Essay Example on Motivation & Emotion: Interrelated for Optimal Performance

Introduction

Different emotions, either positive or negative, have a significant impact on motivation. In other terms, it is the arousal of emotions that contributes to behaviors that result in motivation. Emotions are usually linked to motives and, on the other hand, emotion on their own possesses motivational properties. Motivation can be described as the willingness to put forth a sincere effort int accomplishing a set objective (Franken, 2007). Motivation and emotion are interrelated, that it is almost impossible to explain one without the other. Negative emotions such as guilt, depression, fear, anxiety, depression, or shame mainly prevent a person from achieving their goals. The negative sentiment is commonly referred to as incongruent goal emotions. Over the years, these emotions have evolved, and they have aa adaptive purpose. They are characterized by distinctive features and have adverse effects, which is, according to Franken 2007, is said to "have emerged to provide organisms with feedback that something in the environment is a potential threat to their survival." This paper will examine the research on how both negative and positive emotions affect goal-directed motivation while providing illustrations. It will as well demonstrate in what ways bot these kinds of emotions affect the biological, learned as well as cognitive elements of goal-oriented motivations. It will compare and contrast the two researched done on the topic matter as well as suggestions for further study on the same.

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Anxiety

Anxiety can be described as the body's natural way to react to stress. It is an intense feeling of fear or apprehension about what is to come. For instance, the first day of going to a new institution, a job interview, the exam, or giving a presentation or speech in Infront of a crowd may cause people to experience anxiety. However, according to the study, anxiety has a negative effect on goal-oriented motivations or, in another term, on aceramic performances. Nevertheless, anxiety can be complicated to pinpoint in a classroom owing to the different types of fears that exist. However, the one characteristic that all forms of stress possess is that they have an adverse effect on overall student performance.

Also, anxiety symptoms can have numerous impacts on a student's academic performance in various ways. Some of the signs of anxiety can be represented in the physical, behavior, thinking, as well as the learning conducts. A standard Behavioural indicator of fear is a lack of student participation in classwork. For instance, the student may avoid answering or asking the question in the classroom, and this may be due to the fear of giving the wrong response or asking an invalid question. The lack of participation may lead to failure in case the students are graded on their extensive verbal involvement in the classroom.

Anxiety can also present itself physically. For instance, a student may faint or become dizzy, which can cause them to be absent from school. The students who miss a considerable about of school work may be rag behind, causing them to fail in the academic performance generally.

Lastly, anxiety may present itself in student learning as well as thinking behavior. This is commonly seen from the lack of concentration in class or co-curricular activities. For instance, a student experiencing anxiety disorder may have challenges in focusing on the subject under consideration in class. And this lack of focus may affect the student's ability to study or, in other cases, their ability to remember facts or information taught during exams hence affecting their performances.

Anxiety and How It Relates to Biological, Learned, and The Cognitive Elements of Goal-Directed Motivation.

Some elements linked with academic goal-directed motivations and student's anxiety comprise of cognitive, biological as well as learned components. A biological factor associated with stress in students is genetics, according to research conducted over the years an individual's genetic makeup can determine an individual's probability to anxiety development. The susceptibility to anxiety development means that a person inherits a specific trait that makes a particular part of the brain significantly active. However, there are several factors musty be involved for a person to develop anxiety, such as environmental or health-related factors. For instance, a person who inherits an anxiety trait may not experience moments of anxiety until they encounter a stressful event or events such as asked to respond to a question in class.

The learned element associated with anxiety in students presents itself in the form of operant conditioning (Mogg & Bradley, 2018). The study shows that behavior can lead to the learned behavior of stress. Take, for instance, if the student is punished for attaining a poor grade on an exercise, then it is more likely that the student is more likely to feel anxiety regarding future exercises or tests. Additional learned element regarding anxiety in students or children is presented in the form of modeling. Further research on the topic reveals that most children learn how to react to behavior by modeling on how different individuals they interact with, such as elder siblings, respected peers, guardians, or parents. In such a way that is a child has an anxious sister or parent, they are more likely to imitates such behavior as observed.

The cognitive element associated with anxiety in students' children comprises of the concept that the anxious children may negatively process their beliefs or ideas. According to research, most students or children view the world as threatening or intimidating (Angelidis et al., 2019). For example, a student with an opposing view or belief regarding the school environment is most likely to experience anxiety while interacting with the professors, dither students, or teachers in school. An additional cognitive concept is that the students might often feel unable to control certain events or situations, and this loss of control might lead the student to develop anxiety. For instance, a student that may think that they have no control over the time given to complete a test, then they might become anxious when confronted with such a test.

Research

"The role of anxiety symptoms in school performance in a community sample of children and adolescents" the purpose of the research according to Mazzone, Ducci, Scoto, Passaniti, D'Arrigo, & Vitiello, 2007, was to establish the rate of anxiety and its relationship to student performance in school. The research aimed at answering the question, "what is the probable connection among high anxiety level and the academic performance with the common unity?" the researchers used questionnaires as the method of data collection. The sample size consisted of 478 students with an age bracket of eight years to 16 years old (Mazzone et al., 2007). The students were required to complete the questionnaires, which was designed to assess the self-reported anxiety symptoms. The results were calculated from the results of the questionnaires and the overall grades of each of the students.

All the statistical computations were done by the use of JMP software. The finding from the research revealed that as the children grow, the potential development of anxiety increases. Similarly, the students who described the prevalent anxiety symptoms had unsatisfactory academic grades. Hence the research adequately addressed the research questions by providing statistical data to address the correlation between anxiety level and goal-oriented motivation, which is the performance in school. Hence anxiety can have adverse impacts on the student's performance in school. However, further research is required to address a broader population, preferably outside the community.

"Anxiety and depression in academic performance: An exploration of the mediating factors of worry and working memory." According to this research conducted by Hadwin, Owens, and Norgate in the year 2012, the key objective of the study was to asses two concepts of apprehension to develop or to enhance the existing intervention measures. The study was aimed at answering the question, "Does worry influence the correlation between academic success and negative affect?" the researchers suggested that it was paramount to assess the trait of both depression and anxiety in students when considering the role of emotional influence on academic performance.

During this research, two different studies were done, and they made use of a self-report questionnaire, and the sample size consisted of eighty participants. The second study had a sample size of 31 participants, all recruited from a secondary school in the United Kingdom. The information from the questionnaires and the student's grades were statistically analyzed using the STATA 11.1. And IMPULS software packages (Hadwin et al., 2012). And findings of the study revealed that there was a secure link between anxiety and the student's unsatisfactory academic performances. The results from the two studies showed anxiety and depression were more liked to increased worry during exams. And thus, the research adequately addressed the research question by providing statistical evidence on the connection between anxiety and depression and negative student performance in school. It is essential to further research to help the psychologist comprehend in what ways cognitive factors impact academic achievements.

Comparison of the Two Studies

Various similarities can be seen from the two different studied by (Mazzone et al., 2007) and (Hadwin et al., 2012). The first research conducted by (Mazzone et al., 2007) utilized a large number of a sample size of 487 participants, and this increased the chances of getting a lot of information. It further increased the chances of accuracy, and the study was further divided into categories with a certain age bracket to how the anxiety levels become prone as the children grew. On the other hand, the other two studies conducted by (Hadwin et al., 2012) utilized a smaller sample size hence lowering the chances of accuracy but, on the contrary minimizing the chances of errors when analyzing the data.

The two sets of studies used different statistical analyses software such as JMP software as well as STATA 11.1. and IMPULS software

Conclusion

From the research done concerning anxiety, it can be concluded that anxiety in children or students is an issue linked to goal-oriented motivation. Stress, therefore, increases the chances of a student's poor academic performance; the poor performances in school can be related to both thinking, learning, physical as well as Behavioural concepts. These concepts affect the way the student reacts, thinks, or acts. Additionally, the anxiety traits can be learned, be hereditary as well as be a result of cognitive elements. Therefore, understanding such factors can help shape interventions to helps students deal with anxiety.

References

Angelidis, A., Solis, E., Lautenbach, F., van der Does, W., & Putman, P. (2019). I'm going to fail! Acute cognitive performance anxiety increases threat-interference and impairs WM performance. PloS one, 14(2). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210824

Franken, R. E. (2007). Human motivation (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

Mazzone, L., Ducci, F., Scoto, M. C., Passaniti, E., D'Arrigo, V. G., & Vitiello, B. (2007). The role of anxiety symptoms in school performance in a community sample of children and adolescents. BMC Public Health, 7(1), 347-347. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-7-347

Mogg, K., & Bradley, B. P. (2018). Anxiety and threat-related attention: cognitive-motivational framework and treatment. Trends in C...