain

Self Report – Asking the individual about their anxiety, motivation, enthusiasm

History of motivation
Motivation is a concept which by scientific standards, may be considered brand new. However, it’s origins trace back throughout history to the earliest philiosophers, such as Socrates, Plato and Decartes. As with most psychological theorem, motivation has been built on throughout the ages, and study on this subject embraced three grand theories; Will, Instinct and Drive. Decartes thought that if he could explain a person’s will, he could explain their motivation. However, will was too difficult to explain and quantify. Charles Darwin then proposed that humans were motivated by biological needs. Darwin’s theory of biological determinism suggested that individuals were essentially animals, and were born with the ability to perform the behaviours that are vital to survive, or instincts. However, this was soon replaced by drive theory, which suggested that humans were motivated to tend to biological imbalances (eat when hungry, sleep when tired). Eventually drive theory was also disregarded, and contemporary psychology is more concerned with smaller theories which don’t seek to explain the phenomena as a whole. This allows input from a broad spectrum of fields to explain particular aspects of motivation, rather than one grand theory to explain everything.

Reflection
'''It is interesting to break down motivation into a series of processes. Prior to this class, I was ignorant to think that motivation was purely an aspect of a persons life, which predominantly preceded a behaviour. However, it is clear already that motivation is an ongoing process which continues throughout the behaviour and determines failure and success.'''

'''I am also fascinated by Darwin’s theories in motivation. I find it quite humbling to be considered merely an animal, who is trying to survive, stay healthy, and reproduce. It gives every day tasks like eating, sleeping and having sex a broader importance that one might consider.'''

Week Two - Assessment :
This week’s content concerns the assessment we have for this class. This certainly appears as though it is going to be a unique experience. It is exciting to be breaking the mould of standard assessments like essays and reports, replacing them with text book chapters, visual diaries and reflective journals, all in the format of a Wikipedia page. It is going to bee an invaluable experience to learn how to use Wikipedia, and I suspect this is an insight into the direction that University assessment will head in the future. Also exciting is the lack of final exam in this class. I find exams to be redundant measures of learning, and I am much happier to spend the extra time preparing assessment pieces which will ultimately add to the public knowledge base within the subject. It seems crazy that more lecturers don’t try this type of assessment, so that the work that we put in can be accessed by the general public, rather than remaining dormant on student’s USB sticks.

The Brain
This week’s content relates to the physiological changes that occur in a person’s brain which dictate motivation and behaviour. As Reeve (2009, pp 49) suggests, all motivational and emotional states involve brain participation. Within the brain, there are three areas which guide motivational changes;

Specific brain structures generate specific motivations When stimulated, the different areas in the brain produce different motivational charges. Each part of the brain is responsible for a different part of a persons behaviour, both conscious and sub-conscious. For instance, stimulating a part of the hypothalamus produces an urge to eat. Biochemical agents stimulate specific brain structures This relates to the biological process and chemicals that are released in order to trigger the part of the brain necessary to initiate a behaviour. Included are hormones, neurotransmitters and receptors.

Day to day events stir biochemical agents in to action The events in our social environment which trigger the biological reaction, which in turn promotes motivation. For example, an unexpected pleasant event occurring will trigger the release of dopamine, which stimulates the limbic structures, which arouses pleasure and positive thoughts.

Reflection
'''The human brain is a constant source of amazement. By reaching the third and final year of my psychology degree, I am beginning to get an idea into how the brain works. One trick I have discovered which relates to the biological processes in mood regulation in the brain involves the mundane task of cleaning my house. I have discovered through my studies that if I am in a bad mood, I am capable of performing tasks that trigger the release of dopamine, and increase my mood. I find that if I am upset of angry, a good method to alleviate this is to clean my house thoroughly. While this may sound silly, I find that the satisfaction that comes from cleaning, and then the overall reward of having a clean house increases my mood. I would suggest that in biological, I am feeling the satisfaction of cleaning, which releases dopamine, which activates the limbic structures, which inevitably raises my mood.'''

Needs
“A need is any condition within a person that is essential and necessary for life, growth, and well-being.” (Reeve, 2009)

Needs are a fundamental aspect of a person’s life. They maintain a level of psychological and physical well being, and promote growth through an individual’s life. It is imperative that these needs are nurtured to protect the well being of an individual, and therefore motivation plays a part in tending to these needs in order to achieve a satisfactory level of well being.

Needs can be broken down into three categories:

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

The theoretical background relating to needs incorporates Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This is an interesting visual representation of Maslow’s opinion on the importance of human needs. Beginning at the bottom are the most basic of needs for survival (food, water, sex). Gradually the pyramid climbs, with each level becoming less important to survival, but more important to achieve self actualisation and happiness. However important, each need triggers a motivational reaction within the person. For instance, if they need water, they will be motivated to get up off the couch and get a drink. This is a basic need, and the motivational reaction to satisfy it. As the levels of the pyrmid increase, seemingly also does the complexity for achieving that need. At the top is ‘spontaneity’, which is more difficult to satisfy that simply drinking a glass of water.

Reflection
'''I do enjoy Maslow’s concept of the hierarchy of needs. Looking at the simple diagram, I feel as though it makes sense. I have wondered though, does one have to achieve the lower levels in order to try and tackle the higher levels. For instance, the need of employment is on the second level, but family relationships on the third. I would suggest that one doesn’t need a job in order to maintain a strong family relationship. However, I think that this is not the way Maslow designed the theory. I think the levels are just general levels of priority, but not strict guidelines.'''

Psychological Needs
An underlying assumption relating to individuals psychological needs is that people are inherently active. Reeve (2009) states that from an early age people push and pull things, shake, throw, carry, and are constantly asking questions relating to objects in our social environment. Therefore, psychological needs promote an enthusiasm to interact with our social environment so that we can learn and grow as people. Psychological needs fit into three main categories:

Autonomy - This relates to an individual’s right to make decisions for themselves. People generally want the freedom to set the goals for themselves that they perceive as important. Generally people then choose behaviours that relate to their own interests, and it is important to their psychological well being that they are able to make these decisions for themselves.

Competence - Failure is an unpleasant feeling. People generally want to feel as though they are competent at the tasks that they choose to do. There is a desire to achieve success in relationships, at work, in sports, and so on.

Relatedness - An enduring quality of human life is the desire to belong, and be part of the group. It is psychologically healthy for a person to maintain strong social interactions. Reeve (2009) suggests that relatedness is the psychological need to establish close emotional bonds and attachments with other people, and it reflects the desire to be emotionally connected to and interpersonally involved in warm relationships.

Reflection
'''I have often looked at the relationships that my friends form, mostly romantic, and wondered why they bother with their partner of choice. It often seems that the relationship they choose to maintain is more hassle than it is good. However, if you look at it from a motivational perspective, it becomes clear that relatedness is a core psychological need. So while the relationship may involve some anguish, they are still satisfying the core psychological need of relatedness.'''

'''It is also interesting to look at psychological needs from a University perspective. I have been in many classes where we have been required to give oral presentations in groups. I can see now that this provides a clash with all of the three main psychological needs, and this may seek to explain why people loathe this form of assessment. Firstly, it removes the autonomy from the task, given that there has to be a level of compromise from all parties to achieve successs. Secondly, it introduces a forum for a person to be publically judged. Standing up and delivering a speech to fellow students is a daunting task, as it seems as though everyone else is constantly judging your work, and may find you incompetent. Thirdly, if that person thinks their work is incompetent, they may feel as thought they will be sub-consciously removed from the class due to inferiority. This breaks the bonds of relatedness.'''

Thank god this class didn’t have an oral presentation!!

Social Needs
Social needs are acquired through interactions with our social environment. They are constantly changing, and usually lie dormant until the potentional to realise a social need arises. Reeve (2009) uses an interesting example to explain the differences in social needs by using the analogy of a person getting a job in a company. That person strives to progress through the ranks for different reasons (e.g. to earn more money, to gain power, or even just to acquire knowledge for future ventures), and these motivational variances account for the variances in social needs. Again, social needs can be broken down into three main categories:

Achievement – To successfully complete a task, and as such satisfy the competence psychological need. The emotional benefit of successful achievement of a task motivates a person to attempt a task, and persist until other forces interrupt.

Affiliation – closesly related to relatedness, affiliation deals with the human desire to illicit positive and meaningful relationships with the people in their social environment. Affiliation is deficiency orientated, meaning that the fear of rejection, loneliness and separation increases a person’s desire to be with others and maintain relationships.

Power – Essentially, power is a persons desire to shape their social environment in the form in which they see it should be. They want the ability to manipulate their social environment so it conforms with their view of the world.

Reflection
'''It seems apparent that the priority that people place on these needs varies, which accounts for the differences in motivation between various people. It have often contemplated big business people, like Kerry Packer, Rupert Murdoch, and wondered how much money these people realistically need. It must be impossible to spend the amount of money they have. However, it is obvious that money is only one aspect of a person’s needs. For these sorts of people, they must prioritise power as a social and psychological need. Because of this, they continue to buy and sell companies and businesses in an effort to maximise their power. One must wonder however, given that these people apparently devote their lives to their work, are they neglecting other basic needs - Relatedness for instance?'''

'''It seems to be as wealthy and as powerful as these people are, one must sacrifice other needs in their lives. Perhaps this is why the cliché ‘Money doesn’t buy happiness’ is particularly true.'''

Intrinsic Motivation
Reeve (2009) defines intrinsic motivation as the inherent propensity to engage one’s interest and to exercise one’s capacity and, in doing so, seek out and master optimal challenges. In other words, intrinsic motivation is a force from within an individual which pushes them to better themselves, and achieve optimal performance. Intrinsic motivation has many benefits, including a greater likelihood to persist in the face of failure. Given that a person who is intrinsically motivated is attempting a task with the goal of bettering themselves, they are more likely to persist even if it seems as though they are failing, because they know that the overall goal is satisfying the psychological needs of competence, relatedness and autonomy of life.

Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation is a motivational force which arises from interaction with our social environment. Essentially, extrinsic motivation is a result of incentives and consequences which a behaviour receives. Rather than being motivated intrinsically to better themselves, and extrinsically motivated person feeds of praise, attention, approval and credit.

Extrinsic motivation is based on the concept that there are three aspects that precede and and proceed it – incentives, consequences and rewards. Incentives help initiate the behaviour, consequences and rewards both come after the behaviour, and can be both positive and negative. For example, a parent might tell their child that if they complete their homework, they will be allowed to play a computer game (incentive). The child completes the homework, and is given the computer game (reward), but upon inspection of the work the parent decides the work is not up to standard, so the game is taken away (consequence).

Reflection
'''It is interesting to consider which type of motivation drives me through my studies. I feel as though I began my degree because I felt that I was smart enough to earn one, and as such I deserved one. Throughout my studies, I have considered changing degrees, and dropping out all together. However, I feel as though now I would be letting my parents down. This suggests that I was intrinsically motivated to begin my degree, but that has transferred to a level of extrinsic motivation to complete it.'''

'''Another interesting aspect of this week’s content relates to extrinsic motivation, specifically the rewarding of good behaviour. While I have no children of my own, I have often considered what type of parent I will be, and throughout the study of psychology, I think I have learned some valuable behavioural techniques to become a good parents. Interestingly though, my parents, whom never studied Psychology, implemented a system when I was a child, which I can see from my reading this weeks was an example of a token economy. They put a chart on the wall with my name on it, and called it the “star chart”. Then, every time I performed a desired behaviour, I was rewarded with an arbitrary star on the chart. After collecting 10 of them, I was allowed to do an activity (e.g. go to Questacon). It is amazing that this simple technique used by my parents is an heavily considered psychological technique using extrinsic motivation to reward good behaviour.'''

Goal Setting
Goal setting involves creating targets for accomplishment. Goals then highlight the difference between the current level of accomplishment and the desired level of accomplishment. Goals can range from simple, easy to achieve tasks, to difficult, almost unattainable tasks. Reeve (2009) suggests that only the difficult and specific goals increase performance, and they energise the person, and give them a specific direction towards a course of action. The example that Reeve (2009) uses is gym related, in that a person who sets a goal of ‘doing their best’ at the gym, won’t do as many pushups as a person who sets the goal of 50 pushups.

Goal Striving
Once the goal has been set, goal striving comes in to play. It involves the course of action that a person is going to take to achieve the goal they have set for themselves. It is easy enough to set a goal, however it is striving to achieve the goal that many people fail. Reeve (2009) suggests that the key reason people fail to achieve goals is that they lack a clear plan on how they are going to achieve it.

Reflection
'''This is my problem!! I set myself many goals, however I very rarely accomplish them. After reading this chapter, I think I have narrowed my flaws down to a few specific problems.'''

 * 1) I don’t set realistic goals
 * 2) I don’t set out a plan to specify how I am going to achieve them
 * 3) If my goal is to lose weight, I often keep this a secret. That way I won’t appear to be a failure to my friends if I shy away from my diet.

'''I think instead of saying ‘I want to lose 20kgs’, I am better off saying ‘I want to go for a run 2 times this week.’ Once I have achieved that, I can increase it to three times per week, and so on. These goals are much easier to achieve, and will increase the likelihood of my persistence with exercise..'''

Week Six : Personal Control & The Self
Personal Control & The Self

This week’s content deals with expectancies. Essentially and expetency is a prediction of how likely an event is to occur. There are two main types of expectencies;

Self efficacy
Self efficacy is essentially an individual’s perception on whether or not they will be able to master a situation, and whether or not they think they have the skills to cope. It also deals with the ability of that person to translate and adapt the skills that they already possess to master an unusual situation. Reeve (2009) discusses an example of a person driving a car. The person might rate themselves as a good driver, but if you create a tricky situation involving dodgy roads, unreliable car, terrible weather, does that person think that they can adapt their skills as a good driver to these conditions.

Self efficacy can be derived from many sources, including:
 * Personal behaviour history
 * Vicarious experience
 * Verbal persuasion
 * Physiological activity
 * Choice
 * Effort and persistence
 * Thinking/decision making
 * Emotional reactions

Mastery beliefs
Mastery beliefs are hardy, resilient beliefs which are present when a person believes they they have the necessary skills to achieve a goal. They don’t let prospective failure deter them, rather they use this as a learning experience to enrich their overall achievement. They are fully focused on achieving mastery, and as such will persist in the presence of setbacks.

Tutorial
During the tutorial this week, we all completed the Learned Optimism test (Seligman, 1991). My results are as follows:

Reflection
'''It is obvious from the results of the learned optimism test, that I am a fairly pessismistic person, and that I have moderately low self-esteem. I think I have always known this to be the case. I have never been a particularly confident person, and I think this is reflected in the results I gained in this test. However, I think that if I had taken this test 10 years ago, it would have been even more stacked towards pessimism and low self esteem. I think that as time goes on, I am becoming aware of my own abilities, and I am seeking to achieve things because I want to achieve them and become a better person. Because of this, I realise I have my self to blame for failures. I would be interested to do this test again in another 10 years.'''

Week Nine : Nature of Emotion
I would define emotions as personal reactions to situations that arise in our social environment. Emotions then dictate our behaviour and cause us to act in ways which may not be congruent with our normal behaviour.

Emotion is based on the five perennial questions

 * 1) What is emotion?
 * 2) What causes and emotion?
 * 3) How many emotions are there?
 * 4) What good are the emotions?
 * 5) What is the difference between emotions and mood?

While considering what an emotion was, it was difficult to define it in words. I know what an emotion is – everyone does. Though how do you describe it? Reeve (2009) suggest this trouble in definition is because emotions are in fact more complex than one might think. They are multidimensional, biological, physical, and necessary. They involve feelings, bodily arousal, sense of purpose and social expressiveness (i.e. facial expressions).

Emotions are usually triggered by significant life events. This life event triggers cognitive processes and biological processes, which in turn stimulates feelings, sense of purpose, bodily arousal and social expressiveness.

The basic emotions are:
 * Fear
 * Anger
 * Disgust
 * Sadness
 * Joy
 * Interest

Emotions are a coping mechanism, designed to help people cope with the many stressful situations that arise in our lives. Furthermore, they allow us to display our feelings to others. For example, if a person is upset at the passing of a loved one, they will appear to be sad. This then allows others around to notice that the person is upset, and offer a helping hand.

Emotions differ from mood in that they usually arise from significant life events. Moods are every day feelings that generally only affect our cognitions, rather than affecting our behaviour directly. Emotions tend to be reactions to short term events, maybe only minutes long. Whereas moods are usually the result of an extended period of time.

Reflection
'''This introduction to emotion is fairly straight forward. It is interesting to acknowledge the difference between moods and emotions. Previously, I may have had trouble distinguishing between the two.'''

'''It was also tricky trying to define emotions. It’s amazing how something which we experience every day, and that we understand fully what they are, can be so difficult to define in words. I guess this is the enduring aspect of psychology that interests me. It’s great when you can relate these theories into practical examples in our lives.'''

Week Ten : Aspects of Emotion
Emotion can be broken down into three main aspects; Biological, cognitive and socio-cultural.

Biological

The biological aspect of emotion is simply that, the biological reaction our body experiences when we feel an emotion. The resounding theory of biological reactions to emotion was coined by James Lange, who suggested that we feel an emotion, and quickly that emotion is followed by a physiological change in the body. For example, if we hear a police car while driving, we feel fear, which quickly makes our heart rates speed up, and perhaps even creates sweat.

Critics of James Lange’s theory suggested however that these physiological reactions were simply part of a general fight or flight response, and did not vary between emotions.

The contemporary perspective on the subject is that while other theories better explain the biological reaction to emotion, some research does suggest there are distinguishable patterns of reactions for specific emotions. That means that perhaps Lange was right, and that the body reacted to the felt emotion.

Cognitive aspects of emotion

The cognitive perspective of emotion is again, based very much around the concept of a rigid computer program. The cognitive view states that at first, there is a life event. This is then appraised by the individual as good or bad, which creates an emotion (like or dislike). As a result of this sequence, there is an action performed at the culmination (withdraw or approach).

Socio-cultural aspects of emotion

Social psychologists argue that emotional reactions are not a personal thing, and are instead influenced by our social and cultural environment. This theory suggests that people are inclined to mimic those people around them, and that this interaction can cause emotions to stir.

Reflection
'''Once again I find myself aligned to the theoretical perpective of cognitive psychology. I’m not sure if my backround as a software developer has something to do with it, but I always find that cognitive views seem to make the most sense. They are clear and concise views of behaviour. Though with the view of emotion, I do see the merit in the biological perspective. I feel as though emotions are necessary for our psychological well being, and as such have evolved over millions of years into the product we see today.'''

'''One example I can think of is that on occasion, I find myself getting upset for no reason. Suddenly I will feel overwhelmed with what I’m doing. Often these aren’t caused by a specific life event that I have appraised, and then become upset about. I usually attribute this to being overly tired. In this situation, it would make sense that my body recognises that I’m tired, and is trying something to get me to withdraw from what I’m doing (this assignment), and have a rest. It appears to me that this is a mechanism to achieve sleep, rather than an emotional response to a significant life event.'''

Personality
This weeks lecture was focussed on identifying the personality differences that lead to different people experiencing different emotions within the same situation. The main explanation for the differences has to do with personality trait differences. Of course we all know the big 5 personality traits:

 * Neuroticism
 * Extraversion
 * Openness
 * Agreeableness
 * Conscientiousness

Essentially, a persons rating on each of these traits has some bearing on they emotional reaction to a situation. A person who has a high neuroticism score will most likely react differently to a situation than a person who scores low on neuroticism.

Arousal
Arousal is the cumulative effect of several systems working simultaneously. These systems are the brain, skeletal muscular system and autonomic nervous system, and are explained by four key principles:

A person’s arousal level is mostly a function of how stimulating the environment is

People engage in behaviour to increase or decrease their level of arousal

When underaroused, people seek out opportunities to increase their arousal levels, because increases in environmental stimulation are pleasureable and enhance performance, whereas decreases are aversive and undermine performance

When overaroused, people seek out oppoertunities to decrease their level of arousal, because increase in environmental stimulation are aversive and undermine performance whereas decreases are pleasurable and enhance performance.

This phenomonen is demonstrated in Figure 1.

Reflection
'''I had never considered excessive arousal a positive thing. I always thought that anxiety due to the stress of an exam or an assignment was a bad thing. I considered it unhealthy, and inhibiting. Having considered the theory of arousal, and the inverted U, I now see the benefit of arousal, stress, anxiety.'''

'''I had always wondered why these things exist. Why haven’t these apparently negative emotions evolved out of our psyche? It is obvious now that arousal is vital to achieve optimal performance. If it wasn’t for the stress of an upcoming assignment, I would be unlikely to sit down and to the necessary research. The stress involved with this increases performance, and enables us to achieve our potential.'''

'''It is interesting to think about this in a sporting context. I had always marvelled at how athletes can perform personal best achievements on international stages like Olympic games. How can professional Rugby players play at their best with such massive crowds and such intense pressure? Obviously this pressure is vital to the athlete to enable them to perform at their best. I remember a study from social psychology that showed that mice were able to navigate through the maze more quickly if there were other rats watching. I guess these two aspects of motivation are closely related. The audience raises arousal levels which increases performance. Obviously however, only to a point.'''

Week Twelve : Unconscious Motivation
Freud’s psychoanalytic view on motivation was a stepping stone towards the contemporary view of motivation we have today. Psychoanalysis opposes a humanstic view of motivation, and states that the ultimate cause of motivation stems from biological and socially acquired impulses that determine our desires, thoughts, feelings and behaviours (Reeve, 2009).

Contemporary psychodynamics is based on four core priciples:

The Unconscious
The modern view on the unconscious has undergone years of rigorous debate. While many were keen to dispel Freud’s pessimistic views, it is widely regarded that there we are in fact motivated by forces which are beyond our every day awareness.

Freud’s view on dreaming is particularly interesting. He postulated that dreams were an unconscious venting of daily stresses. Because of this, he thought that there was particular truth to dreams, as it was pure unconscious thought.

Ego Psychology
Reeve (2009) states that according to neo-Freudians, the ego is virtually nonexistent at birth. The ego is a result of the process of maturity, growth and adjustment. During it’s infancy, it is constantly overwhelmed by impulses. However, as it develops, it begins to defend against these impulses, such as anxiety and depression.

Object Relations Theory
Object relations Theory is an interesting theory focused on the nature and development of mental representation of one’s self (Reeve, 2009). The theory explains why children raised in troublesome households may encounter problems in life. In essence, the theory suggests that a child is a blank canvas, and they base the development of them selves on their caregivers. So if a child is raised by a mother who is affected by drugs, or in a house with frequent domestic violence, the child unconsciously learns this, and takes these values into the world, which can cause tumultuous relationships of their own.

Reflection
'''While Freud’s theories are by and large disregarded, it is such a fascinating way to think about the world. If we were to believe what he theorised, the world would be a much more interesting place. If in fact there was legitimacy to claim that dreams were in fact a representation of truth, it would give us insight into our deep desires. If sudden accidental outbursts were a glimpse of the truth, it would make social gatherings much more interesting.'''

'''I think some people would like to believe that dreams are a slice of truth, and a glimpse into our unconscious. I think that would explain dreams, and help people reconcile their apparent lack of sense. However, there are other theories of dreams which I consider more likely to be truthful..'''

Week Thirteen : Growth and Positive Psychology
Holism and positive psychology are a completely different way of looking at psychology. Modern psychology tends to be focused on a “bottom up” approach to explaining behaviour. That is, focusing on the specific, individual motives, one at a time, and in isolation from one another (Reeve, 2009).

Holism and positive psychology shy away from that, and stress a “top down” approach.

Holism
“Holism” is derived from the word “whole”, and gives some insight into the broad, all encompassing perspective that it describes. Holism focuses on discovered the human potential, and encourages the development of that potential.

Positive Psychology
Positive psychology is relatively new in the study of psychology. Essentially, positive psychology looks at individuals and asks “what could be?”. It is focussed on the positive aspects of a persons life, and is proactive in creating strong personal strengths.

Self Actualization
Self actualization is a developmental process that people go on to achieve happiness. This again draws back to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which arranges the various needs in a person’s life according to their strength and priority. It starts down the bottom with basic survival needs of food and water, before gradually progressing up though the less important, but more fulfilling needs.

The Problem of Evil
There are two fundamental questions related to the evil aspects of positive psychology, they are:

 * 1) How much of human nature is inherently evil?
 * 2) Why do some people enjoy inflicting suffering on others?

The humanistic view of these questions suggests that evil is not an inherent quality of human nature. It is in fact a product of negative experiences and the damage those experiences do.

Reflection
'''I was once watching a television program set in a court room, and they introduced the concept of Schadenfreude. This to me, is a fascinating insight into humanistic psychology. From the readings in Reeve (2009), we are lead to believe that people are inherently good, and that evil is merely a result of experiences which have damaged the person. However, it is interesting that according to the concept of Schadenfreude, people take pleasure in witnessing the misfortune of others. That means, perhaps we actually enjoy watching people in the news get locked up and go to jail. I have to admit, that watching events like Schappelle Corby go to jail for life was something I found somewhat pleasurable. I remember thinking ‘well, if you’re that stupid…’. Is this an evil thing to think? If it was someone I knew, I’m sure I wouldn’t feel as ambivalent.'''

'''I like the ideas of positive psychology, however I have to doubt it’s validity. It just seems all too perfect.'''

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