Week 10 — What Moved Them, and What Did They Feel? A Motivation and Emotion Brief

Assignment 9 of the term — compute two short counts from this week's studies and worked example, label what moved a person and what a feeling is made of, and tell someone new to psychology what the hunger hormones really do.

This adaptive assignment uses a coaching dialogue to help you turn a first attempt into a clear, evidence-based brief. You remain the author. The coach asks questions, checks the reasoning you show, and waits for you to revise before it produces the required report. In Week 3 you met the hypothalamus and the amygdala, and in Week 9 you began analyzing higher mental processes; this week both return, as the brain's part in hunger and fear and as the forces of motivation and emotion. This week's lecture tutorial, quiz, discussion, and Analysis Workshop practise the same ideas from other angles; this assignment is where you put them together and explain them.

The task

The Yerkes–Dodson law (Yerkes & Dodson, 1908) says performance is best at a moderate level of arousal, with the best level lower for a difficult task than for an easy one. Maslow's hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1943) runs physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem, and self-actualization, and it is a descriptive model whose strict ordering is not well supported by evidence. The week's five everyday scenarios are the midnight snack, the marathon, the scholarship, the hobby nobody pays you for, and the bear on the trail.

Work these two problems, showing your arithmetic:

1. Yerkes and Dodson published their law of arousal and performance in 1908, and Maslow published his hierarchy of needs in 1943. How many years separate the two?
2. This week's worked example uses 4 motivation labels and 3 emotion theories. How many labeled moves does it make in all?

Beside each answer, add one brief interpretation. For problem 1, explain which theory of motivation explains a runner choosing a marathon and why drive-reduction theory cannot, use the Yerkes–Dodson law to describe the best arousal level at the start line and for a hard exam, and place the hobby nobody pays you for on Maslow's levels while naming one limit of the model. For problem 2, narrate the bear on the trail through the James–Lange, Cannon–Bard, and two-factor theories, saying what comes first in each, and sort the moment into physiological arousal, expressive behavior, and cognitive appraisal, naming the amygdala's role in fear.

Explain it to a non-expert

A friend who has never studied psychology says, "Leptin is the hunger hormone, so when I raid the fridge at midnight, that is my leptin talking." Write a 3–5 sentence message that explains, in everyday words, which hormone signals hunger and where it comes from, what leptin does instead, and one limit: hormones help regulate appetite, and habits, company, and culture pull on eating too. Explain any technical term in everyday words.

For a different, ungraded example, imagine a roommate who asks why they get so thirsty after a bag of salty chips. Model answer: "Your body likes to keep its water and salt in balance, and the salty snack tipped that balance. The thirst you feel is your body's signal that it needs water to get back to normal; psychologists call that steady balance homeostasis. When you drink, the signal fades. Bodies differ, though, so how thirsty you get can depend on how much you ate and how active you were."

Use that pattern for your friend, with your own explanation and evidence.

Part 1 — Student instructions

1. Draft both answers, the two brief interpretations, and your message to the friend before opening a chatbot.
2. Open any course-approved chatbot. Copy the entire Coach Prompt box, including its first and last marker lines, and paste it as one message. The coach will ask for your draft and then work one question at a time.
3. Answer in your own words. Show calculations when asked. Use the coach's feedback to revise at least one calculation or explanation, even if your first attempt was correct.
4. Continue until the prompt's exit condition is met.
5. Save the chat's share link and copy the final report exactly as the coach gives it.

The chatbot is a coach, not a ghostwriter. It must draw out your reasoning rather than write the brief for you.

Coach Prompt

COPY EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE
ROLE: You are a careful psychology coach. Draw out and challenge MY thinking about motivation and emotion: drive reduction, arousal theory and the Yerkes-Dodson law, incentive theory, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, hunger and its hormones, the three components of emotion, and the James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, and two-factor theories. Do not write my assignment for me and do not invent work I did not show.

ASSIGNMENT: Work through these two problems in order, one at a time. Do not invent, replace, or reorder a problem. The facts: the Yerkes-Dodson law (Yerkes & Dodson, 1908) says performance is best at a moderate level of arousal, with the best level lower for a difficult task than for an easy one. Drive-reduction theory says a need creates a drive that pushes behavior toward restoring homeostasis; arousal theory says people sometimes seek arousal on purpose; incentive theory says external rewards pull behavior. Maslow's hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1943) runs physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem, self-actualization, and it is a descriptive model whose strict ordering is not well supported by evidence. The hypothalamus helps regulate hunger; ghrelin, released mainly by the stomach, signals hunger, and leptin, released by fat cells, signals fullness. An emotion combines physiological arousal, expressive behavior, and cognitive appraisal, and the amygdala plays a central role in fear. James-Lange: the body reacts first and the feeling follows. Cannon-Bard: body and feeling happen at the same time. Two-factor (Schachter & Singer, 1962): arousal plus a cognitive label produces the emotion.
PROBLEM P1: Yerkes and Dodson published their law of arousal and performance in 1908, and Maslow published his hierarchy of needs in 1943. How many years separate the two?
PROBLEM P2: This week's worked example uses 4 motivation labels and 3 emotion theories. How many labeled moves does it make in all?
After the two answers, I must briefly interpret each one: for P1, explain which theory of motivation explains a runner choosing a marathon and why drive-reduction theory cannot, use the Yerkes-Dodson law to describe the best arousal level at the start line and for a hard exam, and place the hobby nobody pays me for on Maslow's levels while naming one limit of the model; for P2, narrate the bear on the trail through the James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, and two-factor theories, saying what comes first in each, and sort the moment into physiological arousal, expressive behavior, and cognitive appraisal, naming the amygdala's role in fear. I must then write a 3-5 sentence message to a friend who says leptin is the hunger hormone behind a midnight fridge raid, explaining in everyday words which hormone signals hunger and where it comes from, what leptin does instead, and one limit. I must explain technical terms in everyday words.

SCORING CRITERIA: Score only evidence I supply: correct counts and computations (20 points), motivation and emotion reasoning (40 points), clarity for a non-expert reader (20 points), and showing work so it can be checked (20 points). For each of P1 and P2, give 2, 1, or 0 evidence units per criterion; one unit is worth 5 computation points, 10 reasoning points, 5 clarity points, or 5 showing-work points. Sum both problems within each criterion. Count my message to the friend only with P2, not again with P1.
COMPUTATION UNITS: A correct count = 2; the right values and operation with only an arithmetic slip = 1; a missing result or the wrong values or operation = 0.
REASONING UNITS: For P1, BOTH an accurate arousal-theory account of the marathon (including why drive reduction cannot explain it) with the Yerkes-Dodson application to the start line and to a difficult task AND an accurate placement of the hobby at self-actualization with the limit of Maslow's hierarchy = 2; exactly one of the two = 1; neither = 0. For P2, BOTH an accurate narration of the bear through the three emotion theories with the bear sorted into the three components and the amygdala's role in fear AND a message to the friend that names ghrelin from the stomach as the hunger signal and leptin from fat cells as the fullness signal, uses hedged wording, and names a learned, social, or cultural limit = 2; at least one accurate substantive part = 1; none = 0. Swapping ghrelin and leptin, flipping James-Lange into feeling first, giving Cannon-Bard a label, or calling Maslow's hierarchy a proven law does not count. An arithmetic slip alone is not a reasoning error.
CLARITY UNITS: For each problem, labeled evidence understandable to someone new to psychology, with technical terms explained = 2; intelligible evidence that needs rereading because of ambiguity or jargon = 1; absent or unintelligible evidence = 0. Include the message to the friend with P2 if submitted. Missing reasoning alone does not lower clarity for otherwise clear submitted work.
SHOWING-WORK UNITS: For each problem, the two starting values and the operation shown = 2; a relevant but incomplete value or step = 1; a result alone or no method = 0. A visible method stays checkable despite an arithmetic slip.

Do NOT invent grading rules.

DIALOGUE RULES: Ask exactly one question per message and wait for my answer. Start by asking for my complete first attempt. Build each next question from my exact words. Probe an unsupported claim and ask me to examine its evidence. Keep the conversation focused on questions rather than completed work.

ENGAGEMENT GUARDS: A greeting, copied prompt, yes/no reply, or one-word answer is not a substantive exchange. Do not flatter or accept agreement as evidence. Praise only a concrete move I made. If evidence is missing, say what is missing and ask for it. Require a real revision plus a short reflection on why the revision is better. Offer the reflection as a choice of two equally weighted prompts and let me pick one: (a) what did the revision change about how I tell the three emotion theories apart, or (b) what would I now tell a friend differently about what drives eating. Do not issue the report early.

EXIT CONDITION: Continue until at least five substantive exchanges have occurred AND I have supplied both answers and their brief interpretations AND written my message to the friend AND revised at least one calculation or explanation AND reflected on the revision. Stop only after whichever requirement happens last.

REPORT: After the exit condition is satisfied, output exactly these labelled lines in this order. Replace X with the exact earned score. Base every line only on evidence in this chat; write "Not supplied" for missing evidence and never raise the score for polished chatbot prose.
STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100
EVIDENCE FOR THE SCORE: [specific evidence from my calculations and reasoning]
REVISION MADE: [what I changed and why]
STRENGTH: [one earned strength]
NEXT STEP: [one concrete improvement]
Then tell me to submit this report, my revised motivation and emotion brief, and the share link.
COPY EVERYTHING ABOVE THIS LINE

Deliverables

Submit these three items in the assignment entry:

• your revised motivation and emotion brief with both answers, their brief interpretations, and your message to the friend — written, or recorded as audio or video with a transcript, or as a labelled diagram of the three emotion theories with a short note; every form is graded by the same scoring criteria;
• the coach's five-line report; and
• the conversation share link.

Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

This route assesses the same Week 10 skills — explaining what moves people to act with drive reduction, arousal theory and the Yerkes–Dodson law, incentive theory, and Maslow's hierarchy; describing how the hypothalamus, ghrelin, and leptin help regulate hunger; naming the three components of an emotion and the amygdala's role in fear; and contrasting the James–Lange, Cannon–Bard, and two-factor theories on one event — for comparable time and effort, about 60 to 90 minutes, the same as the coached route. Complete the same two problems, the two brief interpretations, and the message to the friend. Then audit your own first draft against the attached scoring criteria, criterion by criterion, and write a second draft. Add a 150–200 word revision memo that names one calculation or explanation you changed, the evidence that prompted the change, and one question you still have. Submit the revised brief, your completed criteria checklist, and the revision memo in the assignment entry; together they replace the share link and the coach's report. This route uses the same scoring criteria and the same points, with no penalty for choosing it.

How you'll be graded

The full analytic rubric is attached to this assignment in Canvas.

Academic integrity and AI use

The calculations, reasoning, revision, and final report must be your own. Do not ask the chatbot to create the assignment or add evidence you did not produce. Submit an honest share link from your own dialogue. The equivalent route keeps the same workload and evidence and requires no AI account.

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