Final Post

Overall in this course I have learned about the different things that affect motivation. I've also learned how some motivations are natural ones, like hunger and thirst, and how there are others that require outside motivation, like goals in life. Some of the things I was really surprised to learn because I had no idea, or I thought differently. I also learned about the different types of arousal. When I thought about arousal, I never really thought about it on a level type of way. I thought arousal was just arousal, not physiological, brain, and psychological.
My favorite topic in the course was also the chapter on drug addiction. That has always been one of my interests because I think it's amazing how differently people are affected by various drugs, and how some people become addicts and some do not. I've always considered going into drug counseling, or something similar, so whenever a class covers drug addiction, I pay extra close attention to see what else I can learn, and to decide if it's still a road I want to go down. I'm still on the fence about it, but with each class that covers it, the more and more I'm intrigued.

Final Post

This class was full of extremely interesting information. There was never a dull moment and I was never bored listening to the interesting things or watching the videos. The videos were excellent, entertaining sources to help understand the meaning behind the PowerPoints. Although the entire class was based off of interesting information the topic I took most interest in was drug addiction.

The topic drug addiction was so interesting to see because there are so many people today that are addicted to drugs. It is crazy to see how one drug could help one person and physically harm another. One of the main drugs that I think are the most abused are pain pills. Pain pills will pretty much be given to anybody that has a complaint about pain and if they do not wish to take them, they will see them for a massive amount of money.

Below is a video trailer from a documentary called Vanguard. Vanguard researches different issues around the world and this one was based off of Oxycontin. I watched this episode on demand because I really do enjoy this show. This episode showed many of the different pain management facilities and how they will just give pills to anybody.

The Luck Factor

When reading this article what stood out to me was the meanings behind the superstitions that people believe in today. That knowcking on woods relates to the help of the powerful tree gods. I'm not sure about that due to no proof yet I still do it. I think today superstition is psycological to the max. What is the harm in knocking on some woods to make you feel better about a situation? There is none!
I also believe that there are lucky people out there but they are currently recieveing the smaller, sooner rewards. Where as those who are not lucky are working hard and haveing hardships to only recieve the larger, better reward in the future.
Some peoples luck is unexplainable and stirs up questions that some of us tend to ask the higher power about. For example, I know someone whose delt with drug addiction and yet everytime they get a lottery ticket they win money that they will most likely use for drugs. Why, I ask our higher power, and someone heard me and said Money is a fragil things and has nothing to do with God, yet it still boggles my mind!
To me taking risks or chanceing something is usually a situation that one feels cofident enough to accomplish therefore "luck" comes there way. To me its not luck its a feeling of success that pushes or motivates one to succeed.

Final Post

Motivation has been such a wonderful course! Not only have I learned information I had previously not know, I also apply the learned information to everyday thinking in terms of social interactions. I believe that Psychology in general explains many things, including the origin, evolution, and application of terms and trends in relation to human beings and their environment. Each chapter has provided new knowledge, and many of the sections touched on the previous one, making the class come full-circle in terms of fundamental understanding. I have learned ideas spanning from what motives and incentives are, to how we select mates, to our specific feelings in relaxed or desperate situations, to our physiological and psychological drives in anticipation of an incentive. My favorite sections from this course dealt with the history and motivation of emotion and the evolutionary antecedents of motivation.

The history of motivation and emotion was great, in that it provided the fundamental history responsible for how we view emotion today. I enjoyed the concept of Hedonism, as I feel that all human beings try to maximize pleasure while minimizing pain in practically all phases of their life. It is interesting how the ancient philosophers coined these terms over two-thousand years ago, and yet they still apply to today's society. I also liked some of the trends this chapter discusses, such as the temporal motivation theory, which talks about the idea of an incentive value decreasing upon incentive delay. This is especially true for money, as the value of it can decrease over the length of days, weeks, months, or even years.

Chapter three, which talked about the evolutionary antecedents of motivation was appealing to me as well. The idea of universal motives and the notion of nature vs. nurture are both elements that question the upbringing and development of human beings in relation to motivation. My favorite section of the chapter dealt with how we go about selecting a mate and the reasons pertaining to why men and women are attracted to one another. This led to the concept of one's mate value, which I found particularly interesting. Overall, this chapter has provided great insight in terms of explaining the hows and the whys of human behavior.

Many of the ideas learned in this class can be applied to the real world. When thinking of marrying a potential spouse-to-be, I can ask myself why it is that I am attracted to this particular person. The good gene hypothesis would come to mind, and I would realize that I am probably selecting a mate that has a somewhat high mate value. When I question my brother on why he likes and dislikes particular foods, I now realize that he suffers from food neophobia, making him too afraid to try any food out of his comfort zone. These two ideas present only a fraction of ideas I can now relate to real life scenarios and situations.

I would highly recommend this class to anyone who is interested in Psychology. Those who are not Psychology majors, like myself, would benefit from a class like this because its principles, trends, and theories, are relevant to contemporary life regardless of academic major. Motivation has certainly expanded my knowledge!

This clips talks about how to be happy at work, as is discussed by the author of the book, Flow

http://youtu.be/qI755iUMtHI

Final Post Project

Motivation refers to why a person does somethinhg, not how a person goes about doing it.  Through the semester we have learned anout factors that cause motivation in people and why they motivate people.  Some of the forms of motivation we have covered include internal factors such as a drive for success in something, emotional factors such as fear, happiness, and sorrow and how they motivate people, or addictions and how they drive people to do things. 
My favorite part in this class though was the section about biological motivators, in particular the universal motivators all humans have.  Universal motives are motivators that all humans need such as food, water, reproduction, music, and shelter.  To me though the most interesting is one related to reproduction, this one being mate value.  Mate value that is a characteristic that defines how "desireable" a person is to the oposite sex; the higher the mate value the higher the level of disire will be.  One way of asessing ones mate value is by using a mate value inventory, this is a series of questions about the person such as desire for children, health, level of loyalty, level of ambition ect... the questions are given a point value from -3 to +3 and the total score is added up, the higher the the score the higher the person's mate value is. 
This video describes how this idea of mate selection was first discussed ny Charles Darwin and how this idea is still just as relevant today as it was then.  The only major change to it is that people have over time added factors to mate selection to make it a more complicated "equation".  This topic in particular is something that can be carried far into life and will be very very usefull in many real life situations.
Overall this has been one of the more usefull and entertaining classes I have taken, not only at Stockton but at any University I have attended.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv4FVWqMBK0

Final Post

Motivation refers to "why" behavior happens, not "how." Through this course, I have learned why we engage in certain behaviors, and what motivates us to do so. I've learned that through principles of motivation you can initiate self-change.

My favorite section of the course was the chapters on addictions. Addiction is a dependence for something, often times a drug. The characteristics of addiction are: cravings, seeking out and drug usage. The person often has an uncontrollable, overpowering urge to use the drug, and builds their body up to tolerate it. Genetically, related individuals are vulnerable to drug experimentation and addiction. Personality dispositions also play an important role in drug addiction; Different personalities are associated with different levels of addiction. For example, high sensation seekers enjoy the greater stimulation that psychoactive drugs provide. Dopamine is a brain chemical that is related to pleasure, therefore lower sensitivity makes individuals more likely to turn to drugs for their pleasure. James Old discovered the "Pleasure Center" in 1953, by implanting electrodes in the hypothalamus of rats. They behaved repeatedly in order to stimulate the electrode presumably for the pleasure it provided.

Below is an EXCELLENT EXCELLENT video that thoroughly explains addiction, especially the role that dopamine plays in addiction. It is a bit longer, but if you have the time to watch I highly suggest it. It explains the science behind it, but in an easier way. If you fast forward to about 3 minutes in, it starts to introduce Dopamine.

By: Kate McGinley

goal motivation

Goal motivation can be effected by different things, one of them being levels of aspiration.  Aspiration can be described as a persons desire to excel, to do better the next time, and to be better than others.  Using these motivational factors one can be motivated by both internal and external means.  These process overlap thus making the motivational factors stronger.  Internal factors can be made stronger by use of self efficacy, or the belief in ones self to complete a specific task or a specific goal.  Thus this type of motivation can raise, or in some strange cases lower goal motivation in a person. 

Final Post

Motivation Psychology is a great class to take whether you are or are not a psych major.  This class goes into detail about everything from our environment, our biological functions, and our physiological beings.  We started by attending to the idea of emotions and what role they play in our motivation.  Then, we discussed what our body makes us motivated to do, whether it be eating or drinking, sexual encounters, musical likes and dislikes, and even talk about how fear is a strong motivator.  A cool part about this section of the course was mate selection, which was interesting to learn about how when a man has less money, he likes a bigger woman, and when a man has more money, he likes a smaller woman.  We talked about drives and needs of people like the need for power and self-esteem and achieving goals and we even talked about unconscious motivation like reflexes.
I thought some of the coolest things we learned about were the things we could relate to our daily lives like losses and gains and incentive values.  It was cool to learn and observe how people made different decisions based on a slightly higher possibility of loss and how some people will always choose a sure gain.  One thing that i think about on an everyday basis when performing a task is the relationship between performance and anxiety.  I try to keep my anxiety level down and at a comfortable range when i skateboard and surf so i can perform at my best.  Also, i find myself making goals for myself and trying to view each step as an esteem boosting accomplishment, i feel it has helped my overall mood and positive energy i feel.  This class as a whole was a great experience and the in class discussions really helped me connect things to the real world, i just wish everyone participated more. lol

The Luck Factor

This article struck me big.  I think luck, or at least coincidences, can truly alter the course of peoples lives. I have a couple examples of these types of occurrences.  My sister had been struggling getting into med school.  Even though she had a 4.0 in grad school and a 3.9 in undergrad, her MCAT scores were poor.  She took the MCATS a bunch of times and applied anywhere and everywhere but couldnt get in.  One day she was in one of the MANY starbucks in D.C. and literally bumped into to the dean of admissions of GW University.  They got to talking and she got an interview, the next semester she was a first year med school student.  Another example of this is of my own benefit.  I was dating this girl on and off again, hadn't talked to even seen her for months, and all the sudden i get a call and she tells me about this cross country trip that she was doing.  I was very interested and somehow a ended up on this trip.  On the trip i met the girl of my dreams, someone who grew up 15 minutes from me and attended stockton and i'd never seen her before.  We fell in love and share many of the same dreams and aspirations, since this trip my life has been completely different and i've made so much progress in myself and toward my ultimate goal in life, happiness.  Good things come from following your instincts and opening yourself up to opportunities, sometimes you can make your own luck.

Maslow's Needs - Self-Esteem

Humans are the only living organism that needs to have some sort of acknowledgement for the things that they do and the progress they are making.  Without this acknowledgment, humans cannot gain any self-esteem.  Self-esteem comes from acquiring prestige and respect from others.  Without it you don't have motivation to stand up and take action in the things you want to do.  Maslow says to accomplish these things, you have have to set goals that eventually reach to your view of a final goal.  Setting short, intermittent goals helps you realize for yourself that your making progress and getting things done.  Happiness comes from your satisfaction in the progress that your making and the maintenance of your inner motivation to reach you self-actualization.  Self-actualization takes almost a lifetime to achieve, but if you keep a solid ground of the direction you want to go in, and make short term goals that lead up to that, you will always have the self-esteem to continue.  Always strive to achieve and no matter what you individual goal is, as long as it is important to you and the people close to you understand it, it is easy to continue along with your dream.  Maslow says that that humans are wanting animals, and we always have the need to get more and do more, but it comes to a point at the end of a humans goals, self-actualization, that you can finally feel comfortable with what you have done and the life that you have created for yourself, to have that feeling alone is enough motivation to carry you through even the lowest times of your self-esteem.

The Luck Factor

I feel that luck and superstitions are people's beliefs. I agree with the author that the real causes of a person's good and bad luck is attribute to their thoughts and behavior that are responsible for their good or bad fortune. The author also believes that there are four basic principles to having good fortune. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities; make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition; create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good. Having a positive attitude and believing that one can accomplish and fulfill certain tasks and goals seems to be a factor in having good luck and fortune. The author feels that lucky people think outside the box. Unlucky people are afraid to think outside the box. Lucky people are optimistic and unlucky people are pessimistic.

Final Post

Final Post

During the duration of the class we discussed the force behind our actions and behaviors – motivation. Every little thing we do has a reason behind it. Whether it is a push, a pull, or an incentive. Prior to taking this class, I would have never even thought further into the source of our motivation. We discussed the history of motivation including many but not limited to the concepts of hedonism, evolution, unconscious, and external sources of motivation. We also discussed both biological and psychological aspects of motivation, which allowed us to understand it in all aspects.

My favorite part of the course was the section on addiction. One thing I could never understand was drug addiction. How can someone know something can ruin his or her life and still choose to do it? What is the motivation behind that? I know in life there are things that we may do knowing they are bad for us. For example, dating that guy your mom warned you about, tanning, smoking cigarettes…etc. However, on another totally amplified level, how can someone see people around them, friends even, die from overdosing on drugs and still continue to use themselves?

This class gave me some insight into why someone would do exactly that and what gives way for a possible relapse. Taking into consideration the many different theories, drug incentive effects, reinforcements, cravings, and priming may all play a role. I believe this is very relatable to the outside world in that being such an epidemic nowadays it is wise for us to know what has made it become that way – to attempt to understand it, just like we would any other disease or illness.

Too Many Choices

I really did enjoy the lecture about Economics and Motivation. We, as a nation are on choice overload. Choice overload is the demotivating effect of too many choices in the decision making process. A person has a difficult time making a decision because there are entirely too many choices available for us. I read an article in Psych Info that was called "Can There Ever Be Too Many Choices." The article was written by Scheibehenne, Greifeneder, and Todd.

The choice overload hypothesis states that an increase in the number of option to choose from may lead to adverse consequences such as a decrease in the motivation to choose or the satisfaction with the finally chosen option. (Scheibehenne, Greifeneder, and Todd) There are so many choices everywhere. Too many classes to choose from, too many food products to choose, too many political people to choose and vote for, too many car options, and so on.

We also spoke about the demand law. The demand law refers to the quantity of goods a person is willing to purchase at various prices. When the price is raised, we buy less. When the price is lowered, we buy more. We spoke about the price of gas and how it is. Some people have no other choice to drive to their job and they need gas for their vehicle. As long as we are buying gas, the higher they can charge us and we will purchase the gas. If there is an item on sale at the grocery store than I don't normally buy because it is expensive such as chicken, I will buy more if it is on sale and stock up.

Scheibehenne, B., Greifeneder, R., & Todd, P. M. (2010). Can there ever be too many options? A meta-analytic review of choice overload. Journal Of Consumer Research, 37(3), 409-425. doi:10.1086/651235

The Luck Factor

Richard Wiseman studied about the nature of luck and how people make their own good and bad fortune. There were many examples throughout the article that discussed different luck examples. What luck did Helzberg have by not only being a millionaire, but to just bump into a prestigious investor who would be interested in purchasing his company as he retired. Luck can occur at any time. Bandura did not know that he would meet his future wife while he was out on a gold trip with his friend. Wiseman said, "lucky events exert a dramatic influence over our lives. Luck has the power to transform the improbable into the possible, to make the difference between life and death, reward and ruin, happiness and despair."

Many people believe luck to be something that it is not like an internal or personal quality. (Stewart, Young 2011) People also have searched for ways to improve their luck. People carry lucky charms and feel that that object will bring them luck. Good luck and bad luck can transform lives. Wiseman's research suggested that lucky people create their own good fortune. Wiseman said, "Lucky people are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good."

Wohl, M. A., Stewart, M. J., & Young, M. M. (2011). Personal Luck Usage Scale (PLUS): Psychometric validation of a measure of gambling-related belief in luck as a personal possession. International Gambling Studies, 11(1), 7-21. doi:10.1080/14459795.2010.541270

Final Project Post.

In this class we talked about Motivation, hence the title of the class “Motivational Psychology”. Students learned about what motivates us to do the things we do, how we get the motivation, and the different types of motivations we have and use. What does it mean to be motivated? In class we were taught that motivated is to be moved to action/behavior, motive is an internal disposition to approach or avoid an incentive, and lastly, an incentive is environmental stimulus that attracts or repels. We need a push which would be a motive that would make us get to our goal or end state. An example that we used in class was hunger is a push towards food. For an incentive they pull people toward the end state, which could be chocolate pulls the person to the end. And we learned that events at end of motivation sequence or journey is what motivates behavior. As class went on during the semester we learned different areas like, sources of motivation, internal sources, and energy for motivation physical and psychological, knowledge, competence and motivation.

One topic I liked was addictions and addictive behaviors. We talked about drugs of abuse and addiction, theories of drug addiction, and behavioral addictions. An addiction is an intense craving, seeking out, and use of a particular drug. I always find it interesting that caffeine is an addiction because I know I have to have some sort of caffeine it seems, to get through the day. I have at least 3 cups of coffee when I’m working at Wawa, especially since it is free when we are on the clock; it’s hard to not drink it. I see the addiction of nicotine at my job very frequently so I find it interesting to talk about it in class. I have customers that buy a pack on Tuesday and when I’m there Thursday, they get another pack or even more then one to satisfy their addiction. When we talked about craving, I know I have the kind of feeling for my cup of coffee in the morning. I usually don’t want people to talk to me till I have my caffeine in my system. When I don’t have coffee, I get headaches, which some could say it’s my withdrawal symptoms. However, I can live without caffeine if it was doing or die. Another fun thing I would like to add about this class was learning about the different foods that people try to eat for the preferences they like. My favorite was the guy who ate the ghost pepper. Very funny video but also crazy. I know I wouldn’t do that but I’ am not a picky eater when it comes to food; espically cause I love food but who doesn’t.

Post Four -Stress

Post Four – Coping with Stress

I think coping with stress is very subjective. I recall something that I learned in another one of my courses. It was a Skinnerian way of thinking; therefore it was all about behavior. My teacher said, “you know, if you went to Skinner and said you were depressed, he would say ‘I don’t know what that means. What behavior do you have?’” So, for example, if being depressed for you were not smiling, not laughing…etc., he would say change that behavior. Start smiling and laughing and you will eventually fell happiness. I thought about this and I agree. I think your environment and behavior have a huge impact on your mood.

Post Five – The Luck Factor

Post Numero Cinco

I found the area of the article that discussed Superstition very interesting. I think superstition is a powerful thing. I mean, I know that knocking on wood will not affect anything, but yet, I still do it. I mean let’s be real… crossing your fingers. I cross my fingers every time I check my mega millions lottery ticket(s) and last time I checked I still don’t have 200 million in my bank account. So, what makes us do things like that? I mean, maybe it gives us hope or optimism. Maybe the sheer fact of knowing that we’re knocking on wood or crossing our fingers gives us a sense of calm. If we don’t, could he be a cause of basic anxiety? Perhaps.

Extrinsic and Intrisic Motivation

What source of motiviation do you think you go by more often; Extrinsic or Intrinsic? Would you do more for money? Or did you once do something for money or better grades and now do it for fun? People probably dont realize that both those motiviations could be farily equal. I mean, yes with one you get a reward like good grades or chocolate or money but the other one could be getting a education or reading the best book you ever read; for fun. Everyday we use both these types of motivaiton to make ourseveles happy and get what we want. Even getting out of bed and starting your day. Some probably think to themselves that they need to get out of bed to get to work on time or start their day and do their homework. If they stay in bed they could get fired or written up or if they dont do their homework, here comes an F for their grade. That could be an intrinsic way of motivation to get out of bed. We reward overselves everyday with motivation of both types. It shouldnt matter if we get reward for the hard work we did by candy, money, or if we just feel great gratitude for the hard work we did, we have both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation that has to be used!

The Luck Factor.

Everyone is lucky in their own way; you just need to open your eyes and see it. I mean, someone always has it worse then you do. But what is luck really and how much is superstition a factor in it? I mean, I know when I was a child, I wouldn't step on the cracks or id break mommas back! Walking under a ladder is a no-no and never have black cats. However, I still to this day have 2 black cats and in my life, I have had 7 black cats. My luck seems to be fine. I find it funny when people come into my job and with all the food and supplies they got, they get a total of 7.77, or 3.33, or their birthday. When that happens, they all say I should go gamble or I should take you with me for luck since I got three of the same number. People even still bring up the lottery and say their birthday or someones birthday pops up in their total, they tell me that's three numbers they are using for the lottery. I agree with the article when it talks about people who say I was lucky & not unlucky. If you have more confidence in yourself and feel lucky and happy, you are always lucky. Lucky comes from happiness it seems. You need to have confidence in yourself. Having the ability to do what makes you happy, great self-esteem and seeing life for what it is shows how lucky you really are.

The Luck Factor

Richard Wiseman's article "The Luck Factor" was a very interesting and eye-opening read. Before I read the article, I thought about the idea of luck and it's connection to science. My immediate reaction was that there was no relation. Luck does seem to follow certain people more than others but I was very curious to see how it was connected to facts and real life scientific results.

I found the article very interesting and the studies that were done taught me a lot. I do typically consider myself an unlucky person but now i know that simply saying that, will only make me more prone to noticing unlucky situations i get myself into. The main concept of luck also deals with superstition. Some people are extremely superstitious whereas others never think about situations as being superstitious. If a person believes in superstitions, they re much more likely to see various situations as lucky or unlucky and relate them to a superstition.

The results that Wiseman came up with were very informative. I do believe that his theories are true and we have nearly complete control over our own luck and eventual happiness. If we are conscious about being lucky and in positive situations, we will find ourselves in lucky and positive sistuations.