The video on mindless eating and the bottomless bowl really intrigued
me because it’s something I have difficulty with everyday. I feel as though I must
finish my entire meal and clear everything off my plate no matter how much is
there. This mind game we plan with ourselves really gets out of hand and can
cause people to gain a lot of unnecessary weight that could have been avoided. People
are so stressed and have so many things on their minds and the last thing their
thinking about is how much food they’re taking in. Coming from an Italian family
it is hard to not eat a lot at once. When my mother cooks she cooks for an army
and expects us to eat everything. What my mother doesn’t realize is that it is
nice to eat great Italian food but we must learn to portion control what we are
eating. I lost thirty pounds six years ago and have kept it off simply by
portion control and exercise. The fact is that if I am not making the food for
myself I still tend to eat the whole portion I am given. It is a really hard
task to control what you are eating and how much you are eating when you are in
company. When you go out to dinner most of the restaurant portions are double
if not bigger than the portion suggested and most people finish their plates
clean. I think in order to fix this problem our society as a whole has to
promote portion control and restaurants should be giving portion-sized meals.
After reading through the slides on "Impulsivity & Self Control" and "Drugs" I have been thinking a lot about alcohol consumption and why people get drunk. Everyone knows we do stupid things when we are drunk, text our exes, get into fights and make out with strangers. We wake up with unexplained bruises and have a massive headache and some of us will throw up all day long. However every weekend most of us end up drinking again. We may only say "I am going to have one drink and call it a night" but after that one drink what winds up happening? "I'll just have one more" and then the next morning we are waking up on the bathroom floor with no recollection of what happened. So why does this happen? According to the lecture on impulsivity and self control I believe that this is a pattern on "positive addictions" substituting for "negative addictions". We say we will only have one drink because we know the negative side effects of drinking too much: the hangover. But once we have one drink the euphoria that alcohol gives us starts to set in and we do not want it to go away. We only begin to think of the positive side of alcohol, the feeling of euphoria. So before we know it we are drinking more than we can handle. When the feeling of euphoria sets in we are only thinking about immediate gratification, we want to feel pleasure now. We are not thinking of the delayed gratification of not having a hangover the next day. I think this is a very simple explanation to why people get drunk. (This post is not to imply that everyone gets drunk, and this post is not to attempt to explain alcoholism). Please comment with your thoughts and comments!
Berg, M (2014). Impulsivity & Self Control #1. Retrieved from: https://sites.google.com/site/markrscnj/Home/motivation/motivation-lectures
Berg, M (2014). Drugs. Retrieved from: https://sites.google.com/site/markrscnj/Home/motivation/motivation-lectures
After viewing the motivation lecture slides titled, "Impulsivity & Control," it really made me think about how many people act on impulse and what causes it. For example, in one of the slides, Justin Bieber is driving recklessly through a NFL star's neighborhood. Sure, he must have had an awesome time doing that, but he definitely was not thinking straight, or just did not care about any negative consequences. There are four dimensions of impulsivity. One is urgency, which is someone wanting something now, so you act quickly to get it, not thinking about negative consequences. Another is Lack of Premeditation, not thinking about the future carefully. Lack of Perseverance, acting without discipline, following through poorly, giving up easily. Lastly, Sensation Seeking, which is craving excitement, and feeling the need to be risky with your actions (Propst, 2001). All in all, there are many people, including myself, who are guilty of taking part in some kind of risky action without completely thinking it over. It all comes down to mind over mood.
Propst, Stephen. Mind over mood: Acting on impulse. Retrieved from:
http://www.bphope.com/Item.aspx/693/mind-over-mood-acting-on-impulse
Thursday, July 10, 2014
After reading part one in Endurance I started thinking about my life as a whole. People take waking up in a warm comfy home for grated today and I myself am guilty of this. We have food to eat when we please, water to drink and shelter from harsh conditions. These men have endured the impossible and we complain if the air condition is to low or too high. They have volunteered for something that is unknown and impossible to accomplish. What really impresses me so far is how motivated and determined they are to accomplish this. I know for sure if I was part of that crew, I would not have made it as far as they are getting. Most people today would not dare to take on a mission as harsh and life threatening as these men had. I still can't even begin to image how hard it was to be out there not knowing if you were going to live or die. I can't wait to read more and learn what other obstacles they had encountered.
Rosalia La Franca
"Motivation is a desire or want that energizes and directs goal-oriented behavior". In this class, we learned a lot about motivation- its meaning, its sources, and the studies of its nature in human beings. The studies of motivation date back to the ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle and Socrates, to the psychologists of the 1900s such as Freud and Thorndike, and continue to be studied today. Energy, emotion, and internal and external sources help make up the drive of motivation. The behaviors of motivation studied can be anywhere from the positives of exercise and mating, to the negatives of drug addictions. All of the motivation developed can be psychological, physical, or even biological, and can be of human nature ( characteristics not created by surroundings and culture) or universal motives (due to evolution).
Favorite Part:
My favorite part of the class was when we talked about Chapter 9: Personality and Self in Motivation. I was interested in reading this section and hearing the lecture because in psychology, my favorite studies to learn about were that of those connected to personality. I had taken a classes before called Personality, so it was interesting to see in this class with Dr. Berg, the connection between personality and motivation. I learned that people differ in their temperament (result from inherited characteristics through genes) and personality (result from temperament and experience). The differences between the two is what determines the motivating factors in each human being.
Personality traits have a part in self motivation as well. Depending on which traits a person possesses can determine if they will act positively or negatively in their reactions and choices in their live. An interesting tool we got to look at in class was the 5 Factor Model concerning the 5 major personality traits. Personality tests can be taken online to determine personality traits and what type of personality may result from the combinations that link to behaviors. An example of a personality trait we learned about in class would be sensation seeking, which is a trait possessed by a person that seeks experience and sensations on different levels of seeking (can involve also low to high risks).
Environment can affect personality in motivation too. A few terms we learned about in class were trait-environment interaction and trait-environment correlation. A person's reaction to a situation due to a personality' trait's high or low appearance is connected with trait-environment interaction. However, the activity a person does due to the showing up of certain traits are connected with trait-environment correlation. I found this chapter and lecture to be informative and very insightful on the relationship between personality and motivation.
Extension:
When thinking about concepts outside of this course that relate to the topic of motivation, I can see these course concepts relating to real-world situations or issues. Using my favorite part discussion portion, I thought of using personality trait tests or studies to see which type of people are best in each type of working environment. Employers would get a better look at the people they would be hiring and the traits they possess looking at the test results. It would also give a good insight on how to motivate certain types of people already employed in their jobs (* See VIDEO above this paragraph for ways to motivate the traits in the workplace), so that people can be motivated and the work need to be done can be fulfilled.
The chapter learned in class about drug addictions would also be good information to be used to better understand drug addicts and help them along their healing process. This would be suited for those who help people in rehab or in counseling.
The topics learned about motivation in this class has multiple connections and relations to our world and the people we are and continue to become.
When signing up for classes last semester I came across this class and knew right away that I wanted to take it. It caught my eye for several reasons but mainly I wanted to find out what motivates us as human beings. What gives us that drive to continue day in and day out. I wanted to know how to explain it all. I also hoped to be able to take away important lessons for the future in regards to motivation. Now that the course is over I feel as though I have accomplished just that. From the beginning, this was the most interesting course that I took. I learned more information than I thought possible that was related to motivation. Each lesson was intriguing and Professor Berg brought the information to life. There were also power points with clear cut notes and fun videos that related to the lesson. It helped bring the class to life. He also engaged the class in discussions and it was neat to hear the stories the class had to share about the different topics we had covered. One other notable facet of this course is the other book that was assigned. Endurance, although a little slow at first, was the perfect book to pair with the course. It highlighted the hardships that Shackleton and his crew faced and their never ending motivation and endurance to continue and survive. It was a very inspiring story.
A few of the many topics covered in class were the history of motivation, the biological & evolutionary aspects of motivation, mate selection, addictions to psychoactive drugs, exercising, gambling, and etc, homeostasis, thirst and hunger, stress and how to cope, drives & needs, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, personality and self in terms of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, maximizers and satisficers, making decisions and choice overload, and the list goes on. All of these topics are clearly explained in an easy to understand way. This class is not your average boring lecture class by any means. You will be happy that you signed up for this course because I know I was. Motivation can be defined as "to be moved into action, or to decide on a change in action; & the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way." This course will show you that there is much, much more to that simple definition.
Favorite Part:
I had a few favorite parts in this course however I'll just focus on two. To start, I really enjoyed learned about mate selection and that whole process. The video we watched in class with the mate selection experiment really had me intrigued. When selecting a mate, we first rate ourselves and then use that rate to pick a partner on a comparable level. Usually we pick a mate that we think has the same "number" we rated for ourselves, or one number higher or lower. We also use mate value. Mate value is the possession of characteristics that are desired by the other sex. Some of these characteristics include ambition, financially secure, attractiveness, shared interests/values, kind, sense of humor, and desire for children. We tend to try and pick mates that possess the characteristics we are individually looking for in a mate. In class we did a live survey and had to text in an answer in terms of mate value. It was really cool to have everyone's results pop up instantly so that we could compare the results.
*This is a video I found on youtube that pokes fun about choosing a mate and I found it kind of funny. Sadly, especially in younger ages, appearance seems to be everything when choosing someone to date.
My other favorite part in this course was the economics of motivation. Their is a cost to satisfying a need or goal. These costs include time costs, physical energy costs, psychological costs and opportunity costs. These are all taken into account when motivated to do something. For example, by typing up this assignment and doing other homework for finals I am giving up hanging out with friends. This section also focused on choice and choice overload. Personally, I tend to maximize in many instances. When I am at the mall trying to decide on a new outfit for a night out, or when I am out to eat trying to decide on something to eat. I want to make sure that I make the best possible decision. I have learned that engaging in this way of making choices often results in me not being happy because I feel like I could've made a better decision. Instead, I am trying to be more a satisficer. I try and just choose now instead of debating over a choice for a long time. I have found that I am more happy when I do this and it is not as hard as I thought it would be, especially for the smaller things like choosing something to eat off of a big menu. Barry Schwartz developed the "Paradox of Choice" which simply states that when as the number of choices increases, satisfaction decreases. With all these choices we try and find the best possible one because why else would we have choices if not to find the best. We hold high expectations and when those expectations are not met we become disappointed.
*This is a video I included of Barry Schwartz talking about his Paradox of Choice theory. He is telling a story about choosing a pair of jeans and how there were so many to choose from.
Extension:
There are many aspects of this course that could be extended into real life situations. There are several things that I learned throughout this course that I will take with me as well. For instance, I can be a big procrastinator. I like to wait until the last minute to sit down and do assignments. Strangely, some of my best work comes out this way, but I am only stressing myself out more than I need to. I am now going to develop small extrinsic rewards for completing assignments ahead of time and try to motivate myself to not wait until the last day and prioritize my time better. One other extension I have taken from this course is that after reading Endurance, I find myself seeing situations differently. Those men literally went through hell for seventeen months and managed to find the will the survive. Reading this book has made me feel that I can concur issues that I once thought I would give up on. If they can endure without the most basic of needs, I can find a way past my issues and problems. Overall, this class has provided me with very useful information that I am sure I will be using for years to come.
For my final post I chose Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder or PTSD for short. PTSD is caused by a traumatic event in
person’s life. This includes coming home from a war, a rape, a serious vehicle
accident or even a natural disaster. It caused the affected person to feel like
they have no control over a situation causing them to act like they or someone
they know is in danger. Although it is normal for people to have stress from
time to time, these feelings can become a hindrance on their everyday lives if
they are prolonged.
People can experience the symptoms of PTSD in
several different ways. One way is reliving the trauma. A person may suffer from
night terrors, memories or even flashbacks of the even that happened. Another
symptom is Avoidance of situations that is a reminder of that situation. For
instance, if a person was in a car accident, they may not be able to go back to
that site. Another way a person can know they may be suffering from PTSD is not
participating in things that used to be enjoyable. The person may not want to do
something they used to because it’s a reminder of the stressor. A person may
also feel jittery or over alert feeling like something bad is going to happen at
any second.
To treat PTSD, professionals use the help of
medicine as well as counseling. A person with PTSD Might be prescribed
medication as well. A popular drug prescribed is an
SSRI, which is usually prescribed for the depression. Another Prescription that
may be used is Prazosin which is used to decrease the nightmares someone may
have due to PTSD. Also, cognitive behavioral therapy is used to treat PTSD.
Therapists used prolonged exposure to have the patient overcome the fear of that
event by repetitively talking about it. They also use cognitive processing
therapy, where they try to help you understand how the event has changed your
views, opinions and ideas. Also for
I chose this
topic because I have known a lot of people who suffer from this. I too suffered
from this to an extent. For example, I was in a car accident when I was still on
my driver’s permit. I refused to go back to the spot where it happened for about
a year. Finally, I decided to drive down that road to get over my fears. It was
hard at first but I did it. A friend of mine also had a car accident. Not only
has she never driven on the same road again, but she no longer has a license and
refuses to ever drive again.
Every semester, there is always at least one class I am interested in taking. This semester, I was lucky enough to enjoy all of my classes. When I was picking out classes for this semester, Motivation caught my eye. We do things every day, and sometimes we wonder why we do them. We wonder what motivates us and what keeps us going through even the toughest times.
Professor Mark Berg found a great way to make this course interesting every class and to make it different from other lecture classes. The class covers a lot of interesting topics such as evolution, addictions, behavior, stress, goals, and economics to name a few. Throughout the course, the class also reads a book called Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage. When reading this book, a person can see the concept of motivation put into action, and they can see just how strong a person’s motivation can be. People might be turned down by the thought of reading an extra book along with book chapters, but Endurance is definitely not a boring book. Professor Berg also found a way to make group work not so bad; you pick a section of the book you want to present on, you’re put into that group, and you do your own short chapter from the section you chose. This way, everyone does a part and it is not left to only one or two people to put together.
Favorite Part:
It is hard for me to pick a favorite part of this class, because I found every lecture day to be interesting. I liked coming into class knowing there would be an interesting power point. The power points were always full of information and fun facts to remember. What made these power points stand out from other classes is that there were always unique YouTube clips in them. No matter what we learned that day, there were at least one or two crazy videos on that section.
I also really enjoyed our class discussions. It was always interesting to hear people’s stories about how they were motivated by food, thirst, goals and money. One day, we did a virtual in class survey on what men and women most looked for in relationships. It was cool to text your answer in and watch the polls go up and down in what men and women looked for in relationships. Endurance discussions were interesting too. We talked about how some would have given up already and which characters we thought we related to.
If I had to pick a favorite chapter it would be when we learned about why we eat certain foods and why it’s so hard to stop eating the “wrong” ones. My mom is a dietitian, so I hear all the time about what foods you should and shouldn’t eat. It was interesting to relate that knowledge to the class discussion. I also know how hard it is to stay motivated in keeping up with your diet. She is a leader at Weight Watchers, so I always hear her ideas on trying to get people to stick with things, especially around the holidays. We passed around a book one day in class titled “Mindless Eating.” It seemed like an interesting book to read, and a week or two later it was sitting on my counter because my mom had gone to a dietitian convention and gotten a copy.
Creative:
There is a show called “I Shouldn’t Be Alive.” It is a show that tells the stories of people that survived experiences that they should not have survived. It goes into how they got into the situation, what it was like for them to be in that situation, and their moment of truth in what kept them motivated to stay alive. If Endurance happened in today’s world, their journey would definitely be on this show. This is a clip of two teenage boys who are swept out to sea by a riptide when they are going fishing. They are hungry, dehydrated, have bad sunburn and are freezing at night. They have no way to get in contact with the world and are pretty much stuck in the middle of the ocean with no means of survival.
Extension:
Now that it is getting colder outside, I am relating my life to the lives of the men in Endurance. Sometimes, I think to myself, “This is the coldest/ hungriest/ sleepiest” I’ve ever been; especially now that it is December, I don’t have money for food until I get paid, and it is finals week. However, I would choose my life and current situation over the men in Endurance’s situation any day. I am still amazed that they survived all of that, when sometimes I don’t think I can survive the day. You don’t really think you can be motivated to do something until you are pushed to the limit; that is when you can truly see all you are capable of doing. Whether it is getting an education, losing weight, or even cleaning the house, people can be motivated to do so; they just have to believe they can and accomplish their goals.
I think New Jersey is really motivated right now. After Hurricane Sandy wiped out our beaches, we created “Restore Our Shore,” which has already helped many people that lost everything. Every day, people are donating food, clothes, and time to help fix our beaches. I think this is really good and shows that people can come together to fix a problem. I hope New Jersey never loses its motivation to help others.
One of the most interesting topics that we covered in class was the motives behind mate selection and the good gene hypothesis. Naturally, people was to choose a mate who is similar to themselves and possesses the qualities that they would like to see in themselves. The good gene hypothesis definitely affects mate selection.The good gene hypothesis is a hypothesis that people prefer better looking people because they believe that these traits have good genes, genes in which they want to pass on to their offspring. (Deckers, 2010, p. 57) Since I aspire to be a couples therapist, I am really interested by this hypothesis.
Another interesting topic as part of mate selection is that we as humans like to select a mate who is around our attractiveness. If you consider yourself a 4, out of a scale from 1-10, 10 being the highest, you are more likely to select a mate who is one deviation higher, lower, or the same as you. Therefore, you’ll wind up with a 3, 4, or a 5. This poses a problem to mate selection because you cannot be with someone who you consider to be “better” or “lesser” than yourself. If you choose a mate who is better than you, you’re bound to be more possessive of your mate and think that you are not good enough. If you pick someone who you consider to be less than you, you’ll spend your life thinking that you could’ve done better. It’s a viscous cycle. To further research, I think it would be great to see if these hypotheses have any correlation in homosexual couples.
One of my favorite parts of this class was that we tied in the book Endurance. The novel really helped unify the class. I have not taken a class where the entire class reads a novel collectively since high school, and it was refreshing to share ideas about a common topic and get to know the class’ perspective. Although at first I was not a fan, the book shaped up to be really interesting. It was fun to come to class and designate a time to talk about the book. I feel like the ones who really enjoyed the book in the end liked the class a lot more. In a semester, we were able to build a community in the classroom setting. From this class I have made friends just from talking about the novel, and overall the class was very enjoyable.
I shared this picture because I thought it was interesting if you take it into the mate value perspective. The woman depicted selected a mate who has VERY similar looks to herself. I'm sure there were some Brad Pitt-esue guys ate the mate mart, but she chose a man who was similar to herself.
I shared this video from the movie Beauty and the Beast because it is a movie that depicts the good gene hypothesis. Beast is attracted to Belle because she is obviously a 10, but in his beast form, Belle would probably never go for him. Therefore, he changes his looks and his attitude to try and be more of a 10. I never thought of this before taking this class.
If you are like me, you wander why we make certain choices. You wander why we have counter factual thoughts, which are thoughts of wishing you could have changed a certain variable, the what if, would have , could have, should have. I like to think of the movie butterfly effects when I think of that word.
My worst regret is deeper than the tattoo of my daughters dads name I have on my thigh, by the way, I haven't been with him in 8 years. Yes, a dumb 18 year old mistake. I really don't care about that regret. The regret I have struggled with for almost a year is something that brings me to tears with deeper emotions than just regret. It is the regret that you play over in your mind and takes more than days to get over.
Last year, my Aunt Katie called me on a Monday to tell me my dad was in hospital and they found a spot on his liver. She also said they didn't know what it was yet and she would call me when they gave her the results. Wednesday, she called me and told me, my dad had stage 4 cancer and that he had less than a month to live.
I then was determined to go to Florida to see my dad and stay with him till he died.
First, since I just started my first semester of my bachelors degree, I had to go to my class on Thursday to make sure the professors would allow a month away or if I should drop the classes and start school the next semester. It was only the second day of the semester. Surprisingly they all were okay with me leaving for how ever long.
Second, I needed to get a flight, so I had a choice of Friday, Saturday, or Sunday... So since I am the worst decision maker in the world and of coarse wanted to go on Friday morning...I analyzed my choices. I had to get babysitters for my children and so it seemed easiest to go Sunday. This worked out since I needed a day to pack and get all my stuff together thinking I would be there a month. I also had to work on Saturday night and I assumed I would need this money, being I wouldn't work for a month. I also thought I was getting sick so asked my doctor to prescribe me an antibiotic on fri...and xanax to deal with what I was about to go through...
Well I talked to my dad everyday he was in the hospital. Saturday night he sounded confused. He knew I was coming in the morning. As a result to going to work, the bar I worked at was so dead, I didn't sell any drinks in order to make money, so that was a waste of time.
Sunday 6 a.m. I am on the plane....11 am...I am at the hospital in Florida...I walk into my Dads room...and no one told me he went into a coma!!!!!!!!!!! After going into the bathroom and crying my eyes out, which by the way xanax doesn't help, not even for someone who never took it prior!!! I went to sit next to him till my aunt came and got me at 8 pm. I left with her...and we got to her house to get a phone call that he died as soon as I left!!! The doctor should have said he had less than a week from the day he found out he had cancer. He did come out of the coma for less than a quarter second to look at me half way through me being there, after nurse said your daughters here. So I don't know if it was a drug induced coma or what it was.
Okay so now that I learned that regret depends on the value of rejected opportunities, well it makes sense to me on why I would feel more strongly about this regret than any other regret so far. I feel as though one reason was partially choice overload. I had so many opportunities and different things to worry about before I made the most important decision.
Even though I am very greatful to God and my dad that he held on till I got there, I still regret not being able to be there on Friday or Saturday before he was in a coma. It's helpful though to understand why I feel this emotion now.
I origionally emailed this to Dr. Berg, but I figured I'll post it on the blog as well.
When I had ordered Endurance on Amazon.com and looked at the cover, I had thought that it was going to be one of those strange, incredibly boring novels that you read in the third grade. Upon my surprise, I am actually taking a liking to the book. The author Alfred Lansing, does a great job of using vivid imagery, as well as descriptive detail. The story line is also very easy to follow. In the first chapter, the author was able to hook me in by using a flash-forward to let the reader know what is to come in the future. Before even reading the book, it was highly predictable that something traumatic would happen to the ship. If nothing happened, then the book would probably be a flop and wouldn't sell too many copies, so why not give away the most exciting scenes in the beginning and let the reader read and build up to what is to come in the future? The captain, Sir Ernest Shackleton is someone who I would describe to be a very bold man. He is also very highly motivated. He has had a large amount of experience in the past, therefore he was very motivated to lead the crew of 28 men across the Antarctic. Shackleton purchased a ship, originally named Polaris for $67,000, which in today's economy would cost around $700,000 to $1,000,000. I was surprised that someone would make such a risky purchase, but Shackleton had set his dream, and who can put a cost on a dream? It also helped that he was heavily funded for his voyage. I have really taken a liking to the Shackleton. He has a sense of humor, as well as a great leader. When Perce Blackboro was found to be smuggled on board, Shackleton did not seem too angry. He simply said that if there was no more food left and the crew had to eat someone, he'd be the first to go. When the ship had encountered itself to be stuck in ice the first time, I was very surprised to see how the team worked together to try and pull the ship out of it. Day by day, moment by moment, the team worked together for the entire day to pull the ship out. Eventually, they had found a separation and were able to pull through, but that would not have happened if the entire crew weren't on board to get the ship out. Overall, I am really taking a liking to the book. It's no 50 Shades of Grey, but at least it isn't War and Peace. -Milo Campanella
As the crew has touched land, one cannot help but wonder if this will turn to be a better situation for them, but the natural resources of the land seems to keep them alive. After being on board of the ship for over a year, their immune systems have depleted, but overall, the men seem to get better as time goes on. Shackleton led the entire journey with confidence, and it amazes me that at this point, he lets his hope deplete. I think this is because he had always unconsciously had no hope for the voyage past Section 3. Now the crew members are able to eat the meat of animals that live on the island; this helps them recover from weakening for the journey. As a whole, the group helps build a shelter for themselves, but of course this shack that they built would have problems. Imagine moving all these men into a small shack that is made from rocks and wood. This shelter is crowded, dark, and cold. The weather outside is much worse though, as it is below freezing with intense winds that blow through the cracks in the hut. Where will this journey take us next?
Winston
Churchill once said, “When going through hell, keep going.” But as humans in
nature, motivation drives us to proceed the behaviors and ideas we have. Our
motivation is what will change our behavior to act upon or do. Motivation over
history has changed its content but not the way it works. People may act the
way they do depending on their environment, culture, genetics and many other
things. As humans though we have universal motives that we all share such as
sex, food, and hydration. We are all motivated to do things whether it be
intrinsic or extrinsic.
Motivation
helps us understand addictions and disorders such as eating disorders. Many
things motivate us such as incentives, which can play a large part in our
lives. Different things drive us to do different things whether or not the
drives consists inside of us or are present in our environment around us.
Understanding motivation and how it works can be very powerful. For example
Hitler was able to influence and motivate an entire country to try and exterminate
thousands of people. He created drives and goals for Germany that made people do
unspeakable things. Motivation is very powerful and forms who we are and what
we want to be in life.
Intrinsic
motivation and extrinsic motivation was my favorite chapter discussed in this
course. There are many different things that motivate us and it generally falls
under two categories; intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is drives
within ourselves, for example, teach myself to cope with death better. An
extrinsic motivation is a drive that is outside ourselves in our environment.
For example I want to study more to get a better grade on my test. Intrinsic
motivation is something only I can feel inside me. An extrinsic motivation is
something that is found in our surroundings it could be for example money, or
rewards.
I
did a lot of thinking of a good example of either an intrinsic motivation or an
extrinsic motivation. I decided to use a clip from one of my favorite movies.
The 1995 movie Billy Madison starring Adam Sandler is the story many know of an
immature male who is very wealthy from his father’s business. But his father is
retiring and there is a dispute between the son and the ceo of the company of
who is going to run the company. They decide that if Billy Madison who is played
by Adam Sandler can beat the ceo in a questionnaire of high school material. Of
course at the end Billy Madison wins but he passes on the job to the guy who
helps him the whole time who Billy thinks should really win it.
It
is very obvious that there is an extrinsic motivation for the more he studies,
the better chance he will get the company. But there are also specific scenes
from the movie that show the more he studies he also gets quicker and sooner
awards. These quicker and sooner awards will also make him work even harder.
Along
his journey he falls in love with one of his teacher’s who is a good looking
blonde woman named Veronica Vaughn. In this one specific scene Billy gets to
study then when he is done she gives him an assessment to see how much Billy
has learned. There is an immediate reward to every question Billy gets right,
Veronica Vaughn removes one piece of her clothing for every question Billy gets
right. So the extrinsic motivation to study would be a better chance for Billy
to see more of Veronica Vaughn. At the end of this scene one of my favorite
scenes is that Billy replaces Veronica Vaughn with the famous Chris Farley also
removing a piece of clothing for every question Billy gets right.
Motivation Psychology was a class I was very interested
in taking. I was hoping it would teach me the skills and techniques I would
need to use while in school and in the work force to get ahead; and I was
right. While taking this class, I learned the theories and perspectives of true
human motivation. Our studies varied from human emotions, personality,
addictions, managing stress, homeostasis and behavior arousal. Each subject sparked
interest and appealed to me on the basis of human nature. Not only did we learn
the theories, but also the inspected the research to support it. Having statistical
evidence to back each theory made it much more concrete and exciting. I think a
course such as Motivation is important for anyone to take because it touches
upon human elements that relate to everyone. Whether you are a student in
school striving for a degree or a plumper striving for work; each human is driven
by something or someone. Motivation is a soulful quality which spans across the
globe as a reoccurring value in people of any race or ethnicity. Professor Berg
also makes the subject matter exciting and significant to your life. I really
enjoyed this class and all the knowledge it gave me. I even found myself
researching further into topics we discussed in class to show to other people!
Although many of the topics were all unique and important,
my favorite section was on stress, coping and health. With the amount of expectations
in today’s society, stress is inevitable. Ranging from the slow economy, rising
tuition levels, decrease in jobs and lack of social security; stress in
indicted across all ages and social statuses. And if stress goes untreated or
detected, it can lead to health concerns and even early death. Something as
overlooked as stress can really put a dent in your quality of life. I feel this
was my favorite chapter because I related the most to it and learned a great
deal to cope from it. I am currently a 21 year old female college student who bites
more off than I can chew. I am involved in numerous clubs and activities, takes
five classes and works 30 hours a week in retail store to help pay for my
college. Although I may be slow to anger, I am swift to become stressed out. My
body use to become run down after my lack of sleep and nutrition throughout the
week. Feeling sick and tired all day is not how I planned on college being.
Thus, I have trying to cope better with my stress.
I would like to exhibit how I began to cope with my
stress and maintain my health while at school. Coping refers to how a person manages or deals with life
events or stressors, and here is how I like to relax:
going for bike rides
taking hikes
listening to music
reading books
outdoor activities
volunteering at local animal shelters
To extend this topic outside
of class I have recently engaged in secondary appraisal. Secondary appraisal is
making an inventory of appropriate resources to cope with the demand. I
have recently been involved in helping create a new club at Stockton this past semester
with my friend Jenn. It is a support group with students who have a loved one
with cancer. My mom has been a fighter of cancer for many years and it is very
difficult to cope with the stressors it brings. Although talking to friends and
family helps, it is very eye opening to talk to an individual who is going
through the same events you are. The support group has been launched this past
semester and we meet at 8:00pm on Tuesday in the Campus Center meeting room 3
if anyone is interested. I have found this experience to be monumental for me
and helps me cope with my home life stressors.
This semester in class was pretty cool. I chose this class because it seemed easy and it was available, also one of the courses i need. Going in, i didnt know what to expect. Professor Berg is a really cool teacher. On our first lesson on motivation, i thought this class was going to be really easy, but my first test score said otherwise. Overall i did enjoy the class. I like the way it was taught and how he interacted with the students. Sometimes i felt l felt like we were around a campfire the way everyone had a story to tell, which is a good thing because it shows that we are interested in the topic being taught and attentive to the lesson.
I didnt know that this was a hybrid class and its actually my first hybrid class. We had to read a book titled "Endurance" by Alfred Lansing. I am not going to lie i dint like the book at all. It took a while to actually want to read it, and i actually enjoy reading.We also had to post summaries and reply which wasnt too bad either. If it were up to me, we would have just talked about it in class. I can be a bit lazy as you can tell. What i did like was that the story of the voyage did display what motivation was, and why we do the things we do.
Favorite Part:
My favorite part in class has to be the Youtube videos. I love how Prof. Berg used these videos to illustrate the lesson. Sometimes just reading the lecture notes can get a little boring, but watching the videos captivates my attention.Also, these videos weren't any old videos, but videos that are current, funny, and informing.
Creative:
I never knew that they Photoshopped models in ads to make them look a certain way. There are millions of people in this world, each with a distinct look. Why cant one of their looks be used? Why start with something, then change. I was very surprised by the video shown in class so i looked up a video on youtube and i found that L'Oreal photoshops all their celebrities to change or enhance their looks. This was shocking. Watch....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AktBOyUqv80
Extension:
One thing in class the Prof. Berg
pointed out to the whole class was addictions and how far people go to reach their high.Theres a show called Breaking Bad is
a show that revolves around the making and selling of meth, so there is
bound to be people using drugs in this show. I may not be a meth addict but i am a shopaholic. No matter how much trouble shopping got be in, i couldnt stop. Till this day, friends say that i need help. I know that its a psychological issue and should get help before it causes more unnecessary problems.Shopping is my high. When i buy new clothes or step in my favorite clothing store i am in a euphoric state of mind. I am a psychology student and this class does tie into my major. I would suggest this class to any psychology majors.
At last they made it to camp on Elephant Island !—a camp dubbed Wild Camp.
They then prepare a boat to make the nearly impossible trek to South
Georgia Island, send the boat on its voyage, and settle down to a
monotonous and dreadful life ashore Elephant Island waiting for some
future rescue.
After making landfall the men eat and then hunt several seal which are in relative abundance on the remote beach. After eating they sleep "'as we had never slept before, absolute dead dreamless sleep, oblivious of wet sleeping
bags. At this point they still have minor problems to deal with and have to get rescued, but they made it through the big obstacles they faced.
Without knowing one thing about what this class was going
to be about I signed up for it based on one word in the title of the course, “Motivation.”
Motivation is something which can drive us to do amazing things in our lives,
and I feel it has in certain points in my life, but it is not something which I
come across on a daily basis. The main thing that I feel that I have pulled
from this class is learning the sources of motivation for human nature, and
reading a story such as “Endurance” which shows men with motivation I can only
one day dream to have definitely helped me to feel as though I need to find
some motivation in my life once again. When the semester first started I was
the laziest I had been in years both with my schoolwork and just my overall
motivation with everyday activities such as cleaning my room, exercising and my
desire to keep my mind stimulated. From the first day of class when we
discussed physical and psychological motives of behavior I knew that I was at a
point in my life where I was lacking many of the psychological motives, and
hoped that through learning more about the concepts behind motivation, that I
would be able to regain a few.
Some of the things that I learned in this class are
obviously terminology about motivation and the concepts that drive it, for
example motives, incentives, and goals, but I honestly believe I learned more
than just a few definitions. Although I feel that I already had a concept of
the basic traits that influence motivation, learning about them in detail and doing
things such as making lists on the board as a class to explain our motivations of
why they did things such as exercising, attending school, and working, I was
able to reassess where I was in life and why I felt that I was sorely lacking
motivation in these areas, especially that of working out. This class was not
simply about learning about “motivation” and things that drive us to reach
goals, but we also discussed subjects such as addictions (to things such as
drugs, gambling, chocolate, etc.), reasons why we feel the need to drink, eat,
and regulate our temperature (reaching homeostasis), how arousal effects our
behaviors, and even concepts on why we experience stress and ways to improve
our overall health. These concepts are all important to explaining our behavior
on a daily basis and I can say with all honesty that there was never a moment
in this class were I was bored about the subject we were learning about. I
liked the way that our attention was kept during the slides by not just having
a bunch of definitions written that we needed to know, but also through the
active involvement when you would call on us to explain our on view on the
concepts behind our motivation, the interactive poll we did using our cell
phones the one day and of course the interesting YouTube clips related to the
subjects of ever chapter we covered throughout the year.
The class that was probably most interesting
to me all year was when we went over Chapter and learned about addictions and
addictive behaviors. Whether we admit it or not, we all have addictions to one thing
or another. These are not necessary always bad addictions, such as how some
people are addicted to exercise, but nonetheless the addictions greatly
influence our behaviors in ways we can’t even explain. In the case of certain
drugs there are obviously physical addictions that some face, such as in the
YouTube clip we say which depicted the lives of a few heroin addicts and
offered insight into their physical needs, but we also learned about psychological
addictions which although we may not physically need a drug or behavior, our
mind helps to convince us that we do. I personally have always been interested in
ways to alter our state of mind, not just through things such as alcohol or
drugs, but also through things such as adrenaline and meditation in which we
can experience the world in ways that you cannot explain in words. I consider myself
to be an “adrenaline junkie” and love do things that give you a thrill. This
started at a young age with things such as Rollercoaster’s and continued as I
got older as I began to do things which help me experience adrenaline such as skydiving,
free Rock Climbing while hiking (without a harness), and when I began doing
MMA. I have and probably always will enjoy anything which either tests the
physical limits of my body or puts me into a state in which I feel adrenaline coursing
through my body.
As I said earlier learning about these concepts has definitely
helped me to regain some motivation that I have recently lost since earlier in
this year, and has positively affected my life. It is because of this class
that I know do something which some of my friends make fun of me for but helps
to keep me motivated; almost every night before bed I compose a list of goals that
I want to accomplish the next day. It can be something simple such as do a
homework assignment, stretch when I wake up, study for a test, or a long term
goal such as drop a few pounds before a set date. One thing I learned in this
class is that we all have different goals and reasons for motivation, but for
me personally to actually be stared down by my goals every morning when I wake
up gives me a reason to go about my day in a way I otherwise wouldn’t have.
When I was doing MMA, I feel that I was the most driven I ever was in my life.
I would set goals for myself and I refused to let anyone or anything stand in
the way of them, because not accomplishing those goals could mean the
difference between winning or losing my fight. For my one fight I had to put on
a few pounds because I was unable to find anyone in my weight class but wanted
to fight on this one fight card at Resorts Casino. I didn’t care what that
meant, even if I would have to work harder because I knew that I was going to
be undersized for that weight class, and this is an example of how motivation
can directly affect our behavior, and the end incentive was obviously wanted to
win the fight. After the fight was over I took another one which was set about
2 months later and required me to drop from 161 pounds to 147. This was
extremely difficult for me because of my love of food but I knew that I could
do it if I applied myself. I had a sense of motivation then that I simply do
not have now, but am currently in the process of trying to gain back. This
class has helped me to keep in my mind the external forces that are required to
be motivated and to keep those forces in check. Whenever I am at a point where
I feel unmotivated I like to go on YouTube and look up motivational videos.
This is one which I feel is probably the most motivational to me personally,
and I hope that you will find it to be motivational as well.
"The pleasure principle does not abandon the intention of ultimately obtaining pleasure, but it nevertheless demands and carries into effect the postponement of satisfaction, the abandonment of a number of possibilities of gaining satisfaction and the temporary toleration of unpleasure as a step on the long indirect road to pleasure" Sigmund Freud
"The consequences of an act affect the probability of it's occurring again" BF Skinner
