Blog #1 Emotion and motivation

Could emotion and motivation be the criteria that distinguish humans from animals? According to American ethologist Marc Bekoff in his book "Animals matter (2007)" animals not only feel joy and anger but also can sympathize or lament. The most primal and basic desires directly related to survival such as craving for food or sexual drive are needlessly to say prominently observable from animals. However, when it comes to more complicated emotion such as love and hatred or motivation like self-esteem, the answer could be different.
In chapter eleven we are to learn about emotion and motivation. The most interesting thing I found about emotion is that it always accompanies physical reaction. We can tell a person is sad by flood of tears shedding from the eyes. But does emotion trigger physical reaction or is it all the way reverse? There are theories of emotion that gives answer for what causes our feelings.
We also learn why we feel hungry by the action of the hypothalamus. Hunger is one of the primary needs linked to survival but there are people suffering from eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia. We can identify the symptoms and causes.