Paige Bleck

Psychology 5th
3/19/2014
Motivation and Emotion
The psychology of motivation is based on needs, drives, and theories. When
psychologists talk about motives they are also talking about needs. A need is a condition in
which we require something we lack. People have both biological and psychological needs. We
fill the biological to survive. Examples of psychological needs are achievement, self-esteem, a
sense of belonging, and social approval. The difference between psychological and biological is
that psychological needs are not solely based on deprivation. Both biological and psychological
needs give rise to drives, the force that motivates an organism to take action. The biological need
for food gives rise to the hunger drive. Although hunger and thirst are a biological need the
experience of them is psychological. The longer people are deprived of something such as food
or water, the strong the drive becomes to obtain them.
There are many theories of motivation, the instinct theory, the drive reduction theory, the
humanistic theory, and the sociocultural theory. The instinct theory is when people let their
instincts motivate how they act and behave around other people. The Drive reduction theory was
developed by a psychologist Clark Hull. The theory is based on learning as well as motivation.
According to this theory people and animals experience a drive arising from a need as an
unpleasant tension. People learn to do whatever they can to reduce that tension by reducing the
drive. The humanistic theory is that people are motivated by conscious desire for personal
growth and artistic fulfillment. Abraham Maslow, one the psychologist that developed
humanistic psychology points out that people will suffer pain, hunger, and other kinds of tension
to fulfill their artistic and political goals. The sociocultural theory argues that basic drives like
hunger are inborn; culture experiences and factors influence the behavior that people use to

Paige Bleck
Psychology 5th
3/19/2014
satisfy those drives. Cultural experience affects whether people prefer hot dogs or tacos, it effects
whether people prefer kissing lips or holding hands to show affection.
Biological needs focus on hunger, biological needs are based mainly on body tissue
needs, such as the needs for food, water, air, temperature regulation, and pain avoidance.
Biological needs can be complex because they involve psychological as well as psychological
factors. Hunger is regulated by both biological and psychological factor. The acts of chewing and
swallowing provide certain sensations that help satisfy the hunger drive. The hunger drive is
usually satisfied when the body digests food and the nutrients in the food enter the bloodstream.
Hunger pangs felt in the stomach play a role in hunger but are not the main factor involved in
signaling hunger. The level of sugar in the blood and the part of the brain known as the
hypothalamus are key influences on feelings of hunger. Blood sugar levels drop when people do
not eat for a long time. Psychological influences affect the hunger drive, people usually eat more
food when around other people than when were alone. Certain amounts of food can produce
feeling of well-being and relaxation. People get the feeling to start eating or drinking to fend off
negativity, people with this tendency compulsively eat or drink alcohol when they need to be
alert.
70 percent of Americans are overweight or obese. Unhealthy weight is very common in
America today. Obese people have a higher chance of getting ill, having heart disease, or getting
diabetes. Thousands of people die each year because of health problems related to weight or
inactivity. Psychologist and other professionals have developed strategies to help overweight
people lose weight. Not everyone overweight who is a few pounds overweight should be trying
to slim down; teenagers shouldnt diet because they need a great deal of nutrition. There are
many causes of obesity, biological and psychological factor contribute to obesity. Obesity runs in

Paige Bleck
Psychology 5th
3/19/2014
families but it doesnt mean it is inherited. Genes help determine the number of fat cells a person
has. People with a greater number of fat cells feel hungry sooner than people with fewer fat cells
even if they are the same weight. When overweight people lose a couple pounds they do not
reduce the number of fat cells they have, they just make them smaller. People metabolize food,
or burn calories at different rates and in accordance with the amount of muscle and fat in their
bodies. Fatty tissue converts food to energy more slowly than muscle does people with body fat
metabolize food more slowly than people who weigh the same but have a lower percentage body
fat.
Psychological needs motivate human beings and other organisms to fulfill their needs
and wants. Stimulus motives include sensory stimulation, activity exploration, and manipulation
of the environment. Some stimulus motives have clear survival value. Sensory deprivation can
make people bored and irritable. All people seek sensory stimulation, but it is clear that some
need it more than others. Some people like being couch potatoes, other people like to be active
and they are not happy unless they are out running around or tossing a ball around. Exploration
and manipulation is something humans do when they are either nervous or curious. People that
are driven get ahead in life to tackle challenging situations. Adults may have high achievement
motivation may strive to move ahead in their careers. Goals and the development of achievement
motivation are made for people wanting to move on and accomplish many things in their lives.
The nature of emotions has biological, cognitive, and behavioral components. Strong
emotions spark activity in the autonomic nervous system. Some psychologist suggests that
emotions that people experience are present and distinct at birth. However they do not show up
all at once, they will emerge as the child develops. The state of happiness or unhappiness affects
almost everything we do as humans, including our perceptions of our surroundings. When a

Paige Bleck
Psychology 5th
3/19/2014
person is unhappy, gloom seems to settle over everything he or she does. When we feel good
everything seems to be good, but when we feel low everything seems to be getting worse. Anger
is a common response to an insult or an attack. Anger often makes a person seem out of control.
Usually anger is directed against someone close. Facial expressions are important for reading
people, we can tell when someone is happy because they are smiling, and we can tell when
someone is upset because they are frowning or the look in their eyes. Cross-cultural studies
suggest that facial expressions are most likely inborn. Facial expressions can signal weather a
group of strangers are friendly or not. There are many theories of emotions. There is the
Opponent-Process Theory, the Commonsense Approach, the James-Lange theory, the CannonBard Theory, and the Theory of Cognitive Appraisal. The three most popular theories of emotion
are the James-Lange theory, the Cannon Bard theory, and the Cognitive Appraisal theory,