Heather Zimmie

Dr. Rand
UWRT 1103
28 October 2014
Annotated Bibliography

1. Keywords: feelings, emotions, psychology, brain, and motivation

I chose to search for these terms because I am trying to find out why people act emotionally.
Feelings and emotions usually go hand in hand and they are the subjects of my paper. There are
endless sources on these two keywords but most of them are relevant to my inquiry question.
Psychology is the study of mind and behavior so I used psychology and brain as key words to
find research information about my topic. These sources will give me a scientific explanation for
my question. I know from previous psychology classes that motivation and emotion go together
and motivation will help to answer why in my inquiry paper.
2. Concept Map
What causes
emotional
behavior
needs, drives,
and
incentives
Motivation
and emotion

theories
regarding
emotion and
where it
comes from

relationship
between
emotions and
feelings

Action
readiness

appraisal urge for

action and
emotion

how we
express
emotions
(facial and
body
language)

Why do
people act
emotionally?

What are
emotions?

explaining
actions by
emotion

belief and
desire

feelings as
information

judgement
and
decicisions
thinking rules

different
emotions

3. Synthesis/Analysis
The five sources I chose were two textbooks and three database articles. All of my sources define
emotion and give examples of emotional responses. Charles Darwins book defines emotion,
explains the different types of emotions, and gives pictorial representations of how we show
emotion. Since Charles Darwins theories are popular in science I know that this is a credible
source to use to create a good foundation for my introduction on emotions. The author of my
second source believes that actions are caused by beliefs and desires that spur from emotions.
This piece will be a good theory to think about as I try to answer my big question. I think it is
easy to determine that people probably do act based on beliefs and desires because religion and
money are popular examples of motivations in every day life. The Psychology textbook by
Spencer Rathus explains multiple theories of motivations for emotions from different
psychologists such as Freud, Hull, Maslow etc. They look at topics such as evolution,
homeostasis, stimulation, personal growth, and needs. There is no agreement on the reason we
act emotionally and these different views will help me determine what I believe motivates a
persons emotions. Michel Pham has a unique perspective about emotions. He believes that our
emotions are logical and that they are used to help us make judgments and decisions. Many
people would disagree and say that there is nothing logical about emotions because often we
cannot explain why we feel the way we do. I would like to know more about this perspective and
how exactly we use emotions as information. The interview with Frijida by Scarantino talks
about Frijidas books, which talk about emotions as action readiness. This is similar to Phams
view that we act emotionally in response to situations that occur in our lives. These sources
helped me make a conclusion that emotions do help us make decisions. Whether they are
illogical because of their quickness or logical because of their unconsciousness I do not know.

All of my database sources have authors with different views on what emotion is used for which
will help me form an argument. They also provide examples and explanations of every day
emotional actions that I can relate to and gain a better understanding from.

4. Works Cited Information

Darwin, Charles. The Expression of the Emotion in Man and Animals. London: John Murray,
1872. Print.
Doring, Sabine. Explaining Action by Emotion. Oxford Journals 53 Apr. 2003. JSTOR. Web.
24 Oct. 2014.
Pham, Michel. The Logic of Feeling. Journal of Consumer Psychology 14.4 (2004): 360-369.
JSTOR. Web. 24 Oct. 2014.
Rathus, Spencer. Psychology: Concepts and Connections. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2013. Print.
Scarantino, Andrea. Nico Frijda: War, Love, and Emotions as States of Action Readiness,
Emotion Researcher. Web. 25 Oct. 2014.