March 2010 Archives

This article talked about a new program they have developed which allowed kids to get involved with the school and stay active for about 90 minutes after school.  The program involved children playing sports like soccer and basketball and even dance.  Two years later they compared how much the children weighed before and after.  They found that girls that were obese lost weight more than the boys that were obese.  I found this studies results quite obvious, but I decided to write on it because I'm surprised more schools don't require this or offer this.  I know many schools especially Middle School and High School have sports you can get involved with but these are optional and usually too late.  By this I mean a number of kids are already obese or overweight.  Do you know any schools that provide this opportunity or require kids to get the needed exercise in their life?  How much of a benefit do you think this would provide children or don't you think it would help much? What else do you think we could do as a society to put the obesity problem to a stop? 

After you have watched a movie, you should blog your general impressions of the movie (by 5pm on thursdays) and provide 1 example from the movie (scene, character, etc) and how it relates specifically to a theory or construct in Motivation and Emotion.

Your full analyses are due the following Tuesday turned in via eLearning (aka WebCT).

http://finearts.esc20.net/music/music_strategies/mus_strat_moti.html

Being a musician, I have gone through the tedious theory classes, where everyone sat and did the same exercises, listened to the same scale runs and did the same homework. Though I enjoyed playing, sitting through the tedious classes was something no one ever enjoyed. The most common conception of a piano lesson is that of a mean old woman teaching a student the piano, being very strict, not catering to any individual needs. The learning of the technical aspects of Texas State University's Center for Educator Development in Fine Art's takes an often dryly taught subject and approaches it with both a mastery orientation and an autonomy supported environment.

They promote intrinsic motivation, critical thinking and problem solving, cooperative learning, competition and technology to teach educators new ways to increase learning potential and enhance the experience. According to the text, autonomy support is provided by identifying nurturing, and developing inner-motivational research. The CEDFA does this first by getting rid of extrinsic motivators and using intrinsic motivators. This is done in many ways; by relating content to the real world beyond the classroom walls, discussing the reasons behind activities and how they fit into the discipline, providing group activities for peers to share their learning experiences, and having instructors and administrators show how and why music and their experiences are so important to them among other things.

The mastery orientation also contributes to the benefits arts instructors gain from these methods.  The critical thinking and problem solving skills translate across a variety of situations. Being able even upon failure of a task to take a step back and take a new approach to it. Teaching students to take action with a take charge of the situation attitude. Self reflection and abstract thinking are also prevalent in the curriculum.

Another approach they teach educators is to address the needs of an individual, not necessarily those of special needs, but to suit different learning styles. Technology is also heavily integrated into the curriculum, which aids in both the individualization and motivation of students in new ways.  Though it doesn't go into exact specifics of the program, this does represent a new and exciting way to look at teaching educators to change their old boring methods.

In our society social networking is booming. The rate at which people are creating facebook, MySpace, twitter accounts, and profiles on dating site are enormous. Just the other day my grandmother asked me what twitter was (never did I think I'd hear those words out of my 85 year old grandmother). However, this obsession with the internet and new social networking site makes me ask the question; are they good?  Are we cheating ourselves of out getting to know someone the way out parents and grandparents did? Are we losing social skill that we have taken so long to develop?

            I am sure that everyone can think of someone they know who has met someone on a dating site that has resulted in a successful relationship and marriage.  Personally I do not feel as though there is anything wrong with that.  With women going into the work world and getting higher educations and people no long live in a 100 miles radus of where they grew up there is a definite need for a social network in order to meet people outside of your workplace. But part of me wonders if this new social networking phenomena is just the next step in dating or is it unnatural to find and select a mate online. What do you think?

 

Below are articles that are of positive and negative experiences with dating site. Take a look at them and tell me what you think...

 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,396461,00.html

 

 

Mothers shares successful experience with online dating

http://www.onlinedatingmagazine.com/datingexperiences/11-online-dating-experience.html

            What are you going to do with your life? How are you going to get there? Why? These are questions that are presented to teens of all ages, backgrounds, socioeconomic status, and race are presented with all over the country. But what are the answers to these questions? Do these answers matter if our basic education is not being delivered?  Due to the recent publicity of high school drop out rates in American I came to ask myself why high school students drop out. Many of the ninth graders will express their desire to attend a college, or have a career; but why do they not succeed. There are many hypotheses' that elaborate on this idea, and president Obama actually has a working goal to solve this problem.  Personally I think motivation could be behind this idea. Motivation of the teachers, students and their parents could be the reason,

            In the article listed at the bottom of the page discusses the problems faced in our country with not only drop out rates but also the idea of students graduating when expected.  This article looks at the potential problems that could elicit this behavior of dropping out focusing on city school. The article states that there is a 50-50 chance of a student graduating on time in a city school-fewer than 40 percent of the largest city school district are graduating their students on time; Baltimore-38.5 percent, New York- 38.9 percent, and Detroit 21.7 percent. Personally I feel as though this could be caused by the attention to teaching stypes that we discusses in class. If we remember back to the movie we were to watch a couple weeks ago "Stand and Deliver" we observed some teachers that weren't dedicated to altering their teaching styles in order to meet the needs of the students. What is your opinion as to why the graduation rate is so low in American cities and continuing to fall as we speak?

 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-06-20-dropout-rates_x.htm

The article that I really wanted to share with our class is in my Applied Psychology text book (Applying the Science of Psychology to a Public That Distrusts Science is the name of the exact article).  Since it is not readily available online, I'll give a breif overview of it and the discussion we had in my Applied Psych class.  While my class was talking about this article, all I kept thinking about was the blogs and posts that I constantly see on our website. 

We are all (or alot of us) are guilty of posting 'psychology' articles that are really not psychology at its best.  This article discusses how important it is that the average population can understand how research in psychology works, as well as appreciate and strive for more information.  It might be something that is hard for us (as psychology major or minors) to fully grasp because we are constantly surrounded by psychology jargon and statistics, whereas the general public may start to feel overwhelmed by seeing such aspects of psychology research.  Many people tend to give the advice that "less is more" when it comes to using statistics when talking to the public.  I feel that this may be the reason that some many people have distrust in the psychological community, because we are not sharing all of the information that we have with the public.  It's almost as if we are "dumbing it down" for them, which shouldn't have to happen.  The article suggests that we should teach research techniques as early as middle school and all through college, regardless of concentration or major.  He points out that the knowledge you can gain from research are not only important to the scientists that conduct research, but important to everyone in our society.  The skills that can be learned about reading research articles can help individuals throughout many situations in their life.

The article talked about the main problems that people (the general public) have when understanding psychology.  One major problem is that people assume that correlation leads to causation.  Now, most of us have had the phrase "correlation does NOT mean causation" drilled into our heads throughout our psychology classes.  However, this is not something that was expressed when we were in high school or in other classes outside of psychology.  The article discusses how we need to change this pattern of education in order to be able to communicate research results (not just in psychology, in any type of study) to the general public more effectively.  Another problem that people have when understanding psychology is that they tend to listen to more emotional language than statistical or concrete language.  Along the same lines, the third aspect of understanding problems is that people also prefer to hear about anecdotes rather than statistics.  People say that they don't want to have a bunch of numbers thrown at them, or that listening to a professor talk in front of class about his research is boring, but at the same time if we don't do these things properly and get out the information in the correct way, it can lead to some very misleading information.  The article talks about how media tends to take the most simplified version of the study and place it as it's heading.  An example could be that a researcher examines the effects of daycare on future bullying.  The media would headline this as "Daycare leads to future bullying." While over generalizing the results, this also implies a causal relationship.  In addition, people feel that they can relate to anecdotal stories rather than a real research article.  They would rather see or hear from people off the streets about how well something works rather than really look at the facts.  While this is definitely a problem, I feel it may be more of a bad habit than anything else.

Many of us have been posting what my professor refers to as "pop psychology" articles.  Things that take something that people are really interested (love, happiness, etc) and finding some way to make their research fit what people want to hear.  Although many times we don't know the exact facts about the studies, the main problem is that the main facts about the studies aren't present in the articles we read! Take a look at and Cosmo article, Fox News, MSNBC, or any other news station (Times and CNN are usually okay, though) and they have a severe lack of resources pointing to how you can find the original article about that research study.  The lack of citations is astonishing, and many times it seems as though the article just appeared out of thin air.  As psychologists, we are trained to be exact and meticulous about citing our references and crediting our sources.  Wouldn't you think that citing sources and references would be even MORE important when the information is released to the general public? Isn't that what we want to do? Get people's attention, and encourage them to dig deeper into the subject? If this were to happen, would psychology's reputation of being contradictory and unsure change if people read the original articles?

As we have discovered through our article analysis, many times even textbooks do not use information correctly.  We have seen in the Reeve textbook (2009) that many of the citations used in this text are correct, but the information itself is misinterpreted or misused.  This could cause for a big problem if a textbook that is supposed to be teaching future psychologists misuses information.  How are we supposed to get the correct information out to the general public if we can't even get the correct information out to the psychological community?  

Many of the articles that are posted provide cool information, but those same articles tend to lack sufficient references towards where this information is coming from.  Does this mean that these articles are less reliable than an article that comes from a noted psychology journal? Does it mean that these articles are less reliable because they came from Cosmo? Are they less reliable because they lack references?

 

Given the variety and amount of work you are doing for this class, I'm thinking the easiest way to evaluate you (at the end of it all), is to have you pull together a portfolio of your work for the class.

A portfolio documents work products and the effort engaged in doing that work.

You should include in your portfolio the required elements: blog comments, blog posts, any special assignment posts, article analyses, movie analyses, and your book report.  You may include *anything* that you believe displays your effort, skills, and knowledge in the course.

I don't want the portfolio itself to be a lot of extra work..just a place to document the work you have done.

You can show it to me anytime along the way, with the final portfolio due at the final.

    http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Anesthesia-Drugs-a-Possible-Cure-for-Depression-1137964.htm

 

    I think it's always interesting to hear different perspectives about depression. In this article, the basic argument is (as the title says) that small amounts of anesthesia can help provide relief from depression. It is in part due to the increased demand for anesthesia in the market (more surgeries being done, etc.) that other applications for it are the subject of current research.  In the study, researchers "(administered) a single low dose" of an anesthetic that "produced almost immediate relief from depression in (a group) that did not respond to any other type of depression therapy."

 

      It may be very important to note that anesthesia was only given to patients who did not respond to other forms of treatment. Although I believe modern forms of anesthesia are likely to be relatively safe in moderation, we must be very careful not to get carried away with this type of research. We should conduct these studies in as safe of a way as possible and be ever wary of problems that arise. As any of us who have taken BioPsychology probably know, it was just within the last century that procedures like prefrontal lobotomies were lauded as a great procedure until the full extent of their effects became known. My main point here is that we may have a moral obligation to remain skeptical of any procedures when we have not yet been able to study its long-term effects. Only then can we be more confident that such procedures are the right course of action.

 

    In any case, the doses of anesthesia that have been applied thus far are relatively low and seem to be well within safety guidelines. Because of this, I would have to agree that this treatment does sound very promising for patients facing depression for which nothing else has worked. Another reason this research is promising is not just about the level of effectiveness, but also the amount of time it takes until the drugs take effect. Many common treatments for depression require at least a few weeks to produce noticeable alleviation of symptoms. As mentioned before, some of the effects of low dose anesthesia can occur almost immediately. One reason for this is because the anesthesia approach "targets a different system in the brain." Having taken BioPsychology last semester, I found this part of the discussion especially interesting - it mentioned that "all (current) antidepressants work on monoamine transmitters... but ketamine (the anesthesia) involves (blocking the action of glutamate)."   

 

     I was very happy to read the final section of the article - it mentioned that psychosis was a possible side effect of the drug, and that it is unlikely that is will be approved for treating depression. As in so many psychology articles, the conclusion was that more research needs to be done. I think this touches on a point that is sometimes difficult to appreciate. It is very difficult for us to watch our loved ones in pain and suffering, from mental diseases such as depression, but unlike on television, it is very rare to find some miraculous experimental drug that will solve all problems. It is not that researchers are unkind or uncaring, but rather that new procedures that have not yet even been fully investigated can very well make a person's problems even worse. I believe the work of clinical psychologists and medical doctors is in many ways more stressing because it is not a lifeless object they are working on, but rather a human being. Mistakes are not acceptable, in both a moral and legal sense. I hope my meaning is not misconstrued here; I believe this research is very important, but I also am very concerned that people will try to pursue this treatment before trying more well-known, better established treatments for depression.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/us/25mobs.html?src=me

 

This article talks about what used to be something that used to be a non-violent act, but now in Philadelphia these flash mobs are turning violent.  The police have said that they had enough and they are starting to enforce curfew and hold parents responsible for having their children out late in the city.  There has been five flash mobs this year in the city, more than in any other part of the United States. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100325/ap_on_re_us/us_philly_teen_mobs_1

 

This article also quoted Temple University professor Frank Farley is an expert in risk-taking and thrill-seeking personalities. He says the flash mobs attract teens because they offer thrills and attract publicity.  Chapter 13 discusses risk taking personality about arousal.  It is more likely that the teens who are a part of these flash mobs  are high sensation seekers rather than low sensation seekers.  There have been findingd that sensation seekers have low levels of monoamine oxidase (Schooler, Zahn, Murphy, & Buchsbaum, 1978). 

 

John's video (proposing the questions)

Hank's video (responding)

Here are two Youtube videos of two brothers. One proposed the question, "what is your ultimate concern" the other replied. Just a heads up if you watch the video...they sort of talk about a lot of other things leading up to the excitement of "ultimate concerns", but all in all they are pretty decent videos.

What I took from the videos:
Just think for a minute: What would you die or kill for?  Is there really something in your life that is that important?  At what point in your life does something become that important?  John has a child and at this point in his life his new baby is his ultimate concern...making sure that his needs are met. (Well that sounds familiar doesn't it; babies have needs too, they just can't satisfy them by themselves!!)

A response from the brother, Hank, proposes some interesting questions in response to the initial questions.

What are you concerned with at all, don't limit it to just the ultimate concern.

What I think is neat is how he explains how there are boundaries (visually I imagined a circle) of things you would die for, things you would fight for, things you care at all about, and finally things you just don't care about. 

This then brings up that maybe something like maybe your own child is something you "would die for", but then the stranger-mom at Wal Mart has a child that is in the area of "things you don't care about".  They are both babies but there is something different about your baby that makes it so much more important to you than the stranger's. 

And for each person this will be different, so what is your ultimate concern? Or, what do you care about, or don't care about? 

When these are defined in our own life we may start to realize our motivations and maybe even goals.  We know from class that we all have physiological needs. Those are obviously of some concern to everyone, and they will be satisfied in much the same way. Then there are psychological needs and social needs and whatever our concerns in this world are will affect those needs. 

Take the concern you thought of from above and apply that to a psychological or social need and how that would have an impact on our behavior in order to satisfy that need.  

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/teen-abortion-high-school/story?id=10189694

This article was unreal to me when i read it. How could a high school let a student get an abortion in the first place and second without the mothers knowledge?!? The article states that the school and it's health clinic did not break any Washington laws, which was surprising to me also.  To me this is just teaching the students that their actions have no consequence and that if they have a problem they do not even have to discuss it with their parents. I do not know how the school could even possibly think this was okay. To me the health center at this school is just helping teens to do things without the consent of their parents.

What do you think about this article? Should the school have the right to let students get abortions, even without consent of a parent?

I was curious about the last part of our assignment: how self-efficacy, mastery beliefs, and hope relate.

After watching Manic yesterday I couldn't help but think about how controlling one's environment and actions is so crucial to leading a functional life. And, since the movie revolved around the lives of a couple suicidal manic depressives, I decided to look up some more information on that. I stumbled upon this article via Psychology Today discussing the illusions of control and suicide. Ira Rosofsky, PhD, has had years of experience working with the elderly (nursing homes/assisted living), and his article talks about systemic policies that address this issue with suicide, control and the elderly. Rosofsky first highlights some normal thought processes of suicidal individuals, and how committing suicide is the last successful and controllable act in which one can engage. He writes, "If I were to develop a theory of self-esteem, I'd put control or mastery on the top of the list." Exerting control over any situation determines that individual has gained some sense self-esteem, because that controlled behavior encourages high self-efficacy.

In the article, Rosofsky describes a piece of legislature that the state of Oregon enacted back in 1997: the Death with Dignity Act. Basically, this law gives physicians the legal rights to prescribe a patient with a lethal dose of medication to be taken privately in his or her home. This law, however, is only limited to those who are terminally ill. With the indirect assistance of a physician, terminally ill individuals have a choice to commit suicide if they so choose. Fortunately, people aren't necessarily abusing this "privilege". From when the law passed in 1997 up until 2009 - when this article was published - 292 patients have jumped on the assisted suicide bandwagon. Roughly 24 people each year have taken that route. According to U.S. suicide statistics from suicide.org, a grand total of 30,622 individuals committed suicide in 2001 alone. Among that total, 5,393 of those suicides were from the elderly (65+ years old). That 292-suicide rate over a 12-year period pales in comparison to that one-year statistic of over 5,000 elderly suicides. What's even more paradoxically reassuring is that those who decided upon the physician assisted suicide died in a stable, controlled environment, many times with their loved ones around and aware of the situation.

Rosofsky later posits, "People like the reassurance of knowing they can do it, even if they never pull the trigger." For many terminally ill patients, their living conditions are much less than comfortable and satisfactory (in terms of constant pain), so being dead is the next successive step toward happiness. I know that sounds incredibly morbid, but the large corpora of suicide research suggests that notion. Finally, Reeve (2009, p. 242) states, "Mastery beliefs reflect the extent of perceived control one has over attaining desirable outcomes and preventing aversive ones." In the case of terminally ill or irreparably depressed persons, suicide is his or her desired outcome, and living such a painful life is clearly the aversive one.

I am going to pull a question directly from the article that Rosofsky poses as food for thought: "People who have had every treatment imaginable - pills, psychotherapy, electric shock therapy - and want to end their suffering. Who am I to say no to them? To request them to spend some weeks, months, years talking to me instead?"

As many of you probably already know (unless you don't keep up with people.com), Sandra Bullock caught her husband, Jesse James, cheating on her with multiple women.  This first came out as only one woman, but many other women have taken it upon themselves and come out with additional related stories (much like Tiger Woods but not to that extent).  I found this whole situation really interesting because of the past of Jesse James.  

When reading chapter 9, I was really interested in reactance theory, so I decided to research it some more. I found this great article online that was written by Jack Brehm, the person who came up with the reactance theory.  In the article he explains what reactance theory is:  reactance theory is "that people become motivationally aroused by a threat to or elimination of a behavioral freedom".  In the article he talks about how he was surprised that some people acted negatively even when influence attempts might be in the best interest of that person.  Jack Brehm goes on to tell us that there are two things that come about with reactance.  First, we may try to restore the freedom that has been put in jeapordy.  Second, there may be a perceived attractiveness to the lost or threatened freedom.

Jack Brehm also goes one step further and talks about the implication principle and how it interacts with reactance theory.   He talks about how there are two implications that come about to other freedoms when one freedom has been threatened.  The first implication applies the threat to the same freedom but for future actions.  Second, other freedoms that are similar to the original threat may also be threatened.  He illustrates that if a person believes that one freedom is in danger, what is to stop other freedoms from becoming threatened?  He also talks about how when many freedoms are threatened the person is likely to have a very strong response to stop those threats from taking place.

I really would recommend that everybody read this.  Jack Brehm uses great examples to help illustrate all of his points.  You can find this article at: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/display.asp?id=6883In

Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD's) are a group of disorders in which communication and socialization deficits are present (most commonly  Autism Spectrum Disorder).  Over the last few years I have worked with many children and young adults with PDD's and have seen countless acts of self-injury.  After reading and commenting on Sam's entry about the self-injuries exhibited in Manic I began to wonder why people with PDD's have similar behaviors.

http://www.autism.com/families/problems/selfinjury.htm

The most common self-injuries I have seen include hand biting, banging of the head, and scratching.  These can be pretty serious and often times need immediate medical attention.  The website above gives a general overview of the behavior and some possible causes.  Some include biochemical (neurotransmitters) imbalances that may be associated with the disorders.  Another possible reason, which I agree with the most, is for arousal.  So many people with autism are incredibly sensory oriented that they may need intense stimulation in order to be calmed down.  Extreme anxiety is often the cause for self-injury to occur in the people I have worked with, so it would be logical for extreme self-stimulation to settle these emotions. 

Similar to the teens in Manic who abuse themselves due to lack of control, people with PDD's may self abuse for the same reason.  When all control is lost, cutting or head banging may be the only way to regain power over something.  Do you agree or disagree?  Do you see the relationship between the two, or do you think they have completely different causes?  

With the economy the way that it is and many of us graduating this May and hopefully finding jobs, it may be tought to get the job you want.  I found an article that talks about keeping your chin up when the time of losing a job and needing to find another one turns into weeks and then into months.  I believe we can apply the same concepts when the struggles of finding a job can take a tole on us.  People who have lost a job or are just trying to find a job need to stay positive and not just dwell on "I cannot find a job"  There are many things you can do according to this article that I never thought of doing that would help with getting your mind out of the dumps and do something else in the off time of finding a job.  Going out with friends, taking some time for yourself, or even learn a new skill that could eventually help you with your job.  Maybe take up some extra college classes to amp up that resume.  Another thing that would be good and rewarding for someone would be to volunteer.  It not only looks good on a resume, but after having yet no luck in the job search, volunteering might be a good way to cope with things and make someone feel good about themselves.

It is very stressful to find a job after losing a job or just finding one out of college, especially in the economy that we are in now.  It is no wonder why an article like this could help someone out.  I wouldn't have thought of volunteering as a way to help with the stress of finding a job, but it could definitely be rewarding.

 

article: http://careerplanning.about.com/cs/jobloss/a/chin_up.htm

After commenting on a previous blog post I got to thinking about just how much we are affected by the internet in our generation and the generation below us. Every teen experiences narcissism. They feel as though everything that they do is under the public eye. What they do is extremely important. It is a normal feeling for teens. However, with resources like the internet these feelings are even more apparent. Now, more than ever, these teens feel as though what they do effects and reaches the masses. Unlike the typical teenage narcissism, when the teens finally realize that the whole world is not clinging on their every word, the internet narcissist will never see if people view what they say or how they feel about it. This gives them the ability to assume that every one is indulging in what they have to say.

Recently while I was watching Manic, I realized that I had never really thought of music and motivation at any point during the semester. What made me think of it was the part in Manic when the bipolar kid was telling Lyle how much music meant to him, and that without it, he didn't know what he would do. I commented on the fact that without music, he might not even have been alive at that point. It was his love and passion that dove his emotions for music, and in turn drove his motivation to live. It made me think of when I was on the high school track team and the guys would always blast heavy metal music in the weight room. It drove most people crazy but our coach thought it was a good idea that we have it on because he had heard that when people listen to heavy metal music, they lift up to 10% more, or some statistic like that. At the time I thought who cares, I'd rather lift 10% less than listen to this crappy music. But when you think about the power music can have over you emotions, it's easy to see why music can also drive your motivation. Even now, when I go on a run I listen to music that is upbeat, loud and fast, as I'm sure most people do. I don't think many people would be jamming out to Bach as they are running 5 miles or trying to work on their lifting abilities. Sometimes I even listen to music that makes me angry, because that emotion then triggers a reaction in my body that pushes me to move faster and work harder. This is talked about in the book in chapter 9 looking at emotion as motivation. I found an article that talks about music and motivation in exercise and it gives some interesting insight into what may help you when working out.
Is there any music that you specifically listen to when you are doing something specific?
When working out, does it help you to listen to something you normally wouldn't listen to, like heavy metal?
If music was removed from your workout, how do you think it would effect you??

Here is the article I found:
http://www.tinajuanfitness.info/articles/010207.htm
 

The discussion in Chapter 10 on self-esteem was very interesting to me.  What I found most interesting was the idea that many people's idea that self-esteem as a way to motivate people is not necessarily true.  Reeve discusses that there is no evidence that self-esteem causes anything at all.  Self-esteem in caused by our past successes and failures (2009).  The textbook author states that what really needs improving is people's skills for dealing with the world, not self-esteem.  The causal relationship between self-esteem and things like achievement are not correlated in the way people assume.  Increases in achievement cause higher self-esteem, not the other way around (Reeve, 2009).

Another point I found interesting was that boosting self-esteem has negative consequences such as increasing aggression and acts of violence when their favorable self-views are threatened.  However, this finding has not stopped popular media from viewing self-esteem as a key to motivation.  Reeve states, "The best conclusion to offer is that self-esteem is like happiness. Trying to be happy doesn't get you very far.  Rather, happiness is a byproduct of life's satisfactions, triumphs and positive relationships." (Reeve, 2009, p.267). 

With my new found outlook on self-esteem, I decided to try and find an article aimed at just this.  I found an interesting article from the Mayo Clinic titled, "Self-esteem check: Too low, too high or just right?".  The article discusses ways in which you can tell if you need to boost your self-esteem and ways to do it.  It also discusses the benefits of having high self-esteem and the negative attributes associated with overly high self-esteem and low self-esteem.  I found it very interesting that even the Mayo clinic bought into this idea that self-esteem is an important aspect of the person that it plyable and needs improvement in many. 

The second page of the article offers characteristics of low self-esteem, some of which I find questionable.  For instance, the fear of failure, I think that sometimes a person with a fear of failure may have high self-esteem but simply have a high need for achievement, therefore fearing failure at tasks in which they strive for.  I feel like I personally have high self-esteem but possess some of the characteristics in which they state as predictors of low self-esteem.  Overall, me even worrying about my self-esteem is based on my idea that self-esteem is very important with regards to my level of achievement and other factors that Reeve dispels. 

I wonder what others have to say about the idea of self-esteem.  Were you as surprised as I was with the information presented in chapter 10? Did you hold the opinion that high self-esteem caused factors such as high achievement and motivation? Also, do you possess any of the attributes described in the article as common characteristics of low self-esteem and still consider yourself someone with high self-esteem?

 

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/self-esteem/MH00128/NSECTIONGROUP=2

http://www.positivepractices.com/Efficacy/SelfEfficacy.html

 

The part of this article that really struck my interest is the passage: "By the time children reach middle school (grades six through eight), the majority of them have made significant judgments regarding their preferences toward certain academic domains. These judgments are no doubt influenced by their perceived capability with regard to the domains, as a result of social comparison with peers and feedback from teachers. This is particularly true in the domain of mathematics. At this stage, children are already making decisions leading to career directions and choice of classes. By high school, these decisions become more solidified. For educators, the critical time to reduce or prevent mathematics alienation is in middle school, or early on in high school."

 

From the passage above one could argue that the children learn best by watching/interacting with others.  Reeve states that vicarious experience "involves observing a model enact the same course of action the performer is about to enact (e.g., "you go first, I'll watch").  Seeing others perform masterfully raises an observer's own sense of efficacy."  The quote I've chosen from the article also shows that feedback from teachers is important to the students.  Reeve writes in regards to verbal persuasion "When effective, pep talks persuade the performer to focus more and more on personal strengths and potentials and less and less on personal weaknesses and deficiencies.  Pep talks shift a performer's attention from sources of inefficiency to sources of efficacy."

 

Do you agree with the statement that middle school students have already made judgments regarding their preferences toward certain academic domains?

Chapter 10 in Reeve (2009) discusses the self:  defining and creating the self, relating the self to society, discovering and developing personal potential, and managing or regulating the self. 

Becoming a fair and pro-social person is generally thought of as part of the quest of defining and creating the self.  However, a recent New York Times article reviewed a study published by Science that studied how large-scale institutions affected fairness.  This article seems to show that fairness and pro-sociality may be more due to relating the self to society.  The article can be found at 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/science/23tier.html?ref=science

The study used three different experimental designs to determine the effect of large-scale institutions, such as markets and major world religions have on fairness.  These experiments were then carried out in 15 diverse cultures across the world.  The presence of large-scale institutions was determined by the percentage of calories that were purchased - the higher the percentage the higher the market integration.

 

The study found that the greater the market integration in a community the more fair its citizens were.  The participation in a world religion increased punishment for unfairness in a community.  The authors argue that this is because in market society would not work if everyone were only out for himself or herself.  For market integration to be successful the society must have underlying norms to be fair and trusting with people beyond each individual's social circle.  They found that by having institutions like Wal-Mart our communities have actually become fairer.  The researchers believe that our modern pro-sociality is not solely due to innate psychology but also due to the norms and institutions that have emerged over human history.

I read an interesting chapter from The Good Body (2005) by Eve Ensler.  Ensler has been a radical feminist for nearly thirty years.  I have added the link for the first chapter of the book.  In the first chapter, Ensler focuses on her body image and her dislike for dissatisfaction with particular body parts.  Like many women, she has always been anxious about a particular part of her body.  Ensler shares she has placed much of her attention on her stomach.  She continues to say she feels her stomach has become her most serious committed relationship.  Regarding her stomach, Ensler states, "It has protruded through my clothes, my confidence, and my ability to work.  I've tried to sedate it, educate it, embrace it and most of all, erase it" (pg. 6). 

I found this chapter interesting because Ensler is an intelligent and confident woman, like most women she suffers with body image.  I can relate to Ensler.  I hate when my girl friends complain about their body size or some part of their body instead of embracing their body.  However, I know I am just as guilty about complaining about my stomach and lack of abdominal muscles when I have not worked out, or eat a big, juicy hamburger with salty fries.

Does anyone else share similar feelings about body image?  Do you think our culture has engrained into us that thin is beautiful; therefore, the only way to look?  Do you think our culture places too much emphasis on appearance instead of, for example, intelligence?

https://lms.uni.edu/webct/urw/lc597085295011.tp597085320011/RelativeResourceManager/sfsid/811815967021

Self-Cutting Behaviors in Adolescents
Self-Injury: Addiction? Parasuicide? A Call for Help?
Self-Injury: Myths and Misconceptions 1
Self-Injury: Myths and Misconceptions 2

While watching Manic, I couldn't help but wonder why a few of them had injured themselves. The one girl had an 'Anarchy' symbol on her thigh, and Lyle had burned himself. Self-Injurious behavior has increased over the last several decades and is probably seen as an American problem, but it has been around for a long time throughout cultures. Cases involving emergency visits occur at a rate of 225 per 100,000 people aged 7-24. While causality is unclear, my Abnormal Psychology textbook cites a recent study that found that of the adolescents that engage in self-injurious behavior, 50% have a depressive or anxiety disorder, 60% have a substance used disorder, 60% have a disruptive behavior disorder, and more than 50% have a personality disorder (most often borderline, avoidant, or paranoid personality disorder). Obviously, those numbers add up to more than 100%, so the comorbidity of mental disorders associated with this behavior makes intervention and treatment that much more difficult and complex.  

Self-injury is typically thought of as a suicide attempt, but that is not necessarily true. It can be used as a coping mechanism (albeit a short-lived and poor one) for dealing with emotional stress. Some people actually run into cutting by accident (like the girl in Manic) when they accidentally cut themselves shaving or something and instead of pain they feel relief. As described in the 'myths and misconceptions 2' link, this lack of pain experience might be explained by being in a dissociative state ( or zoned out). What causes the dissociative state is less clear. The relief (negative reinforcement) is actually the result of endorphins flooding the brain which is the result of the response to pain and can have actual euphoric-like effects (positive reinforcement). With the co-occurrence of both of these effects, it is easy to see why self-injurious behavior can become a powerful coping mechanism.

If you're like me, you probably get on your laptop, check you're email, then head straight to Facebook. Then throughout the day you may check it once or twice more just to see what people are saying in their status' or if you have any new messages or comments. Like me, you are not alone because according to this article 65% of Facebook users do the very same thing. Well, researchers are now saying that this could be lowering your grades more than you think. It has been found that those who utilize Facebook are underachieving by a whole letter grade compared to those who do not have a Facebook! GPA's of Facebook users were also significantly lower than those who do not use the social networking site. One researcher's explanation is that people are getting of Facebook as opposed to studying. The article cites one student's experience of trying to write a 2,000 word paper with the distraction of Facebook. Her decision as a result of that distraction was to deactivate her Facebook account. This sounded extreme to me, but I remembered a friend of mine who did the exact same thing at the beginning of the school year! Most of Facebook users (79%), however, don't believe the time spent on Facebook has any impact on school work and grades.

I would have to say I'm partially a part of that 79% because when I read this article I was shocked! I know that Facebook is a distraction and I find myself constantly logging onto the site (even when I have to blog or do other homework online) but I would have never contributed my getting a B instead of an A to a social networking site.

Reeve (2009) discusses Relatedness being a psychological need to have social interaction that is warm, close and affectionate (p. 161). With technology advancing sites like Facebook seem to make our friendships less affectionate, but I think our rejection of homework for Facebook is to fulfill our need of Relatedness to a degree.

What kind of impact do you see Facebook having on the quality of your relationships as well as your studies?


I understand that we are an evolving society that revolves on technology tremendously, but what is our motivation for logging onto Facebook several times throughout the day when we are facing deadlines as college students? Have any of you deactivated your Facebook due to the distraction or know someone who has? Does anyone is this class NOT have a Facebook account?
Article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article6078321.ece

http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/search.php?p=qsearch&s_gender=1&s_copt=2&i_search=shane&filter_select=1&s_filter=14&=a

Check out the first link, and see what your name means. My name (Jordan) means descendant.

I found an article on personality characteristics or people's names. Let me know what you think.

http://www.articlealley.com/article_590182_27.html

The article talks about how parents actually decide on their child's name by the day of the week they are born.

There is a rhyme about choosing names for personality traits:

Monday's child is full of grace

Tuesday's child is fair of face

Wednesday's child is full of woe

 

Some cultures have a ceremony for the naming of a new baby, whereas other parents look at names or ones they have heard of and liked.

In Chapter 10 Reeve talks about personality characteristics. Do you think a person's name can make them have a certain personality, such as neuroticism, or how about parents who name their children Joy or June, will they have those type of characteristics just because it is their name? What's your opinion...

"Don't let the difficult climb persuade you to quit or from setting higher goals," the article states.  I completely agree with this statement because I often feel like a lot of us give up easily on things if we don't achieve them right away.  We feel discouraged when we fail at something even though we should take it as a learning experience and do better the next time.  The article also states, " Success comes to those who look for it," which I also agree with.  Those who persist in achieving their dreams and goals are usually the ones who will end up achieving them.  They show drive, positive attitudes, and passion when they chose not to give up.  Things to think about:
1. What are you passionate about?
2. Be specific when setting goals (as everyone should know by now)
3. Think big, yet realistic, don't set something you already know you won't achieve.
4. Make a plan.  Write down ideas and your plan of action towards achieving short-term goals.
5. Set values on your goals.  Goals must be valuable to you in order for you to fulfill them.
6. Reward your progress.  Celebrate your achievements, even the smaller ones!

In the textbook there is a section about learned helplessness. I'm sure many of us have heard about this term in other classes, it occurs when a person believes they have no control in a situation. This concept can be applied to being poor. In the article "Learned Helplessness: The Secret to Being Poor" it talks about how people living in lower economic statuses believe they are not able to improve their status no matter what they do or how hard they work. These people learn helplessness in this situation. The article goes on to give a few suggestions on how to create more control your life to help break the cycle of learned helplessness. The five suggestions are:

 

1. Embrace Change
2. Get perspective
3. Set goals
4. Achieve success
5. Consider a different viewpoint

 

I think that it is interesting that one suggestion is to set goals, like we talked about a few weeks ago. A person who sets goals and creates a plan will more likely complete their goal. Do you believe that these five suggestions would actually work to help improve a person's status and to break learned helplessness?

 

Article:

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/career-advice/blog/other-8-hours/the-secret-to-being-poor/1288/

 

I'm sure that many of you have studied the 'Big Five' personality traits in some of your other classes. These traits are said to be the main aspects of an individual's personality.  They have now developed a test (The IPIP-NEO or International Personality Item Pool Representation of the NEO PI-R™) to measure each of the Big Five aspects.  You can take either the long version or the short version at this website: http://www.personal.psu.edu/j5j/IPIP/

 

The Big Five Personality characteristics are:
Openness

Conscientiousness

Extroversion

Agreeableness

Neuroticism

 

It's pretty interesting to see your scores.  I even had my sister take it so that we could compare our personalities (we were complete opposites on almost every aspect!).  The test results have actually really helped me understand some of the things about my personality.  I realize now why sometimes I feel overwhelmed or overly stressed out when no one else around me feels the same.  In the text, Reeve discusses the aspects of coping strategies (p. 243).  These strategies can all be affected by personality characteristics.  People who are more open to new experiences are more likely to be able to deal with change and take problems head on, whereas people who score lower in this area maybe more avoidant and resistant to change.  Other areas of coping that can be associated with the Big Five are things such as taking action or avoiding action when faced with a problem.  People who are more extroverted may have better coping in these areas, whereas introverts may be more hesitant. Another aspect of the Big Five that has a lot to do with coping skills is Conscientiousness, which is measured by how well someone can handle their emotions.  Reeve discusses how emotions can play a large factor in coping, as those who are better able to control their emotions are more likely to be able to cope with change or problems in their lives (Reeve, 243).

I think that along with this test, using these two sources of information together can really change how someone views their life, situations, and their personality.  It could also help when dealing with the aspects of self-efficacy, something that many college students seem to struggle with.  The concept of self is one area where personality characteristics can really be seen.  Table 10.1 (Reeve, 265) demonstrates how different aspects of psychological well-being are tied into personality traits. Each of the six dimensions include things that are related to personality, such as; positive attitude (self-acceptance, agreeableness), open to new experiences (personal growth, openness), warm relationships with others (positive relationships with others, conscientiousness), and not concerned with others (low positive relations with others, neuroticism), regulates behavior from within (autonomy, neuroticism), makes effective use of surrounding opportunities (environmental mastery, openness), has goals in life (purpose in life, extroversion), sees self as growing and expanding (personal growth, openness) (Reeve, 236).

There are many other aspects of motivation and emotion that relate back to the Big Five.  What other factors can be influenced by personality?  Is there anything we have discussed in class that doesn't have to do with personality?  If personality is so influential, why isn't it discussed more often?

 

 

This post is dedicated to Ali and UNI for upsetting Kansas.  Ali has become nationally known for his two clutch shots at the end of the games of UNLV and especially Kansas.  Blogs and analysts are all amazed at this guy's incredible guts and confidence in himself to take a shot like he did at the end of the Kansas game with so much on the line. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTMmBCHwqOM&feature=related

 In my chapter nine analysis, I looked at UNI's team self-efficacy:

"First, self-efficacy is the generative capacity in which an individual organizes his or her skills to cope with the demands and circumstances that arise. Thus, it's an important aspect of competent functioning as situations arise, especially within sporting events, which are stressful, ambiguous, and unpredictable. As the environment changes, one's self-efficacy is put to the test.

For UNI in their 2nd round game vs. Kansas, their team self-efficacy (belief whether or not they would advance in the tournament) was a judgment formed through multiple sources, specifically the following: personal history trying to execute that particular behavior, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological state.

First, their personal history affected their belief they could win. While this season they had won many games, UNI had never defeated the #1 team in the nation in the past and had never even advanced to the sweet sixteen. Next, vicarious experience; UNI has watched other teams defeat Kansas, yet they have also seen Kansas be victorious a great number of times. Also, past history of the NCAA tourney shows that 2nd round upsets of the #1 seed are possible, yet few and far in between. Also, the team could have looked at UNI's 1990 team which also pulled off a shocker against Mizzou in a 3 vs. 14 matchup. Verbal persuasion; Ben Jacobsen and the team knew they had a shot at knocking them off, yet much of the media had been telling them they had no shot at even competing with the best team in the nation. I think the coach's and individual's verbal persuasion on the team definitely outweighed the media's, providing them an efficacy boost, generating motivation. This led to a solid physiological state in which there appeared to be an absence of tension, fear, and anxiety about playing Kansas.

Overall, it seemed UNI had positive self-efficacy beliefs through their speech and their actions on the court as they shocked the nation defeating Kansas!"

 

In the video below, the sport psychologist describes self-confidence as the strength of your belief in your ability to execute.  He talks about a global self-confidence, which is the perceptive belief in your ability to win and your team can win.  Also, there is task specific confidence, the belief in which you can shoot the ball into the basket.  This confidence is fluid depending on the task and course of the game. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIIqxYJX_I4

Confidence is controllable, yet it can be destroyed from allowing outside sources like the media or within the course of the game, the opposing team.  In the UNI/Kansas game, Ali had a stable, longlasting confidence which many athletes desire.  While he started the game off hot, he was 0-6 in the second half before the 3-pointer in the final minute.  Kansas was making their big run, UNI was turning the ball over, and Ali was cold shooting the ball.  Yet, Ali knew his teammates had confidence in him and he maintained confidence in himself, giving him the guts to shoot the shot many players would not have taken.  This confidence, individually and as a team, gave UNI a strong outcome expectation, which is a judgment that a given action (playing the game), once performed, will cause a particular outcome (winning the game).  For Ali, his efficacy expecations (his judgment of his capacity to make the 3-pointer) were strong enough to allow him initiate his behavior of shooting the basketball during such a crucial point of the ballgame. Now on the sweet sixteen!!

 

 

 

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/15/health/la-he-marathon-20100315

This article is about different factors that motivate people to participate in marathons. Some of the information seems fairly obvious, especially to people in this class, but it is still interesting to consider these findings. I found it especially interesting that the reason a person runs can make a difference in if they finish the race. In short, it was the people with high intrinsic motivation who tended to finish the training and marathon itself. It said that "The 75 who did not finish were those most likely to have been motivated by the wish to lose weight or gain recognition from others."

This finding makes sense to me, and I think it fits rather well with our individualistic culture. Many of us feel that it should be up to each person how they want to live, we should not spend our lives trying to please others. It would be interesting to see if this finding holds up in collectivistic cultures. If it would, we could be more confident than intrinsic factors of motivation may be inherently more powerful in influencing whether or not a person ultimately finishes a marathon.

This article mentioned that more and more people are creating bucket lists on which they include marathons. The article said this was a form of extrinsic motivation because it is being done for recognition, but I would argue that it really depends on the person. There are undoubtedly some people who will do extreme activities just to brag about them, but there are others (using the bucket list) who simply enjoy the challenge.

I find it rather interesting that some people do it for loved ones, and I have heard that others still do it for Christ. From what we first read (that  the people with high intrinsic motivation tend to finish the marathons), it would seem that these motivations are extrinsic (being done for the approval of others). I think this certainly does seem true, but there are probably exceptions. If a Christian is doing the marathon as a type of self-imposed penance because they feel guilty about past wrongdoings or because they simply want to make a sacrifice for the Lord, that would probably be intrinsic motivation. On the other hand, if a Christian does the marathon as penance to avoid the fires of Hell, it seems that would probably be a form of extrinsic motivation. In retrospect, this past paragraph sounds somewhat like a bad joke, but I believe it is never the less very true.

Another point which merits attention is about endorphins. Over the past couple years I have read very contradictory "findings" on endorphins. You commonly hear that exercising and physical activities releases endorphins, and others have claimed that the level of physical exertion one must undertake to actually release significant levels of endorphins is dangerously high (with such physical activities doing actually more harm than good overall). I honestly do not know which view is objectively correct, so if anyone else might be able to shed light on this area, I would very much appreciate it.

One final point I would like to write about is that there obviously can be both primary and secondary motivations. The article also mentioned that specific reasons for making the commitment to a marathon may change over time. For example: physical health benefits may become dominant. Although raising money for charities seems to be partly be an extrinsic form of motivation, I really do not believe you can place it exclusively in a single category - there may be elements of both intrinsic and extrinsic forms of motivation present (recognition from others and feeling happy that you have helped others).   

How can it be that plus size women want to idealize themselves as perfect, when perfect is different to many people? Culturally as a nation we see "perfect" now a day's as being skinny, because you can be a beautiful plus size model, but still be overlooked by a skinner version. So how can we evaluate perfect? But this article only makes sense on two levels to me.

 http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/do-plus-size-models-make-women-feel-bad-about-themselves-1173186/#poll-BD54121832B011DFBA43F0FC7608A6B2

First off, right now our country is on a skinny health trip, which means, if you look skinny you are perceived healthier than those of a heavy weight or size. Which can change soon with the new focus on being actively healthy because of "skinny fat".

Secondly, plus size women only have lower self-esteem because they are constantly told that they are not as pretty as thinner women. Society creates this self-esteem issue, because look at some of the really dangerously thin women and ask them why they don't shop or enjoy the way they look. Plus, if they made clothing that was pretty for plus size women things could be different as well.

What do you think, can plus size models hinder you from buying clothing, shoes, watches or anything? Do you think that seeing plus size models make it more diverse when it comes to adds, because not everyone can be this size 0-4 frame?

 

In Chapter 9, we discussed personal control beliefs and the importance of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy beliefs come from personal behavior history, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological states (Reeve, 2009, p. 241). These beliefs can be changed and acquired, and predict coping methods the individual will utilize called "competent functioning" or "personal empowerment." Improved self-efficacy expectations provide the cognitive-motivational foundation underlying personal empowerment.

What is empowerment? According to Reeve, "empowerment involves possessing the knowledge, skills, and beliefs that allow people to exert control over their lives." This article considers what we can do to empower other individuals while also improving our own sense of confidence and self-awareness. Helping others achieve their goals is thought to help us get our lives on track as well. The author provides 50 small things we can do to provide the verbal or nonverbal persuasion others may need to boost their self-efficacy just enough to attempt another try. I will briefly sum up the five that stuck out most to me:

1.       Give out compliments you mean: anyone can give out a compliment, and it's generally not that difficult to find something that another person would be encouraged by hearing. Direct your compliments to something you've noticed the person does well. When the person later generates an efficacy expectation in a new situation, the likelihood of it being something they believe they are able to accomplish is more prominent. Words of encouragement can change peoples' lives--why are we so stingy on providing them?

2.       Listen to others: when others ask for us to listen (directly or indirectly) and we start giving advice, we have not done what they have asked of us. Why is it so difficult for us to simply listen to someone vent their frustrations? When selecting environments, a person may avoid those that seem detrimental as a self-protective act for guarding against the possibility of being overwhelmed by their demands and challenges (Reeve, 2009, p. 237). If you want to be a "safe" person to talk to, provide the environment your acquaintance requires when they seek your help. You never know, you may need their listening ears in the near future as well!

3.       Smile more often: "A smile confuses an approaching frown." Reeve tells us that "vicarious experience involves observing a model enact the same course of action the performer is about to enact" (Reeve, 2009, p. 235). By being optimistic in a social situation in which others are not, you are raising the efficacy of similar others that are observing you. Greet others with a smile and show them that if you can do it, so can they.

4.       Help foster creativity: creativity is becoming harder to come by in our world. Support those who you see creative potential in, and cheer them on in their efforts and persistence. Resiliency in the face of obstacles can be quite a bit easier with your own personal cheerleader.

5.       Study psychology: with our backgrounds in psychology, we are all better equipped to reach out to people at the scientific level, but we're also more effective communicating interpersonally. Ever wonder how you would use what you're learning in the real world?

What do you do to empower others? Has someone recently done something to empower you that you would like to share?

http://www.lifeoptimizer.org/2010/03/10/empower-people/

After you have watched a movie, you should blog your general impressions of the movie (by 5pm on thursdays) and provide 1 example from the movie (scene, character, etc) and how it relates specifically to a theory or construct in Motivation and Emotion.

Your full analyses are due the following Tuesday turned in via eLearning (aka WebCT).

 

Read the chapter and review the powerpoint presentation that was sent to you.

Answer the following questions, using the questions as headings.

What was the most surpising thing you learned in this chapter?

What information did you learn that you think will be personally helpful to you in your life? Why?

What is the relationship betweens self-efficacy, mastery beliefs, and hope?

 

The talk that we had in class this week about setting goals and following through with them, got me more interested in the topic.  I thought it may be good for myself to learn ways that may help me follow through with some of the goals that I set for myself, and maybe help others as well.

When searching the web, I found an article that gave a few tips to help you follow through with your goals for yourself, no matter which type.  http://www.dumblittleman.com/2009/02/11-useful-tips-on-setting-goals-and.html

• Take firm action- Tell yourself you WILL follow through
• Get priorities in order- Know what's important to you NOW
• Write them down- Have them written where you can see them often
• Take a deep look- Realistic?
• Make an action plan- Which method works best for you?
• Track your progress- Know where you're at with accomplishing your goals
• Involve others- Allow advice and encouragement from others
• Welcome failures- You won't always be successful, you will fail at times, but it's ok
• Persist- Don't give up
• Celebrate- Be excited about accomplishing each step
• Don't lose sight- Stay focused, your goal can be achieved

I thought that all of these tips were very valuable.  I know that from experience I always am more likely to follow through with things when I write them down.  Whether it's a To Do list, a method for studying for a test, or goal setting, it is embedded into my head more when I write them down, and I am more likely to remember what I need to do and follow through.  I also think that it is important to make realistic goals.  So many times people throw out unrealistic goals for themselves and are disappointed later on when they realize they were unachievable.  You need to think about where you are right now and take steps/ make small goals, that may lead up to a larger goal later on. Overall, the article was short but to the point.  I feel like it gave good advice, though.

Does anyone else have any advice to give on goal setting that works for them??

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/07/23/who-uses-internet-dating/

With the many advertisements for online dating services like eharmony, matchamaker, and match.com, the online dating industry is obviously doing quite well. Having never considered it myself and not having any friends who have used it,I have always been curious, what personality traits does a person need to possess to be motivated to use this service? Do they fit a specific psychological profile or have a similar set of needs?

According to this article there is a specific psychological profile for users of on-line dating services. They surveyed 3,345 people, both men and women using various questionnaires and psychological measures. Researchers found that more sociable people tend to use internet dating services than those who are less social. This finding was shocking to me; I consider myself very social, outgoing and have many friends with the same characteristics who have never even considered trying it. These findings really defy the stereotypical image of internet daters as lonely and socially anxious.

Perhaps it comes down to geography, and we haven't been exposed to the level of acceptance and commonality of internet dating, though I doubt this will last for long. Researchers have found that using the internet as a means of finding a prospective mate is no longer thought of as unusual. This study is also not unique, previous research has all came to the same conclusion.  Now on-line dating is just another tool at the socialite's disposal.

It also says that while more social people may be the majority of users, not all social people consider this. High-self esteem individuals who value intimate relationships as a key element in their lives are just as likely to use these services as a low self-esteem person who does not view romantic relationships as an important part of their life. Low self-esteem individuals who only put some value on these relationships are less likely to use the services. Here is an excerpt from the findings:

"If the success of romantic relationships is the domain of self worth, one may try to increase the prospect of success and avoid failure in romantic relationships. In the context of Internet dating, when sociable people consider romantic relationships to be an important domain for self-worth, those with high self-esteem will be more likely than those with low self esteem to use Internet dating services.

The reason is that when sociable people consider romantic relationships to be an important domain for self-worth, those with high self-esteem will find it comfortable to present themselves to a multitude
of anonymous people, whereas those with low self-esteem will be more likely to experience a higher level of stress just thinking about disclosing and promoting themselves on the Internet. Less confident individuals may not want their negative self-views publicized or viewed by others.

To reduce such negative feelings and protect their self-worth, those with low self-esteem will adopt avoidance strategies and distance themselves from Internet dating services."

 

So gone are the days of old where internet dating was only for nerds and desperate people. There is actually an interesting article about the science behind these websites as well. It can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/internet/18shortcuts.html?ref=technology

This article is pretty generalized and I would like to have more information. The original article is cited at the bottom and definitely something worth looking into.

I've always been interested in learning what motivates people to do things that would be considered extreme to the general population of that culture.  Why do people kill other people?  There are many different motivating factors that could answer that question.  But what kind of motivators are present for someone to kill another person they don't know and have no personal problem with?

I read an interesting article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100310/ts_csm/286499  about a US-born woman that is described as having become gradually radicalized by Islamic contacts through the internet.  She is a middle-aged American woman that had contact with Muslim extremists and was given an order to kill a man in Sweden.  She was preparing to do so when police got wind of the conspiracy and arrested her.  She agreed to marry a co-conspirator so he could travel more easily and have better access to travel in Europe, which is also an example of extreme behavior that doesn't have a blatant motivator. 

All of her actions seem without obvious motivation.  Religion doesn't seem to be the strongest motivator in this case because none of her comments mention God, converting to Islam, or anything that could be tied with extreme religious belifs.  The little I know about the incident from the article seems to me that she could possibly be motivated by a need for affiliation.  What I infer from the article is that she is a single, middle-aged woman with plenty of time on her hands to spend perusing the internet making contacts with Islamic extremists.  She might feel interpersonal rejection from her peers in her own culture, which is a typical fear of people with high needs for affiliation, and because she was unable to gain approval with people in her culture, sought approval elsewhere and via the internet. 

This woman also seems to display long-term goal setting behaviors.  All of this communication with extremists, planning, and marrying a co-conspirator was done over a period of time in order to achieve the goal of killing the man in Sweden.  These behaviors done before the long-term goal was reached were mini, short-term goals that would have provided enough reinforcement to keep her going with the end result, long-term goal in mind.  Constant communication and smaller steps to take before her desired result provided motivation to continue toward the goal.  It also helped internalize her goal to become more intrinsically motivated.  The article said: "In June, 2008, LaRose posted a comment on YouTube under the moniker "JihadJane" saying that she was "desperate to do something somehow to help" suffering Muslims, according to the indictment." which indicates that she was somehow intrinsically motivated toward extremist thinking to the point of plotting and intending to murder someone.

All of this seems to make sense with what we've been learning in class, but I'm still left wondering how all of these motivators and reinforcers could be enough to make someone intend to murder another person and having adopted these extremist views at a later age in life.  I would be able to understand it more from a motivational standpoint if she had been immersed in this culture and extreme thinking her whole life, but she was born in the US and adopted these views from internet communications.  It doesn't seem like enough motivation to commit murder.  But, perhaps this disturbing phenomenon is why the beginning of the article says how even experts are baffled by this sort of extreme behavior.

It may be a cliche activity post, but what a perfect time to find a goal for yourself than right now when you are learning about them in class!  I am sure if you are like most people you would have come up with some New Year's resolution, well how is it going?  Mine is not....at all!! Which is discouraging, but I know why.

It wasn't specific, I didn't have something I was reaching for.  I just said, I want to shed a few pounds and eat healthier foods.  What I didn't do is write it out and figure out HOW I was going to get there.  In our book on page 216 it shows the summary of the goal process.  I started out fine: goal - to eat healthy and shed a few pounds.  It was a difficult goal (for me) but was NOT specific.  From there it has dwindled down to excuse after excuse.  Has this ever happened to you??

If it has, or even if it hasn't lets use some knowledge we are learning and set a goal. 
Post this back as a comment, or you are more comfortable just jot it down in a notebook for yourself. 

What is your goal?
Now think, is it difficult AND specific?
Is this a long term goal or a short term goal?
How will you get to that goal?

My goal: stop twirling my hair
Difficult: check...very much so
Specific: check...see the how portion
This is a long term goal. 

How: I have tried to do this in the past and for a while it worked mostly because I was reinforcing myself. It is 4:43 right now, I want to make it through this blog without twirling my hair.  From there I can watch the clock like crazy and test myself in 30 min. increments..."have a twirled my hair?"  If I haven't it is gratifying and reward enough to keep going.  I set mini goals like: I want to make it through the rest of this class period without twirling my hair.  Or I want to read this page in my book without twirling my hair.  I write it down and will post it in a spot I see every day, multiple times a day. I will keep increasing the increments until I make it to days...and then weeks...and then a month..and two months...until six months...until a year...then I'll kick the habit!
So within my "how" there are mini goals.  And if each are positively reinforced I might just stop twirling. 

Sounds obtainable (so far I haven't even touched my hair).  I have heard that with bad habits there is a three day hump for quitting.  That could be the case but from previous attempts I found that when I lost social support and stress levels increased I gave in to the urge.  Also my reward system wasn't as effective.  Its a real bummer, but I am ready to try again. From reading this it might not sound specific enough (but some details are just left out because I could probably write a whole book on how I could just stop this habit). 

Reeve (2009) states "Planning how to carry out a goal allows the performer to overcome the inevitable volitional problems associated with goal-directed behavior." Goals are an important part of life.  Maybe not enough to qualify as a need, but I think goals can really direct you through life.  And it will create challenges and obstacles while trying to attain whatever your goal may be.

5:00 PM = 17 minutes twirl free!

In class the other day we were talking about how making lists is a great way to achieve goals, yet this could easily get out of hand. I was thinking recently about how if you don't set your goals right, then you won't be able to achieve them, for example lets talk about those New Years Resolutions, like the one you set stating you were going to go to the gym everyday? It almost seems as though with New Years resolutions, the goals we set for the year are far-fetched and don't seem to be reasonable, according to Why Setting Goals Don't Work!. This article continues to state that with New Years Resolutions, no real thought or planning is involved when setting these goals, so it is hard to follow through with them. In order to set proper goals you will need to take into consideration your beliefs and your values. After you understand these, then you will need to make a detailed goal and have a specific outcome. The article states that just saying something vague like "I want to be rich" is not good enough to be an actual goal. The article states that you should build from that and say something like "I want to earn $10,000 passive income per month from my online internet affiliate programs"

It is easy to see the difference between those two statements of goals. How you get from the first statement to the second is to ask yourself questions like "who, what, when, where, why and how?" One advice the article gives is that you should "Set a goal with end in mind." It is important to determine the outcome in order to figure out how you will get to the outcome. if you don't have an outcome, then you don't have anything to work towards.

I find that these things are quite easy to understand, for me at least. I am a big planner, and I do have goals for myself. For instance, right now my goal is to get this done before the deadline. I do have goals for my future, as in opening my own private practice, however there is many steps before I achieve that goal.

Overall just keep in mind that if you want your goals to work, know who you are, make sure you set your goal with the end in mind, and also prepare yourself that there will be challenges that will come along, its just apart of the goal.

What kind of goals do you have set for yourself? What kind of obstacles or challenges have you had to face in reaching your goal? Do you set well-defined goals, or very simplistic ones such as the New Years Resolution example?

"Senioritis, from the word senior plus the suffix -itis (which refers to inflammation but in colloquial speech is assumed to mean an illness), is a colloquial term used in the United States to describe the decreased motivation toward studies displayed by students who are nearing the end of their high school, college and graduate school careers"(Wikipedia).

 

I don't know about you but I sure had a bad case of senioritis when I was in high school, and even now in my last year here at UNI I am having a relapse, all the symptoms are coming back and I have found myself with an almost more severe case. So I am wondering where my motivation went, and if schools have an answer for their students who suffer from the same condition.

 

Here is an article about a medical school that has realized that students can have trouble with motivation during their final year in classes. They stated in the article that making the fourth year for medical students more of an option should be up for debate. Now they spend their fourth year not on learning anything medical related, but more of a general education year. What do you think about this? Would you want medical students to have the optional fourth year? Or would you want them to be required and maybe not put as much effort into their studies?

 

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/06/25/fourthyear

I read a very interesting article for my Psychological Anthropology class today that pertains to our class.  I could not find the link to the article anywhere on the internet, however the main point of the article was that our idea of the "self" comes from cultural norms and beliefs.  A person's schemas about the world can be influenced by communication with peers and in turn influences our culture.  Reeve talks about internalization and integrating self.  He discusses this idea of society on page 283.  Reeve talks about how the needs and interests of the self grow and develop throughout life.  However, our need for relatedness keeps our "self" from straying too far from the beaten path.  Behaviors, emotions, and ways of thinking originate in the self and also within the social context of society. 

This article talks about Two Ways To Be a Happier Parent. It's a sociologists perspective on being a parent and dealing with the stressful times. According to her it comes down to two questions:

1. When are you happiest with your kids?

2. What part of the normal day with your family routinely causes suffering?

She goes on to give a specific example she dealt with personally, and she explains how she changed their routine as a family to decrease the stress levels in their household.

I think parenting is one of the hardest things to do in life, so it is helpful to have any tips. While reading how the sociologist adjusted her family's mornings it seemed a little too military like. If it works than maybe that's all that matters. I just don't know if I liked her approach.

This time in my life is incredibly critical. I'm about to graduate college with a degree in Psychology, and I have only a slight idea of what I plan to do hereafter. Because it is so important to map out my future life, I need to adhere to a strict goal setting regime. If goals are simply "whatever an individual is striving to accomplish", according to the textbook, then I at least have some idea (I often discredit myself). Anyway, my basic goal(s) is (are) to graduate college and eventually apply to graduate school and obtain at least a Masters degree. That seems reasonable, right? However, the steps that proceed are where I need some sort of encouragement or helpful guidelines to set my goals processes in motion. After searching Google for "goal setting programs" I came across this website, managed by Mind Tools, which offers several free tips and tricks to help emower someone to begin and to eventually achieve his or her goals. This page on the website lays out many helpful tips of advice. A short video accompanies the website, and in it the CEO explains some basic criteria before planning a goal. The video only touches on the main points that are described in greater detail on the actual webpage.

For this blog I will quickly run through what the people in the video say. Here are some of the important criteria one should follow when planning a goal (not in order of importance):

1) Use positive language when wording your goals

2) Prioritize your goals - this makes them more manageable and realistic

3) Set precise goals to measure achievements (discussed a little in class)

4) Make goals related to performance, not outcomes.

5) WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS (kind of a no-brainer, right?)

6) Set realistic goals 

I think the most important one that I have never thought of is # 4. A lot of times you cannot control your outcomes. But if you set your goals to your performance, you are more likely to retain control over your situation, because performance is mostly based on your own controllability and management. Unfortunately, I suffer from forgetting to write things down. If I have trouble with that simple task, then I feel like I have a long road ahead of me. Nevertheless, I am confident and optimistic about what lies ahead. In addition to the abovementioned tips, the website offers a helpful mnemonic device by which to remember your goal planning: SMART

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Time-bounded

Besides the tips I mentioned above, are there other ways that you effectively set and accomplish your goals?

http://www.2knowmyself.com/Persistence_definition/how_to_become_persistent

 

This article is very helpful for all of you people with the lack of motivation and persistence (we've all been there, myself included).   But is there something out there that you have always wanted to happen but you just can't quite make it there?  Maybe it has to do with exercising to feel healthy-- we all know we should but how many of us actually keep with a routine workout schedule?   This article defines persistence as "...not allowing anything to stop you from an activity once you start it unless it's something really severe."

Some helpful tips from the article included

1) Even if you feel like quitting, keep with it!

2)Keep your goal in sight

3)Don't ignore small situations-- be persistent with even the small tasks. 

4)Be flexible

5)Be confident in your ability to reach your goal

Reeve states in Chapter 8 (p 224) that when people are in the persuit of a goal, they may come across certian obstacles involving disctractions, demands of their time, or some other form of interruption.  THis article helps you focus on what is important in your persuit toward your goal.  Also, Reeve shows on page 221 that goals are to be more reachable if you know the process you will have to take to reach them.  This relates to number 3 from the article- Be persistent with the smaller tasks, because eventually those small tasks add up to the large goal in mind. 

The only question i had regarding this article, was how can you make someone want to be persistent with their goals?  Of course these are helpful steps, but they won't help much if the person is  someone with little motivation to set goals. 

The only magazine I currently subscribe to is Cosmo.  However, while perusing their site, I found that there are way more articles and topics on their site than in the mag (not surprising!).  I came across one article about a book by Daniel H. Pink entitled Drive.  In his book, he discusses intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation and flow.  We all experience days when we wake up and feel like the day should be over... Every class feels like it's never ending, you sit down to do work but nothing happens... But then, we all have also experienced those "miracle" days when you wake up and the next thing you know, it's time for bed!  You just get so caught up in all of the day's activities, that the day just flew by!

http://digg.com/d31LEDK

 

This article tells how Carlos Slim Helu, a Mexican billionaire, has just surpassed Bill Gates as the world's richest man.  I don't want to talk about the reasons behind acquiring that much money - I think that "Wall Street" covered that.  However, I want to talk about my reaction to the article and see how it compared to yours.

 

As I read the article, I immediately wanted Bill Gates, an American, to be the richest person in the world again.  He has been the world' richest person for fourteen of the past fifteen years.  Also, Gates is only five hundred million dollars behind.

 

I thought it was odd that I became so vested in the competition . . . and it doesn't even affect me . . . at all! I immediately identified with the other American and started to become emotionally upset.

 

I personally feel that this could be from our social needs.  Those would be our needs for achievement, affiliation - intimacy, and power.  Even though we aren't the ones with the money, we can identify with Bill Gates since we are Americans, too.

 

What do you think?  Is this from our social needs? Do you have another explanation?

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2010/03/11/hundreds-of-students-rally-lawmakers-save-our-schools/

I found this article title "Smart Goals + Motivation = Success".  This article was about different ways to help a person achieve their goals.  In the article the author has six things that must be followed in order to help people achieve their goals.  First, is to visualize your future success.  The author says one of the ways to get motivated about your goal is to think about what it would be like to have successfully finished your goal, and what perks could be part of the outcome to your goal.  Second, plan the work.  Most goals require a lot of work; this work can sometimes become overwhelming so one of the best things that will help you not become overwhelmed would be making a plan.  Third, accept mistakes.   You will probably make mistakes along the way to achieving your goal, and you should not view mistakes as negative but positive.  With mistakes a person can come up with new approaches that will help to succeeding.  Fourth, focus on mini goals.  One huge point of motivation is success, so if you break down your goal into mini goals that you are able to accomplish on the way to your ultimate goal, the more able you are to continue on the road to succeed.  Fifth, psych yourself up.   Some parts of your goal may take a lot more effort than others, so to accomplish them get yourself motivated before you try to accomplish that task.  Finally, don't let yourself quit.  It is hard sometimes to continue on to your goal when it may still be far away, but don't give up on your goal, sooner or later you will achieve it.

I think that all of those are great pieces of advice for succeeding in a goal.  Our book talks about a person being more likely to have greater performance when a goal is difficult and specific.  Our book also specifically talks about how strategic planning comes into play when you have a specific goal.  With planning it helps a person to focus their attention on the goal at hand and not other tasks.

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/11/26/smart-goals-motivation-success/

This article is about thinking positive and the three ways that you can stay positive. It has been found that people who are positive have happier and take less sick days. In class we found out the ingredients to having a good day, well how about finding out what you need to have a positive attitude. I found that this article had an easy to understand and simplistic approach.

http://www.self-improvement-advice.org/power-of-positive-thinking.html

1.       Less stress

    By reducing stress you reduce negativity and you're more positive.

2.       Less worry

   If you worry less, you have less stress, which leads to yup, better attitudes.

3.       Less fear

   Fear gnaws at our self-esteem and erodes our self-confidence.

Do you think that there is a sure way that someone can stay positive all the time? And is it as easy as it sounds?

I think it is hard, but trying to catch yourself when you are being negative and fix it is even harder. Yet, I am going to try to in order to stay positive especially during these last few months of school.

Have you ever noticed how often your mind seems to drift towards the negative over the positive? Much of the research done in the realm of positive psychology suggests that we are that way because these feelings reflect more urgent claims to us. However, if there was a way to improve the quality of our lives most of us would probably jump at the opportunity.

 

An article written by Donald Latumahina suggests that the strength of our thoughts are increased as we pay more attention to them thereby self-enforcing the negative thought patterns we are experiencing. A small issue can quickly be blown out of proportion--an occurrence that frequently consumes us. Latumahina suggests that the best way to overcome this brutal cycle is to shift thoughts to something more positive in nature. This would, in turn, reinforce the positive thoughts while diminishing the negative ones. He goes on to provide tips to readers wishing to think more positively in their daily lives.

 

One of these includes realizing that thinking negatively about someone leads to you also treating them negatively. We must consider that the appropriate efficacy expectation required for personal control in this situation is the individual's determination of whether or not they can think positively about this individual instead. The author offers up the idea of shifting attention to a positive side or something else that's altogether constructive. Another component to behavior regulation is that of outcome expectancies. In this situation, an individual must also judge that the positive shift will have an effect on the outcome of the situation (that it will resolve the ruminations experienced because of the negative thoughts). In other words, will it work to do this? Once the self has a desired mediating efficacy expectation in place their actions will reflect it. Outcome expectations will then arbitrate the relationship between the action and the individual's perceived control.

 

Another tip offered was to read an inspiring book. Spiritual books are indicated as a good source of inspiration to those aspiring to make self-improvements. The verbal persuasions these devices offer readers work to the extent that it supplies a temporary and provisional efficacy boost to produce the needed motivation to try again. Spirituality is a fundamental component driving the connection between perceived control and desired outcomes in a majority of religious based improvement books.

 

We also must make ourselves comfortable with failure as it is a stepping stone in the learning process. In order to succeed and develop a mastery orientation, we must know what it's like to fail and not fear it. "If you find yourself thinking negatively about a situation, decide that you won't give up even if the worst happens. Prove yourself to be a tough opponent. You are a winner." Our self-efficacy beliefs influence how much effort we are willing to exert and how long we are willing to exert it in hard times. Effort and persistence are key components to overcoming setbacks and challenges, and in accepting that you will more than likely make mistakes. What can you do to think more positively?      

 

http://www.lifeoptimizer.org/2008/01/23/tips-to-defeat-negative-thoughts/

 

I recently read an article about Gabourey Sidibe, the plus sized actress that was nomited for an Oscar after her emotional performance in Precious. I wondered, like i'm sure many other people do too, will there be a place for her in Hollywood after this film? The facts are that she is an obese woman, and while she is obvisouly very talented, will there be parts for her and will directors want to cast her in a movie? It's sad that a persons talent can be overlooked or disregarded because of your physical features, but in a way it makes sense. The article I read made a good point in saying that her roles will be severely limited because "no one in the executive world looks like her." Sidibe moved audiences by portraying an abused girl and people were able to feel her pain and suffering through her acting, but is this one role enough to motivate directors and casting agents to cast her in more movies? What would be there motivation for casting her instead of someone more physically attractive? Our culture is so caught up on weight and hollywood that I for one think it will be very difficult for her to continue her career without losing weight. One important factor will be if having her star in a movie will motivate people to go to the theaters and watch a movie she is in. Ticket sales of her upcoming films will really motivate other directors to either keep using her, or to move on to the next actress. Hopefully people can look past her physical size and see her talent, so that she might still have a career next year!

Here is the article I read about her.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/10/gabourey.sidibe.career/index.html

It's a little scary to think about the future.  Most of us are going to be graduating this year, and will be actually living on your own.  Paying for your own bills, student loans, purchasing those expensive items- such as a house, and little things such as food and clothing.  Wouldn't it be nice to know mistakes that you don't need to make.  Well I came across an article that talked about three money mistakes that can actually cost you. 

The first mistake that most people make is ignoring your credit score.  Now I fall into that category of most people.  I do not know my credit score, and I always asked myself do I really need to know it right now that I am still in college?  And the answer is yes.  Like I said most of us are going to be buying a house down the road, well according to this article the credit score just went up for buying a house. Its better to know your credit score, and there are sites where you can obtain a credit report.

The second mistake is neglecting your home loan.  Now must of us don't own a home yet, but in the near future I'm sure it is on our to do list.  According to this article it says that you need to be in tune with your home loan to know when it is a good time to refinance, lower payments, and etc.  My boyfriend currently bought a house last year at the age of 21, he is constantly checking up on his home loan, and I always nagged him about it, but now after reading this article I will go home tonight and tell him its a good thing.

The third mistake is not preparing for a rainy day fund aka emergency savings fund.  It is always a good time to start saving now, because even though we are in college and you think your mommy and daddy can help you with an emergency, they might not be able to with the economy going on. 

These three mistakes that people make are definitely ones that I will not be making and hopefully they will come in handy down the road for us college kids that want to buy that perfect home.

 

Article:  http://www.stylecaster.com/news/7388/three-major-money-mistakes-that-can-cost-you

My parents have always taught me, even from a pretty young age that setting goals and sticking to them will help to accomplish what you want to set out and do. I think it is important for goal setting behaviors to be taught to kids, because generally if we are in a habit of doing something then it stays with us. This article gives 4 tips on how to start goal setting behaviors in kids and to get them motivated to stick with a task once they start it. The first point is to talk with your kids. This could be about a specific thing they want to accomplish and how they want to do that. The second tip is to make it a game. Put up a board showing how well they are doing accomplishing their goal, this can help them develop long term goal setting skills and also gives them positive or negative feedback on how well they are doing. The third tip is to lead by example. Kids are going to follow the lead of their parents, so make sure to be setting goals yourself and persisting and following through with those goals. The last tip is to give them feedback. Feedback will give the child a sense of satisfaction with the goal and make them more likely to keep up with setting goals in the future.

 

http://www.brainy-child.com/article/motivational-ideas.html

The Kansas City, MO school district announced this morning that the plan to close almost half of its schools passed the school board vote.  The school district, which is on the brink of bankruptcy, will close 29 of its 61 schools.  These closures will cost 700 jobs, including 285 teachers.  This will leave 18,000 students to attend 32 schools that may be k-12.  The major restructuring is causing many angry parents to speak out and consider home schooling.

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20100309/Activity-in-lateral-prefrontal-cortex-may-improve-emotion-regulation-in-day-to-day-life.aspx

 

I found this to be a rather interesting article. I think it directly relates to the material we studied in Chapter 3 (dealing with the emotional brain). One of the main reasons I found it interesting is because it seems to go against common sense, or at least against conventional wisdom. Many of us have undoubtedly heard others tell us not to go to bed angry, but this study suggests that "brain activity (specifically in the lateral prefrontal cortex) is a far better indicator of how someone will feel in the days following a fight with his or her partner." Generally those who had high activity in this area had a better mood than those who had low activity in this area. I believe what helps set this recent study apart is that it did not take place entirely in a laboratory, but also involved real situations/relationships. In other words, one can probably be more confident of its external validity.

 

In our textbook (starting on p. 61 in Chapter 3), Reeve writes about the relationship between the prefrontal cortex and affect. Here it mentions that, "the limbic system receives incoming sensory stimulation (that) activate rather automatic emotional reactions... stimulation of the cortex can generate emotional states." Reeve also makes the point that one must make a distinction between the left and right side of the prefrontal cortex because each is qualitatively different from the other. Reeve also makes reference to the Behavioral Inhibition System, which includes the two dimensions of personality, one of which is "how sensitive versus stable a person is to threats, punishments, and the experience of negative emotion (Reeve 2009, p.61)."

 

 I was actually rather impressed with the physiological measures used - researchers used an fMRI, recorded facial expressions, and tested cognitive skills. As I mentioned before, the researcher (Hooker) found that  the level of activity in their lateral prefrontal cortex may be a significant factor in predicting a person's experiences, ability to bounce back, etc.

 

The main reason why I chose this article and wanted to share it with others is because I am rather fascinated by the unconscious activity that takes place in the brain. As others probably have heard, there have been studies that suggest people actually have a tendency to make better decisions having slept on it - I think I heard about this in Social Psychology. I believe I also heard data that supports this in my BioPsychology course. While sleeping, our brain continues to process information. It's very interesting to think of the possibility that being angry while we go to sleep may actually help us better deal with our problems, confront them face on with our subconscious attention. This may be drifting a little bit from Motivation and Emotion, but I find it very interesting how I have often woken up with solutions to some of my problems that I had never thought of before - I believe my mental activity throughout the night has sometimes helped me come up with effective solutions.

 

In any case, this study  does provide insight and understanding into physiological activities, such as the activation of certain brain structures and subsequent impact on emotional states. For the reasons I have mentioned, I actually believe this type of research is very important and may lead to more effective interventions for people facing certain problems, such as depression.

 

The article ends with the following...

  

While Hooker acknowledges that more work must be done to develop clinical applications for the research, it may be that lateral prefrontal cortex function provides information about a person's vulnerability to develop mood problems after a stressful event. This raises the question as to whether increasing lateral prefrontal cortex function will improve emotion regulation capacity.

 

I ran across this article and couldn't believe it at first.

Overdue Library Books

Basically, libraries around the country are turning to the police to help them retrieve property (books, dvds, etc.) that people have not returned despite several notices from the Library. Eventually, they are sent a summons to appear in court, and if they fail to do so they are arrested for that and fined. Libraries are apparently facing some budget problems, and everything that isn't returned can add up to significant losses for them (assuming they have to replace it). Apparently, some people really don't care (low energy) about returning their books to the library. The library considers this theft of public property and soon the police get involved

Reading this article reminded me of a Seinfeld episode where Jerry has a book that has been overdue since high school, and he gets confronted by Mr. Bookman the library detective:

Seinfeld: Library Detective

This is a clear-cut case of the use of a punisher (fines, arrest) to reduce the frequency of undesirable behavior (not returning library materials). But, how effective is this? Does it have the general deterrent (affect others) capability that I assume the libraries think it has? It is probably an effective punisher for the individual (specific deterrent), but I would imagine only in the sense that they will probably never go back to the public library again. Basically, could be a better way to get people to return their library materials without using punishment? Should the libraries even get the police involved in the first place, or is it their right to track down uncompliant borrowers?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/08/03/cb.blogging.good.for.career/index.html

 

I thought this was kind of an interesting article.  To be honest I'm not really into this whole blogging scene, but the article really opened my eyes as to some of the benefits it can provide in our ever changing technological society.

 

Reeve states that "a goal is whatever an individual is striving to accomplish" and "goals generate motivation by focusing people's attention on the discrepancy between their present level of accomplishment and their ideal level of accomplishment."  The author of this article writes beginning bloggers should set goals for themselves and "your blog won't be an asset to you if it lacks direction and attention" 

 

The author of this piece also suggests "A blog can be useful for countless reasons, so it's best to decide for yourself what your purpose in starting it is."  In other words, set a goal of what you are trying to achieve.

 

The part of the article that caught my eye was about how blogging can help during interviews as the author writes, "A common interview question is, 'What makes you unique from other candidates?' A great -- and unique -- answer would be, 'One thing that may set me apart from your other candidates is my ability to introduce a dedicated and loyal following to your company. For the past eight months, I have authored a blog that has over 2,000 readers on a weekly basis. This blog is dedicated to trends, leaders and advancements in our industry.'"

 

Kind of a cool deal if you can: A) have a blog that has that many followers and B) put forth the time and dedication to keep the blog current and relevant.

 

Anyone have a blog on their own they update besides this one for class?  If so, how many followers do you have and what is your goal or direction of your blog?

 

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/second-act/201002/seven-tips-make-working-out-easier

This article is a quick read that I think could be pretty benificial to those of us who have trouble motivating oursleves to work out.  It gives 7 ways that will not only get people to the gym, but also get the most out of the work out.  The 7 things include:

 

1.  Have a cup of coffee beforehand

2.  Workout with a friend

3.  Listen to music

4.  Try interval training

5.  Use a breath mint

6.  Do it in the morning

7.  Learn your fitness "color"

In regards to the fitness color there is a link to the quiz in the article.  Your fitness color tells you what kind of workouts are best, based on you personality.  There are 8 different colors.  When I took it I found out I was a red, and it said that I would enjoy fast paced workouts and competing and working out with others.  This is pretty accurate as I enjoy playing basketball, football, and just about everything else. 

 

Do you guys think these workout directions work?  Which ones have you tried, and what do you think about them?  What else could help motivated people to workout and get the most out of what they are doing?

This past weekend I went to a casino for the first time in my life. After spending the entire time at the slot machines, I realized how easy it would be to develop a gambling addiction. After looking in the textbook for some more information on addictions I found a few reasons why people might become addicted to gambling.

 

When a person gambles they are continually reinforced. Positive reinforcement, gaining something, is an effective way to increase behaviors. In a casino winning money would be that positive reinforcer. After hitting a button on a slot machine, a second later I learn if I either won or lost money. This immediacy of reinforcement is also very strong and would help to increase behaviors. While at the casino I became "hot" and won a lot of money (ok, it was really only $3) in a short period of time. This reinforcement only made me want to press that button again and again.

 

I always thought that loosing money would be an effective way to stop the behavior of gambling and it would negate the reinforcement. However, punishment in general is ineffective. The loss of money is not a strong as the reinforcement one gets when winning money. I noticed this when I started loosing money, but I still kept playing the slots hoping to gain some of it back.

 

In the textbook it talks about high sensation seekers (pg. 380). It states that high sensation seekers are motivated by the excitement rather than the money when gambling. People who are low sensation seekers show "aversive reactivity to risky sources of motivation." By this definition I would place myself on the low sensation seeker side. I am not a fan of gambling because it is too risky, there is no guarantee of winning.

 

Do you think there are other sources of motivation that may help to explain gambling or addictions in general? Have you ever gone gambling and noticed some of these concepts?

After you have watched a movie, you should blog your general impressions of the movie (by 5pm on thursdays) and provide 1 example from the movie (scene, character, etc) and how it relates specifically to a theory or construct in Motivation and Emotion.

Your full analyses are due the following Tuesday turned in via eLearning (aka WebCT).

-----

Stand and Deliver in the news yesterday.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124491340

I liked this article because for one I think a lot of people are getting cabin fever, they are ready for sunshine and nice warm weather.  Let's face it, when a winter gets too long and cold we get grumpy.  Stress and how we cope with stress is a key factor in feeling happier.  How we react to events can make a difference in our lives.  With midterms going on things around all of us can get very stressful.  Take a deep breath and try these four things.
-Too much of a good thing, is a bad thing
-Now is the moment.  Enjoy it!
-Find your mouse hole
-Conflict can be okay
What do you do to be happy?  What relieves your stress?

http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=9697

The article I found talks about identity and how everyone becomes their own identity. Identity is not just what you know; it is also how you know. We are not born into our identities; rather we develop who we want to be in this world. Some factors that can come into play with choosing our identity can be our family, friends and society. A young child may see her mother as a creature that exists solely to take care of her, but an older child will often start to appreciate that her mother has needs of her own, and start acting less selfishly towards her mother so as to take that knowledge into account. Personal beliefs have no bias on one's identity, for example if a group hates a certain religious group, doesn't need to affect another person. Young children have simple identities and see things in an overly simple, generally self-serving manner. As people grow older and wiser, they identify themselves with other people, places and things in increasingly sophisticated ways and start to grow out of this initial selfishness. Sometimes life events can interrupt one's identity and their identity stops growing. For example a death of a parent, may cause a child to grow up and take on the parent role for younger siblings, and not get to live their childhood identities. According to Reeve, once a person takes one role, the identity directs the person to pursue some behaviors (identity-confirming behaviors) and to avoid other behaviors (identity-disconfirming behaviors), (2009 p. 279). Other things that can affect a person's identity are low self-esteem and low self-efficacy.

What do you think about this article?

Do you know what your self-identity is like...has your identity changed a lot throughout your life?

 

When I was in high school, specifically my junior and senior year, our football program hadn't made it to the playoffs in years.  We weren't the best team, especially my junior year.  Therefore, our team set a long-term goal to make the playoffs that year.  Specifically, we had a goal of winning five games that year in conference, which would allow us to compete in the playoffs.  That was our hoped-for ideal state of mind that year, a future, higher goal than in the past.  As we discussed in class, people who set goals outperform those without goals.  I think this is often mistakes coaches make when leading their teams.  They don't make it clear what their target goal is and what they want to accomplish.  Within the present status of our team, however, there existed a discrepancy (discrepancy creation) which helped provide a motivational basis for our actions. 

This wasn't an impossible goal, but the goal difficulty was enough (moderately difficult) to energize and increase our performance.  Each game provided the necessary feedback for our success and failures, helping determine how close or far we were from making the playoffs. With this feedback, our efforts were arguably enhanced as these specific short-term goals of winning a game energized our efforts, our persistence, and by directing attention and strategy.  This feedback of victories and defeats, or knowledge of results, allowed  us to keep progress of our results.

In the end, we accepted this goal, set extrinsically by the coaches even though many of the players were already intrinsically motivated to achieve this goal.  This goal really worked because game-by-game we were rewarded (or punished) based on the result of the football game.  They provided us each week a short term goal which, when repeated successfully, provide committment boosting opportunities for reinforcement.

In the article below,

 http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html

personal goal setting is expanded upon: 

 "Goal setting techniques are used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. They give you long-term vision and short-term motivation. They focus your acquisition of knowledge and help you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. By setting goals, you will also raise your self-confidence, as you recognize your ability and competence in achieving the goals that you have set."

 

It also has an interesting section on achieving more with focus within personal goals as well as lifetime goals, which is something I may expand upon more in future blogs.

Lately I have noticed I'm having a serious case of senioritis and am procrastinating more than I would like.  My ideas to help me overcome procrastination have been failing, so I decided to find some suggestions online.  This problem has become the inspiration for my latest post.  I'm assuming many people are beginning to procrastinate more because the end of the school year is quickly approaching and the weather is beginning to, finally, get nice!  The website I found with suggestions to beat procrastination is....

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_96.htm

This website provides general steps and suggestions to overcome any procrastination issues you may have.  Professor Clarry Lay described procrastination as "a temporal gap between intended behavior and enacted behavior."  This discrepancy is not a new phenomenon and can be overcome by creating implementation intentions with specific goals.

The first step is Recognize That You're a Procrastinator.  You won't be able to overcome this problem, if you don't accept you are a procrastinator.  The website even offers a link to find out if you're a procrastinator, if you are unsure http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_99.htm.

The second step is Work Out WHY You're Procrastinating.  Reasons for procrastinating include the task is unpleasant, you are disorganized, you feel overwhelmed by the task, you are a perfectionist, and a major cause you have troubles making decisions.  I was surprised to see being a perfectionist as a reason because I feel being a perfectionist would push you to finish work.  However, sometimes being a perfectionist can hinder you because you do not want to make a mistake.

The third step is to Adopt Anti-Procrastination Strategies.  Some general tips to motivate yourself to get work finished include making your own rewards, having others check on you, etc.  Some suggestions to help you get organized include making a to-do list, prioritize your to-do list, setting a time-line for goals, and focusing on one task at a time.  If you find a task unpleasant, actually try the task before deciding it is not fun or enjoyable.

Overall, the article states in order to beat procrastination, one must develop good time-management, cultivate better organizational skills, and encourage effective habits.  One also must realize, procrastination is a difficult habit to break.  To overcome this habit, one must work hard to incorporate new approaches to work and habits to avoid procrastination.

 

Nervousness, excitement, insomnia, flushed face, psychomotor agitation, rambling flow of thoughts and speech...with all of these symptoms you would think you were looking at the definition for a disorder according to the DSM.  As a matter of fact you are...these are symptoms for the psychological disorder of Caffeine Intoxication. Caffeine intoxication sounds like a made up disorder but it is very real and does appear in the DSM. Surprisingly enough, Daniel Nobel is being evaluation to see if that is what caused him to hospitalize two University of Washington students last Monday when he hit them with his car that morning. Can it really be that something as simple as caffeine is altering our behavior so much that it is considered a psychiatric disorder that can alter how we operate a vehicle just as alcohol can? According to researchers this is exactly what happened to Nobel when he was charged with vehicular assault and a hit and run on the by the University of Washington's Police. Blood tests are not back from the lab yet but from my understanding of the article alcohol consumption was rule out therefore there is some underlying cause as to why Noble was acting in such disarray that morning. Investigators and researchers predicted that Noble consumed approximately 2g of caffeine which is 10 times the amount an average person consumes a day (200mg). Normally people develop a tolerance to this drug and do not see such drastic results; however, there are clinics and treatment centers designed to get people "clean" from the addiction of caffeine.  After reading this article I became very interesting is this concept. Never have I heard that someone was driving recklessly due to caffeine overdoes. I am currently in a course at UNI called Drugs and Individual Behavior. In this class when we talked about stimulants we discussed caffeine and the effects is has on our body and in turn on our behavior. This article makes me think...if I was evaluated this case would I deem that Caffeine intoxication was a severe enough diagnosis that I would accept this for the reason for this ridiculous behavior that place two people in the hospital? For some reason (even after learning about how caffeine is a drug and can alter how the brain functions) I can not seem to link it in the same category as anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, and diseases such as alcoholism.

 

 

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/man-caffeinated-psychosis-defense-hit-run/story?id=9306666

We see it in movies and TV shows, but is it true in real life? The common stereotype that athletes dominate on the field but they also party just as hard on the weekend it present in our media in today society. But how does the research hold up to this societal perspective? As I look back on my high school and their policies I remember one specific one that was implemented during my sophomore year. This police targeted athletes and the use of alcohol. Student athletes that were caught using alcohol for the first time were suspended from a portion on their sports season. The second offense was suspension for the entire year, and the third was elimination from sports for the rest of their high school time. This gave off the impression that alcohol consumption and athletics were strongly correlated. A study done and presented on ABC's Health website targets this idea. 1300 students were surveyed linking violence, drinking and binge drinking to the competition attitudes of athletes; more specifically this article target competitive, contact sports such as football.  I this study, researches found that men who participated in these sports were more likely to develop violent behaviors that stemmed from the glory, power, and special behavior they were treated to on and off the field by their peer, coaches, and parents.  Researchers argue that these results do not mean men who play football are more likely to drink and demonstrate violent behavior but men that play football in general have more characteristics that lead them to become more apt to participate in these behaviors. These researchers strongly support that football does not cause these behaviors but co-exist with these individuals. Other researcher beg to differ in that parents and coach are neglecting to distil values in these athletes therefore they feel as though the rules do no apply to them eliciting this violent behavior and adolescent alcohol consumption obsession that we see among athletes. This article brought up some very interesting thoughts about the rules and regulation of athletes. After reading this blog and the article did you school have a alcohol policy outline in their code of conduct as mine did? If so, what was it? Also, do you think that completive sports such as football are the cause of this violent behavior that we are seeing in young adolescent men or do you take the stand that this is not a causation correlation but merely a co-existing characteristic overlap and children who are more violent and drawn to alcohol are teen are more apt to choose to participate in competitive and contact sports such as football?

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/team-sports-linked-teen-drinking-violence/story?id=9019219&page=1

In one of my classes last week we were talking about the importance of mentors in our lives. It took me a while to think of a consistent mentor who has helped encourage me throughout my life. In essence, my experience with a mentor has revolved around persuasion techniques utilized by my mentor attempting to persuade and encourage me to continue a behavior. The textbook mentions how important coaches, parents, employers, therapists, etc. are in our lives and how such figures will always be there (for the most part) to lend a convincing hand. A lot of the time these convincing attempts serve as an efficacy booster for me, the mentee. 

I have grown up in a musical family all my life, and I have also grown up playing the violin. There have been countless times throughout my life where I have wanted to give up and quit playing the violin. These sentiments mostly burgeon from my dissatisfaction with practicing the damn instrument. But, as we all know, "practice makes perfect." Unfortunately for me, I did not want to be a "perfect" violinist, let alone become that prodigious of a player. Fortunately, however, I had a set of encouraging parental figures who have continually given me the positive feedback and support necessary for me to continue my practices, at least all throughout high school and into my first couple years in college. My parents always knew that I didn't really want to quit. They were also well aware that practicing did not come easy for me, nor did it enlighten me. But, they always found creative ways to build up my self-efficacy, with regards to my violin playing skills and habit formation. Consequently, I know have the desire and intrinsic motivation to play the violin. I have played in the UNI orchestra all but one semester and I am a violinist for a post rock instrumental band in Cedar Falls.

 

Who have been positive role models/mentors in your life? 

In what areas have they impacted you and encouraged your own self-efficacy? 

I found this article on how to know if a guy is "Mr Right" and I think that the points made are pretty good. They are things that would be red flags to me that a relationship is not going to be compatible. The first point is one that I think is important, if your friends approve of him. I think this is important because they know you very well and can sometimes so things that you are unwilling to see in a relationship. The second is that he gets along with your family, because it is going to be hard to be in a relationship with someone if they do not get along with such an important part of your life. Number three was if he listens to you, which I thought was a pretty obvious one. Who wants to be in a relationship with someone who doesn't listen to them? Number four is if you share most of the same major values; I think this will just make a relationship easier, but not necessarily be a deal breaker. Numbers five and six are that he is someone you would be friends with and he is trustworthy. These also seem pretty obvious to me. Number seven on the list is he makes you feel special, I think this is important. Having that spark in a relationship and getting that good feeling from a person is important in keeping things fun and fresh, especially in a long term relationship. The eight point is if he is willing to talk about the future. This is important to me eventually, because in the end almost everyone is looking for their future "perfect" person. Number nine is finding a partner who is financially secure. I am not so sure about this point. It would be nice to find someone who is secure, but if everything else works with the person I would not write them off because of financial reasons. The last one is that he loves you for who you are. Overall this article seemed pretty good, and I think it could apply to both sexes as things to look for in a partner.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/sex/is-he-the-one-10-signs-to-tell-if-he-s-mr-right-1032610/

Recently, a conversation that I was in brought up technology and although it has done so much for us, people have become so unappreciative of the fact that we are so blessed to have a lot of the things that we do today, in the first place. I started searching on the web and found an interesting article that related to this topic. The article was found on http://life.icrontic.com/article/technology-and-emotion-why-do-we-act-as-we-do/ and was called Technology and Emotion: Why we act as we do.

The article basically discusses how although technology is amazing and we have come a long way over the years in the development of new things, people may have been affected more greatly than they think.  Technology affects people in so many different ways.  It opens them up to so many more new and exciting things. For example, the internet.  Any question we may have, having a conversation with someone, or having an important business meeting with someone across the world, can all be done with the click of a mouse. Although this is true, people take it for granted and get frustrated when the internet is down for a few minutes or their cell phone isnt picking up a signal.  They forget that we are blessed to have the internet in the first place. 

Also, the article made a good point of talking about television and how much more people are watching television than they used to.  It has come to a point where people do not even get emotional about seeing war on television or starving children in a foreign country.  People watch so much TV that that the important issues going on in the world do not even phase them. They become numb to feeling about things they should be showing emotion for, because of overexposure.

Finally, another issue the article brought up was all the harm that can be done to people through social networking and messaging with others online.  The majority of young students/children these days are members to these sites and bullying that use to happen at school is now being brought to the chat rooms and social networking sites.  Even some parents get involved in the online fighting, and it's hard to tell who's who with screen names and such.  It's even gotten to the point where this can lead to children committing suicide because of the way they are made feel about themselves.

Overall, the article is a little lengthy but really interesting. It brings up a lot of good points on technology and how although amazing, it can have a lot of downsides and negative affects on people and the emotions it creates.

This website is a common theme for my posts, but I really enjoy it's variety of topics about relationships and what not to do.

 

At www.askmen.com, I found an article about mistakes people make during their first conversations.  Everyone needs a source of intimacy and relatedness, and I feel that these are two very strong motivators for being in a relationship.  Also, sex can be a strong motivator.  How many people can look at a movie start like Megan Fox (or for the ladies, Channing Tatum) and not think, "Damn. Yes please!!!!"

 

I think that the intensity that these motivators create can be blamed for most mistakes with the awkward first conversation.  The drive to succeed with an opening conversation can lead to becoming nervous.  Your heart will rate, you'll begin to sweat, and then worry if you smell or not.  These nerves can lead to several of these "faux pas".

 

1)    Talking about exes.  They're in the past.  Let's leave them there. As the article says, the first conversation should be fun.  It should leave her interested in you.  Make a few corny jokes.  It will show her that you're light-hearted.

2)    Talking about money.  At this place in our lives, most of us are POOR! We're in college.  If you're both poor, great.  But if you're rich and they're poor, you'll create jealousy.  Not a good way to start something. Also, you'll seem arrogant, and she will be wondering why you're not on "Jersey Shore"

3)    Flirting too much.  Coming on too strong, by being too flirty, is just as bad as being standoffish.  By being sincere, you'll stand out by being original.  (Here's a tip: this is how you get the "okay" from her friends, too.) Just be real with her, and she's bound to be slightly interested in you.

4)    LISTEN!!! Ask her about herself - people generally enjoy talking about themselves - then just relate it back to yourself. Making a conversation with someone involves effort. If you're not going to put any into the first conversation, why would she expect you to put any into a relationship?  And how are you any different from the other hundred guys who have showed interest in her that same night?  Again, this will make you stand out.

5)    Leave her wanting more.  This will sound a little odd, but stop the conversation early.  Stop at a high of the conversation - not when you're looking for a new topic.  She will definitely be interested in talking to you again after this.

 

Obviously this article is geared as advice towards men.  But women, what do you think about this?  What do you agree with / disagree with.  Do you really think that any or all of this will lead to a fulfilling relationship or is this just a load of crap?

 

http://www.askmen.com/dating/heidi_300/378_5-first-conversation-mistakes.html

My roommates love watching horror/suspense movies. It almost seems like every time we have a movie night, a horror flick is on the list to watch. For my roommates, their top favorites include the Saw movies, the recent hit Paranormal Activity, and the Haunting in Connecticut. Myself on the other hand, I'm not a super huge fan like my roommates. I would actually prefer a comedy over a horror flick, yet I still enjoy watching horror movies sometimes. I'm the wuss that covers my face though when something too scary comes on the screen. Thinking about all this, I was wondering what would motivate people to endure the feelings of fear and suspense, especially for the very popular horror flicks. I came across several different theories on reasons why people enjoy feeling fear and suspense.

On Psychology Today, Why are there Horror Movies?, this article talked about the reason behind it is the fact that because it is fiction we are able to enjoy it rather than it being reality where we have to make a choice. This article didn't satisfy me however, so I kept searching.

On ScienceDaily.com, Why do People Love Horror Movies?, it argued that people enjoy being scared because they feel both negative and positive emotions at the same time. The sense of relief is not the only positive of the outcome of watching a scary movie, its more the the happiness of being scared.

On Live Science, Horror Movies: Why People Love Them., it talks about severaly different topics. First it talks about how people don't watch movies just like the Saw movies for the blood and gore, but because they experience a thrill of assessing threat levels. Next it talks about how people have the ability to control what effects their emotions and what does not while watching horror films. Lastly it talks about fear being more than just an emotion, and that it is a biological factor that starts with our amygdala.

As far as these three articles go, I'm not sure if my question was answered as to why people enjoy fear while watching horror/suspense films. Why do you like or dislike these types of movies? What are other factors that could be involved in developing the liking of horror films?

In 1872, American physician George Huntington described a disease that can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when it was referred to as chorea.  Chorea is a term that describes the uncontrollable movements that are seen in individuals who are affected by the disease.  This disease was found to be hereditary and progressive.  Today this disease is called Huntington's disease (HD).  Currently more than 15,000 Americans are living with HD, with at least another 150,000 others who have a 50% chance of developing the disease.  This disease is passed from generation to generation, destroying families who have to watch their loved ones lose the ability to feel, think, and move (National Institutes of Health, 2009).

As stated above HD is a progressive disease that causes the loss of control over movement, behavioral changes, and memory loss over time.  The onset of HD is generally slow and insidious making it hard to distinguish when an individual transitions from being a risk for HD to having HD (Maio, 1992).  On average symptoms of HD begin around 40 years of age (Meiser & Dunn, 2000), although the disease has been seen in children as young as 2, and adults as old as 70 (Quaid et al., 2008).  After the onset, individuals with HD generally live for 10-15 years.  Currently there is no way to cure the disease or to slow the progression of the disease (Meiser & Dunn, 2000).  Patients suffering from HD commonly die from infection (such as pneumonia), injuries related to a fall, or other complications from HD (National Institutes of Health, 2009).

http://farmer.newsvine.com/_news/2007/03/19/621317-students-who-never-fail-teachers-who-do

 

I found this article and thought it pertained to our class discussion on 3-2.  The article is abot the five steps a teacher must take in order to 'never have a student that fails.'.  

The five steps were as follows:  1)Explaination  2)Demonstration  3)Practical Exercise  4)Testing or Examination   5)Critique

 

I thought all of these steps really related to the term competence.  In our lecture, we discussed important environmental factors that involved one's competence.  One of these was the challenge and feedback.  In these steps, there are places for the practice (#3), challenge (#4), and feedback (#5).   Another thing we also talked about in relation to supporting onces competence, was the structure-- offering support and guidance.  Near the end of the article, the author described how he never had a student fail-- but if they didn't fully grasp the concepts from the first round (of steps 1-5) to start over until you've reached a point of success with the student.  I believe having this system is a good way to not give up on a student and just fail them.  But also, I do believe there can be an immense amount of motivation from the teacher, but what if the student has none?  What if the student has no desire to succeed?  Maybe then this system wouldn't work but a new system needs to be adapted so help change the student's mind about classwork. 

After reading Chapter 8 on goal setting, I remembered learning about goal setting in my Organizational Management class.  In that class we had to come up with a business and create many aspects for that business and come up with achievable goals for it.  We learned about S.M.A.R.T. goal setting.  I did a little more research on the internet, since I didn't have my book for the class anymore, and found an article. The acronym for S.M.A.R.T stands for:

S- specic

M- measurable

A- attainable

R- realistic

T- timely

Within this article it goes through the definition of each part of S.M.A.R.T. This method of goal setting would definitely help someone create a clear, timely, do it to improve yourself kind of goal.  In my Organizational Management class when we had to use this method it was a lot easier to come up with goals that were clear cut goals rather than just coming up with a statement.   If someone used this method they would be more likely to achieve their goals because they have all the aspects of a goal.  I recommend when setting goals use this method.  Write a goal that you want to achieve such as "I want to lose weight" and use S.M.A.R.T. and go through each step and then you will have more of a specific goal rather than just losing weight.  Hope this helps some people achieve some goals, I know after remembering this method of goal setting I'm going to go back to some goals I have been wanting to accomplish and revise them, then maybe I would actually accomplish them!

 

Article: http://www.goal-setting-guide.com/smart-goal-setting-a-surefire-way-to-achieve-your-goals

Why don't we complain?

 

http://www.smartercarter.com/Essays/Buckley%20-%20Why%20Dont%20We%20Complain.html

 

I found this article very interesting.  It discussed the reasons why humans do not complain.  One reason could be fear of negative repercussions from peers or the person in which you are complaining to.  Many people have a predisposition to think that complaining is worse than being uncomfortable and will therefore accept being uncomfortable.  I think that if you are nice about the problem no one will be able to say you were out of line, they might even be happy that someone had the nerve to say something.

 

Another reason why many people may not complain in an unpleasant situation is because of the by stander effect.  If they are uncomfortable or unhappy, at what point will they take it upon themselves to remedy the situation?  It would be at the point when they realized that no one else was going to do it.  Human kind is predisposed to believe that other people will take the lead in situations and therefore, much of the time nothing gets done. 

 

A third alternative could be because of sheer shyness.  This is the hardest to combat, because it is a trait of the person that is very hard to manipulate.  However, I shy person may be annoyed by a situation but never get to the point of thinking about doing something to change it, therefore avoiding the discomfort of compliance.

 

The author of this article states that at the point when humans no longer complain, we will become automatons, incapable of feeling.  I wonder what others think of this conclusion.  Does compliance lead to lifeless humans? Is it right to always complain when faced with imperfect situations? 

Extrinsic Motivation on Ted

I was watching videos on TED again and found a very fitting video related to our classwork on extrinsic motivation. Follow the link above.
The speaker, Dan Pink, was explaining how businesses reward employees with extrinsic motivators such as cash bonuses, perks, or other benefits and he has proven that this method is not the most effective in the work place.
The example study in the video clip is "The Candle Problem":

The researcher gives subject a candle, matches, and a box of thumbtacks and instructs them to attach the candle to the wall so that the wax doesn't drip onto the table. Some try to tack or melt the candle to the wall before realizing that they need to tack the thumbtack box to the wall and place the candle inside. Researchers found that subjects who were the "control" or "norm" group finished faster than those offered incentives for finishing the fastest.

 They repeated the task giving them a pile of tacks, a box, a candle, and matches, same situation, but the group who had incentives finished faster than the control group. This worked because it was a very simple (mechanical) task so they could zoom right in, focus on the problem, and solve it.

The overall conclusion from the video was that for complicated tasks, rewards narrow focus and hold people back.  Increased autonomy, mastery, and purpose has been shown to improve performance.  Tasks that involve mechanical skills are completed quicker with incentives, but tasks that require cognitive skills are completed more poorly if rewards are involved.

So:

If-then rewards destroy creativity.

 

Intrinsic drive improves performance.

 

if-then rewards are good for mechanical tasks.

While sometimes extrinsic motivation may be necessary and could be beneficial Reeve (2009) also mentions that expected reinforcement or rewards may decrease performance.  Extrinsic motivation can take out any intrinsic motivation someone has for completion of a task.  But for this to happen one must be expecting the reward.
Reeve (2009) also says that a problem in our society is that so many people expect rewards for doing things they do.  Is there  a way we can stop this problem?  For example, if a non-profit organization asks a big corporation for a donation of some kind a lot of times it is an if you give us this we'll do this for you (usually advertising).  Is this something we have to begin as parents with our own kids.  Instead of saying "wash your hands and you'll get a cookie for dessert" say "go wash your hands because it is important for your health...kill those germs!"(or something to that effect).   

What do you think?

If you go check out TED and find a video you like then I will reward you with a nice bonus!  (oh wait now you won't want to do it.) 

I found this article that defines 11 things that can kill intimacy.  Our book gives several different angles as to how to look at intimacy.  In one part intimacy is gained by social motivation to engage in warm, close and positive interpersonal relations, without any fear of rejection.  There is also a willingness to "experience a warm, close and communicative exchange with another person" (McAdams, 1980).

The following are the 11 items that can kill intimacy and those should be avoided in all relationship types from friendships to marriage. Dishonesty and silence, lack of trust, desire to change people, inability to express your needs and feelings, not listening, self centeredness, lack of respect, imbalance of power, unhealthy arguments, absence of touch, and extreme separateness.

Some people have a higher need for intimacy than others, but no matter what your level of intimacy those 11 items can kill a relationship.  Intimacy is not something that just happens; it is something that has to be worked on and can be ever changing and evolving.  If someone is willing to put the time and effort into a relationship they are more than likely going to have great returns from that relationship.  I am also sure there are other things that can be detrimental to the stability of a relationship, but I do think that these 11 are especially important to avoid if you do want a long last relationship.  Any one of them on their own could deflate a relationship and a combination of them would likely end the relationship.

The article can be found at http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Radun29.html

I was diagnosed with depression a long time ago, which I have outgrown.  But, as I've learned in Abnormal Psych, there are several mental health diseases that have high concordance with each other.  A few years ago, I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety and mild OCD.  I was put on an antidepressant, but that didn't do anything.  Also, I personally don't believe in pumping my body with chemicals daily, even though I realize that pills can help some.  One major side effect I've experienced with having anxiety and OCD is severe insomnia.  Although I've always been a "night owl," I frequently couldn't get to sleep until about 3 or 4 in the morning - not because I wasn't tired, but because I couldn't shut my mind off - I would stay up making lists of the things that I needed to do, thinking about stupid things like whether I put my notebook in my bag or locked the door, etc.  Not only annoying, but I realize these things seem a bit freakish to the majority of people, because they sound so mundane.  Thanks to the UNI SHC, I now am on a sleep aid (Ambien), which has been a life saver.  It does exactly what it's supposed to - makes me fall asleep, and stay asleep (as well as makes me feel a little loopy when it starts kicking in!).  Today, I was in the SHC to get a new prescription, and while waiting in one of the rooms, an article was posted on the door which I found really interesting.

Memory and Motivation: A Reappraisal of the Recovered/False Memory Debate

April 22-23, 2010-University of Nebraska Lincoln

http://www.unl.edu/psypage/symposium/

I recently watched a  clip of Roger Ebert on Oprah. If you are unaware, Roger Ebert lost his jaw to thyroid cancer four years ago. His appearance is quite shocking. He is unable to speak, eat, or drink anything because he is pretty much missing half his face. The interview is quite moving and the fact that Roger is still an influential film critic and giving interviews is pretty incredible. He speaks through a computerized voice simulator, much like Stephen Hawking. By his side through the whole ordeal was his wife Chaz. A very touching moment in the interview was when Oprah asked him what his last spoken words were, and he said he can't remember but he hopes that they were telling his wife he loved her. Chaz obviously loves him very much and she gets very emotional when, because of a new computer program Ebert is working on to have the computerized voice sound like his own, she starts crying and says how incredible it is to hear his voice. I think many people in Roger Ebert's position would feel very hopeless and probably depressed. To have no control over getting cancer and having your jaw removed would probably make many people have the tendency to think that everything else in their lives will go wrong, or at least never be the same. I think it was important that Roger have the love and support of his family to help him recover and be cancer-free, but I think it was also important to him that he could keep his autonomy and continue to live and work as normally as he could.
Check out the interview, it's pretty amazing!
http://www.mahalo.com/roger-ebert-oprah

Have you wondered why sometimes when you are in a room you mood changes? Is it the climate or the lack of plants, what about the color?

I found this site when looking for colors to paint my house back home. I found that greens and dark purples seem to motivate me the most. I haven't used orange yet, which helps you get going with exercising. If you pay attention to the setting you are in and the mood you are in, could it be the color on the walls?

 http://freshome.com/2007/04/17/room-color-and-how-it-affects-your-mood/

After checking this out, which colors do you think would help in class rooms? I would prefer the walls in my dorms to be more than this off white or cream color and maybe I would do more than sulk in there.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/04/day-of-action-update-rowd_n_486276.html

I ran across this article on the Psychology Today website and it seemed like an interesting topic
Why We Fear The Unknown

Lately I have noticed I have become more irritable by people and little situations.  Normally, I like to think, I am outgoing and most situations do not annoy me.  However, the last couple of daysI am feeling spring-fever, I want the snow gone and warm weather to arrive.  Because of my current negative mood, I decided to research and find ways to improve my current frame of mind.  I found this article...

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/depression/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100253964

According to Dawn LaFrance, Psy.D., associate director of the Counseling Center at Colgate University, it is actually common to get down in a "winter funk".  However, it is important to know the difference between a winter funk and a more serious version, seasonal affective disorder.  The difference of course is the winter blues usually last a couple of days and then you find some pleasurable stimulus in your life.  Whereas, seasonal affective disorder is much more severe and characterized by clinical depression, anxiety, and changes in weight.  This article provided 6 ways to beat the winter blues and help the readers find something positive in their lives. 

The first option was Pinpoint What is Getting You Down.  Once you realize what is bothering you, it is easier to cope and/or improve your situation.  The second choice was Don't Let Your Mood Dictate Your Plans.  It is important to keep in contact with your friends, relatedness is a key factor in deciding if you have had a good or a bad day.  The third alternative was Watch Your Diet.  It is easier to slack and eat unhealthy foods in the winter months, which could result in weight gain and a more serious form of depression.  The fourth suggestion was Work Out.  Exercise will keep you motivated and help you avoid the winter blues.  The fifth option focused on Getting More Light in Your Life.  Light gives you health benefits and light therapy is actually used to treat seasonal affective disorder and some mild depressions.  The sixth choice was Don't Make Life-Changing Decisions.  You do not want to make any rushed life-changing decisions when you are not feeling your best.

Another reason I thought this article was interesting was because in class, we recently discussed aspects that must be met to fulfill your psychological nutrients needed for a good day, positive well-being, and vitality.  These aspects included daily autonomy, daily relatedness, and daily competence.  If you do not feel in control in some aspects of your life, it may begin a snowball affect.  I know this is definitely true for my room mate and myself.  Currently, we are applying to grad. schools and are both freaking out because our future plans are in the hands of committees deciding if we would make a good addition to their program.

Depression is a common theme in the realm of psychology, but what a lot of the common public don´t know is that there are different types of depression, and have various contributing characteristics.  Until I came to UNI, I had always thought that to have depression or some mental illness  - what have you, was wrong and it only happens to "those people."  It wasn't until I realized myself that I had depression.  This 1st article below is about situational vs. clinical depression.  "The difference between situational depression and other types of depression is that situational depression, as its name suggests, is caused by life's situations, or life events. In other words, situational depression is brought on by life."  The positive aspect with situational depression is that it is more or less temporary, our lives are constantly changing, and the more good things are happening in our lives, the better we feel.  But on the other side of the spectrum, any drastic event can leave our self thoughts and feelings hanging by a thread.
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/situational-depression-brought-on-by-life-62752.html

The 2nd article has a lengthy series of questions that would be helpful for someone who is thinking they may have depression and wants to put it in context. 
http://www.livestrong.com/article/14734-handling-depression/

http://www.howlifeworks.com/health_beauty/sensa_hollywood/?cid=8088pe_news_rm

 

It turns out researchers have accidently figured out a way to make over-eating a thing of the past! The only side effect is that you no longer get to taste food...

As we all know, our brain (particularly our hypothalumus) tells us when we are hungry.  Often times the foods we crave are the ones that taste the best, and after all "fat is flavor." 

This article talks about the lastest trend to hit Hollywood; Sensa.  Sensa is a flavorless, odorless, sprinkle, and when put on food it removes everything we love about food.  In the end, it limits our desire to over-eat the good stuff. 

In a weight loss experiment, almost 1500 people used Sensa for 6 months while exercising and dieting.  The average person lost about 30 pounds!!  Sounds like the perfect way to lose the winter weight, and get back into shape for spring break. 

A few years ago my mom lost her sense of taste and smell, and she too lost considerate weight.  Since many people eat just for the taste of their favorite foods, do you guys think it would really be worth it? Do you think Sensa will catch on, or just be yet another failed attempt to get people to lose weight?

Advertising is a pretty manipulative business.  All kinds of industries use language, images, commercials, etc. to influence our emotions and motivate us to NEED their product or service.  While the United States is somewhat strict about inflammatory advertising, especially concerning hot topics (i.e. Tim Tebow's abortion commercial during the Superbowl caused quite a stir), France is much more liberal.  First, go to the following site and see what side of the fence you land on: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/24/french-oral-sex-anti-smok_n_474909.html

The issue at the heart of this controversey is teenage smoking. In France, 33% of the teens smoke.  The anti-smoking agency's motivation behind this is they are trying to extinguish or at least reduce this behavior. General advertising efforts solely commenting on health and dying hasn't elicited the type of reaction anti-smoking agencies would have liked. So this was there behavioral response to that antecedent.  From that, there has stemmed many emotionally-driven responses.  Obviously, the sexual connotations are driving this debate of whether or not this ad should be pulled. Pretty funny though because all this controversy by the opposition has made this ad tremendously popular and famous within France and obviously around the world as it has made it into a college classroom in the Midwest.

Personally, I think the ad is provocative and thus powerfully effective. This will undoubtedly grab the attention of youth emitting this addictive behavior. Consequently, the message will get across to these individuals, positively reinforcing the ad company's behavior of producing ads such as this one. It's ingenious really as controversial ads always seem to get more attention than they would have if the opposition kept its mouth shut. It's a pretty crazy behavior modification tool within the marketing business really as their extrinsic motivation to gain attention by producing this controversial ad proved to be a stimulus for discussion and smoking awareness (response).

While I do not smoke, I do wonder within the context of our class whether smoking is a physiological need or a quasi-need?  Is it possible for a quasi-need (a situationally induced want) to turn into a physiological need over time as one continues to smoke? (physiological need:  biological need within an organism orchestrating brain structures, hormones, etc. to regulate imbalances and necessary well-being)

            I found this video on alpha vs. beta moms and their parenting skills with the children and which style is better for raising children. 

Alpha moms are defined as the "working" mom who likes having every minute of her day and her children's day planned out.  She is always telling her children when to do their homework.

Beta moms are usually the stay-at-home moms and are more relaxed than the alpha moms.  They usually just let their children do what they want during the day and tend to follow the kids lead.

http://lifestyle.msn.com/your-life/new-beginnings/video.aspx?vid=2d40e0a8-d152-4b87-9e6c-93a431afe389&w=92&h=69%26tab=New Beginnings%26ap=true 

The psychologist on the show didn't say that one was better than the other, but that a mix of the two would be best, that one day a mother is usually more alpha and other days more beta.  But that the mix is how most women tend to raise their children.  The example that she gave was that parents should be training wheels, which the children should start the momentum and the parents just stabilize the children's ideas.  When watching the video, I thought about what we had learned and talked about in class regarding classroom structure and autonomy supportive classrooms versus controlling classrooms. 

I thought that the beta moms were more autonomy supportive and the alpha moms were more controlling.  But when it comes to children and their different personalities it seems that parents need to be a combination of both with their kids.  But I believe that beta parenting is more lenient and changing with kids and it concentrates more on their strengths and lets them recognize their potential.

http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/86029717.html

This article talks about Omaha Public Schools (OPS) making the change to a 'no-zero' grading policy.  Attempt the assignment but fail, not to worry, you'll get a 65% jusf for the effort.  This article doesn't lay out the specifics of what an attempt is but I'm guessing your name on the paper and a half-assed effort at a title is their definition of attempting.  Why do I say this?  Because, that's right, a student who doesn't even attempt to turn anything in still gets a 50%.  No more "my dog ate my homework" excuses in Omaha, they can now say "screw it, gimme the 50%." 

An elementary curriculum consultant says that it's not a free pass for the students and the teachers are on the students to get things done.

Really?  It's not a free pass?  Not doing anything and getting credit for it is okay?  I'd like a career like that.  "Boss, I didn't do anything this week so you only have to give me half my paycheck."

I looked up the definition of self-motivation on wiki (hey, I'm at the library and forgot my Reeve book at home.  I still get 65% under Omaha grading policies for coming to the library, right?) and it states "self motivation is the ability to motivate oneself, to find a reason and the necessary strength to do something, without the need of being influenced to do so by another person.  Working in a careful and consistent manner without giving up."

I wonder if the next push from the OPS will be to redefine self-motivation so they can let their students know they don't need to find the necessary strength to do something and only work at something until it gets too hard, then just give up.

I tend to be on the critics side of the argument where 'no-zeros' doesn't hold the student accountable and I feel this will lead to the students being less responsible as adults. 

What's your take?

 

Color is something that is constantly in our lives that is not really consciously thought about. When watching a professor give a lecture, do you really take the time to think about what color the background of the powerpoints are, or the color of the text? Color is all around us and we cannot escape from it. It has always interested me that people with synethesia (crossing of the senses) can associate colors with emotions, moods, and even sounds. Often these associations are very similar across individuals (within a culture). Is there a reason your favorite color is blue? Why does blue mean sad? Why did you buy a green guitar? Is color culturally specific? I have always been interested in questions like these.

http://www.joehallock.com/edu/COM498/index.html

This is a rather extensive international survey about color including information about associations, preferences, education, and even preferences for online activities. This is a study published in the form of a webpage as opposed to a traditional journal article, which is in view, easier to both view, find pertinent information, and navigate. Color is the hue, lightness, and saturation of any object. Isaac Newton was the first person who laid a scientific foundation about color by showing that a prism could break up normal light into a full range of colors which he dubbed the "spectrum". The spectrum was continuous, but decided to use seven color names by analogy with the seven notes of our musical scale. (Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Indigo, and Violet)

Color is actually much more complicated than I had previously thought; it has complicated mathematical ways to measure it. Light and the creation of colors are also very intricate. After detailing all you need to know about colors, it lays out the methods using clear precise tables and graphs. A number of things were laid out and people were asked to choose what color represented what to them. The first item trust was curious to me, most people said blue at 34% then white at 21%, I definitely would have said white. This was interesting to me because I thought blue represented sadness. Regardless of my take, blue dominated all positive characteristics, and was virtually nonexistent on negative. It is no wonder that blue is by far people's favorite color. Another interesting point was that red dominated fear and terror but also courage and bravery.

Peoples favorite colors weighed in at

Blue 42%

Purple 14%

Green 14%

Red 8%

Black 7%

Orange 5%

Yellow 3%

Brown 3%

Grey 2%

White 2%

A lot of good information is contained within this research, though it didn't have as much emotion/personality connection as the link advertised, it was still an interesting and useful site.

Earlier in the semester we talked about the brain and how certain hormones influence or are activated due to emotions. Neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, and endorphins are just a few that have been shown to influence mood and emotion. What we did not go in detail about was the parts of the brain that make contribute to moods, emotions, and behaviors. I found an article that discuss' this very topic.
Arousal is a process that involves cortical, behavioral, and autonomic mechanisms (Reeve, 2009, p. 374) This article talks about the cortical (activity of the brain) part of being aroused and the emotional reactions that can evolve from being aroused. Reeve (2009) lists four principles to explain arousal's contribution to motivation. There are two that relate to the study explained below:
1) A person's arousal level is mostly a function of how stimulating the environment is.
2) People engage in behavior to increase or decrease their level of arousal.
A new study was done to test if the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) was a region of the brain that could help people control emotional reactions such as negative moods, rumination (not being able to get something off your mind), and substance abuse. After having several people in stable, healthy relationships journal daily and have brain scans done while viewing positive, negative, and neutral facial expressions of their partner, it was found that LPFC activity did predict how one would react to an interpersonal conflict. When there was a day of no interpersonal conflict, the LPFC activity was not related to the next day's mood or behavior. On the contrast, when there was a day when interpersonal conflict did occur LPFC did predict mood and behavior the next day. Low levels of LPFC activity was related for high levels of negative moods, rumination, and substance abuse.
This study is helpful when talking about coping with stress. To avoid bad coping strategies like over-eating or substance abuse, people can become aware and learn to introduce positive strategies such as counting to 10. If you are a person who has low LPFC function, it is possible you may become more susceptible to such behaviors.
Link:
http://news.oneindia.in/2010/03/03/howto-control-emotional-outbursts-in-front-of-yourpartner.html

This week for class I read an article about how early child-rearing techniques influenced later, adult personalities. This study used surveys from a 1951 study about mothering techniques and later contacted their children who were now about 31 years old. The results showed a correlation between mothers with strict toilet training and scheduling of feeding and children with high needs of achievement. Mothers who were permissive about sex and aggression had children who were high in needs of power.

 

This article made me think about how much early childhood experiences really have on our behaviors and if it does affect our different needs in adulthood. Is it even possible to study this connection or are there too many intervening variables between childhood and adulthood? In another class I am taking this semester (Psychological Anthropology) we discussed the differences in child-rearing techniques between American mothers and Gusii mothers. American mothers spent more time looking at and talking to their children while Gusii mothers spent more time holding their child. These parenting styles represented what was important in the different societies; Americans value independence and individualism while Gusii value collectivism and society. So, were the adult behaviors created by the parenting techniques in their childhood? And why does this correlation even matter?

 

Personally, I have some trouble making this connection. I think it may be because I need more concrete proof of the correlation between the two variables rather than just observations. And even if there was a cause and effect relationship, I don't think it matters that much. So what if a certain parenting technique creates an adult with a high need of achievement, is it really that important that people will either want to avoid that behavior or encourage it? What does everybody else think about this correlation?

 

Articles:

 

McClelland, D. C., & Pilon, D. A. (1983). Sources of adult motives in patterns of parent behavior in early childhood.

 

Levine, Robert A. (1999) Infant environments in psychoanalysis: A cross-cultural view.

After reading chapter 7 of our textbook, I came across this article on avoidance achievement motivation that I found to be not only interesting, but beneficial in explaining the difference between approach achievement and avoidance achievement. Elliot and Church purpose a hierarchical model to further study avoidance achievement motivation, and the current study was a basis for them to directly test the validity and generalizability of it. Instead of focusing primarily on a classical approach or a contemporary approach to achievement, researchers integrate both into one model where the conventional performance goal is divided into a independent approach and avoidance components and three achievement orientations. Specifically, competence expectancies on achievement are believed to influence achievement behavior indirectly due to their effect on goal adoption.

The authors hypothesize that those individuals who believed they could be competent in an achievement situation would sway towards success and take on approach achievement goals such as performance-approach and mastery, while those low in expectancies would sway towards the likelihood of failure and assume a performance-avoidance goal. In addition, motive dispositions and competence expectancies are posited to influence intrinsic motivation and graded performance circuitously by way of achievement goals effects. When achievement goal effects are controlled, these variables are predicted to have no effect. Operationally, motive dispositions account for the temperament of the individual and their tendency towards one of the three examined competence expectancy goals in achievement situations (mastery, performance-avoidance, or performance-approach).

The methodology utilized in this quasi-experiment included 204 undergraduate students with a mean age of 20.01 years. The course was set up in a standard lecture format and multiple-choice tests evaluated each student's progress in the course. Over the course of the semester, a series of sessions took place before class began in the instructor's absence as responses would remain confidential and would not impact their grade for the course. In these assessments, students' achievement motivation, fear of failure, competence expectancies, achievement goals, competence perceptions and intrinsic motivation were measured. Motive disposition and competence expectancy were measured during the first week of the semester while achievement motivation and fear of failure were assessed in the first class session. Competence expectancies were considered in the next session, and achievement goals were assessed during the second week of the course's meeting. Competence perceptions were measured before and after the midterm examination. Intrinsic motivation was measured at the conclusion of the semester.

The main findings of this study provide strong evidence for the purposed hierarchical model of approach and avoidance achievement motivation. Mastery goals were found to be based in achievement motivation and high competence expectancies which, in turn, facilitated intrinsic motivation. Performance-avoidance goals derived from a fear of failure, low competence expectancies, and were found to be detrimental to intrinsic motivation and graded performance. Performance-approach goals rooted themselves in achievement motivation, fear of failure and high competence expectancies while enhancing grade performance overall. By integrating central elements of prominent approaches, researchers anticipate a more penetrating and comprehensive explanation of competence relevant affect, cognition, and behavior in the future.

Elliot, A. J., & Church, M. (1997). A hierarchical model of approach and avoidance achievement motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 218-232.

 

 

I have a friend that recently had a baby and she was one of the lucky girls who loses pregnancy weight fast.  She was already slender before her pregnancy which probably has to do with it too, but she mentioned how she exercised while pregnant.  So I decided to research the topic, everything points to this benefiting you and your baby.  As long as it's done in moderation, you avoid contact sports (obviously), and you keep cool and hydrated.  Studies have shown that if you get overheated in the early months while working out you may cause birth defects to your baby.  So where light clothing and drink lots of water.  Swimming, water aerobics, and yoga are some of the three best sports to participate in while pregnant.  They don't out too much stress on the baby.  This article also stated how if you don't work our regularly before the pregnancy and want to start after, you need to take it slower than others.  

In class we began discussing other movies that may be a good fit for understanding different types of motivation and emotion.  This weekend I caught the movie "Enough" on TV.  I have seen this movie many times before, and each time I see it becomes more and more interesting.  There are many different things from the text that are shown in this movie.  I won't go too much into depth so that I won't spoil the movie for those of you who have not seen it, but it can be watched on youtube, if you're interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNAdBSxZ9XQ

The most obvious example of motivators in this movie is fear and need for survival.  The first time we see true fear from Slim is when she catches Mitch cheating on her.  She eventually stands up for herself, only to get pushed back down after he punches her in the face.  This is when she really sees that Mitch is not the man who she thought he was.  The violence progresses throughout the movie, escalading to the point where Slim feels that her life is in danger. Slim is terrified that her husband is going to kill her, so she is forced to find a way to get away and survive.  Slim is forced through many obstacles to avoid her abusive husband.  These situations alone are examples of physiological need for survival.  A need is something that is necessary for life (Reeve, 77).  In this case, getting away from her husband is necessary for life.  She also has to save her daughter, Grace.  This is another example of a physiological need to protect her offspring.  Reeve also discusses how "damage can be to the body, so motives arise from physiological needs to avoid tissue damage and to maintain bodily resources...Damage can also be done to one's relationship to the social world, so motives arise from social needs to preserve our identities, beliefs, values and interpersonal relationships" (Reeve, 77). Both of these factors take place while Slim is fighting for her life.  Throughout the movie, Slim has her friend reminder her that it is her primal right to protect herself and her offspring.  This is the same bases that are discussed in the text book.  Slim has perceived that her life is in danger, and this motivates her to make big changes in her life.   We see how strong her drive to save her life is when she moves across the country, changes her hair, and attempts a new life. In the end, her drive to save her life and her daughter is so strong that it causes her to do the unthinkable.

Mitch, the husband, has an intense need for power.  His ongoing violent tendencies and actions show how his need for power overrides all of his other needs.  He thrives on power, which is why he needs to control Slim, as well as all of the people around him.  The first example of this is when he approaches the stranger and asks to buy his house.  Mitch threatens the man, saying that if he doesn't sell the house Mitch will make his life miserable. These same situations continue to happen and get increasingly violent throughout the movie. Mitch goes through the stages of power (impact, control, and influence) many times throughout the movie (Reeve, 195).  Mitch creates impact the first time he hits Slim.  He shows her that he has power over her through force and violence.  He creates control when he continues to abuse her without any sense of guilt or regret. When she escapes, he attempts influence when he tries to transfer his power over those involved with Slim (her friends who help her escape and the man who she confides in and hides at his house).  He influences these people by threatening them and sending men after them to scare them.  He is extending his power over them even when he is not there, by instilling a sense of fear in both Slim, and the people who she comes in contact with.

 

After reading Sadie's article on why having a puppy is a positive thing and her experience with it, I looked for an article that discussed some of the benefits of it and I came across this article. This article discusses how having a dog can physically and literally improve an indiviuals's physical health. People who own dogs generally have lower colesterol, lower blood pressure,and have reduced chances of cardiovascular diseases. These individuals also have faster recovery times and higher survival rates.These individuals also have fewer visits to the doctor because their physical health is over all better. The main thing in this article that relates to me is how having a dog can improve the emotional state of people. As I said in commenting on Sadie's article, I have been battling severe depression that almost cost me everything I had, including my college career. I have been in counseling, which my counselor suggested I should have some sort of pet even if just a fish. For Christmas this year, my sister and her family got me a female miniature weiner dog which  I named Lady. She has made a huge positive effect in my life and my depression has done a 180 since I got her. I am almost like a completely different person. She gives me a reason to smile each and everyday and something to look foward to going home to. She has made a huge difference in my life and in my emotional state of mind. She gives me a sense of unconditional love and acceptance, and feeling of being needed, which is most important. I couldn't agree with this article more that having a dog can improve a person's physical healtha and also their emotional helath.

I know a lot of people especially girls want to get married someday, and want to find their true love so I researched what motivates us to find true love and found this article which I found very interesting.

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/independent-woman/love-sex/how-to-find-true-love-2051038.html

Helen Fisher the women who dedicates most of her life on How to find true love believes there are four personality types.

"all of us conform to one of four personality types, which are controlled by different chemicals in the brain. These chemicals mould us, and cause us to be attracted to people who complement our personality types (see panel). There is the Explorer, a sensation seeker ruled by dopamine; the Builder, a respecter of authority driven by serotonin; the Director, analytical and ruled by testosterone; and the Negotiator, intuitive and fired by oestrogen. Negotiators need to connect with others on a deeply personal level, are very trusting and good at talking."

What personality type are you? and if you have a boyfriend or girlfriend are they compatible with you according to Helen Fisher?

Praise is not always motivating.

http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=The%20Power%20(and%20Peril)%20of%20Praising%20Your%20Kids%20--%20New%20York%20Magazine&expire=&urlID=21157633&fb=Y&url=http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/&partnerID=73272

"A growing body of research and a new study from the trenches of the New York public-school system�strongly suggests it might be the other way around. Giving kids the label of 'smart' does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it."

I got a puppy last summer, and it has been the most fun, loving, and rewarding experience I have ever had!  My mom actually read this book (100 Simple Secrets Why Dogs Make Us Happy: The Science Behind What Dog Lovers Already Know) and recommended I looked at it.  As I was glancing through the pages, it was really funny how much sense the book actually made.  Having a dog gives us a sense of belonging, love, companionship, and even achievement (when training and raising a dog).  Dogs also provide a constant motivator to get off the couch and play or go for a walk (for me at least).  I know that I also feel obligated to her to make sure that she is healthy and happy, which also fulfils my affiliation need. Although this is generally intended towards humans, I think that someone can definitely benefit from having a dog.  I have also learned in past classes that many therapists recommend getting a pet to their patients of depression or anxiety disorders.  Pets provide a sense of stability, and also can provide and endless amount of love and friendship. 

Having a dog can fulfill many of our psychological needs.  When training a dog, it presents a challenge to be overcome. Our desire to do well in training our dog can fulfill the need for achievement (Reeve, 175).  Succeeding in training your dog can be the most rewarding experience, creating a large amount of positive reinforcement and increasing the likelihood you will continue to train the dog.  Setting goals in training can also increase motivation to continue training (Reeve, 184). Having things in mind such as "I'll have my dog potty trained by the fall" can increase your motivation to work with your dog.  When your dog starts to understand the training techniques, it reinforces your behavior and increases the sense of achievement.

Another area were having a dog can fulfill psychological needs is affiliation and intimacy (Reeve, 192).  Establishing a good relationship with your dog can be very rewarding.  Dogs can provide constant, unconditional love when they have a strong bond with their owner.  Although affiliation is rooted within the fear of rejection, affiliation with your dog can start to calm those anxieties and create a more relationship oriented life style.  Dogs are also less likely to reject their owners, so someone with a high need for affiliation would likely have a good relationship with a dog.

The need for power may also be accomplished through owning a dog.  The leadership (Reeve, 196) that it takes to own a dog is crucial in training and maintaining a healthy pet.  Teaching the dog things that they can and cannot do is something that can create a very power-related relationship between the owner and the dog.  Dogs see everything as a power-related situation (this is why many times dogs can have problems with aggression if they feel they have power over the house or over other people, in the dog world it is referred to as "dominance") It is the responsibility of the owner to make sure that the power does not shift from the owner to the dog, or serious aggression and misbehavior problems can occur. With the power safely in the owner's hands, the relationship between dog and owner can be a very positive one.

The book also discusses how people with pets tend to live longer, happier lives than those who choose to live pet-free.  Here is a description of the book, which touches on many of the things that we have discussed in class (such as exercise to reduce stress, as well as communication).

From Harper Collins.com:

"Why do people who have dogs live happier, longer, and more fulfilling lives? Sociologists and veterinarians have spent years investigating the positive effects that dogs have on people's health and happiness yet their findings are inaccessible to ordinary people, hidden in obscure journals to be shared with other experts.

Now the international bestselling author of the 100 Simple Secrets series has collected the most current and significant data from more than a thousand of the best scientific studies on the profound relationship between humans and our canine companions. These findings have been boiled down to the one hundred essential ways dogs positively impact our lives. Each fact is accompanied by a inspiring true story. If you love your dog, and science tells us that you do, this book will inspire and entertain.

·  Communicate Better: It sounds odd to say a creature that communicates with barking and body language can have such a profound effect on human communication. But by providing a common point of reference and concern, dogs help us to feel a connection to other humans. That connection makes us feel more comfortable communicating with each other. When meeting a new person, the presence of a dog reduces the time before people feel comfortable while talking with each other by 45 percent.

·  Live Longer: There is perhaps no better gift that dogs offer us humans than this simple fact. People who care for a dog live longer, healthier lives than those who do not. On average, people who cared for dogs during their lives lived 3 years longer than people who never had a dog.

·  No Monkey Business: Primates are genetically more similar to humans than any other creature. But try to tell a chimpanzee something and you will be hard pressed to get your message across. Dogs are uniquely attuned to the messages we send. Dogs study humans and have evolved to build social skills that help them to function around us. Dogs are 52 percent more likely to follow human cues such as pointing toward a source of food than are primates.

·  Around the Block: Good habits are often misunderstood as difficult or unpleasant chores. But there is tremendous value in the simple act of taking a walk. Walking not only burns calories, it also decreases stress. Having a dog means regularly talking walks - it's something you do for your dog but in truth your dog is doing for you. Dog owners walk 79 percent farther in an average week than non-dog owners."

Are there other ways that dogs can help fulfill our needs?  Is it selfish to think this way? What are some other motivators that people may have to own a dog, or any pet?

Just this past week a very close friend of mine delivered a beautiful baby boy. And while I have no reason to suspect that she would have postpartum depression the idea of it had crossed my mind and so I decided to look into it. Mayo clinic had a definition of postpartum depression on their website: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/postpartum-depression/ds00546

I also found another site that answered common questions and gave the warning signs and symptoms of postpartum depression. It answered questions such as how do I know the difference between common 'baby blues' and actual postpartum depression: http://www.womenshealth.gov/faq/depression-pregnancy.cfm.

And as I thought about it I remembered how Tom Cruise had attacked Brooke Shields about taking anti-depressants after giving birth, so I found a site that told her story about her struggle with postpartum depression: http://www.webmd.com/depression/postpartum-depression/features/brooke-shields-depression-struggle.

Does anyone know of someone that had struggled with postpartum depression? Where you close enough with them to see any of the signs?

How do images and music create intense feelings in people? You've probably received an email forward that had an automated powerpoint presentation with incredible photos and either uplifting or tear jerking music. Well this website, Moodstream, allows you to control basic affect elements and then will show images and play music that matches the specific 'mood' you've specified. Try it. What do you think? Did you feel differently given the different settings you tried? What real (ie, scientific) aspects of mood and emotion is it tapping into? The main webpage says that these different mood streams can affect behavior in terms of brainstorming and creativity. What do you think?

http://moodstream.gettyimages.com/usa/?isource=direct-entry