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Full Summary of Emotion and Motivation
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Summary Motivation andemotion-2021
1 CONCEPTS OF EMOTION
AND MOTIVATION
1.1 MASLOW AND THE MOTIVATION
HIERARCHY
Maslow’s pyramid of needs is a psychological concept
created by Maslow to describe human motivation. It
argues that all humans have 5 needs which they can
go through in hierarchical order- a person first needs
to fulfil physiological needs before they can go on to fulfil safety needs. A person cannot fulfil the
need of love and belonging if their safety need is not yet fulfilled.
The theory has garnered scientific attention, but also criticism- it is too culture-centred and gender-
biased. According to Marx and Hillix theories should follow certain rules that allow them to be tested
and verified: their terms must be explained and an advanced form of theory testing entails examining
hypothesized relationships among the variables, which require viable measures to assess the
variables.
Taormina et al., set out to define the needs, develop viable measures for them and assess their
relationships to each other and to a set of theorized antecedents and outcome variables.
1.1.1 The definition of a need
A need can defined based on fundamentals of drive theory which posits that certain things are
required by all human beings for the continuation of their lives or their well-being. A drive is defined
as an activity of the total organism resulting from a persistent disequilibrium. A drive reflects a need
that arises from the lack of some particular thing such that a need can be characterized as a lack of
something that is essential to an organism’s existence or well-being. A thing is not a need, it is the
lack of a thing that creates a need.
1.1.2 Approach to scale development
Previous studies have tended to use existing personality scales that were thought to be related to the
needs instead of directly measuring the needs themselves what is still required is a set of valid and
reliable measures that are designed to directly assess the 5 needs or the satisfaction thereof. To be
able to do this, we need an unambiguous definition for each concept.
1.1.2.1Level 1: physiological needs
Maslow’s theory has the necessary theoretical foundations- food and water are concrete things and
the need for them can be easily understood. They are needed for life such that deficiencies motivate
the organism to seek them- this has been empirically confirmed. Maslow also added some other
things like ambient temperature, exercise and healthy physiques. Physiological needs can therefore
be operationally defined as the lack of chemicals, nutrients, or internal or environmental conditions
,necessary for the body to survive, such that extended absence of these things could lead to
psychological stress or physical death.
1.1.2.2Level 2: safety-security needs
Safety and security needs are also basic to human beings, it can be observed in infants who have an
overt danger reaction to threatening stimuli. To define this need it is necessary to identify the types
of threats that could educe the safety-security responses and the conditions that satisfy the need-
these are both abstract and concrete things. Maslow gave some examples such as having a place
where one can feel safe from harm, a guardian/ someone that can be relied on, an ethical legal
system, a trustworthy government and stability and structure in one’s life. In this way safety-security
needs can be defined as the lack or protections such as shelter from environmental dangers and
disasters, personal protection from physical harm, financial protection from destitution, legal
protection from attacks on one’s rights to a peaceful existence, and a lack of stability in one’s life.
The more the physiological needs are satisfied, the more someone will attempt to satisfy the safety-
security needs. To test this, it is not the need that should be correlated but the satisfaction thereof-
when one has sufficiently satisfied a need, one has time to attend to satisfying the next higher-level
need.
H1: the more the physiological needs are satisfied, the more the safety-security needs will be
satisfied
1.1.2.3Level 3: belongingness needs
Maslow noted that when physiological and safety-security needs are largely gratified, people hunger
for affectionate relations with people in general. This is consistent with Baumeister and Leary who
pointed out that humans have the innate need to belong and that this is fundamental to the species.
There is even an evolutionary basis for satisfying them, they’re innate, universal, easy to develop and
deprivation can have real negative consequences. Thus, belongingness or love needs can be defined
as a lack of close, lasting, emotionally pleasant interactions with other people, in groups as well as an
intimate dyad, that yield personal relationships characterized by mutual affective concern.
H2: the more the safety-security needs are satisfied, the more the belongingness needs will be
satisfied
1.1.2.4Level 4: esteem needs
Esteem needs have 2 components- esteem for oneself and the respect one receives from other
people.
Esteem for the self can be defined as a person’s attitudinal evaluation of and the respect they
have for their own nature or character, as well as the related feelings of one’s worthiness,
merit or value as a person
Esteem for others can be defined in terms the attitudinal evaluation and respect a person
receives from people regarding that person’s nature or character and their related feelings
about that person’s worthiness, merit or value as a person
o Has not received a lot of attention
Thus, esteem needs can be defined as the lack of respect a person has for themselves or the lack of
respect a person receives from other people. Regarding its place in the hierarchy, there is a logical
regression from satisfying belonginess needs to seeking esteem because both involve social
interactions. A human being needs other with whom to interact to feel good about themselves
,within a network of social relationships, which may satisfy their need for self-esteem. Just being part
of a group is not enough, one needs the respect of others as well.
H3: the more the belongingness needs are satisfied, the more the esteem needs will be satisfied
1.1.2.5Level 5: self-actualization needs
Self-actualization has been one of the most difficult needs to define because it is at the highest level
of the hierarchy and thus the most abstract concept. Maslow described it as people’s desire for self-
fulfilment- the tendency for them to become actualized in what they are potentially. Another
difficulty is in viewing the need subjectively, Maslow’s characterization was subjective and idealized.
He used generativity which is being concerned with other people and trying to make the world a
better place (Erikson), this introduced other-orientedness as part of the definition, which is
inappropriate and confounding.
By looking at the linguistic elements of the term we see that the self refers to the conscious and
unconscious of a person, their core identity, and actual refers to what is genuine, real or true.
Actualization is the process of converting something into what it really and essentially is. Thus more
precisely defined, self-actualization needs can be defined as the process of a person becoming what
they really and uniquely, that is, idiosyncratically, are.
H4: the more the esteem needs are satisfied, the more the self-actualization needs will be satisfied.
1.1.3 Antecedents and outcomes
Taormina identified a set of additional measures to determine whether certain theoretical and
practical variables are associated with the needs.
1.1.3.1Family emotional support
In humans, children are raised and cared for by family who provide their basic necessities and
protection for survival, growth and development. These behaviours should be directly related to
satisfying the physiological and safety security needs. The family can also satisfy the belongingness
needs by providing love and emotion support and possibly foster self-esteem.
H5: the more family emotional support people receive the more satisfaction there will be of all 5
needs
1.1.3.2Traditional values
Traditional values are characteristic of a society and are learned or adopted by individual members
that, they represent social ideas, concepts and qualities that people consider importation. Values
guide individuals on what to do when faced with choices in life and have a causal influence on their
behaviour. higher levels of traditional cultural values, especially filial piety and familism are
associated with lower levels of health risk behaviours and in most societies, traditional values refer to
close family ties, personal integrity, respect for others and living according to the cultural mores of
one’s society.
H6: the more people abide by traditional values, the more satisfied they will be in all their need
1.1.3.3Anxiety and worry- neuroticism
Neuroticism is characterized by anxiety, worry, fear and doubt, and according to Maslow is
antithetical to the satisfaction of certain needs. Research has shown that neuroticism occurs with low
levels of self-esteem, and high levels are negatively correlated to all 5 needs.
H7: the more anxiety/worry people have, the less satisfied their needs will be
, 1.1.3.4Life satisfaction
Self-determination theory posits that the satisfaction of certain basic psychological needs should
result in a variety of positive outcomes. Studies found that people who were satisfied with their own
autonomy and their relatedness to others showed positive correlations to feelings of overall well-
being. This suggests that satisfaction of all 5 needs should be positively related to life satisfaction.
H8: the more satisfied people’s needs are, the more life satisfaction they will have
1.1.4 Taormina’s results
Taormina provided multiple questionnaires regarding the previously discussed concepts to a Chinese
sample.
Physiological needs have 5 components: food, water, sex, temperature, sleep and exercise/
physical health
Safety-security needs have 4 components: home, environment, finance and police/law
Belongingness needs have 3 components: friends, family, spouse/partner
Esteem needs have 2 components: self and other
Self-actualization needs have 2 components: self-realization and self-determination
All 5 needs correlated positively with each confirming that:
The more the physiological needs are satisfied, the more the safety-security needs will be
satisfied
The more the safety-security needs are satisfied, the more the belongingness needs will be
satisfied
The more the belongingness needs are satisfied, the more the esteem needs will be satisfied
The more the esteem needs are satisfied, the more the self-actualization needs will be
satisfied
The needs and antecedents and outcome also had positive correlations:
Family support was positively correlated with need satisfaction
Traditional values were positively correlated with need satisfaction
Neuroticism was negatively correlated with need satisfaction
Life satisfaction was positively correlated with need satisfaction
They also looked at specific demographic variables and their correlations to the needs, they found
that:
The satisfaction of physiological needs is positively correlated with the nr of brothers and
sisters, the nr of children and overall health
The satisfaction of security needs was positively correlated with income and overall health
The satisfaction of belongingness needs was positively correlated with overall health but
negatively with age and income
The satisfaction of esteem was negatively correlated with employment and positively with
overall health
The satisfaction of self-actualization was positively correlated with overall health, the nr of
brothers and sisters, the nr of children, age and marital status
They did not find any gender differences and the study was conducted with a Chinese sample,
arguing against the critiques that the 5 needs are gender-biased and culture-centred. Satisfaction of
the lower-level need immediately below any given need in the hierarchy predicted satisfaction on
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