Emotional Motivation Research Articles

Emotional Status, Motor Dysfunction, and Cognitive Functioning as Predictors of Quality of Life in Physically Engaged Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

The demographic transition has become a reality, and it demands public policies to promote physical and mental health in aging. Group exercise emerges as a cost-effective and accessible alternative to promote active aging on a large scale, but to optimize the effectiveness of these programs, it is crucial to understand the underlying mechanisms that improve quality of life. This study aimed to explore the associations between emotional status, cognitive functioning, motor dysfunction, and their relationship with quality of life in community-dwelling older adults participating in a group physical exercise program. Structural equation modeling was used to explore these relationships in a sample of 190 older adults. Emotional state directly predicted all domains of quality of life. Motor dysfunction predicts the physical health domain of quality of life. Motor dysfunction and cognitive functioning are strongly correlated with emotional status. The fit indices of the final model are acceptable, and it demonstrates that within group-exercise dynamics, emotional status is the main component of quality-of-life promotion. Therefore, professionals designing group physical exercise programs to promote active aging should consider not only physical fitness, but also the integration of psychosocial elements, offering a holistic approach to enhancing overall well-being.

Emotional contagion to vocal smile revealed by combined pupil reactivity and motor resonance

The interplay between the different components of emotional contagion (i.e. emotional state and facial motor resonance), both during implicit and explicit appraisal of emotion, remains controversial. The aims of this study were (i) to distinguish between these components thanks to vocal smile processing and (ii) to assess how they reflect implicit processes and/or an explicit appraisal loop. Emotional contagion to subtle vocal emotions was studied in 25 adults through motor resonance and Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) reactivity. Facial expressions (fEMG: facial electromyography) and pupil dilation were assessed during the processing and judgement of artificially emotionally modified sentences. fEMG revealed that Zygomaticus major was reactive to the perceived valence of sounds, whereas the activity of Corrugator supercilii reflected explicit judgement. Timing analysis of pupil dilation provided further insight into both the emotional state and the implicit and explicit processing of vocal emotion, showing earlier activity for emotional stimuli than for neutral stimuli, followed by valence-dependent variations and a late judgement-dependent increase in pupil diameter. This innovative combination of different electrophysiological measures shed new light on the debate between central and peripherical views within the framework of emotional contagion.

Why young adults consume media content about serial killers: Evidence from Russia

This article explores Russian young adults’s motives for consuming media content related to serial killers. Based on a sociological perspective of consumption, the research integrates concepts such as consumerism and “new hedonism” postulated by Campbell with Giddens’s structuration theory and Goffman’s stigma theory. We argue that consumerists’ motivations and images of serial killers are products of modernity. A total of 26 semi-structured online interviews were conducted with young adults aged 18–35 years from 14 cities in Russia. We then performed a thematic qualitative analysis using the AtlasTI software. Our findings show that consumers of media content about serial killers have two main categories of motives: cognitive and emotional. Cognitive motives could be viewed through the lens of the need for ontological security, an attempt to study a potential threat. Emotional motives were associated with satisfying the consumerist need for constant emotional stimulation and pleasure. Future studies may focus on classifying audiences based on their motives for consuming serial-killer media content and examining correlations with consumption practices as well as the supply-side motives of producing this type of content.

THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS OF RENAL DONORS: A QUALITATIVE STUDY FROM INDIA

The study explores the decision-making process of renal donors in India, aiming to understand the motivations, emotions, and contextual factors that influence their choices. Through in-depth interviews with a diverse group of kidney donors, the research delves into their personal experiences and the societal pressures that shape their decisions. The findings reveal that altruism, a sense of duty towards family or community, and personal health experiences significantly drive individuals to donate a kidney. Results: Researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 donors the day before their scheduled donation. Data collection involved open-ended questionnaires, which were voice recorded and analysed using a grounded theory and interpretative approach. The findings indicated that the primary motivation for donation stemmed from the suffering of the recipient. Notably, many mothers chose to donate despite the presence of other potential living donors. All participants confirmed that their decision was made voluntarily, without any external pressure. Throughout the interviews, donors consistently expressed that the recipient's recovery was more important than their own health, a sentiment driven by deep emotional connections. Conclusion: The study found no evidence of coercion among donors, who exhibited a strong awareness of their choices and made voluntary decisions driven by emotional motivations. The primary factors influencing their decision to donate were emotional attachments and concerns for the recipient’s well-being, highlighting the profound impact of personal connections in the organ donation process.

The role of task relevance in saccadic responses to facial expressions.

Recent research on healthy individuals suggests that the valence of emotional stimuli influences behavioral reactions only when relevant to ongoing tasks, as they impact reaching arm movements and gait only when the emotional content cued the responses. However, it has been suggested that emotional expressions elicit automatic gaze shifting, indicating that oculomotor behavior might differ from that of the upper and lower limbs. To investigate, 40 participants underwent two Go/No-go tasks, an emotion discrimination task (EDT) and a gender discrimination task (GDT). In the EDT, participants had to perform a saccade to a peripheral target upon the presentation of angry or happy faces and refrain from moving with neutral ones. In the GDT, the same images were shown, but participants responded based on the posers' gender. Participants displayed two behavioral strategies: a single saccade to the target (92.7%) or two saccades (7.3%), with the first directed at a task-salient feature, that is, the mouth in the EDT and the nose-eyes regions in the GDT. In both cases, the valence of facial expression impacted the saccades only when relevant to the response. Such evidence indicates the same principles govern the interplay between emotional stimuli and motor reactions despite the effectors employed.

Structural neuroanatomy of human facial behaviors.

The human face plays a central role in emotions and social communication. The emotional and somatic motor networks generate facial behaviors, but whether facial behaviors have representations in the structural anatomy of the human brain is unknown. We coded 16 facial behaviors in 55 healthy older adults who viewed five videos that elicited emotions and examined whether individual differences in facial behavior were related to regional variation in gray matter volume. Voxel-based morphometry analyses revealed that greater emotional facial behavior during the disgust trial (i.e. greater brow furrowing and eye tightening as well as nose wrinkling and upper lip raising) and the amusement trial (i.e. greater smiling and eye tightening) was associated with larger gray matter volume in midcingulate cortex, supplementary motor area, and precentral gyrus, areas spanning both the emotional and somatic motor networks. When measured across trials, however, these facial behaviors (and others) only related to gray matter volume in the precentral gyrus, a somatic motor network hub. These findings suggest that the emotional and somatic motor networks store structural representations of facial behavior and that the midcingulate cortex is critical for generating the predictable movements in the face that arise during emotions.

The Operation of Moe: A Discourse Practice of Cyber Nationalism

Unlike the previous cyber-nationalism events characterized by anger and hatred, the "Panda Ya Ya" incident highlights a special form of "soft emotion." This paper focuses on the common representation of this soft emotion in both self-media and official media discourse practices: moe. Through Fairclough's discourse analysis, the specific mechanisms of its operation are explored to understand the emotional motivations in cyber nationalism. The study finds that at the levels of representation and style, the "moe discourse" in the Ya Ya incident is co-created by self-media and official media as: floating factual evidence, repeatedly performed legitimacy, and normalized political figures. However, there are characteristic differences in "time-space representation" and register between the two. The operation of moe discourse is premised on human participation, with the relationship between moe objects and humans essentially being "agented agency." Finally, the soft emotion manifested by moe discourse exhibits more significant network characteristics, relying on more universal human values, and more closely resembling the fulfillment of emotional needs. This can be viewed as a new, more powerful "commonality" resource in the development of cyber-nationalism. However, the operation of soft emotions in cyber-nationalism often remains in a state of "unfinished" without a directed outcome, becoming a kind of "emotional machine running idle."

Iran’s axis of resistance through the lens of ontological security

Unlike traditional approaches that analyse an actor’s foreign policy by focusing on the search for physical security and material interests, ontological security advocates a more nuanced approach that considers identity politics, regime security, issues of legitimacy, and emotional motives. This article aims to examine Iran’s Axis of Resistance from the perspective of ontological security, without rescinding the possibility of power struggles or ideological motivations in influencing Iran’s foreign policymaking process. This study posits that the Axis of Resistance embodies a profound meaning and overarching significance for Iran that transcends mere considerations of physical security or sectarian-­ideological inclinations. The pursuit of the Axis of Resistance by Iran serves to provide the regime with ontological security, achieved through the utilisation of national narratives, the establishment of routines, concerns pertaining to domestic order, and the incorporation of emotional underpinnings of the Islamic regime. The existential significance that Iran ascribes to the Axis of Resistance is of crucial importance in maintaining this paradigm, despite all its costs.

GEN Z’S IMPULSE BUYING BEHAVIOR OF SHOPPING THROUGH LIVE-STREAMING SOCIAL COMMERCE PLATFORMS:

In social commerce, consumers receive emotional motivation to purchase products because they feel familiar and bonded with the promoter, often losing track of time and self-awareness in a flow state, leading to impulse buying. As Gen Z are often presents more tendency toward impulse shopping behaviors compared to other generations, this study aims to investigate the impulse buying behavior of Generation Z (Gen Z) on live-streaming social commerce platforms, focusing on the roles of Parasocial Interaction (PSI) and Social Commerce Emotional Motivation (SCEM). Using a quantitative approach, data were collected via online surveys from individuals born between 1998 and 2007 who had made at least two unplanned purchases after watching live-streamed shopping events within four weeks. Statistical regression analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS 26.0 to explore the relationships between PSI, SCEM, and impulse buying behavior (IBB). The findings reveal that both PSI and SCEM significantly influence IBB among Gen Z consumers. Strong parasocial relationships with live-stream hosts enhance trust and connection, while emotional engagement through SCEM motivates spontaneous purchases. The study highlights the synergistic effect of PSI and SCEM, suggesting that a combined approach is most effective in driving impulse buys. This study contributes to the understanding of consumer behavior in the context of emerging social commerce trends, providing actionable insights for enhancing marketing strategies targeted at Gen Z.

Relationship between motivations and dietary behaviours within parent-adolescent dyads: Application of actor-partner interdependence models.

Parents play a substantial role in improving adolescent dietary behaviours. To examine the interdependent relationships between motivations (autonomous and emotional motivation) and dietary behaviours (fruit and vegetable [F/V] and junk food and sugar-sweetened beverage [JF/SSB] intake) within parent-adolescent dyads. This secondary data analysis was conducted on 1522 parent-adolescent dyads using a cross-sectional Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health, and Eating (FLASHE) study. The ratio of boys to girls among the adolescents was approximately equal, and 74% of the parents were mothers. The adolescents were between 12 and 17 years old, and 85.5% of the parents were between 35 and 59 years old. Parents and adolescents completed an online survey on dietary motivations and behaviours. Actor-partner interdependence models were performed within parent-adolescent dyads. F/V and JF/SSB intake was influenced by parents' or adolescents' autonomous motivation (actor-only pattern), except among adolescents with obesity. A dyadic pattern was found in the relationship between autonomous motivation and F/V and JF/SSB intake, but only among adolescents with normal weight. No relationship was found between F/V and JF/SSB controlled motivation and F/V or JF/SSB intake among adolescents with overweight or obesity. Autonomous motivation had a significant relationship with F/V and JF/SSB intake for both parents and adolescents, but the association varied depending on the adolescents' weight. Personalized programmes that foster autonomous motivation to change dietary behaviours should be provided based on the adolescents' weight status.

Revisão Sistemática de Estudos sobre Bullying no Contexto da Educação Física e Atividade Física

Introduction: Aggressive behaviors such as bullying or School Bullying (SB) in the population are not an isolated event and seriously affect the socio-emotional health of those who suffer it. Objective: The aim of this study was to carry out a systematic review of existing publications on Physical Education (PE) and Physical Activity (PA). Materials and Methods: A research was designed based on PRISMA methodology. The search for information was developed in four databases WOS, PUBMED, SCIELO and ELSEIVER between the years 2015 to 2020. Results: A total of 53 articles were found, after being analyzed by inclusion and exclusion criteria, 18 studies were considered for analysis. Spain, Brazil and Colombia concentrate a greater number of publications with great variability of sample size for both females and males mainly during adolescence. The most used concepts were Bullying; Victimization, School Violence, Cyberbullying, Cyberbullying, Self-esteem within the context of PE and PA. Conclusion: The need to make the problem visible in PE and PA is highlighted, due to its impact on physical and emotional health and motor learning.

Engaging with AI painting: exploring motivations and challenges in laypeople's creative information practices

Introduction. The advent of generative AI has democratized art creation, enabling individuals without formal training to produce visually appealing digital artworks. However, it is not yet well-understood why and how laypeople engage with AI in creative information practice. Method. This study conducted semi-structured interviews with 17 participants, aiming to understand the motivations for laypeople's engagement with AI painting and the challenges they encounter. Analysis. The interviews were analysed using open coding and thematic analysis, with two independent coders achieving a substantial inter-coder reliability score. Results. Our findings reveal that laypeople's engagement with AI painting is a practice-oriented information practice, influenced by social and contextual factors. The engagement process is iterative, starting with a user prompt and AI-generated initial output, followed by continuous refinement. Laypeople engage with AI painting for emotional motivations, personal utilitarian motivations, and social interaction. Notable challenges include image quality, technological limitations, and personal constraints. Conclusion. These findings provide empirical evidence of the potential and limitations of AI in creative information practice. This understanding is vital for informing the design of future AI tools to enhance the human-AI collaborative experience in creative endeavours.

Transformation of Sharia Investment at IAIN Manado: Analysis of Student Interest and Impact

This study investigates Sharia investment management strategies that can increase students' interest in investing in the Sharia capital market, especially at IAIN Manado. The research method used is qualitative with secondary data analysis. The data collection process involves searching for literature related to Sharia investment management and factors that affect students' investment interest. Secondary data analyzed includes academic publications, capital market reports, and other related studies. Key results show that there is a need to improve key aspects of strategy management, such as environmental observation, strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation and control. Factors that influence students' interest in investing include internal, social, and emotional motives. The implication of this study is the need for a holistic approach in Sharia investment management for students, with a focus on integrating more effective strategies and a deeper understanding of the factors that influence investment decisions. This study has important implications in developing a practical approach to encourage student participation in the Sharia capital market, as well as providing guidance for educational institutions and capital market participants to create an environment that supports and facilitates the Sharia investment process for students. By addressing these challenges, educational institutions and market participants can create an environment that supports Sharia-compliant investment practices among students, thereby increasing their involvement in the overall Sharia capital market.

Modulation of response times in early-stage Parkinson’s disease during emotional processing of embodied and non-embodied stimuli

Valence (positive and negative) and content (embodied vs non-embodied) characteristics of visual stimuli have been shown to influence motor readiness, as tested with response time paradigms. Both embodiment and emotional processing are affected in Parkinson’s disease (PD) due to basal ganglia dysfunction. Here we aimed to investigate, using a two-choice response time paradigm, motor readiness when processing embodied (emotional body language [EBL] and emotional facial expressions [FACS]) vs non-embodied (emotional scenes [IAPS]) stimuli with neutral, happy, and fearful content. We enrolled twenty-five patients with early-stage PD and twenty-five age matched healthy participants. Motor response during emotional processing was assessed by measuring response times (RTs) in a home-based, forced two-choice discrimination task where participants were asked to discriminate the emotional stimulus from the neutral one. Rating of valence and arousal was also performed. A clinical and neuropsychological evaluation was performed on PD patients. Results showed that RTs for PD patients were longer for all conditions compared to HC and that RTs were generally longer in both groups for EBL compared to FACS and IAPS, with the sole exception retrieved for PD, where in discriminating fearful stimuli, RTs for EBL were longer compared to FACS but not to IAPS. Furthermore, in PD only, when discriminating fearful respect to neutral stimuli, RTs were shorter when discriminating FACS compared to IAPS. This study shows that PD patients were faster in discriminating fearful embodied stimuli, allowing us to speculate on mechanisms involving an alternative, compensatory, emotional motor pathway for PD patients undergoing fear processing.

Do trait-assessed valenced emotion motives predict valenced affective states in the daily lives of university students?

Although emotion motives have been proposed to predict momentary valenced affect experienced in everyday life, little research has been conducted on this issue. The present study examined whether trait-level hedonic and contra-hedonic emotion motives would significantly predict daily hedonic and contra-hedonic emotion goals and subsequent daily affective states. A sample of 268 university students self-reported levels of trait emotion motives in a single-occasion survey, followed by a 14-day daily diary study which assessed momentary emotion goals and affective mood states. Linear mixed model analyses showed that trait hedonic emotion motives (trying to experience positive emotions) significantly predicted corresponding daily hedonic emotion goals and subsequent higher levels of daily positive affect, while trait contra-hedonic motives (trying to experience negative emotions) evidenced an analogous pattern resulting in higher levels of daily negative affect. These findings support a bivariate rather than a bipolar relationship between hedonic and contra-hedonic motives.

Secondary cerebro-cerebellar and intra-cerebellar dysfunction in cerebellar mutism syndrome.

Cerebellar mutism syndrome (CMS) is characterized by deficits of speech, movement, and affect that can occur following tumor removal from the posterior fossa. The role of cerebro-cerebellar tract injuries in the etiology of CMS remains unclear, with recent studies suggesting that cerebro-cerebellar dysfunction may be related to chronic, rather than transient, symptomatology. We measured functional connectivity between the cerebellar cortex and functional nodes throughout the brain using fMRI acquired after tumor removal but prior to adjuvant therapy in a cohort of 70 patients diagnosed with medulloblastoma. Surgical lesions were mapped to the infratentorial anatomy, and connectivity with cerebral cortex was tested for statistical dependence on extent of cerebellar outflow pathway injury. CMS diagnosis was associated with an increase in connectivity between the right cerebellar and left cerebral hemisphere, maximally between cerebellum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VM-PFC). Connectivity dependence on cerebellar outflow was significant for some speech nodes but not for VM-PFC, suggesting altered input to the cerebellum. Connectivity between posterior regions of cerebellar cortex and ipsilateral dentate nuclei was abnormal in CMS participants, maximally within the right cerebellar hemisphere. The functional abnormalities we identified are notably upstream of where causal surgical injury is thought to occur, indicating a secondary phenomenon. The VM-PFC is involved in several functions that may be relevant to the symptomatology of CMS, including emotional control and motor learning. We hypothesize that these abnormalities may reflect maladaptive learning within the cerebellum consequent to disordered motor and limbic function by the periaqueductal gray and other critical midbrain targets.

A seesaw of equilibrium, midwives' experiences of infection prevention and control guideline adherence: A qualitative descriptive study.

Infection prevention and control guidelines play a key role in preventing infections which can impact mothers and their newborn's quality of life. Despite the presence of evidenced-based infection prevention and control guidelines, midwives' adherence can be suboptimal internationally. The identification of facilitators and barriers to infection prevention and control guidelines can support practice and facilitate midwifery care. To understand midwives' experiences of the barriers and facilitators when adhering to infection prevention and control guidelines. A qualitative descriptive study using semi-structured interviews with 10 midwives from February to March 2022. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed utilising Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis framework involving the six steps of becoming familiar with the data, generating initial codes, generating themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming the themes, and presenting themes. Two themes developed; seesaw for equilibrium and back to basics: learning on your feet. Midwives experienced conflicting emotional motivators in the need for professional integrity towards infection prevention and control guideline adherence. The work environment impacts on midwives' ability to adhere to guidelines and communication and education have a vital role to play in infection prevention and control guideline adherence. While midwives have a strong sense of protection of professional integrity, work conditions such as environment, organisational structures, and management systems affect midwives' adherence to infection prevention and control guidelines. Effective education, training, and communication are required to promote infection prevention and control guideline adherence.

From emotional signals to symbols.

The quest for the origins of language is a diverse enterprise, where research from a variety of disciplines brings area-specific ideas and area-specific terminology to bear. This variety often results in misunderstandings and misconceptions about communication in various species. In the present paper, we argue for focus on emotional systems as the primary motivators for social signals in animals in general. This focus can help resolve discrepancies of interpretation among different areas of inquiry and can illuminate distinctions among different social signals as well as their phylogenetic origins in animals and especially in humans. We advocate, following Jaak Panksepp, a view wherein the Seeking System, the endogenous tendency to search and explore, is the most fundamental emotional motivation. The Seeking System forms the basis for flexible, voluntary, and exploratory control of motor systems and makes much of learning possible. The relative lack of vocal learning and expression in nonhuman primates contrasted with extensive vocal learning and expression in humans began, we propose, with the evolution in ancient hominins of a necessary foundation for the many subsequent capabilities required for language. That foundation was, according to the reasoning, naturally selected in the form of neurological connections between the Seeking System and mechanisms of glottal/phonatory control. The new connections allowed ancient hominins to develop flexible, endogenous vocal fitness signals produced at very high rates and including large numbers of discrete syllables, recombinable to form syllable combinations with many prosodic variations. The increasing sociality of hominins supported evolution of massive expansion in the utilization of these flexible vocal forms to allow development of words and sentences.

Explore the Influence of E-commerce Live Broadcast on Consumers' Purchase Intention: Based on the Motivational Psychology Theory

E-commerce online live shopping has become intricately woven into the fabric of people's daily lives. This study adopts empirical statistical research methods to identify factors influencing consumers' purchase intentions within the realm of e-commerce live broadcasting. Drawing upon the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model and motivational psychological theory, a comprehensive model for consumer purchase intentions in the context of e-commerce live streaming is formulated. Users' perceived interactivity, perceived content quality, and perceived trust in live streamers are taken as antecedent variables, and users' emotional motivation and cognitive motivation are taken as intermediate variables. Use the user's purchase intention as the result variable. Assume that the three anthems positively affect the two intermediate variables, and the two intermediate variables positively affect the outcome variables. After a series of data analyses, all the proposed hypothesis studies are valid. In other words, the interaction of users' perception of live broadcasts when watching e-commerce, the quality of content, and their trust in live streamers will positively affect users' emotional motivation and cognitive motivation, and the emotional motivation and cognitive motivation generated by users will also positively affect users' purchase intention. There are mediating effects between affective motivation and cognitive motivation in the hypothesis model.

Gamification in E-banking and E-wallets and Customer’s Loyalty

Gamification is a growing trend that significantly impacts consumer behavior, particularly in the development of gamification software in e-banking and e-wallets. Understanding how gamification affects existing customers is crucial to the success of these applications. To address this, we developed a study proposing a conceptual model that assesses the impact of variables such as gamification, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, reward, emotional motivation, benefit motivation, intended use behavior, and customer loyalty. The reward factor indirectly impacts both motivations for customer loyalty. This model can be used by scholars to study technology adoption behavior related to gamification in service industries. The study collected a sample of over 300 Gen Z individuals and used both quantitative and qualitative research methods, including the 5-point Likert scale and software such as SPSS and SMART PLS to analyze the data and test the SEM model. The findings provide valuable insights into the application of gamification as a novel marketing strategy, which can help ensure user loyalty and attract more potential customers, thereby increasing business revenue. Overall, this study contributes to understanding the impact of gamification in e-banking and e-wallets.