Final Project

In the course Motivation we learned about all the biological, environmental, and psychological forces that push us to stay and become motivated throughout life. We learned that humans are predisposed to be motivated by some sources than others. For example, “does a person want an unchallenging minimum wage job immediately after high school graduation, or is he/she willing to wait for a better-paying and challenging work after college.” (24) Besides the biological, environmental, and psychological factors, we explored the brain and all their addictive behaviors. Such as alcohol, hallucinogens, and cannabis, all these addictive behaviors affect our health and our source of motivation. We also learned that the brain can be considered a source of motivation, which can help us fight and battle these behaviors. Finally, these ‘addictive behaviors’ affect the brain chemicals (neurotransmitters).

In this course we talked and explored many topics. The one that stuck out and caught my attention the most was when we talked about brain and addictive behaviors in chapter four. To me, growing up in a generation of drugs, sex, and alcohol it made me realize how dangerous all these ‘addictive behaviors’ really are. Before learning about them I didn’t really realize how addictive and dangerous they could be. Once learning about them it really made me open up my eyes and realize I wanted to be a leader not a follower and really stay away and above the influence.

I found a really interesting video, please watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoIfSJJBh0E

Final Post

GOALS

Every one should have their own goals and have them set high. I know personally, I have many little goals that I would like to achieve. A goal is selected from consciousness and acted on. This places a huge role in motivation and how hard you are motivated. People wonder where goals come from and how people obtain them. I play Field Hockey at Stockton and I have high goals set for the team this year. Last year we weren't so hot, but this year I know we can make it happen. But this all depends on the person you are and how you were raised. We all have our own personalities and thoughts, we are motivated by that to reach a goal!

This you tube is pretty boring, but it have some good information...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9bkilndxbs&playnext=1&list=PL152BA1B8C473918B

This is a GREAT motivation video for loosing weight.. it really grabs you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2VFGyYNvTY

Final Post

This summer was the first time I have taken an online class. I definitely did not expect to learn as much as I have. Although I do like attending class better because you have more of a connection with the students and professor, I would probably take another online psyc class.

I have learned a lot about motivation which surprised me because I didn't really believe that motivation can be something that is taught to others, but I was wrong. This class has taught me a lot about myself and what motivates me as a person. It opened up my understanding about addictions and fighting addictive behaviors. It helped me to interact with other people outside of the class to gain their perspective on the topics which guided me to form my own opinions and ideas.

My motivation to do well in this class and get through it was the

nice vacation I will be taking to Italy. Dreaming about the food and beaches has been the only thing keeping me going.

As I said in my previous blog about my goals at work to make money. Now my sub goals have been to make enough money each week which will ultimately lead up to my final goal of having un sacco di soldi (or bags of money) to waste away in a place I enjoy. Rent can be put on hold for this month ; )

Not only did I enjoy what I have learned in this class, I also loved blogging. This was my first time ever blogging and I felt that it really helped a lot. I liked how I was able to put my own feelings and thoughts into what I was writing. It gave me a chance to put my own little twist to it.

Final Project

During this semester I have learned a great deal about the many factors that motivate people. Many of these things seem obvious now, but I never really put all of the pieces together to form one generalized idea about what motivates people. This course has given me a better understanding about what motivates my own thoughts, and behaviors, as well as others. It has been informative to examine the interactions between evolutionary instincts, experiences, emotions, desires, needs, and all of the other factors that coalesce to make us do the things we do. Some of the most interesting and informative things that I learned from this class came from the link to the Center for Evolutionary Psychology in the chapter 3 slides. It was fascinating to read about some our innate evolutionary adaptations that occur without us even knowing it. Some of these traits sound as if they are more animal than human. In particular, there was one research article that explores how humans, women in particular, have a navigational gathering adaptation that encodes the location of gatherable foods into memory. This is an evolutionary link to our hunter gatherer past or perhaps farther back in our evolution. Another was an article called, “Adaptations in humans for assessing physical strength from the voice” showed that we may be able to pick up on cues from the sound of each other’s voice as to strength and fighting ability. Another one has to do with being able to judge strength and fighting ability from facial cues alone. These adaptations appear to be instinctual, which we humans seem to feel that we have evolved beyond acting on pure instinct, using reasoning instead. Perhaps we run on instinct a lot more than we are really aware of....

FINAL CLASS POST

     I have learned a lot of information from this class which would be useful in my everyday life as well as interperating some reasoning behind each individual's behaviors may be caused from. Although this class was known as Motivational Psychology, I found it interesting to know what can come with a person needing to become self motivated in life. I also found it very intriguing that everyone in the class has shared some part of their personal lives when it came to each subject. I think being able to relate to real life situations makes it easier to understand the material that is given to us to learn throughout the class. 

      Goals and incentives are important factors that play a role in whether a person wants to push forward to want to achieve and do better for themselves. I know me personally my goal to succeed in life to is to become a criminal profiler. I have been going to schoolfor quite some time now and just knowing that I will finishing the first chapter of my life when it comes to getting a bachelors degree in a field in what I love is great incentive and motivator to go further. Accordin to the class lecture slides a goalcean be defined to be selected from our consciousness and it is something that we act on. Ou goals are a sourc of acheivement in which select and act on, want to pursue yet some some of us can tend to abandon our goals. So in order for us to complete and pursue other goals which we may wat to better ourselves in life we use incentives and motivation to pursue those goals.  The assocaition of aspiration can also factor into completing goals. The different levels of aspiration deters a persons desire to adhere to, for example like me pursuing for greatnes for completing my schooling. This can give an affect of postivity while the goals push away negative responses. The main focus of a goal is "Committment' to the goal.

      Overall, this class has been a great class that would help deter future behaviors and reasons for the factors that contribute to why we act or committ to things in our lives.  If we all strive for something we will all be rewarded. My favorite part  of the class was gtting to know everyone on a more personal level and taking a peak into other's interest, creative ways of lettin the class know how they can relate to the material by articls,music, and/or something that have read or heard before. Although it was a struggle for me to get used to I thought is was an intersting and insightful way of communicating.
       

      

Final Post--What Motivates me to Relay for Life?

 Overview:

The information in this course on Motivation looked at the biological, psychological, and the environmental affects of motivation.  The materials presented examined the effects of  stress on the body as well as how to cope with stress.  This course discussed how personality is associated with motivation.  This course also looked at the economics of motivation which presented the idea that there are certain costs involved in achieving a goal.  There are time costs, physical, and psychological energy costs, and opportunity cost involved to satisfy a motive.  The author suggests that the principles of economics can provide insight into understanding motivation.  The principle of least effort and Hull's Law of less work is used to explain how people try to achieve their goals using the least amount of time and energy.

Favorite Part:

My favorite part in the study of motivation was the aspect of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, specifically the factors that affect incentive value.  As a parent it has been a challenge to determine the motivating factors of each of my children.  Through trial and error I have tried to discover what will extrinsically motivate my children to achieve, but that can be short lived, a temporary solution.  It is not until that the intrinsic motivation is realized does one truly become motivated to achieve what is their passion.  Extrinsic  motivation is short lived, because once the outside metaphorical carrot is gone there will be a decline in motivation.  The intrinsic motivation within a person drives a person for the pure satisfaction of the activity.  

In the video below you will see an example of my son's intrinsic motivation.  My son became involved in Relay for Life when he was 11 years old and over the years he has encouraged his family and friends to join him in the effort to find a cure for cancer by participating in Relay for Life.  He was motivated intrinsically by the remembrance of loved ones who suffered and eventually lost their battle with cancer.  If I tried to have him  volunteer, because it would look good on his college transcript or for a monetary reward, I know that he would not have even listened to  my suggestion or lure of the reward.  But inside of him he wanted to somehow stay connected with his love ones, and through Relay for Life he has achieved his goal and much much more than I could have ever imagined.  We are all motivated by different factors some intrinsic and some extrinsic.  

Extension:  

The material in this course is very helpful in so many aspects of life, from getting into the "Zone" to achieve your goals whether it is cooking a Thanksgiving dinner, preparing for a sales presentation, or competing in an Olympic competition to learning about personality types and whether they are influenced by environment or heredity.  As well as discovering the factors that motivate us to achieve our goals.  As a future teacher I know I will reflect upon the information that I have learned in this course to help my students to become intrinsically motivated to learn.  The course information presented also address other issues that I may face in the school environment concerning addictions and sensation seeking personalities.  All of this information is helpful in dealing with students and understanding their different personalities.  Also, understanding emotions and feelings and how they are affected by the time of day and seasons of the year, and how emotions can affect our level of motivation.  This is a course that offers insight into so many aspects of human interactions, and provides basic understanding of human behavior. I feel the more understanding I have of human behavior the better equipped I will be to teach my students, because learning is just not about information in a book, it is about motivating  and inspiring the students to  learn and achieve.

Final Post

           According to the text, motivation is to be moved into action, or decide on a change in action. We are all constantly motivated in one way or another. Although people are motivated by different things, we all have internal or environmental incentives that push or pull us toward the end state. Once we choose how to be motivated, the outcome or incentive that we work toward is the goal.  People cognitively evaluate the goal and formulate a plan in achieving that particular goal. A person pursues that goal until the goal has been achieved, the original goal has been displaced by another goal, or the goal has been abandoned.

                I really enjoyed learning about those sections above (motivation and goals) because I was easily able to relate it to my life outside of the course. When I first started taking this class I was asked to sing the National Anthem at a baseball game. While taking this class, I used the information I read and linked it to how I was preparing for the game. I was motivated to practice the song in order to achieve the end goal, which is to sing the song well at the game. The closer I come to reaching my goal, the stronger my motivation is to achieving it.  While rehearsing the song, I am constantly receiving feedback from my voice teacher and family members on how the song is progressing. My goal has not yet been reached, since I am singing it in a week.  Hopefully I will achieve the goal successfully. The book states, “A person may strive to achieve a goal because its accomplishment is associated with pride.” I find that to be true. Once I achieve singing well at the baseball game, I will feel a great sense of satisfaction.  After taking this course, I now have a better understanding of why I am motivated to do things in my everyday life.

         When discussing goals, I feel that Walt Disney is an excellent example, with all of his accomplishments. His ultimate goal was to take the art of animation to its highest level.  Along the way he achieved various subgoals, such as his amusement parks. Since he accomplished as much as he did, Walt must have felt pride in all his successes. He was constantly motivated to reach an end state, which is why Disney has become today. Attached is a clip of Walt Disney’s dream, or goals that he has accomplished. He is quoted, “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

Final Post

Motivational psychology was one of the more interesting psychology classes I have taken. The theories make logical sense and can be related to your everyday life experiences. Homeostasis can carry many interpretations of the meaning depending on the context. In this case, homeostasis simply means your body's way of evening itself out. If you are hungry, your stomach growls. When you are cold, your body shivers as it's way of internal heating. It can also be related to the hedonic value. Hedonic value is the pursuit of pleasure while avoiding pain. On a biological basis, that drives you to fulfill your hunger and need for warmth. It can also be linked to procrastination, another topic we have covered. Procrastination is putting off an unwanted or "painful" task in order to enjoy another activity.
Coming into this class I thought motivation was an abstract idea. I have come to learn they are testable theories. The section of the text I found most appealing was addictions. Someday, I'd like to be a drug and alcohol counselor so learning in depth about the psychological motivation behind it was fascinating. In abnormal psychology, we learned about the biological causes for this abnormality, but that is not always an easy thing to explain to someone who is uneducated in the field. The motivational aspect behind it can be broken down into laments terms, and I find that much more helpful. There is so much more to addiction that simply drug and alcohol addiction that will explained in the following video.

http://youtu.be/3hKp5yxEfj4

Final Project Post

                Every behavior or change in behavior is influenced by motive and incentive. Motives push an individual into action and incentives pull a person toward an end state. Knowledge, Competence, and motivation are all necessary in order for a behavior to occur. Both internal and external sources contribute to motivation toward or against a behavior. Internally, an impulsive person will tend to choose and immediate reward and a person with greater self-control will choose a larger, later reward. There are universal motives that are shared by all societies due to evolution. The motives of sex, fear, food, and music are shared by all humans. Male and female values differ when it comes to selecting a mate. Women prefer men who have good financial prospects, who are ambitious, and industrious. Men tend to choose their mates more based on looks.  Addictive behaviors are found most in those with high sensation seekers and those who are genetically related to individuals who struggle with addiction.

                Body regulation, maintaining homeostasis, is an internal motivator. If we are hot, we will engage in a behavior that will cool us down. Physiological, brain, and psychological arousal can all help or hinder a certain behavior. Strain is caused by a lack of resources to meet a demand which can eventually lead to stress. Stress can not only hinder us psychologically, but it also weakens the immune system and can cause illness. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is arranged by most readily satisfied: physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Physiological needs are usually met before self-actualization. The five-factor model, OCEAN, explains why people are motivated by different incentives, and situations. Behaviors brought on by extrinsic motivation will slow down when the reward is taken away. Behaviors that are caused by intrinsic motivation tend to be long-lasting. A final goal will be more likely reach if sub-goals (smaller goals along the way) are in place.

                I found the theories about the performance-arousal relationship to be interesting, and very relatable. The Cusp Catastrophe Model explains that cognitive and physiological arousal interacts to change performance. High levels of cognitive arousal increase physiological arousal which is when performance is at its best.   A further increase in arousal will cause a decline in performance. I have heard this described by athletes, particularly gymnasts. They refer to this as ‘good nerves’ and ‘bad nerves.’ Gymnasts say they all feel a level of nervousness during competition but this is when their performance is at its best. If they are having a bad day and their anxiety level greatly increases, they ‘choke’ and probably end up falling off an apparatus.

                According to the Processing Efficiency Theory, anxiety expresses itself as worry, and worry takes up working-memory space. Trait anxiety is an individual’s evaluation of a threatening event which turns into a anxious response. State anxiety is the actual feeling of apprehension, worry, and sympathetic nervous system arousal evoked by the threatening situation. The level and amount of anxiety a person experiences depends on their disposition to become anxious. Being and anxious person by nature, I have experienced this many times. Just recently during the Praxis exam, the instructor called out that half the time had gone by and I was a couple problems short of being halfway through the exam. I began to immediately feel anxious, and my heart started to race. This affected my level of efficiency as I was struggling with math problems I would normally have no problem with at all.

                This video describes how to lower test anxiety. The best thing you can do is prepare yourself well and be confident:

Final Post- Motivation and Incentive

Before taking this class, it was unclear to me that there were so many parts of a persons being that will drive them or motivate them. From an infant and its natural instincts for survival and seeking food when the side of its cheek is touched, all the way through the ways that people desire reaching goals. Without goals there would not be much motivation for people to work towards something.

A very interesting portion of motivation lies in preference reversal. People are motivated towards the furture. Meaning that they can be motivated to graduate college, taking classes that are required to do so. The problem with this however, is that with with delay the motivation decreases. The idea that we are pushed to work towards a goal that offers an incentive, and are pushed more towards a goal that offers a large and/or immediate incentive over a short term or small incentive is called preference reversal. This is interesting to me because an individual can be motivated to graduate from college but with delay and set backs such as finanaical problems or lack of success in classes they will begin to lose their motivation for graduating. With that said, it took me 6 years and I'm glad I was able to get through it! After tomorrow, when I take this final, I will be done!!

Final Post - Homeostasis & Sun Poisoning

Before taking this class, I never realized how much motivation plays a role in our everyday lives. According to our textbook, to be motivated is to be "moved into action, or to decide on a change in action". Psychological and physical energies are what push or pull us into some desired end state, while there are various internal and external sources (and incentives) that motivate us in one direction or another. Motivation is also evolutionary and they have changed and evolved over the course of human history. It is essential in mate selection and explains why we choose who we do. According to the good genes hypothesis, a member of the opposite sex selects an attractive mate based on the assumption that attractiveness signals genes for good health, fertility and intelligence. It can also explain reasons for drug abuse and addiction as well as behavioral addictions. Behavioral addictions include anything from shopping addictions to gambling addictions.

Arousal and effective valence are also important components to motivation. There is a delicate balance between too much, too little, and just the right amount of arousal in a situation, known as the zone of optimal functioning. Too much or too little arousal can negatively impact your performance on a task. Psychological properties of motivation, such as drives, needs, and awareness, play an important role in motivation as well. One important aspect of this section is the need to achieve versus motive to avoid failure. Those who have a high need to achieve engage in task-oriented behaviors while those with a motive to avoid failure are inhibited from attempting achievement tasks. Your personality traits also determine your motivation. The five-factor model of personality has several personality dimensions which as openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. These personality dimensions explain why people are motivated by different incentives, situations, and activities. It is amazing how much motivation plays a part in our every decision, yet we are rarely conscious of it and the reasoning behind it as well.

My favorite section of this course was Chapter 5 which discussed Homeostasis. I never realized how internally motivated we are by temperature, thirst, hunger and eating. If we deviate too far from our body's natural set point, then there becomes a physiological need to alter our body temperature, drink, or eat. Now that summer is starting to set in, I recently had a bad experience with my body trying to maintain homeostasis.

I went to the beach a few weeks ago and got so sunburned that I had almost every symptom of sun poisoning (except blistering - thankfully!). I was freezing cold, shivering, and had the chills for the first two days after the sun burn. My outside body temperature was so high, that my body was trying to find a way to cool me down. I also almost fainted because all I had eaten that day was mint chocolate chip ice cream and my blood sugar was low. Also, since I had not had anything to drink, I became mildly dehydrated as my intracellular and extracellular fluids were low. Now that my sunburn is gone and my skin is done peeling, I have a cold. I vow never to go to the beach without sunscreen ever again!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRiCH8CXHvw

(The picture above isn't me but that is exactly how red I was.)

Closing Post

Motivation is defined as the process by which a person is moved into action.

These actions are either influenced by internal motives (push) such as hunger and belonging or by external motives (pull) such as incentives and goals. As a result when the internal and external motives increase so does the motivated behavior.

Some of the behaviors we express as humans are a result of evolution, a means for survival (nature), while others are a result of personal history, (nurture).

The interaction between both nature and nurture contribute to what motivates behavior.

The source of motivation delineates whether the behavior is intrinsically or extrinsically motivated. Intrinsic motives include curiosity, self-determination, and building competency in a certain area. Extrinsic motives may be obtained from money, good grades, and/or the approval of others. This course explains a lot about human motivation, and what drives our behaviors.

My favorite part of the class was blogging. Online classes are very impersonal and you really don't interact with other students and the professor as you would in a regular meeting class. Through the blogs, we gained insights to other student's personality and background. For example, Lauren's son is an extrovert and enjoys socialization, Briana on the other hand, likes having goals and as a waitress she makes sub goals each night to make more money to achieve her ultimate goal of paying her rent. Chris is a procrastinator but motivates himself when he needs to study, and Nicole is not a procrastinator but her best friend is, and it drives her crazy. I even let the other students in on my fear of snakes.

As a future teacher of elementary school and special education, I will use the information I learned in class to motivate my students to develop their own individual goal commitments. My role as a teacher will be to give them the feedback for continued progress towards that goal. Once their goal is achieved the student hopefully will experience both extrinsic (better grades) and intrinsic (sense of accomplishment) satisfaction and continue making and working towards appropriate goals in the future.

Final Post

I learned so much from this class about Motivation. I used to think Motivation was something that could not be explained very well, but now I know that is certainly not the case. Motivation relies on a number of different things and the way we do things are based on those different things. First off, hedonic value is the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain. You can see this everyday with humans and animals. If something gives us pleasure we will do it again, while if something hurts us we will generally avoid it. However, hedonic value is not clear cut. According to Freud's reality principle, you can postpone pleasure or endure discomfort if the result is greater pleasure later. This still follows hedonic value with getting to greater pleasure, but in order to get there we need to avoid immeadiate pleasure or experience some discomfort. I am a great example of the reality principle when I am doing school work. Many of my friends will be in the living room enjoying each others company, while I am in my room doing homework. My friends invite me out to be with them but I always say "After I finish this chapter." I am motivated to work harder on my homework so I can reach the greater pleasure of hanging out with friends without worrying about homework. The incentive of having fun motivates me to work hard.

Another thing I learned during this class was how easily motivational theories relate to our real life. In chapter ten I was introduced to losses loom larger than gains which means "...losses are more dissatisfying than gains are satisfying" (pg. 243). For example, the President passed a healthcare bill that will give every American health insurance to keep us healthy and happy but that is overshadowed by the fact that unemployment is still very high. Passing the healthcare bill was a satisfying gain but the high unemployment rate makes people angry so they remember it more. Chapter 12 was also very easy to relate to our real life, especially the demand law. The demand law is what people will buy according to prices. As price increases, less is bought but as price decreases, more is bought (pg. 299). I relate the demand law to punishers and reinforcers. Spending more money for something is the punisher, so we buy less when prices increases. Saving money on thing reinforces us that sales and price cuts are more appealing.

Overall, this class has made me realize something very important about myself. When I read about self esteem in chapter 9 I realized that mine was very low. I noticed people telling me that for awhile, but it didn't click until I read that high self esteem means you think of success, while low self esteem makes you think of your failures (pg. 233). I usually focus on what I need to do to avoid failing at something but after taking this course and listening to my loved ones, I understand that having low esteem is keeping me away from a whole array of new experiences that could be really great and fun. So, after taking this class I have made a declaration for myself. I need more intrinsic motivation, which means doing something in order to please myself, instead of only having external motivation of pleasing others (pg. 254). In order to achieve this I am going to set mastery goals for myself more often. "Mastery goals are...personal standards...they involve accomplishment, improvement or greater understanding of a task" (pg. 195). I will set mastery goals that I am interested in, and only set them because I want to. I'm glad I took this class because now I am confident that I will get higher self esteem and enjoy life more because I will take control of my own life.

And now for the fun stuff!! The video below is me explaining my favorite part of the course!!

Final Post

I really enjoyed reading about Motivation. I had no idea about all the topics that fall under the umbrella of motivation and their significance. It all makes sense now that I have read the book. Human beings and animals are complex beings which would only make sense for all the different reasons of motivation. Sensation seekers, introverts, extroverts and addiction, drives, and coping techniques. Although I stated that human beings are complex in regards to drives, needs, how they deal with stress(problem-focused or emotional focused coping), we are the same in some regards as well. We all have the innate ability of thirst, hunger, eating and homeostasis. We all have the ability to express emotions such as smiling, crying, anger, and laughter.

My favorite section of the book is chapter 9. "Personality and Self in Motivation". I have always enjoyed learning about genetics as well as nature vs nuture.

I find it very interesting learning about people's personality and tempermant traits. In my opinion, this is most of the time the determining factor of personal decision making such as sensation seekers, goals, and self esteem and/or concept. Of course environmental factors come into play as well.

I find this chapter mostly interesting because one of my goals is to get my master's in neuroscience. Sensation seeking was one of my favorite characterstics of personality. This trait, "is based on inherited differences in the central nervous system and in the brain chemistry"(pg 216). There is a lack of MAO to breakdown neurotransmitters(seratonin, dopamine, norepinephrine). This subject also intrigues me because I am currently taking a class that pertains to mental disorders such as bi-polar. Many of the characteristics of sensation seeking such as "experience seekers" and "Thrill and adventure seeking" remind me of the mania that some bi-polar victims experience.

Another chapter that I found important is chapter 11, "Goal Motivation". I found it interesting to read about individual level of aspirations. When one achieves a goal it is a one time deal where as incentives are reoccurring, such as wages or food. Goals can be a test of self-efficacy.

The details in the book "Motivation" are experienced by everyone, everyday. But how often do we analyze the effects and causes of our motivation. This class has definitely created several "a-ha" moments for me.

Final Post

I have learned alot during this summer class. We have covered alot of different topics regarding motivation. I had no idea that there were so many topics to cover about motivation. But none the less, I completely enjoyed all of them, somewhat. We covered topics like addictions, drives, needs, and self motivation. Even though that is not all the topcs we covered, that gives a good indication on what we did for the past month.

My favorite topic this course was about addiction. When people think of addiction, they automatically think of drugs or alcohol. But people do not think of video gaming addiction. I think right now, its the most upcoming addiction in the world. There are plenty of people out there that are losing jobs or even even their families because they love to stay in this virtual world that doesn't harm them in any way. In this clip, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8hfK3RQs2g , you see a teenager addicted to one of the worlds most famous games. Also, people think of only "nerdy people" play video games. A NBA player, Gordan Hayward(left) plays a video game called StarCraft2. Here, he streams his video game. This is where people can watch him play (http://www.teamliquid.net/video/streams/GordonHayward). Games are made to play to have fun, not to be so addicted that you start to ruin your life. Video game addiction is a serious problem in world today.

Final Post

In this course, I have explored all the facets involved in motivation. Before this course, I would have never realized all the different factors involved in something I once believed to be a simple part of life. While motivation can be described simply, as moving to action in response to a incentive. It can also be described as something that has evolved along with mankind and reflects primitive adaptation methods when experiencing fear or selecting a mate. Motivation also has physiological and psychological basis. Naturally, our bodies strive to maintain homeostasis. We use motivation to achieve our goal of restoring homeostasis. We often use motivation to satisfy desires outside of the body as well. External incentives (food, drugs) often work together with internal incentives (hunger, withdrawal) to satisfy our needs. As far as needs go, all humans have a sort of "hierarchy" of needs that control our motives. Ranging from most potent, these needs include physiological, safety, belonging, self esteem, and self actualization. Although we all share the same needs and the motivation to satisfy them, our varying personalities affect motivation. Personality traits and temperament cause people to react differently to situations and incentives. But whether or not people react positively or negatively to a situation, it has been proven that intrinsic motivation (motivation with no obvious external reward) is more successful than extrinsic motivation (coerced motivation toward an external reward). No matter the source, reason, reward, or reaction involved in motivation, it is something that we use every day. Sometimes, we may not even know it. Motivation can be unconscious, for example, when restoring homeostasis. It can also be the most prominent thing on your mind. For thrill seekers and sensation seekers, motivation is an extremely important part of their lives.

My favorite part of the course was the section on Evolution. I wrote my first post about mate selection, but all the topics within the evolution section were extremely interesting to me. I also liked the part about food and our evolutionary value of taste. Evolutionary history and personal history combined determine the food we prefer. A lot of our preferences are innate, like the preference for sweet things. Even newborns show preference for sweets and aversion to bitter and sour things through facial expressions. Also, we usually have a preference for foods that were ingested by the mother during gestation. While food preferences seem to be innate and related to our evolutionary history, foods that we stay away from also have an evolutionary basis. Food neophobia is the tendency to avoid novel foods and prefer familiar foods. From an evolutionary standpoint, food neophobia helps protect a person from eating substances that cause illness or death.

In the video below, we meet Erin, a child suffering from food neophobia. The difference between a picky eater, and one with food neophobia, is that for the neophobic, the food actually represents danger. Erin sees the food as a negative incentive that she must avoid. While she's seeing a professional that is hoping to take the anxiety out of eating, she still has a long way to go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPhZoN4vaj4

Final Blog

In this course I got a whole new insight into Motivation. Too often we or should I saw I, look at motivation through too narrow of a perspective. From the start of this course we are shown how both nature and nurture affect our motivation. Learning the different between push, pull, reinforcers, punishers and incentive as well as our self interested Goals. Motivation can be both and bad as well see in the addiction chapter, as well as by the post which talks about the kid who sold his kidney for an I Pad2.

Properly motivating ourselves is an important skill for life. Procrastination and lack of motivation can hurt not only our goals, in succeeding, but in our personal lives as well.

In all that I’ve learned I really enjoyed finding out about Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation. So often it is over looked that autonomy alone is a powerful motivator. To be able to master a skill or be self sufficient is very important to us in life, but especially in the work place is over looked. I would take this a step further and look at kids. How often do you hear a little child say “I’m a big boy/girl, I can do it by myself”. Often times we focus on motivating people through external things (reinforcers and punishers) as opposed to looking at the powerful intrinsic motivation.

I also found this video and thought it was a great motivation video, you haven’t succeeded if you haven’t faced adversity.

Temperment vs. Personality

You know how many times I've misused these words? Or have heard others misuse the words?  When I say misuse, I don't entirely mean that we don't understand them, but we may not have understood entirely what we were saying.  But it makes me think of our every day situations - how we react to the different responses and actions of others and what we use to justify those reactions when they become entirely different from our own.  For instance, while out with some friends, one of them gets angry at the waiter because he is taking too long to get their drinks.  While it may not be the response that you would do, what you may say to a friend is "that's just their personality."  For a situation where someone does not like to talk about their feelings and gets frustrated easily when people try to, you may blame it on his temperament.  You may not even realize that you are inherently making a statement that is a nature vs. nurture complex - nature being your temperament (or as the book says, behavior that "is a result of the genetically inherited characteristics" (Deckers, 211). The nurture element refers to personality, or "a consistent way of behaving as a result of the interaction between temperament characteristics and social experience" (Deckers, 211). 

The book also goes on to imply that we are a product of both, which has been a well thought theory ever since Darwin's Nature vs. Nurture complex.  The book also goes on to say that our temperament can be a very strong indicator of our personality in our later years.  Now, many of us have heard of the condition "baby colic" which occurs in some children (usually those who are not breastfead, interestingly enough) and is a condition that occurs in the first 12 months of life in which a child screams, cries, and carries on without any discernible reason.  The link below further explains the phenomena of colic - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_colic

This link may be a little harder to watch, it shows a colic baby at 4 weeks old that screams and cries without any reason and cannot be soothed.  In the description of the video the parent explains that this went on day and night for the first months the baby was alive, imagine this for months at a time...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AUtYTaYMrE

Eventually the baby just cries itself to sleep. But research indicates that Baby Colic is correlated with personality issues in the future that cause irritability.  This link shows how babies with colic develop later in life up to 4 years old (but there are countless more that go even later than that)
http://www.babycenter.com/404_is-it-true-that-babies-who-are-colicky-tend-to-be-easygoing_10303155.bc

As the forum states, colic shows no signs of effect in early life (1 year old). But afterwards, they develop sleeping habits, ad by age 4 have more negative emotions and stressed outburts than others. As we can see, their temperament greatly affected their personality in the future.  Babies clearly have no social experience that can, in any way, shape their behavior, so whatever they do during infancy is innate.  Hence, the colic is a temperament.  However, a child is entirely dependent on the parents to satisfy any needs: When hungry, feed me. When wet, change me. When tired, put me to sleep. When thirsty, give me milk, etc.  So for whatever the reason for the colic, and the lack of ability for the parent to sooth whatever the problem is, the baby is learning to have a distrust and disappointment for dependability on others.  It's sad, but it does show how our innate human temperament shapes our personalities. 

Final Posting, Theres power in the powder

Until taking this class, I never realized how many factors go into achieving our daily goals and how motivation plays such an important role in setting and then successfully achieving those goals we set. According to the book, motivation is the process by which a person is moved into action by having motives pushing the person into action towards a desired goal with incentives to pull the person towards their final goal. As an internal disposition individuals try to avoid negative incentives and welcome positive incentives and while the incentive value increase the motivation also increases. Inside of us we have both internal which refers to sources inside the person and external motivators which refers to the sources outside the person. Both biological and psychological variables play a very important role in motivation. Biological variables refer to a person’s brain and nervous system whereas psychological variables refer to a person’s mind. Biological and psychological variables also have been linked through reductionalism which is neural activity in the brain to explain the mind’s psychological processes. Motivation all goes back to the mental processes that create the choices and decisions we make in life to create our personal history created of personal experiences. It is a person’s personal history in combination with the evolutionary history, which is what all humans have in common as a result of evolution, which creates the drive for motivation in what we would like to do in life.

I always understood that for humans to function properly they need a balanced lifestyle with constant internal body conditions, otherwise known as homeostasis. An interesting factor of it though is the negative feedback system which the book states to be a self-correcting process that aims to reduce any kind of discrepancy between a desired state and an actual state of being. The best depiction of this statement was the one in the notes comparing it to an air conditioner that adjusts the temperature of the house to the desired setting. I find it to be very interesting that our bodies know exactly what we need and when we need it and our psychological drive to always want to restore our homeostasis. I would say that’s the biggest part I took from this class, which everything internally and externally goes back to motivation and trying to obtain that highest tier on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs which is self actualization. However, most spend their lives somewhere in the middle of the pyramid, but always trying to remain or excel to a higher tier.

My personal favorite part of this course was the addictions section, mostly because almost everyone at least knows someone who is affected by or suffering some sort of addiction. I also found a lot of interest in it because I intend to enter the clinical counseling field of psychology and within clinical counseling I feel and believe that a lot of people suffering mental illness also may suffer some form of addiction through self medicating. My mother has a private practice out in Medford NJ, and she has directed me recently towards possibly obtaining my CADC for the reason that so many people dabble within alcohol, nicotine, perhaps hallucinogens stimulants and/or depressants and those people do not realize the substance abuse has a lot to do with their psychological stressors and their body and mind entirely. Another issue within addictions is how easily it is overlooked; many people do not recognize an addiction for what it really is; a disease. Any addict will tell you, no matter how long they have been sober, they are still an addict and again even after twenty years sober, once the substance is picked back up many have claimed it was as if they never missed a beat, which can be the scariest part.

The understanding of addictions is important to the Motivation course for various reasons. Addiction is the intense craving, seeking out, and usage of a particular drug. Genetics play a part into addiction because if say a parent suffers an addiction to alcohol; their offspring are similarly vulnerable to drug use and abuse. Personality has a role in drug addiction because of impulsiveness and the heightened sensitivity to drug effects and the lack of awareness to all the negative side effects and consequences directly linked to the drug use. Comorbidity refers to people who are stressed out and who are more likely to use drugs to ease their distress. It is after drug use becomes more persistence the behavior in itself becomes addictive and then. Now, what addictions have to do with motivation is that the psychological effects on the brain and mind of drug use and abuse can alter our decisions and can alter our goals in life. As opposed to fulfilling our set goals that we had created for ourself, set goals shift to whatever it takes to receive that high again. This is where addictions begins to ruin one’s life and the people surrounding them.

This is a song by yellowcard, its titled powder. This is a song I heard back in grade school at some time but whenever I think of addictions, or whenever I hear this song… well if you take a listen you’ll understand it too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAdRBwog7O0

Motivation

What is it that motivates us? Why do people have different motivators? What role do incentives play in motivation? These are some of the questions explored by Chapter 10. It also provided insight into the difference between internal (intrinsic) motivation and external motivation (extrinsic).

What I found interesting in this chapter were the concepts of punishers (selecting against behaviors and making them less likely to occur) and reinforcers (selecting appropriate behaviors and making them more likely to occur). These concepts seemed to almost contradict the previous chapter on addiction. For instance, why is that some people continue to use drugs and other harmful substances knowing that negative consequences will result? It would seem, based on the theories of reinforcers/punishers that this behavior would be avoided. Perhaps it is the biological component of addiction which accounts for the continuing behavior.

I think personality has a lot to do with motivation as well. The text indicates that extroverts are generally more successful in their careers, etc. (receive more promotions, etc.) because of their outgoing nature. I find this interesting since I am an introvert, but have been tremendously successful in my current career. I have received numerous raises in the 11 years that I have been at my job and have received extremely positive comments despite oftentimes having a preference for my personal space and sometimes limited interaction. I believe my saving grace is that most of my work is to be conducted independently and it is not often that I am required to work as part of a team. During those times when working with others is required, I do so with professionalism and kindess, if not talkative exhuberance. I was somewhat surprised that research didn't reflect that introverts are more successful individuals.

I think since we favor our comfort zone and don't often like to be the center of attention, introverts are individuals who are perhaps more cognizant of their self concept than extroverted individuals.