Emotional Stimuli
Many states, including the one I am in, have what they call the education lottery. It is a way to fund the school districts in those particular states amidst the large budget cuts. However, imagine if you will that you purchased a ticket. Not only did you purchase the ticket, but you won the lottery. Of course, the thoughts that are going through your head is tremendous. What are you going to do with it? How are you going to spend it? Do you tell your family? Do you leave your spouse for another country and run off with the money?
Whatever the thoughts are, this forms the basis for the stimulus. A stimulus can be an event, thought, or object (Coon & Mitterer, 2013). In this case, thinking, “I just won 30 million dollars three days ago!” would be the stimulus. You begin to think of what you can do, or appraise, by thinking, “I can buy a fleet of classic cars!” As you continue thinking about all of the wonderful things that you can do, those thoughts begin to bring feelings of happiness. After all, who would not be happy after winning that much money? Many people would take the vacation they always wanted, buy a house, give money to charitable organizations they like the most, etc. Lastly, because of all of that, you have a psychological response and observable behavior in the form of smiling (Coon & Mitterer, 2013).
We learn a few things from this process. The first is that there is thought, then emotion. Thinking of your mother hugging you when you were a child right before you left for school can make you feel happy. However, thinking about being jealous because someone is talking to the girl or guy you like can make us feel sad or angry.
If we were to look at another situation such as when I was walking along a hiking trail with my wife. My wife almost stepped on a cottonmouth moccasin. When I saw it, I instantly became afraid not only about the snake but also due to my wife. I did not have to think that there was a dangerous animal in our path, we should be careful. We walked away without harm, but it was still a scary situation. I froze, my face was surprised, and my heart began to beat rapidly. My facial expression was stereotypical and my rapid heartbeat was a distinctive physiological response (Coon & Mitterer, 2013).
Emotion and motivation are linked due to several reasons. The first is that motives, and the arousal of emotions, trigger behavior. However, it is difficult to predict what kind of behavior that will prompt. Secondly, motives regularly accompany emotions. Lastly, emotions tend to have motivational properties of their own.