Final Project Post

Motivation was a very interesting course for me. It went in depth about why people do what they do, and it also explained what drives them to do it. We also talked about the emotions and arousal involved in behaviors from motivation. Emotion motivates behavior. For example, if you're scared of bears and just so happen to see one in your backyard, your emotion is fear. You automatically run in the opposite direction. There are several different types of motives, incentives, need, etc. that motivate us. Push and pull motivation is one that can explain many of them. It explains how people reach an end state and whether they are attracted or repelled to it or if it's internally disposed. Mate selection and what drives us to a person is also something important. We like people who match our "number", as seen in the video in class. Aother important thing from the class was goal motivation. Goal motivation is something we do everyday. Goals are incentives to be achieved. We are motivated to achieve goals of our own such as eating healthy, winning the championship game of a sport, and even passing classes.

My favorite part of the course were addictions. The most common addiction is cigarette smoking in my opinion. I grew up with parents that both smoke. Between both of them, they smoke about a pack every other day, which is not as bad as some people. They feel the need to have to smoke and it's a difficult thing for them to quit. My dad recently was diagnosed with diabetes at the young age of 41! The doctors believe smoking contributed to it as well; they said it worsens it that he smokes. If this never happened, my dad would be smoking the way he used to. Now, my parents smoke maybe two packs a week or even longer. It's sad to say that even after being diagnosed with diabetes, it's hard to quit even for his health.

The thing with addictions is, yes people get addicted to drugs, but that's not the only thing! People can get addicted to anything (at least, psychologically). The video I posted involves two completely different types of addictions from the show, My Strange Addiction: one is addicted to laxatives and the other is addicted to pottery and cigarette ashes. It's a bit of a long video, but this is just beyond things that can be addictive.

An addiction is something that should be taken seriously. I don't understand how a body can crave pottery or cigarette ashes even. This video shows how drugs are addictive but it also really does show how drugs aren't the only addictive things.