FINAL PROJECT POST

Motivation refers to why we engage ourselves in certain behaviors and have certain feelings that others may not.  Motivation is what the class textbook, Motivation: Biological, Psychological, and Emotional by Lambert Deckers, describes as being moved into action.  It is deciding on change internally for positive incentives and anticipated rewards.  As in any course the meaning, history, and evolution was discussed to introduce the topic.  Theories of behaviors were exercised leading into internal factors. Examples were expanded upon such as food and eating characteristics, arousal and performance, stress and coping, etc.  As the course moved forward concepts on psychological properties about drives, needs, and personality traits linked to external sources of motivation.  External sources of motivation and emotion concluded the subject matter.  An additional outside reading by Alfred Lansing was worked on throughout the semester.  Group work and class discussions helped the class better understand Endurance.  Endurance was an astonishing saga of an explorer and his crew’s survival for over a year on the Antarctic seas.  Each theme intertwined with one another so the understanding was clear.  The anticipation of all of these factors occurrences motivates behavior to or away from something.  This is how our class understood the relation of each topic to the concept of motivation.

Section five of the textbook about homeostasis and body maintenance was most interesting to me.  The motivation of behavior is possible because of the energetic body, and this section talks about body temperature , fluid balance, and food energy levels.  Hunger was one of my favorite topics that we discussed.  What determines how much people eat?  Or do people eat for different reasons like actually being hungry or eating because of food characteristics?  

A healthy diet is important to my daily routine.  Recently I have lost a significant amount of weight so exercise and diet has become critical in my life.  Learning about psychological sensations and why we may have cravings caught my attention.  Motivation played a crucial part in my weight loss process, and learning how physiological and emotional influences impacted this for me made me feel proud of my accomplishment.  This course can have inspiration for students to go above and beyond or continue a healthy lifestyle like I have been.  Since I was able to relate to section five comparing my experiences to what we were learning gave me some helpful hints to stay motivated.  Real world problems like obesity can be looked at from a different perspective having seen how hunger is more, for example, then just eating because your stomach growls.  Attached is a Nike commercial that is extremely inspirational.  It expressed that no matter what you are doing to “just do it.”  It sends a message that anybody can do it, and it motivates individuals to strive and accomplish something.  The arousal throughout the clip proves that keeping motivated has brought them to this point of greatness.