Emotions, Motivations, and Human Behavior

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2019, a new strain of the coronavirus disease was discovered. Also known as COVID-19, this strain of the virus had previously not been identified in humans. A worldwide pandemic ensued as the virus quickly spread across the globe, impacting countless lives, including many individuals in the United States.
In an effort to contain the virus, numerous countries’ leaders encouraged social distancing, which is an infection control strategy aimed to help lessen the spread of a contagious disease. This directive was given by leaders in the United States as well. Two schools of thought emerged. In fact, many people were skeptical about the authenticity of this pandemic due to perplexing and often conflicting messages that were received across social media and news outlets. Therefore, numerous Americans assumed business as usual and maintained their daily living and social rituals. On the other hand, scores of others quickly retreated to their homes, embracing the warning provided by some of the nation’s top infectious disease experts.
This assignment provides you with an opportunity to analyze a real-world, peer-reviewed, psychology journal article that contains research examining the social psychology aspects of motivation and emotion. You will then demonstrate your understanding of the article by relating the research and conclusions contained therein to current events.
Begin by visiting the CSU Online Library to locate and choose a journal article in which motivation and emotion are viewed under the lens of social psychology. The article must be peer-reviewed and should be no older than 7 years.
NOTE: You are not required to locate an article about COVID-19; instead, you must find a peer-reviewed journal article concerning research that specifically examines motivation and emotion. You will then be critiquing the article and framing the research and conclusions presented in the article in the context of how they can be applied to behavior and social psychology during such an event as the COVID-19 pandemic.
A good place to start your search is the PsycARTICLES database or the Academic Search Ultimate database. You can access these databases from the Databases box on the library homepage.
For assistance in locating your article, you may find the following tutorial How to Find Journal Articles helpful. Additionally, you may find this tutorial How to Search in PsycARTICLES useful.
Once you have chosen your article about motivation, emotion, and social psychology, you will write an article critique that addresses the following elements.
Explain the research methodology that was used in the study.
Discuss social factors that influence people or groups to conform to the actions of others.
Indicate how behaviors and motivation are impacted by the presence of others. (How does this apply to COVID-19?)
Indicate the structures of the brain that are involved in emotion and motivation. (How could a person’s emotions related to fear drive their behaviors during this pandemic?)
Examine the article’s generalizability to various areas of psychology.
Why would some people choose to follow the orders to avoid social contact and others allow desire for human interaction to be their driving force?
In addition, your article critique should clearly identify the article’s premise and present an insightful and thorough analysis with strong arguments and evidence. You should present your own informed and substantiated opinion on the article’s content and its relation to social psychology during the COVID-19 pandemic. You should use the textbook as your second source to support your analysis and to supplement any information that is not contained in the journal article.
Your article critique must be a minimum of three pages in length, not including the title and reference pages. All sources used must be properly cited. Your article critique, including all references, must be formatted in APA style.