Ray Due 10/27 @ midnight

Ray’s interest in the piano began intrinsically. He would sneak into the store just to watch the man playing the piano. When the man began to teach him to play, he did it without any reward or external regulation. This type of interest is referred to as intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation causes an individual to search out moderately difficult tasks. It gives them the motivation to master these tasks. When intrinsic motivation exists within an individual, they will be more likely to persist, be creative, understand and learn better, and function most optimally. In the beginning, Ray was simply interested in the piano because it made him happy. He enjoyed learning this skill and felt the need to master it. He persisted with it even through his blindness. He was able to understand complex music and master it. When Ray began to receive money for his work, extrinsic motivation was introduced to the situation. Extrinsic motivation comes from environmental incentives and consequences. His various managers used incentives to keep him working for them. These incentives were consequences that Ray was aware of before he played a show. They used money to keep him interested. Soon, Ray began playing the piano for external reasons such as money. He began to worry more about what he was getting paid than the music. The Cognitive Evaluation Theory suggests that all external events provide a controlling and informational aspect. This lowers an individual’s Perceived Locus of Control. Ray felt that he wasn’t being treated right by his first managers. He felt used and that he had no control over the situation. Cognitive Evaluation Theory also suggests that events that increase perceived competence increase intrinsic motivation. When Ray was in the studio, he was unable to give his new manager the “sound” that he wanted. He became discouraged and wanted to give up. Ray’s manager suggested a new idea, and Ray was able to achieve what he was looking for. This perceived level of competence caused an increase in his intrinsic motivation. This manifested itself in a greater degree of persistence.
Another important aspect of this movie was Ray’s personal control beliefs. When Ray lost his sight at the age of seven, he felt little was in his control. His mother wouldn’t allow him to give up though. She was determined to teach him to be independent and self-reliant. Two types of expectancy exist. The first is efficacy expectations. Efficacy expectations are the judgment of one’s ability to execute a particular act or course of action. Soon after losing his sight, Ray’s mother tried to teach him to walk down the stairs. She told him that it would now be important to remember where things are so he can make his way around. By working on this, he increased his efficacy expectations. In his day to day life, he felt capable of walking around by himself, even remembering where his hotel was from many blocks away. He did this without the use of a dog or a cane. He used his own techniques (such as his shoes) to get around. This would contribute to his outcome expectation. This would be his belief that what he was doing would result in the desired outcome. He knew that if he remembered the route he was taking, he would be able to get himself home without the assistance of others. Because of this, he was more motivated to use these types of memories to make his way around. This two components contributed to Ray’s large amount of self-efficacy. He relied greatly on his sense of hearing to get through his everyday life. The book states self-efficacy as “that generative capacity in which the performer improvises ways to best translate personal abilities into effective performance”. He used his strengths (his sense of hearing) to compensate for his weaknesses (his sense of sight). The book also sates that self efficacy is the ability to organize and orchestrate our skills to cope with the demands we may face. Ray used the resources he had to function in the world.
There are many sources of self efficacy. The first being personal behavior history. Ray knew that he had navigated himself around successfully many times. At first with his mother and eventually on his own. This led to him being confident that he could ride a boss across the country, to somewhere he had never been, and start a new life there. Self-efficacy can also come from vicarious experience. Vicarious experience involves observing a model enact the same course of action the performer is about to enact. This could be seen when his mother said that she would first show him how to do something the first time, the second time he could ask questions, and the third time he was on his own. The first time he learned through vicarious experience. Verbal persuasion is another source of self-efficacy. When Ray is in the van, the driver asks him how he manages to get around without a dog or a cane. Ray replies that he uses his shoes to determine where doors are. The driver says it’s “cool” how Ray can do that, and that makes Ray happy. This type of encouragement can act as verbal persuasion for an individual. A physiological state is another way to gain self efficacy. When Ray was first learning to cope with his blindness, pain and confusion were obstacles he often encountered. He had to get through these things to be able to practice working on his own. When he fell out of the rocking chair and was crying for his mother, she left him there to figure it out for himself. He overcame this pain and stood up. This worked to increase his level of self-efficacy.

Terms: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, persistence, creativity, conceptual understanding, optimal functioning, mastery, incentives, Cognitive Evaluation Theory, Perceived Locus of Control, perceived competence, personal control beliefs, efficacy expectation, outcome expectation, self efficacy, personal behavior history, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, physiological states

The movie Ray was probably one of the best movies I have ever seen. It was very inspirational. It made me laugh and cry. Ray was a man who had lost his younger brother at a very young age. He felt a sense of responsibility from the death because he didn’t help. Although this happened when Ray was only a little boy he still has flash backs and major anxiety from the past. In this movie there are many things that take place that refer to our readings. A lot of them I found in chapters 5 and 6. Chapter five is all about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In the movie Ray shows both of these traits. At the beginning of the movie Ray is very intrigued with the piano. He has been watching people play it for years before he even got taught by the old man in the shop. One day when Ray snuck in to watch the man play the man asked him if he would like to learn. The man taught him to play three notes; he said that’s all you need to know. Ray was a very gifted and talented person when it came to the piano. He pursued it because that’s what he wanted to do; he thought it was fun. Intrinsic motivation is when a person is innately interested in a task for their own enjoyment. This means that there were no external stimuli pushing Ray to play the piano. As Ray got older and people realized his talent he then was extrinsically motivated because people were paying him for his work. Extrinsic motivation occurs when an outside stimulus is introduced to a task to make it more appealing to a person. External regulations such as incentives, consequences, and rewards are used through operant conditioning. Ray had many incentives that strived him to play; he also had consequences if he didn’t play. Intrinsic motivation is much more effective on people and once Ray was introduced to these extrinsic motivators he was playing the piano not because it made him happy anymore but because of the money and external stimuli that kept him doing it. Once he became completely wrapped up in the music business, Ray felt like he had no control over what he could or could not play. The movie showed some qualities from chapter eight as well. He had plans to have a wonderful wife and start a family but he also had his other life where he was on the road, doing drugs, and trying to find himself in his music. There was a discrepancy between those two different life styles because it is hard to live both lives at once. A discrepancy is a representation of how far we are from our present state to our ideal state. The present state is how we currently perform and our ideal state is where we desire to be.

Chapter six had a lot to do with this movie. Chapter six is all about our psychological needs. The three needs the book talks about are autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Autonomy is having the choice to do something or the choice of what option to take. Ray shows autonomy in the movie by using his ears for guidance. He wants to be able to do everything on his own and hates it when he cant. When his first girl friend from his first job tries to tell him to not make chicken in the dark and takes more money from him then she is really supposed to he ups and leaves right then and there. It was a choice made by him to take control of the situation. He doesn’t want people to feel sorry for him because he is blind but he doesn’t want people to take advantage of him either! Competence is the psychological need that must feel effective, or feel good about oneself. As humans we need to know that we are being effective and can have that self-esteem. Ray shows competence in the movie because he does feel good about himself when he plays the piano. He knows he is very talented in this area. When he develops his own personal style of music that has a gospel twist to it he shows even more competence. Relatedness is the psychological need to success at creating and maintaining close relationships and bonds with other people. Ray lacked this at first when he started in the music business because the people he was working for were taking advantage of his blindness. When he started his second job on the road he also lacked relatedness because everyone was excluding him from the things they were doing. Ray started doing hard drugs to fit in and get that since of relatedness. Ray learned many things through his journey through life. The hardest thing he had to do on his own was learn self-efficacy. He is a very strong individual, and this was shown throughout the movie. Even as a little boy, scared and alone, he made it through his long and inspiring journey.

Terms: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, incentives, consequences, competence, self efficacy, autonomy, relatedness, psychological needs, and self-esteem.

This movie was very good and it related to several concepts in our book. The first thing I noticed from the book that was in the movie was when Ray would sneak into the store to watch the man play the piano even though he knew he would get in trouble if he got caught in there by his mom. Ray was intrinsically motivated after the man taught him how to play the piano one day while Ray was watching him. Intrinsic motivation is when people act out of interest and do things because they find them fun, and for the sense of challenge the activity at hand provides. Ray also showed persistence with this piano playing. The higher a person’s intrinsic motivation, the greater their persistence is on that particular task. Ray was persistent when it came to playing the piano because he really enjoyed doing this activity. Ray continued playing the piano all throughout his life, even when he was blind. When Ray was offered some good performance and record deals, his intrinsic motivation for his love of playing the piano shifted to extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation arises from environmental incentives and consequences, such as money and drugs for Ray. Ray knew if he continued to become a big shot he could continue using heroin, which he was addicted to. If Ray did not make all this money from doing concerts and recording songs, he would not be able to support his bad habit and buy expensive things for his band members, wife, and kids. In a way Ray used fame and his money as an excuse to do drugs and cheat on his wife, which was a “do this and you will get that” behavioral contract for him. Ray also had many reinforcements in his career, with one being the big paychecks. A reinforcement is an extrinsic event that increases behavior.

When Ray was a young child he started to become blind. Ray’s mother taught his autonomy. Autonomy is the psychological need to experience self-direction and personal endorsement in the initiation and regulation of one’s behavior. Ray’ mother told him that he had to learn fast so he could get around on his own without a cane or a dog. So one day when Ray fell in the house and was screaming for his mom, she just let him lay there and figure it out himself. He began moving towards the fire and felt it was hot so backed away, then he maneuvered himself until he found the cricket he was hearing and then picked it up and handed it to his mother who he heard standing next to him. Ray also learned how to tell if there was a door way or not by listening to the echo of his wood bottomed shoes as he was walking next to the wall. Ray was autonomous or self-determined thanks to his mother to learn how to get around the world by himself.

Ray also showed volition in the movie when it came to cheating on his wife and doing drugs. Volition is an unpressured willingness to engage in an activity. A lot of famous men may feel pressured to act out in certain ways when fame hits them. However, I feel as if Ray wanted to cheat on his wife so he had a woman to be with on the road, and I know he wanted to do drugs. Ray walked into a room where his band members were shooting heroin in their arms, and he asked them if he could join. They told him that it was strong and that he should not do it, but Ray wanted to do it because of his volition.

I see Ray as a very competent man, when many would people would expect him to be less competent than people who are not blind. Competence is the psychological need to be effective in interactions with the environment, and it reflects the desire to exercise one’s capacities and skills and, in doing so, to seek out and master optimal challenges. Ray had more challenges than most people did in life, and he found a way to beat those challenges and become a very successful man in the music industry. Ray may have been as competent as he was because of the feedback he was receiving from his talent of playing the piano and recording albums. Ray received a lot of positive feedback from his fans, band mates, and bosses, which in turn boosted his competence level through the roof. Performance feedback, supplies the information individuals need to formulate a cognitive evaluation of their perceived level of competence.

Terms: Intrinsic motivation, persistence, extrinsic motivation, reinforcement, autonomy, volition, competence, positive feedback.

Ray contains several concepts related to motivation. First of all, Ray was very intrinsically motivated to play the piano. He was drawn to it at a young age without needing any extrinsic motivation. He became very talented, which only increased his intrinsic motivation to play. Intrinsic motivation increases persistence and creativity on a particular task, which was demonstrated in Ray. He was able to write his own songs and do things with them that no one had ever done before. He did this because it is what he enjoyed doing, and no one had to reward him. However, extrinsic motivation was added to his intrinsic motivation for playing when he began receiving money to play. For the rest of the movie, he goes with whatever deal gets him the most money and he is always concerned about whether he is getting cheated or not. This does not take away his intrinsic motivation for playing, which is shown when he finally becomes convinced to go to rehab by his wife. She does this by telling him they will take away his music, something he loves more than anything. This finally makes him realize that he needs to get clean and the thought of losing his music was the motivation he needed, showing that he still loves it whether he got paid for it or not.
The psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness are some other concepts that are shown in this movie. Ray has a high need for autonomy, probably because he had some unfortunate things happen in his life that he cannot change. His brother drowned, which he could have possibly prevented, but after it happened, he couldn’t change it. The death of his brother still haunted him and caused him a lot of anxiety. He also had no control over going blind. His mother helped him to see this and she taught him that he needed to be responsible for himself and not rely on others, even though he was blind. The scene where he falls down and calls for his mom is when he realizes that he can gain some control over his life by using his sense of hearing. His mom used an autonomy supportive motivational style because she helped him learn to function on his own despite his blindness rather than relying on other people. She kept him from experiencing learned helplessness and realize he did have some control.
At the beginning of the movie, Ray had little control over his career. He had other people controlling him and he realized this when they wouldn’t let him talk to a guy from a record company. Once he realized what was going on, he did something about it and left those people. This was his first step in gaining control over his career. Personal control beliefs are the motivation to exercise personal control, which he was able to increase once he met Ms. Bee, his future wife. When they first went out together at a restaurant, she makes him realize he can write his own songs instead of just doing what the people want to hear. He has low self efficacy with this at first and fears what people will think. He felt that his environment didn’t afford him many choices and that he had to play what people wanted rather than what he wanted. Ray says to her, “When you’re blind, you aint got that many choices.” She makes him recognize his talent and that he does have choices. His self efficacy is increased enough that he does something completely new with his music, because he believes that he can, and he combines R and B with gospel. People love everything new he puts out and as he becomes more famous, his environment affords him more and more control. He is able to play whatever he wants, which is shown when he plays a country song, and people still like it. He is also able to tell the record companies how he wants things done instead of the other way around. Ray never realized how much his actions could affect his environment until he goes to Georgia to play. The concert is segregated and the crowd wants him to do something about it. At first he says there is nothing he can do, then he realizes that he can do something. He refuses to play and makes an impact on the black community.
Ray was deprived of his need for relatedness most of his life. He didn’t develop close emotional bonds with others and people did not treat him very well. He was left at the bar by his band mates because they didn’t want to “babysit” him. This was the attitude many people had towards him, and I think this could have been what drove him to cheat on his wife multiple times and do drugs. He now had women who wanted to be with him and he didn’t want to be alone on the road. His need for competence is satisfied as he keeps getting better and better at writing songs and playing in front of crowds. He was happiest when all of his psychological needs were being satisfied. His need for autonomy was satisfied when he took control of his career and was able to play whatever he wanted, his need for competence was satisfied because he was making a living doing what he was good at, and his need for relatedness was better satisfied once he got married and started a family.
Terms: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, persistence, creativity, psychological needs, autonomy, competence, relatedness, autonomy supportive motivating style, learned helplessness, personal control beliefs, self efficacy, affordances.

From the movie, it was easy to see that Ray Charles was faced with many challenges throughout his life, despite these challenges he still managed to have a very successful career. He had learned early on from his mother that just because he had gone blind, didn’t mean he could just give up, he had to use other senses to get around. Ray was motivated by different things as he went through different challenges.
When Ray had his first encounter with the piano from the man at the store, you could see that he had a definite engagement to listen and to play. There was definitely an emotional engagement; he was interested in what the man was doing at the piano and how he made those sounds. When the man asked Ray to play you could see that he got enjoyment out of learning those three notes and playing them along with the man. As the movie progresses and Ray became successful at playing the piano, it became more about money and the business. He was externally motivated by money to do well. The external event (money) signaled him to produce a particular behavior (play the piano, have a hit record) that would in turn get him his reward (money).
Throughout much of Ray’s adult life he was addicted to heroin. The part of the brain that was activated during his drug use was the Medial Forebrain Bundle/hypothalamus. This is the brains “pleasure center.” When Ray used Heroin this activated the feel good part of his brain and produced positive feelings. It was very difficult for him to stop this addiction due to the way it activated his pleasure center. Ray had frequent flashbacks to his childhood in different parts of the movie and would often feel water because his brother George had drowned. When this happened Ray was very startled and scared. I would think that Cortisol the “stress hormone” would have been released during those times of fear. Ray never had a fear of performing in front of an audience, but it was a past threat that scared him a great deal.
When Ray became blind at an early age he had to rely on his other senses to get him through the day. His hearing became heightened and he uses his hands to feel things to help him get around. Ray’s mother instilled in him a lot of autonomy. Autonomy is the psychological experience to be self-directed and to regulate ones own behavior. I believe she said something like “Ain’t no one going to feel sorry for you just because you are blind” and “don’t ever let anyone turn you into a cripple”. She told him how the real world was not so kind and was very no-nonsense. In some ways it looked like she was being hard on him, but she was really teaching him to rely on himself and that he had to be competent. I think she said several times that the only way out of here is to get an education. She sent Ray to the school for the blind so he could be competent. Competence is the psychological need to be effective with interactions with the environment. One has to use their own skills in doing so and master challenges. I think in Ray’s career he was very autonomous, he knew what he wanted to play and would change up his sound on his terms, very self directed. He also was competent and knew that he had to be in on business meetings so he would not be taken advantage of. He would always ask to be paid in singles so he would not be cheated and would call someone out on it if he was. Another thing he did was wear hard soled shoes so he could hear echoes. He described how he has to hear things differently due to his blindness to get around to the bus driver.
From the film, it looked like every show Ray did or even when practicing with the band that he truly loved music. He was intrinsically motivated, acted out if interest, played for the fun of it, and for the challenge of creating something new. He played jazz, R&B and Gospel, country, and so on. When people are intrinsically motivated they persist longer, are creative, and have conceptual understanding. Ray could have given up when he first went blind, but he didn’t. He learned how to live life without seeing and pursued his music. Although Ray did have to rely a lot on his memory to get around he also used conceptual understanding. He was flexible in how he dealt with his band and mixing up his music style. Ray had a hard time with optimal functioning and well-being. He had anxiety sometimes due to his flashbacks and his blindness, he was a frequent drug user, and all the personal relationships going on caused him a lot of stress.
I think Ray also had the need for achievement, the desire to do well relative to a standard of excellence. Achievement motivated him to seek success in competition. When he had great success with Atlantic Records there was another competitive offer from ABC/Paramount records. Even though the people at Atlantic records were like family to him, he had a better offer from the other record company that would make him more successful. I think he also knew as a musician that he had to play a different variety of music for his audience to keep being successful. He also added and took away different staff that would help him with his success.
Ray did have a need for relatedness and affiliation. He had a need to have an emotional connection with someone and intimacy to avoid being lonely. Although he wasn’t the best at maintaining and restoring relationships with others. He had married Della B, but then had an affair with the first female singer, Mary Ann. She eventually left because three more female singers came into the picture and he was seeing one of those three women, Marjorie. On the road he had a relationship with Marjorie and when he was home he had a relationship with his wife, Della B. Both women struggled knowing that they could never truly be the only one for Ray; they each had a need for affiliation and relatedness too.
Ray had a discrepancy from the time he was little till he grew older. He had the state he was in, blind, poor, living in a farming community, and his ideal state, getting out of the south, doing something with music, and being successful at it. I think a lot of his push to be successful came from his mother; she had a lot to do with discrepancy creation. Discrepancy creation captures the essence of goals and goal-setting. There were many flashbacks in the movie where the mother was trying to instill something in him or his brother. She mentioned the importance of an education, to do something even though he was blind, and in a way how to find out if someone is being dishonest. I think she set the foundation for Ray to set and attain goals for himself. A goal is whatever the person strives to accomplish.
Another theme that was apparent was Ray’s ability to display self-efficacy. This is the individuals belief that he “has what it takes” to cope effectively with the demands of the situation. Ray had to initially master this when he first went blind. He received verbal persuasions from his mother about how to get around, he would have to use his memory, feel for things. At one point when he had tripped over the rocking chair his mother let him sooth himself and get around on his own before she intervened. She gave him feedback that she was happy he had figured this out on his own. Ray also advocated for himself much of his life and business, he knew he had to or people would take advantage of him.
Terms: Emotional engagement, external motivation, Medial Forebrain Bundle/hypothalamus, cortisol, autonomy, competence, Intrinsically motivated, persistence, creativity, conceptual understanding, optimal functioning well-being, achievement, affiliation, relatedness, creation discrepancy, goals, self-efficacy, verbal persuasion.

This movie related a lot to several concepts in our textbook. When Ray was just a child he would sneak into a store and watch this old man play the piano even when he knew that he would get in trouble for going into the store. This proved that he was intrinsically motivated, which is when people do things because of their interests. Ray did not care that he was going to get in trouble for going into the store and watching the man play the piano. He liked the piano and listening to the music. It was enjoyment for him being taught how to play the piano. Because Ray’s intrinsic motivation he had more persistence. This was the one activity that Ray did not give up on; he thoroughly enjoyed playing piano and making music. All throughout his life this is what kept him sane. When he got older the intrinsic motivation turned into extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is when you get environmental incentives and consequences. For Ray he received money, fans, and drugs.

This movie also had a lot of psychological needs as well. Three of the psychological needs are autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Autonomy is having control over certain aspects of your life. One of the ways Ray shows his autonomy is by listening to all the sounds around him. He may be blind but he uses his hearing to his advantage. Ray does not like it when he has no autonomy. You see this when he finds out that his first girlfriend is taking money from him and he has no say in the anything. He gets up and he leaves right away. Ray does not waste any more time with that situation. Ray’s mother basically told Ray to never let anyone take him for granted or use him. She instilled a lot of need for autonomy in him because of his blindness. Ray also shows a lot of competence throughout the movie. He is very talented at playing the piano and he knows he is very good. Because of this he knows he can basically do whatever he wants with his music. He takes gospel music and puts some of himself into the music. This in turn upsets a lot of people, but it does not stop Ray from continuing on with his music. Ray does not seem to satisfy his need for relatedness. You can see this very much in the beginning of the movie. Ray was feeling very left out with his band members. In one see all his members were about to go hang out with some girls and Ray was sitting at the piano. When Ray asked what they were going to do they all just told him “nothing.” This led to Ray using heroine just to become affiliated with the other band members. Ray also had a huge need for intimacy. He met his wife and stuck with her the whole ride, but when he was on the road he felt like he needed a relationship there too. This led him to cheat on his wife with different girls. One of the girls even got pregnant..

Terms: Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, persistence, psychological needs, autonomy, competence, relatedness, affiliation, intimacy.

The movie "Ray" is related to many topics from our textbook and emotions itself.Also, the movie mainly shows how new kind of music was discovered (jazz,gospel and orchestra combined) as well as changing people' view about segregation.
The movie brings positive and negative emotions. The fact that the main figure, Ray Charles cannot see since he was 7 brings the feeling of empathy, yet some of his behavior makes me feel angry at him and what he does. First of all, Ray was thought by his mother how to be independent and strong even though he is not able to see it does no matter he cannot follow his dreams and be successful in life. When he sees a guy playing a piano he is intrigued by it and wants to try too. Intrinsic motivation to play piano makes Ray to follow his dreams and moved from Florida to Seattle. Then, when he becomes famous and starting making money, extrinsic motivation played a big role in creating and making songs. Also, environmental influences made him act such ways in some situations. Speeking about environment and people who were observing and following Ray's career and music, they also give many opinions, positive or negative feedback that Ray handles very well. Fame and career often follow by good or bad consequences. Ray was observed and always judged by others, he used drugs to help in creating and making his songs, yet the consequences with using drugs were tragic as we could see at the end of the movie.
Another aspect from the textbook is autonomy. He had a big desire for autonomy. Autonomy is when we desire choice and decision making flexibility. Ray, was the boss and could decide what he wants, when and how. Dealing with people around him he were there to help him , he always had the last word to make the decision. His mother raised him in autonomy-supportive style.
Another thing that we can related to the textbook is affiliation and intimacy. He fell in love and wants to have a family that bring him happiness and security. When he is on the road, he wants to know and feel that someone is waiting for him at home that he will not feel lonely.
Finally, self-efficacy is the person's belief in their own competence. We can see that in ray's childhood when he had to deal with every day problems since he got blind and then in his personal and business life.
In the movie, we can observe all these physiological needs, example sex, psychological autonomy, competence, leadership,achievement, and social needs such as intimacy.

Terms:

Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, environmental influence, negative feedback, rewards, consequences, punishment, autonomy, autonomy-supportive style, affiliation, intimacy,leadership,achievement, self-efficacy.

One of the first topics from our text that came up in this movie was intrinsic motivation. Both Ray and his exhibit intrinsic motivation to play and teach music. Ray sees people playing in the store and listens to them just because he derives pleasure from it. His teacher begins to give him lessons for free lessons just because he wants to help Ray learn. It is here that Ray first begins to form a life long goal for himself to be able to not just play, but master the art of making music. Ray really loves playing the piano. He plays simply because he derives pleasure from the challenge and the beauty of the fruits of his labor. In other words, Ray plays music to feel the inherit satisfaction it gives him. Because Ray’s motivation to play music is intrinsic, he is more likely to be successful at it. Intrinsic motivation helps a person realize their full potential and achieve more. It makes them function optimally and improves their well being. Research also shows that intrinsically motivated people work harder at their tasks, are more likely to persist, have better comprehension, higher-quality learning and that they retain information better than those who are extrinsically motivated to perform the exact same tasks. They also tend to be happier during and after their task is completed, often reporting higher levels of satisfaction than their extrinsically motivated counterparts. Extrinsic motivation comes from our environment and the incentives or consequences it provides us. An incentive could be something like a monetary reward, candy, a raise, a promotion, a higher grade, or even just a gold star. Although it may sound counter intuitive, there is much evidence to support that this type of motivation is detrimental to our success. Even if someone who has been intrinsically motivated starts to get a reward for their performance, this type of motivation does not help them. In reality it hurts them. Studies show that introducing a reward to this type of situation actually undermines their intrinsic motivation. When Ray gets into the music business, he starts to get paid to play his music. Eventually, the extrinsic motivation to receive compensation for his musical performances got in the way. He was unable to stay motivated to function at his optimal potential because of the distraction of the rewards and consequences which were contingent on his performance.
Rays blindness brings up another topic from our text, the idea of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is when the individual organizes and directs his or her skills to cope with the demands of the circumstances they face. Rays mother help teach him how to build his self-efficacy skills. When he loses his sight at the age of seven, his mother does not let him give up. Through tough love and hard work she teaches him that he cannot be reliant on other people. He takes the skills he learned from his mother (using his shoes as one would a cane), and overcomes his circumstances (blindness), and figures out how to organize and orchestrate these skills and problems into a competent performance. Self-efficacy is important when one’s skills are tested and learning how to get around certainly tests Ray’s skills. In important time when his skills are tested is when he falls out of a rocking chair. Ray is confused and disoriented and calls for hi mothers help. In order to increase his self-efficacy, Ray’s mother doesn’t come to help him and forces him to figure out how to do it for himself. When Ray gets a bit older he is completely able to get around without a cane or a dog. His ability to do so is a testament to his self-efficacy and resilience.

optimal functioning, mastery, incentives, resiliance, self efficacy, inrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation

During Ray’s childhood he was very close to his little brother and his mom had to take care of both of them with little pay and hard work. During this time period they all faces rather rough external events in order to put food on the table. After the death of Ray’s young brother, there were a lot of emotions Ray and his mother experienced. There came a time of fulfilling psychological needs after the tragic event. They both became low on relatedness in the world, a need to belong. Conditions were already tough, but now it was up to Ray and his mother to develop more of a connection than ever to stick together and overcome the cultural obstacles of the time period. They were out for themselves. Once Ray’s blindness set in and became permanent he was determined to become competent. He needed to learn how to effectively adapt to his surroundings under new circumstances. The last psychological need was autonomy. Ray and his mother experienced moment-to-moment autonomy when Ray was trying to develop the skills required to survive as a blind child. She motivated Ray to be a strong and independent man, who would never be treated less, or take any pity on him because of his blindness. He learned from his mother how to take control over his environment and prove his self-worth, to achieve control over his environment, and defy the odds.
As Ray grew older and away from his mother, he developed internal motivation to pursue his talent of music. He truly had developed a gift and love for playing the piano and singing songs that everybody enjoyed. He wanted to prove his self-worth because of his own conscious thoughts and motives. Because of Ray’s blindness in Seattle, he was taken advantage of often after his engagement with Gossie and Marlene. They chose to invest in Ray’s gift, but in a deceitful manner. Musicians and producers had motivational approach tendencies towards Ray because of his blindness and for the fact they saw tremendous talent in his abilities. It was because of close relationships Ray was able to understand avoidance tendencies in people who were trying to strictly use him for profit. All the big music corporations took interest in Ray and were highly motivated to get him to sign a deal with their record labels.
Ray also began to turn to drugs to calm and relax with a high. Biological factors such as the nucleus accumbens gave him pleasure during his addiction. Ray used drugs because of the past memory flashbacks he kept experiencing. This is due to the hippocampus, a part of the brain that associates with long term memory. Neurotransmitters were constantly sending chemical messages in Ray’s brain. The most obvious motivationally pertinent neurotransmitter passage was dopamine. Dopamine gives a sense of “good feelings”. In order to fulfill his addiction cravings Ray needed and built a dependency with heroin. He developed a high tolerance for the drug and in order to satisfy his new need, he shot up on a continuous basis, becoming a junky.
Being on the road for almost all his career, Ray developed one of the three physiological needs, sex. Even despite his formed relationship and eventual marriage to the woman he proclaimed was his one and only and wouldn’t ever hurt, he had sex with other women during his tours. Ray had a profound sexual orientation toward skinny women, who he presumed to be attractive by feeling their wrists. Simply by being able to wrap his fingers around a woman’s wrist showed his preference in women. The primary biological factor in Ray was his hormonal level. Being away from his wife for so long and not fulfilling his physiological need of sex, he had increased hormones and in order to satisfy his need, chose to interact in sexual relations with the other women.
Even despite Ray’s unethical actions between drugs and cheating on his wife, he was still able to produce some of the best music of the time. Ray still managed to intrinsically motivate himself to become the best musician he possibly could, at any cost. One factor involved in Ray’s musical motivation became strongly influenced by reinforcement. Receiving cash, or paychecks, after gigs, encouraged Ray’s behavior to produce more and more music to receive maximum wealth. Incentives also attracted Ray along the way such as signals of physically feeling the money and material objects around him.
With all the incentives and rewards record label companies are surrounding him with comes, social needs. Ray’s definitely experienced quasi-needs. Quasi-needs are induced desires, ones he felt under great pressure by the demands of the industry. Ray’s need for achievement was a cause of the pressure and fan based familiarity with his story and music. Ray, however, did not put a standard to achieve as a parent and husband. He was set back because of socialization influences based solely on his career and musical performance. Though he loved his musical aspirations and felt true passion in his talent, pressure to achieve greatness stood everywhere he turned, tearing apart a beautiful relationship he made with his wife and child. Ray Jr. and Bea became low on psychological needs as well, from lack of Ray’s attention towards them.
Terms: External events, psychological needs, relatedness, competence, autonomy, moment-to-moment autonomy, internal motivation, engagement, approach & avoidance tendencies, neurotransmitters, dopamine, physiological needs, sex, sexual orientation, reinforcement, incentives, social needs, quasi-needs, need for achievement.

“Ray” was a biographical movie that was based on the life of Ray Charles. The movie depicted Ray’s childhood including the death of his brother as well as Ray’s vision loss. The movie then showed Ray’s progression into becoming a famous musician. Ray’s extramarital affairs and drug addiction were also frequent scenes in the movie. Ray eventually overcame his drug addiction and became one of the most famous and well known musicians.

Many concepts in the text regarding the brain could be tied into “Ray”. Throughout the movie Ray was having sexual encounters with various women. The hypothalamus generates wants for and pleasures associated with sexual partners. The orbitofrontal cortex is involved in processing incentive related information and helps with decision making. In the movie Ray had to make various choices when determining where to play his music, what type of music to play, and which record companies to contract with. For example, Ray had to make a decision between staying with Atlantic records or change to ABC records. Ray also struggled for many years with drug addiction. The nucleus accumbens is involved in the experience of pleasure from naturally occurring reinforcers and drugs that contribute to addictions. The nucleus accumbens generates a liking reaction to incoming sensations caused by the drug. Addictive drugs are reinforcers because their repeated use produces hypersensitivity to dopamine stimulation. Dopamine is involved in the want to pursue one course of action over another. Ray also had to learn how to learn using his ears instead of his eyes to interact effectively with his environment. The prelimbic cortex is involved in the learning of response outcomes.

“Ray” also displayed many examples of needs. A need is any condition within the person that is essential and necessary for life, growth, and well being. One prominent physiological need presented in the movie was the need for sex. The need for sex is influenced by androgens, which play a key role in regulating sexual motivation. Ray clearly had a high need for sex since he had had several extramarital affairs throughout the movie. Ray touched the wrists of women to evaluate how attractive the women were. Compared to men, women value signs of a man’s resources when searching for a mate. For example, Ray’s wife, MaryAnn, and Martha were all attracted to Ray because of his money and extravagant lifestyle. For example, Ray financially supportive his wife and bought her brand new houses. Psychological needs were also present in the movie. Autonomy is the desire to have choice, decision making, and flexibility when deciding what to do. When Ray became famous he had a high level of autonomy. For example, Ray wrote his own music, decided what kind of style of music to play, determined who was going to be apart of his band, and eventually how much money he would be paid. Ray also satisfied the three qualities of autonomy: perceived locus of causality, volition, perceived choice over one’s actions. Perceived locus of causality is described as the understanding the causal source of motivation. Ray knew from the first time that he played the piano that he had a gift which motivated him to want to continue playing the piano. Volition is an unpressed willingness to engage in an activity. Ray played the piano constantly and was willing to play the piano through stressful times. Ray also displayed a perceived choice over his actions when he would refuse to play music unless he felt that he was being treated fairly or paid enough. Another psychological need is competence, which is the desire to interact effectively with one’s environment. Competence reflects the desire to exercise capacities and skills to gain mastery over optimal challenge. Optimal challenge for Ray was becoming a famous musician, which he accomplished through practice and persistence. Flow occurs whenever a person uses their skills to overcome a challenge. Flow is described as a state of deep concentration and involvement. The movie showed Ray constantly practicing new songs and playing concerts across the world. Relatedness is another psychological goal, which is the desire for social interaction in the form of warm, close, affectionate relationships with others. An example where Ray showed a need for relatedness was when Ray first met his wife and they went on dates or when Ray partied with his band members. There are two categories of acquired psychological needs: social needs and quasi needs. Quasi needs are situational induced wants and desires such as money, secure job, or career progression. Ray’s quasi needs were for a secure job and money to support his wife and child. Social needs are acquired through experience, development, and socialization. The first type of social need is achievement, which is the desire to do well relative to a standard of expertise. When Ray first started performing he looked to famous musicians to motivate himself to write music that sounded similar to their music and started becoming noticed for his musical talent. The second type of social need is affiliation. The need for affiliation is the desire to engage in warm, positive, close, interpersonal relationships with little fear of rejection. Ray met his need for affiliation with his wife and mother. The third type of social need is power, described as the desire to make the physical or social world conform to ones personal image or plan for it. An example of the need for power in the movie was when Ray informed ABC records that he would not sign a contract with them unless he made 75 cents off of every record and would be his own manager. Ray also displayed his need for power when he told Martha to get an abortion, stating that he would pay for the costs. A child from an extramarital affair didn’t fit into his plan, so he tried to tell Martha to get an abortion.

Hypothalamus, orbitofrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, dopamine, prelimbic cortex, need, need for sex, perceived locus of causality, volition, perceived choice over one’s actions, autonomy, competence, relatedness, power, affiliation, flow, quasi needs, social needs, psychological needs, physiological needs,

The movie Ray shows great example of the very fact that motivation varies over time and is a constant , ongoing stream of behavior, not just a trait someone possesses. Because of Ray’s environment, influences, and experiences are constantly changing, so are his motives and behaviors. I am going to discuss some of the psychological factors that seem to have contributed to Ray’s motives.

First, beginning with Ray’s childhood, there were several scenes depicting Ray’s motives, results of those motives, or reasons for those motives. For instance, his love for the piano began as an intrinsically motivated interest/ hobby. His intrinsic motivation to play piano gives opportunity so satisfy Ray’s psychological need for competence, and his love for the piano really exemplifies the power of intrinsically motivated individuals to not only enjoy what they are doing, but to be more persistent and creative as well. The extrinsic motivators that seem to take over when Ray begins performing for a pay check depict some of the “hidden costs” of rewards discussed in chapter five. For example, Ray becomes much more obsessed with the reward of how much he will be paid, rather than focusing on his thirst to challenge himself and the enjoyment he originally found when performing. At times Ray seems to lose his enjoyment for achieving a mastery goal, and begins obsessing over achieving a performance goal instead, and much of this seems to do with the distraction rewards have on Ray, especially when they are intertwined with so much power.

Throughout the movie Ray does seem to have a high need for achievement and uses generally approach-oriented motivation rather than avoidance-oriented motivation. This might have a lot to do with Ray’s success. His psychological need for autonomy is prevalent in almost every scene. Even at such a young age he seems to lose some of his perceived autonomy because of the challenge of losing his eyesight, but because of his mother’s persistence as an autonomy-support provider for Ray, he seems to see past his challenges and focus on the power he does have to make decisions and determine his actions. Deciding to play the piano is one example of this. Another example of Ray’s need for autonomy within his career is clear when he demands higher pay, and more control over what music he does play. Ray shows a great need and often lack of relatedness in his life. I think there are several factors contributing to Ray having a harder time satisfying his need for relationship, especially once he started to find fame within his career. First, he lacked the social bond necessary to satisfy relateness while he traveled for his work and was forced to be apart from his family. This is when he seems to search for others to interact with and establish bonds with. I think once he had so much fame it was much more difficult for him to accept that other people really like him and cared for his welfare, and not just cared about his talent. One scene shows Ray tell his manager(who notices he is getting caught-up in drugs and trying to confront him about it)that he will still sell the records, and he is never late even though he is on drugs. He says that as if the only reason his manager cares about his addiction is because he is worried about losing the money Ray makes, and not worried about losing him as a friend. Ray often describes himself as being alone, even though he has many social interactions. What is most important, however, is the quality of these social interactions that are supportive of satisfying relatedness needs, and not solely the quantity of these social interactions.

Terms: motivation, behavior, intrinsic, extrinsic, competence, persistence, creativity, hidden costs, rewards, mastery goal, performance goal, acheivement, autonomy, power, autonomy-support, relatedness, social bond, social intereactions

The movie Ray is about the life of renowned musician Ray Charles Robinson, better known as Ray Charles. Throughout the movie several themes or terms from our textbook and class lectures are prevalent.
For example, one of the more prominent, easier to recognize themes is Ray Charles’ high psychological need of autonomy. Ray wants his perceived locus of causality to stem from his own personal desires. He has an adverse feeling towards manipulation, as most people do, but also against any form of persuasion or influence. This is evident when Ray’s wife, Bea, tells him to quit the drugs, and when he says no, informs him she should be going on the road with him to take care of him. Though Ray originally suggested she go along, when she say this he was adamantly opposed. This is for two reasons. The first is that this time it was her idea, not his. Secondly, she was going to control him which he did not appreciate.

Furthermore, Ray’s dealings with his various record companies showed his high need for autonomy. He didn’t want to leave Atlantic for ABC, but when they accepted his offer of controlling his own music, he did so. However, it is ironic that his agent manipulated him into the deal, by creating the illusion that they were very interested in him, for him, and not for the money he could bring them.

His need for autonomy seems to originate from his mother’s style of rearing her children. She always told them not to take crap or be swindled by anybody. This was when her employer tried to shortchange her. Even after Ray was gradually turning blind, his mother emphasized the fact that blindness JUST meant he couldn’t see. “You ain’t stupid, you just blind.” Ray took this to heart and learned to traverse his daily journeys without the aid of a walking stick or a seeing-eye dog. He constantly amazed people with this ability. He learned to play the piano so well that he could play without having to look. He was also concerned with providing for his family, which also lead to a desire for autonomy. He wanted to be able to provide the best life as possible for his family, and in order to do so he had to be in control of his own life.

I would also say Ray had a relatively high social need for affiliation. He always wanted to seem ‘one of the guys’ and always had several women fawning over him. This is what caused him to start his drug addiction, which lead to several, and I mean several, problems down the road. Additionally, Ray hurt several women by having sex with several of them, but never giving them more importance than his wife.

Also, Ray seems to have a high social need for achievement. His constant push to succeed and do well is evidence of this. His mom always told him to never settle, and Ray didn’t. When he conquered one genre, he moved to another. He accomplished quite a lot.

Social need, psychological need, achievement, affiliation, autonomy, perceived locus of causality.

The touching story of Ray was not only a joy to watch, but was also an excellent example of terms we have been learning throughout the book so far. Ray clearly shows strong motivations, many of which are a result of either being blind or from past life experiences.

Right away, I could tell Ray has a need for autonomy. Autonomy is “the need to experience self-direction and personal endorsement in the initiation and regulation of one’s behavior, and it reflects the desire to have inner resources, rather than environmental events, determine one’s actions.” All throughout the movie, Ray has to stand up for himself against people who would try to take advantage of him for being blind. As taught by his mama, “I may be blind, but I aint stupid.” This need for autonomy is shown when he leaves his the women that he has his first gig with for Atlantic Records. He continues to move to better record deals, usually with the stipulation that he gains more control over his music.

Similar to his need for autonomy is also his psychological need for competence. Competence is “the need to interact effectively with the environment. It reflects the desire to exercise one’s capacities and skills and, in doing so, to seek out and master optimal challenges.” Even with his disability, Ray still seeks out to be the best “If you think in pennies, you get pennies. If you think in dollars, you get dollars.” His mother also helps him develop his strong work ethic. Even as he is in the process of becoming blind, she reminds him “no one will have sympathy on you just because you’re blind.” She does exercises with him to learn how to interact with the world around him, which gives him a drive to be better.

Finally, Ray is an example of the power of drug addiction. He takes heroin more and more throughout the film. The drug releases the neurotransmitter of dopamine in his brain, causing him to feel good. However, the more he takes the drug, he begins to develop dopamine-induce hypersensitization. This is when the brain has become sensitized to dopamine, due to the use of addictive drugs. As the brain becomes much more sensitized to dopamine, it takes more and more dopamine for the brain to be satisfied, causing an addiction. Ray deals with his heroin addiction for many years.

TERMS: Psychological need, Autonomy, self-direction, competence, neurotransmitter, hypersensitization, dopamine

Ray begins to play the piano because he is intrinsically motivated. He is fascinated by the store manager playing the piano and learns how to play. Intrinsic motivation is engaging in an interest, exercising one’s capacities and mastering optimal challenges. It is done spontaneously for the fun of it, which is what Ray did at first. Once this activity was promoted, it lead to persistence, creativity, high quality learning and optimal functioning. Persistence was in that he continued to practice and listen to the piano player. He also persisted in that he continued to play the piano despite his blindness. He had creativity in that he created his own music and lyrics, which later went on to be popular and famous music. He had high quality learning in that he learned all the notes of the piano, rhythms and could improvise easily. Optimal functioning also came into play when he because a well known artist. When his talent was discovered, Ray began to become extrinsically motivated. This is when the environment provided incentives/rewards for him to play. He was given money for his talent to be shared with the world and at one point became more fixated on the money than his music. The money attracted him toward performing and making music. I would also say that his physiological need for sex was also an extrinsic motivator. He believed it was “acceptable” to have a “road wife” (or wives) in that he could carry out his sexual desires with. With his reward of money, his intrinsic motivation is decreased because he is performing in order to gain the money versus the challenge of playing the piano and showing his creativity. In a sense, what was once play, became work for Ray. Ray experienced volition in that he was coerced into producing music and playing at shows and the amount of money he would make was determined by others. He showed true choice when he refused to play for a segregated audience. The choice was not offered by anyone because they would lose out on money, but he made the choice and showed his need for autonomy. He reflected his values, goals and interests in that he was an African American artist, but African Americans didn’t receive the same privileges. He had a high need for relatedness; or close emotional attachment. He would constantly touch women on the wrist to see if they were desirable to him. He got married and had a family to fill the place where his mother in a sense, abandoned him. He also had a “road wife” to fulfill his need for emotional attachment. Ray experienced goals discrepancy; the present state falls short of the ideal state, when he first started out as an artist. He wanted to make a number one record when he only had a couple of songs. Because his goal was difficult, he was energized to produce more songs and work harder for longer periods of time. He would improvise with his backup and magically produced new songs quickly. Because his goal was also specific, he had direction for his behavior and focused his attention on it. He would send people away if they were distracting him from making his music. Feedback then defined his performance in making a new record and acted as a reinforcer. He would play his new songs at a show to get the audience feedback. He then put his new songs to a new record which then became a new hit. Ray had high self efficacy; one’s judgement of how well one will cope with a situation, given the skills one has and circumstances one faces. He would improvises ways to translate his abilities for an effective performance. This is evident at the show when he had twenty more minutes to play, but no song material to perform. He and his band then improvised on stage and created a new hit that everyone loved. Ray was comfortable with going with the flow because it usually yielded positive feedback from all. He has high self efficacy from personal behavior history in which his mother told him to never let anyone treat him as a cripple and spent his whole life living it the way he thought his mother would want him to live. He was given verbal persuasion from his wife, managers, road wives and fans. This drove him to keep going in producing an effective performance. He had incredible effort and persistence towards making music. The music world is a hard one, especially back in Ray’s time, but his effort and persistence drove him to become famous. He also had to deal with emotional reactions of everyone around him and himself. He was stressed at times, but turned to heroin to decrease his stress. He also had to deal with the emotions of his wife and his road wives if he “wasn’t treating them the way they should be treated.” He never allowed the emotions of his road wives affect his success. Ray could have experienced learned helplessness; one expects that life’s outcomes are uncontrollable, but refused to do this. He had no control over his blindness and could have developed learning deficits in that he became pessimistic, experienced emotional deficits and motivational deficits. However, with the encouragement of his mother, he chose to overcome his blindness by using his ears as his eyes. He had to compensate for his loss of vision with his other senses. His mother refusing to help him when he fell, or feeling sorry for him also helped him steer clear of learned helplessness. He made the most of what he had and developed a successful career.

intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, optimal challenges, sex, volition, perceived choice, relatedness, goal discrepancy, feedback, reinforcer, self efficacy,effective performance, positive feedback, verbal persuasion, effort, persistence, emotional reactions, learned helplessness

In chapter one the expressions of motivation is discussed. Rays mother told him never to go into a store, but he hears music and is curious. So he chooses to go into the store, he sees and older man playing the piano. One of the expressions of motivation is behavior. There are eight aspects of behavior that express motivation: attention, effort, latency, persistence, and choice, probability of response, facial expressions, and bodily gestures. When the older man notices Ray watching him play he offers to teach him how to play. You could tell by Rays’ body gestures and facial expression that he was motivated. He payed attention and did what the guy told him to do. The fact that Ray’s mother did not want him to go into the store but he still did shows that he put in the effort, chose it himself, and was persistent. When Ray became blind his mother was persistent with helping him learn how to do stuff on his own. It was hard for her to watch him get hurt and just leave him, but she knew that if she helped him all of the time he would never learn. Her motivation to help her son was seen by this. She externally motivated Ray by saying “Never let anybody turn you into a cripple.” Her motivation was also shown by her engagement. Chapter one says that engagement refers to the behavioral intensity, emotional quality, and personal investment in another person’s involvement during an activity. She stood by her son even though he became blind. She knew that at this time she needed to be there for him even more than before. She started to teach him all the different things he would need to know. She took a lot of time out of her day to help him learn.

Chapter two talks about drive, if Ray did not learn how to do everyday things he would not be able to fulfill his drive. It would be harder for him to find something to eat and drink because he wouldn’t have been able to find his way to food by himself if his mother did not teach him how to find his way around a room by sound.

Chapter four discusses the need for sex. Within the sex discussion facial metrics is brought up. It says that many stimuli arise from a sexual partner- chemical(smell), tactile(touch), auditory(voice), and visual(sight, appearance). It is said that one of the strongest stimuli is physical attractiveness. Because Ray cannot see if women are beautiful by their face he would feel their wrist to see if the woman was beautiful. This shows that physical attractiveness is important to people even when they are not able to see.

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is discussed in chapter five. When Ray was first learning how to play the piano he was intrinsically motivated, but when he started to get paid to play I think that he became extrinsically motivated. He was also extrinsically motivated to start writing his own music and style so that he did not sound like other people. He was told that if he didn’t he wouldn’t be supported by the people he wanted to be supported by. Ray also found out that Marlyn and Garlyn had been playing him. He was not being paid the amount he thought he was, so he was extrinsically motivated to leave them.

Words: expressions of motivation, choice, attention, effort, latency, persistence, choice, probability of response, facial expressions, and bodily gestures, externally motivated, engagement, drive, need, sex, facial metrics, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation

Chapter six, about psychological needs, are shown through the entire movie. Ray is a very autonomous individual, his mother taught him to be like that so he could make his way in the world only relying on just himself. When he has the flashback of falling down after going blind, his mother does not help him when he cries out. He must learn to find his way alone or he never would in the future. Throughout the movie, people offer him help and many times, he refuses it. He does not want people to pity him for his disability, he just wants to be able to do normal tasks like everyone else. He adds into his contract with the bigger label that he keeps his masters and he can play whatever kind of music he wants. His music is very important to him and he wants to be the one to control it on every level.

There is a lot of competence in the movie as well. He plays the piano very well and he knows that. He does what he is good at, imitating other artists’ styles. When he meets Bea and is getting flack from his label for not being original, he finds his own style and blows everyone away. He is willing to take chances because he knows he is good at what he does, however he does it. He has the love of a good woman to support him in all he does and he has the drive to succeed. His performances and recording probably enduce a flow state for him where he is challenged to make amazing music that engages his listeners and expresses himself. I would assume his failure tolerance is fairly high as he grew up without sight and probably got things wrong a lot. There doesn’t seem to be much about the movie where he fails but when his record label is selling him off and he signs with a new one, they want a new sound from him, not the imitation he does so well. He listens to that criticism and rises to the challenge.

He is a lover throughout the movie, finding lovely ladies by feeling their wrists. He spends his time with many women until he finds Bea and then he is fulfilled in a way that the other women were not able to do. He was just with those women for a night but Bea fulfilled his need for relatedness, she formed a close emotional bond with him and they began a real relationship. At the beginning of the movie, his friends that he had trusted turned out to be swindling him and he walked out on them, feeling that close emotional bond broken. He and Bea got married and had their issues where they were no longer close and Ray strayed while on the road with first one backup singer, then another. He was constantly seeking that connection wherever he was even if his wife was at home with their children. Ray formed many friendships after becoming famous and it eventually was at the cost of his close friend, Jeff. He let new bonds take the place of old ones and let an argument and possible misunderstanding, end their long time friendship. With Fathead, he let his friendship internalize the ease of drug usage. Instead of being against it like his mother would have wanted, he decided that his friends were using and it wouldn’t be a big deal if he was. He internalized their social values as his own and it ended up almost ruining his marriage and his life.

Terms: autonomy, competence, flow, failure tolerence, relatedness, internalization

The movie Ray is a great movie that shows great examples of motivation, especially intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation comes from one’s interest. Once can see that Ray has the interest in the piano through the scene that shows Ray sneaking into the store just to watch the man play the piano. One can see that when the man started to teach Ray how to play the piano, it made him very happy. The benefits of intrinsic motivation include higher level of persistence, creativity, optimal understanding and overall wellbeing. Ray was intrinsically motivated to learn how to play the piano, even though he had the challenge of being blind. He showed a great amount of persistence. At first when Ray was going blind, he showed a sense of learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is the psychological state that results when an individual expects that life’s outcomes are uncontrollable. One can see this through Ray constantly crying and feeling as if his life was over. However, learning how to play the piano showed that Ray got over the hump of learned helplessness and took on the challenge to live in a world of darkness. Before he was able to get over the hump, Ray also had trouble with personal control beliefs. With losing his sight at the age of seven, Ray felt like his life was out of his control. However, Ray’s mother played a huge role in the fact that he did not give up. Ray had low efficacy expectations. This means that his judgment of his own ability to complete a task was low. However, his mother was determined to change this. One can see the example of this in the scene where Ray’s mother tries to teach him how to go down the stairs. This was the start of Ray increasing his efficacy expectations. Ultimately Ray wanted to the outcome to be him learning how to live in darkness. The fact that his mom did all the activities with him to help him learn how to do so increased his outcome expectation. Outcome expectation is the belief that what one is doing will result in the desired outcome. He knew that if he kept practicing, the chances of him obtaining the outcome he desired would increase. Through these acts of learning how to live in a world of darkness, Ray also learned the importance of autonomy. Autonomy is having control over your actions and such. With learning how to do tasks by himself, he gained autonomy. Although the process of learning how to play the piano started out by intrinsic motivation, it wasn’t long until extrinsic motivation came into the picture. Extrinsic motivation comes from environmental incentives and consequences. One can see an example of an extrinsic motivator in the scene where Ray’s managers gave him incentives, such as money, for him to keep working. Ray demonstrated a lot of competence in his music abilities and he knew that he was good at what he did. However, once the external motivator of money was brought into the picture, Ray started to focus more on what he was getting paid versus the enjoyment he felt while he was playing.
Terms: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, persistence, creativity, conceptual understanding, optimal functioning, incentives, personal control beliefs, efficacy expectation, outcome expectation, autonomy

One of the sadder parts of the movie was Ray’s addiction. One of the aspects of addiction that I couldn’t find in the book was how addiction really takes a hold of a person and grows. In the movie they did a really good job of showing how addictions start and how addicts act. Ray’s addiction really started when he took that first hit of pot. His joy from the dopamine opened him up to the idea of harder drugs for a more intense dopamine rush. The book talked about how the brain becomes hypersensitive to dopamine. What I vaguely remember from introduction to psychology (my teacher for the class was psychologist that worked at a mental hospital for years so he had more stories and insights then what I could remember) was how the brain then becomes used to that state and craves another rush. As addiction grows (addict’s brain becomes used to the hypersensitivity) those addicts who are exposed to other forms of drugs (dope was used in the movie) seem to be more easily addicted to them. The scenes of Ray in the hospital as he goes through withdraw were close to the ones you can sometimes see on Rehab with Dr. Drew. Watching this made me think of a study that had been published this year about how patients are able to better overcome addictions when they have medication and therapy.

I saw a lot of power play in the movie. Ray didn’t like it when he was being played just because he couldn’t see. His manager and the ‘lead’ of his first band did this blatantly as a team and even sometimes right in front of Ray without saying a word. Even when many people were trying to take advantage of him, Ray showed a lot of persistence when it came to business and making money. His self-efficacy played a big part in making it to where he wanted to be (having a lot of money) because I was able to make changes to his career and not worry about needing anyone’s help. Even though Ray was always looking for the best deal in the business he never compromised his power of control of his music. Unfortunately when it came to his personal life, Ray had only perceived control through most of his life. His addiction caused him miss important points in his son’s life and threaten his marriage. He thought he had control until the signs of his addiction became noticeable through the ‘addict’s itch’ he had. It took until the death of Margie Hendricks to make him see how much control his addiction had in his life.

Terms List: addiction, addicts, hypersensitive, dopamine, brain, withdraw, medication and therapy, power play, persistence, self-efficacy, power of control, perceived control.

Ray Charles was a highly intrinsically motivated individual. He was not forced into learning the piano he chose to learn it out an internal yearning. Many of the actions that we see him taking are because he wants to, not because of the rewards that he will receive from some external source. The music he chooses to play, the tours he chooses to go on, and the venues he chooses to perform in are all a function of his intrinsic motivation. He does receive outside rewards (or penalties in the case of him not playing in Georgia), but they are not what motivates him. He is often told that his decision is the wrong one yet chooses to pursue it anyway because he is doing these things for his own reasons.

Ray also has a strong need for relatedness. Very rarely do we see Ray alone, the exceptions being at the beginning of the movie when the band he is in is excluding him and at the end where the drugs are starting to take over his life. In both of these situations he still longs to be close to others but is unable to due to forces in his life, which he is not in control of. When the band is excluding him he turns to using heroin. I’m not sure if this is to dull the pain of being alone or to become one of the group. Whatever the reason it shows how important it is to Ray to have people with which he is close. We also often see Ray hitting on women after the shows. Once he starts becoming successful he is rarely alone. He meets Bea and after they are married he is eager to start a family. When he goes on the road he goes through a string of mistresses and always seems to be sleeping with someone. This all reinforces his need for relatedness.

Ray also has a high need for autonomy. He does not let people tell him what music he will perform. Nearly every time he wants to try something new musically somebody tells him that it is a bad idea and that he will fail. He does not listen and tries anyways. The person that instills this into him is his mother. She constantly insists, after he looses his sight, that he make his own decisions and be his own man. She creates an autonomy supportive environment for him and he thrives within it. His mother also insists that he has a high level of competence. When he first becomes blind and trips over the chair she clearly wants to help him but refrains because she knows that he will have to learn to take care of himself. At this point in his life Ray learns to start using his other sense to make up for his lack of sight and becomes more competent. We also see this later in life after he first meets Bea. She offers to call him a cab after Ray walks her home. He refuses and demonstrates to her that he is completely competent of getting around on his own by reciting the exact directions back to his hotel.

Ray is also a highly creative individual. We do not find this out until a little bit into the movie. At the beginning he is not really himself in his musical career. He gets noticed because he can imitate other artists quite well. Only after Ahmet encourages him to start creating his own sound do we find out how special Ray Charles really is. After this he branches out to many different musical genres and is successful in all of them. The best example of this is when he is playing a club and the promoter tells him that he has 20 minutes left to fill. Ray is creative enough to play a song that everyone loves and fill up the rest of the time. Although I’m sure he had been thinking about this song for some time, it is the first time he has ever played it and manages to pull if off with great success.

Finally Ray’s need for achievement is another attribute that made him such an amazing musician. He is constantly pushing the envelope because it seems that he has conquered some section of the music industry. With every new album he puts out he has the chance to achieve something new. This need pushes him throughout the movie. He is never satisfied and always strives to achieve more. It is impressive that he achieves as much as he did because I cannot recall any part of the movie where he sets goals related to his career. The only goal I can recall him setting is to get clean.

Terms; need for achievement, autonomy, relatedness, creativity, intrinsic motivation, goals, competence

Ray is about the life of Ray Charles (Robinson), a very talented musician of the 1950s all the way to the 2000s. Ray experienced many tragic events as a young boy: the death of his brother, going blind, and being parted from his mother. These events held a great impact over his life and it is seen through the flashbacks of the movie, and are reasons that contribute to his cheating and drug use. He experienced a learned helplessness due to his early childhood blindness. His mother never wanted him to be dependent on anyone and taught him to look out for himself. She finally reached her own helplessness in teaching him, that she had to send him away to learn more, in order to make a life for himself. You can also see a sense of that helplessness when his brother drowned. He just stood there watching, unable to move. His mother even lashed out at him for not helping. The death of his brother bothers him his entire life. They were close and played together in nearly everything they did. You saw flashbacks and fears of being in water and touching his brother, and Ray tenses up and experiences fear. This loneliness and loss of relationship creates a hole, and he detaches himself by drug use. He also cheats on his wife, because he has a hard time with people.

The people in his life all tend to take advantage of him, and he knows this. They treat him as a nuisance, and he consistently persists on to bigger and better things. He first establishes himself and his “manager” and band mate take a lot of his profit; they also con him out of good deals. He is searched by a label, and takes the deal behind his manager’s back. This label makes him famous and lets him do his thing. As this contract winds down, another record label gives him a better deal and he takes it only after trying to get this deal from his current label. He constantly progressed into better opportunity. His new label gives him a great sense of autonomy, which he has always needed to put his music in motion. Even criticism about his music being devil music couldn’t bring him down. He had the skills to achieve and did what he needed to make his successful music.

His music was all from an intrinsic motivation. He was truly motivated because he enjoyed and loved every aspect of music. He snuck into a music shop as a small boy just to learn how to play the piano. He loved coming up with new ideas and incorporating new instruments and singers into his own abilities. These aspects are what made him one of the most influential and inspiring musicians ever.

Terms:
Learned helplessness
dependence
fear
autonomy
progress
skills
achievement
success
intrinsic motivation
ability

“When you’re blind, Miss Antoine, you ain’t got that many choices.” Losing his vision at the young age of 7 took away much of the autonomy in many areas of his life, so Ray Charles Robinson turned to the piano for a sense of perceived competence. His mother trained him to rely on his acute sense of hearing, and this allowed Ray to be about as competent in everyday life that a blind man could be. Though he may not have been able to do many of the things sighted people take for granted, music was one area that he considered an equal playing field (though he soon outstripped many of the best sighted artists of the time). In a strange way, Ray’s disability may have been a blessing in disguise in this regard. The task of achieving mastery over the piano proved to be an optimal challenge for him because his sole limitation was not being able to see the keyboard. In fact, not being able to see became a positive because he found artistic freedom in not having to rely on sheet music as most sighted people would!

Ray Charles originally took to the keys out of pure intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation arises from a person’s psychological needs, and Ray’s needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness were all drastically increased by his disability. Therefore, the higher Ray’s psychological needs, the higher his intrinsic motivation, and the higher his intrinsic motivation, the higher his persistence in accomplishing his goals. He surely viewed the old man who taught him to play piano as a possible self initially, but after surpassing his original mentor he had to find new possible selves to emulate. These came in the form of established piano players of the time, who Ray found he had a knack at imitating, in both style and substance.

Ray’s remarkable ability to copy a multitude of singers and play nearly any genre allowed potential bandmates to overlook his physical disability. This versatility gave the record executives at Atlantic the confidence just to let Ray “do his thing.” This autonomy within the studio nurtured his inner motivational resources and allowed him to flourish creatively. This effect was also enhanced by the fact that Ray no longer had to worry about scratching out a living gig to gig – his popularity made money much less of an issue and reduced its power as an extrinsic motivator to reduce the potency of his innate motivational resources.

Terms: perceived competence, autonomy, competence, relatedness, mastery, optimal challenge, psychological needs, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, persistence, possible self

The film Ray is a film about the life of legendary pianist Ray Charles Robinson. Prior to watching the film, I did not have as much of an appreciation of Ray Charles’ music as much as I did coming out of viewing the film. For this reason, I am really glad that I was able to watch the film and gain further appreciation for Ray Charles and his musical career.

The first chapter that I believe is important to mention in regards to the movie Ray is Chapter 3 and the section dealing with neurotransmitters and endorphins. Within the movie Ray, Ray is often seen using a wide amount of drugs, two of which I believe are important in mentioning within this assignment. The primary drug that Ray develops a problem with within the film is that of heroin, a drug belonging to the opiate family of narcotics. Ray eventually develops a problematic addiction to this drug, but it is important to note the way that drugs such as heroin, an opiate, act on the brain. Opiates do not affect the brain through dopamine, but instead through opiate endorphins that are naturally occurring throughout our body. When opiate drugs are used, the brain releases these endorphins giving the user an inhibition in pain, anxiety and fear by creating an overall euphoric high. The second drug that I believe is important to mention is that of nicotine within cigarettes, which Ray is seen smoking throughout various scenes within the movie. These cigarettes, which Ray is often times seen smoking, work on the brain through dopamine and acetylcholine receptors throughout the body. This dopamine release within the brain tells us that certain acts we have committed are rewarding and beneficial to our survival because they make us feel good, often times becoming problematic and leading individuals to suffer from nicotine addiction.

The second chapter that I believe is important to mention in regards to the film Ray is Chapter 5 dealing with intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. It is obvious that Ray is intrinsically motivated to play the piano, as it fulfills many of his psychological needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. I am sure that for Ray, it was hard for him to get many of these psychological needs satisfied with certain activities, due to him being blind and being limited in many of his activities that he could engage himself within. Since the piano was a tool that allowed him to become competent in his skills as well as exercise his need for autonomy through musical creativity (as well as feeding Ray’s need for relatedness by allowing him to fit into social groups of musicians), it is no surprise then why Ray fell so in love with the piano and what it could do for him musically. Since Ray was so intrinsically motivated to play the piano he was able to benefit from many of the great benefits of being intrinsically motivated to engage in an activity. The benefits Ray gathered from his love for the piano was enhanced creativity when playing the piano, optimal cognitive functioning and greater self-esteem, as well as greater persistence in following his musical career.

The third chapter that I believe is important to mention in regards to the movie Ray is that of chapter 4, physiological needs. The main reason I choose this chapter is because of the physiological need of sex, which Ray is seen engaging in quite a bit throughout much of the film. When on tour, Ray was often seen engaging in sexual activites with many other women, despite the fact that he was married and had a family back home. It is interesting to point out how Ray discovered if a woman was attractive or not. Often times, Ray would feel their wrist while shaking their hand in order to study whether the woman was thin or not. This is important because Ray was not able to judge whether an individual was attractive based off of facial metrics, which is what many people use to judge the attractiveness of an individual. Instead of relying on visual stimuli to judge attractiveness, Ray was often times left to rely on tactile, chemical, and auditory stimuli from the environment to rate and gauge attractiveness.

Terms

Neurotransmitters
Dopamine
Endorphins
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
Autonomy
Competence
Relatedness
Physiological Needs
Sex
Facial Metrics

Ray Charles’ story is one of true greatness. Not only did he have to overcome his own individual roadblocks to succeed in life, but he also had to overcome the roadblocks society placed on him as well with his race. Through perseverance, strength, and courage, Ray Charles was able to pull himself up into legendary status and will forever be known as one of the great musicians of all times.
The movie covers Ray Charles’ plight through life starting with how he became blind and how he learned to deal with it. At first when Ray was going blind, he showed a sense of learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is the psychological state that results when an individual expects that life’s outcomes are uncontrollable. This concept is quite evident when we see a young Ray exhibit sadness and hopelessness over his situation. His personal control beliefs were extremely negative and he was ready to live in a world of despair. When Ray was able to learn how to play the piano, it helped him to overcome this enormous hurdle in his life and gave him the self-efficacy to believe that he could take on the challenge of living in a world of complete darkness. With losing his sight at the age of seven, Ray felt like his life was out of his control. However, Ray’s mother played a huge role in the fact that he did not give up. Ray had low efficacy expectations meaning he did not believe that he could achieve the challenge placed before him. However, his mother was determined to change this by using verbal persuasion. In the scene where Ray’s mother tries to teach him how to go down the stairs, she is adamant about him learning how to do this on his own. She continuously reiterates to him how the world will not always be sympathetic to his needs and how he can’t always rely on somebody to help. Although her methods seemed cold and harsh, it started helping Ray to increase his efficacy and outcome expectations. Outcome expectation is the belief that what one is doing will result in the desired outcome. Ray knew that if he kept practicing, the chances of him obtaining the outcome he desired would increase (the outcome being total independence).
By learning how to cope with his blindness, Ray also learned the importance of autonomy. Autonomy is having the choice to do something or the choice of what option to take. Ray exhibits autonomy in the movie by using his ears for guidance. Ray wants to be totally self-reliant. When he is unable to, he struggles with accepting any help. During the first relationship shown in the movie, Ray’s supposed girlfriend takes advantage of his disability by stealing his hard earned money. When he discovered what she had been doing, he chose to take control of the situation by leaving immediately. It was exactly the type of situation that his mother had warned him about while growing up and he refused to be a victim of another person’s selfish greed.
Ray begins to play the piano because he is intrinsically motivated. He is fascinated by the store manager playing the piano and learns how to play. Intrinsic motivation is engaging in an interest, exercising one’s capacities and mastering optimal challenges. It is done spontaneously for the fun of it, which is what Ray did at first. Because learning the piano was intrinsically motivated, it led to persistence, creativity, high quality learning and optimal functioning. We can see the persistence Ray had because he constantly practiced his craft, even when he went blind. His creativity was shown through the composition and lyrical brilliance of his music. His ability and ease to learn and improvise music seemingly so effortless displays the higher quality of learning he possessed. And when he finally became famous, he showed optimal functioning.
As his fame grew, Ray’s motivation to perform became more extrinsically motivated. Extrinsic motivation is when the environment provides rewards or incentives to engage in certain behaviors. There came a point in time where the money Ray earned provided the motivation for him to perform more than the joy of performing itself.
Because of Ray’s own internal struggles and to fulfill his need for affiliation, he began to use drugs with some of the other band members. Biological factors such as the nucleus accumbens (which is the “hot spot” for liking) gave him pleasure during his addiction by releasing a neurotransmitter called dopamine. Dopamine provides our body with the pleasurable sensation. This pleasurable feeling led to Ray craving for more and harder drugs. Inevitably, Ray became addicted to heroin and his life spiraled downhill. Recovering from his addiction was an extremely long and painful process.

Terms: learned helplessness, personal control beliefs, self-efficacy, efficacy expectations, verbal persuasion, outcome expectations, autonomy,intrinsic motivation, persistence, creativity, high quality learning,optimal functioning, extrinsic motivation, rewards, incentives, affiliation,nucleus accumbens, neurotransmitter, dopamine