SUBJECT: PSYCHOLOGY Std: 11

CHAPTER 4: - EMOTION AND MOTIVATION 2025-2026

CHAPTER OUTLINE

i) What is meant by emotion; the basic emotions

Subjective and cognitive experience, physiological basis of emotion - role of thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic
system and cortex; reactions and overt expression. Primary emotions - fear, anger, joy, sorrow, affection.

ii) Theories of emotion dealing with physiological, subjective and cognitive aspects.

James Lange, Cannon Bard, Schachter - Singer theories.

iii) What is meant by motives, needs and instincts

Motivation as an internal force generating certain behaviour - biological needs and homeostasis; instincts as
unlearned and physiological desires. Intrinsic - the desire to perform activities for their own sake.

iv) Theories of Motivation

Pull and push theories, Optimum Arousal theory and Expectancy theory - Graphic representation of Maslow's
Needs Hierarchy.

v) Social motives

Three distinctively human motives: Achievement - accomplishing difficult tasks; Power - exerting influence
over others; Aggression - learning and control of human aggression, causes and effects.

vi) Frustration - blocking of motives; conflict among motives

Frustration as a result of motives not finding free or adequate expression. Different types of conflict among
motives: approach-approach, avoidance-avoidance, multiple approach-avoidance (with examples).

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 I. EMOTIONS

a. What is meant by emotions? (Baron p.g. 335)

People do more than just behave—they experience feelings during every human action. Human beings are full
of feelings, or emotions, and although emotions may be internal processes, there are outward physical signs
of what people are feeling. The Latin root word mot, meaning “to move,” is the source of both of the words
we use in this chapter over and over again—motive and emotion. Emotion can be explained as the “feeling”
aspect of consciousness, characterized by three elements: a certain physical arousal, a certain behavior that
reveals the feeling to the outside world, and an inner awareness of the feeling.

“Emotions are reactions consisting of subjective cognitive states, physiological reactions and expressive
behaviours.”

Emotions involve three major components:

1. Physiological changes within our bodies- shift in heart rate, blood pressure, and so on;
2. Subjective cognitive states- the personal experiences we label as emotions; and
3. Expressive behaviors- outward signs of these internal reactions.

b. The Physiological Basis of Emotion (Baron pg 48,50-51; Morgan pg 313-314,317)

1. Biological Basis of emotion

a. The sympathetic nervous system heightens the body, alerts and controls the glands to secrete
hormones like epinephrine, increase heart rate, and sends more blood to the limbs.
The parasympathetic nervous system relaxes and calms the muscles of the body. It helps things
to conserve the body’s stores of energy.
b. Right cerebral hemisphere plays an important role in emotional functions. It specializes in
processing emotional information and expression of emotions.
c. Additional research indicates that structures deep within the brain play an important role in emotions.
Amygdala is involved in the ability to judge the intensity of emotions.

2. Role of Thalamus, Hypothalamus, Limbic System and Cortex in emotions

The cortex is the outer wrinkled covering of the brain. But there are a number of important structures located
just under the cortex and above the brainstem. Each of these structures plays a part in our behavior.

Limbic System: The limbic system (the word limbic means “marginal” and these structures are found in the
inner margin of the upper brain) includes the thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, and the
cingulate cortex. In general, the limbic system is involved in emotions, motivation, memory, and learning.
The limbic system is located within the cerebrum of the brain, immediately below the temporal lobes, and
buried under the cerebral cortex.

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The limbic system is thought to be an important element in the body’s response to stress, being highly connected
to the endocrine and autonomic nervous systems.
There are two widely accepted structures of the limbic system: the hippocampus and the amygdala. There
are differing opinions on which other structures are included in the system and which only interact closely
with it. The nerve cells (neurons) within the limbic system are structured differently from those in the cerebral
cortex.
1. Hippocampus
There are two hippocampi, located in each hemisphere of the brain. They are seahorse-shaped and are
structures mainly associated with being the memory centers of our brains.
Episodic memories are formed in the hippocampus and then filed away into long-term storage
throughout other parts of the cerebral cortex. The hippocampus always plays a role in spatial navigation
and has also been associated with learning and emotions.
Due to the hippocampus’s involvement in memory, damage to this area can lead to severe memory
impairments as well as spatial memory.

Encoding of memory and emotional experiences: It helps link various aspects of an emotional event,
such as sensory inputs, emotional reactions, and contextual information.
Emotional Regulation: The hippocampus interacts with other brain regions involved in emotional
regulation, such as the amygdala and prefrontal cortex thereby helps modulate and regulate emotional
responses.
Stress Response: The hippocampus is sensitive to stress hormones like cortisol, which can affect its
function.

2. Amygdala
The amygdala is an almond-shaped structure located right next to the hippocampus. The main function
of the amygdala is in emotional responses, including feelings of happiness, fear, anger, and anxiety.
This area is also key for the formation of new memories. The amygdala interacts with the hippocampus
by attaching emotional content to memories.
It has a role in how memorable memories can be – memories with strong emotional components tend
to stick rather than those with little emotional content.
‘Fear learning’ is also an element of the amygdala. Fearful memories can be formed after only a few
repetitions, which can result in avoidance of certain fearful stimuli. Therefore, the amygdala is linked
with the fight-or-flight response, as stimulating activity can influence the body’s automatic fear
response.
Damage to the amygdala can result in more aggression, irritability, loss of control of emotions, and
deficits in recognizing emotions, especially recognizing fear.

3. Thalamus: The thalamus (“inner chamber”) is in some ways similar to a triage (a process for sorting
injured people into groups based on their need for, or likely benefit from, immediate medical treatment)
nurse. This somewhat round structure in the center of the brain acts as a kind of relay station for
incoming sensory information. Like a nurse, the thalamus might perform some processing of that
sensory information before sending it onto the part of the cortex that deals with that kind of sensation—

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 hearing, sight, touch, or taste. Damage to the thalamus might result in the loss or partial loss of any or
all of those sensations. It is composed of a group of nerve cells and acts as a relay center of sensory
nerves. Stimulation of thalamus produces fear, anxiety, and autonomic reactions.

Relay Station: it acts as a kind of relay station for incoming sensory information.
Emotional Integration: The thalamus acts as a central hub, integrating emotional information from
different sensory modalities. By integrating these inputs, the thalamus helps create a coherent
emotional experience.
Regulation of Arousal: The thalamus is involved in regulating the level of arousal and attention, which
are essential aspects of emotional responses.

4. Hypothalamus: A very small but extremely powerful part of the brain is located just below and in front
of the thalamus. The hypothalamus (“below the inner chamber”) regulates body temperature, thirst,
hunger, sleeping and waking, sexual activity, and emotions. It sits right above the pituitary gland.

Neuroendocrine Function: The hypothalamus controls the pituitary, so the ultimate regulation of
hormones lies with the hypothalamus. It is considered the primary center for regulation of emotion.
Homeostasis: It also regulates the homeostatic balance, controls autonomic activity and secretion of
endocrine glands, and organises the somatic pattern of emotional behaviour.
Oxytocin release: The hypothalamus is involved in the release of oxytocin, a hormone often associated
with social bonding, trust, and attachment. Oxytocin plays a role in the experience of positive emotions
like love and bonding.
Reward and pleasure: The hypothalamus is involved in the brain's reward system, which is linked to
feelings of pleasure and motivation. It helps mediate the experience of pleasure and reinforces
behaviors that are associated with positive emotions and rewards.

Cortex: The cortex (“rind” or outer covering) is the outermost part of the brain, which is the part of the brain
most people picture when they think of what the brain looks like. It is made up of tightly packed neurons and
actually is only about one- tenth of an inch thick on average. The cortex is a very recognizable surface anatomy
because it is full of wrinkles. Cortex is intimately involved in emotions. However, its hemispheres have a
contrasting role to play. The left frontal cortex is associated with positive feelings whereas the right frontal
cortex with negative feelings.

c. The Subjective and Cognitive Experience of Emotion

The term emotion is often considered synonymous with the terms ‘feeling’ and ‘mood’. Feeling denotes the
pleasure or pain dimension of emotion, which usually involves bodily functions. Mood is an affective state of
long duration but of lesser intensity than emotion. Both these terms are narrower than the concept of emotion.
Emotions are a complex pattern of arousal, subjective feeling, and cognitive interpretation. Emotions, as we
experience them, move us internally, and this process involves physiological as well as psychological
reactions.
Emotion is a subjective feeling and the experience of emotions varies from person to person.

Interpreting the subjective feeling by giving it a label: anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, shame, interest,
and so on. Another way of labeling this element is to call it the “cognitive element,” because the labeling

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process is a matter of retrieving memories of previous similar experiences, perceiving the context of the
emotion, and coming up with a solution—a label.
The label a person applies to a subjective feeling is at least in part a learned response influenced by their
language and culture. Such labels may differ in people of different cultural backgrounds.

How Cognition Influences Affect

● Emotions or feelings we experience are strongly determined by the interpretation or cognitive labels
we select.
● Through the activation of schemas containing a strong component.
● Our thoughts can often influence our reactions to emotion-provoking events.

d. Reactions and Overt Expressions

How do people behave when in the grip of an emotion? There are facial expressions, body movements, and
actions that indicate to others how a person feels. Frowns, smiles, and sad expressions combine with hand
gestures, the turning of one’s body, and spoken words to produce an under- standing of emotion. People fight,
run, kiss, and yell, along with countless other actions stemming from the emotions they feel.

The verbal channel of communication is composed of spoken words as well as other vocal features of speech
like pitch and loudness of the voice. These non-verbal aspects of the voice and temporal characteristics of
speech are called ‘paralanguage’. Other non-verbal channels include facial expression, kinetic (gesture,
posture, movement of the body) and proximal (physical distance during face-to-face interaction) behaviours.
Facial expression is the most common channel of emotional communication. The amount and kind of
information conveyed by the face is easy to comprehend as the face is exposed to the full view of others. Facial
expressions can convey the intensity as well as the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the individual’s emotional
state. Facial expressions play an important role in our everyday lives.

Subjective expression of emotions

Non-verbal cues: Outward signs of others’ emotional states, such as facial expression, eye contact and body
language.
Body Language: Non-verbal cues involving body posture of movement of body parts. Emotions are conveyed
not only via face. A felt emotion may be communicated through other non-verbal channels as well, for
example, gaze behaviour, gestures, paralanguage, and proximal behaviour. The emotional meaning conveyed
via gestures (body language) varies from culture to culture.
Gestures: Movements of various body parts that convey specific meaning in a given culture.

e. Primary Emotions

Facial expressions can vary across different cultures, although some aspects of facial expression seem to be
universal. Charles Darwin (1898) was one of the first to theorize that emotions were a product of evolution
and, therefore, universal—all human beings, no matter what their culture, would show the same facial
expression because the facial muscles evolved to communicate specific information to onlookers. For example,
an angry face would signal to onlookers that they should act submissively or expect a fight. Even children who
are blind from birth can produce the appropriate facial expressions for any given situation without ever having
witnessed those expressions on others, which strongly supports the idea that emotional expressions have their
basis in biology rather than in learning.

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In their research, Ekman and Friesen found that people of many different cultures (including Japanese, European,
American, and the Fore tribe of New Guinea) can consistently recognize at least seven facial expressions: anger,
fear, disgust, happiness, surprise, sadness, and contempt (Ekman & Friesen, 1969, 1971). Although the emotions
and the related facial expressions appear to be universal, exactly when, where, and how an emotion is expressed
may be determined by the culture. Display rules that can vary from culture to culture are learned ways of
controlling displays of emotion in social settings. These unwritten codes or "display rules" govern the manner in
which emotions may be expressed, and that different rules may be internalised as a function of an individual's
culture, gender or family background.

II. THEORIES OF EMOTION: (Baron p.g.336- 337; Morgan pg. 329-331; Mangal pg. 321-323)

1. James-Lange theory of emotion

A theory of emotion suggesting that emotion-provoking events produce various physiological reactions
and that recognition of these is responsible for subjective emotional experience.
It suggests that subjective emotional responses are actually the result of physiological changes within our
bodies. In other words, you feel frightened when making your speech because you notice that your heart is
racing, your mouth is dry, etc. As William James himself put it: “We feel sorry because we cry, angry because
we strike and afraid because we tremble.”
We experience emotions because of our awareness of physiological reactions to various stimuli.
The support is provided by facial feedback hypothesis- this suggests that changes in our facial expressions
sometimes produce shifts in our emotional experiences rather than merely reflecting them. In addition, research
also suggests that changing our bodily postures or tone of voice may also influence emotional experiences.
For this reason, the facial feedback hypothesis has been renamed the peripheral feedback effect, to indicate
that emotions can be influenced by more than simply facial expressions.
These findings suggest that there may be substantial truth in James Lange theory.

2. Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

A theory of emotion suggesting that various emotion-provoking events simultaneously produce

physiological arousal and subjective reactions labelled as emotions.
This theory suggests emotion-provoking events induce simultaneously the subjective experiences as emotions
and the physiological reactions that accompany them.
Example, the sight of the audience and of your professor, pen poised to evaluate your performance, causes
you to experience a racing heart, and other physiological arousal and at the same time to experience subjective
feelings you label as fear.
This situation stimulates various portions of the nervous system so that both arousal, mediated by the
autonomic nervous system and subjective feelings, mediated by the cerebral cortex and other portions of the
brain, are produced.

3. Schachter-Singer theory or Two Factor Theory of Emotion

A theory of emotion suggesting that our subjective emotional states are determined, at least in part by
the cognitive labels we attach to feelings of arousal, also known as two factor theory.
Emotion provoking events produce increased arousal. In response to this we search the external environment
in order to identify the causes behind them. The factors we then select play a key role in determining the
label.

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We place on our arousal, and so in determining the emotion we experience.
If we feel aroused after a near miss in traffic, we will label our emotion as “fear” or “anger”. Instead we feel
aroused in the presence of an attractive person we may label as it as “attraction” or “love”
We perceive ourselves to be experiencing the emotion that external cues tell us we should be feeling. This
contrasts the James-Lange theory, which suggests that we focus on internal physiological cues to determine
whether we are experiencing an emotion and what this emotion is.
The Schachter-Singer theory is a two factor theory as it considers both arousal and the cognitive appraisal we
perform in our efforts to identify the causes of such arousal.

III. MOTIVES, NEEDS AND INSTINCTS: (Baron, P.g.317; Morgan, 267-269)

Motivation: (Baron p.g. 371; Morgan & King, p.g. 268, 269; Mangal p.g. 138)
Motivation as an internal force generating certain behaviour.
Motivation is defined as
● “The internal processes that activate, guide and maintain goal-oriented behavior over time.” .
● Motivation refers to states within a person or animal that drives behaviour towards some goal.
● Motivation is regarded as something which prompts, compels and energises an individual to act
or behave in a particular manner at a particular time for attaining some specific goal or purpose.

a. Types of Motivation
● Extrinsic Motivation- refers to behavior that is driven by external rewards such as money, fame,
grades, and praise; or external punishment such as fear of failing, fear of reprimand, etc.
● Intrinsic Motivation- Motivation to perform activities because they are rewarding in and of
themselves.
a.1 Intrinsic Motivation (Baron, p.g. 334 – 335)
Intrinsic motivation may be defined as - Motivation to perform activities because they are rewarding
in and of themselves. Individuals perform many activities simply because they find them enjoyable.
Such activities may be described as stemming from intrinsic motivation, that is, we perform them
because of the pleasure they yield, not because they lead to external rewards.
But what if people are rewarded to do these activities?
Research shows that people then experience reduction in the activity. Because –
● The person doesn't perceive the activity as their own behaviour.
● They now conclude the activity as a part of gaining rewards.
Additional evidence suggests that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are not necessarily
incompatible. If the external rewards are seen as a sign of recognition and not bribe, and if the
rewards are large, satisfying, intrinsic motivation may be enhanced.

b. Components of Motivation
● Activation/Direction involves the decision to initiate a behaviour.
● Persistence is the continued effort toward a goal even though obstacles may exist.
● Intensity can be seen in the concentration and vigour that goes into pursuing a goal

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 c. Aspects of Motivation

1. Motives: (Mangal p.g. 141 – 142)

A motive is an inclination or impulsion to action plus some degree of orientation or direction. Others can make
inferences about our motives even though we need not be conscious or aware of our motive, thus our behaviour
can be driven by unconscious motivation.
Motives are inferences from behavior. They help us make predictions about behavior.
There are varieties of motives based on the basic human needs:
● Hunger, Thirst, Sex, Maternal, Aggression, Affiliation, and Achievement motive.
Motives help us make predictions about behavior. Motives do not tell us exactly what will happen, they give
us an idea about the range of things a person will do. A person with a need to achieve will work hard in school,
in business, in play and in many other situations.

2. Needs: (Mangal p.g. 138 – 139)

Needs are general wants and desires. Every human being has to strive for the satisfaction of his basic needs
if he has to maintain or improve or fulfill himself in the world. Needs can be roughly categorized into
a. Biological Needs and b. Socio-Psychological Needs (needs that are associated with the socio-cultural
environment)
Biological Needs:
All our bodily and organic needs fall into this category.
⮚ Need for oxygen, water, food – needs of survival
⮚ Other survival needs –
● Rest when tired,
● action when rested,
● elimination of waste products,
● Maintaining a proper body temperature.
● sleep after wakeup,
● Protection from the physical environment.
⮚ Need for satisfaction of sexual urges or desires – It is not an essential need of survival, but is the
strongest human urge for a happy life.
⮚ Demand of our senses – physical contact, sensory stimulation etc.
Socio-Psychological Needs:
1. The need for Freedom or independence: All humans have the urge to remain free and independent
because nature has created us as free and independent individuals.
2. The need for security: We need to feel secure physically along with needing emotional, social and
economic security.
3. The need for love and affection: We have a strong desire to love and be loved irrespective of our caste,
creed, age or colour. it may vary in intensity depending on one’s age and circumstances, although this
need is exhibited by all.
4. The need to achieve: We all have a strong desire to achieve some or the other goals like money, fame,
reputation or degree, etc.
5. The need for recognition or social approval: Each one of us has a desire to gain recognition,
appreciation and esteem in the eyes of others.

3. Drives: (Mangal p.g. 140 – 141; Baron pg 318)

A need gives rise to a drive, which may be defined as ‘an aroused awareness, tendency or a state of
heightened tension that sets off reactions in an individual and sustains them for increasing his general
activity level’.
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 The strength of the drive depends on the strength of the stimuli generated by the related need.
Categories of Drive
a. Biological or Primary Drive: Hunger, thirst, escape from pain and the sex drive.
b. Socio-psychological or Secondary Drive: fear or anxiety, desire for approval, struggle for
achievement, aggression, and dependence.
Contrary to the socio-psychological or secondary drives, primary or biological drives are basically unlearned
in nature and arise from biological needs as a result of a biological mechanism called homeostasis.
The term homeostasis was coined by WB Canon, a prominent Harvard University physiologist. Canon
suggested that our body system constantly works toward an optimum level of functioning, maintaining a
normal state of balance between input and output. For example, when the blood sugar level drops, the brain,
glands, stomach organs, and other body parts send out signals which activate a hunger drive and make one
feel hungry. After food has been consumed by the individual’s body, it returns to a state of balance. This
maintenance of an overall physiological balance is homeostasis. When there is an imbalance, there is a need
to restore the balance and a drive arises which in turn serves as an instigator of behaviour. Simply put,
homeostasis is a state of physiological balance within the body.

The term homeostasis is now broadened to include any behaviour that upsets the balance of an individual.
The denial or failure in the satisfaction of any basic need may bring about an imbalanced psychological
state, giving rise to a primary or secondary drive for initiating a particular kind of behaviour.

4. Instincts: (Mangal p.g. 147 – 148)

“Instincts are unlearned and physiological desires.”
According to the instinct theory of motivation, our instincts are the springboards of our behaviour. These
instincts are innate tendencies or inherited psychological dispositions or even the complex pattern of behaviour
that lead to some purposive actions and they don’t have to be learned.
This theory suggests that instincts drive all behaviours. Instincts are goal-directed and innate patterns of
behavior that are not the result of learning or experience.
E.g. Infants have an inborn sucking reflex that helps them seek out a nipple and obtain nourishment,
Birds have an innate need to build a nest or migrate during the winter.
Both of these behaviors occur naturally and automatically. They do not need to be learned in order to be
displayed.
In animals, instincts are inherent tendencies to engage spontaneously in a particular pattern of behavior.
E.g.: A dog shaking his body after it gets wet, a sea turtle seeking out the ocean after hatching, a bird migrating
before the winter season.
Psychologist William McDougall was one of the first to write about the instinct theory of motivation. He
suggested that instinctive behaviour was composed of three essential elements: perception, behaviour, and
emotion.
Criticisms:
1. Instincts can't explain all behaviours.
2. Instincts are not something that can be readily observed and scientifically tested.
3. Just labelling something as an instinct does nothing to explain why some behaviours appear in certain
instances but not in others.

IV. THEORIES OF MOTIVATION (Baron, P.g.318- 321; Morgan pg 269-270,272; Mangal pg 151-
152)

Push Theory/Drive reduction theory: A theory of motivation suggesting that behaviour is “pushed” from
within by drives stemming from basic biological needs.

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When an internal driving state is aroused, the individual is pushed to engage in behaviour which will lead
to a goal that reduces the intensity of the driving state.
In humans, reaching the goal reduces the drive and the individual attains pleasure and satisfaction.
Biological needs arising from within our bodies create unpleasant states of arousal- the feelings we describe
as hunger, thirst, fatigue, etc. in order to eliminate those feelings and restore a balanced physiological state, or
homeostasis, we engage in certain activities.
Thus, motivation is a process in which various biological needs push (drive) us to actions designed to satisfy
these needs.
The drawbacks of this theory is that contrary to what drive theory suggests human beings often suggest
inactions that increase rather than reduce various drives. For example, people sometimes skip snacks when
hungry in order to lose weight or to maximize their enjoyment of a special dinner.
According to drive theory, motivation consist of:
1. A driving state
2. The goal directed behaviour initiated by the driving state
3. The attainment of the appropriate goal
4. Reduction in the drive, a subjective feeling of satisfaction when the goal is reached.
After a certain amount of time, the driving state (e.g. hunger, thirst) builds up again to push the behaviour
towards the goal again. Theorists suggest two different views of drive theory- Drives are inborn or intrinsic
(e.g. hunger, thirst, sex etc.) or Drives can be learned – learned drives – drives originate from the person’s
or animal training or past experience (environmental influence).

1. Pull Theory/Incentive Theory:

In contrast to the “push” theories of motivation, incentive theories are “pull theories”. The goal objects have
certain characteristics which pull the behaviour towards them. The goal objects which motivate behaviour
are known as “incentives”. An important part of incentive theory is that individuals expect pleasure from the
attainment of what are called positive incentives and they avoid negative incentives.
Researchers conducted an experiment to study incentive motivation. They compared a goal directed behaviour
of two groups of rats which have hunger drives. The rats in both the groups have starved for a day or two.
After starving, both the groups of rats were offered food. One group of rats were given tasty food (chocolate-
chip cookies). The other group of rats were given plain old laboratory food. It was observed that the rats in the
first group ate far more than the rats of the second group.
This showed that there is something about the goal itself that motivates behaviour. This happens in the case of
humans as well. In a workday world, motivation seems to be more a matter of expected incentives – wages,
salaries, bonuses, vacations etc.
The incentives motivate the person to reach the goal.

2. Optimum Arousal Theory:

It states that human beings seek an optimal level of arousal, not minimal levels of arousal.
The arousal varies throughout the day (low during sleep or high during performing some task). Thus, the level
of arousal will be different for different people doing the same task. And, we maintain an optimal level – the
best suited to our personal characteristics.
The theory of optimum arousal is linked with a person's performance. Research studies show that performance
increases as the level of arousal increases. But, if the level of arousal goes on increasing – the performance
drops. This is known as Yerkes-Dodson Law.

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This theory focuses on arousal, our general level of activation. Arousal varies throughout the day, from low
levels during sleep to much higher ones when we are performing strenuous tasks or activities we find exciting.
Arousal theory suggests that what we seek is not minimal levels, but rather optimal arousal- the level that is
best suited to our personal characteristics and to whatever activity we are currently performing.
Example during knitting a low level is preferred, and for sports events a higher one. Many studies offer at least
indirect support. There is a close link between arousal and performance. For many tasks performance increases
as arousal rises, up to some point, beyond that point further increase in arousal will reduce the performance.
This is known as the Yerkes-Dodson law, and can be applied to some situations.
However, there are individual differences, e.g. some people prefer and seek high levels of activation-people
who skydive. In addition, some prefer lower levels of arousal.

3. Expectancy Theory:
It emphasizes on the strength of a tendency to act in a certain way. It depends on the strength of an expectation
that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual.
This theory focuses on performance variables and three relationships.
● Performance- reward relationship- based on the degree to which the individual believes that
performing at a particular level will lead to the attainment of a desired outcome.
● Effort – performance relationship- based on the probability perceived by the individual that exerting
a given amount of effort will lead to performance.
● Rewards- Personal goals relationship - is based on the degree to which organization rewards satisfy
an individual’s personal goals or needs.
Expectancy theory has been applied in many aspects of human motivation, especially in work motivation.
Research findings in the field of industrial psychology indicate that people will work hard at their jobs only
when they believe that doing so will improve their performance (known as expectancy), that good
performance will be recognized and rewarded (known as instrumentality) and that rewards provided will be
ones they want (known as valence).

4. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory:

This theory refers to an individual’s need to develop his own potential or do what he is capable of doing.
Human motives may exist in hierarchy, so that we must satisfy those that are more basic before moving on to
ones that are less linked to biological needs. This point is central to a theory of motivation proposed by
Maslow.

Instead of focusing on psychopathology and what goes wrong with people, Maslow (1943) formulated a more
positive account of human behavior which focused on what goes right. He was interested in human potential,
and how we fulfill that potential.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow (1943, 1954) stated that human motivation is based on people seeking
fulfillment and change through personal growth. Self-actualized people are those who were fulfilled and doing
all they were capable of.

Maslow placed physiological needs such as food, water, oxygen, and sleep at the base of the hierarchy of
needs. One step above these are safety needs, needs for feeling safe and secure in one’s life. Above the safety
needs are social needs including the need to have friends, to be loved and appreciated and to belong- to fit into
a network of social relationships.
Maslow refers to the first three needs as deficiency needs. They are the basics and they must be satisfied before
higher levels of motivation or growth needs can emerge.

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Above the social needs are esteem needs, the needs to develop self-respect, gain approval of others, and achieve
success. Ambition and the need for achievement are closely linked.
At the top are the self-actualization needs. These involve the need for self-fulfillment, the desire to become
all that one is capable of being.

Maslow’s theory is intuitively appealing. Some findings suggest that growth needs do come into play only
after people have satisfied lower-level needs. But other findings indicate that people sometimes seek to satisfy
higher-order needs even when the ones lower in hierarchy have not been met. So the idea that needs arise and
are satisfied in a particular order has not been confirmed.

Diagrammatic representation of Maslow’s hierarchy theory.

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 V. SOCIAL MOTIVES: (Morgan pg 280-281)
Social motives are complex motive states, or needs, that are the wellsprings of many human actions.
They are called social because they are learned in “social groups”, especially in the family as children grow
up. They are also called learned motives or secondary motives. Since they are learned, their strength differs
greatly from one individual to another.

Types of social motives:

● Achievement Motive
● Aggression Motive
● Power Motive

1. Need for Achievement: (Baron, p.g. 332-334; Morgan pg 283-285; Mangal pg 146-147)
The desire to accomplish difficult tasks and to meet standards of excellence.
Need for achievement, also known as n-Ach, energises and directs behaviour as well as influences the
perception of situations. During the formative years of social development, children acquire achievement
motivation. The sources from which they learn it includes parents, other role models, and socio-cultural
influences.
Effects of Achievement Motivation on Individuals
Individuals high in achievement motivation:
1. Tend to get higher grades in school, earn more rapid promotions and attain greater success in running
their own businesses than persons low in such motivation.
2. Tend to prefer tasks that are moderately difficult and challenging.
3. Have a stronger-than average desire for feedback on their performance..
4. Tend to prefer jobs in which rewards are closely related to individual performance merit-based pay
systems.
5. Tend to excel in conditions in which their achievement motive is activated.
Achievement motivation and behaviour
● Such people prefer to work on moderately challenging tasks which promise success. They do not like
to work on very easy tasks, where there is no challenge and so no satisfaction of their achievements’
need; nor do they like very difficult tasks, where the likelihood of their success is low. So, they are likely
to make a good match between their abilities and what will be demanded of them.
● Such people like tasks in which their performance can be compared with that of others. They like
feedback on their performance.
● They are persistent in working on tasks that are involved in ‘getting ahead’.
● If successful they raise their level of aspiration in a realistic way so that they move on to more
challenging and difficult tasks.
● They like to work in situations where they have control over the outcome.

2. Need for Aggression: (Baron, p.g. 329-331; Morgan pg 288-294; Mangal pg 145)
“Any form of behaviour directed toward the goal of harming or injuring another living being who is
motivated to avoid such treatment”.
Aggression can be-
● Physical or verbal - bodily harm and attack with words.
● Active or passive- overt action and a failure to act
● Direct or indirect- face to face contact with the person being attacked. Indirect aggression occurs
without such contact.

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 Roots of aggression- Is it learned or is innate?
Most believe that this aggression is elicited by a wide range of external events and stimuli. It is often “pulled”
from outside rather than “pushed” from within.
Several findings are strongly against the innate aggressive tendencies. Findings suggest that rates of violence
differ in different cultures. In many developed countries, rates of violent crimes are much lower than those in
the US, developing countries have more crime rates.

Causes of Aggression:

1. Social Factors
For many years psychologists viewed frustration as the major cause of aggression. Research findings indicate,
however, that in fact frustration is just one of many different social causes of aggression, and perhaps not the
strongest one. First, when exposed to severe frustration, many people become depressed rather than
aggressive. Thus, contrary to one famous view, known as the frustration-aggression hypothesis, frustration
does not always produce aggression. Second, aggression does not always stem from frustration; often
individuals aggress against others because it is part of their role or job, not because they are feeling frustrated.
⮚ When individuals feel their interests have been thwarted, and that such thwarting is unfair, frustration
can indeed be a powerful cause of aggression.
⮚ Feeling of injustice in instances of Workplace Violence is outbursts in which employees attack and
even kill other persons with whom they work.
⮚ Another social factor is direct provocation can also result in aggression- verbal insults or physical
actions often lead to anger.
⮚ Exposure to violence in the media- exposure to violent acts in the TV, movies has been found to
cause aggression. Viewers who see others committing assaults, learn that such actions are appropriate
responses to provocation or frustration, as some may acquire ingenious ways of assaulting each other.
Exposure to media violence can lead individuals to become desensitized to the harm produced by
violence.
2. Environmental factors
Any condition in the physical environment that causes individuals to experience discomfort-for instance,
uncomfortably high temperatures, disagreeable crowding, or unpleasant, irritating noise. The negative feelings
produced by such conditions can increase aggressive motivation in several ways. First, they may trigger
aggression directly: When we feel bad, we tend to lash out at others. Such unpleasant feelings may trigger
negative thoughts and memories, or may lead to attribute others’ action to hostile intention even when not the
case. In other words, Unpleasant feelings may lead us to think in ways that tend to activate aggressive motives.
3. Hormonal Influences
Hormonal imbalance in an individual is quite often one of the factors causing/triggering aggression Male sex
hormone testosterone has a major influence on aggression of a person. Drugs that reduce testosterone levels
in violent human males seem to reduce their aggression and research on prisoners indicates that testosterone
levels tend to be higher in those who have committed unprovoked violent crimes than those who have
committed nonviolent crimes.

3. Need for Power: (Baron pg Morgan pg. 287-288).

Power motivation is to overcome opposition forcefully, to fight and revenge injury, to belittle or ridicule
others. They are concerned with having an impact, reputation and influence.
Example: Accumulates “prestige”, often tries to convince others, plays more competitive sports, drinks
more heavily.
Social power is defined as “the ability or capacity of a person to produce intended effects on the behaviour
or emotions of another person”.
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The goals of power motivation are to influence, control, persuade, lead and enhance one’s own reputation in the
eyes of other people.
People with strong power - motive derive satisfaction from achieving these goals.
It varies in strength from person to person and can be measured from the stories told in the picture- projection
technique. The degree is reflected in story themes.
Power Motivation and Behaviour
The following are the ways how such people express themselves.
● By impulsive and aggressive action
● By participating in competitive sports
● Among men, may drink and sexually dominate women
● By obtaining and collecting possessions like numerous credit cards, fancy cars
● By choosing occupations that they believe have a chance to have an impact on others,
● By building and disciplining their body especially among women with strong power need.
Related to power motivation is a concept of Machiavellianism.
Machiavellianism- the term is used to describe people who express their power motivation by manipulating
and exploiting others in a deceptive and unscrupulous fashion.

VI. FRUSTRATION: (Morgan pg. 299- 303)

So far we have taken a look at the various theoretical perspectives on motivation. They explain the process of
motivation and what leads to motivated action and what are the reasons for different motives. Now we will try
to understand what happens when motivated action is blocked or it fails due to certain reasons. We will also
try to understand what happens when one is faced with more than one motive or need at the same time. These
two concerns can be explained in the form of two important concepts related to motivation, namely frustration
and conflict. The term frustration refers to the blocking of behaviour directed toward a goal. Frustration occurs
when an anticipated desirable goal is not attained and the motive is blocked. It is an aversive state and no one
likes it. Frustration results in a variety of behavioural and emotional reactions. They include aggressive
behaviour, fixation, escape, avoidance, and crying. In fact frustration-aggression is a very famous hypothesis
proposed by Dollard and Miller. It states that frustration produces aggression. Aggressive acts are often
directed towards the self or blocking agent, or a substitute. Direct aggressive acts may be inhibited by the
threat of punishment. The main sources or causes of frustration are found in: (i) environmental forces, which
could be physical objects, constraining situations or even other people who prevent a person from reaching a
particular goal, (ii) personal factors like inadequacies or lack of resources that make it difficult or impossible
to reach goals, and (iii) conflicts between different motives.

Types of Conflict:

Conflict occurs whenever a person must choose between contradictory needs, desires, motives, or demands.

1. Approach-Approach Conflict
It is a conflict between two positive goals- goals that are equally attractive at the same time. Typically, this
type of conflict, often called a “win-win situation,” is relatively easy to resolve and does not involve a great
deal of stress. Because both goals are desirable, the only stress involved is having to choose between them,
acquiring one and losing the other. An example of this might be the need to choose between the chocolate
cake or key lime pie for dessert.

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For instance, a physiological conflict arises when a person is hungry and sleepy at the same time. In the social
context, a conflict may arise when a person wants to go to both a political rally and a swimming party scheduled
for the same night.
Such conflicts are usually resolved either by satisfying one goal and then the other-for example, eating and
then going to bed if a person is both hungry and sleepy-or by choosing one of the goals and giving up on the
other. These are easy to resolve and generate little emotional behaviour.

2. Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict
This involves two negative goals and is a common experience. Avoidance–avoidance conflicts are much more
stressful. In this conflict, the choice is between two or more goals or events that are unpleasant. This type of
conflict is so common that there are numerous phrases to symbolize it, for example, “caught between a rock
and a hard place,” “between the devil and the deep blue sea,” “out of the frying pan into the fire,” and “lose-
lose situation.” People who are fearful of dental procedures might face the conflict of suffering the pain of a
toothache or going to the dentist. Because neither alternative is pleasant, many people avoid making a choice
by delaying decisions.
Examples- A student must spend the next two days studying for an examination or face the possibility of
failure. A woman must work at a job she intensely dislikes or take the chance of losing her income.
People in this conflict may try different means of running away from the conflict. They may rely on their
imaginations to free them from the fear and anxiety generated by the conflict. They may spend too much of
their time day-dreaming about a world where there are no conflicts.
Many intense emotions are generated by this conflict. If the two negative goals are fear-producing and
threatening, a person caught between them will experience fear. Or the individual may be angry and resentful
at being trapped in the situation.

3. Multiple Approach-Avoidance Conflicts-

Many of life’s major decisions involve multiple approach-avoidance conflicts, meaning that several goals with
positive and negative valencies.
When the choice is between two goals that have both positive and negative elements to each goal, it is called
a double approach–avoidance conflict. For example, what if a person had the choice of buying a house out in
the country or in the city? The house in the country has its attractions: privacy, fresh air, and quiet. But there
would be a long commute to one’s job in the city. A house in the city would make getting to work a lot easier,
but then there are the negative aspects of pollution, noise, and crowded city streets. Each choice has both good
and bad points. This type of conflict also tends to lead to vacillation.
Another example could be, suppose a woman is engaged to be married, suppose further that the goal of
marriage has a positive valence for her because of the stability and security it will provide and because she
loves the man she will be marrying. Suppose on the other hand, that marriage is repellent to her because it will
mean giving up an attractive offer of a job in another city. With respect to her career, the woman is attracted
to the new job but also repelled by the problems it will create for her marriage. What will she do?
In part, the answer depends on the relative strengths of the approach and the avoidance tendencies. After a
good deal of vacillation, she might break the engagement if the sum total of positive career valence minus the
negative career valence is greater than that for positive and negative valences associated with marriage. Or if
the overall sum of the marriage valencies is greater than that of the career ones, she might hesitate for a while,
vacillating back and forth and then get married.
The emotional reactions generated by approach-avoidance conflicts in which internal obstacles play a part are
at the root of many behavioural problems.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:
● Baron, R. Misra, G. (2002) Psychology Indian Subcontinent Edition, 5th Edition, Dorling Kindersley
(India).
● Morgan, C. King, R. (2015) Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, McGraw Hill Education (India)
Private Limited.
● Mangal, S.K. (2012), Advanced Educational Psychology, 2nd Edition, PHI Learning Private Limited,
New Delhi.

HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE CHAPTER

1. You are required to refer to your three textbooks (Morgan and King, Baron and Mangal) while
preparing for this chapter, in order to gain a deeper understanding and prepare for your examination.
2. These notes are guidelines and are by no means ‘ideal answers’. You must supplement your answers
with relevant examples wherever required as per the marks allotted in the question paper.

QUESTION BANK
1. Define emotion.
2. Name the primary emotions.
3. What is James Lange’s theory of emotion?
4. What is Cannon Bard’s theory of emotion?
5. What is Schachter – Singer’s theory of emotion?
6. Define the following terms- motivation, instincts, drive, and need.
7. Differentiate between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
8. What is meant by-Push theory; Pull theory; Arousal theory; and Expectancy theory
9. With the help of graphical representation, explain Maslow’s Needs of Hierarchy.
10. Define frustration.
11. What are social motives?
12. Define the term conflict.
13. What are the different types of conflict?

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