At times we push ourselves in a direction, at other times we are pulled into a situation. Affect are specific feeling regarding the personal impact of antecedents. Cognition is the beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or information a person possesses. Affect and cognition make distinct contributions to motivated behaviors. You can have negative, positive, or a combination of each type of motivation based on the type affect and cognition that affects you.
Negative motivation is caused by negative affect and congnition.
An example of this would be deciding to get a job instead of staying home and doing all the house work and yard work. An example of positive motivation would be working hard at that job so you will please your boss in turn for recognition, promotion, or a raise. Motivation is a process of setting goals and trying to reach them. These goals should be attainable, but should be make us push ourselves in order to reach them. These goals should be written down in terms of very explicit behaviors so they can be reviewed and measured.