OTHER AREAS OF STUDY
Other areas of specialized psychological research include studies of the nature of emotion,
motivation,
and
personality.
Emotion
Why are some people calm, effective, and surefooted when others are jumpy and scattered? What makes people courageous, sad, angry, or mean? The answers proposed to such questions have been various. Some psychologists are interested in the genetics of individual differences in emotion and personality; other
researchers delve into the nature of emotion itself. The emotion article considers the various theories of emotion.
Motivation
Investigators work on the sources of actionÑmotivationÑto determine how much behavior can be accounted for by simple drives such as hunger, sex, or pain, and how much depends on complex social motivation such as the need to achieve or the desire to outpoint a rival. The motivation article goes into greater depth on this subject.
Personality
No part of psychology is more difficult and contentious than the study of personality. In recent years the very idea of stable personal characteristics has come under attack; some researchers have maintained that people behave more according to the requirements of the immediate social environment than according to persistent traits of personality such as good humor or irritability. Many tests of personality exist.