Motivation, Emotion, and Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Motivation, Emotion, and Learning - Essay Example After the end of the three days, the frequency of each emotion experienced across the total reporting period and on preset times on each day (For example, anger=1, joy=2, sad=1, anxious=3, etc.) was calculated. Thereafter an analysis was made of the physiological (internal and expressive body changes) and cognitive (specific thoughts occurring during an emotion) components of emotions in the experience. Findings are reported below. There are several psychological frameworks that define and operationally emotion (e.g., Izard 1977; Mehrabian and Russell 1974; Plutchik 1980). The present research uses Izard's framework which "assumes that separate and discrete emotions exist and that each has measurable, experiential, and motivational properties" (Izard 1972, p. 85). In his Differential Emotions Theory Izard (1972) conceptualizes ten fundamental emotions: joy, surprise, anger, disgust, contempt, shame, guilt, fear, interest, and sadness. Given the fact that the time period chosen was that of three consecutive days and observation points comprised of preset 7 vantage time periods on each day it was inevitable that the felt emotions would source from out of major events that either preceded these days or occurred during these days. The predominant emotions observed during the period were Anger (15), Contempt (16), Disgust (11) and Interest (12).It was observed that the first three had occurred in tandem as they were basically caused by a single event. The last interest was caused by a separate event. There were two events that had primarily originated the predominant emotions in the observation period. The event causing disgust, anger and contempt in tandem involved a gory media reporting of a riot involving a crowd in a developing country .The graphic images shown over media had immersed in attention span substantially and a lot of time was spent analyzing this event which explains the high frequency of the three emo tions felt in tandem. Interest was evinced by another event which involved receiving a personal bursary from my distantly related uncle who was arriving from UK to assess me for the grant of this bursary. Anger invariably resulted in racing of heart and tightening of arm muscles. A little tightening was felt in thigh muscles as well. The eyes got a little blood shot with bleary affect. However despite all these effects all senses seem to sharpen with anger. Disgust essentially produced tightening of stomach muscles. It was accompanied by eyebrow pull up and screwing of eyes. Contempt produced physical effects quite similar to those produced by anger with the difference that fists formed almost involuntarily and teeth clenched hard, as the contempt emotion traversed from one end to the other. Interest emotion was accompanied by widening of eyes and slight outward popping of eyeballs. A small blush spread from middle of the cheek to the top edge of both ear lobes indicating rush of

Midterm Essay 3 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Midterm 3 - Essay Example Human development is thus, characterized by the appropriation and transformation of nature by human needs. The idea here is that human beings usually transform themselves according to the demands of the external world. In line with this argument, people do not engage in labor freely, but are rather forced by external forces to engage in labor. Marcuse perceives labor as a means of objectifying a person considering that people are always striving to engage activities that will profit them economically (ibid). As such, capitalism is seen as the primary cause of alienation in the society as it forces human beings to act. The fact that people do not realize that labor and capitalism has enslaved them explains that they do not realize the need for change, thus making them one-dimensional thinkers. As such, instead of fighting against the alienation caused by capitalism and demanding social change, one-dimensional thinkers begin to identify with those who fuel such capitalism, thus becoming complacent in their alienated state. As Marcuse writes, â€Å"†¦the subject which is alienated is swallowed up by its alienated existence†¦there is only one dimension, and it is everywhere and in all forms†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (19). Fundamentally, the working class people are lured into a consumerism system in which labor is essential for production, their artificial needs are met, and these people are slowly integrated into the capitalist society. By ensuring that the workers perceive labor as beneficial and making sure that the worker’s artificial needs are met, the capitalist society eliminates the cha nces of opposition. One of the catalysts of the kind of alienation caused by capitalism is technology. Marcuse argues that technology has revolutionized the mass media such that the capitalist system is able to infiltrate the social lives of its citizens (18). In essence, mediums such as radio and television have been used by the system to take capitalist ideas into the homes of citizens