Ch 9 Motivation & Emotion

Chapter 9 blog response

10/16/14

Moved in to action in a very simple sense is just when a person decides they want to do something, so they take action so that they can complete whatever goal they set out to accomplish. “Moved into action” could also be a sort of definition for motivation. Motivation is the factors of differing strength that energize, direct, and sustain behavior. In other words, motivation makes you MOVE because of factors, and begins an ACTION so that your behavior can be energized, directed, and sustained!

Sources of motivation can come from anywhere; it can really depend on the person. Some people can be motivated by candy, others by a shopping trip, or just some extra spending money. There are certain things that can motivate anybody, these are called needs. A need is a state of deficiency that can either be biological or social. This is pretty wide range, some obvious ones would be food, water and shelter. Maslow studied the hierarchy of needs, and through this he established that each level of needs has a certain importance and that the more important needs must be met before a person could try to meet the next level of needs. Where the motivation comes from can also vary. For example there are things such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. An intrinsic motivator is a desire to perform because of the value or pleasure it brings. Extrinsic motivators are desires to perform to achieve an external goal. With all of these types of motivation comes drive, which motivates an organism to engage in a behavior to satisfy a need. Other ways someone might accomplish a goal is through incentives, which are external objects or goals rather than internal drives, which motivate behaviors.

How I view my motivation has basically stayed the same through reading this chapter. I know that my motivation come from both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. For example, I work hard in school and on my homework hoping that I will get a good grade, but I also do it because it makes me feel good to get good grade. My motivation is quite high most of the time because I am a high-strung person. I definitely make smaller goals for myself though like they talk about in the book. If I look too far ahead I get myself overly worried, so I try to focus on small steps and things that I can get done now, that always helps me to stay motivated.

One thing that I found to be interesting was when the book talked about primary and secondary emotions. I think why this interested me so much was because of the fact that this are pretty much universal from country to country. They did a survey to people of different cultures and had people guess how the other person was feeling just by facial expression and almost everybody got it right. I just really enjoy that our facial expressions can serve as a small connection to everyone in the world.

What I found to be most memorable was the affect-as-information theory. Which is that people use their current moods to make decisions, judgments and appraisals, even if they do not know the source of the mood. I guess why I found this so memorable is really the fact that I can apply this my life. I know that when I’ve had a stressful or bad day, I sometimes take it out on the people around me, without even knowing why. It’s just nice to know that it’s completely normal, and also to be aware of when it’s happening so I can try to prevent it in the future!

Terms: Motivation, Needs, Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation, Hierarchy of Needs, Drive, Incentives, Primary Emotions, Secondary Emotions, Affect-As-Information Theory.

Motivation and emotions plays important role in our lives. Each of us has goals or wishes that we want to achieve in future. Factors of differing strength that energize, direct and sustain behavior are referred to motivation. These factors makes us work hard and constituently to achieve our goals. In other words we “moved into action” until we will achieve the goal or satisfy needs. What is interesting that both motivation and emotion come from Latin word “movere” which means “to move”. It stimulates us for actions or “to move” and guides our behaviors toward meeting specific goals and needs.
Sources of motivation or in other words factors that motivate our behavior are so many in the world. A state of biological or social deficiency is called need. According to Abraham’s Maslow Need Hierarchy humans must satisfy first physiological needs that are necessary to survive and they are in the bottom of the hierarchy because they have to be satisfied first. Then, from the highest priority to lowest is followed needs: safety, belonging and love, self-esteem, and self- actualization at the top of the hierarchy. An internal psychological state that motivates an organism behave to satisfy those needs is called drive. For example, basic biological drives such as hunger or thirst are encouraging us to buy beverages and some food. There are some external factors that motivate us to behave in certain way to satisfy a need and are called incentives. For instance, getting an “A” on psychology exam motivates us to study more. Also based on pleasure principle people usually motivated to engage in behaviors that make them feel good and avoid those that caused pain. Eating desserts are not physiological need that must be satisfies, but principle of pleasure explain why we eat candy or cakes even if we are not hungry. Thus sources of motivation can be so different but all of them are to stimulate our behavior.
Learning about motivation in this chapter shows how range of this topic is wide. Before I thought that motivation helps us only to behave in certain ways and achieve particular goals. However i did not think that there are different theories explaining motivation, or how setting goals may be crucial in success of achieving it and the most interesting was the process of what motivates us to eat. I usually thought that if my stomach growls; it means I need to eat something. However people, who have surgically removed their stomach, still will feel hungry even with no stomach. Also valuable information was about hormones are involved in our experience of hunger and eating behavior. Leptin is hormone involved in fat regulation and after releasing from our fat cells, it travels to hypothalamus which is brain region that control homeostasis systems. This hormone associated with decreasing eating behavior but it takes considerable time after eating before leptin level change in our body. That's why we are still eating at the point where we have to be already full. So if we’ll stop for a while and give time leptin level change in our body, we won’t have problems with overeating. Also after reading chapter I know how brain, to be more accurate a hypothalamus influence our eating behavior. Some people with tumors of the hypothalamus became obese. They cannot control their eating behavior. From reading this chapter I understood how motivation plays crucial role in all aspects of life. Even basis functions of humans such as hunger or thirst are influenced by motivation. Also highly motivated people have higher chances to achieve their goals.
One of the most interesting parts in this chapter was about emotion and Schachter- Singer two- factor theory. Emotions exist in each person’s life. They can be negative or positive and they provide a lot of motivation for our actions, so both topics emotions and motivation are tied together. From psychological perspective emotion is immediate, specific response to environmental events. We feel emotion in a way that unique for each of us. Some people feel excited to attend a museum and will have positive emotions; on the other have other people will find a trip to museum very boring and will get negative emotions. According to two-factor theory of emotion different situations will evoke both physiological response which us arousal and cognitive interpretation. The most interesting in this theory was misattribution of arousal. Physical states caused by situation can be attributed to the wrong emotion. In the example from the chapter men walked in scary, less stable bridge where at the middle of the bridge attractive woman(research assistant) was waiting for him to ask some questions. Less stable bridge produces bodily arousal such as sweaty palms or increased heart rate. However men assumed their fast heartbeats and increased sweating were related to being attracted to the female not because of scary bridge. It was mistaken identification of the source of arousal.
On the most memorable parts was how we regulate our emotional states. There are different strategies people use to regulate their emotions. For example reappraisal strategy, when people directly alter emotional reactions to events by thinking about those events in more neutral terms. For example, when we are scared by watching horror movie, most of us think that it is just fictional movie and scary murderer or hosts are not real.
Terms used: motivation, emotion, needs, Abraham’s Maslow hierarchy, drive, incentives, pleasure principle, hormones, leptin, hypothalamus, Schachter- Singer two- factor theory, misattribution of arousal, bodily arousal, reappraisal strategy.

To be moved into action a person has to be mentally willing or energized to do something. For many people, another way to put it is motivation. Motivation is the factor or factors of differing strength that energize, direct, and sustain behavior. This means that to be motivated to get off of the couch and do something there has to be an energizer kicking you up to get going. This mental process is what gets people out of bed in the morning to go to work or to get something done around the house. After being able to get up, there are certain needs that a people need. A need is a state of biological or social deficiency such as a lack of water or social interaction. To know what and how much needs you need, scientists have developed a need hierarchy which tells you exactly what you need to know. On the chart there are three main needs and some others that aren’t as important. The most important need is physiological which includes food, water, warmth, oxygen, and sleep. These are the necessities to survive. The second is safety which includes security, protection, and freedom from threats. The safety portion is about being safe and allow for stress relief in not having to worry about threats. The third is belonging and love which is acceptance and friendship which we learned in an earlier chapter is an important part of a person’s life. To set motivation into action, there needs to be a factor that initiates it. For example is thirst, which can motivate you to get a glass of water. The factor here is thirst, because it can make you want to get that glass of water. Now I know what it takes to be motivated so I can look at my own behaviors and see what motivates me the most. I may be able to better understand why I enjoy doing some things and hate doing others. The most interesting topic to me is how companies can use their manufacturing to make us thirsty and have the motivation to buy another beverage so they can make more money. The most memorable thing from this reading is that motivation can lead people to choose their jobs and the way they live their lives.
Motivation, need, need hierarchy

To be ”moved into action” is a widely used phrase, however, what it actually means is the real question. For me, to be “moved into action” means to be motivated to achieve a goal and to do all that you can to reach that goal. Chapter 9 deals with motivation, which is key to accomplishing virtually anything.
Motivation is the drive that pushes us to do the things we do. The reading explained the five ways in which we are motivated. These five are: the satisfaction of needs, the reduction of drive, incentives, optimal level of arousal, and the pleasure principle. Satisfaction of needs is the motivation to do the things that we need to do in order to stay alive. Drive reduction is the motivation to do something in order to meet one of our needs, however, once the need is met the drive is reduced. Incentives are external things that motivate us. Optimal level of arousal differs for each person and can range from high to low. This deals with what it takes to make someone happy. It can range from being content while not doing anything to needing an increased heart rate by doing things like attending parties. The last factor that plays a roll in our motivation is pleasure. Pleasure is what we do because it is what we want to do. People are highly motivated to do things that they find pleasurable.
In analyzing my motivational tendencies I can admit that I have low motivation to do a lot of things. Now that I have learned more about the motivational factors I agree with the scientific perspective on motivation. I notice that the things that I get motivated to do are things that I find pleasure in doing. An example is reading, when I have a great book I find a lot of pleasure in reading. I am also motivated by incentives like studying for tests with the hopes of doing well on them. Another way I can relate to the motivational factors is through the drive of reduction. When I get hungry I eat until I no longer feel hunger, then I am no longer motivated to eat. My understanding of motivation has changed greatly since reading this chapter. Before, I had no idea the complexity of motivation, and all the different ways that you can be motivated.
The most interesting thing that I read was the section on how facial expressions are the same across cultures. Our faces communicate emotions to everyone, whether we like it or not, and facial expressions are universal. The easiest emotions to recognize are those of happiness, anger and degust. I found this interesting because there are billions of people around the world who speak hundreds of languages, yet we all have the ability to read each other’s facial expressions.
The most surprising thing that I read about was the Display Rule and how it changes from culture to culture and between the sexes. This refers to how and when we show our emotions. Men and women exhibit their emotions very differently. Women express their emotions more frequently and stronger than men, even though the strength of their emotions is the same. This was surprising to me because I had never heard of the display rule before. I had always just thought that women just had more emotions then men. This is something that I will remember in years to come as I deal with my own emotions and with other people’s.
Terms:Satisfaction of needs, reduction of drive, incentives, optimal level of arousal, pleasure principle, motivation, emotion, Display Rule

Motivation refers to factors of varying strength that energize, direct, or sustain behavior. A need is a state of biological or social deficiency. The need hierarchy pyramid can describe the term “moved into action”. It is an arrangement of needs, in which basic survival needs must be met before people can satisfy higher needs. The highest priority need is physiological like food, water, warmth, oxygen and sleep. The second is safety, like security, protection and freedom from threats. The third is belonging and love, from acceptance and friendship. The fourth is esteem, from good self-opinion, accomplishments and reputation. The last and lowest priority need is self-actualization. This is living to one’s full potential, achieving personal dreams and aspirations.
There are four main basic qualities that emphasize motivation. The first is motivation is activating, which stimulates us to do something. For example, if someone wants to be fit they might be motivated to go for a run on a cold morning. Second, motivation is directive. This guides our behaviors toward meeting specific goals or needs. This can be explained how hunger motivates you to eat and how thirst motivates you to drink. Third, motivation helps us sustain our behavior until we achieve our goals or satisfy our needs. A desire to win drives you to practice four shots until you succeed. Lastly, motives differ in strength, depending on the person and on the situation.
After reading this chapter and learning about motivation from a scientific perspective my view of my own motivation tendencies has changed. I now know that there are factors that motivate our behavior. One factor is known as the pleasure principle. This principle says that people are motivated to engage in behaviors that make them feel good and to avoid behaviors that cause pain. Now when I go out to eat and order desert after even though I am full, I will know this is because of the pleasure principle because I know it will taste good.
My understanding of motivation has changed since reading this chapter also. Motivation can be setting personal goals to being as simple as eating. I never thought of motivation this way before. A motivation can also be from a need, causing a drive with the result of a behavior. For example, a need of oxygen triggers a drive of feeling suffocation and casing a behavior of breathing.
One of the most interesting topics I read about was how we can evaluate trustworthiness from facial expressions. The amygdala is the brain region that is important for understanding emotion. It processes the emotional significance of stimuli, and generates immediate emotional and behavioral reactions. However, people with damage to the amygdala cannot determine whether the facial expressions show trustworthiness. People with damage to the amygdala tend to be unusually friendly and not cautious with strangers.
The most memorable thing I learned about in this chapter was Gabby Douglas’s motivation to succeed. For the first year of her life, she was living with her family in the back of a van. At age 6 she enrolled in gymnastics and was bullied. However, her desire to succeed motivated her too keep going and at age 8 she became a Virginia State Gymnastics. She continued to work hard and in 2012 she became an Olympic goal medalist. Experts say that the keys to success are motivation and persistent drive. Gabby demonstrates this from overcoming her hardship as a child by being motivated.

Psychological terms: motivation, need, need hierarchy, activating, directive, desire, physiological, safety, belonging and love, esteem, self-actualization, persistent drive, amygdala, stimuli

Moved into action in essence means motivation, the main focus of this chapter. Motivation is the drive that reduces, increases and maintain the amount that a behavior is expressed. The two types of motivation are extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. The first, Extrinsic is the drive to perform a behavior because that of certain goals that the individual has set. For example, I am writing this blog post because I want to get good grades and not fail out of college. Intrinsic motivation on the other hand drives one to engage in activities that make oneself happy and maybe even self-fulfilled.
The main sources of motivation are established in the need hierarchy. It states the there is a progression of needs that are meet in a certain order. The ones on the bottom are most important and therefore gain the most motivation when that particular need isn’t meet. The needs at the top can only be meet when the lower categories have been actualized. The lowest need is physiological. This cluster groups together survival requirements such as water, food, sleep, oxygen, and warmth. The top cluster is Self-actualization and that means accomplishing life goals and be all that one has the potential to be. When one of any of the needs is felt by a person a drive is introduced that motivates an action to be performed. For example a need of humans is to sleep, so when tired we get tired. Getting tired is the drive needed to perform the behavior which is sleep.
The main thing I took out of this chapter about my own motivation and tendencies was delayed gratification. I don’t much like reading textbook very much. I find myself not delaying gratification while reading it. Often I check my phone, talk to friends, or really just do anything to stop the boringness that I find myself in. I also do this while writing papers and this blog post. So I am currently undergoing an experiment. I did not bring my phone to the computer lab and actually went to the computer lab to write this. With minimal distractions and no chance to grab some quick satisfaction I am finding myself write a lot faster and with much clearer thoughts than I have on previous blog post. I think this will be become part of my habits while doing homework.
One thing that sort of blew me away was the motivation to have sex. I have been in a relationship for two years with my girlfriend. Foolish I had previously thought I treated her well solely due to the fact that I loved her. Now I realize that may not be the whole truth. More likely the fact is that I due treat her well in part for that reason, but also because I love having sex. It is completely true and I am not embarrassed to share it with you. That was also the part of this text that I found most interesting. I’d say that it was paradigm shifting.

Terms used: Motivation, behavior, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, need hierarchy, needs, physiological, Self-actualization, drive, delayed gratification

Chapter nine is about motivation and emotion. The book defines motivation as factors of different strengths that excite and maintain behavior. For example, someone could have the motivation to finish their homework. They have the energy and will power to accomplish this task. Therefore, being moved into action means that one is excited and stimulated to perform a particular task in order to accomplish something.
There are several things that influence motivation. The satisfaction of needs is the deficiency that motivates someone to engage in behaviors to satisfy their needs. For example, a single mom decides to pick up extra shifts at her job to help pay for her child’s schooling. Drive reduction is an internal state that motivates behaviors to satisfy, or reduce, a need. For example, when someone is hot in their apartment, they are motivated to buy an air conditioner, and that air conditioner then reduces that drive. Incentives are external rewards once an accomplishment has been made. For example, a mother could bribe her child to vacuum the house with ice cream as a treat. That child then gets motivated to vacuum in order to obtain that incentive. Optimal levels of arousal differ within each person, so whatever may motivate one to do something may be different to another person. The last factor is pleasure principle, which means that people are motivated to engage in behaviors that make them feel good.
There are many other factors that are sources of motivation. Needs, drives, incentives, arousal, etc., are all reasons behind motivation. Along with that, people have motivations to achieve long-term goals, like running a marathon. Extrinsically motivated acts are aimed towards achieving a goal. For example, I was very homesick when I moved to college, and I considered moving back home and taking classes online instead. However, my goal is to graduate from a four-year college. Therefore, I dealt with my homesickness and am working towards achieving my goal. Intrinsically motivated acts are done simply because of pleasure. For example, I enjoy coloring in my spare time. I do not have any goals for coloring, I just like doing the activity. I get motivated by the enjoyment I have when coloring.
Scientifically speaking, the human body is motivated to do simple, primitive tasks, like eating, by hormones, signals from the bloodstream, and certain areas of the brain. Along with that, basic biology influences the motivation for sexual behavior and arousal based off of hormonal changes. This helped me realize that motivation is not a simple “feeling” that I get. It is a natural thing that happens. I feel like I have very low motivation to do everyday tasks, like homework, laundry, etc. However, it is just due to my laziness. I understand now that a lot of things influence motivation, not just a simple incentive. I also learned that motivation is a biological factor influenced by hormones. I did not know much about motivation before this chapter, but now my understanding of motivation has greatly improved after reading chapter nine.
The most interesting topic, to me, were the three theories of emotion. Emotions and inner feelings interest me, so I found it very interesting to learn that there are three major theories of emotion. James Lange’s theory states that bodily responses are the main reasons for feeling emotion. Sweaty palms and shaking are normal bodily responses when one feels scared. The Cannon-Bard theory states that processing in the brain is the main reason for both emotions and bodily responses. For example, overwhelming sensations can cause both an emotional feeling as well as a high heartbeat. The Schacter-Singer two-factor theory states that the way a person thinks about and labels responses is the main cause for emotion. For example, a car accident can cause a racing heartbeat. Therefore, one associates that quick heartbeat with the fear of the accident. These theories are very interesting to me. These theories are also the most memorable aspects from this chapter. As stated before, I always wondered what the true cause of emotions were. Everybody has different reactions to different things, but I never understood the psychology behind emotions. Therefore, this section was more memorable to me because I am very interested in the reasons behind emotions.
Psychological terms: Motivation, need, drive, arousal, incentive, extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, sexual response, emotion, James-Lange theory, Cannon-Bard theory, Cannon-Bard theory, two-factor theory.

To be moved into action means we are stimulated to accomplish something. If we want to lose weight we are going to be motivated to go workout daily or if we want a good grade on our test we would study. If we are moved into action we are motivated to get something done! There is lots of different kinds of motivations and factors that go into being ‘moved into action’ and in chapter nine they named a few such as extrinsic and intrinsic motivation which I notice in myself a lot. They also mentioned self efficacy and achievement as factors that go into motivation. There are a few main sources of motivation. One of those main sources of motivation is our satisfaction of needs. We all have different needs, more than just biological needs like food and water. We also have social needs and naturally we like to compete with others and if we are deficient in something we feel the need to make up for it. Another source is drive reduction and incentives which are when we benefit from doing something. If we were cold we would be driven to put a sweatshirt on or grab a blanket to become warmer or going to work and get payed would be an example of an incentive. The next factor is optimal level of arousal which means we do things that we enjoy. For example, If I was super hungry and in a hurry id be motivated to get food, would I stop at McDonalds when theres a Pancheros across the street? No! Im going to go to be motivated to go to Pancheros because that’s the food I like better. The last motivational factor listed in our book is pleasure principle which relates to the optimal level of pleasure. We are more motivated to do things that give us pleasure rather than pain. After reading chapter nine and learning about what things cause motivation I learned that I rely on extrinsic motivation quite a bit. Im the type of person who doesn’t like to quit things no matter how unpleasant they are. I always start and finish my assignments and try to get them done as early as possible. I also noticed self determination is relevant to my motivation factors. According to the self determination theory we like to make our own choices and feel free. I noticed that I would rather make my own opinions and not try to compete with other people for rewards and such. Another thing that related to me was achievement motivation! I really really like to work out and am motivated to look like my role model, Jen Selter. It sounds so silly to other people, but it’s motivating to me. This chapter made me realize that motivation isn’t just black and white. Theres a lot of factors and types of motivation. We all have different motivations and drives like biological, sexual, emotional, achievement, and personal drives! The most surprising and interesting thing I learned about in this chapter was how much emotions and facial factors affect our motivation. If we accidentally looked at somebody the wrong way we could scare them away and never get the chance to meet them. Or if we are a girl and give a guy a smile he could end up taking it the wrong way. It is amazing to me how much facial expressions can impact how people see us. I also thought it was interesting how different countries have different facial expressions! In one of the studies a man was asked to show his expression as if he had came across a rotting pig. One man smiled the other man scrunched up his face. It is incredible how much facial expressions differ in countries!

Terms:motivated, stimulated, factors, moved into action, extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, self efficacy, achievement, needs, biological, incentive, satisfaction, optimal level of arousal, social needs, drive reduction, pleasure principal, determination, sexual motivation, emotional achievement, facial expressions, personal drives

Being moved in to action is just another way of saying motivation. It is being pushed in to doing something that you want to do but lack the focus to do so. This move in to action, or motivation as most people call it, has one main source: Need. When a person needs something, they don’t just want to have it, but they need to have it to survive or be able to produce at the highest level. They can’t live without this thing that they so desperately desire to acquire. For the majority of our lives we tend to have more than one need and one problem is that we don’t know which needs are more important than others. That is why Abraham Maslow created the Need Hierarchy. It is a pyramid showing, from bottom to top, what needs are more important to meet than others. The most important needs that are required to survive include food and water, are at the bottom. The least important would be to become rich and famous and have five houses, being at the top of the pyramid. I have learned about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in a previous psychology class in high school, helping me understand his ideals more easily. Learning about motivation through the scientific perspective didn’t really change my view on motivation at all. I know what motivation is and that I need to find what drives me towards a goal. Having some kind of incentive keeps me motivated to do things like homework and study for tests. One thing that I have learned is that I need to prioritize what needs are more important than others. There have been times in my life when I cared more about whether I was cool or not in school and not whether I could pass a test in a class or do well on a paper. Maslow’s Hierarchy helped me in figuring this out.

Emotions were a very important part in our reading as well. The book discussed three major theories of emotion. The first is the James-Lange Theory, saying that emotions lead to physical actions, like your stomach being in knots because you worry about a test. The second is the Cannon-Bard Theory, suggesting that the information from an emotion-producing stimulus is processed in the brain, making two things, emotional response and physical response, happen at about the same time. The third theory, the Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory, says that a situation evokes both a physiological response, like arousal, and a cognitive interpretation. The cognitive interpretation is also called “emotion label”.

The most interesting and memorable thing about the reading was the experiences of Kim, the psychology student on page 334. She talked about a TV show that she watched with a character who was a psychologist that could tell if a person was lying or telling the truth just by looking at their facial expression. What surprised me the most, was when she asked her psychology professor about the show. Her professor said that the show was actually scientifically accurate. “At least on show has scientific validity,” the professor said. Apparently the show was based on the work of Paul Ekman, who is mentioned in chapter 9. Ekman was a psychologist who trains people in law enforcement to be able to tell whether a criminal is lying. He teaches them to look for what he calls “micro-emotions”. They are quick, involuntary facial expressions of emotions that people aren’t really good at hiding. These emotions last under a fifth of a second. It is very unbelievable that a person can look at a person’s half-second reactions to a question and be able to tell if they are telling the truth. That is an amazing gift to have.

Terminology: Moved in to action, motivation, need, Abraham Maslow, hierarchy of needs, emotions, James-Lange Theory, Cannon-Bard Theory, Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory, emotion label, Paul Ekman, mico-emotions

At the very start of the chapter it tells up that motivations first quality is activating, which is being moved into action. That stimulates us to do something. Like the desire to be fit, motivates you to get up every morning to go for a run, lift weights, ect. In the book it talks about a Need which can be biological or social. This leads to goal directed behaviors. Need hierarchy is an arrangement of needs, in which basic survive needs must be met before the people can statist higher needs, according the the Psychology in Our Your Life book. Need and need hierarchy both play a role in being moved into action. Sources of motivation can come from anywhere, place, or person. It depends on what each individual is motivated by. There are 4 main basic qualities of motivation. activating is the first one, which is stimulating us to do something. The second one is directive- it guides our behaviors toward meeting specific goals or needs. The third is sustain which helps our behaviors until be achieves our goals or satisfy our needs. The final one is differ in strength. That is depending on the person and on the the situation. While reading this it really hit me that everyone is motivated by something different and for different reasons. I had never really thought about it that way. I learned that I lack motivation is the fitness area. Although I like to be in shape and look good, I don't go and seek working out. Where other people dedicate a specific time during their day to fitness because they are more motivated. Something that was interesting to me was that we all have a need to belong. Over time, our ancestors who lived with others were more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass along their genes. The more people, kinds, parent, ect. stay around each other the longer they live. One of the most memorable things to me what we have a drive for sexual relations. Movies, T.V., video games advertising, ect. advertises sex all around us constantly. Most individuals have a have a significant drive for sex. The sex variety can differ from individual differences and by societies dominating influences over how individuals engage in sexaul activity. I never really realized or thought that there was so much more the the sex topic than what we commonly think about.
Terms: motivation, activating, goals, behaviors, need, need hierarchy, directive, sustain, differ in strength, action, biological, social, survive, reproduce, genes

To be moved into action is essentially the same thing as motivation. It means you have the desire to do something. Many times you feel more energized and have a more positive outlook on a situation if you are motivated. There are five main categories that drive our motivation the first is satisfaction of needs. This factor motivates us to do things that we need. If we feel hungry or thirsty, we will be motivated to eat or drink until that need has gone away. There is actually a need hierarchy developed by Maslow that shows what we need most and focus on first. The highest priority includes food, water, sleep, oxygen, etc. This then moves up to less important thing
s such as good reputation and full potential for one’s self. The second major factor, drive reduction, more or less coincides with the last. We are driven to satisfy our internal psychological desires. We will continue to be motivated to do this, until we get that satisfaction. Once we accomplish that, the drive is reduced. Next are incentives. We are pulled towards incentives in our environment. These are external things that we have a desire to have. An example would be winning a race or a game and receiving the trophy along with the glory. Fourth major factor is arousal. Studies have shown that it is best to be moderately aroused when trying to perform your best. This is the Yerkes-Dodson law. If a person has no arousal or is not nervous at all they will be too relaxed and not focus as much. When too aroused or with high anxiety, the subject will be too nervous and not perform as well. This is why the middle of the road arousal is best. This is because the subject is focused, but not to a point where they are extremely nervous. Last is pleasure. We want to, according to Sigmund Freud’s pleasure principle, go after pleasure and not pain. We are motivated to avoid the pain and seek the pleasure, because it feels better.
Having this knowledge on motivation helps me to understand why we are driven to do certain things or act certain ways. Science helps to explain things instead of saying that this is why things are the way they are. It gives us a reason why, and that is why viewing things from a scientific perspective is better. I now understand, like I said before, why we feel motivated to do some things more than than others. The way that the text explains why we desire things more and the things that motivates us is perfectly clear and easily relatable.
I thought it was interesting how some behaviors and emotions are motivated all by themselves. An example of this is intrinsic motivation where we want to achieve something without any rewards from the outside world. Another example given by the book is artwork and other creative things. I also think it is extremely interesting about how emotions are created. There needs to be a stimulus to cause a bodily reaction to feel the emotions.

Terms: motivation, satisfaction, needs, needs hierarchy, drive reduction, drive, incentives, arousal, external, Yerkes-Dodson law, Sigmund Freud, pleasure principle, knowledge, science, intrinsic motivation, emotions, stimulus.

Motivation is important in attaining success and is an inherent part of the human psyche. There are different types of motivation and it can differ in strength but basically people strive to reach personal fulfillment and this is the root of motivation. Many factors influence motivation among them the satisfaction of needs, pleasure, incentive and drive. The need to belong is one of the most basic needs of the human species and this need is a part of the mental motive that encourages friendships and human connections. The drive to eat and to have sexual relations are both among the strongest of human motivators. There are parts of the body and brain that are important to these drives. The hypothalamus in the brain affects eating behavior and body weight. Also, hormones called leptin and ghrelin both a part of the stomach and fat cells can affect a person’s eating patterns and weight issues. Sexual drive, orientation and needs are all a part of the complex human makeup, and different factors, such as hormones androgen and estrogen in men and women respectively affect sexual drive and ideas around one’s needs.

The part of the chapter that most surprised me was the part on delayed gratification in the 4 year old children in a study. How these children managed to control their needs and delay their gratification was fascinating, as they distracted themselves or looked a different way so as not to need what was being offered. These children were found to be the most successful later in life.

Terms: moitivation, hormones, leptin, ghrelin, androgen estrogen, delayed gratification

To me moved into action is means something is influencing our behaviors. To move in to action it comes from emotion and motivation. It means you have the emotions and motivation to do something as simple as waking up in the morning or winning the Olympics. Motivation means the factors of differing strength that energize, direct, and sustain behavior. Motivation has four qualities, first activating, directive, sustaining, and differ in strength. First, motivation is activating, it stimulates us to do something. Second, motivation is directive; it guides our behaviors toward meeting specific goals or needs. Third, motivation helps us sustain our behavior, until we achieve our goal and satisfy our needs. Fourth, motivates differ and strength depending on the person or the situation.
Reading this chapter I did not realize there was so many things that go into motivation, but also many different types of motivation. I am a very motivated person I like to do things that are challenging and difficult that most people do not want to do or cannot do. This chapter made me realizes what motivates me behavior and the hierarchy of needs really connects to me because that how I see myself. This chapter also taught me ways to be more motivated. Having an intrinsic and extrinsic motivation helps a lot of people do better and stay more motivated. I think having that at the end of my major activities would help me stay even more motivated.
My understanding of motivation has changed majorly because of reading this chapter, that we have to be motivated to eat and how the hypothalamus in our brain motivates us to eat. I think it is interesting that a part in our brain has to motivate us to eat even if your hungry you have to be motivated. It is interesting that we have to be motivated for the littlest things because to us their just natural everyday things we do without thinking about them.
The things that interested me the most in this chapter were the theories of emotions. The first theory is The James-Lang Theory, which stated that the bodily response happens first then the emotion. For example someone jumps out and scares you, your heart starts racing rapidly first than you show the emotion of fear their face. The second theory is The Cannon-Bard Theory, which states that the brain process happens first then the emotion and bodily response happens at the same time. For example someone jumps out of no where and screams then your brain processes the stimulus and creates an emotion, after your heart begins to race at the same time as you show fear on your face. The third theory is The Schacter-Singer two-factor theory, which states the bodily response first then the emotion is labeled then you show the emotion. For example someone jumps out and screams at you then your heart begins to race you label the emotion and say this is one scary person then you show fear on your face.
The most memorable thing in this reading was intrinsic and extrinsic motivation because it connects to me personally. Intrinsic motivation and when you are motivated by something within you like a feeling or an emotion. Extrinsic motivation is when you are motivated by something besides your self like a new pairs of shoes or money. I think everyone can relate to extrinsic and intrinsic motivation that is why it is the most memorable thing I read.

Motivation, Activating, Directive, Sustain, Differ in Strength, Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation, Hypothalamus, Hierarchy of Needs, James-Lang theory, Cannon-Bard theory, Schacter-Singer two-factor theory

When someone talks about being moved into action, it is probably referring to the motivation that a person has. Motivation is something that is needed for people to have success in whatever they are pursuing. There are four main parts of motivation that helps describe how people are motivated. There is the directive part in which we are driven to meet certain goals. Motivation is also activating in which we are stimulated to do something. There is also sustain in which our behavior stays the same until a task is complete. Motivation can differ in strength, depending on what a person is doing. It has changed my view on motivation a little bit when reflecting on my own motivation. When thinking about my own motivation, I am motivated to do the best I can in whatever I am doing and that is referred to in the chapter as achievement motivation. I sometimes am not motivated to do things that are not fun to do and that’s when I need motivation to kick in. My understanding has changed after reading the chapter in which motivation is a complex thing with many parts to it.
There were a couple things that I found interesting. One thing that I found interesting was all the different types of motivation that there was. The type of motivation that relates most to me is achievement motivation in which there is the need and desire to achieve certain standards. There is also extrinsic motivation in which there is desire to achieve external goals. I also found it interesting how there are primary and secondary emotions. There are the emotions of happiness and anger and then there is the blend of them, which are like guilt and shame.
What I found kind of surprising was all of the theories that go along with emotion. There is the James-Lange theory and it says that people experience specific patterns of bodily responses. I find this to be kind of surprising because I had never heard of this before. There is also the Cannon-Bard theory and it says that information from an emotion-producing stimulus is processed in the brain. I found this hard to believe because it is emotion that is produced from something outside of the brain.

Terms: motivation, emotion, achievement motivation, extrinsic motivation, James-Lange theory, Cannon-Bard theory

Being moved into action is simply motivation. Motivation is factors of varying strengths that energize, direct, or sustain behavior. Many things act as motivation and put us into action for something. Need hierarchy involves our survival needs. We have survival needs to eat and to drink water and these needs motivate us to eat or get a drink. The need for us to eat creates a drive of hunger and that drive creates the behavior of eating. Arousal and incentives are both factors of motivation. Arousal is an internal motivation like when you get hungry you get this drive to get food so that you can overcome your hunger. Incentives are external things like the getting a good grade on a test is incentive to study harder.
After learning about the scientific perspective of motivation I now know the reasoning why I have great motivation to do certain things. I have a great motivation to ride my bike on a regular basis. This falls in the category of intrinsic motivation. There is no clear external goal, but I get pleasure from spending time on my bicycle. Intrinsic motivation also has to do with self-determination and the book says that intrinsic motivation creates a much greater self-determination. I believe that is probably why I have more motivation to ride my bicycle then to do homework. The fact that I have decided to do it and have no external reward makes it so I am more motivated to do it.
I think the most interesting thing that I read about in this chapter is the huge importance of humor. It talks about how humor has many mental and physical health benefits. Laughing can cause a strength in our immune system and help to create a positive attitude. It was also very interesting that laughing has similar benefits as physical exercise. I think that it is very cool that laughing can cause a distance between negative thoughts and behavior. If someone laughs in a time of distress it helps the situation out and makes them think less of the terrible event that happened.
The most memorable thing from the reading is about guilt. There are two types of guilt one is where you feel bad for causing someone else harm and the other is when we know we are not responsible. An example of this is when one person survives a terrible accident and the others died. It is interesting that guilt is such a big factor in relationships. If someone did not feel guilt they would probably not be able to hold a relationship with someone. You refrain from cheating on a partner because if you did that you would feel guilty for doing it because that might cause harm to your loved one. Guilt shows that we care for people because if we did not feel guilt for certain actions it would probably mean we did not really care for the person that the action harmed.
Key terms: motivation, need hierarchy, incentive, drive, intrinsic motivation, external goal, internal motivation, external motivation, pleasure, self-determination, humor, and guilt

What does it mean to be moved into action? What it means is that you have a force driving you to do something, motivation. You some source of internal or external motivation to do something that will benefit you. It means you do something because either biologically you need or socially need it as well. There are four main sources of motivation. One motivation is activating which is what stimulates us to do something. The next is directive which guides the behavior towards meeting specific goals or needs in our life. The third is what is known as sustain which helps behavior until we meet our goals or satisfy our needs. And the fourth and final one is differ in strength which depends on the person and on the situation itself. After learning about motivation from a scientific perspective, I know somewhat understand my own motivation and somewhat lack of motivation tendencies. I know that I have a lack of motivation because there is a lack of activating in certain areas of my life. Take school for instance, I have no motivation to be here because I don’t want to be here. If it were up to me I would have done a gap year and learned more about myself and the world around me than go to school. Since I couldn’t do a gap year I wanted to go out of state for school, but my parents told me they wouldn’t help pay for school or support me if I went out of state. So, I’m stuck here in Iowa doing something that I don’t want to do, therefore I have no motivation to accomplish or do anything while here because this isn’t my choice to be here. My understanding of motivation has changed since reading this chapter because know I know why there is a constant need to belong, different types of motivation (extrinsic-achievement for an external goal, intrinsic- perform because pleasure associated with that activity, more for internal achievement), and what achievement motivation is (need or desire to do well).
There are many things that I found interesting and memorable things that I learned about and read in this chapter. One thing that I found interesting was the need to belong. We all want to belong because it’s how we survive. Those who are social will reproduce and pass their genes along. We want to belong because we protect one another and have a feeling of self instead of loneliness and despair. Another thing that I found memorable was the section on familiarity and eating preferences. It said that the reason that many don’t go outside of what they know because they don’t know how it will affect them or whether or not it may be poisonous or dangerous to them. I remember when I was younger that I never tried new thing until a few years ago I started working at a restaurant and I was always the taste tester for new foods. Even since then I have always enjoyed trying new things and keeping an open mind about different types of food out there. There was another interesting thing that I learned and that was the three major theories of emotion, which are the James-Lange theory, the Cannon-Bard theory, and the two-factor theory. With the James-Lange theory it states that emotions result from the experience of physiological reactions in the body. It also says that if you physically mold your face into the emotional state you wish to express, then you will have that emotion. The Cannon-Bard theory states that both the bodily and emotional response occurs at the same time due to how parts of the brain process information. Then the third theory, two-factor theory, states that how we experience an emotion is influenced by the cognitive label we apply to explain the physiological changes we have experienced. So this is a result because of the emotion label you put on a situation or occurrence.
Terms: motivation, activating, directive, sustain, differ in strength, extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, achievement motivation, James-Lange theory, Cannon-Bard theory, two-factor theory, emotional label

October 20, 2014

Chapter 9 talks about motivation and emotion.

What it means to be moved into action is pretty much motivation. Your motivated to do something, or moved to get something done. Motivation is defined as factors of varying strength that energize, direct, or sustain behavior. With motivation might come the incentives that you receive with the goals that motivate you. Incentives are external things, not internal that drive and motivate you. The external things for example, could be getting a good grade or high score on something you work hard for.

Sources of motivation really just depend on what type of person you are. People could be motivated to do and be the best person they can be in everything you do. Others can be motivated in only things that interest them. Some of the factors could be how they were raised, want to be the best in that certain subject, or prizes such as money, gifts, food, and etc. Satisfaction of needs should motivate people the most. Needs have a wide range, but there are the 3 basic needs of life. Which are food, water, and shelter. In the 1940s psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed a “need theory” of motivation. It has 5 layers. First would be physiological needs such as food, water, warmth, and so on. Second, would be safety, like security, protection, and freedom. Third is belonging and love, which is acceptance, and friendship. Fourth is esteem, like good self-opinion, and reputation. Lastly is self actualization, and that is living to one’s full potential, achieving personal dreams and aspirations. Many layers, but all are very important in different ways.

My motivation after reading chapter 9 has stayed the same as it always has been. From a young age, my parents have taught me to strive to be the best that I can be. My late grandpa always said “Do your best, and do what’s right.” Those are the words that I’ve lived by since the day he said that to me. Nothing has changed in my motivation from reading this chapter. I now know from this chapter of how much my parents helped with my motivation. Them pushing me from such a young age has proven to really help me in the long run at life.

What was most interesting to me was the two-factor theory of emotion. It was proposed by Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer, and according to the theory a situation evokes both a physiological response and a cognitive interpretation. A cognitive interpretation is called an emotion label. When we experience arousal which is the physiological response, than we search for it so we can show it or explain it cognitively.

What was most surprising in this chapter was really everything. Nothing changed my view on motivation, but it was surprising seeing the motivation pyramid and how that all works. I had no idea that a motivation pyramid even existed until reading this chapter. The next would be the three major theories of emotion and how they all work. The James-Lange theory, Cannon-Bard theory, and the Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory.

Terms: Motivation, Incentives, Need, Physiological, Safety, Belonging and Love, Esteem, Self-Actualization, Physiological Response, Cognitively Interpretation, James-Lange Theory, Cannon-Bard Theory, Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory

When a person is moved into action it is pretty another phrase for the definition of motivation. Motivation are factors of differing strengths that energize, sustain, and direct behavior. The main sources of motivation are from our physiological state, safety, belonging and loving, esteem, and our self-actualization. All these sources are found on the Need Hierarchy chart created by Maslow. This chart represents an arrangement of needs, in which basic survival needs must be met before people can satisfy higher needs. Therefore, a need is a state of biological or social deficiency. After reading this chapter my view points on motivation have not really changed except for the fact that what I thought were “wants” are actually needs. For example, I thought that an intrinsic motivation, which is a desire to perform an activity because of the value or pleasure associated with that activity, rather than for a goal, was something I would want rather than need. Also, I never thought that a need to belong was a motivation. After reading about the need to belong theory I realized that a person wanting friends or a support system is an adaptive motivation that us humans contain.
The most interesting thing I read about in this chapter was about the different types of hormone that have to do with how much we eat. For example, leptin is a hormone that is released when we have had enough to eat and is our fat regulator. Although when it is released it makes food less appetizing which makes us want to stop eating. Unfortunately this hormone is released slower so it does not work for short time eating. The other hormone that is released is ghrelin which is released when the body is hungry. Once we start to eat though, this hormone decreases. I found this interesting to read about because I never knew there were different hormones that controlled this kind of activity.
The most surprising thing learned after reading this chapter was how humor has many mental and physical health factors. Research says that it helps improve the immune system, releases hormones, dopamine, serotonin, and even endorphins. Also, laughing during a sad part of your life can help distance yourself from negative emotions which I thought was very surprising but explained why people tell jokes at funerals. Laughing is also considered physical exercise which is beneficial to short and long term health.
Key words: motivation, need hierarchy, need, intrinsic motivation, need to belong theory, hormones, leptin, ghrelin

Several different parts make up motivation. In the very first section, the qualities are listed. They include the following; activation, directive, sustain, differ in strength. Each one of these qualities have different aspects in why they are involved in motivation. One interesting part talked about in this chapter was a case study where groups of children were told to draw with colored pencils. Each group has certain expectations of what they would receive at the end of this activity. A typical child would find this to be an intrinsic motivation activity (the desire to get the value or pleasure with no goal) In this case study, however, one group used extrinsic motivation (the desire to achieve an external goal). The same group was motivated to receive the good player award. The second group was rewarded without expecting it after the activity. The last group was never awarded or did they even expect to win anything. After this activity, they had another one, however, this time no awards were going to be handed out. The first group spent less time playing while the other two groups played just the same amount as the first. The people who did the case study believed that the first group did not want to participate because they were not receiving anything for their work. This relates to a lot of people because the reason why teens have job’s is because of the money. Most teens probably wouldn’t accomplish a task if some kind of award wasn’t given them once the work was completed.The book goes to talk about self-perception and self determination theory to explain why this case study turned out the way it did. Self determination is when extrinsic rewards can decrease the intrinsic value of a certain activity because these awards impair our own feelings when we choose to complete an activity for ourselves. Self perception theory is when we make inferences about some certain motives to what makes more sense to ourselves. Another interesting section in this chapter is the need to belong theory. This theory says it is fundamental to have social relations. One memorable fact from this section was when it stated “not belonging to a group increases the risk for various negative consequences like illness or premature death.” In this section, it also mentions that the need to belong motivates us like the way hunger makes us want to find and eat food. Another section that was interesting to read was about the different types of theories for emotions. The James-Lange Theory suggests the physical changes we experience are results of a situation that made us feel that certain emotion. We also experience certain patterns of bodily responses. The Cannon-Bard Theory States that the information which is produced from an emotion-producing stimulus is prepared within the brain.

Terms: Motivation, Cannon-Bard Theory, James-Lange Theory activation, directive, sustain, differ in strength, self-perception, self determination

Motivation is the part of life that gives us the drive to live on each day, get up in the morning and face the world. People nowadays always have a problem of confusing needs with wants. We need water to survive, but we want McDonalds when we crave a snack. We are motivated by most things when the end results in a gain or some sort of prize. An example of a subtle gain is getting a thank you from a woman when holding the door open for them. Another form of motivation is the need to protect family, if a member of my family was in danger that would push me into action in order to protect them. The basic needs for all humans are food, water, warmth, oxygen, and sleep. These are displayed in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Some of these needs create other needs for thing, such as a need to workout leads to a need for water. This psychological state is also known as a drive. A question that most people is what motivates people the most in their lives? The main motivation for most usually ends with the result being some sort of positive fulfillment or reward. These fulfillments or rewards can actually be internal or external. Rarely do people ever do things or work without some type of reward. Even tho volunteering does not pay and may seem like there is no reward, there actually is internal reward knowing you helped a group of peoples' lives just that much easier. These different types of motivation actually have labels and they are: Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and achievement motivation. Learning about the scientific perspective of motivation has really made things a lot more simple, it's not hard to understand and see the examples of the different types of motivations in everyday life. I knew of these things going on around me, but since I am not going to be a psychology major I really haven't dug too deep into these topics. I actually like psychology very much, but it would be more of a hobby for me just observing people and their behaviors. People are too complex to understand for me, but I like identifying their actions and being able to understand a person's mind better. My understanding of motivation has not really changed, it has improved greatly, but I understood what was going on in life, now I just have a better understanding now. One of the new things that I actually did learn that there are primary and secondary emotions. I did not realize there was a different set of emotions, I thought they were all in the same category. An interesting topic that caught my eye was sexual strategies theory, when I read the chart that said women not agreeing to have sex with a stranger I immediately thought they must have been sober. I have witnessed girls meet a brand new guy that they have just met and go with him that night. They were of course both intoxicated, but girls I believe sometimes only act like they would not go home with a stranger. This experiment was held in 1993 so that might have a little bit to do with how the data is displayed. Nowadays, in 2014, I believe women are almost as bad as men with their sexual behaviors. The most memorable thing coming from this chapter was how facial expressions are able to display emotions. That is usually the only thing men have to use in order to understand how a girl is feeling. I have gotten really good a reading faces because they display emotion that even people themselves don't even notice. Girls always try to deny when they're mad but you can examine their face and see how their mood has shifted. It was also to read about how facial communicates emotions that are understandable by all people regardless of their culture. It's very true, no matter where you are from, everyone recognizes the face for pain or for happiness or anger. Facial expressions are almost a type of global communication.

terms: motivation, need, need hierarchy, drive, extrensic motivation and intrinsic motivation, achievement motivation, sexual strategies theory, emotions, primary and secondary emotions

To be moved into action is to be motivated to do something. The book defines motivation as factors of differing strength that energize, direct, and sustain behavior. We all have been motivated to do something. If a person wants to get good grades, they will be motivated to getting all assignments done on time and study a lot before a major test.. Another person may want to have a party so they are motivated to clean their house before all the guests arrive. If a person is motivated to do something, chances are there is a good reason for it. If a person wants to lose weight, then they may feel motivated to work out.

One main source of motivation is the need hierarchy, which is defined in the book as an arrangement of needs, in which basic survival needs must be met before people can satisfy higher needs. This idea was introduced in 1940 by Abraham Maslow. On the bottom of the diagram is our sources of need such as food, water, air, and sleep. Once we have these needs met, we can move up on the diagram to the safety needs which include security and protection. As we meet each need, we go up a level on the diagram. At the top of the diagram is the need for self-actualization. What people need to understand with this diagram is that they have to meet each need before they can satisfy needs higher up. They can’t skip a need and move onto something different. For most people they don’t satisfy every need until they are much older. Another source of motivation is drive reduction and incentives. A drive is a psychological state, that by creating arousal, motivates an organism to engage in a behavior to satisfy a need. When we get hungry, our stomach lets us know by making a sound. This will keep happening until we finally eat something. A good example the book gave was about body temperature. If our temperature was below normal, we would start shivering, If our temperature was above normal, we would start sweating. In order for us to stop shivering or sweating is if we do something about it. We are driven to either put on more clothes or to change into something cooler. Some of the things we do have incentives. An incentive is an external object or goal that motivates behaviors. In order for me to receive a good grade on the test tomorrow, I need to make sure I study hard and know the information well in advance. Another source of motivation is arousal and performance. Arousal can be a sense of tension that encourages us to do something. In order for us to do well, we need a moderate level of arousal. If the level is low, we have a better chance at being inattentive and if the level is too high, then that can interfere with our thinking ability. We also feel motivated to do things that make us feel good. I am sometimes motivated to run because I always feel good afterwards.

Before I read this chapter I knew a few things about motivation. I will say that sometimes I am not motivated to do anything. I have a little bit of motivation in me, but not enough to get everything accomplished. I didn’t know that for some types of motivation, there are certain words for it. For instance, the book mentions that extrinsic motivation is the desire to achieve an external job. Intrinsic motivation is the desire to get the value or pleasure from the activity with no apparent external goal. An example of extrinsic would be working to earn a good grade. An example of intrinsic would be putting together a puzzle because you enjoy doing them.

I always believed that motivation dealt with having ambition to do something. I didn’t know there was a lot more involved in it. I know that I do not have a lot of motivation to do things and I really need to change that.

I found the Has It Happened to You section on page 312 to be interesting. When you go to a bar, snacks are put out that make you thirsty. I did not know that drinks that contain sodium, sodium chloride or minerals would not quench your thirst. After I read this, it made sense as to why I am always thirsty when I drink pop. Movie theaters are really good at making money off of the snacks because people buy popcorn and pop before the movie starts. Some people may get more pop because they are still thirsty.

One topic that was most memorable to me was on humor. I have heard that laughing is good for our bodies, but I didn’t know the benefits of it. I did not know that laughter can improve our immune systems. I always feel good when I laugh which makes sense now. I guess it is true that laughter is the best medicine for anybody.
Terms that I used: motivation, need hierarchy, drive, arousal, incentive, extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation

Cassandra Rutledge
Chapter 9 Blog
10/20/2014
To be moved into action means that one has the motivation to do something with their body or mind. When one wants to get good grades they ha the motivation to study and do homework. There are many sources to motivation like satisfaction of needs, drive reduction, incentives, arousal, performance, and pleasure. My motivation is centered around my schooling right now because I am working towards my career that will determine my life. I believe my motivation is strong because I have the drive to get my major by passing all the necessary classes that I have to take. I always thought that motivation could only be from the outside world, but in this chapter it tells me that most of motivation does come from your wanting something that will benefit you.
All of the different forms of motivation was really interesting to me. Starting with the satisfaction of needs. A need is a state of deficiency that can be either biological or social. A basic survival need, also known as need hierarchy, needs to be met before the higher order needs. The deficiency motivates a person to capture the behaviors that make up the need. Drive reduction begins with the motivation of behaviors of a certain need, but when the need is satisfied the drive is reduced. Incentives are the external factors that motivate our behaviors. Arousal is the increase of autonomic responses: increased heart rate, sweating, or muscle tension. Pleasure is motivated by behaviors that make one feel good and help them stay away from behaviors that would cause them pain.
According to Sugmund Freud, the Pleasure Principle, is meant to motivate people to seek pleasure and to avoid pain. Sexual activity is a good example of the Pleasure Principle. Many people take part in sexual activity not to reproduce, but simply for the pleasurable tendacy of the actions.
Terms: Motivation, satisfaction of needs, drive reduction, incentives, arousal, performance, pleasure, need hierarchy, drive, heart rate, sweating, muscle tension, behavior, Pleasure Principle, sexual activity, reproduce, actions

Move into action in Chapter 9 means motivation. Motivation is factors of differing strength that energize, direct, and sustain behavior. Motivation highlights four basic qualities. Motivation is activating, it stimulates us to do something. An example would be if you wanted to get healthier you would go and workout instead of watching TV. Motivation is also directive, it guides our behaviors toward meeting specific goals or needs. Hunger motivates you to eat and thirst motivates you to drink. Motivation helps with sustaining our behavior until we reach our goals or satisfy our needs. For example if you have a goal to score a goal in the next soccer game, you’ll practice your shot until you achieve that goal. Last, motives differ in strength, depending on the person and the situation. The main sources of motivation are need and need hierarchy. Need is a state of biological or social deficiency. Needs lead to goal-directed behavior. According to psychologist Abraham Maslow’s “need theory” need hierarchy is an arrangement of needs, in which basic survival needs must be met before people can satisfy higher needs. The hierarchy needs begin with physiological needs, including food, water, warmth, oxygen, and sleep. Once those needs are met, safety needs are next. This includes security, protection, and freedom from threats. Belonging and love, including acceptance and friendship are the next needs. Good self-opinion, accomplishments, and reputation are next under the esteem needs. And finally, living to one’s full potential and achieving personal dreams and aspirations are under the self-actualization needs. Before this chapter I didn’t really know anything about motivation, I basically just thought it helped us achieve our goals, now I know it’s so more than that. There’s so many different factor and parts of motivation.
The most interesting topic in the chapter was about the hierarchy of needs. I found it interesting that the reason some people don’t achieve their goals is because of this, because they can’t meet their basic needs. I couldn’t imagine not being able to achieve my goals because of a simple thing like this.
The most memorable thing I read was about Gabby Douglas. The fact that she was homeless, but her mother put her in gymnastics, and the fact that she was bullied. But she was so motivated to reach her goals and she did. At the age of eight she became a Virginia State Gymnastic champion. When she was 14, she moved to Iowa to achieve her goals, and that’s what she did. She became the first American to win both the individual all-around and team gymnastics competitions at the same Olympics. She is also the first woman of color, and the first African American gymnast, to earn the title of Individual All-Around Champion in gymnastics. Because of her motivation she achieved all of this.

To be moved into action means the same as to be motivated in which it prefers to factors of varying strength that energize, direct or sustain behavior. There is a wide range of factors motivate our behaviors such as satisfaction of needs, drive reduction, incentives, optimal level of arousal, pleasure principle. To be more specific, a need is a state of being deficient in biological or social factors. For example, my aunt is working a cookie factory, but her paycheck isn’t enough to cover the expenditures for the family, so she often works over time to make more money. Drive is an internal psychological state that motivates behaviors that will satisfy a certain need, and when the need is satisfied, the drive is reduced. Just like mentioned in the text, a person will want to put a sweater on because they feel cold, but when they feel warm, the drive is reduced. Incentives are external factors that motivate behaviors. From my experience, knowing that the the higher grade rises the chance that I receive a scholarship will motivate me to work harder. Optimal level of arousal depends on each person. somewhere from low to high. We are only motivated to engage in behaviors that fit with our preferred level of arousal. For instance, we all have different hobbies in which how we prefer it to be. Some people will prefer to watch movies, because it’s calm, but for others calmness isn’t what they prefer, so they went clubbing. Last but not least, pleasure principle means that people are motivated to engage in behavior that make them feel good and to avoid behaviors that cause pain. One of the example from the book was about someone orders more food, because they know it will make them feel good. Looking motivation from a scientific perspective change my thinking on motivation a lot. Before, I thought incentives and punishment would be the two kinds of motivation. Because everybody was so much alike in thinking receiving a cupcake will motivate us to get the work done quicker and more efficiency. Or punishment will motivate us to work harder because we don’t want to get punish. But after reading this chapter, I understand that there are a lot more sources in driving our motivation as I mentioned in the last paragraph. I also learned that some behaviors are motivated for their own sake involves extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, self-determination and self-perception.
The most interesting topic to me was motivations in eating and sexual behavior in section two. It is also the most memorable topic that I have learned in this chapter. The stomach doesn’t play an important role in telling us the hungriness, but the bloodstream, hormones and the brain. For the bloodstream, there is a receptors in the bloodstream that monitor levels of vital nutrients in which it will tell the body when the glucose level is deficient. That is when we feel hungry. There are two main hormones are also involved in our hunger and eating behavior. First one is called leptin, in which it involved in fat regulation. Leptin is released from our fat cell when we eat and store fat food. The second type is ghrelin which locates in our stomach. It surges before meals and decreases after we eat. But out of all, the hypothalamus in the brain most influences eating. More than just stomach, brain, hormones, eating is also influenced by learning and culture. Another interesting topic in section two was drive for sexual relations. There is a sexual response cycle which relatively different in men and women. there are four phases to the cycle. The first one was excitement phase is when people contemplate sexual activity such as kissing and touching. The second phase is plateau phase. Follow by plateau phase is orgasm phase and then resolution phase. The female response is more variable than male response. But both have the same amount of the sex hormones.
Terms: motivation, need, drive, incentives, arousal, receptor, sexual behavior, hypothalamus, hormones, leptin, ghrelin, excitement phase, plateau phase, orgasm phase, resolution phase.

Every time I’ve heard someone use the term “move into action” or “swing into action” I think of like a war movie or a cop show about putting the plan in motion. That soon enough the bad guy is going to get caught cause now they finally know what to do. The cops or soldiers get excited and adrenaline running through them, and the plan they made gave them the motivation to get the job done.

Motivation comes from the Latin word: movere, which means to move. Motivation refers to factors of differing strength that energize, direct, and sustain behavior. There are many factors that our motivation comes from, and my motivation to do something could be completely different from 20 other’s people’s motivation to do the same thing. There are four general theories of motivation; activating, stimulates us to do something; directive, guides our behaviors toward meeting specific goals or needs; motivation helps us sustain our behavior until we achieve our goal, and the last theory motives differ in strength. There are five factors that motivate our behaviors satisfaction of needs, drive reduction, incentives, optimal level of arousal, and pleasure principle. Satisfaction of needs has to do with what we need to keep ourselves alive and happy. Abraham Maslow came up with a theory called “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,” and it is a triangle of levels that we need to accomplish to achieve our full potential. We all start at the bottom level which is the physiological level, once we meet all those need we move to the safety level, belonging and love is the next level, and once we gain stable friendships and acceptance we move on up to the esteem level where we have to accept ourselves, and then finally the top is the self-actualization level which is our full potential. Drive is a psychological state that, by creating arousal, motivates an organism to engage in a behavior to satisfy a need. You hear people say all the time about how they are driven to get things done, like to reach a certain body weight. It may be a negative influence, but they may say that the pictures of models in magazines drive them to be more skinny, which would be an example of incentives because it is an external thing that motivates behaviors. I liked reading about arousal because it’s interesting learning about how people differ in their optimal level of arousal. Arousal is a sense of attention that helps you do something, like eating something to reduced your drive of hunger. Another important factor in motivation is pleasure, we aren’t going to be motivated to do homework if there isn’t a type of pleasure coming from it. If we get an A in the class it makes all the hours of homework worth it.

Learning about motivation from a scientific perspective changed my view because I didn’t realize how much we are actually motivated by. I didn’t think motivation could go this in depth, and it was interesting learning about how big of an impact it has on all of the choices we make in our lives. One thing that I realized I do want to change in my own motivation is to add more intrinsic motivation in my life because I feel that if I don’t do things just for my pleasure then I’ll lose sight of who I am. My mom is huge into gardening, and now I know why she does it because it just makes her happy. I love the idea of doing things for pleasure, but there isn’t really a goal at the end we have to stress about. My mom can put a flower in that looks absolutely horrible, and if she doesn’t like it then she can take it out and add another. No stress, which is something I really need.

I’ve always thought and knew that motivation was a main reason of why we did things, but I never knew the terms or how it was connected to our emotions. Now it makes more sense, I thought motivation was just having a reason to do something. Like for instance I played basketball in high school, I want to be the starting point guard and my motivation was because my junior year I didn’t play much at all. I worked hard every practice and eventually achieved my goal. I didn’t know that motivation was involved in eating or sex.

One of the most interesting things in this chapter was the gender differences experiment and how not one woman agreed to have sex with a stranger, and then ¾ of men would. I was surprised at how big that gap was, but then after thinking about it I wasn’t. Coming to college I was warned plenty of times about being careful when I go out because of guys, and I’m assuming that most of the guys coming didn’t have that conversations about girls and looking out for them. This is just one study that proves that men are more interested in having sex than women.

The most memorable thing I read was about the need to belong theory. Ever since high school I’ve never really knew where I fit in and I jumped from friend group to friend group over the four years. Finally in the middle of my junior year I found a group of friends that I knew was going to stick. We all went through a lot together and got really close after that. Now that I’m in college I feel like I’m starting that process all over again. I don’t really have a lot of friends and I joined a sorority and there too I haven’t really found any girls that really click with me. The need to belong theory really stood out to me because I’m trying to find out where I belong and it was just interesting to read about.

Terms: Motivation, Need, Need Hierarchy, Drive, Incentives, Arousal, Pleasure, Intrinsic Motivation, Emotions, Need to Belong Theory

Chapter 9 covered the aspects of motivation and emotion; dealing with our behaviors that come into play. I learned that emotion and motivation come from the Latin word: movere, “to move.” So, what does it mean to be moved into action? This means that our bodies are being “moved into action” due to a stimulation and goal set in your mind. With plenty of motivation, your goal can and will be set. In this chapter, I learned that there are different types of motivation. Extrinsic motivation is the desire to achieve an external goal and intrinsic motivation is the desire to get the value or pleasure from an activity with no external goal.

Also mentioned in this chapter are sources of motivation that humans experience. The first factor is our satisfaction of needs. Abraham Maslow discovered that people are driven by many needs and they are described in the need hierarchy. From the highest priority need physiological, safety, belong and love, esteem, and the lowest priority, self-actualization. The next factor is our drive reduction and incentives, which means we are benefitting from something. For example, getting a high paycheck is an incentive for working hard. Another factor is our arousal and performances, which means we are doing something that we thoroughly enjoy. For example, I went skydiving this summer because I had a higher level optimal arousal. The last factor of motivation is the pleasure principle, which means people are out to seek pleasure instead of pain. For example, people in search of food they love, and during consumption there will typically be some sort of pleasure.

The view of motivation through a scientific perspective changed how I view my motivation tendencies. It is evident that the things I get most motivation for are the most pleasurable for me. Sometimes I find myself having a low motivation to get out of my comfy bed in the morning because the blinds are shut and I find my bed much more gratifying than getting ready for an 8am class. On the other hand, I study for future exams because I know, in return, there will be a positive outcome rather than not studying at all. Throughout the day I try to balance a healthy diet while participating in on campus activities. This is an example of intrinsic motivation because there really is no goal for me in the activities. Overall, my understanding of motivation has changed after reading this chapter because I never knew how complex the process of motivation was. I used to think it was something we did everyday and it was usually the same during our daily routines. But there is more to motivation than that.

The most interesting topic to me was that eating is influenced by our learning. As an individual, I will most likely always eat a small breakfast, eat lunch at noon, and dinner around 6pm. Why? Because this was my routine as a child and it has stuck with me throughout life. The internal clock and regular mealtimes helps satisfy my hunger during the day. The more energy you have from food, the more motivated you may be to learn. The most memorable thing I learned was how much facial expression or nonverbal communications can relay our emotions. But, in other cultures each expression can mean something different. For example, in Japan, having too much eye contact can be offensive but here in the U.S., showing eye contact displays respect to a person.

Terms: Motivation, Emotion, Extrinsic Motivation, Intrinsic Motivation, Satisfaction of Needs, Needs, Need Hierarchy, Drive Reduction and Incentives, Arousal and Performances, Pleasure Principle, Optimal Arousal.

This chapter talked about motivation. When you get motivated to do something you first have to start which is the hardest part. Drive is what gets us motivated to do something. This is probably the most important thing, otherwise we wouldn’t have the motivation to keep going in our lives. Humans have certain needs that include survival things as well as emotional things and without drive we wouldn’t have to motivation to get any of these needs accomplished.
Motivation comes from the brain and environmental factors. The hypothalamus in the brain controls many things including eating. This is effected when a hormone is secreted from the stomach and reaches the hypothalamus, which makes us hungry. This is what motivates us to eat. Motivation also come from environmental things. This usually is extrinsic motivation to achieve something for our personal achievement or personal fulfillment. Both are very effective in getting our bodies and minds motivated to do things that we believe will help our life enjoyment.
Reading about some of the things that gets us motivated really clarified what I was doing right and wrong. Some things I really enjoy doing is very easy to motivate to do. I like shooting hoops and the repetition makes me a better player. This I know and it is easy for me to get motivated to go to the gym. Homework is another subject. It is hard for me to get motivated to do homework. This sometimes leads to procrastination, but I have gotten better at not doing. This can hurt my grades and my overall effectiveness at learning material. I know this, but I still find it hard to sit down and do homework instead of hang out with my girlfriend or friends.
Overall my view on motivation hasn’t changed. I have learned about it in other classes, but this was a verification in what I do know. This also verified and got me thinking about how I could motivate myself differently to my specific needs. I really enjoyed reading about his chapter and my favorite part was the section on sex. This was the most interesting because it is not talked about very often and I didn’t know much about it. I had learned most of the other context before, but this was new so I enjoyed it.
Key Terms: Drive, Motivation, Hypothalamus, Hormone, Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation itself means factors of differing strength that energize, direct, and sustain behavior. So to be moved into action can be activating or directive. Activating means it stimulates us to do something. For example, if we have a big test and we want to get an A on it we are more motivated to study. Directive means that it guides our behavior towards a meeting a specific goal or need. For example, when we are hungry we get up and get food to eat. The main sources of motivation come from the need hierarchy chart. The hierarchy chart is an arrangement of needs, in which basic survival needs must be met before people can satisfy higher needs. The chart is shaped like a triangle and from bottom to top goes physiological, safety, belonging and love, esteem, and self-actualization.
I am pretty good at self-motivating myself. I am very competitive and if someone is doing better than I am I am able to push myself to work harder to be the best I can be. I want to have very good grades so I am able to push myself to study and do well. I now understand that is an extrinsic motivation, which means it is a desire to preform an activity because of the external goals that activity is directed towards. I now understand stand there is more than just that type of motivation. There is also intrinsic motivation and achievement motivation. Intrinsic motivation is a desire to preform an activity because of the value or pleasure associated with that activity, rather than for an apparent external goal or purpose. I took art in high school and when we did the pottery section I always made sure my pot was very smooth and even because I enjoyed making pots and wanted them to look as nice as possible, which is an example of intrinsic motivation. Achievement motivation is the need, or desire, to attain a certain standard of excellence. When I danced in high school they would teach the dances to the whole group and whoever preformed the best got to be in the front. I would try to learn the dances in the front row because I wanted to be in front when we preformed.
What was most interesting reading in this chapter was that their was two kinds of emotion, not just one. Emotion on it’s own is feelings that involves subjective evaluation, physiological processes, and cognitive beliefs. I am a very emotional person. I cry at happy things and I cry at sad things. That’s probably why this part of the reading was so interesting to me. Primary emotions are evolutionarily adaptive emotions that are shared across cultures and associated with specific physical states; they include anger, fear, sadness, disgust, happiness, and possible surprise and contempt. This is what most people think of for emotions. Secondary emotions are blends of primary emotions; they include remorse, guilt, shame, submission, and anticipation.
The most memorable part of reading this chapter was the display rules. It is funny how a boy and girl can get the same exact feeling but react differently due to our gender. Society thinks women show more emotion than men do. That is why it is odd to see a boy crying because you just never see that emotion in men that much. I have seen plenty of men and women crying in different situations, but still showing emotion. It is interesting how nature and nurture can affect the possibility for men to show less emotion than women.
Key Terms: Motivation, need, need hierarchy, extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, achievement motivation, emotion, primary emotion, secondary emotion, and display rules.

To be moved into action is to be motivated to do an action. For example, in the book motivation refers to factors of varying strength that energize, direct, or sustain behavior. There is a wide variety of factors that motivate our certain behaviors.
Abraham Maslow, a psychologist from the 1940’s, proposed a theory, the “need theory” which said that people are driven by many needs, which can be described in a need hierarchy. A need hierarchy is defined from the book as, an arrangement of needs, in which basic survival needs must be met before people can satisfy higher needs. For example, if you have the need of oxygen your drive would be your feeling of suffocation and then your behavior at last would be being able to breathe again. Maslow’s theory is an example of humanistic psychology which views people as striving toward personal fulfillment. From this viewpoint we are able to see how unique and different human beings are from animals because we are continually trying to better ourselves.
Before reading this chapter on motivation what motivation meant to me was someone who wasn’t lazy, someone who was really organized and always got straight A’s and showed up an hour early to everything. After reading this chapter and seeing what motivation was from a scientific stand point my personal definition altered a bit. What I learned about the scientific view of motivation is that there are theories upon theories of different ways to explain how and why certain things motivate us as human beings. For example, one of the many theories given throughout this chapter was self-perception theory. This theory proposes that we are seldom aware of our specific motives. Instead, we make inferences about our motives according to what seems to make the most sense. An example of this theory would be if you went to take a quick nap for like thirty minutes but when you wake up you realize you’ve been asleep for five hours. To this you just assume you’ve been staying up too late studying and you were just really tiered. When we can’t come up with obvious explanations for out behaviors we conclude that we simply needed that specific behavior to happen.
The most interesting paragraph that I read from this chapter would have to be the one on emotion. From a psychology stand point emotion is an immediate, specific response to environmental events. Along with that we also experience both positive and negative emotions that differ between each individual. For example, since Halloween is coming up my roommate wants to go to a haunted house. For her getting scared by people in costumes is enjoyable and funny. Me on the other hand would most likely cry and pee my pants because I hate haunted house and getting scared. We would be put in the same environmental event but would experience different emotions. Mine would be a negative emotion while hers would be a positive one.
Terms: negative and positive emotions, psychology, need theory, motivation, need hierarchy, need, behavior, drive

Chapter 9
Motivation is what it means to be moved into action. We have to have a reason to do something, to want to do something. The main sources of motivation come from self-satisfaction. As human beings, we have a lot of needs. Meeting our needs brings a great deal of satisfaction to our lives. Abraham Maslow created a chart to describe our needs as human beings. He calls it the “need hierarchy”. At the bottom of the pyramid chart is our physiological needs. These needs are our essential to survival. Such things like food, water, warmth, oxygen, and sleep. Above our physiological needs are our safety needs. These safety needs that he includes are: security, protection, and freedom of threats. When we aren’t in danger our self-satisfaction increases because we can relax and are freed from stress. Above safety is our belonging and love needs. Life is a lot more fulfilling if we have acceptance and friendship. Without these relationships, many people become depressed, and their self-satisfaction becomes very low. The last two are esteem and self-actualization. When these two needs are met, it means that we are happy with who we are as a person. It is the topping to self-satisfaction.
What makes us have these needs, or “wants”? It can be many things. One of the major things the book talks about is drive. Drive is defined as the arousal that motivates a behavior to satisfy our needs. Arousal gives creates a drive, but it is the pleasure we receive from that drive that gives us the incentive to keep going. Having incentives is a huge motivator. If there is not an incentive for doing a task, why would anyone choose to do it? Another major part of motivation is hormones. Hormones can create a lot of urges that we sometimes have a hard time resisting. We mentally want it because our bodies are telling us that we physically want it. This can go for eating, sex, and even ties into our emotions. Our different motivations can be triggered differently through gender also. Estrogen effects females, while testosterone effects males. For example, a man’s sex drive is much stronger than a woman’s.
My perspective on motivation has not really changed. All of the ideas that the book talk about make sense. If we had no motivation, we would be a failure as a race, and quite frankly, we would probably be extinct. The topics that I found the most interesting was the chart that displayed the response of women and men when it came to sex. I was surprised by the findings. I knew that men had a much stronger desire for sex, but the responses to the questions were almost startling. The most startling was probably the percent of men who said that they would have sex with a perfect stranger. I think they are crazy, but that is probably the female talking in me.
Terms: self-satisfaction, needs, Abraham Maslow, physiological needs, safety needs, stress, need hierarchy, depressed, drive, arousal, pleasure, incentives, sex drive, estrogen, testosterone,

If you are moved into action you are motivated. The book says, “In fact, the words emotion and motivation come from the same Latin word: movere, ‘to move.’”(page 309). Moving into action is also activating. Activating gets us to do something. A need is the main source of motivation. A need is, “A state of biological or social deficiency.”(page 309) A need is the main source of motivation because it will keep you alive. The need hierarchy shows that the more important needs are things that keep you alive. This makes sense because if you are not alive you cannot do anything. The needs hierarchy goes from most important not as important.

Hearing about motivation form a scientific perspective kind of changes my view on my motivation. The top of the need hierarchy is putting in effort to do what you are capable of it helps me see on what I need to work on. I was struggling at the end of my senior with motivation. I did not want to do anything. When I got some homework I would just do it to get it done. If I had a test I would not do what I am capable of. This is called at my school senioritis. I was getting all of my needs except putting in effort to do what I am capable of. I was not having a drive. Drive is what helps us get needs done. I did not have a drive to put in effort to do what I am capable of.

My understanding of motivation is better. The need hierarchy is what has helped me understand. I know what I am doing and what I am not doing. At the end of my senior year I was not living up to what I was capable of and I am still struggling with this.

The whole chapter is interesting to me. I am interested in motivation. I am more interested in motivation that has to do with making me better at sports and work. I am interested in drive. I want to be able to get rid of senioritis.

The most interesting thing is that what I am not doing is a need. It kind of makes sense for it to be a want. What I am not doing is putting effort to do what I am capable of.

Motivation, Activating, need, need hierarchy, drive

To be moved into action means to behave according to motivation. The motivations mean factors of varying strength that energize, direct, or sustain behavior. Our motivation and emotions strongly influence our behavior every day. Every people have their own motivation with various reasons and behave to fulfill their motivation, that is, many factors influence motivation and put us into action to reach the motivation. And these factors are anywhere and different according to people. Factors that motivate our behaviors are satisfaction of needs, drive reduction, incentives, optimal level of arousal and pleasure principles. Basically, people are motivated by need that is a state of deficiency that can be either biological or social. The Abraham Maslow proposed a “need theory” of motivation and described in a need hierarchy that humans must satisfy basic needs, such as food and water, before they can address higher needs for personal growth, such as for self-actualization. As well as, factor to motivate behavior is a drive that is an internal psychological state that motivates that will satisfy a certain need, such as thirst and hungry, on the other hand, incentives are external factors that motivate behaviors, such as getting a good grade on exam. By reading this chapter, I knew that my motivation also come from various factors. Before reading this chapter, I didn’t realize that there are different theories about motivation and how it work. I realized that my motivation is also followed the need hierarchy.
The most interesting topic is that eating is influenced by learning. I was interested in cultural influences in eating. Each of countries has their own unique food. A specific food like crickets is regarded nutritious food in some countries, but in other countries, this food is viewed as disgusting. For example, in South Korea, the Sliced Raw Octopus is considered very nutritious food and popular food, but when I came in America, I heard that this food is the worst food and disgusting in America. So, I realized that cultural factors in eating have a huge affection. The most memorable part to me in this chapter was how we regulate our emotional states. This is because I have had difficulty regulating my emotional states. There are various ways to regulate emotional states. For instance, in reappraisal, we directly alter our emotional reactions to events by thinking about those events in more neutral terms. In my case, when I watch sad movie with friends, I think that this story is fake and unrealistic to regulate my sad emotions.
Terms: motivation, emotions, satisfaction of needs, drive reduction, incentives, optimal level of arousal and pleasure principle, need theory, drive, incentive, need hierarchy, reappraisal

Morgan Sowers
Being moved into action is simply being motivated, to main motivators for motivation are basic needs such as thirst or hunger as well as the most frivolous of desires, like wanting a new sports car or an expensive pair of shoes. A good list of motivators can be found in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which list things such as physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization needs, which motivates a person to achieve personal growth. Learning about motivation from a scientific perspective just reinforced what I already thought: motivation is present in everything from the most trivial to the most significant tasks in day-to-day life.
During this chapter I found a lot to be interesting. For instance, the fact that groups of children, when offered rewards for coloring, were less likely to color in their free time because they weren’t going to be rewarded for it as they previously were. It’s very odd to me how a nearly universally enjoyable past time can be turned into a type of job where the reward takes the place of the pleasure that was originally felt by accomplishing a certain task. I was also surprised to read that in the 1940s it was believed that women didn’t enjoy sex and I find it weird that people were, and still are, so uncomfortable while talking about something that everybody (with very few exceptions) not only partook in but enjoyed. An even stranger, and more questionable, thing the book discussed was the orgasm phase described in the sexual response cycle, which stated that female orgasm was considered a variable whereas male orgasm was almost a guarantee. I feel as if this data must be accurate in order to be printed in this book but I feel as if it is corrupted by the idea that it is totally common for women to not climax—if I may be so bold I believe that the issue probably has more to do with the woman’s sexual partner, or the dynamic of the couple, than the inability for women as a whole to reach climax. Another issue I had with the content of the book was that the sexual strategies theory seemed rather primitive in my opinion. Reproduction is much more frequently a joint partnership and I don’t think I would say that men “bear few of the personal costs” and that it’s a “much less intensive commitment” for them when compared to a woman. I understand that pregnancy is much more of a, for lack of a better word, “issue” for women but the result, the child, is a joint responsibility. I also found it interesting that in the study of 92 married couples in 37 cultures females looked for men with commendable qualities such as honesty and kindness as well as a few shallow traits such as height whereas the men valued entirely shallow traits such as physical attractiveness, cooking skills, and monogamy. What I found to be most memorable in the reading was that many female fetuses that were exposed to androgens during prenatal development were more likely to be more masculine throughout life and often reported being lesbians later in life. The psychological terms I used were: Motivation, Needs, Need Hierarchy, Sexual Response Cycle, Androgens, and Sexual Strategies Theory. The quotes came from page 326.

Moved into action means something that makes or wills you to do something. We move to action to reach goals and other dreams as well as to satisfy our other wants and needs. Being moved into action can be referred to as motivation. Motivation is defined as, factors of differing strength that energize, direct, and sustain behavior. Motivation is influenced by many different factors. Motivation is activating, which means it stimulates you to do something, and directive, when it guides us toward preforming and accomplishing specific goals. Motivation is used to sustain our behavior until we reach these goals or satisfy our specific needs.

A need is a state of biological or social deficiency. We must not only satisfy our basic biological needs such as food, water, and air, but also social needs like being with others. People are motivated by many different needs, explained in Maslow’s need hierarchy. The need hierarchy is a theory stating that humans must satisfy basic needs before they can address higher needs for personal growth. The chart is set up with the more basic needs on the bottom, going up to the more important needs at the top. The sections are (from bottom to top), physiological, safety, belonging and love, esteem, and self-actualization. Motivation is used mainly when dealing with the bottom section, because you need basic things to survive, so will be more motivated to establish those needs and satisfy them. Extrinsic motivation is more aimed at esteem and self-actualization. It is the desire to achieve an external goal, such as working to get a good grade or a paycheck. A drive is a psychological state that motivates a person to satisfy these needs. A drive encourages your behaviors that will help you fulfill these needs.

After reading the chapter and learning more about motivation, my thoughts have changed. I have never really understood motivation as in depth as I do now. I now understand that some of my motivation is uncontrollable. My stomach motivates me to eat, I do not consciously think about that. I also learned that I need to satisfy my basic needs before I can go on to less important ones. This makes me thing about doing homework. At the beginning of the year, my main concern was passing my classes with good grades and not on my social situation. I was motivated to do my work well and on time, because I heard college was super hard and that I needed to stay on top of things if I wanted to graduate. As time has gone by, because I have spent so much time on my work, my motivation has switched over to meeting people and being with friends. I also learned that my motivation is based on pleasure. The pleasure principle states that people are more motivated to do things that bring them pleasure instead of pain. I am motivated to go to the football game with my friends rather than read my textbook, because spending time with my friends is more fun. I’m not motivated to do things that aren’t appealing to me. This is considered intrinsic motivation; the desire to get value or pleasure from an activity.

The most memorable or interesting part of the chapter was the section on eating influenced by learning and cultural influences on eating. We have learned when to eat meals from a very young age, which created an internal clock. When it gets around noon, this internal clock sends cues to the brain, motivating us to eat. Also, what we eat is determined by our culture, religion, and ethic values. Reading about how culture affects what we eat is interesting. The book talks about how during the potato famine in Ireland, many people died because they refused to eat the corn America sent to help feed everyone. The people in Ireland are not culturally accustomed to eating corn. Because this food was unfamiliar to them, they would rather die than eat it. I thought this was pretty dumb until I thought about if I was in their shoes. Even if I was dying, I would not be highly motivated to eat raw fish or insects from other countries, because I wasn’t raised eating those foods, I was raised to think they were disgusting.

Psych Terms: motivation, activating, directive, need, need hierarchy, extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, drive, pleasure principle

To move into action is to want or need to do something. Simply put, it is motivation. The psychology book says that the five main sources of motivation are satisfaction of needs, drive reduction, incentives, optimal level of arousal, and pleasure principal. After reading the scientific perspective of motivation, my view of motivation changed slightly. I used to think motivation simply entailed going after what you want when in reality it is said to be biological. According to Maslow, motivation is in place to cure our needs and we are only able to be our best selves through the process of taking care of our different levels of needs. First we must take care of our physical selves by eating, drinking, sleeping, etc. Next, we have to feel safe from threatening situations and then we have to find love and relationships. After that, we have to find our own self-esteem and feel good about ourselves and accomplishments and lastly, after all the other levels have been completed then we can finally become our best selves. After reading all of this, I realized that I view my motivation as wanting something instead of actually physically needing things and I now understand that motivation is a combination of mental and physical needs. The most interesting thing I read was that our eyes and mouth are what we mainly use to show emotions. I personally know which smile is real and which is fake according to how the eyes and mouth look and the most memorable thing I learned was that emotions are influenced by reactions from the body which means that when you are scared, the body gets tense and when you are nervous your body tends to have a faster heart rate and breathing. Some of the psychological terms I used were motivation, satisfaction of needs, drive reduction, incentives, optimal level of arousal, pleasure principal, biological, and heart rate.

To be moved into action means to be motivated to do something. Motivation refers to factors that energize, direct, and sustain behavior. Motivation first stimulates us to do something and then guides our behavior until our certain goal or need is met.
The main source of our motivation comes from our needs. Our needs are things that we need to stay alive. To be in need is to be in a state of biological or social deficiency. Needs can be both biological and social. A biological need would be something we need to live such as water. A social need would be something we need to satisfy for a good quality of living and personal growth. On Maslow’s hierarchy of needs the physiological basic needs are on the bottom, or base, of the pyramid and the social needs make up the middle and the top. Needs are the source of our motivation because needs stimulate our drive. Our drive is what motivates our behavior to satisfy a need. The drive is reduced once the need is met. Our drive motivating us to satisfy our needs helps us maintain homeostasis. All of these are reasons that the main source of our motivation is our needs.
Learning about motivation from this scientific perspective has an effect on me to be more motivated. Knowing that my inner drive will push me until I satisfy my need to do something makes me realize that the sooner I just do it the sooner I will be satisfied. It also makes me think deeper about my motivation and where it really comes from. Now that I know what basic types of things tend to motivate us I can try to use some techniques when I am in need of some motivation.
My understanding of motivation has changed after reading this chapter. It made me realize some of the things I am motivated by without even knowing it. These things such as arousal an pleasure. I now understand why it is that I can somehow still eat dessert when I’m full! Knowing that drive, needs, and motivation are all so closely connected makes more sense now than I could have ever made of it.
The topic most interesting to me in this chapter is the need to belong theory. It is said that a sense of belonging is a need. I disagree with this. I strive to be different and sometimes I feel like I don’t need anybody but God. I’m not on earth to impress anyone or get a sense of belonging. I can see how this theory could be correct that a sense of belonging may motivate someone, but I wouldn't classify it as a need.
The most memorable thing I will take from this chapter is the section on Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation. As I go through activities during a normal day I am going to try to think to myself and figure out what things are extrinsically motivating me and intrinsically motivating me. I know I do a lot of things to achieve a goal but I if I put some thought in it I think I will be able to find things that I really only do for satisfaction while doing it.

Terms Used: Motivation, Need, Drive, Arousal, Pleasure, Need to belong theory, Intrinsic motivation, Extrinsic motivation

Motivation is behind almost everything we do from getting out of bed in the morning to completing large more time – consuming tasks. Motivation gives us direction, it deals with the strength within each of us that energizes and sustains our behavior. Motivation activates our inherent desire and drive to strive toward successful accomplishment. When we are moved to action, something inside of us is pushing and activation our need to satisfy our desires and obligations – we are actively pushing to complete and achieve goals.

In the 1940’s, Abraham Maslow proposed a “need theory” that dealt with a need hierarchy, explaining what motivates us. This hierarchy can be placed in a pyramidal shape with the most prioritized motivation sources at the bottom. The most influential sources of motivation are our basic survival needs, such as food and water, followed by physical safety. Next comes acceptance and affection and closer to the top self worth comes into play, with self actualization situated at the top of the pyramid.

While reading this chapter, I caught myself assessing my own motivation tendencies. Naturally, throughout my life my priorities have shifted and evolved, but almost always my motivation matched up with the basic layout of Maslow’s hierarchy system. However, now that I’ve looked at my own habits through a more scientific perspective, I’ve realized that there have been times when my motivation priorities have been drastically unbalanced. Specifically in middle school when my need to fit in along with other emotional and social factors where so influential, that my basic survival needs became distorted. I’m speaking of an eating disorder I suffered through in middle school. My need to satisfy and feed myself properly was outweighed by self esteem which was highly influenced by my social surroundings. Now, a factor that plays heavily into my personal motivation is pleasure, whether it be involving food or watching my favorite television show – even when my basic needs are met I continue to do things because they feel good, not just because I need to. Because I seem to be so pleasure driven, it only makes sense that I live a very creative and indulgent lifestyle. As an artist and creative thinker, I tend to live heavily on the side of intrinsic motivation. However, in by work I strive toward external goals and rewards, which I feel gives me an even balance of both inner and outer accomplishment.

I found the section on how we regulate our emotional states to be particularly interesting. Most people directly and intentionally alter their emotional reactions to specific events to help maintain a more desirable mental state. In this section it discussed the common saying “laughter is the best medicine” and how there is actually some scientific proof to back it up. Many people use laughter as a way of coping with difficult situations and the simple act of laughter actually raises hormones in our bodies that improve our mental well - being. It has also been proven that laughter can have the same positive effects on our bodies as psychical exercise. This chapter gave me a better overall understanding of motivation and why we do the things we do. I came into this assignment with some knowledge of the topic, but the reading gave me a much deeper insight into specific terms and theories, as well as interesting experiments. After reading this, I feel I have a much better grasp of motivation and emotion from a more scientific stand point.

Psychology Terms: motivation, behavior, satisfying desires, need theory/hierarchy, self actualization, self esteem, pleasure, intrinsic motivation, accomplishment, hormone

Reading chapter nine of our textbook the phrase “Moved into action” is simply our own behavioral way of showing oneself working towards there own motives. Your motivation is described, as factors of varying strength that energize, direct, or sustain behavior. The main sources of motivation are needs. Needs are a state of deficiency that lead to goal-directed behaviors. In 1940’s psychologist of the name Abraham Maslow developed a “need theory” of motivation that became very influential. This “need theory” is also called need hierarch it describes humans basic needs such as food and water are needed first before humans can address higher needs for personal growth. This need theory is based from the highest priority needed to the lowest priority needed. Learning about motivation in a scientific perspective chances the way that I view motivation. My motivation has personally changed from reading this chapter. All my motivations now do not give me the arousal I need to help aid my self to a higher goal. I know will base my needs and motivate my self better with what arousals me the most so I can help my personal wellness also. If I want to complete my goal I would need to have a drive. Psychologist named Clark Hall proposed when a human is in need of sleep, sex, water your drive increases so you focus on your needs for doing so. The drive you have for your needs creates what is called an arousal. An arousal is the sense of tension that encourages you to do something to reduce the drive. If the behavior is constantly being reduced over time it becomes a habit. Us as humans function better with an arousal. These arousals can be frightening, exciting and stimulating. That’s why I want my drives towards my motivations to have arousals to help benefit my self more to meet my overall needs. From the readings the topic that interested me most I would have to say was familiarity and eating preferences. To sum up the topic of this reading it’s like eating the same food you have grown up developing a food preference. So if you ate a lot a tomatoes when you were younger you most likely to eat them now when your older. The most memorable thing I learned was An image I ran across in the reading of “we differ in our sexual orientations” Where two homosexuals the names of John Mace and Richard Dorr were a couple since 1950s but have never been married until 2011 due to a same-sex marriage act being passed. I found this very interesting because they have been together for over 60 years with out being married due to it being illegal.

Terms: Motivation, Need theory, Need Hierarchy, Drive, Arousal, familiarity.

To be moved into action means to feel a desire to accomplish a task for a benefiting outcome. I was moved into action when I started writing this blog entry. I feel a desire to write so that I can get the points that I need. One can also say that to be moved into action means to get motivated. We are motivated to accomplish tasks from many sources other than points on an assignment. As human beings we must have our needs satisfied. a “need” is a state of biological or social deficiency. Satisfying only our biological needs like food, air and water will not allow us to live a satisfying life. Human beings also have social needs. We need to be with others. We need achievement. Needs are very influential toward motivation. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs humans are to satisfy biological needs first. Then after that comes safety and security. Then humans need acceptance and friendship. Next we need a good self-opinion, accomplishments and a reputation and lastly, as the lowest priority need, we must have self-actualization. Another factor that influences motivation is drive reduction. This is an internal state that motivates us to satisfy a need. Once the need is satisfied the drive is lowered. Imagine that you are placed in an incredibly warm room. The only thing in the room other than yourself is an air conditioning unit. I would be willing to bet that you would be motivated to turn on that unit in order to cool yourself down. Incentives also motivate behaviors. These are external objects or goals. If you really want a cookie and I offer you one only if you count to ten then you will most likely be motivated to count to ten. The cookie is the incentive. Individuals are different when it comes to their optimal level of arousal. Some are motivated to stay in and watch movies while others are motivated to party with friends. Lastly, pleasure can motivate our behaviors. People like to feel good, and they typically do not like to feel pain. You might order a dessert after your meal even though you are full only because you know it would taste delicious and would bring you pleasure.

Learning about motivation from a psychological perspective changes the way that I view what motivates me and how I view my motivation tendencies. A big tendency for me is to take a nap in between classes. I am being pushed and pulled from multiple sources of motivation. On one hand there is work to be done and assignments to do. On the other hand I feel so tired. I notice that I often times will choose the nap over school work. When I view this and compare it to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it makes sense that I often lean towards the nap. Sleep is one of the physiological needs.

After reading this chapter I am aware that in order to live to my full potential I must climb the hierarchy of needs. Teachers and parents often tell us that it is important to get a good night’s sleep. Somehow I think students get confused in that they feel that it would be more beneficial to stay up all night studying. Once we are fully rested then this is when we can start worrying about studying without being distracted by needs that are higher in priority to living. I often feel that I am trying to fulfill needs that are lower in priority first. I am doing it right now as I type. It is 1:36 A.M. I should probably be sleeping. Once I have slept I would be able to type this blog entry much more efficiently and focused.

The most interesting thing to me in the chapter was facial expressions. People use facial expressions to communicate how they are feeling to others. People also try to read other’s facial expressions in order to predict their emotion. Sometimes we can read facial expressions wrong. I found it incredibly interesting that facial expressions serve almost as an international “language” if you will. Wherever you go in the world an intense scowl is a way of intimidating others. Most surprising to me was that there are ways to tell when a person is genuinely happy. It is possibly to tell a fake smile from a genuine one. For example when a person is genuinely happy you can see a small crinkle are the corners of the eyes. “The eyes tell it all.”

Psychological Terms: Motivation, Need, Biological need, Social need, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Drive reduction, Drive, Incentive, Optimal level of arousal, Pleasure, Facial expressions.

The saying “moved into action” is just another term for being motivated. It shows a more clear definition, though. To be motivated is to have a goal and work towards that goal. The book defines it as factors of varying strength that energize, direct, or sustain behavior. The source of motivation varies from people to people. Different stimuli attract (or repulse) people into making decisions. We are motivated to do things that are helpful to our survival such as being hungry gives us the motivation to eat or waste inside us builds up so we may be motivated to go to the bathroom. The book also gives examples of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Pleasure is the motivating factor in both of these kinds of motivation. In extrinsic motivation physical rewards give us a desire to perform different tasks at hand that lead to said reward. Examples of this may be working harder in a job to receive a raise or building a shed so that you have a place to put your bike without so that it doesn’t get wet from rain. In a likewise manner intrinsic motivation also gives you a reward, but instead of a concrete outcome it’s an internal award. The example given in the book was how reading a novel might be satisfying to a person. Another example would be eating not to fulfill one’s hunger but rather to enjoy the taste of the food being consumed.
The view I had on motivation has widened after reading about this topic because motivation has such a wide spread of thinking involved that I haven’t really thought about. For example I have motivation to get this assignment over soon (no offense of course) so that I may eat afterwards. I hold out on myself so that it doesn’t take longer for me to do homework. I also tend to hang out more with my friends than I am to sit down and do homework for the day because acceptance and friendship is more important to me than school work. Personal moralities help challenge and decide what will or will not motivate people to do certain things. In different cultures there are different normalities which influence how people’s morality may be determined. A father in Egypt may send his daughter here to get an education so that she is of more “wealth” when she comes back. This makes it easier for him to marry her off to a man of higher status than that of one if she didn’t come to college. In more western cultures, we marry less for the concern of the family (bloodlines of past family members as opposed to creating a family) and more with love and how the other person treats their spouse.
The topic that interested me the most was not the motivation or emotional chapters, but more instead of how sexual behavior influences motivation and other aspects of our lives. Sex has always been a subject known but not talked about in a professional manner, unless we were talking about STI’s. The subject peaks my interest because it’s such a taboo subject yet it influences culture dramatically. All through history sex has shaped cultures into different things. Now, through science and technology, we have the ability to understand what sexual drives are and why and how we use them. We can see that men are more likely to want sexual attention because of the different hormones in their bodies compared to the hormones in a woman’s body. The book also talked about how mates are chosen, how different cultures affect sex, and about sexual orientation. It was all interesting because of the taboo it holds within society, and it was a little eye opening because of the knowledge I gained from the readings.
The most memorable thing that I learned was that we can regulate our emotional states. It
was a short section, but it’s cool that we can control the way we can feel. So often, especially during this class, I notice that different things I do are done without a second thought from myself. It’s nice and reassuring that we still have control over our emotions somewhat. I have done this for years, regulating the way I feel about something because I was not able to show my true emotions at the time. I especially like the fact that humor can be used to help people. It increases positive emotions which, in turn, increases positive behavior. One can change a person’s day just by the way their attitude is. It affects other’s emotions around us and also the people around them. It just makes me happy that people could be in a good mood as a result of my good mood. But the same makes me cautious about being in a worse mood because I wouldn’t want someone’s day ruined as an effect to my poor attitude.

Terms: motivation, stimuli, survival, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, satisfy, moralities, normalities

Moved into action is something that I have heard before but really have never thought of in a psychological setting. As it states right in the beginning of our psychology book. There are many factors that influence our Motivation. The phrase moved into action the way I interpret is that it relates to motivation. The stimulus that activates us to do something. There is a need or desire that it attached to the motivation and some sort of stimuli activated something in our mind to “motivate” us into action. There are many sources to motivation. The first of these sources is a need. There may be something missing biologically or socially that we need which may motivate us into action. The next sources of motivation is drive. When there is a certain type of arousal, we are motivated into action. Pleasure is also another sources of motivation. Humans tend to do things that make them feel good, and motivation may come from that pleasurable feeling. There are many things that may influence motivation, such as an incentive. People may be motivated to do something if they have an incentive to do so, but in some cases people are motivated more by intrinsic motivation rather than extrinsic motivation. Learning about motivation in a psychological sense is very different than experiencing it first hand in my eyes. This may change the way I do things in my daily life, or at least think about ideas in my daily life. Studying motivation may change the way that I study by maybe thinking of extrinsic goals that I may set or even some intrinsic goals. The fact that I can see the different types of motivation in my daily life is pretty cool in my eyes.
While reading, it seemed as if the book took a drastic turn from motivation to behaviour and emotion. I found the portion about the psychology of homosexuatily really intertesting and it would be awesome to read more about that. I have always wanted to know more about the psychology of a homosexual couple, for example, if the couple had children, what is the emotional impact on all people involved. I feel like this would be a great topic to study considering our progression in america and where we are heading as a county in regards to same sex marriage.
What I found the most surprising in this chapter was the idea of Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion. This was basically the idea that a human will encounter a stimulus and the brain will process it and then the emotional or bodily response will than occur. I found this to be the most memorable because I can see this in daily interactions. I feel like people feel than label their emotions, rather than label and then feel. It’s a very interesting topic to think about.

Terms: Emotions, Cannon-Bard Theory, Motivation, need, drive, incentive, biological, social, intrinsic, extrinsic,

To be moved into action means to be motivated to act. We receive our motivation from the satisfaction of our needs, drive reduction, arousal, incentives and the pleasure principle. Satisfaction of our needs means that when your needs are not meet you therefore become motivated to find a way to satisfy them. Drive reduction is an internal psychological state that motivates our behavior such as being cold and getting a blanket. Incentives are external factors that motivate us to perform an action such as getting extra credit for showing up to class. Arousal is a tension that motivates you to do something to reduce that drive. The pleasure principle motivates people to avoid any pain and seek out pleasure in many different acts. Before reading this chapter I just thought of motivation as the thing us college students seems to lack during long stressful weeks but there is so much more to it. Before this chapter I never thought of motivation as influencing our behavior but after reading about the different factor that motivate our behavior and actions. I also learned that there are many different internal and external factors and drives that come into play with motivation.

The most interesting thing from this chapter was section regarding to emotions. I thought it was interesting how they broke emotions down into primary and secondary emotions. Primary emotions include basic emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust, surprise and contempt. Secondary emotions however are a blend of basic emotions to create remorse, guilt, submission, shame and anticipation. I found it interesting that the running theory about emotions is that some emotions are actually a combination of two emotions instead of being its own emotion.

The most memorable thing from this chapter is from the opening section about Gabby Douglas’s rise to fame in gymnastics. I just found it really inspiring how she used the negatives in her life to push her even further in her training. Her story really shows how she was motivated to achieve her goal and how the hardships that she had in life actually made her a stronger person for having experienced them.

Terms Used: satisfaction, drive reduction, arousal, incentives, pleasure principle motivation, behavior, primary emotions, secondary emotions

To be moved into action in fact is the very definition of motivation. This stimulates us to do something. It is the conscious knowing that you would like to achieve something and because of that you decide too start another action that is necessary in order to achieve that goal. Some factors that motivate our behaviors would be satisfaction of needs which is the state of being deficient in biological or social factors. An example of this would be not being able to afford all of your monthly bills with the one job you have, therefore you need to get a second job in order to meet all of your financial needs. Another factor is Drive reduction, this is a drive that is an internal psychological state that motivates behavior and when this goal is met the drive gets less. And example of this would be if someone was hot so they decide to turn on a fan, as soon as the fan is turned on, the drive of cooling off is less. Incentives is another factor in motivation, Incentive is an external factor that motivates behavior. An example of this would be someone knowing that they win a free pizza party if the sell X amount of magazine, the pizza party is an incentive to sell more magazines. Optimal level of arousal is another factor, we all have our own optimal level of arousal, and we are motivated to engage in behaviors that fir our preferred level of arousal. And example of this would be the difference in two personalities of a couple, one prefers to have quiet time at home while the other prefers going out to loud parties. The last factor is the Pleasure Principle which says that people are motivated to engage that make them feel good or to avoid behaviors that promote pain. An example of this would be someone going to the salon for a message even though their back feels fine, they know that having a message will feel even better.

I would say that reading this chapter has helped me understand that there are different types of needs that drive motivation. Before reading this chapter, I had though that motivation was much simpler. Before I viewed it as something had to be done and that would be the only factor that would "drive" something to change in me in order to get that task done. Now I know that motivation goes deeper than that and actually is a part of my life in many ways that I hadn't know before. for example I rarely take into consideration the biological or psychological components that come with motivation. for instance being cold and putting on sweater, before reading this chapter I was unaware that this was the factor that drove these actions.

My impression and feeling towards motivation have changed from reading this chapter because now I know about the different levels and types of motivation that play into everyday life
Psychological Terms: Motivation, psychological behavior, satisfaction of needs, Drive reduction, Incentives, optimal level of arousal, Pleasure Principal

When you are talking about someone moving into action you are referring to motivation. Motivation is the factors of differing strength that energize, direct, and sustain behavior. There are to main sources of motivation. The main sources are need and need hierarchy. Need is a state of biological or social deficiency. Need hierarchy is an arrangement of needs, in which basic survival needs must be met before people can satisfy higher needs. Learning about motivation made me notice it is affected by how I act. If I am very tired and I have a lot of homework that needs to be done, I will most likely choose to sleep. I’m probably behind on sleep and I need to give my mind more rest before I go and use it for a long period of time. My understanding has changed some. I have gotten a better understand of what motivation is and how we use it everyday.
The most interesting and most memorable topic was the same for me. The topic was the section on we have a need to belong. Humans are social animals. Human evolution has changed greatly. Our ancestors were more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass along their genes. Children that stayed with adults are more likely to survive until reproductive years. Adults that developed long-term, committed relationships are likely to reproduce and to have children who live to reproduce. This is where we get the need to belong theory.The need to belong theory is the need for interpersonal attachments is a fundamental motive that has evolved for adaptive purposes. This theory explains why most people make friends easier than others. The types of groups and so are the group members. Not being in a group, one has a higher risk of illness and premature death. You have to be careful when you are finding a group. You can easily be rejected by the group so you are left in search of a new group. Just like a lack of food causes hunger, lack of social contact causes emptiness and despair.
terms: motivation, need, need hierarchy, need to belong theory

Motivation can be defined as the factors of varying strength that energize, direct, or sustain our behavior. In essence this is what causes us to be moved into action. Being moved into action is basically getting the motivation to accomplish something, which in turn causes us to get up off our butts and do it. The main source of motivation is need. This is shown in the need hierarchy. The need hierarchy consists of five tiers. The bottom tier is the most important and as it rises they become less important. The bottom tier is physiological, this includes food, water, warmth, oxygen, and sleep. The fourth tier is safety, this includes security, protection, and freedom from threats. The third tier is belonging and love, this includes acceptance and friendship. The second tier is esteem, this includes good self-opinion, accomplishments and reputation. The top tier is self-actualization, this includes living to one’s full potential and achieving personal dreams and aspirations. We satisfy these needs through drive. A drive is a psychological state that motivates a person to satisfy a need. One of the examples from the book is the need of oxygen, the drive is the feeling of suffocation, and the behavior is breathing. A drive causes us to behave certain ways to satisfy a need. There are also other types of motivation. One being extrinsic motivation and one being intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation means that you are striving to accomplish an external goal, while intrinsic means you are striving for the value or pleasure of the activity with no apparent external goal.
My view on motivation has not really changed a whole lot. I’ve always known motivation is what inspires us to do something. I also realize my motivation stems from both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. At this particular moment I have the extrinsic motivation of doing well in college. However, there is no intrinsic motivation towards it, for example typing papers or doing homework, it does not give me pleasure to type a paper or a report or to take a test. This does not stop me however, because like I said, my motivation stems from extrinsic motivation instead of intrinsic.
What I found most interesting to read about within this chapter was extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. I found this interesting because it can show you what type of person somebody is. If somebody’s motivation is extrinsic I believe it shows them to be a hard worker and possibly less selfish. Whereas if somebody’s motivation is intrinsic I believe this shows a lack of dedication and it also shows selfishness. I believe this because intrinsic motivation is a more self satisfying type of motivation.
What I found most interesting was drive. I found this interesting because I didn’t realize our primal instincts of hunger or lack of oxygen classified as drive. I always thought drive was something that we more consciously thought of or acknowledged. Hunger and breathing are more automatic in my opinion, so I found it interesting that they classified as drive.
Key Terms: Motivation, Need, Need Tier, Physiological, Safety, Belonging, Love, Esteem, Self-Actualization, Drive, Extrinsic, Intrinsic

I really enjoyed reading chapter 9 about motivation and emotions. To be moved into action is another way of say you were motivated into action. Motivation refers to factors of varying strength that energize, direct, and sustain behavior. There are many different sources of motive and they are all determined by your needs. A need is a state of biological or social deficiency. All of our needs arranged in a need hierarchy which is basically ranking what is most important and least important to you, and the higher the priority on your need hierarchy the more motivated you will be to do it. For example in you are sitting down watching television you would be much more likely to get up to get food or water, then to get up and go for a run. It’s impossible to say that this would be true for everybody because everyone has a different need hierarchy and not everyone is motivated the by the same things in the same way. This is because there are many different factors that go into motivation such as satisfaction of needs, drive reduction, incentives, optimal level of arousal, and pleasure principle. All of these factors play a large rule in motivation. After learning more about motivation I now realize more about my own motivation or lack thereof in some cases. I realized that the things I’m more motivated to do are based more on the pleasure principle. For example if I have the choice to watch a football game Monday night or writing a blog post for psychology Monday night I will pick the football game almost every time. This because I really enjoy watching football and not so much writing a blog. I will still end up writing the blog because there is incentive motivation to do it. In other words I will write the blog so I can get a better grade in the class so I can someday get the job I want. So in conclusion I noticed and realized what better motives me and what doesn't, and why this is. This also ties in very well with what I found the most interesting thing in this chapter which is extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is the desire to achieve an external goal, such as receiving a good grade. Intrinsic motivation is the desire to get the value or pleasure from the activity with no apparent external goal, such as watching the football game. I just found it very interesting reading about how the differ from one another and how each can be valued different by different people. The most memorable thing I read about in this chapter was eating is influenced by learning. It talks about how everyone eating at a certain mealtime makes little since on a physiological level. Everyone has a different metabolic rate so not everyone should have to eat at the same time, but we all eat at the same time because we are conditioned to associate eating with regular mealtimes. I found this memorable because I have an extremely fast metabolic rate, so in other words I get hungry after meals faster than most. So after reading this it does really make me question why I eat at the same time as everyone else.
Terms: motivation, emotions, needs, need hierarchy, satisfaction of needs, drive reduction, incentives, optimal level of arousal, pleasure principle, extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation

Chapter 9, talked about motivation and emotion; overall it has shaped my way of thinking about my success that I have achieved these past months of being in college. Motivation is a strength that energize, direct, and sustain behavior. Examples of motivation is dressing warmly, studying, and eating with friends or family. I feel that motivation is something that everyone has, but some take action on that and use it wisely. Satisfaction is a factor of multiply arrangement of needs, in which basic survival needs must be met before people can satisfy higher needs. It starts off with the highest priority need to the lowest, which are the ones that are not that important. Food and water are some of the physiological needs that need to be met first. Drive is a psychological state that, by creating arousal motivates an organism to engage in a behavior to satisfy a need. For most people this would remind them of sex and it would be the easiest example I could think of. But from the textbook example, the salty snacks create the drive of thirst to satisfy the need for fluids. The drive of thirst then encourages the purchase of a beverage to drink. Extrinsic motivation is a desire to perform an activity because of the external goals that activity is directed toward. An example would be, when you work to earn a good grade or a paycheck, you are being motivated to do that. Intrinsic motivation is a desire to perform an activity because of the value or pleasure associated with that activity, rather than an apparent external goal or purpose.
Goals are set to be short and long term, but it all depends on what kind of outcome you want. Belonging is a human need that we all need. The need to belong theory states that the need for social relations is a fundamental motive that has evolved for adaptive reasons. Emotions serve cognitive functions when we interpret our body’s responses and use that information to make decisions and evaluate information. Some of the guilt and embarrassment strengthen interpersonal relations by helping to maintain and repair social bonds. Our experiences come into play all that deals with daily battles that we have and not having an understanding of what certain motives we need for that behavior. The big picture of chapter 9 has been very eye opening with coming to terms in knowing how to learn from our experiences and the internal feeling of emotions that determine how our behavior adapts to society.

Terms: motivation, emotion, Satisfaction, physiological needs, Drive, Extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, Goals, Belonging, cognitive, Emotions, and adapting.

What it means to be moved in to action is to be motivated to do something. Motivation comes from one main source: need. Needs are often confused with wants but these two things are totally opposite. A need is a state of biological or social deficiency. When it comes to needs people often don’t realize which need is great, therefor the major need always ends up on the backburner. Abraham Maslow believed that motivation is driven by many different needs. He created a pyramid chart called the need hierarchy to explain his theory. At the very bottom but our #1 need is Physiological needs, such as food, water, warmth, sleep, and oxygen. Next, there’s safety, is security and protection, followed by belonging and love, is acceptance and friendship, then esteem, is good self-opinion, and finally self-actualization is living to one’s fullest potential. My understanding of motivation hasn’t really changed after reading this chapter because I was taught earlier on about Maslow’s need hierarchy pyramid.
The most interesting topic I read about was emotion. Emotion is feelings that involve subjective evaluation, physiological processes, and cognitive beliefs. There are two types of emotions, primary and secondary emotions. Primary emotions are evolutionary adaptive, shared across cultures, and associated with specific physical states. Secondary emotions are blends of primary emotions, such as remorse, guilt, submission, shame, and anticipation.
The most memorable thing would have to be the experiences of the psychology student, Kim, in section 9.3. She talked about a TV show that she watched with a character who was a psychologist that could tell if a person was lying or telling the truth just by looking at their facial expressions. She asked her psychology professor about the show and what shocked me was that her professor said that the show was actually scientifically accurate. “At least on show has scientific validity,” the professor said. Apparently the show was based on the work of Paul Ekman. Ekman was a psychologist who trains people in law enforcement to be able to tell whether a criminal is lying. He taught them to look for what he called “micro-emotions”. They are quick, involuntary facial expressions of emotions that people aren’t really good at hiding. These emotions last under a fifth of a second. It is very unbelievable that a person can look at a person’s half-second reactions to a question and be able to tell if they are telling the truth. That is an amazing gift to have.

What does it mean to be moved into action?

Being moved into action means that a person becomes aware of a need, deems the need to be important, identifies the proper solution for the need, and then engages in a behavior to acquire the solution. The book uses several illustrations of boing moved into action/motivated, one of the best and most basic examples being food. A person may notice that they are hungry, decide that the hunger is strong enough to warrant food acquisition, and then subsequently engage in eating the food that they found. Humans are motivated in similar patterns for most behaviors they partake in.

What are the main sources of motivation? How does learning about motivation from a scientific perspective change how you view your own motivation (or lack thereof) tendencies? How has your understanding of motivation changed since reading this chapter?

The book gives this definition of motivation: “The factors of differing strengths that activate, direct, and sustain behaviors that satisfy a need.” The simple answer to the question is that needs are the source of all motivation. Maslow was on to something when he determined that humans act simply to satisfy needs and that the needs all carry varying levels of importance based on what category they fall into, but he made the categories and hierarchy a little too narrow to fit all people. Different people have different levels of motivation for certain activities because they value them differently. Some people value social status over self-esteem, others may value having a good reputation over achieving life goals. Where Maslow was very accurate was in the first two categories of safety and physiological needs. All humans need those two basic categories. I think that learning about motivation from a scientific perspective helped me to see why I am not motivated to do some things. I see myself being very generally unmotivated when it comes to homework/studying, and I think it is because of two reasons. I am bad at waiting for delayed gratification, and I have never had to work very hard to get ok grades. This leads to a tendency to procrastinate very easily. I know that I can engage in more pleasing activities instead of studying and I will still get acceptable grades. I also realize that I could study and get better grades, but I don’t value an “A” over a “B” on the weekend. My perspective has changed because I see motivation as a need based aspect of life instead of a preference. I used to see being motivated as preferring one activity to another when it really is preferring to satisfy one need instead of another.

My favorite section of this chapter was the part about foods in different cultures. I am deathly afraid of all insects and will never be able to bring myself to eat one even if the only other choice is death. Even if I managed to eat it, I can guarantee that I would vomit as soon as I realized exactly what I’ve done. I don’t judge people who can eat insects, it’s just not for me.

Terms: delayed gratification, hierarchy of needs (never said it in this order, but it was implied), Maslow, needs, motivation, preference, behaviors

To be moved into action is another way of saying, to be motivated to do something. You have to have the desire to do something otherwise you will not do it. There are many sources of motivation such as: satisfaction of needs, drive reduction, incentives, optimal level of arousal, and pleasure principle. I never really knew that there was a lot of science or psychology behind motivation. I just took it as you either have it sometimes, all the time, or not at all. It helped me reflect on my level of motivation and how I can work to improve it. I know now that there are ways to increase my inclination to get something done or perform an activity. If I set long-term goals that are challenging yet attainable, throughout that time and in the end my high self-efficacy and high need achievement will more than likely increase as well.
The most interesting topic that I read was about what motivates us to eat (or not eat). This section helped me better understand how and why we feel the feeling of hunger. There is a correlation between our brain and our stomach that decides when we are hungry or full. This structure is called the hypothalamus, which influences most of our eating. I find it interesting that even though our brain controls what we do, it is not always a positive outcome for us. For instance, someone’s brain is wired differently through complex brain circuits that controls whether someone has anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. With specific hormones like leptin and ghrelin, our body helps determine whether we are hungry or full. We have to be motivated enough to know when we are full, just like we have to be motivated to eat.
The section that I found most surprising, or in some ways not that surprising at all because I had previously known about the differentiation between a female having sex with a male, and a male having sex with a female, was definitely about what motivates (or doesn’t) our sexual drive. There seems to have always been a social double standard that defines a male as a “stud” if he has many sexual relations with females, but if a female would have sexual relations with males she may be called or considered a “slut” or “whore”. This issue has been ongoing throughout the twentieth century. I think our society has come along way in understanding that this double standard is not acceptable. People have been putting down females for the exact same thing males are doing. I feel that a big part of the reason this has been an ongoing issue is because not many people know about the science and research behind sex. It’s more than just something people do for fun. There is a psychological perspective behind it that allows people to do more and more research and experiments to conclude facts.

Psych Terms: Motivation, satisfaction needs, drive reduction, incentives, arousal, pleasure principle, self-efficacy, high need achievement, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, sexual relations, hypothalamus, leptin, ghrelin

An action is taken to achieve an objective; to do that we need to be motivated. There are different types of motivations, for example: intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Extrinsic motivation refers to behaviors that are motivated to do in order to earn a reward or avoid a punishment. Examples of extrinsic motivations include; working a job that you dislike because it's high paying or doing a chore to avoid getting grounded. Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is a behavior that is motivated because it is personally rewarding. Example of this type of motivation is volunteering solely for the purpose of enjoying it. There has been a debate about which type is better but ultimately it depends on the person and situation. Research has shown that excessive extrinsic rewards for a behavior that is already internally rewarding can lead to a reduction of intrinsic motivation. However extrinsic motivation can motivate people to acquire new skills and increase interest. To increase learning and motivation in schools, both types of motivations should be used. A major source of motivation is need. Human beings have certain needs to meet on a daily basis and those needs influence behaviors. We have the basic needs for survival, for instance food, water, and sleep. And then we have more complex needs, such as need for safety, belonging and love. These needs motivate us to move into action and fulfill them. Understanding more about motivation from a scientific perspective can hopefully help me stop procrastinating so much. Reading more research about extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and different ways to increase motivation can ultimately help me increase my motivation to do my school work earlier and study more.

Psychological terms: motivation, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, reward, punishment, needs

Motivation can be created by personal drive or incentives from the world. An example of a personal drive would be Gabby’s goal to make it to the Olympics and become the best gymnast ever. Her desire to excel in her sport created the goal for herself, and she kept herself motivated through adversity to reach that goal. An example of an incentive is someone who is trying to survive. In order for someone to survive he needs the minimal foundation of the hierarchy of needs. He will need food, water, and shelter as a means of survival. In order for him to obtain such things in the world today, he would need to get a job to obtain money to buy a house and food. The incentive in his scenario is his body’s need for life. Both drive and incentives can be related to extrinsic motivation because in both scenarios the person wants to reach a goal. Extrinsic motivation is when rewards at the end of an action cause the person to stay motivated in accomplishing the task. Whereas intrinsic motivation is when there are no specific goals at the end of an action and the person does the action just because she enjoys the experience. Some psychologists believe that all motivation, even intrinsic, is underlined by extrinsic motivation.
Looking at motivation at a different perspective makes me want to see how determined of a person I am. For instance the study about delayed gratification made me wonder if I was a person who could put off instant pleasure for something not as enjoyable. After thinking about it, I decided I am a person who likes to be gratified instantly which made me wonder if those who like things sooner than later could change their habits. Then I thought that maybe I prefer being gratified sooner because I have very low achievement motivation. I have never wanted to exceed in anything other than in art and sports. That could be influencing why I do not look so far into the future as other students may do. Now I want to do a little study on myself and see if I can change some of my habits to reap some of the rewards I regularly miss out on because of my tendency to be lazy. I want to know if experiencing certain rewards would keep me motivated to keep working on projects.
The most surprising thing out of this chapter would probably be the sexual strategies theory and how men and women differ in their thinking about sex. For the longest time I thought that guys liked sex because it gave them a high and it felt good. I had no idea that it was really just their subconscious trying to have them procreate and make as many babies as possible. Then the theory that women are not as promiscuous as men was because they want to have quality over quantity. This theory is kind of depressing because the text book makes it seem like the only reason for anything to be living on earth is to procreate and live a few years. Procreating does make sex a bit of a kill joy. Maybe people think they enjoy sex but in reality it is a self-perception they have created for themselves.
Terms: drive, incentive, hierarchy of needs, motivation, extrinsic, intrinsic, self-perception, sexual strategies theory

Being moved into action means to get up and do something or simply being motivated about a action.
Sources of motivation vary but mainly are the basis of ones need, what we prioritize over other needs. This is called the the Need hierarchy the arrangement of needs in which basic survival needs must be met before other needs can be obtained. When learning about motivation from a scientific perspective my view of motivation or quite lack of sort of stayed the same but gained new insight. I knew that
our needs drives us to do things. Drives I learned is a state by creating arousal motivates a person to engage in a behavior to satisfy a need. A lot of people need incentives to do things in order to motivate them into doing a certain job. What i especially learned was how quickly ones motivation falls once their arousal has reached its limit. something of an example would be eating Oreo cookies you are given the option of eating as many as you want but sooner or latter you will slow down and stop because you aren't getting the pleasure as much as to compared when you first started, you lose interest. Things that interested me this chapter were extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. I learned that extrinsic motivation is a desire to perform an activity because the external goal that activity is directed toward. Basically extrinsic motivation is an external factor that causes us to behave in a certain way. Intrinsic motivation however I learned is a desire to perform an activity because of the value associated with that activity rather then working toward a external goal. In short we do something because we enjoy it. The most surprising thing I learned this chapter was how the brain and the body both are important for emotion. Both our brain and our body cause emotional responses to various stimuli and how we regulate
our emotions through methods of humor, suppression, and distraction can offset these emotions.

Terms: Motivation,Need, Need hierarchy, Drives, arousal, Incentive, Extrinsic motivation, Intrinsic motivation

Sophia Sperrazzo
Ch.9

To be moved into action basically means having motivation to do something. Motivation can be influenced by many different things. Different types of motivation are created by the different things we need; with priorities ranging from our basic needs to self-actualization. The two types of motivation are extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic being when you ‘have the desire to achieve an external goal’. Intrinsic motivation is ‘the desire to get the value or pleasure from the activity with no apparent external goal’. Some sources of our motivation would be from the basics such as food, water, warmth, oxygen, and sleep. We are motivated from these when we feel things such as thirst and hunger, this fuels us to get a drink and eat something. This is our body motivating us to fuel our basic needs.
Learning about motivation from a scientific point of view has changed how I look at the whole concept. At first, I did not realize how it is affected by how you think and how scientific motivation really is. For example, thinking about needing to get good grades motivates you to do your work. I realized my motivation levels aren’t always in the right areas. I am motivated to do more of the things I enjoy and not so much the things that involve hard work that aren’t necessarily ‘fun’. That is definitely something I need to work on. I have also learned a lot more about motivation and intend to try and work on it in the places where I don’t have as much.
My favorite part to learn about in this chapter was about the need hierarchy. I liked seeing how it said that we, as humans, need to fulfill basic needs before going to the other needs on the pyramid. The order of the need hierarchy is physiological, safety, belonging and love, esteem, and finally self-actualization.

Key Terms: motivation, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, needs, need hierarchy, physiological, safety, belonging and love, esteem, self-actualization

Motivation is another way to say someone being moved into action. Scientifically speaking, motivation is: factors of differing strength that energize, direct and sustain behaivor. I understood that different people are motivated by different things, depending on what they want or don't want to happen. I thought a person wanting something or not was a conscious decision they made, but this chapter taught me that a lot of the things people want are inspired by biological evolutions and primal survival needs. This is shown in the fact that most people are more likely to seek physically attractive partners, but when you think about it there really is no reason to seek a physically attractive partner. The reason we prefer attractive partners is because we subconsciously associate attractiveness with fertility, which was the most important thing in a partner in the past.
The most interesting aspect of this chapter, to me, was the yellow box on page 334 about Human Lie Detectors. It discusses how some people are able to not only tell if a person is lying or not, but they can also decpiher emotions from a person who is trying to hide them. They use micro-emotions to understand how a person is really feeling. A micro-emotions are very brief, involuntary facial expressions of emotions that people can't hide. These micro-emotions only last for about one-fifth of a second, so it takes an extremely trained eye to pick them up. Having the ability is an extremely rare skill because of the difficulty of it to master; in fact, only one percent off the population has the ability to read micro-emotions.
The most memorable section of this chapter for me to was the part about drive reduction and incentives. This discussed what motivates a person to do what they do. This resonated so well because of the examples they used. They discussed how bars give out free snacks like nuts or potato chips so people will get thirsty. I have experiences with this because when I was younger my parents played beer-league softball and I went with to watch them, and we always had free peanuts because they wanted people to buy more pitchers.
Psychological terms: motivation, behavior, conscious, biological, evolution, subconscious, fertility, micro-emotions, drive, incentives

To be ‘moved into action’ can be simply put as motivation. There are several factors that can influence motivation such as activation, directivity, sustainability, and then differs in strength. In order for a person to be motivated, they must feel activated to do a certain task. For instance, if you are not activated to go to class, you most likely will not. The second factor is directivity. This is the factor that gives the task we are trying to complete meaning. Directivity pushes our behavior to a particular goal, which gives us a reason, or in other words, motivation, to complete the task. The third factor, sustainability, is what pushes us to continue our task until we have reached our goal, or desired outcome. Sustainability is the factor that helps us to not give up. The last factor is differences in strength, which means there are a very large variety of strengths in motivation, depending on the person. While I was learning about motivation, I began to think about my own motivation, and realized that it could probably use some work. I realize now that motivation isn’t just getting out of bed in the morning, it is so much more. Now that I know about the factors that go into being a motivated person, I think it will be easier for me because now I can identify what needs to be satisfied in order to motivate myself. When learning about motivation, it is important to identify what a need is. According to our textbook, a need is a state of biological or social deficiency. If we do not satisfy these needs, it can lead to physical or psychological problems. Along with this concept, the chapter talks about need hierarchy. In need hierarchy the needs are arranged from basic survival needs to social needs. The survival needs must be met before a person can start satisfying other needs. For example, food, water, warmth, oxygen and sleep are the highest priority needs, and after that comes things such as security and protection, then acceptance and friendship, so on. The process of the behavior we produce comes from having a need, then feeling a drive for that need. In turn, we participate in behavior based on that need and drive. A drive is what motivates a person to satisfy a need. A person could have drives for basic survival needs, or for social needs, which are less important. For example, if you have a need of food, your drive would be that you are hungry, which in turn causes you to eat. Often times, drives can create arousal, which occurs when someone is deprived of a certain need. Arousal can relate to many other things discussed in this chapter, such as pleasure, gratification, sexual behavior, ect. The most interesting thing that I read in this chapter was the section about a person’s drive for sexual relations. We already previously learned about a male and females hormones, but I found the part about gender differences in sexual behavior very interesting. This section talked about the ‘double standard,’ which still exists in this world today. What is meant by ‘double standard’ is that it is socially acceptable for a man to have multiple casual sexual relationships, but it is not okay for a woman. The most memorable part from this section was the chart on page 325. It charts the differences between males and females when it comes to different sexual relations. The ‘request for a date’ was tied, but the ‘request to go home together’, and ‘request to have sex’ were very different between males and females. The males were much larger on the chart, and the females were actually non-existent on the ‘request to have sex’ question.
Terms: motivation, activation, directivity, sustainability, differs in strength, goals, needs, need hierarchy, drives, arousal, double standard, gratification, pleasure

Being moved into action is motivation. It is having the feeling and the drive to achieve or meet a goal that has been set. What causes this motivation, however, isn’t as easy to say since there are many factors involved. Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs is one of them. Maslow organized them unto a pyramid format, and if lower-tiered needs aren’t met (such as biological or safety needs) that makes higher needs like self-actualization and esteem (which would include motivation) to be met or even be possible. If some needs aren’t satisfied, we are motivated to behave in ways that make up for it and work on those deficiencies. That motivation is called a drive, and drives use a sense of tension called arousal to reduce said drive. Other, maybe more obvious factors that motivates us include extrinsic motivation (doing something for a physical reward or incentive), intrinsic motivation (doing something for the internal value or pleasure), achievement, a need to belong, biological processes, what we’ve learned, our culture, etc.

I am pretty self-aware in terms of what motivates me, but going through the chapter has given me a deeper, more psychological term-filled understanding of what specifically causes my motivation and the strengths and weaknesses that are a part of it.

I found the three theories of emotion to be quite interesting. It was also surprising and not surprising to me. I was surprised that it isn’t clear whether a bodily response creates emotion, brain processes cause the bodily response and emotion at the same time, or if emotion is a combination of a bodily response and an emotion label. But then I realized that emotion, like many of the other topics in psychology, is very complex, and is hard to find a direct cause for. But theories are perhaps the best way to create an understanding for hard concepts.

Terms: motivation, needs, hierarchy of needs, drive, arousal, extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, achievement, need to belong theory, incentive, emotion

Key Terms: Need, Emotion, Need Hierarchy, Motivation, Primary emotions, Secondary emotions, guilt

Motivation and emotion comes from the Latin word movere, which means “to move”. So to me to be moved into action is to me motivated. One of the main sources of motivation is activating, which stimulates us to do something. The second one is directive which guides our behaviors toward meeting specific goals or needs. The third motivation is sustain that sustains our behavior until we achieve our goals or satisfy our needs. The last one is that motivation differs in strength. Motivation is anything that basically move to do a behavior, even things like a kiss or to wear warm cloths because it cold out. This made me realize that it’s not just what you want to do which makes you do a behavior, but it’s a decision because of a factor/ though. This is my understanding of motivation now that I read this chapter. The most interesting thing I learned were the theories of emotion. The first one I will talk about is the cannon-bard theory. This theory states how our minds don’t experience emotions faster than our bodies. This is saying that our minds (brains) process information from the stimulus and then emotion and our body react at the same time. Unlike James-Lang theory says that emotions lead to physiological changes. So there is a stimulus then there is a body response which causes the emotion. I like this theory the best because it makes the most sense. The last theory of emotion is the two-factor theory. This starts off with the stimulus like the rest but then the body responds and then the emotion labeled which then makes the emotion feeling. The most memorable thing I learned was that expressions communicate emotion. I never really thought about it. Every times we move our mouth, eyes, cheeks, eyebrows, it makes a new facial expression which each show emotions.
Motivation, cannon-bard theory, James-Lang theory, two-factor theory, emotion,

To be moved into actions can mean a lot of things but in a very simple sense it means when a person decides they want to do something so they get up and do it. They decided its time to take action so they can complete whatever the task a head of them or the goal that they set out to do is accomplished. It also is another way to say motivations. Motivation factors into all of our different strengths that directly effect all of our behavior.
When it comes to motivations there are four basic qualities. The first motivations is activating, it was when a stimulates us to do something. For example if you want to be fit you could eat a balanced meal and work out regular. Second type of motivations is directive. This helps guid our behavior towards meeting a certain goal or need. This can be explained bu our needs like hunger pains keep occurring till you feel something to eat or if you want to do good on a test you study till you know the information front and back. The third type of motivation is helps us sustain out behavior until we achieve our goals or satisfy our behavior and lastly motives differ in strength. This depends on the person and the situation so we have a wide range of factors that can motive our behavior. This just touches on why we are motivated. Some other things that we are motivated to do is satisfaction of our needs, drive reductions, intensives, optimal level of arousal, and applause principle, most motivation comes from these things.
While reading this chapter I was not aware of how many little things go into our motivations but also how many types there were! This chapter make me realize what motivates my behavior and how to become more motived. I am usually not very motivated person, I just get things done to get them done and not reach for anything more than what is required. I believe that the hierarchy of needs will help me get over that and challenge myself to become a better student and get more involved in things to reach my full potential and achieve personal aspirations.
I loved reading about the eating and how it is effect by our biological system. First off I love food like any other human so learning why we eat certain things and such I found to be very interesting and memorable. It is crazy that a part of our brain controls it and how by a person not eating or over eating can lead to findings of brain tumors and such. I also find it very interesting that what we were fed as a child we will still eat as an adult because we have learned to like and enjoy that food. We also do not tend to stray off that course of foods. This is mainly a result of our culture and what is acctable to eat where you are. In the south more people probably like sea food because its easy access unlike the north where more deer and bird is eaten because we can easily hunt that. It is also the same with around the world, we would never eat a dog or a cat but in some places that is normal and what they learned to like
Something that I have found to be really rewarding in each of these chapters is that I am able relate the material back to my life. There are not many other subjects that you can directly do that with. It helps me understand why I act the was I do and motivation is such a huge part of that.


hierarchy of needs, Motivations, Needs, Drive,

To be moved into action deals with the concept of motivation is some kind of way. Motivation is factors of differing strength that energize, direct, and sustain behavior. Motivation is a big part of being moved into action. Personally I think being moved into action also deals with drive and need. Drive is a psychological state that motivates a person to satisfy a need and a need is a state of biological or social deficiency. In order to be moved into action I believe that there has to be some sort of benefit or need for doing the action. For example, a motivation for students to get up and go to class is usually good grades. Good grades is usually part of a drive because it makes you want to get up and go to class because you more than likely need to go to class to know the material and pass the class. Another part of the motivation to go to class could be the money factor for college students that have to pay for their own schooling. When having to pay for your own classes it may make the college student want to go to class and pass so they don’t lose out on their money, this would be an incentive. Getting good grades could also be an incentive. An incentive is an external object or external goal, rather than internal drive, that motivates behaviors.

The main factors of motivation are typically satisfaction of needs, drive reduction and incentives, arousal and performance and pleasure. These are typically that sources of motivation because they give you motivation to do something. An example of how satisfaction of needs is a source for motivation is when a person is hungry and they get up to make themselves a sandwich. This is an example of satisfaction of needs because food is needed to survive therefore it gives your body the motivation to get up and make a sandwich. An example of how an incentive would be a factor of motivation is knowing there is a prize at the end of a race could make you want to try your hardest for that prize.

Learning about the scientific perspective of motivation really helps me to understand my own motivation tendences to realize which ones are truly important to me and which ones aren’t. A good example of how this taught me is when I am in my dorm and feel hungry but I usually am too lazy to get up and make myself something. Learning about the scientific perspective of motivation helped me to understand that I must not be too hungry because if i was truly hungry I would motivate myself to get up and make food. Learning the scientific perspective of motivation will really help me to establish things in my life that truly motivate me and things I don’t care as much about.

My understanding of motivation has changed from reading this chapter because it helped me to understand why I always have a lack of motivation to do things. The reason being of my lack of motivation is because my body doesn’t find them necessary as part of my main factors that motivate me. It also helped me to realize why I get more motivated to do certain things than I do to do other things. A big reason why I get motivated to do some things rather than others are because of my needs.
The topics that I found most interesting about this reading was about the eating preferences. I found this section to be interesting because I never truly noticed how many of the foods that I do not like or are scared to try are foods that my parents didn’t normally have in the house growing up. I also found it very interesting just how much of an influence my parts have had on my life because of the foods and things that were present in my life while growing up.
Psychological terms used: motivation, incentives, arousal, need, drive,

Motivation is defined as factors of varying strength that energize, direct, or sustain behavior. Motivation allows us to meet our needs, states of deficiency that can be either biological or social. (Many may only consider biological needs necessary, but this only incorporates the bottom tier of the need hierarchy – beside this physiological tier, there is also safety, belonging and love, esteem, and self-actualization.) Motivation is achieved by drive, a psychological state that motivates a person to satisfy a need, which may be internal or external (also known as incentive).

Being moved to action would be being driven to do something, or achieving motivation to do something. Achieving this state of motivation moves you to satisfy some sort of need.

Sources of motivation include both intrinsic and extrinsic sources. Intrinsic motivation is the desire to perform a certain activity because of the pleasure associated with that activity for the individual, rather than for a goal or purpose. This may be supported by the pleasure principle (according to Freud, the motivation to seek pleasure instead of pain). However, intrinsic motivation can be compromised, as explained by the self-determination theory and/or the self-perception theory: when we are rewarded for something our feeling that we are performing the activity for ourselves is diminished and/or when we are rewarded we come to believe that the reward is our main motivation for performing the activity, respectively.

Extrinsic motivation is the desire to perform a specific activity because of external goals. According to the text, “personal expectations for success play an important role in motivation” (315). This is supported by the principles of self-efficacy and achievement motivation, which state that one expects one’s efforts to lead to success, and one desires to do well. Additionally, according to the need to belong theory, humans have a fundamental motive to achieve social success, making it another basic motive that drives one’s behavior.

Hormones can also greatly affect one’s motivation, from the motivation to eat to the motivation to have sex, determined by the hormone(s) released. Leptin and ghrelin impact fat regulation and the perceived reward of food, respectively, while androgens and estrogens impact reproductive behavior.

After reading this chapter, my understanding of motivation has broadened, considering it started at nearly nothing. I was aware of motivation possibly being either intrinsic or extrinsic, but didn't consider humans needs nor hormones into this equation, nor was I aware of any of the theories that seek to explain our behaviors. However, I found myself nodding in agreement to the text quite often. For example, I have experienced several times enjoying an activity, then enjoying it less after I had an extrinsic motivation to perform the activity due to reasons described by the self-determination theory. Indeed, this is becoming a source of worry for me, as I want to do something I love for a living, but according to this theory, I may come to dislike it purely because I’m getting paid for it.

After learning about motivation from a scientific perspective, I can identify myself as being largely motivated by achievement motivation – it drives me crazy when I don’t do well, regardless of whether the subject/activity is important of not. Additionally, the book states, “those high in achievement motivation set challenging but attainable personal goals” – this is the definition of me! Last year, I made a New Year’s resolution to run the distance of a marathon. Difficult, yes, but attainable, and I did it, which provides me with a feeling of satisfaction.

I was surprised to learn about the Yerkes-Dodson Law – one might think that the more arousal (physiological activation or increased autonomic responses), the more drive and thus success one might have. However, in reality, too much excitement interferes with success.

I was most interested in the subject of homosexuality, and it’s theorized causes and stability. However, the text merely touched on the subject – I would be more than willing to enroll in an entire course on the subject.

Motivation, behavior, needs, need hierarchy, drive, incentive, intrinsic motivation, pleasure principle, self-determination theory, self-perception theory, extrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, achievement motivation, need to belong theory, hormones, leptin, ghrelin, androgens, estrogens, Yerkes-Dodson Law, arousal