Pain and Pleasure as Motives for Human Behavior

Paper Summary:

This paper takes a look at pain and pleasure as emotional motives in human behavior. The author describes the relationship between stimuli, emotions and behavior by discussing theories of emotion and motivation and explains how technology has aided psychology's pursuit of identifying and understanding emotions. Two such technologies, functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography are also outlined.

Outline:
Emotions and Arousal of Pleasure and How It Relates to Motivation
Evolutionary Theory
Physiological Arousal Theory
Research Methods
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
Conclusion
References

From the Paper:

"According to the ever-enduring theories of emotion and motivation, it seems that the basic goal of human striving is to avoid pain and to attain a pleasure, but making a distinction between negative and positive emotions is not that simple, because emotions have a mind of their own. Some people welcome pain and reject pleasure, so it all really depends on the individual perception of emotional stimuli and a nature of goal. If the stimuli have no relevance to the goal attainment, then no emotion will occur. If stimuli have a potential to enhance or impede a prospect of achieving a goal, then positive, pleasant emotions or negative, painful ones will follow respectively."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Browndyke, J.N. (2002). Neuropsycholosocial factors in emotion recognition: Facial Expressions. Retrieved June 25, 2008 from, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facial_feedback_hypothesis
• ChangingMinds.org (2008). James-Lange Theory of Emotion: James (1884), Lange (1887). Retrieved June 25, 2008 from, http://changingminds.org/explanatins/theories/james_lange_emotion.htm
• Deckers, L. (2005). Motivation (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
• Dictionary of History of Ideas (2003, May 1, 2003). Happiness and Pleasure. Retrieved June 23, 2008, from http://etext.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv2-43
• Functional MRI. (1994-1996). Functional MRI. Retrieved June 27, 2008, from www.mritutor.org/mritutor/fbi.htm

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