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Emotion

Motivation and emotion are closely related. Anger is frequently an instigator of aggressive behaviour although such behaviour can also occur in the absence of anger. Emotions can activate and direct behaviour in the same way biological or psychological motives can. Emotions may also accompany motivated behaviour. Emotions can be a goal; we engage in certain activities because we know that they will bring us pleasure.

The nature of the relationship between motivation and emotion, as well as the definition of emotion itself, is an unresolved issue in psychology. Most people would say that anger, fear, joy, and grief are emotions but would classify hunger, thirst and fatigue as states of the organism that serve as motives. What is the difference? Why don’t we call hunger an emotion?

There is no clear cut distinction. The most common basis for differentiating between the two assumes that emotions are usually aroused by external stimuli, and that emotional expression is directed toward the stimuli in the environment that arouse it. Motives, on the other hand, are more aroused by internal stimuli and are “naturally” directed toward certain objects in the environment (for example, food, water, or a mate). However, there are a number of instances when this distinction does not hold (когда это различие не имеет силы). For example, an external incentive such as the sight or smell of delicious food can arouse hunger in the absence of internal hunger cues. And internal stimuli, such as those caused by severe food deprivation or pain, can arouse emotion.

Most motivated behaviour has some affective, or emotional accompaniment, although we may be too preoccupied in our striving toward the goal to focus on our feeling at the time. When we talk about motivation we usually focus on the goal-directed activity; in discussing emotion our attention is drawn to the subjective, affective experiences that accompany the behaviour. We are apt to be more aware of our emotions when efforts to achieve a goal are blocked (anger, despair) or when the goal is finally attained (pleasure, joy).

In the past, psychologists devoted considerable effort to trying to classify emotions. They attempted to find dimensions along which to scale such emotions as sorrow, disgust, surprise, jealousy, envy, and ecstasy. But such attempts have not proved very worthwhile. For our purposes we will note that emotions can be divided into those that are pleasant (joy, love) and those that are unpleasant (anger, fear). In addition, many of our emotional terms can be classified by intensity. Word pairs such as displeasure-rage, pain-agony, and sadness-grief convey differences of intensity. Some psychologists reserve the term emotion for the more intense states that are accompanied by widespread changes in body physiology and call the milder affective states feeling. But there are many intermediate states between mild experiences of pleasantness or unpleasantness and intense emotions


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