Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Excitement as an emotion
What is the emotion of excitement and how does it influence behaviour and well-being?
Overview
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It's 11:30 p.m. the night before Steve's championship basketball game for the state title. As the undefeated team's captain and leading scorer, he has been preparing his whole life for this moment, and tomorrow, he will get to showcase his skills towards a lifelong dream in front of teammates, coaches, fans, family, and professional basketball team recruiters. Instead of feeling nervous, he is suddenly excited. His heart beats faster. He feels energetic, alert, and unusually motivated. He starts to imagine himself having a great game. He practises his shooting form in the mirror one more time, sends basketball highlights and tape to his teammates for review and feedback, and even begins planning what he'll do and say if his team wins the game. The next morning, he wakes up before his alarm. Steve is still buzzing with anticipation. As he walks onto the court, his attention narrows onto the basket. He feels ready to act (see Figure 1). But there is a problem. Steve's excitement becomes so intense that he starts rushing his teams plays too quickly. He manoeuvres through bodies, overlooks an open shot, and finds himself making decisions and passes without thinking them through. So, was his excitement helpful or harmful? And why can it motivate us to pursue opportunities while also influencing how we think, behave, and experience well-being?
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In Steve's case, excitement primes his body and propels him to prepare for his big game but this also comes with some unanticipated consequences as he begins to rush and miss information.
The following chapter explores excitement as an emotion and how it can influence our behaviours and wellbeing. By examining how and why we get excited, and its physiological and psychological affects, we can better understand how we perceive and respond to it. This understanding may consciously allows us to reframe and engage with excitement as an active tool to shape our behaviours, experiences, and well-being.
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Focus questions
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Understanding excitement as an emotion
[edit | edit source]Excitement is more than the feeling of happiness, it's generally understood to be a positive, high-arousal emotional state that prepares an individual to engage with something anticipated or desired and is linked to things like interest, motivation and even risk-taking. It is simultaneously unique from other emotions as it often involves relatively high levels of physiological and psychological activation, but similar, as many of its behaviours, internal feelings and physiological affects can be attributed to other emotional states such as anxiety, or even anger. Excitement is also affected by both the subjective experiences of the emotion and the physiological processes that accompany it as experienced by the individual.
Early views on excitement
[edit | edit source]Early works by Stratton (1928) identified excitement as a distinct state and a unique emotion characterised by the the intense impulse to be directed towards a specific goal. Stratton noticed that excited individuals often were more organised for a specific task at hand and had greater motor movement and specifically targeted behaviour, proposing that excitement was a purposeful psychophysical state that dictates cognitive and motor responses.
Circumplex model of affect
[edit | edit source]One framework to further understand excitement is Russell's (1980) circumplex model of affect, which places excitement on a set of dimensions, most notably, valence, the appraisal of a situatuion or stimulus as either pleasant or unpleasant. Seen as high valence or low valence; and arousal, the state by which a stimulus places the bodys nervous system in a state of physical and mental readiness.
Of these dimensions, excitement is seen to be high on arousal and valence also seen as pleasure or displeasure (see Figure 2.).
Across Russell's experiment in investigate emotions, he had participants interact with 28 tasks relating to the categorisation of emotions and their word meanings. Of these, excitement consistently placed in the area of high arousal and high pleasure. Russell's model helped propose the idea that emotion could act as affective states that are systematically interrelated, and not individual.
- Excitement and other emotions
Through the circumplex model of affect, excitement is best able to be understood and characterised compared to other emotions (Table 1).
- Table 1
Comparison of selected emotions according to valence and arousal.
| Emotion | Valence | Arousal |
|---|---|---|
| Excitement | Positive | High |
| Happiness | Positve | Variable |
| Contentment | Positive | Low |
| Anxiety | Negative | High |
| Sadness | Negative | Low |
What happens when we become excited?
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- Physiological responses
- Research suggests that excitement involves increased physiological arousal, this can include increased heart rate, alertness and energy (Ketonen et al., 2022).
- These responses can prepare the body for action.
- Physiological arousal isn't inherently positive or negative; its interpretation depends partly on context which may also alter if the individual is perceiving the physiiological and psychological changes as excitement or something else.
- Psychological processes
- Excitement changes how individuals subjectively experience an upcoming event (Brooks, 2014).
- Anticipation can increase attention toward rewarding or desirable outcomes.
- Excitement can increase perceived readiness to act and even invidual's momentary thought actions encouraging problem-solving, and exploration (Fredrickson, 2001).
- Expectation about future rewards can contribute to feelings of excitement.
- Anticipatory emotion ?
The influence of excitement on motivation, cognition, and behaviour
[edit | edit source]Excitement can influence behaviour by increasing approach motivation and preparing indivudals to engage with anticipated goals, rewards and opportunities.
- Approach motivation
- Excitement is strongly associated with approach-oriented behaviour.
- Research suggests that it can increase willingness to pursue desirable goals (Gable & Dreisbach, 2021). Excitement can be a catalyst for approach motivations further reinforcing behavioural activation towards long term goals.
- Excitement may increase behavioural activation and persistence.
- Anticipating a positive outcome can motivate action before the reward is actually obtained.
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Steve's excitement leads him to practice and refine his basketball moves and watch tape before the agme. An active approach to the challenge rather than avoiding it.
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- Cognitive and behavioural effects
While excitement can increase motivation and engagement, heightened arousal may also influence judgement and behavioural control. Consequently, excitement may encourage productive action in some situations while contributing to impulsive or risky decisions in others.
- (Self-note:Look into more below) affective arousal has been shown to affect judgement, learning and memory (Storbeck & Clore, 2008).
- Attention
- Decision-making
- Positive arousal increases people's risk-taking (GAlentino, Bonini, & Savadori, 2017)
- Creativity
- Performance
- Exploration
- Does excitement help or hinder behaviour?
With helpful excitement, an individual might move towards a goal by preparing, practiising, engaging and performing with said goal.
However, with unhelpful excitement a person may become excessively excited about an invested reward, this focus and fixation may lead them to underestimate risks and form and impulsive decision.
(Find proper citation for this.
Add possible learning task here?)
Excitement and its influence on well-being
[edit | edit source]- Excitement is a positive emotional experience.
- Experiencing positive emotions can contribute to subjective well-being.
- Excitement can make activities feel more engaging and rewarding.
- Anticipating positive experiences can contribute to motvaiton and enjoyment.
- research shows the re-appraisal for anxiety inducing tasks as exciting can lead to greater overall positive experience and performance increase in performance activities (Brooks, 2014).
- Excitement goals and engagement
- Excitement can encourage individuals to pursue personally meaningful goals.
- Goal pursuit can contribute to competence, engagement and satisfaction.
- Excitement may help people initiate activities they might otherwise avoid.
- Excitement can therefore indirectly contribute to well-being through behaviour.
- Positive affect has been shown to increase life satisfaction and relationships over time (Liu, 2026).
Case study check: Excitement doesn't necessarily improve well-being simply because they "feel good", Rather, the emotion may encourage preparation, engagement and goal pursuit, which can subsequently cotnribute to a sense of accomplishment
- When excitement becomes unhelpful
- Extremely high emotional arousal may become overwhelming.
- Excitement may sometimes contribute to impulsive decisions or risk-taking.
- The consequences of excitement depend on the context and the individual's ability to regulate their behaviour.
- Therefore, excitement should not necessarily be conceptualised as beneficial simply because it is a positive emotion.
Excitement can support well-being when it facilitates meaningful engagement, motivation and goal pursuit, but its effects depend on intensity, context and behavioural regulation.
Conclusion
[edit | edit source]Excitement is a positive, high-arousal emotional state characterised by anticipation and readiness for action. It can influence behaviour through increased approach motivation, attention and goal-directed action.
Excitement can support well-being by promoting engagement and pursuit of rewarding experiences, although excessive arousal or poorly regulated excitement may produce less beneficial outcomes alternatively, the reappraisal of similar physiological emotions into excitement, can allow for greater outcomes in life as well as performance of specific tasks.
Understanding excitement therefore requires recognising it not simply as a pleasurable feeling, but as an emotion that prepares people to act and can shape how they think, behave and experience their well-being.
So, do what excites!
Figures
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- For the topic development, use at least one figure (even if not ideal) to show that you know how to embed, caption, and cite a figure; this can be the figure in the scenario
- For the book chapter, use several figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples
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- Images can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons if they are openly licensed
- Embed figures throughout the chapter, starting with the scenario in the Overview section
- Provide descriptive figure captions (use Figure # and explain the relevance of the image to the text)
- Cite each figure at least once in the main text (e.g., see Figure 2)
Learning features
[edit | edit source]Learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter. Here are some options:
- Scenarios
- Scenarios, case studies, or examples that illustrate concepts in action
- Present using feature boxes; can be split into multiple boxes throughout a chapter (e.g., to illustrate different theories or stages)
- Can be real or fictional; if real, provide citation(s)
- Feature boxes
- Highlight key content using feature boxes, but don't overuse, otherwise they lose their effect
- Consider using feature boxes for:
- Scenarios, case studies, or examples
- Focus questions
- Tips
- Quiz questions
- Take-home messages
- Embedded links
- When key words are introduced, use interwiki links to:
- Wikipedia articles (e.g., "An early psychological view dreams) of dreams was provided by Sigmund Freud") or
- Related book chapters (e.g., "If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about writer's block")
- Tables
- Use tables to organise and summarise information
- Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1)
- Tables should be captioned
- More example tables which can be adapted
Table 1
A Descriptive Caption Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g.,
The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing the Relationship Between Known/Unknown and Self/Other
| Known to self | Not known to self | |
|---|---|---|
| Known to others | Open area | Blind spot |
| Not known to others | Hidden area | Unknown |
- Quizzes
- One or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end
- Quiz conceptual understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as the take-home messages
- Ask easy rather than hard questions
- Different types of quiz questions are possible; see Quiz
Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click "Submit":
Conclusion
[edit | edit source]- Arguably the most important section
- Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
- For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research
- Together, the Overview and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem
- Recommended length: 150 to 330 words
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See also
[edit | edit source]- Affect (psychology) (Wikipedia)
- Circumplex model of affect (Book chapter, 2019)
- Motivational dimensional model of affect (Book chapter, 2025)
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References
[edit | edit source]Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The Role of Positive Emotions in Positive Psychology: The Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions. The American Psychologist, 56(3), 218–226. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.218
Gable, P. A., & Dreisbach, G. (2021). Approach motivation and positive affect. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 39, 203–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2021.03.030
Galentino, A., Bonini, N., & Savadori, L. (2017). Positive Arousal Increases Individuals’ Preferences for Risk. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, Article 2142. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02142
Ketonen, E. E., Salonen, V., Lonka, K., & Salmela‐Aro, K. (2023). Can you feel the excitement? Physiological correlates of students’ self‐reported emotions. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 93(S1), Article 12534. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12534
Liu, J., Vittersø, J., Teulings, I. J. E., Nes, R. B., Mayerhofer, L., & Røysamb, E. (2026). Jingle all the way? Pleasant and energized positive affect show differential longitudinal relationships with life satisfaction and personality. The Journal of Positive Psychology, (Latest Articles), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2026.2701098
Russell, J. A. (1980). A circumplex model of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(6), 1161–1178. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0077714
Storbeck, J., & Clore, G. L. (2008). Affective Arousal as Information: How Affective Arousal Influences Judgments, Learning, and Memory. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(5), 1824–1843. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00138.x
Stratton, G. M. (1928). The function of emotion as shown particularly in excitement. Psychological Review, 35(5), 351–366. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0071406
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External links
[edit | edit source]- How to Turn Anxiety Into Excitement (SciShow Psych)
- Science of Emotions: Excitement (The Franklin Institue)
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