Theories of Needs, Health and Emotions

Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory

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To understand employee motivation and attitudes, Herzberg carried out a study to find out the factors behind employee satisfaction or dissatisfaction in a workplace. The results of the study revealed that factors are causing job satisfaction were distinct from those leading to dissatisfaction. Herzberg referred the factors resulting in job satisfaction as motivating factors and those causing job dissatisfaction as hygiene factors. Examples of satisfiers include achievement, growth, advancement, responsibility, work itself, and recognition. On the other hand, hygiene factors include salary, supervision, personal life, job security, status, company policy, interpersonal relations, and working conditions. Because motivating factors are distinct from hygiene factors, enhancing factors responsible for job satisfaction will not remedy job dissatisfaction. Similarly, removing factors which cause dissatisfaction will not lead to job satisfaction.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Maslow, in this theory, suggests that people are motivated to achieve unsatisfied needs. He classified the needs hierarchically as physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, ego needs, and self-actualization needs. The deficiency of physiological needs motivates an individual to seek for them. When these needs are met, an individual seeks to achieve the next one (safety needs). This continues until the highest (self-actualization) need is met. It is worth noting that an individual must fulfil lower level needs in order to realise higher level needs.

McClelland's Need for Achievement

According to the theory, an individual acquires certain needs over a period of time. These needs are shaped by a persons life experiences. McClelland classified these needs into three: achievement, affiliation, or power. Motivational levels of a person are influenced by these needs. The theory postulates that individuals with high need for achievement (achievers) prefer situations in which they are responsible for looking for solutions to problems. Achievers are also characterised by a tendency to avoid low-risk as well as high-risk situations, and, thus set moderate goals. When it comes to affiliation, achievers seek harmonious relationships with other individuals.

Major Dietary Problems of Americans and Contributions of Americans to the Problems

The American diet is characterised by excessive intake of fats, added sugars, food rich in high calories, and salts. The diet is also deficient in fruits, fibre, whole grains, calcium, and vegetables. These dietary problems have resulted in diseases and disorders such as diabetes, heart diseases, obesity, and cancer. Americans have contributed to these problems by choosing a poor diet and preferring sedentary lifestyles.

Differences between Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa

The main difference between anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa is that anorexia nervosa is characterised by self-starvation that leads to weight loss of fifteen percent of the ideal weight. On the other hand, bulimia nervosa patients have normal body weight. Secondly, unlike anorexia nervosa which has an early onset of 14 to 18 years, the onset for bulimia nervosa is 15 to 21 years. Also, anorexia nervosa is characterised by amenorrhea. Amenorrhea is less likely in bulimia nervosa. Moreover, victims of anorexia nervosa tend to be highly introverted unlike those of bulimia nervosa who are extroverted.

Emotions and Examples of Adaptive Behaviour.

The term emotion can be defined as a state of feeling that causes both physical and psychological changes in individuals thus influencing their thoughts and behaviours. Adaptive emotions are those which do not lead to long-lasting problems. They are reactions to situations at hand and disappears as soon as the cause disappears. Examples of adaptive emotions are anger and sadness.

Theories of Emotions

James-Lange theory

According to the theory, emotions are not a direct result of the perception of an event but a bodily response triggered by an event. That is to say, for an individual to experience emotion, he or she must first experience the response of the body (e.g. sweating) that goes along with the emotion. After experiencing bodily response, one experiences emotion.

Cannon-Bard theory

This theory explains that emotions do not depend on bodily input and how the body is responding. It proposes that emotional experiences and the response by the body take place both simultaneously and independently.

Schachter-Singer theory

The theory suggests that emotional experience is as a result of bodily response and how the bodily response is interpreted in view of the particular situation an individual is in at that time.