Motivation and Emotion

According to the reading material Psychology and Your Life (2010), the five approaches to motivation are instinct, drive reduction, arousal, incentive, and cognitive.
Instincts are said to be “inborn patterns of behavior that are biologically determined rather than learned.” (University of Phoenix, 2010, pp. 244-248). The theory of instinct affects motivation because it is said to be preprogrammed into the person or animal. These kinds of responses are able to keep you alive. There are many psychologists that believe our behavior is learned through this concept, but is not really accepted.
According to the reading material drive reduction is a “theory suggesting that a lack of a basic biological requirement such as water produces a drive to obtain that requirement.” (University of Phoenix, 2010, pp. 244-248). This affects an individual’s motivation a person will have a high drive to obtain what is needed. When a person is trying to conquer the satisfaction of their wants and need, the balance between them is called homeostasis.
The “belief that we try to maintain certain levels of stimulation and activity, increasing or reducing them as necessary” (University of Phoenix, 2010, pp. 244-248) is the arousal approach to motivation. People who have a higher need of arousal tend to also be more motivated. People add or subtract to their stimuli by holding their level of tension or work.
The incentive approach to motivation “suggest that motivation stems from the desire to obtain valued external goals, or incentives.” (University of Phoenix, 2010, pp. 244-248). When someone desires something greatly the individual will filter into this type of motivation. An example of this would be when a woman will no longer eat sugar desserts in order to fit comfortable in a wedding dress.
The cognitive approach to motivation is the “theory suggesting that motivation is a product of people’s thoughts, expectations, and goals-their cognitions.” (University of Phoenix, 2010, pp. 244-248). An individual’s expectation affects motivation based on this theory.
The main emotions are joy, love, sadness, anger, and fear. These all can break down into a more narrow catergory. Taking into example I can use different emotions as to being a full time student, and they are: joy and fear. I feel great joy and pride at the fact that I am capable of being a full time student. I also feel fear in the fact that I have a hard time of keeping up on my school work and will not get the grades that I need in order to complete my schooling.
I am used to letting my emotions affect my performance in my classes. With my life being as crazy as it is, I always tend to wait till last minute to do my assignments and then I rush through getting them done, which in the long run causes me to worry about how well I will end my classes. Doing this could lead to me having poor performance and even lower grades, which then cause me to experience even more negative emotions. I feel I use a cognitive approach for motivating me in my classes. I have the goal of completing school. This motivates me to use intrinsic motivation because I love attending school and the fact of knowing that I am learning more information is a big motivator for me. References:
University of Phoenix. (2010). Psychology and Your Life. Retrieved March 13, 2012 from University of Phoenix, PSY202-Motivation and Emotion website.

References: University of Phoenix. (2010). Psychology and Your Life. Retrieved March 13, 2012 from University of Phoenix, PSY202-Motivation and Emotion website.