Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Introduction

Lecture 01: Introduction
This is the first lecture for the motivation and emotion unit of study.

Overview

This lecture:

Provides an overviews of the unit, highlighting:
- key points from the unit outline, particularly the assessment:
  - Quizzes (25%) test breadth of knowledge.
  - The major project investigates a unique, specific topic and is scaffolded into four steps:
    - topic selection (0%)
    - topic development (10%)
    - book chapter (45%)
    - multimedia presentation (20%)).
Introduces the psychological study of motivation and emotion and key conceptual frameworks (see Figure 1).

Outline

Unit overview

Listen to an introductory podcast about motivation and emotion (AI-generated, based on slides from the 12 lectures) (16:20 mins)

Introduction to motivation and emotion

Motivational science
Key questions
Scientific process
Motivation theoretical frameworks
Introduction to emotion

Motivational science

The psychological science of motivation and emotion does not pay much attention to what the layperson may consider motivation (e.g., inspirational quotes, what famous people say, news articles about self-hacking, personal opinion, and so on. For example, although New Year's resolutions feel good (when they are made) but have a low success rate.

Instead, psychological science makes theory-based hypotheses and tests their scientific merit using objective, empirical evidence from well-conducted and peer-reviewed research (see Figure 2).

Key questions

The key questions underlying psychological study of motivation and emotion are:

Why do we do
what we do?

Why do we feel

the way we feel?

The practical, applied problems are:

How can we change
what we do?

How can we change

what we feel?

Core problems to be solved by motivational science include "What causes behaviour?" and, more specifically:

Why does behaviour start?
Why is behaviour sustained over time?
Why is behaviour directed towards some goals yet away from others?
Why does behaviour change its direction?
Why does behaviour stop?

Etymology

The terms "motivation" and "emotion" have their roots in the Latin verb "movere" which means "to move" (see Figure 3). More specifically:

"motivation" is derived from "motivus" which refers to the action of moving or being moved. This evolved to "motivare" which means "to set in motion" or "to stimulate". In the context of psychology and behaviour, "motivation" refers to the processes that initiate, direct, and sustain goal-directed behavior. It is the driving force that pushes individuals to take action and achieve their objectives.
"emotion" comes from "emotus" which means "moved" or "agitated." Emotions are complex psychological states characterised by feelings, physiological responses, and behavioral expressions. Emotions are often triggered by internal or external events and can significantly influence behavior and decision-making.

Therefore, both motivation and emotion are linked to the idea of movement or being moved, but represent different aspects of human experiences and behaviour. Motivation is the driving force behind goal-oriented actions, while emotion is the affective states and responses to stimuli that often influence behavior and decision-making.

What is motivation?

Common understanding

The everyday, layperson understanding of "motivation" is that it involves using will-power and self-discipline to focus and channel one's attention and efforts towards achieving challenging short- or long-term goals such as working out or studying.

For example, how does this video make you feel? Why? The ultimate motivational clip - Rise and shine! (YouTube) (3:24 mins):

How do you motivate yourself?

Psychological understanding

In contrast, psychological science considers ALL behaviour to be motivated, including:

mundane behaviour (e.g., drinking and eating)
less "desirable" behaviours (e.g., avoidance, procrastination, nose-picking etc.)
"non-behaviour" (i.e., choosing not to do something is also a motivated behaviour)
approach-based goal-directed behaviours (e.g., training for a marathon)

Motivation is complex:

Multiple people engaged in the SAME behaviour (e.g., a workout) may have DIFFERENT motivations (e.g., fitness, emotion regulation, social engagement).
We each have MULTIPLE motivations in any moment, but only our DOMINANT motivation gets acted upon.

Motivation can be defined as all internal process that give behaviour energy, direction, and persistence (Reeve, 2018):

Energy (Strength): Behaviour strength, intensity, resilience
Direction (Purpose): Behaviour aimed to achieve particular purposes or outcome
Persistence (Endurance): Behaviour sustained over time and place

What is your definition of motivation?

What is emotion?

Emotions:

are dynamic e.g., help us adapt to our environment
provide feedback about our behaviour
motivate changes in energy, direction, and persistence of behaviour

Emotions involve subjective feelings, psychophysiological arousal, purposeful/motivated response, and expressive reactions to significant life events such as opportunity, threat, and loss (Reeve, 2018).

Emotional intelligence involves tuning into, self-regulating, and making effective use of emotion in one's self and others.

What is your definition of emotion?

Take-home messages

This unit seeks to understand and apply psychological theory and research about motivation and emotion.
Motivation refers to the processes that give behaviour its energy, direction, and persistence.
Emotions help us to adapt by functioning as motivators, providing feedback about our behaviour, and helping us to communicate our needs to others.

Readings

Unit outline
Chapter 01: Introduction (Reeve, 2018)

Slides

Unit overview (Google Slides)
Introduction to motivation and emotion (Google Slides)

Recording

Lecture 01 (2024)