Motivation and Emotion

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Motivation and emotion are two central concepts in psychology. Motivation is a process that affects the direction, persistence and strength of goal-oriented behaviour. Emotions are feelings or affective experiences that are shaped by a pattern of cognitive, physiological and behavioural responses to specific stimuli. Motivation and emotion are closely related: emotions are the result of situations in which our motives and goals are satisfied, threatened or frustrated. Both concepts are studied from different perceptions within psychology, Social Psychology, Neuropsychology, and Cognitive Neuroscience in particular, and the ultimate goal is to understand their role in explaining human behaviour. Subjects are: meta-cognitions on the role of motivation in personal development with special focus on satisfying basal needs and Maslow’s hierarchy of motivation; biological processes and brain mechanisms underlying motivation and emotion in general, and a number of behavioural and neural disorders in particular (such as: apathy, aboulia, akinetic mutism) and basal tendencies of approach and avoidance when maximising joy and minimising pain: the cognitive aspects of expectations and rewards and their impact on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation; the role of motivation in social behaviour, with particular attention paid to processes of subconscious goal activation and pursuing goals; the (evolutionary) functions of emotions and the fundamental motives that (still) play a role in the behaviour of the modern human.