Greeting, I am proud to present my fourth entry of my learning journal for the course ZZZT2253 "Pengurusan Emosi" which will cover the theories and facts that I obtained from the last lecture on the 17th of August 2011. I was quite taken back when Dr Zamri complimented our work for the past week as many of us took great pains to add in personal experiences into their entries of their learning journal. In additional, some of us provided some personal review on articles or books to enrich the journal. To this fact, I am glad we are exposed to this method of self-learning and trained to perform more cognitive correlation with whatever we gain in lectures and whatever we gain by experience.
The first topic discussed was on "Emotion and Motivation". In my personal opininion, the word "motivation" sounds more constructive and encouraging from the word "emotion" which is often used in a negative tone. When we say "This person is very emotional", we are often led to think pessimistically that this particular individual cannot control his emotion well. Conversely, when we say 'This person is very motivated", there seems to be sense of acknowledgement of the energy found in that person. However in the lecture I have learned that motivation and emotions are very much related. Motivation is actually defined as the study of directional and energizing aspects of a particular behavior while emotion is usually defined by its effective tone, which could be either positive tone or negative tone. Therefore, it was taught that the category "Emotions" have a wider meaning from "feelings". In the context of Baron and Logan (1993), emotions cannot be separated from motivation. At the same time, emotions can be the motivation of certain behaviors and motive can be very emotional (Lang et al, 1992). How emotions can be a motivation of certain behaviors can be illustrated in my personal experience when I am praised for doing a good job, I felt elated and appreciated the compliment. This positive emotion of joy has motivated me to perform even better the next time. However emotions are not the motivator in all occasions such as hunger or achievements.
I also learnt that emotions are a state of arousal involving physiological changes, brain activation, cognitive appraisals, subjective feelings, and tendencies toward action, all shaped by cultural rules. It served as an adaptive response to certain situations and communicates our desires to others. This response prepares us to adapt, change and cope. Something like in the fight and flight response of the sympathetic nervous system, our body will respond to stressors and release neurotransmitters and hormones in our body to create a physiological environment of anticipation. This environment allows the brain to evaluate the pros and cons of both actions, which is to face the stressor or to run away from it.
In the view of motivation, it is what makes a person do something over another and a selection of processes (Mook, 1996). There are a few concepts of motivation. Generally, there are factors that are intrinsic and extrinsic causing an individual to behave in a certain way at a point in time. Intrinsic factors are mostly driven by interest or self enjoyment of the job. Extrinsic factors involve factors other than the individual that drives a particular person to peform a task. An example will be monetary gains. People often choose a difficult course such as medicine, actuarial science or engineering because of these two factors. One can be either motivated because of interest in the field, but most of the time, monetary gains or future job security plays an even great role in motivating a person to choose a career. This particular example can also illustrate the humanistic theory of motivation that was described Abraham Maslow in 1943. The Maslow hierarchy of needs displays motives into several levels from basic physical survival to psychological and self-actualisation. People often will perform a particular task to fulfil the most basic needs first before moving on the "higher needs" In most of the time, when we fulfil the need of food, motivated by hunger, we strive to fulfil needs of mental security and emotional attachment. However, I do not totally agree with Mr. Maslow in this sense. I believe that one cannot rank needs or motivations as one may choose live on different levels of motivation, sometime neglecting even the most basic need. An example will be people living in extreme poverty. Often they are faced with situation when their physiological needs are not met, such as food and water, however, they chose to band together, creating bonds and attachment to one another, fulfilling the need of love and belonging first. At most of the time, the parents of poverty-stricken families will sacrifice the need of food and water and give the necessary to their children first, out of love and hope. This is a fine example on how needs cannot truly be hierarchical.
Having exposed to motivation and emotion, we were also taught with the experience of emotions and theories involving them. Basically these theories emphasise on three levels, physiological, cognitive and psychoanalytical. I have known that emotions involved physiological and cognitive functions but this was the first time I heard of the word, 'psychoanalysis' and it caught my interest.
Basically, emotions are thought to be product of the brain and nervous system. James-Lang theory (1884, 1887) states that, physiological reactions to a stimulus will trigger emotions. Example will be a situation of anger. When faced with a situation that do not favour me, my blood pressure will rise while my heart race. The increased in blood flow and heat cause me to feel angry. However, this theory is critised by Waltor Cannon. He states that these organ systems that trigger emotional responses react slowly to stimulation while emotional reactions usually follow the stimulus rapidly. This proves that physiological response is too slow for emotional response. He argues organs that are involved in physical reactions like the heart or stomach cannot produce a variety of emotions. He proposed that the brain in the main centre of receiving stimulus and this stimulus simultaneously leads to both physiological reaction and emotional sensation. I can relate to this theory even better from James-Lang's theory as it sounds more logically. The brain is complex enough to serve as the centre of behaviour and emotional sensation. The other organs are merely enhancing the physiological environment of such emotions. Whenever I see a person bullies another person, my mind automatic will cross-reference the situation to my memory and register as a scene that I should be angry about, due to my dislike of bullies. This determination of my brain will cause my body to react to the mode set by my brain, such as raising my blood pressure and stimulate my sympathetic response.
In conclusion, I feel that I have gained much on the subject of emotion and theoretical aspects of needs and motives. This will greatly help me in my future endeavours and gain better understanding of my own emotions and how to control them.
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