Essentials of Psychology
First Edition
Learning Objectives
Explain the general theories of motivation and how these are applied to understanding motivation.
- Distinguish among the general theories that explain what motivates us.
- Explain whether people are driven by instincts, a need to achieve a certain level of bodily tension, or a desire for attractive rewards.
- Elaborate on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and whether all people want to satisfy the same basic needs.
Explain the biological and social components of motivation related to hunger, obesity, and eating disorders.
- Outline how we biologically and physiologically regulate eating, and what happens when that regulation fails.
- Explain whether the desire for social relationships is a fundamental human motivation.
- Discuss what drives individuals who are highly motivated to achieve and whether the need for power promotes good leadership or bad.
Explain how emotion is a physiological experience.
- Why is emotion considered a physiological event, and what roles do the brain and nervous system play?
- Are all emotions accompanied by a state of general arousal, or does each emotion have its own unique set of symptoms?
Analyze the role of nonverbal communication and sensory feedback in emotion.
- Identify which emotions are considered to be “basic.”
- Describe the evidence that facial expressions are inborn and universal.
- Explain the facial-feedback hypothesis and identify what, according to the hypothesis, can make us happy.
Explain the role that thoughts or cognitions play in our experience of emotion.
- Identify the two factors in the two-factor theory of emotion.
- Explain how counterfactual thinking affects our experience of emotion.
- Describe the evidence that suggests cognition is or is not a necessary component of emotion.
Examine how emotions, including happiness and motivation, are displayed across cultures.
- Can the range of human emotions be categorized into a small number of types?
- Are emotions, such as joy and anger, universally expressed across cultures?
- Who is happy—and why?