Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Historical development and assessment skills

Lecture 02: Historical development and assessment skills
This is the second lecture for the motivation and emotion unit of study.

Overview

This lecture:

Provides historical context about the development of psychological knowledge about motivation and emotion
Explains the assessment, including how to:
- use Wikiversity for the:
  - topic development
  - book chapter
- prepare for and complete the exam
- access support for completing the assessment

Take-home messages:

Motivation and emotion has evolved from grand theories to mini-theories which exhibit some common themes but some differences, with greater emphasis on the active nature of the person in shaping the environment to meet their needs
A wiki is the simplest collaborative platform - anyone can edit to contribute to the knowledge commons

Outline

Motivation in historical perspective
- Philosophical origins
- Grand theories
- Rise of mini-theories
- Post-drive theory years
- Contemporary era
- Brief history of emotion study
Assessment task skills
- Topic selection
- Topic development
- Book chapter
- Exam

Motivation in historical perspective

Motivation emerged as a central topic in psychology, beginning with the Ancient Greek dualistic view of behaviour as a conflict between body (irrational impulses) and mind (rational control), later echoed by Descartes' distinction between passive biological impulses and the active will
Over time, early ideas were challenged and replaced, with the field remerging as an interdisciplinary science integrating biological, cognitive, and social perspectives.
In evolving from philosophical ideas to empirical psychological science, emphasis has shifted from passive, mechanistic views to active, dynamic conceptions of the person

Philosophical origins

Ancient Greek philosophers (e.g. Socrates → Plato → Aristotle) proposed that human action results from competing internal forces:
- Socrates (~470s-390s BC) → Plato (~420s-340s BC) - 3 aspects (tripartite model) of the soul/mind:
  - Appetitive - Bodily related appetite and desire (e.g., hunger) (physiological)
  - Competitive - Socially-referenced standard (e.g., pride) (social)
  - Calculating - Decision-making capabilities (e.g., reasoning) (thinking)
- → Aristotle's (~380s-320s BC) version:
  - Nutritive - Impulsive, irrational, animal-like (e.g., urges) (animalistic impulses)
  - Sensitive - Bodily-related (e.g, pleasure & pain)
  - Rational - Idea-related, intellectual - featured the will (e.g., intention, choice)
- What is similar or different?
  - Both identify appetitive/nutritive—what today we might call physiological needs
  - Both identify calculating/rational—what today we might call cognitive motivations
  - Plato identified competitive social motivations which differs from Aristotle’s sensitive motivations (related to pleasure and pain)
Descartes (16th century AD) distinguished between passive bodily instincts and the active will of the soul
These early ideas framed motivation as a battle between animalistic/biological impulses and calculated/logical thought and reason

Grand theories

Scientific study of motivation initially pursued comprehensive, all-encompassing theories. These grand theories sought to explain all behaviour under unified principles.

Will

Seen as the primary cause of behaviour during the 17th–19th centuries
The will was viewed as a faculty of the mind that initiates and sustains voluntary action
Gradually abandoned due to its unobservable, non-measurable nature
Willpower: What is it and how can it be strengthened? (Book chapter, 2015)

Instinct

Emerged late 19th century, influenced by Darwinian theory (i.e., biological, genetic)
Behaviour attributed to inherited, innate instincts (e.g., William James listed dozens)
Instincts are unlearned, automated, mechanistic, inherited sources of motivation
William McDougall (early 20th century) proposed links between innate instincts and specific emotions and goal-directed behaviours, helping bridge biological impulses with purposive action
However, this grand theory of human motivation declined due to being overly broad (e.g., how many human instincts are there?) and lacking empirical support (e.g., failure to explain variability in behaviour)
Instinct theory, the power of motivation (CrashCourse Psychology #17, YouTube; 2:09 mins): Introduces motivation by explaining instinct theory

Drive

Dominated early-to-mid 20th century psychology (e.g., Freud's psychodynamic theory, Hull’s drive reduction theory)
Internal biological deficits (e.g., hunger) created drive states that directed behaviour
Emphasised homeostasis and reinforcement learning
Lost prominence due to inability to account for complex, goal-directed behaviours unrelated to biological needs
Resources
- Drive theory, the power of motivation (CrashCourse Psychology #17, YouTube; 2:09 mins): Introduces motivation by explaining drive theory
- Drive reduction theory
- Drive-reduction theory of motivation (Book chapter, 2017)

Decline of grand theories

Will: Philosophical study of the will turned into a dead-end. Explained little about motivation and raised more questions than it answered.
Instinct: Physiological study of the instinct proved to be a dead-end as well; naming “instinct” is not explaining.
Drive: Limited scope. Some behaviours occur despite drives (e.g., anorexia). Some behaviours occur due to environmental incentives.

The grand theories provided some of the jigsaw puzzle for psychological understanding of motivation, but lacked sufficient, nuanced detail to be practically useful.

However, several broad motivational principles emerged, including incentive and arousal.

Post-drive theory years

1950s–1960s
Thomas Kuhn's concept of paradigm shift (1962) in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions helped reframe scientific progress as non-linear, influencing motivation science by encouraging the move away from rigid grand theories toward flexible, domain-specific mini-theories grounded in empirical research
In response to the limitations of grand theories, psychologists turned to narrower, more testable theories which focused on specific aspects of motivation (e.g., goal-setting, cognitive dissonance, attribution theory)
Emphasised empirical evidence over philosophical speculation

Active nature of the person

A major shift reframed humans not as passive responders but as active, curious, and self-regulating agents
Organismic theories (e.g., self-determination theory) highlighted the innate tendency to seek growth, mastery, and integration

Cognitive revolution

In the 1960s–70s, cognition gained prominence: beliefs, expectations, goals, and self-concepts became central to understanding motivation
Emphasis moved from behaviourism (classical and operant conditioning) to information processing and decision-making
Key developments included expectancy-value theories and attribution theory

Socially relevant questions

Research extended beyond laboratory studies to address real-world problems: e.g.,
- How do teachers motivate students?
- Why do people engage in risky behaviours?
- What sustains long-term goal pursuit?
Motivation became increasingly applied in education, health, work, and clinical domains

Rise of mini-theories

Grand theories tried to explain full range of motivation, whereas mini-theories limit their attention to:
- Specific motivational phenomenon (e.g., achievement motivation, flow experiences)
- Special motivational circumstances (e.g., failure feedback, role models)
- Groups of people (e.g., extraverts, children, workers)
- Particular theoretical questions (e.g., relationship between cognition and emotion)
Example mini-theories

Contemporary era

1990s–present
Reemergence of motivation study (1990s)
Renewed interest in motivation emerged through robust theories (e.g., self-determination theory)
Focus on psychological needs (autonomy, competence, relatedness), goals, and self-regulation
Pluralistic: Mini-theories each provide useful, interlocking perspectives for understanding the puzzle of motivation and emotion
Motivation became integrated with emotion, neuroscience, and social cognition
Current understanding:
- Behaviour is energised and directed by a multitude of multi-level and co-acting influences
- Motivational states need to be understood at multiple levels—neurological, cognitive, social, etc.

Relationship with other areas of psychology

Motivation and emotion are important pieces of the psychological puzzle, overlapping with multiple perspectives and domains:

Social: The social environment causes and contributes to much of our motivation and emotional experience
Developmental: Human motivational and emotional capacity and experience grow and change across the lifespan
Personality: Patterns of individual differences in motivation and emotion underlie personality traits
Cognitive: Cognitions such as expectations, appraisals, decision-making, and self-concepts are central to understanding motivation and emotional responses
Physiological: Motivation and emotion have distinct physiological and neurological components and processes
Health, counselling, and clinical: Dysregulation (e.g., too much, too little) of motivation and emotion contributes to psychological disorders and affects physical health
Educational: Motivation plays a key role in learning and achievement; emotion influences attention and cognitive processing
Organisational: Motivation affects job performance, satisfaction, and leadership; emotions affect decision-making and relationships

Brief history of emotion study

For much of psychology’s early development, emotion was neglected or treated as secondary to cognition.
Descartes viewed emotion as psychosomatic, involving physical mechanisms and mental experience, vigorous bodily reaction to a person, object, or event—marking early dualistic thought
Charles Darwin viewed emotions as innate, universal, and evolutionarily adaptative for responding to environmental challenges and opportunities
William James proposed that emotions arise from physiological reactions to stimuli (James–Lange theory, treating them as temporary psychological states
Cannon-Bard theory challenged this view, arguing that emotions are generated in the brain (specifically, the thalamus) and occur simultaneously with physiological responses
Schachter-Singer's two-factor theory of emotion introduced the idea that emotion depends on both physiological arousal and cognitive appraisal
Cross-cultural research (e.g., Ekman, 1960s) showed universal recognition of basic facial expressions (e.g., happiness, fear, anger), supporting the evolutionary basis of emotion while also revealing cultural variation in expression and display rules
From the 1980s onward, emotion regained prominence through the rise of affective neuroscience, appraisal theories (e.g., Lazarus), and Fredrickson's broaden-and-build theory of positive emotion
Affective computing emerged as a contemporary focus, exploring how technology can detect, interpret, and stimulate human emotions—highlighting the role of emotional intelligence in humans and machines
Today, motivation and emotion are understood as deeply interconnected processes that together shape behaviour, decision-making, and psychological well-being

Assessment skills

Assessment skills (wiki editing) are taught in Tutorial 02.

Examples

See examples of high quality major project submissions:

Multimedia

A vision of students today (YouTube; 4:44 mins): Explores some reasons behind why are approaching the assessment this way
Wikis in plain English (Commoncraft; 3:53 mins) explains the concept of a wiki and how it works
Wikipedia - An investment for your future; your children's future (YouTube; 4:10 mins) explains the purpose of Wikipedia

Readings

Slides

Historical development (Google Slides)
Assessment skills (Google Slides)

Recording

Lecture 02 (2025)

External links

Drive-reduction theory and human behavior: Biological need motivates behavior (verywellmind)