Examines basic biological and physiological systems underlying motivational and emotional responses, arguing that, in the course of human evolution, increasingly complex social influences have liberated most human behavior from direct biological / physiological control.

This revision of the successful text draws on the latest research in all areas of the field, including biology and biochemistry, neurology, psychology, and sociology. Presenting the concepts of 'motivation' and 'emotion' as related aspects of the same general phenomena, it examines the basic biological and physiological systems underlying motivational and emotional responses, emphasizing how these interact with cognitive and other 'higher order' processes. This background is applied to a series of specific types of motives and behavior patterns, such as aggression, sexuality, emotional expression, and competence. The author goes on to examine the interaction between cognitive and physiological factors, leading to a discussion of the central theme of the book: that increasingly complex social influences have, in the course of human evolution, liberated most human behavior from direct biological/physiological control.

The past ten years have seen an explosion of useful research surrounding human motivation and emotion; new insights allow researchers to answer the perennial questions, including "What do people want?" and "Why do they want what they want?" By delving into the roots of motivation, the emotional processes at work, and the impacts on learning, performance, and well-being, this book provides a toolbox of practical interventions and approaches for use in a wide variety of settings. In the midst of the field's "golden age," there has never been a better time to merge new understanding and practical application to improve people’s lives. Useful in schools, the workplace, clinical settings, health care, sports, industry, business, and even interpersonal relationships, these concepts are profoundly powerful; incorporated into the state-of-the-art intervention programs detailed here, they can enhance people's motivation, emotion, and outlook while answering the core questions of any human interaction.

This work focuses on human needs and illustrates how to apply motivational principles. A strong humanistic orientation with balanced coverage of behavioral, cognitive and physiological approaches is presented in the text.

Originally published in 1989, this title provided a wide-ranging and up-to-date review of a traditional area of psychology. It will be of great interest to all those who wish to discover what governs human behaviour and feeling – in other words, what makes people tick. Phil Evans explores the influences that determine a range of behaviour, from those with clear biological links such as eating, sleeping and sexual activity, to those specifically human concerns such as the need to achieve success or approval. He also analyses the feelings and emotions that often guide behaviour. He gives a detailed outline of various theoretical perspectives on what it is to be a human being: whether a biological organism with biological needs, a responder to environmental signals of pleasure, or a cognitively aware agent continuously processing information regarding current circumstances. His review of both cognitive and biosocial approaches conveys the liveliness of debate and argument within psychology at the time, and demonstrates that an understanding of all views is necessary to illuminate fully the complex nature of human behaviour.

Explores the relationship between the brain and our motivation to do things, analysing psychological, physiological and combined approaches.

This book is designed to help students organize their thinking about psychology at a conceptual level. The focus on behaviour and empiricism has produced a text that is better organized, has fewer chapters, and is somewhat shorter than many of the leading books. The beginning of each section includes learning objectives; throughout the body of each section are key terms in bold followed by their definitions in italics; key takeaways, and exercises and critical thinking activities end each section.

As the 66th volume in the prestigious Nebraska Series on Motivation, this book focuses on understanding emotion and motivation as two factors that not only influence social and cognitive processes, but also shape the way we navigate our social world. Research on emotion has increased significantly over the past two decades, pulling from scholarship in psychology, neuroscience, medicine, political science, sociology, and even computer science. This volume is informed by the growing momentum in the resulting interdisciplinary field of affective science, and examines the role of emotion and motivation in our perceptions, decision-making, and social interactions, and attempts to understand the neurobiological mechanisms that support these processes across the lifespan in both healthy and clinical populations. Included among the chapters: Emotion concept development from childhood to adulthood Evolving psychological and neural models for the regulation of emotion Pathways to motivational impairments in psychopathology A valuation systems perspective on motivation Reproducible, generalizable brain models of affective processes Emotion in the Mind and Body is a comprehensive and compelling rendering of the current state of the interdisciplinary field of affective science, and will be of interest to researchers and students working in psychology and neuroscience, as well as medicine, political science, and sociology.

The central argument of this book is that cognition is not the whole story in understanding intellectual functioning and development. To account for inter-individual, intra-individual, and developmental variability in actual intellectual performance, it is necessary to treat cognition, emotion, and motivation as inextricably related. Motivation, Emotion, and Cognition: Integrative Perspectives on Intellectual Functioning and Development: *represents a new direction in theory and research on intellectual functioning and development; *portrays human intelligence as fundamentally constrained by biology and adaptive needs but modulated by social and cultural forces; and *encompasses and integrates a broad range of scientific findings and advances, from cognitive and affective neurosciences to cultural psychology, addressing fundamental issues of individual differences, developmental variability, and cross-cultural differences with respect to intellectual functioning and development. By presenting current knowledge regarding integrated understanding of intellectual functioning and development, this volume promotes exchanges among researchers concerned with provoking new ideas for research and provides educators and other practitioners with a framework that will enrich understanding and guide practice.

Motivation is that which moves us to action. Human motivation is thus a complex issue, as people are moved to action by both their evolved natures and by myriad familial, social and cultural influences. The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation collects the top theorists and researchers of human motivation into a single volume, capturing the current state-of-the-art in this fast developing field. The book includes theoretical overviews from some of the best-known thinkers in this area, including chapters on Social Learning Theory, Control Theory, Self-determination theory, Terror Management theory, and the Promotion and Prevention perspective. Topical chapters appear on phenomena such as ego-depletion, flow, curiosity, implicit motives, and personal interests. A section specifically highlights goal research, including chapters on goal regulation, achievement goals, the dynamics of choice, unconscious goals and process versus outcome focus. Still other chapters focus on evolutionary and biological underpinnings of motivation, including chapters on cardiovascular dynamics, mood, and neuropsychology. Finally, chapters bring motivation down to earth in reviewing its impact within relationships, and in applied areas such as psychotherapy, work, education, sport, and physical activity. By providing reviews of the most advanced work by the very best scholars in this field, The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation represents an invaluable resource for both researchers and practitioners, as well as any student of human nature.