Motivation and Emotions
Outline:
Motivation energizes and guides behavior toward achieving a particular goal. Several theories have been put up to explain the role of motivation. These theories have been categorized into biological, psychosocial, and biopsychosocial. Biological theories are further subdivided into: instinct, drive reduction, and arousal. According to William Mc Douglail, instinct theory is whereby motivation is inborn, involving unlearn behaviors, and it’s universal to species( William McDouglail, 1918). In accordance to drive reduction theory, motivation is derived from a push towards satisfying basic needs ( Hull,1952). The individual is only satisfied when he is an equilibrium state termed as homeostasis. Arousal theory explains how curiosity compels one towards Novel complex, which is only achieved when one is in the optimal level of arousal. Going higher than this level reduces performance. Psychosocial theories are further categorized into incentive and cognitive theory. The incentive theory shows how the pull from external stimuli triggers motivation, while the cognitive theory shows how expectations and beliefs trigger motivation. The biopsychosocial theory states that nature and nurture interact. Meeting needs is generally prioritized based on urgency, which naturally grows towards self-actualization ( Abraham Maslow, n.d) To sum it up, all the three theories give birth to emotion such as arousal, cognitivity and expressing which further influences behavior.
Application
Toppester Supermarket is currently the busiest supermarket in our hometown. The owner, a lady whom I schooled with, is the youngest entrepreneur in town. Her business was conceived from an urge to pay her siblings’ school fees. By losing her parents in a car accident and being the eldest of the siblings, it calls on her to be responsible enough to meet all the needs. She had sold her parents bungalow and used the money to set up a wholesale shop, even though the profits margin were low, she still had hoped of succeeding. She worked hard, and in a year, the business had realized almost 100 percent profit. That enabled her to expand it to Toppester supermarket. She recently told me of how it feels to have everything you need and thus forget about growing. She didn’t have plans to expand this business more until the other day when she visited a neighboring town. She came back with a dream of going big. She’s been working day and night, strategizing on her next step. Her motivation is derived from people right now, though before we can all agree, it was drive-Reduction- derived. Therefore, motivation applies all the theories depending on the situation one is in.
Reaction
Learning from this experience and theories, I would agree with the fact that our emotions trigger a reaction, though not always, which dictates our action. The three components of emotions are very crucial in that we always need to think after arousal and act after thinking. It couldn’t be more accurate to say that culture influences our emotions. What is not clear is why do people from the same culture react differently then? Life is full of emotions results but what is more encouraging is all reaction makes us human.