What's in the News?
What I would like you to do is to start applying what we are learning in class to real world matters.
What I would like you to do is to either go to NPR (http://www.npr.org/ ), the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/ ) or any news site listed at the bottom of this page (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ listed in their news sources) and read, watch, or listen to something that is interesting to you and relates to what we have been learning about psychology via lectures and your textbook.
Please comment by telling us what the piece you chose was and why you picked it (what made it interesting for you)? What did you expect to see? What did you find most interesting about the piece?
Next discuss how it relates to the class using terms, terminology, and concepts that we have learned so far in class.
Include the URL in your post.
Make a list of key terms and concepts you used in your post.
I choose the piece on Carl Paladino about his remarks regarding the gay population. This article come after Carl Paladino, who New York Republican candidate, stated to a crowd of orthodox Jewish leaders about how we shouldn’t brainwash our children into thinking homosexuality is an equally valid or successful option, because it isn’t. It was also found out that the statement “There is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual. That is not how G-d created us”, was in Paladino’s prepared speech, but was not actually said. My piece was about Carl Paladino’s interview with Matt Lauer about his remarks during his speech and how he says he has difficulty deciding whether being gay is a choice.
The reason that I choose this piece is because it conflicts with my views. I have nothing against the gay population I think they are like everyone else and should be treated like everyone else. I was very offended with the remarks made by Carl Paladino. It was also very humors how he tried to defend his remarks and how he blamed everything on the media’s interpretation of what he said. A reason why this was an interesting topic to me because it amazes me how stupid some people can be. I didn’t really have any expectations before reading the article. I figured that Paladino would say the same things that other anti-gay groups say. I figured it was all going to be about how gays are bad people and that lifestyle should be condemned. These are just things that I have heard other people say about the gay population. I didn’t have any expectations toward this particular article. I didn’t find anything interesting about his article. I found a lot of the article offensive, because of the comments that Paladino made about gays. I guess I found how Paladino answered Matt Lauer questions pretty interesting. The way he tried to twist what he had said in his speech was very interesting. He did not do a good job at it. Both times Paladino sounded like a homophobe and an idiot.
This article relates to the class in a number of ways. First of all this article can draw strong feelings form people on either side of the issue. This article can invoke anger, as it does with me, or it can invoke pride if on the other side of the issue. These two things are internal motives and the feelings that come from this helps us direct our behavior in a certain direction. I think this article has some external events in it too. Paladino is saying one thing to a group of people who are against gay marriage and then trying to correct that statement when the public wants to why he is against gay marriage. He is trying to please both sides of the issue to gain votes in the election. The reaction of the public to his statements and the number of votes he might attain because of his beliefs or polices energizes his behavior of lying. A person can’t be a both sides of an issue, so he is lying to part of the population. Cortisol could also relate to this article. I’m sure, though it is not certain, that Paladino was nervous during his speech to the orthodox Jews and this interview with Matt Lauer. Because Paladino was probably nervous or stressed during both these interactions cortisol was released from this adrenal gland. Sexual orientation is big term that is used in this article. It is actually what the entire article is about. Paladino states that he is not sure he people choose to be gay or not. According to the text, research has shown that sexual orientation is not a choice. He thinks that kids should not believe that homosexuality is an equally valid or successful option. I’m not sure, but if Paladino is hoping this statement will scare or make people not be gay it won’t work, because being gay is not something that is chosen. Extrinsic motivation could also play a part in this article. Paladino could be saying all of this for the attention he is getting from the public. So Paladino is saying all this stuff relating to homosexuality, because of the public attention he is getting. I don’t think this is the reason he is saying it, I think he is actually a homophobe and believes what he spews, but the extrinsic motivation could be a possibility. After Paladino’s speech he got a lot of public ridicule, which could decrease the probability of that happening in the future. In a way it did because he went on to talk to Matt Lauer and try to correct some of what was said during his speech, but in my opinion he didn’t correct anything he just said more what will bring public ridicule on again. I believe he is going to continue in this undesirable behavior, which is talking negatively toward the gay community, and thus continue to suffer public ridicule. These were the different motivation and emotions terms that could be applied to this article.
Internal motives, emotions, feelings, external events, cortisol, sexual orientation, extrinsic motivation, punisher
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010
/10/11/carl-paladino-homophobic-gay-choice_n_757769.html
I choose an article titled Chili Mine Rescue: Miners’ Kin Struggle with Jealousy, Rivalries. I choose this article because I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like for the miners to be trapped like they are. The families too, must be going through so many emotions and the closer that their husbands, brothers, uncles are to being rescued the tension and anxiety must increase. I didn’t have any expectations going into this article. I have heard reports on the television that some mistresses have shown up at the vigil place and has caused problems because the wives are realizing it for maybe the first time.
The article discusses how there are 33 miners that have been trapped for 68 days and the first of miners should be rescued late today (Tuesday). While the men have been trapped and the process of being rescued began, families of the miners have been holding vigil. They have called the place Camp Hope. Tension is rising with the families and feuds are being created. The families are able to conduct videoconferences with the miners but this has created a lot of jealousy as to who gets to take part in it. Television reporters have staked out this area for stories and any newsworthy information from the families. This has also lead to problems between families. Because of all the problems the miners are to choose between one and three people that they want to meet them when they are brought to the surface. The process of getting the miners out of the mine is a long process. They have plans for who will be taken to the surface in the first group and who will remain and go last. Provisions are in place so that media cannot exploit them when they do reach the surface and are treated at a triage place before being taken to the hospital for observation. The miners will then be kept at the hospital for 48 hours which starts when the last miner arrives are the hospital.
This article relates to what we’ve been learning in class because the families and miners have probably struggled with fear and anxiety every single day that their loved one has been trapped. The textbook states that social isolation and fear arousing conditions increase a person’s desire to affiliate with others. The family members have created a place where they can go to affiliate with other who are going through the same thing with them. The miners too, are surrounded by their co-workers and can affiliate with them. Because the families have so much anxiety and fear, they are jittery and tense which appears to have lead them to rivalries and jealousy. Power is the desire to make the physical and social world conform to one’s personal image or plan for it. The groups of people that are working day and night to rescue these men have all the power right now. The families at the vigil realize that the lives of their loved ones are in the hands of those professionals. The rescuers have control and influence the process that needs to take place in order for the successful rescue of the miners.
Terms: Fear, Anxiety, Affiliation, Power
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/12/chile-mine-rescue_n_759035.html
I chose an article entitled, "Football's Brain Injury Lessons Head to Battlefield." I didn't really know what to except when reading this article, because I had assumed that the military already took precautionary steps when a soldier is faced with brain injuries. I thought it was interesting to read the story of Jake Mathers, who was a marine, and how he told the story of when he got his concussions.
What I expected to read about was some sort of technological improvement on how to care for brain injuries, such as concussions. Instead, it focused on how the military actually NEEDS to be aware of the damage that concussions and other brain injuries can have. The approach that they are trying to take is similar of that to what happens if and NFL player falls victim to a concussion-- they sit out for a week or even more, despite if they refuse. I thought it was interesting how much trouble getting a concussion can actually cause a person, such as Jake Mathers. He explains how it still affects him today (he got at least 4 concussions when serving his time in Iraq). He says he'll forget things a lot easily, misplace things, or even be driving down the road forgetting where his destination is. The article talks about what happens when a person gets a concussion. In a war setting, the blast from an explosion can reach into the brain and cause severe damage, even if the head is completely protected. Even days after the concussion, the brain still shows signs of distress, in that it slow's the brain's metabolism down, which leaves some cells needed a great amount of energy. This causes the brain to react to other mild injuries more severly. An example being just bumping your head on something; if someone experienced a concussion before this, the consequences would be much worse than if they hadn't.
Specifically, this article relates to Chapter 3 in our book, which is about the brain. Jake Mathers also reported having nightmares and problems sleeping, which shows that he had damage to his reticular formation, which is located in the pons, because that is the sleep center in our brain. It is heavily involved in our sleeping cycle, something Mathers obviously had a problem with. His cerebrum was also severely damaged because he complained of not being able to remember things, such as where he put his pack of cigarettes.
After reading this article, I think that it's purely common sense that the military needs to take some sort of action when it comes to head injuries. As the article stated, some of the tasks that the military have to do when in battle are very complex, and everyone needs to be on top of things because one little mistake could mess everything up. Someone who has a brain injury may not be able to think clearly, though the other members of his group may see nothing wrong with him. I think it's only safe to have them sit out of battle for a reasonable period of time before they step back out into the war zone.
My key terms are: brain, reticular formation, pons, and cerebrum.
I chose the article “Candidates’ Racy Photos Raise Sexism, Privacy Issues.” I was just reading in the Northern Iowan today about all the different candidates’ stance on different issues. Through this and a little research on my own, I chose the candidate I am going to vote for. Therefore, a lot of the candidates have been on my mind today, and that is why this piece caught my attention.
The issue of sexism has always upset me. Men are able to partake in different activities that when it comes out they are viewed as “studly” or is funny. When women partake in the same activity and it comes out, they are viewed as immoral women. How is that fair? I did not know what I expected from the article, but whatever it was I was surprised. I did not realize how much sexism affected political campaigns.
Krystal Ball is a Democrat from Virginia running for congress. Recently, photos taken from a Christmas party six years ago were leaked to the press. These photos show Ball sporting a revealing Mrs. Claus outfit with her now ex-husband wearing antlers and a penis shaped Rudolph nose. It was expected that Ball would drop out of the campaign, instead she has joined up with Siobhan Bennett of the Women’s Campaign Center who helped launch the “Name It, Change It” campaign that was created to fight sexism against female political candidates. The women of this campaign say that sexism has been around a long time in the political scene, now silence is no longer an option.
In this article I found several ways it relates to class. All of these women have a standard of excellence they are fighting for; therefore they all have a high need of achievement. Sexism has challenged their competence in the political sense and they are not settling for anything less than success against it. Ball is fighting this as a man would, with her head held high. The fact that Ball is running for congress shows how high her sense of achievement is. She wants to be a leader and make changes. This is an indication of leadership motive pattern. Individuals who want to be in the government must have the three traits that make up the leadership motive pattern. They must have a high need for power, this is indicated through Ball running for congress. They must also have a low need for intimacy and affiliation. Ball is married, yet most individuals that run for government are. When you have such prestige one does not have time to work on intimate relationships and cannot care if people like them or not. They also must have high inhibition. Ball has proven to have strong self-discipline by not dropping out of the campaign when the photos appeared. She held her head high and acknowledged the fact she made a mistake, and kept carrying on stronger than before.
Due to Ball being high in achievement, she has a strong sense of power. All candidates seek to make the physical and social world conform to their personal image for it. If they did not take a stance on different worldly issues, we would not know who to vote for. The three ways you can tell if an individual is high in the need for power are: impact, control, and influence. Ball has demonstrated impact by running for congress. She has demonstrated control by not backing down when the photos appeared. Ball showed her influence by joining up with the “Name It, Change It” campaign. By doing this she restored the power that she originally had before the photos came into light.
Motivation and emotion terms can be used on anything really. They are everywhere. In the article about Krystal Ball, achievement, power, and many things that encompass these terms can be applied. Sexism is a disgusting thing, therefore it is exciting that Ball is taking a stance.
Terms: standard of excellence, achievement, leadership motive pattern, power: impact, control, influence.
The article I chose to focus on can be found on the NPR website. It is entitled, So I’m Not the Only Black Skeptic by Jamila Bay. Prior to reading this article I knew it would deal with race and skepticism (obviously) since it was included within the title of the article. Since skepticism has to do with religion and doubt, I was drawn in. Religion has always been a major piece of my life, and is something I am passionate about. I have grown up in the church of the Christian faith. I believe that there is one God, the creator whom we are to devote our lives to, much like he did for us, in order to receive salvation.
Jamila began her article by talking about her childhood and younger adult years as an outcast. As a younger girl she was always seen as “one of the guys.” When she entered college she wanted change, so she got heavily involved. Her college years consisted of a great deal of success with her academics especially in the area of debate, which she favored. Becoming more and more confident in her beliefs, she stood up to her parents by telling them she was agnostic. Her parents only gave her disgust and no support in her beliefs, which she had felt since she was a child.
This article got me thinking about the people who are agnostic in our society and how we rarely hear about them. I feel as though those who are agnostic are somewhat left in the dark. There are many Christian based organizations to get involved in, but rarely do you hear of agnostic organizations. Maybe it is because I am completely unaware of them since I am a Christian, either way it seems as though agnostics are silenced in our community. I could be wrong, but this is the observation I made from my own life.
With no support from her family, Jamila was left alone to sort out her thoughts and beliefs, so she sought out other agnostics of the black race. From her research she found an event for secular students at a university that she attended. This was a way for her to relate to others with the same race and beliefs. It gave her a sense of relatedness.
Several motivational and emotional concepts from our textbook relate to Jamila’s story. Jamila was intrinsically motivated to participate in atheist beliefs. Her motives involved in the process were cognitively based. Her way of thinking included the belief that there is no God and that we are the result of evolution. Jamila had psychological needs just like the rest of us. She had a desire and need for autonomy, competence and relatedness. Throughout this process, Jamila had a great deal of autonomy. She had the conundrum of choice, which came from within, whether or not to believe in a god or gods and she made the choice not to believe. Jamila’s parents were neither nurturing nor were they controlling in their support process. Instead they were absent, and presented no support in her agnostic views.
In order to gain the relatedness she longed for Jamila sought out other agnostics, which was a success. She simply desired to belong and be accepted even though she was a different race and had different beliefs. Through going out of her way to achieve relatedness, Jamila found a university that would cater to her needs and place lasting friendships in her life. She finally gained the bond with other African Americans that she had longed for so long. As a result of an increased sense of well-being, Jamila’s vitality was rejuvenated and she was able to feel much more alive.
Terms I used: Intrinsic motivation, cognitively based, motivation, emotion, psychological needs, autonomy, competence, relatedness, conundrum of choice, nurturing and controlling support styles and vitality.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/tellmemore/2010/10/08/130433662/so-i-m-not-the-only-black-skeptic
My article is entitled "Two porn companies postpone filming over HIV test". It seems that Wicked Pictures and Vivid Entertainment have postponed shooting because a man and a women at each company tested positive for HIV. The companies are now in the process of testing everyone who had contact with these two people. The article also says that the industry in general has been critized for not using condoms, which, according to my understanding, don't do a lot to prevent HIV in the first place. The article concludes that federal law requires all actors/actresses to be tested within 30 days of starting a film. First, I thought it was funny (obviously not for the people who contracted the disease though). My second thought was that that would be a HUGE extrinsic motivation for me to NOT join the world of adult entertainment - not that I had ever considered it. But many people have, since porn is a few billion dollar industry. I've never talked to anyone in the porn industry but I would assume that extrinsic motivations would be a big reason why they persure these career choices (the extrinsic motivatior of money - lots of it). Also, it's not really something that I think would require a lot of skill, so that would be another extrinsic motivatior. I'm sure there may be some people for whom making videos of sex is intrinsically motivating, but I'm stumped as to why. (Maybe it's because I'm a women and women view sex more as a relationship thing-and this is in the textbook.) Another thing I thought of was the biological need of sex. It's one of the few biological needs we can control if we want to, yet it's the one that this industry capitalizes on. Mostly, it was about the motivation though.
Terms I used: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, sex, biological need
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11531325
I chose a blog by Jessica Radloff, titled “How Bullying Changed My Life.” I chose this piece because I too was bullied as a child. My experience is nowhere close to Jessica’s or Tyler’s (explained later), but it still caught my attention. I expected the blog would just be talking about a personal experience and what should be done to stop and prevent bullying, which it did…but it went into much more detail than I expected. In the blog, Jessica basically talks about how she was an “ugly duckling” growing up and she was teased to no end. She says she laughs it off now, even when it still happens, and she finds it quite amusing. Growing up Jessica went through what so many young kids, adolescents, and teenagers go through, bullying. Jessica stated that, “it was so bad that I felt the only way to stop the harassment would be to disappear altogether.” Kids, like Jessica was, struggle just to get through the day, and this is a huge problem in our society.
When reading this blog, I was thinking about what kind of internal and external motives kids must have to bully. I think the main internal motive would be to make themselves feel better about themselves. Often times kids who bully are unsure and not confident in themselves, so they feel better when they make someone else feel worse than they do. An external motive might be that they are trying to impress someone. Maybe the bully is trying to look “cool” in front of the person they like or someone they want to be friends with.
Jessica points out that this week is National Bullying Prevention Week. She talks about Tyler Clementi’s death, which I had not previously heard about. Tyler was a student at Rutgers that took his own life after his roommate took a video of Tyler engaging in sexual behavior with another man and posted it on the internet. I think it is so sad for tragedies like this to happen for attention to be given to the issue. Gays and lesbians are at the top of the list for being the victims of bullying, and are also at the top of the list for young people committing suicide…coincidence?
Also while reading, I thought about the psychological needs we have been learning about in class. When being bullied, you lose out on all of them…autonomy, competence, and relatedness are all in jeopardy. Everyone wants these things, and it’s not fair for someone else to take them away from you. Jessica talks about how she always tried to be a people pleaser…meaning she had a high need for affiliation. She provided the perfect example when she said all she wanted to do was be liked.
Terms: internal and external motives, autonomy, competence, relatedness, affiliation
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jessica-radloff/how-bullying-changed-my-l_b_752672.html
I chose NPR’s article “Football’s Brain Injury Lessons Head to Battlefield.” I am a communication sciences and disorders major and am very interested in the topic of traumatic brain injury. It is hard for me to believe that brain injury experts have not enforced medical policies requiring a mandatory checkup after military personnel is faced with an explosion. Concussions are serious injuries that need to be attended to and monitored right away.
On the battlefield, experts are saying that the energy of the explosion can cause detrimental injuries to the brain. Jake Mathers, a marine, spoke to reporters about his concussion experiences during his seven-week tour in Iraq. Jake reported that he got his first concussion when an enemy truck, carrying explosives, blew up in front of him. The energy of the explosion drove Jake to become unconscious. Jake also reported that he experienced several other instances like this—being knocked unconscious. Luckily, Jake did not lose any limbs in the explosions; however, Jake’s brain has undergone several brutal incidences that could have cost him his life.
It is very important that medical doctors and nurses enforce the 24 hour resting period after a military personnel has undergone the unconscious state or has been faced with an explosion. It is very important to let the brain heal after a concussion. Persons who experience several small explosions within a short period of time may suffer memory loss as well as sleep, speech, and decision making problems.
If there is damage to the brain’s frontal lobe, specifically the cerebral cortex, a person may experience personality, motivation, and emotional changes. The orbitofrontal cortex could also be damaged, which would affect a person’s decision making skills (Reeve, p. 56). Damage to the hypothalamus could cause regulation problems, specifically, problems associated with eating and drinking (p. 54). In chapter 3, Reeve explains that the hypothalamus is important area of the brain that controls our biological functions. The hypothalamus also controls the pituitary gland (which helps control the endocrine system) and the autonomic nervous system (involuntary control organs such the heart, liver, etc.) (p. 54). If there is damage to the reticular formation of the brain, a person may have trouble processing incoming information. The reticular formation is responsible for fine tuning and processing the appropriate actions (p. 59).
Damage to the prefrontal cortex will affect a person’s limbic system. The limbic system is also the sensory station for taste, smell, and sight (p. 61). A person may experience some personality changes as well. If there is damage to the cerebellum, a person’s balance will be greatly affected as well.
A speech language pathologist would also be concerned about damage to the Broca and Wernicke’s areas of the brain. Broca’s area is responsible for the production of speech; meanwhile, Wernicke’s area is responsible for speech recognition and comprehension. The brain serves as a major control center for our thoughts and movements. If there is damage to the brain, many areas could be affected.
As Jake mentioned in his report, although you may not physically see a scar, a person may suffer a serious and life threatening injury within the brain. Persons who experience a concussion may tend to think of the injury as a short, “fuzzy thinking” period, but persons who experience a concussion should be examined right away and the person should rest for at least 24 hours. The brain is very important!
I think it would be interesting to perform an electronic magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on a patient who has experienced a concussion to detect if there are areas of the brain that have been damaged or if there are changes in the blood oxygenation within the brain while the brain is active. I think it is interesting that shock waves are so powerful that the waves’ blow could knock a soldier unconscious. I thought this article was very eye-opening and I hope the government and medical experts create and enforce better medical policies on the military bases. In conclusion, damage to the brain can have short and long term affects. A strong wave of an explosion can cause traumatic brain injury; therefore, military personnel who experience this should be monitored, especially if knocked unconscious. The brain is important! The brain needs time to heal!
In all, I expected the article to talk about the advancement in medical policies on military bases for soldiers who have experienced concussions. I was surprised to learn that some policies are not enforced and I feel medical experts need to improve this. The fact that he felt that he did not receive proper treatment (or rest), Jake feels that there needs to be more medical attention for the soldiers who suffer concussions and are affected by these explosions in Iraq.
Terms Used: cerebral cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, hypothalamus, pituitary gland, reticular formation, prefrontal cortex, fMRI
http://www.npr.org/templates/search/index.php?&sort=match&searchinput=Football%27s+Brain+Injury+Lessions+head+to+the+Battlefield
I chose to read the article “Hospitals Lure Doctors Away From Private Practice”. What interested me about this piece was the fact that I myself have a goal in mind to one day own a private practice in the mental health field and was very intrigued as to why health professionals would opt out of owning and operating their own business and work for a larger employer within a hospital. I could see many potential reasons that novice doctors or health practitioners in training would want to work in a hospital to gain understanding of the health field and receive first-hand experience.
What I expected from this article was a comparison of the two venues in which a health professional could practice in and why hospitals were a much more appealing offer to new and veteran practitioners. I also expected to see the benefits of owning your own private practice and why it should still be considered a viable option. What I got was almost identical to what I expected. The article examined why the hospitals were recruiting and employing an increasing number of doctors compared to the number of private practices opening. A large reason is the base salary plus and incentive bonus for the number of patients seen for doctors. Convenience and security play a large role in the health professional’s decision. Taxing hours and administrative duties put a damper on the idea of hosting your own clinic.
What I found interesting about this article is that there was much emphasis put on this same issue during the early 1990’s but ended in what one managerial member deemed a disaster. With only a base salary and no incentive for each patient seen doctors weren’t working as hard and many started the transition off with a vacation. A very sizeable amount of revenue was lost and it appears that at least some of the members in the management association have learned from their previous mistakes.
Achievement is a driving factor for many professionals and working in a health center such as a hospital would give them the opportunity to perform well while instilling personal competence on the job. There is much more room for advancement and improvement within an organization than that of a privately owned practice. A hospital is also a place where a practitioner would have affiliation with other health professionals on a day-to-day basis. They have much in common and share similar interests and being in a setting where so many individuals are readily available would increase affiliation. The hospitals certainly have some power and influence over those practitioners who are still operating under a private practice or those considering doing so. They can offer a better salary and benefits plus client referrals. As the article states; hospitals are trying to accelerate the process by “making physicians nervous”. If they can have a large enough impact on practitioners they can control the state in which our medical professionals are in.
Competition may also play another key role in the choice to switch to the organizational setting. High-need achievers strive off competition and seek opportunities to test their skills. They are attracted to self-evaluation opportunities and a place such as medical clinic is a perfect position to be in to compare and compete with other professionals (ex: the number of patients seen per day or percent of positive feedback from patients). Also one’s master goal may be in mind while pursuing a position in an organizational setting. It would allow one to develop competence, make progress while displaying their high level of ability, improve upon themselves and outperform their colleagues, overcome difficulties with effort and persistence and therefore succeed with little apparent effort (Reeve, 2009).
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130237412
List of terms: Power, Competence, Affiliation, Mastery Goal, Competition
This Century Goes to the Women
I did the article on Muhtar Kent, he is the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of the Coca-Cola Company. In this particular article he talks about how women-owned businesses account for nearly four trillion dollars in economic output. Also how there is a direct correlation between women's empowerment and national GDP growth, business growth, environmental sustainability, and improved human health. The Coca-Cola company has made a committment to reach out and help empower five million women entreprenuers by the year 2020.
This caught my interest because you don't really get to read so many articles on men praising women for being entrpreneurs. Especially since the Coca-Cola compan is launching a program to empower women who are entrepreneurship, which sounds like a great plan, so I wondered how can I get some of this action.
Well they are looking for women who are entrepreneurs. So what makes an entrepreneur? According to the text book what makes an entrepreneur is the fact that these type of people were high-need achievers, because it requires taking moderate risks and assuming responsibility for one's successes and failures. That provides concrete, rapid performance feedback, which generates emotions such as pride and statisfaction which allows that individual to diagnose personal competence and rate of improvement on a continual basis. High-need achievers prefer to be in a challenging enviornment, doing independent work, personal responsibility, and rapid perofrmance feedback.
So what other conditions are ther to satisfy a person with a high-need for achievement?
Emotionally, moderately difficult tasks provide an arena for best testing skills and experiencing emotions such as pride and satisfaction. Cognitively, moderately difficult tasks provide an arena for best diagnosing one's sense of competence and level of ability. Which provides a mixture of pride that comes from success and a motive for high-need achievers.
Another high-need achievement satisfactor is competition.
Personally for me, interpersonal competition is a tough one for me right now at this point and time in my life. It promotes positive emotion, approach behavior, and improved performance in high-need achievers. Competition offers all these attributes and is therefore attractive to high-need achievers.
This has definately encouraged me to be more positive when it comes to challenges and openly welcome it and succeed.
Terms used: High-need, achievement, entrepreneurship, competition, interpersonal competition, emotionally, cognitively, behavior, and satisfy.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/muhtar-kent/post_1057_b_762044.html
The piece I chose to read comes from the NPR website and is entitled, "It's a Matter of Hate, and a Matter of Safety". The article focuses mainly on the Latin King Goonies gang in New York that has been going around terrorizing people that they learned were homosexual. It started off with two seventeen year old boys that were rumored to be homosexual. When the rumors were true, not only were the two teenagers beaten, but the Latin King Goonies gang lured older men that were thought to have been involved with these teenagers to an abandoned building where the gang normally meets and tortured them as well. They even slashed one guy with a box cutter.
This caught my interest because I am a huge advocate for the GLBT community. While I myself am not a member of that community, I have many friends that are and have seen what they have gone through in their life.
This article greatly reminded me of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. First, you need to make sure your basic needs are met. However, another need that we all must meet is the need to feel safe. We need to feel safe and secure in our community and everyone has the right to be able to walk down the street without the fear that something like what happened in this article will happen to them.
Another thing that came to my mind, coming from our more recent topic on social needs, was the need for power. The members of the gang probably thought it was important to commit these acts of violence because it would make them more powerful. They probably also wanted to make everyone else in the GLBT community afraid of them and used the acts of violence as their sort of sick warning that they are not fond of the GLBT lifestyle and aren't afraid to tell you how they feel with violence. I watch a lot of the show "Gangland" on the History channel, and one thing I have noticed is that some gangs actually use how many violent acts you have committed to determine your rank in the gang. It gets you power. In some gangs, violence against non-gang members also acts as a sort of initiation.
Relatedness is another topic that came to my mind when reading this article. The members of the gang, despite their lack of morals, were fulfilling their need for relatedness. They all share the same views and interests as each other. They also used relatedness to "bait" the older men they eventually attacked. The article said that the gang members befriended the people that were outed as being homosexual and convinced them to come to a "party". The two guys who were attacked also probably felt a small sense of relatedness in order to get the desire to go to the party.
In short, I feel that this article, as depressing as it is, did a great job at giving a real-world example of some of the things we have been touching on in class.
Terms: Relatedness, social needs, need for power, need for safety, Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
I found an interesting article on the National Public Radio’s website. It caught my attention because in many ways it can relate to how motivation appears in the real world. I also became curious to read more in depth after seeing the title, “Football’s Brain Injury Lessons Head to Battlefield.” This article basically explained that some American soldiers are suffering from brain trauma due to concussions they experience. Most concussions are caused by the jolt soldiers feel if they are located close to an explosion. It goes on to suggest that soldiers should be treated like athletes such as football players in the sense that they are forced to sit down and rest awhile after getting a concussion. The article establishes that if soldiers are not taken care of after a concussion, they risk getting another concussion which can cause more trauma to the brain. Trauma may express symptoms such as slight memory loss, headaches, and trouble sleeping. When an explosion occurs, the energy given off is sent through the body which may shake the brain. When the brain is shaken it is no longer functional and its metabolism is slowed down which makes the brain incredibly vulnerable to any other basic injury. That is why if a person suffering from a concussion does not take caution immediately after they may suffer more damage to their brain. What I expected to read about was how football players risk brain damage when playing the game, and what types of symptoms can hint towards someone suffering from brain damage. What I found surprising was what one soldier by the name of Jake Matthers was quoted after he himself had suffered from a concussion. He said, “It makes me a little mad. People are like, o well, you seem fine. Well, you know, I’m not. It’s not like I’m missing a leg. But I’m missing something that I can never get back.” Assuming this is true, I hope that someone is looking over those who may have had a recent concussion because the brain is the most important organ in the body.
There are a few ways this article can relate to how a person forms a self-image of themselves. In some ways one could question why concussions are not taken very seriously in combat like in Jake Matthers case. Is it because of the generalizations we as a society make about soldiers being tough and enduring pain in order to reach a higher goal? In my opinion I believe this may be part of the explanation. Even though we have not covered chapter 10 in the textbook, I thought there were terms that would relate best to this article. For example, I feel that in our minds as Americans we picture a soldier as someone who is strong mentally, physically, and emotionally. They are able to endure hardship and pain for our country. I feel that our generalizations about soldiers as well as the training they are put through have created a self image in their eyes. I would argue that through training and active duty soldiers have a specific self-concept of themselves. Meaning they share a mental representation of themselves. One way that self-concepts are formed is through feedback they receive or experiences they have been through. I know that during boot camp, if a soldier complains of exhaustion from running to much they will not be pitied, but instead they are motivated to push through and complete the task at hand. This type of feedback may form their self-concept that they are hard working individuals that must deal with pain later say for instance if they feel they might have suffered a concussion. Another term from chapter ten is known as a self-schema. Self-schemas are cognitive generalizations about the self that are domain specific and are learned from past experiences (Markus, 1977, 1983). The difference between a self-concept and a self-schema is that a self-schema relates to a specific experience such as the example I gave of boot camp. After that run, a soldier may form his self-schema based on his exhaustion and his lack of being pitied. His self-schema may be that he needs to be dedicated to working hard and always present a strong front that ignores pain. He based this self-schema on the specific experience. Yet, say the next day that same soldier sprains his ankle during running and his commanding officers immediately send him to get medical attention. He might change his self-schema and begin to understand a soldier doesn’t always have to present a strong front, but that he should be logical when he is injured and seek medical aid.
This article allowed me to become aware of the affects of concussions, but also allowed me to base my pre-existing knowledge from the textbook to interpret the information. Even this basic article has made me more conscious towards the importance of taking extra caution for the brain. It is reassuring to read that recently the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ruled that troops who are near a bomb blast must be removed from combat for at least 24 hours and receive medical attention if need be.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130436629
Terms: Self-image, self-concept, self-schema
The article I chose to write on came from the second web site you gave us titlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk. The article is titled “Brett Favre struggling to justify return to Vikings. This article discusses how Brett Favre has been persistently talking about how he is going to possibly retire for many years now. Although Favre has had a rough start to the season, he has managed to set numerous records that make him an outstanding and hall of fame player. The reason I chose to write on this article is because I am a fan of the National Football League and love watching these athletes compete. I am not a huge Brett Favre fan but the topic of his return has had many different opinions and is a very hot topic in the NFL. In this article John Elway discusses that even though Favre is an outstanding player, his playing time could be coming to an end. After the Vikings started the season of by winning only one of their four games, it makes it very difficult for the Vikings get into the playoffs. Favre has been struggling to complete his passes and last week he had a very hard time holding onto the football. There were at least two snaps during the game where the center had a perfect snap to Favre and the ball slipped out of his hands for a fumble. Favre also had a chance with two minutes left in the game to come back and win it for the Vikings. When I was watching this game I thought for sure that Favre would connect to his new weapon Randy Moss, but again Favre turned the ball over with an interception which was run back for a touchdown. The article makes a good point when it discusses next week’s game. The 1-3 Vikings will battle the also struggling 1-3 Cowboys. Both of these teams were playoff contenders in last season and are now fighting to get wins to give them playoff hopes. This game next week will be very interesting because the loser of this game will be in a huge whole and would have to win seven of their last eleven games to just come off at 8-8. When I read this article I got what I expected. I knew from the past few weeks from watching the NFL that Favre was seriously struggling. I feel that the Vikings are far from out of making the playoffs. I remember previous years when teams who were doing very poorly have come back with multiple wins and have turned themselves around. I find it interesting how out of all of the teams Randy Moss got traded to that it turned out to be his old team, the Vikings. I feel that the Vikings still have a chance to get back into the playoff battle and this all must start with more quarterback protection and Favre connecting passes to Moss with big touchdowns and big yardage plays. When I watched the Vikings last week I noticed that because Moss had just been traded to the Vikings he had to sit out on the sideline and watch on certain plays because he had just been traded there and is still learning the playbook. Once moss and Favre connect they could be unstoppable. It could really go either way and we will find out next week when the Vikings battle Dallas. Looking at chapter seven in motivation and emotion the chapter discusses social needs. A social need is an acquired psychological process that grows out of one’s socialization history that activates emotional responses to a particular need-relevant incentive. I will compare the four examples of social needs to the article. Looking at achievement, Brett Favre has shown his superior abilities in the past years. He has taken his team to many playoff and super bowl games. Even though the article explains how Favre has really declined and struggled this year, he has shown that his talent is real through his numerous records. Looking at power, Favre has shown that he has a capability to win, but has lost it this year. As a quarterback, Favre has the authority to call different plays and in many football games I have watched him audible the play at the line of scrimmage because of the way he sees the defense lined up. Looking at affiliation, Favre is associated with the Minnesota Vikings football team. Each player has a different role and a different position for the team. Looking at intimacy, the football players all work together to master the plays. As Favre works harder with the center at snapping the ball, the less likely he will fumble in the games to come. I feel that Favre still has the motivation he did at the beginning of the year. His motivation is his love for the football game and I don’t think a few losses are going to stop him from pursuing what he loves to do, win football games.
I chose an article from BBC News about the Chilean mine rescue titled "Last Trapped Chile Miner Rescued." I picked this one because I hadn't been keeping up to date on the crisis and wanted to see how it ended. It is scary to think about being trapped in a mine for over 2 months!
There were 33 miners trapped underground in North Chile due to a rockfall that made their tunnel collapse. Six rescuers went down and winched the miners up. All were alive but not in good condition. All of them have severe dental problems, some have eye problems, and one has pneumonia. On their way back up, the miners had to wear sunglasses to protect their eyes after beingunderground for so long. They also wore bioharnesses that monitored thier temperature, breathing, heart rate, and oxygen consumption. All were taken to the hospital and barriers were set up outside to keep the crowds away.
This article relates to physiological needs. After being trapped underground for so long, the miners were becoming deprived of basic needs. They wouldn't have had an adequate amount of food and water or much of a choice. Hunger and thirst probably ran high. They also didn't have hygeine products which led to their dental problems. And without sunlight their eyes became damaged and used to the dark. These things cause biological defecits and they become urgent and persistant needs so the body is not at homeostasis. And 2 months is a long time to be constantly worrying and thinking about the situation. The workers and their family were under constant anxiety and stress. Coming out of the mine most have been a shock to the workers and their body would take a while to absorb everything in again. Once they went to the hospital, they were surrounded by crowds and journalists which would put them under more stress and anxiety.
The good thing to come out of the situation is that no workers were killed and the safety standards are going to be changed to protect the miners.
Terms: Anxiety, thirst, hunger, homeostasis, needs.
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11518015
I chose to listen to a segment on NPR’s website about preventing teenage mothers from having another child. This directly related to our class discussions on motivation and includes information related to extrinsic motivation, behavioral rewards, and incentives. I found this interesting because I had been unaware of any specific campaigns that targeted teenagers who already had a child. I also found it interesting because the incentive that was offered to them was simply a dollar a day. This dollar was awarded to individuals who did not become pregnant during the period of this study. Before hearing the broadcast, I had expectations that the campaign to decrease birth rates would be successful but had few ideas on how they planned to relate this study to economics.
While listening to the NPR broadcast, a number of interesting findings were brought to my attention. The beginning of the broadcast overviewed the teenage pregnancy program and stated that offering a dollar a day was a large enough incentive to lessen the number of additional pregnancies. Although the program did not include specific incentives, it was implied that the program was very successful. This particular part highlighted how small incentives may lead to a change in behavior. The teenagers who were in this study were directed by an external reward that encouraged them to not get pregnant.
The discussion then turned to a psychologist who studies the relation between human judgment and economics. It was his view that people were very suggestive and that human minds are easy to infiltrate. He also believed that humans were not always coherent of their decision making and that at most times they make lazy decisions. He formulates these views around the ideas and findings of human psychology. Because of these viewpoints, he has concluded that humans need a nudge in order to make rational judgments. A nudge, in his view, does not necessarily have to be anything complex but it does have to be effective.
Many of his findings and the findings of his co-workers have changed the viewpoints that economists have on their government and the individuals involved in it. The change in viewpoints now allows economists to view humans as individuals, rather than groups. The suggestion that humans are not rational thinkers may have detrimental effects on our current free market economy. If in fact humans are subject to consistent poor judgment, it is difficult to instill such great trust that the free market will function without direct intervention. This makes it increasingly important for government officials to keep analyzing the current usefulness of their policies. If government officials take into consideration how people’s judgment may be positively nudged in order to implement positive campaigns, the likelihood of those campaigns’ success greatly increases. It is important for government officials and economists to view people from a behavioral perspective in order to understand the complexity of human decision making.
This article was much more negative than I had hoped and it basically stated that people could rarely make rational decisions for themselves. Although this was a very negative view it seemed to have a lot of truth to it. After reviewing the findings from this broadcast I have concluded that yes, people are not rational in an overall sense. One example that seems to make this statement salient involves environmental degradation. If you consider the detrimental effects that we have caused our own planet, I believe that it is easy to draw conclusions from the history of our actions as an entire population that we have not been rational. I also concluded that people do need a nudge in order to act in their own best interest. Although the statement to help someone act in their “own” best interests seems contradictory, it actually makes perfect sense. People often do know what they want and need but are usually unable to obtain those wants and needs. It is important to give individuals direction and aid in order to encourage self-regulation and promote positive behaviors.
The terms related in this broadcast include: extrinsic motivation, incentives, direction, value, positive affect, behavioral engagement, cognitive engagement, underlying motives, and
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104803094
I picked a piece on the Chilean miners that had just been rescued. I picked it for its recency and the president’s lofty goals of improving worker conditions as a result. This particular entry is President Pinera’s response to the 22 hour rescue efforts. Though he cannot guarantee such accidents from recurring, he vowed that “never again in our country will we allow working in conditions so inhumane and so unsafe as happened in the San Jose mine and many other places in our country.” He promised a review in pursuit of radical changes in transport, fishing, construction and mining industries. I would expect to see someone in such a position of power to react with similar sentiments, yet what is of increasing interest is whether or not plans for achieving this goal are being constructed and whether or not this plan will be implemented or enforced with any gumption. He has completed the first step of his corrective motivation effort, however, his plan, enforcement protocol, and feedback is not included in the article as this is yet to materialize.
Though recovery efforts have revealed the miners to be surprisingly healthy individuals—several should be released over the course of the next day—does anything change after this incident, following the journalists’ exits as global attention fades? The discrepancy between the present state (inhumane working environments) and ideal state (bearable working conditions) is forthcoming as this example resonates. Though President Pinera has set the goal of discrepancy reduction it is too premature to tell whether or not legislative efforts and implementation with be conducive to improving working class conditions. A pretest to compare the present state with the ideal state has been conducted, however, operating—acting on the environment to realize the ideal state—is only in the beginning stages, after which comes endless testing and operating.
There is no question as to the goal difficulty associated with such a centralized strategy with virtually no specificity at this point; at best this is a foundation without the necessary framework (i.e. structured plan, resources) to realistically address the issue. It will also be no easy feat convincing business owners to sink additional monies into their livelihoods; goal acceptance will not become possible without some worthwhile incentives- tax breaks or credits. Though the president has good implementation intentions in getting stared at this point, persisting and finishing may fall short of his goal (i.e. program costs, selling business owners). Short-term goals (implement in one economic sector) in pursuit of the long-term goal (use feedback in this sector to measure effectiveness, reconfigure the plan, apply to other economic sectors and continue the loop) may be more appropriate in creating long-term success.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11543473
key terms: Present state, Ideal state, Corrective motivation, discrepancy, discrepancy reduction, goals and plans, feedback, implementation intentions
I chose the article "Rescuers Pull Last Trapped Chilean Miner to Surface" because it was basically a story about a miracle. It was also interesting because it shows that humans can work together and survive harsh conditions. It's great to see stories about good occurrences when there are so many bad ones in the world. It's also great to see that the miners received a lot of support and help. I feel their faith and prayers were what truly helped them survive.
I expected to see the miners looking unhealthy, gaunt, and distressed. I also expected quite a few of them would have died. I didn't expect it would take that long (69 days) to get them out. What I found most interesting was that the miners had survived more time trapped underground than anyone on record. It was amazing that none of them died!
The article tells about the last miner being rescued and what went into rescuing all the miners. There was a lot of anxiety surrounding the miners, their families, rescue workers, and bystanders. Joy and relief soon followed, however, once all the miners were brought to the surface. The last of the miners who were trapped underground, the foreman who kept them together, was brought to the surface Wednesday night. He had been underground for 69 days. He said they wanted to fight for their families and that's what kept them going. Their faith in God was also helpful to them. Rescue workers descended the half a mile underground to hoist the miners back up to the surface using a capsule. They were brought up at a rate of one or two an hour. The men were monitored for any sign of panic by video. They also had to wear oxygen masks, dark glasses to protect their eyes, and sweaters for the climate change. They emerged looking very healthy and composed considering the circumstances. The miners had survived more time trapped underground than anyone on record. They became national heroes in Chile.
One type of extrinsic motivation that was present in the miners' situation was identified regulation. Identified regulation is when a person voluntarily accepts the benefits of a belief because that way of thinking is seen as important and useful to them. The miners believed surviving was important for the sake of living and to be with their families again. So, they cooperated and worked together to survive. The last miner, the foreman, held them together.
Psychological needs promote a willingness to seek out and engage in an environment that we expect will nurture our psychological needs. One of the psychological needs is relatedness. The need for relatedness was prevalent in the miners. To satisfy this need, they created communal relationships with each other. People in this kind of relationship keep track of others' needs regardless of reciprocity. They also provide help when others feel distressed. The miners, especially the foreman, kept track of others' needs to help them survive.
Social needs are emotional and behavioral potentials that are activated by certain situational incentives. One of the social needs is achievement. It is likely that the miners and rescue workers experienced the need for achievement. The need for achievement is the desire to do well in relation to a standard of excellence. A standard of excellence is any challenge to one's sense of competence that ends with an objective outcome. In this case, the miners' challenge to their sense of competence was to survive. This challenge ended with an objective outcome of success because they all survived. The rescue workers' challenge to their sense of competence was to rescue the miners. Their challenge also ended with an objective outcome of success because all of the miners were rescued. Each miner faced the same standard of excellence, but their emotional reactions probably varied. Some of the miners, along with the rescue workers, probably had a high need for achievement and responded to the challenge of surviving with approach-oriented emotions like hope and pride. High-need achievers also persist when faced with difficulty and failure. On the other hand, some of the miners probably had a low need for achievement and responded to the challenge of surviving with avoidance-oriented emotions like anxiety and fear of failure. When faced with difficulty and failure, low need achievers seek help and advice from others.
Since the miners were in a fear-arousing situation, their desire to affiliate with others (a social need) increased. To reduce their feelings of fear and anxiety, they sought out others. When people are afraid, they desire to affiliate for emotional support and to see how others handle their emotions associated with fear. These are a couple of the reasons why the miners affiliated with each other. Their families also experienced fear and anxiety and affiliated with each other for the same reasons.
The foreman seemed to take the leadership position since he was the one who held the miners together. He probably did this to satisfy his need for power (a social need). To satisfy his need for power, he also probably used impact to establish power, control to maintain power, and influence to expand power. High-power-need people seek to become leaders and interact with others with a forceful, take-charge style. Thus, I would say the foreman is a high-power-need person.
It would be interesting to know how the miners met their physiological needs like hunger and thirst. It would also be interesting to know what they did for entertainment and what they did on a day-to-day basis.
Key terms I used: extrinsic motivation, identified regulation, psychological need, relatedness, communal relationships, social need, achievement, standard of excellence, competence, fear, anxiety, affiliation, leadership, power, impact, control, and influence
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130525146
I chose the article "Girl tried to poison adoptive family with bug spray" from aolnews.com. I chose the piece because the headline alone shocked me. There are always fears of adoptions going wrong and even sparks horror films such as "The Orphan." It's hard for me to understand how a girl could turn on someone who has opened her heart and home to her. I was kinda surprised that the women was not going to press any charges. Instead she committed her to a health care facility. The girl is considered a "threat to family and society" according to the care officials. I was more surprised about the lack of prosecution when it was mentioned that the girl was posioning two other members in the family as well. I was hoping that the article would include a statement from the girl, but it is understandable that they didn't due to the girl being underaged. It is also mentioned that the girl's birth mother abandonded her.
Relatedness seems to be very low in her psychological needs due the strain on her past relationships.
As for social needs, the girl obviously has problems with intimacy. She is probably also low on affiliation due to her birth mother's abandonement when she was younger. As the book states, our social needs are influenced by our past and this would be large impact on anyone. One possible motive for the girl is her need for power. It makes sense due to her being low on intimacy.
Her motives may be intristic due to the persistance of poisoning for over a year. The girl may feel there is a conflict in her psychological need for autonomy and being under the supervision of her adoptive mother. She may have felt she needed to control something in her life and that turned out to be her family's health. The poisoning is definetly very passive aggressive. Aggressivenes is a characteristic of power-seeking individuals.
On the other side, her adoptive mother is probably very high on intimacy. She seems to still care for the girl's well-being. Especially since she chose not to press charges and instead seek mental help for the girl.
http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/florida-girl-accused-of-trying-to-poison-adoptive-family/19669736
terms: autonomy, relatedness, social needs, intimacy, affiliation, intricstic motivation, power, aggressiveness, persistance.
I chose an article written on the BBC website entitled “Love can ease pain, say brain researchers.” This article caught my eye because it is interesting to me that science can have a role in explaining such a complexity like love.
The study found from using fMRI brain scans that areas in the brain involved with pain responses were also activated by feeling amorous. The study used students who were in their first nine months of their relationship, a time when there are intense feelings of love.Students in the study had a heating pad placed in their hand and when looking at pictures of their significant others it reduced the perceptions of pain much more then looking at the image of an acquaintance. A key site that was lit up was the nucleus accumbens, a key reward addiction center.
A separate researcher looking at this study noted this effect could be short-lived because the relationships were in the early stages of a love affair, it may be replaced by something similar later in a relationship, with a sense of comfort and well being generating the release of endorphins.
I found it interesting the study concluded that people who feel alone and depressed may have very low pain thresholds were it is vise versa for someone who feels cared for. I also found it interesting that thoughts of your signification other lit up a part of the brain that can be activated by drugs and makes you want to keep using the drug to feel content.
It relates to class because we disused different structures of the brain. We learned that specific brain structures generate specific motivated states. The nucleus accumbens plays a critical role in the experience of pleasure from naturally occurring reinforcers and drugs and creates a “liking” reaction to things.We also discussed how this part of the brain along with others that make up the septo-hippocampal circuit and are associated with the affects of sex and sociability.
It was also learned women's sexual desire is highly responsive to relationship factors and emotional intimacy. While for men there is a strong correlation between psychological desire and physiological arousal.
It is important to note that the students involved in relationships are meeting their need for relatedness but are also experiencing intimacy so therefore they feel they are having meaningful life experiences and are cared for. Since these needs are being met they feel more happier than those who feel alone.
I expected is article to give me information on research done on this topic, which it did give me information about pain and how it is associated with love. I think this article ties in really well with how feeling certain emotions can affect brain structures.
physiological arousal, psychological desire, septo-hippocampal, nucleus accumbens, emotional intimacy, relatedness, intimacy,fMRI
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11537063
From school bully to role model
Reformed bullies on stopping cycle of aggression
The article I read was From school bully to role model. School bulling is a huge problem that is often over looked today. People do not understand the repercussions that can arise from bullying. Outcomes such as suicide. Many schools are now implementing a no tolerance bulling rule, which should have been put in a long time ago.
I picked this article because it interest me, and because I was curious what the motivation was behind bullying. This article talks to former bullies who tell why they bullied. The psychology behind that really caught my interest. I expected to see a sense of retaliation or acceptance for the reason behind bullying. I was shocked to read about bullying described as a “bullying cycle”. A cycle is something that is hard to break.
Psychological needs from chapter 6 really stuck out to me while reading this article. Both Autonomy and competence played a vital rule in the reason people were bullying. One example of competence is Alisha Mendez said she use to be a bully because of her “thirst for attention”. She just had to fit in with her environment. Bullying just seems to add fuel to the fire, as one student explained, "Many kids who are bullying today are actually quite confident. They are athletes, they are attractive, they are academically high performers,". These are the students who are already high in competence.
Moreover, although a little harder to see, competence plays a role in how to stop bullying. The article says to stop bullying, we must make it “uncool”. The reason for this is because if bullying is made uncool people will not want to do it anymore because is will no longer mean fitting in.
Two examples of autonomy as the drive behind bullying are also present in this article. Both of these are also very good examples of the need for power in chapter 7. The first: one student named Alex said, “it felt great”, it gave him a sense of strength and leadership. He went on to say “"You taste that powerful feeling of being the one in control. It's very exciting,". These are young people who want to be in control of something. These students found control in bullying others because they were in control of the person they were bullying.
Terms: Autonomy, Competence, the need for power
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/TheLaw/reformed-bullies-tolerance-stop/story?id=11873884
From school bully to role model
Reformed bullies on stopping cycle of aggression
The article I read was From school bully to role model. School bulling is a huge problem that is often over looked today. People do not understand the repercussions that can arise from bullying. Outcomes such as suicide. Many schools are now implementing a no tolerance bulling rule, which should have been put in a long time ago.
I picked this article because it interest me, and because I was curious what the motivation was behind bullying. This article talks to former bullies who tell why they bullied. The psychology behind that really caught my interest. I expected to see a sense of retaliation or acceptance for the reason behind bullying. I was shocked to read about bullying described as a “bullying cycle”. A cycle is something that is hard to break.
Psychological needs from chapter 6 really stuck out to me while reading this article. Both Autonomy and competence played a vital rule in the reason people were bullying. One example of competence is Alisha Mendez said she use to be a bully because of her “thirst for attention”. She just had to fit in with her environment. Bullying just seems to add fuel to the fire, as one student explained, "Many kids who are bullying today are actually quite confident. They are athletes, they are attractive, they are academically high performers,". These are the students who are already high in competence.
Moreover, although a little harder to see, competence plays a role in how to stop bullying. The article says to stop bullying, we must make it “uncool”. The reason for this is because if bullying is made uncool people will not want to do it anymore because is will no longer mean fitting in.
Two examples of autonomy as the drive behind bullying are also present in this article. Both of these are also very good examples of the need for power in chapter 7. The first: one student named Alex said, “it felt great”, it gave him a sense of strength and leadership. He went on to say “"You taste that powerful feeling of being the one in control. It's very exciting,". These are young people who want to be in control of something. These students found control in bullying others because they were in control of the person they were bullying.
Terms: Autonomy, Competence, the need for power
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/TheLaw/reformed-bullies-
tolerance-stop/story?id=11873884
From school bully to role model
Reformed bullies on stopping cycle of aggression
The article I read was From school bully to role model. School bulling is a huge problem that is often over looked today. People do not understand the repercussions that can arise from bullying. Outcomes such as suicide. Many schools are now implementing a no tolerance bulling rule, which should have been put in a long time ago.
I picked this article because it interest me, and because I was curious what the motivation was behind bullying. This article talks to former bullies who tell why they bullied. The psychology behind that really caught my interest. I expected to see a sense of retaliation or acceptance for the reason behind bullying. I was shocked to read about bullying described as a “bullying cycle”. A cycle is something that is hard to break.
Psychological needs from chapter 6 really stuck out to me while reading this article. Both Autonomy and competence played a vital rule in the reason people were bullying. One example of competence is Alisha Mendez said she use to be a bully because of her “thirst for attention”. She just had to fit in with her environment. Bullying just seems to add fuel to the fire, as one student explained, "Many kids who are bullying today are actually quite confident. They are athletes, they are attractive, they are academically high performers,". These are the students who are already high in competence.
Moreover, although a little harder to see, competence plays a role in how to stop bullying. The article says to stop bullying, we must make it “uncool”. The reason for this is because if bullying is made uncool people will not want to do it anymore because is will no longer mean fitting in.
Two examples of autonomy as the drive behind bullying are also present in this article. Both of these are also very good examples of the need for power in chapter 7. The first: one student named Alex said, “it felt great”, it gave him a sense of strength and leadership. He went on to say “"You taste that powerful feeling of being the one in control. It's very exciting,". These are young people who want to be in control of something. These students found control in bullying others because they were in control of the person they were bullying.
Terms: Autonomy, Competence, the need for power
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/TheLaw/reformed-bullies-tolerance-stop/story?id=11873884
I chose to read an article titled "Love Can Ease Pain, Say Brain Researchers." I picked this article because I am a biology major and I am interested in anything science related. I expected the article to focus on the neurotransmitters that make love enjoyable, like dopamine. I figured that somehow these chemicals would block pain receptors or something.
While the article did mention that dopamine is involved in feelings of love, it was actually about the brain structures that are activated when someone is in pain, and how some of these are also activated by feelings of love. The researchers used a fMRI to show that pain is reduced when a person is distracted by a picture of someone they love. The subjects were asked to bring in a picture of a loved one as well as a picture of an acquaintance. The picture of the acquaintance did not ease the pain that the person was subjected to. However, when shown the picture of their significant other their measured level of pain was reduced.
The article said that the nucleus accumbens is one of the areas of the brain that is involved. In our textbook the nucleus accumbens is described as an area of the brain that gives us pleasurable feelings. It makes sense that the nucleus accumbens would be involved in response to a picture of a significant other.
Also, the article mentioned that people who are lonely may have low pain thresholds. This tied into what we learned about the need for relatedness. People who are lonely do not feel like they have intimate communal relationships. Because of this, emotional (and perhaps physical) well-being suffers. The article also says that the opposite may be true for people in loving relationships, meaning that they have a higher pain tolerance. Again, this relates to what we know about relatedness and how it affects a person's overall well being.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11537063
Terms used: dopamine, nucleus accumbens, communal relationships, relatedness
Through browsing through various articles on NPR about bullying I happened across an article about Tyler Clementi, the 18 year old Rutgers University student who committed suicide after learning that his roommate had recorded him having sex with a man via his web cam and posted it online. I chose this article for two reasons: first because it was a heartbreaking story that I had only heard bits and pieces of and wanted to learn more, and second because on one of the first days of class Dr. MacLin said if you ask yourself “why would somebody do that” that it was a question of motivation, and I found myself saying that a lot throughout this article. The first term from our book I applied to this article was Sexual orientation. Tyler was Homosexual and that was arguably the reason for the bullying he received from his roommate and his roommates friend. This may have affected both his self-concept and his self-schema. His self-concept (which is an individual’s mental representation of themself) was probably quite low, as he ended up committing suicide. His self-concept, however, was probably not accurate as his family and friends had only good things to say about him and his talents. His self-concept was probably damaged by the bullying he endured from his roommates. Also probably affected by the bullying was his self-schema, which unlike self-concept id domain specific. His self-schema may have been in the way that he viewed his sexuality of relationship with others around his. His feeling of relatedness to others was sure to have been seriously injured because of this cruel prank. His roommate’s friend may have gone along with this invasion of privacy to fulfill her need for relatedness; she wanted to feel like she belonged in this guy’s friend group. Tragically after learning what had taken place, Tyler made the decision to take his own life.
After reading this article I was truly saddened both with the outcome and with the state of humanity that one human being could do this to another human being and call it fun. Tyler’s roommate and his roommate’s friend are currently being prosecuted for, among other things, invasion of privacy carrying a maximum sentence of five years. I will post back with the title of the article(my computer wont reload the site) but the terms I used were: Sexual Orientation, Self-Concept, Self-Schema, and Relatedness.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130225495&sc=tw&cc=share
The piece I read was an article on NPR about Buika: The voice of freedom. The reason why I chose this article was because I am always interested in new music and any chance I get to explore a new artist I take it. I expected, looking at her picture that was shown in the article, to hear a great success story about how this woman emerged and became a great singer. However it wasn’t quite what I had anticipated. Her voice is unlike any that I have ever heard and her story is much different than any that I have ever encountered. This article shows how Goal setting may take place for someone and it also shows how someone who has a mastery oriented motivation reacts to situations.
Buika grew up on the Spanish island of Mallorca as the child of African Immigrants whom fled their country because of corrupt government. So Buika grew up being the only African American child amongst Gypsy’s. They accepted her however and taught her flamenco, which I found out is a Spanish style of music and dance native to many regions of Spain. When she was older, she moved to Vegas where she was a struggling single mom. From that point in her life she became motivated to audition for a Tina Turner impersonator and ended up getting the job (Goal Setting derived from a discrepancy from her present state to Ideal state). She says that her voice reflects freedom. Political freedom that she inherited from her parents, Psychological freedom of not being afraid of expressing herself, and Social Freedom because she can be who she is and I can be acknowledged and accepted for it. As she was growing up children accepted her but others often did not. She expresses in the article an instance where she was kicked out of church because the people in the choir told her she was singing like a dog. This only pushed her to try harder (mastery motivational orientation not helpless orientation). As a teenager she worked at many Jazz clubs and worked with a few famous people. She was once regarded as the most liberated woman on earth. Buika has come a long way in her lifetime; from living in a Roma Gypsy neighborhood to now making it big. The most interesting aspect for me however is the sound of her voice. I urge everyone to check her out. She sings in Spanish which I cannot understand, but it is beautiful the way she sings; it’s really unique.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130920420