Monday, August 4, 2025

Book Report

 

The book I chose for my book report was “The Willpower Instinct: How Self Control Works, Why It Matters, and How You Can Get More of It” by Kelly McGonagal. This book describes the biology of the brain and how it impacts self-control, various methods of finding your own willpower when you feel out of control in your decision making.  There are various exercises that the reader can do for each chapter, called “I Will,” “I Won’t” and “I Want.” “I Will” exercises allow the reader to pursue goals they have been procrastinating or pushing off, “I Won’t” exercises train your brain not to give into temptation such as with eating unhealthy food when on a diet, and “I Want” exercises allow the reader to prioritize what is important for their future to make more meaningful, long term decisions. The neuropsychology of decision-making is discussed, such as the role of dopamine in anticipation of a reward and how to resist temptation, as well as the economic system’s role in tempting us in the first place. Self-control is within the individual’s power, and although instincts about wanting things seem vital to resist, we have to acknowledge them in order to maintain our willpower. By looking at the different themes throughout this book with a focus on the exercises, we can begin to regain control over our impulses instead of letting them rule our lives.

            My favorite part of the book was the technique in chapter two about spending five minutes in nature to renew your willpower. I thought this part was especially interesting because I personally love hiking. Hiking always calms me and leaves me rejuvenated to do my schoolwork. The book calls this “green exercise” and McGonagal explains that it is better than working out at the gym because it is a “low intensity form of exercise” that is better for raising your mood. I thought that was especially true for me because if I am feeling anxious, a walk in the park helps me feel grounded and more clear minded. Something I thought was a cool tie in to the course was how exercise, in this case walking in nature, can be a “positive addiction” and help prevent falling back into “negative addiction.” Exercise is good for a person’s health and when hiking, I feel more in control of my health instead of overeating. After reading this book, I want to hike even more than I already do because it makes me feel more able to manage my physical health and motivated to make good decisions about my diet.

            For the creative part of my book report, I wrote a poem on willpower and how it is difficult for many people to access, which was something McGonagal discussed in her book.

“Motivation” by Adrian James

We all have moments of failure

At least some of the time

We all give up once in a while

For some reason or rhyme

 

We’ve all been told by someone

“You can’t achieve this goal

Because you’re not good enough”

And then we don’t want to try at all

 

But if we believe in our abilities

And trust in our instincts

The truth is easy to see

That we can make our dreams come true

 

If we push beyond what they say is possible

And work hard on ourselves

We can do anything we want

And we can do it well

 

So put your soul into everything

And remember it’s your life

It’s your song to sing

So do it with all your might

 

My poem describes how many people feel willpower is an impossible feat, but despite what we tell ourselves, we can do anything we set our minds to. Willpower is something that may seem difficult, but as long as we have self-knowledge we can figure out ways to achieve it.

            The exercises in this book can most definitely be extended outside of this class. I intend to use meditation in my own life to improve my sense of well-being and happiness. Mediation is a common tool used by people to achieve self-knowledge, and this technique can certainly be used to improve willpower as described in this book. Learning who you are as a person and what your faults are is an indispensable skill, and I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for ways to improve their life satisfaction and mental wellbeing.

Food preferences

I learned I don't like certain brands of sausages. Taste aversion is something I am familiar with. It is a part of classical conditioning where a neutral stimulus, in my case, it was a sausage, was paired with nausea, an unconditioned stimulus. This created a conditioned response in me, not eating the sausage. Thus, causing me to stay away from certain sausages because I don't want the feeling of being sick to happen again. 

Book Report

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker was written to inform its readers about sleep and its effect on people. There are 4 parts to this book with 16 total chapters. Each part provides different topics about what it is, why you should sleep, how dreaming works, and society's impact. Sleep influences cognitive performance, learning, memory, and mental and physical health. 

My favorite part was learning about sleep deprivation and the brain in chapter 8. Walker pointed out that most diseases were caused by a lack of sleep. Getting a poor night's rest may weaken your immune system, making it easier to get sick and catch infections. A person is also at risk for cancers, growing tumors, and heart diseases or attacks, if they do not get the proper amount of sleep. 

Lack of sleep can cause weight gain by increasing appetite and food consumption while decreasing fullness or satisfaction. It can also cause poor mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. In the food lecture slides, the more stressed a person is, the more they will eat. The more you eat while sleep deprived, the more weight gain and unhealthy choices you might make. Being sleep deprived may cause you to be less physically active, also affecting your weight.

What I learned from this book is that sleep is very important for everyone. Sleeping is what makes learning beneficial, creates good decision-making, keeps emotions in check, and helps memory do its thing. I also learned that both under sleeping and over sleeping are bad for your health, and to stop both from happening, create a sleep schedule, no caffeine, exercise, and a little sunlight exposure helps too.



Personality Disposition to Drugs

 It was interesting to learn about why certain people may be more vulnerable in giving in to trying drugs and getting addicted. There are a variety of factors including your genetic disposition, but what really interested me was that your personality can also be a tell. From the slides, I learned that those who tend to be high sensation seekers are more likely to seek out drugs because it gives them quick stimulation. Another personality trait is the level of impulsiveness. If you are more impulsive then you have a lower awareness of the negative consequences that may come with taking drugs, and their senses tend to be heightened more. I was interested to learn if there are any other traits that may correlate with being more vulnerable to trying drugs. When looking at the big five personality traits, neuroticism, high openness to experience, low agreeableness, and low conscientiousness were all traits that people who use drugs were high in (Director, 2021). If you are higher in neuroticism then you tend to be more impulsive and have less self control. This makes the decision to start using and to continue using drugs easier as they are less likely to think about the consequences and do not have the power to stop themselves. High openness to experience means that they are more willing to try something new and again, not worrying about the consequences it may bring. I was also surprised to learn that some personality traits have shown to have a draw to certain drugs (Director, 2021). Although there is some correlation between these personality traits and using drugs, it is not guaranteed that these traits will use drugs, you will just have a higher disposition to it. Having self control with any of these personality traits can help in the resistance to use drugs. 

Reference

Director, K. M. . M. S. W.-. C. W. C. (2021, December 1). Personality traits related to drug use.
Fort Behavioral Health. https://fortbehavioral.com/addiction-recovery-blog/personality-traits-related-to-drug-use/

Sunday, August 3, 2025

Drugs

I find it really interesting how we’re taught from a young age that drugs are bad yet one of the most widely used psychoactive stimulants in the world, caffeine, is accepted and even encouraged. It can be found in coffee, tea, sodas, energy drinks, and chocolate. For many people drinking coffee is a daily habit that starts in high school. Even though caffeine can lead to dependence and withdrawal symptoms, it’s something that isn’t talked about much. Caffeine makes people feel more alert, energized, and clear-headed, which explains why people drink it to start their day. I personally have always tried to limit how much caffeine I consume. For example, I try not to drink coffee too late in the day because it affects how much I sleep. But interestingly, I don’t think twice about drinking soda at night, even though it also contains caffeine. Watching the video "Your Brain On Caffeine" (https://youtu.be/V2Aj-iJ6p38) made me realize how caffeine can influence our behavior and motivation without noticing. Caffeine affects our brain chemistry by people to feel good for a short period of time.

Hull Spence Theory

  An interesting theory described in the slides is the Hull Spence’s drive reduction theory, which is an interesting explatation on how the ratio of a rewarding and or difficult task to its completion is correlated to a person's arousal levels. An example of this could be feeling the pressure of a high stakes test, and not feeling secure about a correct response but having a stronger response to an incorrect answer. I believe this theory can be easily applied to many people’s first high stakes test, which is their drivers test. In New Jersey, the requirement to pass is an 80%, and the stress arousal for a student taking one could arguably be quite elevated. In this example and for Hull’s definition, the performance of the behavior being learned, in this case, being able to drive, isn’t attributed to habituation, which would be a decrease in the response skill, but rather for a motivational use. In this case, the motivation is for the freedom of being able to drive a car, and the complex task of driving has more of a focus on incorrections rather than passes. Unfortunately, although a majority of studies used for this theory are unfortunately quite old, (the youngest study I could find was from the 90s), but an experiment run in the 70s on two rats, who had two responses to give to a task, and afterwards the experiment had confirmed that, “Two major assumptions of Spence's discrimination learning theory were confirmed: (a) learning is continuous, and (b) discriminative stimuli in simple discrimination tasks of both simultaneous and successive types are compounds with position elements as well as elements from the relevant visual dimension. The distinctive, consistent pattern of learning revealed by the choice-time measure suggests that position habits reflect a learning strategy in which the complex task is learned as a series of simpler ones.” (Robert D Hall,

Choice times and Spence's discrimination learning theory, Learning and Motivation, Volume 6, Issue 2, 1975, Pages 202-216). Although this theory is, quite frankly outdated and obsolete, 

it is an interesting older explanation so to speak to explain how difficult tasks seem to make someone more focused on their mistakes rather than triumphs.

Reference: Robert D Hall, Choice times and Spence's discrimination learning theory, Learning and Motivation, Volume 6, Issue 2, 1975, Pages 202-216, ISSN 0023-9690, https://doi.org/10.1016/0023-9690(75)90022-3.

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0023969075900223)


Food Preference and Personality

While reading the unit's material on food, I wondered how much of one’s personality (if any at all) could be predicted by their food preferences. A fascinating article by Karen Wu presents nine tersely stated correlations between food preferences and personality, along with the studies that back them up. I found the facts interesting, and I recommend reading the article (as stated in my references and hyperlinked here) for the information and studies on each of the nine connections just because they are interesting. 

However, I would like to share my thoughts on the first fact in the article. Wu states that “If you like bitter food, you may be a bitter person. In other words, you may have greater levels of antisocial or psychopathic traits” (Wu, 2023). She then details the findings from a study in which researchers surveyed 953 Americans about their personality and food preferences; the study showed that “preferences for bitter food predicted antisocial traits, specifically psychopathy, aggression, and especially everyday sadism, or experiencing pleasure from other people’s pain in everyday life” (Wu, 2023).

The findings made me consider innate preferences and the biological instincts associated with the food we eat. The generalized fact that “If you like bitter food, you may be a bitter person” makes sense to me, considering that in this course we learned about how even at a young age, humans tend to “prefer sweets and shun bitter stimuli” (Berg, 2025). In other words, the preference for bitter food goes against biological instincts, which makes it very plausible that those who willingly eat bitter foods are “bitter” themselves.

References

Berg, M. (2025). Motivation PSYC 3380's "Food" Slideshow.

Wu, K. (2023, January 8). 9 Things That Your Food Might Say About Your Personality. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-modern-heart/202301/9-things-that-your-food-might-say-about-your-personality

The Ick

    Throughout this course, a unit that stood out to me was the one on psychological motivation in mate selection and reproduction. What piqued my interest in this unit was the connection I made between it and the recent Gen-Z terminology of "the ick." The ick is a feeling that a person (usually a woman) gets from another person (usually a man) they are romantically interested in; someone usually gets the ick when their love interest does something cringey or embarrassing. As Angelica Stabile states in her article Why do women get 'the ick' from men? Experts explain the psychology behind the feeling, "chewing with an open mouth, wearing flip-flops, or tripping over their own feet while walking," (Stabile, 2024) are all common icks.

    The connection between this phenomenon and PSYC 3380 is the "biological, primal instinct" (Stabile, 2024) that causes the ick. Stabile states that in many primate species, including humans, adult females have a higher sensitivity to things considered distasteful in their partners; women tend to have a more easily activated habenula, which is "a central part of the brain that's involved in various important functions, including motivation and decision-making" (Stabile, 2024). When women get the ick, their habenula gets activated, thus diminishing the woman's desire and motivation to pursue a relationship.

    The psychological explanation behind why women get the ick is that women's habenulas are inherently negative and are incessantly scouting for anything that's not appealing in their mate. According to Stabile, this part of the brain is so negative because women are subconsciously sensitive to their environment due to their biological needs; women want to protect their future children and want to give them the best environment to live in, meaning they must be particularly selective in their mate selection.

    Of course, this explanation behind the ick is heteronormative and generalized, but regardless, I found this information behind the ick to be fascinating and a good link between this course and real life.


References

Stabile, A. (2024, December 12). Science reveals why men give women' the ick'. Fox News.https://nypost.com/2024/12/12/lifestyle/why-do-women-get-the-ick-from-men-experts-explain-the-psychology-behind-the-feeling/


Procrastination

 Procrastination is a large part of everyday life. I experience procrastination a lot, but always wonder why I act like this or why I push things off. Most of the time this happens with schoolwork. I try to get things done right away, but as soon as I start doing it, I realize there are other things that I would rather be doing. It feels as if I’m wasting my time doing schoolwork rather than doing something that I feel is more rewarding or more worth my time. I procrastinated these assignments as well. I know that I would have more time to do my fun activities and be less stressed writing these assignments out now if I would have done it earlier, but there always felt like there were other things that would be a better use of my time rather than sitting at a desk and typing. I experience this and am sure many other college students experience this, and I was interested to see that there is an actual theory of why procrastination may happen. This was called the Temporal Motivation Theory. We are more likely to want to do activities that are fun and pleasurable to us (About the theory, 2020). This could be watching tv or reading a book. These activities may feel rewarding and more pleasurable than completing a task like doing a homework assignment. We seek instant gratification, most of the time homework assignments and school work do not offer that. We may feel satisfied when we complete the task, but it is a lot of effort to complete rather than sitting and reading a book which gives immediate gratification. It was interesting to know that there is an actual theory as to why we procrastinate and being aware of that may be able to help reduce the amount of procrastination. 

About About the theory. (2020, March 3). Procrastination and Science. https://procrastinus.com/piers-steel/theories-of-procrastination/

Motivation

 Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about motivation, especially how it comes and goes depending on what’s going on in life. I used to believe motivation was something you had to feel before getting started, but I’m learning that sometimes you have to take action first, and the motivation follows. When I’m overwhelmed, I tend to shut down, but when I just push myself to do one small thing — like opening a document or setting a timer, it usually helps me get going. What I found really interesting is how motivation can actually be broken down into types: intrinsic (doing something because it feels good or meaningful) and extrinsic (doing something for rewards or to avoid consequences). Understanding that helped me realize why some tasks feel so much harder than others — if I’m only doing it to meet a deadline or avoid failing, it’s way harder to stay focused. I watched this short video by Sprouts called “The Science of Motivation”https://youtu.be/pZT8ac4y4xM, and it really helped explain how our brain handles motivation. It gave me some practical tips like setting short goals, rewarding progress, and creating momentum and all stuff I’m trying to be better at. It’s worth checking out if you ever struggle with staying on track.

Procrastination

 One topic that really sticks out to me is procrastination. It’s something I’ve struggled with for a long time, and even though I know it’s a problem, I still catch myself putting things off until the last minute. It’s weird how I’ll feel overwhelmed by a task and avoid it completely, but the longer I wait, the more stressed I get. Then I end up rushing through it and not doing my best work, which just adds more anxiety. I’ve realized that procrastination isn’t always about being lazy — sometimes it comes from feeling unsure, burnt out, or even being scared that the final result won’t be good enough. It becomes this cycle that’s hard to break, and even though it feels like a short-term relief, it causes more pressure in the long run.

I came across this short video by Tim Urban called “Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator”https://youtu.be/arj7oStGLkU, and it hit way too close to home. He explains procrastination in a really funny but painfully accurate way, especially how we all have this “Instant Gratification Monkey” that distracts us until the panic monster shows up right before a deadline. Watching it helped me understand that I’m not alone in this and that the way our brains process motivation and time can really affect how we handle responsibilities. It made me think about how I can slowly build better habits and start earlier, even if it’s just by doing small parts at a time. If anyone else procrastinates, this video is definitely worth a watch.

Self-Control

 Self-control, for me, feels less like some big character trait and more like a daily decision I have to wrestle with. I’ve noticed it shows up most when I’m tired, stressed, or just mentally checked out — especially when it comes to balancing responsibilities with the things I actually want to do. I know what I need to get done, but it’s way too easy to get sidetracked or tell myself I’ll do it later, and before I know it, the deadline’s here. I don’t think that means I don’t care; I just think managing energy and time is harder than people make it seem. I’m starting to realize that building better habits might be more helpful than trying to force discipline in the moment. It’s something I’m still figuring out, but I know I don’t want to keep running in circles with procrastination, so learning self-control is starting to feel more necessary than optional.

What makes it even more difficult is how tempting distractions are like social media, talking to friends, even just lying down for “five minutes," it all adds up. Sometimes I think I’m giving myself a break, but really, I’m just avoiding the work. I’ve been trying to shift my mindset so I don’t look at everything I have to do as a burden, and instead see it as something that helps me reach what I actually want long-term. I still slip up a lot, but at least now I’m more aware of when it’s happening. That awareness alone is a big step for me, because before I’d just ignore it and hope everything would work out. Now I know self-control isn’t about being perfect — it’s about trying again each time you mess up and learning how to better handle the moments when it’s easiest to give. 

Saturday, August 2, 2025

Palatability and amount of food

Most people have visited an AYCE buffet or are familiar with the concept. Going to a place that claims it's "all you can eat" may not be worth it. The smell may cause a person to be hungry or to salivate, and the variety of food might be enticing. However, is it worth the risk of overeating? In the slides, it states that the more food you are given, the more you will eat. You paid to get into the restaurant; now you may feel obligated to eat your money's worth or more than what you would normally, because there will always be more food being made. 

The addictive nature of cannabis

    Marijuana is legal in New Jersey, the state in which I reside. Because of this, many of my peers have become increasingly intrigued by the substance. The vast majority of them argue that it is not addictive and not harmful. However, a fascinating aspect of this course, PSYC 3380, was about drugs and their addictive nature. As I learned from the course material, cannabis is a psychoactive drug, meaning it is "a chemical substance that alters mood and behavior" (Berg, 2025). The changes that my friends who use cannabis feel are psychologically addictive. That is why I strongly believe cannabis IS addictive and harmful. 

I believe my friends disagree with me because when they think about addiction, they perceive it to be synonymous with alcohol or opioid addiction. So, since they do not experience any physically dangerous withdrawal symptoms, like they would with alcohol/opioids, for example, they think cannabis and the other two aforementioned substances could not possibly be compared. 

However, weed impacts the brain’s reward system. So, when my peers incessantly use weed, they put themselves at risk for making their brains rely on cannabis to feel content. Just because the withdrawal from cannabis is not physical does not mean it is not real; one can become mentally dependent on weed if there is too much THC in their bloodstream. Being dependent on a substance is not a behavior I consider “not harmful.” 

Furthermore, all of the points I stated above are backed up even more in the article Marijuana addicts share how weed took over their lives by Max Harrison-Caldwell, a writer from The San Francisco Standard. Harrison-Caldwell describes first-hand accounts of individuals whose lives were derailed by their cannabis addiction. For example, the opening story is about a man named Zach. He started smoking weed when he was a high schooler, just having the “pretty standard SoCal stoner experience.” However, he was smoking from vapes with such a high THC concentration that he was making himself sick. Zach was suffering from cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome caused by his smoking addiction.

According to that same article, the number of people reaching out to crisis centers in an attempt to help with their addiction to cannabis is rising at an alarming rate. Harrison-Caldwell argues that it is very likely this is because of the accessibility to weed in the places where it is legal. And I agree. Many of my peers who suck on their vapes like it is a source of oxygen are underage and are able to access the substance from greedy vendors/dispensaries who do not care if their customers are underage/ if their products are going to those who are underage. 

The act of using cannabis, whether in the form of a vape, cart, or edible, for many of my friends started as an act of appearing cool. But how cool is a life-altering dependency?


References

Berg, M. (2025). Motivation PSYC 3380's "Drugs" Slideshow.

Harrison-Caldwell, M. (2025, April 27). Marijuana addicts share how weed took over their lives. The San Francisco Standard. https://sfstandard.com/2025/04/27/san-francisco-cannabis-weed-addiction-chs/


Self Control and Motivation in Endurance

Throughout the book “Endurance” Shackleton and his men went through many hardships, but were able to overcome them due to strong leadership and motivation to succeed by Shackleton. Each journey that these men took to reach their intended goal was draining and tiring on everyone involved. Each person had to have self control and motivation to keep going no matter how hard it got. Shackleton played a huge part in the men’s persistence to continue on this journey. Whenever there were obstacles, Shackleton would come up with plans and would give jobs to the crew to stay productive. He did it while staying calm which would exude confidence onto his men. If their leader was calm, then the crew would be less worried. This may not have always been the case, but every person did what they needed to do to survive and to help the other men survive. It was not only Shackleton who would help this crew, but each and every man were helping each other to survive this journey. Self control also had to be used in relation to their food rations. They would be given a certain amount of portions to eat in order to have enough food for later in their journey. This took a lot of self control for these men to not over eat as most if not all of them were starved every day. Some men would have more self control by saving portions of their already rationed food to have for later which would allow them to have gratification in the coming days. This was also exhibited when Shackleton allowed for feasts when they were about to move camps. Because of self control, they were able to have this leftover food to have a feast allowing for greater gratification. Motivation and self control helped these men get through their journey. Self control can be helpful in my everyday life and I use it when thinking of money. Whenever I get paid, the immediate thought is to spend it because now I have it, but using self control, I am able to put some of that money aside to get a bigger reward later using my saved money. If I spend everything right away I may not have savings to go on a vacation.



Friday, August 1, 2025

Operant Conditioning and B.F. Skinner

 Linked is an article that explains more information on B.F. Skinner's theory of operant conditioning: https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html 


One of my favorite topics in psychology is operant conditioning and how it influences behavior. I thought it would be interesting to post on more in depth than my first post that focused on education and reinforcement in school settings specifically. 

There are two types of conditioning that impact learning and behavior: classical and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning, discovered by Ivan Pavlov, describes learned associations between two stimuli that are not innately associated with one another. We get hungry when we smell food, which is a natural and unconditioned stimulus. We can learn to associate other stimuli with food, such as when children hear the familiar jingle of the ice cream truck and go running, making the truck's song the conditioned stimulus that is associated with getting ice cream. B.F. Skinner had another theory that is a little different than classical conditioning called operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is when a behavior is not simply associated but is done to increase or decrease a behavior, such as through reinforcers and punishments, respectively (Berg, 2025). Reinforcers and punishments make us into the individuals we ultimately become. Moral conditioning happens when our parents punish us for breaking rules in the household. Or we may receive detention for not doing our homework in school, a punishment that decreases this rule breaking. We may receive ice cream as children as a reinforcer for sharing toys with siblings. All of these things teach us to become productive members of society. According to Simply Psychology, Skinner introduced the Law of Effect, that reinforced behaviors increase in frequency, but halting reinforcement leads to extinction of such behaviors (McLeod, para #4 2025). That is why we are conditioned the way we are by the adults in our lives as children, to ensure we adapt prosocial behaviors in order to function as adults ourselves. 

This conditioning ultimately leads us to make the decisions we make as adults. We go to college for a career to aid society because we are taught from a young age that we need to be productive members of society. We know stealing is unethical from our conditioning so we learn to earn what we need in order to survive, in a healthy, prosocial way such as being employed. These prosocial ideals allow us to make decisions about our long term goals and motivate us to work hard like society values. Ultimately, there is a fundamental relationship between learning and motivation. Basic drives like hunger and social interaction cause us to make choices for a positive future career instead of making bad decisions. This is something I think we can all relate to; we make good decisions to help society, and ourselves. 

Do you think the lessons you learned growing up ultimately impacted your decisions and motivation in college? Feel free to let me know if you decide to reply to my post. 


References 

Berg, M. (2025). Rewards. [Google Slides Presentation]. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LuIvBGeeew7LCtLKyj9dQJqXbL9xh4eUi62rkeuEV8M/edit?slide=id.g2abecc5a1_011#slide=id.g2abecc5a1_011 

McLeod, S. (2025, March 17). Operant conditioning: What it is, how it works and examples. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html 




Impulsivity and Immediate Gratification

 Linked is an article on instant gratification and the issues it creates for our neuropsychology: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-modern-brain/201909/the-real-issue-instant-gratification 


We make impulsive decisions when the immediate outcome feels more rewarding than a long term, better outcome (Berg, 2025). We might choose to play video games all night instead of studying hard for an exam the following day. Many of us have made decisions that feel good in the moment, but are detrimental in the long run. According to Psychology Today, instant gratification increases dopamine release in our brains, making these instant decisions feel more rewarding than more positive long term decisions (Frye, para #5, 2019). So when we play those video games or spend hours on social media instead of studying, we feel good because of the way immediate gratification impacts our neuropsychology. This is problematic because it teaches us to do what feels good now and not what is best for us long term (Frye, para #6-7, 2019). Eating at Burger King might feel good in the moment, but it can give us health issues later. We live in a world driven by immediate gratification, and sometimes, it is important to remember that restraint and long term planning are more important than how we feel in the present. 


References 

Berg, M. (2025). Impulsivity and self control. [Google Slides Presentation]. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1t8RNaXnCnL1F9IClxiwed8IF2S67yXHiTRAXxCtFjeg/edit?slide=id.g2a7a18e1e_00#slide=id.g2a7a18e1e_00 

Frye, D. (2019, September 14). The real issue with instant gratification. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-modern-brain/201909/the-real-issue-instant-gratification 


Reinforcement in Education

 I found a very interesting article on the use of reinforcement in school settings, linked here: https://online.ewu.edu/degrees/education/med/early-childhood-education/positive-reinforcement-in-learning/ 


Reinforcement is anything that will increase a behavior, as opposed to punishment that decreases the behavior (Berg, 2025). Throughout our lives we are socialized through reinforcement and punishment alike, but I think a lot of us work harder for a reward than out of fear of a punishment for undesired behavior. Children are given stars in school for getting questions right, an early form of positive reinforcement. According to Eastern Washington University, reinforcement is vital in the cognitive development of young minds (para #5, 2024). We have all been through the school system and know that teachers frequently reward students for hard work in their studies in order to motivate them to excel. Even grades themselves seem to be a form of positive reinforcement, as the good feeling you get when your paper is returned with an "A" motivates you to keep going with the same work ethic. Do you find that there are any examples of positive reinforcement that helped you in your education? Feel free to share if you leave a comment, and check out the article if you're curious to learn more about reinforcement in schools. 


References 

Berg, M. (2025). Motivation [Google Slides Presentation]. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LuIvBGeeew7LCtLKyj9dQJqXbL9xh4eUi62rkeuEV8M/edit?slide=id.p#slide=id.p 

Eastern Washington University. (2024, May 16). Benefits of positive reinforcement in learning environments. https://online.ewu.edu/degrees/education/med/early-childhood-education/positive-reinforcement-in-learning/ 


Thursday, July 31, 2025

Self Control

 Often taken for granted, self control is a gift. The ability to manage emotions, impulses, and behaviors is what facilitates long term goal setting and achievement. However, the process in which one regulates their self control can differ significantly from others. In the context of Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, the constant threat of the sea and freezing temperatures was bound to take a toll on the crew. After facing continuous misfortunes, Shackleton's rational optimism allowed the crew to continue towards their goal instead of succumbing to the negative thoughts. Having the ability to maintain a positive outlook highlights the human ability to adapt to any situation. 

The myth of self-control | Vox

Power of Human Spirit

 A key takeaway from the book, Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, was the power of human spirit. With most odds against the crew, their unwavering goal fuels their perseverance. Every task was daunting, but their ability to overcome extreme physical and mental exhaustion was awe-inspiring. Both perseverance and endurance can be applied to everyday tasks, no matter big or small. A huge part of life is navigating through challenges and not always do you succeed. In some contexts, failure is a stepping stone to success. Finding inner strength within yourself to persist in any circumstance is both one of the most challenging, yet rewarding tasks. 

The Strength of the Human Spirit - Poetizer.com