I was recently reading an article abaout an olympian ice skater that still performed her routine after losing her mother to a heart attack only a few days prior. The mother had died of an unexpected heart attack two days before her daughter was scheduled to perform her much practiced short performance routine in front of 14, 000 people. The skater went on and preformed very well, getting the highest score of the short performances. Even though she was visablly upset, as anyone would be, she still decided that it was for the best to continue with her skating. I wondered if sometimes, a person's motivation can outweigh their emotions. I've tried to think of times when something terrible has happened to me and how I reacted. Usually I drop everything and focus all my energy and emotions on the bad event. I couldn't image doing something like ice skating when my mom had just passed away. But I think it was the fact that this girl had trained so hard for so long all for this day, that she didn't want it all to be for nothing. I think she thought her mother would have felt the same way. So I was wondering if her drive for achivement and recognition for her hard work and persistence at skating could help her overcome her sad emotions enough for her to go out there and skate. This is not to say that she wanted to compete more than she was sad for her mother's death, but just to ask the question, If you are highly motivated to do soemthing, can it temporarly overcome your emotions, enough to get the job done? Other situations could be that you really want to go out with your friends on a Thursday night, but you have a big test the next day you have to do well on so you skip the fun and study instead. It's not exactly the same, but you are still choosing your motivation over your emotions.
What do you guys think? Can you think of any circumstances that you have really wanted something even though your emotions were saying something different? If one is stronger, what usually makes you do something, your motivation or your emotions?
Here is the link...http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/02/24/olympics.rochette/index.html?hpt=C1
I think you have a really interesting point. I had heard about this story and saw a clip of the Canadian figure skater break into tears right after she had completed her program. Speaking from my own experience, in a MUCH less high profile sense, I can relate. My freshman year of college we lost my 21 year old cousin a construction accident. All I wanted to do was go to Minnesota to be with my family immediately after I heard the news. I remember breaking down in the hallway thinking all I wanted was to be with those who knew him. However, I had a huge project/presentation due in my class in the next two days. There was no way it would have gotten done if I hadn't gone home and worked on it. I went to a coffee shop, got a HUGE cup of coffee and finished the presentation all by my self. My partner, and good friend, felt horrible that she didn't help... but I didn't really give her the chance. I had begun the project in hopes of starting an outline. Once I began it became something I could do that helped me focus on something other than my cousin. It was my release, something that made me feel better.
I imagine with the figure skater it was extremely difficult to cope with such a sudden death of an important person. It was probably even harder because she needed her mothers support in such a stressful time. However, I'm willing to bet that being able to focus on her skating helped her. Because even though it was only for a couple of minutes, in those few minutes it was something that she could release all of her emotion into. For those couple of minutes she got to focus on something she loved, rather than losing someone she loved. Though, no one can deny that she knew everyone was well aware of what had happened to her. So once she had completed her program it was like a release of the stress of her mom dying, competing in the olympics, and being in the spotlight for unfavorable reasons.
Here is another example of an athlete competing in an extreme circumstance: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=1691811
First, Beth I was also in awe of the skater's performance. It was great to see all the Canadian fans as well as global fans rise up around her to provide emotional support. While I don't know that motivation necessarily outweighs emotion in this case, it is interesting to analyze situations like this in sport.
For this skater and for many athletes who have been in a position such as this, I really believe that their sport can be used as an emotional outlet, a coping mechanism of sorts like writing proved to be for Virginia Woolf. An athlete's sport, I would argue, could be seen as a psychologically comforting environmental context. Their ultimate needs (whether physiological, psychological, or social) have led them to this point in their lives. I was glad somebody besides mentions Brett Favre within a class (thanks Andrea!) as her link discusses the reactions of Favre and the Green Bay Packers organization to Brett Favre's father's tragic death, two days prior to their Monday Night Football game. Favre would eventually decide to play that game in honor of his father with the support of his second family, his teammates. For Favre, playing this game for his father could have helped satisfy his psychological and social needs. As it would come to be, Favre would play one of the greatest games of his life under the most dire of circumstances in front of a national audience, just as the figure skater had done. Were they so inspired and motivated to play in honor of their lost family member they achieved a state of flow? Who knows, but both performances will go down as two of the most memorable moments within their respective sports.
It's difficult not to have the utmost respect for these individuals and their psychological endurance in the most challenging of circumstances. Imagine yourself in their shoes, could you do it...?
This is a perfect youtube clip capturing the emotion and scene from the MNF game Favre played in hours after his father's death:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GPXTffbGbk
First of all, I cannot imagine what this situation would be like, especially after completing such a mentally and physically challenging activity like figure skating. I feel like doing something so demanding as this would surely exacerbate the deep emotions she had pent up inside of her throughout her routine. Rochette clearly demonstrated a conflicting battle between her motivation and emotions, and it turned out she was determined to let motivation win, until the end of her routine, when she overwhelmingly broke out in tears. This illustrates the professional poise Rochette maintained when she was skating. Athletes in general have to retain a high level of composure and allow their motivation to continually override their emotions, specifically during different athletic events. I'm sure much of Rochette's professionalism on the ice WAS due to her intrinsic motivation and persistence to perform in a manner that fit her personal needs and values of achievement. The pictures of her in the article explain it all. You can simply see the determination on her face while in performing, but immediately following her routine she cannot compose herself any longer. She had to prove to herself, her fans, and mother that she could execute an athletic performance as she did in the face of extreme sadness. This whole circumstance resonates with her achievement-oriented sense of drive.
I've been reading in an emotions book for my book report, and was surprised that the author believes the emotion can even outweight physiological drives. When he went on to explain, I was convinced he has a valid point.
He provided some studies, but for the sake of paraphrasing, I'll give a few examples. If a person were in a situation of starvation, but had some extreme choices to survive (drinking urine, eating bugs, etc) their feelings of repulsion could overcome their need to have food and they would die, even though there were measure that could have been taken to survive.
Using this same idea, I think that the same would work for motivation overcoming emotion. It all depends on which (physiological drive, motivation, or emotion) is stronger. The strongest urge will win out.