Read Ch1 and Ch 2 in your textbook. Don't worry so much about your answers being beautifully written (yet!); focus on reading and understanding the material and then communicating that understanding to us when answering these questions.
From your reading, which topic(s) are most interesting to you?
If you had to describe to someone not in this class what Motivation is all about, what would you tell them based on your understanding of this chapter?
What was the most surprising or memorable thing you learned about in this reading?
From your reading, which topic(s) are most interesting to you?
I find the whole concept of motivation to be interesting but a few things interested me more than others. First, I'm interested in the types of motivation that exist in different people. I'm also interested in how motivation is expressed via behavior and engagement. In addition, I am interested in the different sources of motivation such as intrinsic/extrinsic.
If you had to describe to someone not in this class what Motivation is all about, what would you tell them based on your understanding of this chapter?
I would say that the study of motivation tries to answer two questions: 1) what causes a person's behavior and 2)why does behavior intensity vary among different people
I would also tell the person that everybody is motivated and that the way we express these motivations varies among individuals.
What was the most surprising or memorable thing you learned about in this reading?
It was surprising to me that the study of motivation has been around for less than 100 years. Since motivation has always existed within humans it's shocking it did not get more attention sooner.
One topic if find intriguing is the topic on why behavior and motivations intensity varies within an individual. I find it interesting because we all have basic motivations and emotions as described in the book such as hunger, anger, happiness etc..but the levels are all different with each person. Some days when I'm feeling lazy, I can turn on the TV and instantly be motivated to work out just by watching sports or seeing work-out commercials. Other days, I could care less and not be motivated what so ever.
I also find it interesting that infering motivation by observing and understanding the atecedents to which our motivational states arise is the core to our behaviors and why we do the things we do.
Finally, another topic I found interesting would be the history on motivation's grand theories. Descartes believed in understanding behavior you must understand the will, while Charles Darwin believed it was instinct that motivated certain behaviors. Finally, Sigmund Freud and Clark Hull studied drive theories in which they believed all behavior was motivated by arising from our bodily fuctions and needs to survive such as hunger, thirst, sex, pain, air, shelter, sleep, etc.
If I had to describe motivation and what it is all about, I would say that there are many aspects to motivation and it's hard to think about all of them when questioning yourself, but it can be expressed in four ways: behavior, engagement, brain activations & physiology, and also self-report. I would also explain to them that motivation can be answered by asking the question, "why?" Why did you do the action you just did along with understanding their needs, cognitions, and emotions. I would explain to them that motivation can have different levels or it could be nonexistent. Even more important, I would let them know that there are different types of motivations that exist such as intrinsic motivation in which it is solely your motivation that drives your behavior and extrinsic motivation in which the environment or something outside of your control was the reason.
The most surprising or memorable thing that I learned from these chapters would have to be that motivation is learned through unique experiences and a support systems/social contexts such as education, work, sports/exercise, and therapy. Motivation is energized by environmental, social, and culture. I think this is very important to understand and I'll know to remember that these aspects highly affect motivation.
A few things really interested me in these chapters. The first thing is how everything we do in a day involving behavior is driven by some sort of motivation whether it is by and internal motivation or and external motivation or by both. In the book I thought it was also interesting how when you think about the motivation to exercise you can break it down into fourteen different sources of motivation. When I think about writing this blog I tried to come up with as many sources of motivation as I could that I learned in these chapters and this is what I came up with. I do this blog internally because my expectations for myself are to finish my homework and to graduate college. I am internally motivated to do this blog because my emotions are telling me I need to function and get this blog done. I am externally motivated to get this paper done because if I get this blog done it is one more step closer to and “A” and if I graduate I will get praise from my family and I will make more money with a degree. I also think it’s interesting how much motivation and emotion changes. Right now I am motivated to get this blog done but next week I might not be motivated at all to do my homework.
If I had to describe to someone about motivation I would have a lot of things to tell them. I would first tell them that motivation is very complex. It was not until I read this chapter that I realized how complex motivation and emotion are. Every behavior we do in a day is triggered and done by some level of motivation. Motivations are different for everyone. One person may be motivated to work out and for another person, exercising may not be something they are motivated to do at all. When motivation changes so does behavior. An example in the book, I thought was really good, was when it talked about not being able to see motivation rather we can look at someone’s behaviors to see how motivated they are towards a certain behavior. For example, we cannot see hunger but we can see if someone’s behavior changes when they eat. They might eat faster and more vigorous and consume more food than usual. A person may have internal and external motivations. Internal motivations may be needs, cognitions, and emotions. External motivations are environmental, social and cultural. Motivation can cause a lot of changes in the body. It can cause changes such as elevated blood pressure, elevated repertory rate, muscle tightening, elevated heart rate, and changes in the skin. It does this because motivation is linked to emotion. A person’s motivation is always changing.
One thing that I thought was surprising is that the roots of motivation and the study of it go back to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Plato was very accurate on his three different aspects of an internal motivation of behavior. He focused on a person’s needs such as hunger and sex. I couldn’t believe how many theories there has been on motivation throughout the years and how many scholars were right in at least one part of their studies.
What always strikes me as interesting in Psychology (and basically every field) is how much things change over time. Theories, methods, approaches and so on change over the course of history. It’s interesting how one theory can be so prominent and dominant at one point in time and yet have little influence later on. Reading about changes in particular fields always makes me curious about the future. What will be different in the study of Motivation and Emotion in the years to come?
In regards to more specifically motivation related material, I found the section on different types of motivation to be interesting. While being motivated to get an A and being motivated to not fail might seem to be related motivations, students who are motivated to get an A do tend to do better than those students who are motivated only to not fail. Furthermore, I also enjoyed reading through the section: motivation study reveals what people want. This subject (what people want) is not something that can be directly observed all the time. Say a student is motivated to get an A. Well is their motivation to get an A driven simply by the desire to have an A on their transcript? What is the reasoning for wanting an A? To me, this is very interesting. I think it’d be tough to do research that deciphers why people are motivated to do certain things.
If I were to walk onto campus and have a discussion with a non Motivation and Emotion student about what motivation is, I would tell them that motivation is the precursor to so many of our actions. Why are you wearing what you are? Why are we talking right now? Why are you going wherever it is that you are going? I would also make the point of mentioning that our motivation often comes from our thought processes. Even if we are not fully aware of them all of the time, our thoughts drive a bunch of our actions.
To me, the most memorable item of these two chapters was probably the complexity of motivation. Motivation cannot be boiled down into one theory. There are so many aspects to motivation that many facets of psychology must be considered when dealing with motivation. Humans do act in similar ways but we are all different and therefore are motivated in different ways. While research on motivation can help us understand why some people do certain things, I don’t think we can ever say for sure what causes a person to do every single thing that they do.
After reading chapter one and two, the most interesting thing I found were the ways in which we can express motivation. Before reading this chapter, the only way I could think of expressing motivation was behavior. I remember expressing my motivation on the basketball court. It was easy for people to see because I was always in a state of "flow" and it was obvious that I gave maximum effort. Besides behavior, there are three other ways in which we can express our motivation: engagement, brain activations and physiology, and self-report. I specifically remember doing interviews for the newspaper before each game, expressing how our team was ready to play. Just from a simple interview, I was expressing how motivated I was to play basketball.
Another topic I found interesting was the variation in the intensity of a behavior. For example, lets say there is a large classroom of undergraduate students. Throughout the semester, some people show up to class every day, some show up once a week, and there are few that never show up at all. "Within the individual, motivation varies. When motvation varies, behavior also varies (pg. 6)." Some people are motivated to come to class each day because they want to learn and get an A. Others want to pass and just graduate college, while others may not really care. All these are different variations in a behavior resulting form different motives.
If I was describing motivation to another student on campus, I would tell them that motivation is much more than you think it is. Motivation is part of our lives every second that we live. Motivation is much more than taking part in our favorite activity, or striving to do our best in school. Whenever we eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, talk to someone, think about something, cry, listen to music, etc. we are engaging in a behavior that displays motivation. We are motivated to take a nap because our body is telling us that we are tired. We are motivated to cry whenever something terrible happens, like the passing of a relative. Motivation is ongoing and always changing. Our motives can be from an source within ourselves or we can be motivated by an external force. Also motives are different as time passes, and also vary in intensities.
While reading the text, one thing that stood out to me was how Charles Darwin influenced the study of motivation. After Darwins theory of evolution, scientists turned their attention to how animals use their environment to survive. Animals act in different ways because they are motivated to survive. Its interseting how Darwin was able to draw conclusions that other scientists studying motivation had not. Based on evolution, or inheritence, organisms act in a specific way. This explains how organisms are motivated and gave rise to one of the grand theories in psychology, instinct.
Motivation is a very interesting topic to me. I’m really wanting to find out more on the different types of motivations that exist in people because everyone has different ways they get motivated. It interests me because I know and from what the book says we all have our own emotional motivations to do things, for example being happy. There are days when I just want to mope around and do nothing with a sad face on the whole time, but then I go into work (I work at a daycare) and one of the rules there is you leave your problems at the door. So when I come into the baby room I say hello to everyone with a big smile on, especially since all the little babies are all laughing, crawling my way, or smiling back at me. It helps me to be happy and it helps the babies be happier too, because it’s true what they say, babies can feed off of your emotions.
If I were to explain to an student on the campus what motivation is I would start out by asking them what motivated them to stop and want to listen to me explain about this topic? Why are you wearing the clothes you have on today? What time did you get up? Did you hit the snooze a few too many times or did you actually wake up on the time your clock rang the alarm at you? You see motivation is all around us. It is and remains with us throughout our days. We really don’t think about what we are doing or why we are doing it, until someone asks you the questions that make you think, this is why I’m doing that or this is why I’m behaving this way. We are motivated to do the things we do internally and externally. Our motivation status is tied to our emotions that occur and is constantly changing every day.
The most surprising or memorable thing that I learned from these two chapters is how the way drive played a big part in scientists research when Freud and Hull did their theories. Freud’s theory had four components, source, impetus, aim, and object. He believed the motivated behaviors purpose was to serve and make sure the need was satisfied. While Hull’s theory believed that motivation when occurring could be predicted. This theory made scientific study of motivation possible by being able to observe the environments conditions that were creating the motivation, then the motivational states could be manipulated and more able to make predictions as to why they occur and they were able to conduct it in a laboratory. I thought both of these theories were memorable because you have two great scientists who focused their theories around the same thing, drive, but they both came up with different reasons as to why they believed motivation is driven.
What interested me most in these chapters were the different types of motivation that exist. I had always thought of motivation as a continuum, where I could have no motivation, lots of motivation, or some amount of motivation in between. The book’s example that the motivation to approach success is different from the motivation to avoid failure made me think about myself and how I am motivated to do well in school. The first chapter in general made me analyze my own behavior quite a bit. I knew that there were different sources of motivation; what I did not know was that my own internal motivation is called intrinsic motivation, and that any external motivation is called extrinsic motivation.
If I had to describe motivation to someone, I would ask them to think about all of the behaviors they perform each and every day. These behaviors could include getting out of bed in the morning, eating breakfast, going to class, talking to friends, listening to music, watching movies, exercising, and any other activity that they can think of. I would explain to them that all of these behaviors – and all behaviors imaginable – are the result of different types of motivation, in addition to different levels of intensity. I would explain that internal motives – which include needs, cognitions and emotions – help to direct behavior. A few ways that internal motives may do this is by making us hungry (needs), helping us plan goals (cognitions) and allowing us to adapt to different situations (emotions). External events also help to direct behavior, and include things like money, praise, parenting styles, and classroom settings. Motivation causes us to approach some situations and avoid others, and it changes over time.
I found the idea that motivation includes both approach and avoidance tendencies the most surprising and intriguing thing that I learned in this reading. I always assumed that to be motivated meant to be working towards something, such as being motivated to exercise or do homework. I never considered the idea that we are motivated to avoid situations that we do not find desirable! This means that when I cannot motivate myself to exercise or do homework, I still have motivation, but it is motivation to NOT do those activities! When we experience pain, distress, fear, frustration and helplessness (as well as other aversive states), we are motivated to change our behavior or flee the situation. The types of motivation that allow us to move away from these aversive states help us to avoid undesired outcomes. I also found it interesting that the more irritated we are, the more we are motivated to change our behavior.
From your reading, which topic(s) are most interesting to you?
After reading chapters one and two I felt like I learned much more than expected. The idea that the motivation and emotion field has been around for less than 100 years shocks me. Personally reading about the study of emotion and the theories intrigues me. In chapter one learning the basic foundation of emotion, behavior, and engagement helped me fully understand how ambiguous motivation is. I feel that behavior is a topic that is so versatile that it can be hard to follow. Each aspect of behavior plays into motivation so sensitivly.At a psychology stand point this area of study would be very interesting yet challenging. Many parts of motivation go so far back to a person's life situations that studying this aspect of a person would be so extensive. When thinking of my personal motivation and emotion so much of it is adaptive. One day I am motivated enough to do something as strenous as run six miles while others it is a challenge to run two. Why? I have been thinking in depth about why this is, and have yet to find the answer because it changes on a daily basis because of my situational needs. The bodies' abilitiy to have physiological preparedness interests me.
Chapter two explained the development on motivation's theory. Will, instinct, and drive are the three grand theorys, however, each have an aspect that I understand yet miss a large amount of what needs explained to have a full theory. Motivation contains so many areas that can be expanded on. Mini theroies help me follow individual areas, while, grand theroies just raise question.
If you had to describe to someone not in this class what Motivation is all about, what would you tell them based on your understanding of this chapter?
To an outsider asking me to define motivation I would present it based on the smaller concepts that are the foundation of motivation. Starting with emotion, what motivates emotion? Past experience, descriptions, reaction, would be the relevance of emotion. Behavior is the key in motivation for my understanding of the overall concept. Breaking down the eight concepts found in our book on page 11 helped me develop a general understanding. Each aspect is a key factor to a persons motivation and by understanding behavior you can work backwards to understant the act of motivation. It is easier for me to see and action and then try to understand it rather the anticipate the motivation prior to the action. Motivation is a general concept of what drives a behavior.Each behavior is initiated by motivation.
What was the most surprising or memorable thing you learned about in this reading?
The breakdown of behavior outside of motivation and emotion interests me. I find myself watching people and trying to see certain behaviors to follow up with a question of, where did the motivation come from? I am intrigued to see further studies and readings to break down each aspect. The theories also interest me, I liked reading and understanding them. Further later finds of why they failed.
When discussing motivation, many people would say that the first thing that comes to mind is exercise. This is at least the first thing that comes to my mind. So even though this example may be overused and a bit redundant, I liked that this was the example the book used to introduce us to the topic. For starters, I think having an obvious example makes learning the material quicker as well as easier. Another reason that I personally enjoyed this was that I can relate to the topic. I’ve struggled with the whole “freshman fifteen” (though now I’m a senior, so does that mean I’m battling the senior seventeen? Yipes!) and have gone through different times in my life when I’m motivated and then not so motivated. Because of this, I did enjoy the references to exercising the text used in order to elicit a better understanding of the concept of motivation and emotion.
Later in my blog I discuss whether I believe motivation to be a straightforward notion or rather more intricate with layers. One section of chapter one that lead me to believe that motivation may be more difficult than one might seem is when it talked about how there are different types. This was a very interesting topic. Everyone can see that there are different levels of motivation. I’m sure we all experience times when we are very motivated to read our textbooks and write our blogs, and then there are other times when we are speed reading and furiously typing away in order to meet the deadline due to procrastination. However what some people do not realize is that there are also different types of emotions. One example is intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation comes from within ourselves where as extrinsic comes from an outside source. This we all have learned from previous psychology classes, but what I wasn’t aware of was that motivation also differs from different emotions. Being afraid can motivate you to fight just as well as being angry can, though the emotions are very different. This was the most surprising or memorable thing from the chapter. A lot of the chapter focused on motivation, so it was reassuring to see emotion tied into motivation more strongly.
As I stated above, I’m unsure whether I believe this to be a complex or simple concept. It was very interesting to read the three different grand theories of motivation that psychologists used: will, instinct, and drive. If I were to believe that motivation is simple and basic, I would have to go with Freud and Hull on this one; the grand theory that makes most sense to me is the drive theory. Therefore the drive theory was the most interesting thing I read about in chapter 2. This could be because I take a lot of credence in biological aspects of psychology. I came into UNI as a biology major and though I changed majors just after a semester, I still find biology to be the most influential aspect of psychology.
In the drive theory, Freud and Hull, though differing on some levels, stated that motivation comes from imbalances within the body. Whether this be from an empty stomach or sleep deprived brain, these imbalances created a drive to fix them. Freud explained it as a nervous system build up where as Hull focused more on the drive itself. With this focus, Hull was able to predict when motivation would happen before it actually occurred. This lead to research and unfortunately from there, the drive theory decreased in popularity.
If I were to describe to someone what motivation was, I would stick to the basics. The simplest way I can describe motivation is answering the question “Why?”. In our textbook there is a figure of the Hierarchy of the Four Sources of Motivation. Motivation sources can be broken down into internal motives and external events, and internal motives can be broken down into needs, cognitions, and emotions. Motivation elicits certain behaviors. Therefore if we look at the reasoning behind these certain behaviors, we can figure out what motivated them in the first place.
The topic that I found the most interesting in Chapters 1 and 2 was the expressions of motivation. This basically means how you can tell when someone is motivated, or not motivated. Obviously no one can tell from looking at you if you are motivated or not, but motivation expresses itself in other ways. The two ways that you can infer motivation about another person are observing by observing motivation’s behavioral manifestations, or to pay close attention to the antecedents known to give rise to motivational states. I know from my course in Behavior Modification that the antecedents are like the settings in a situation.
To really infer motivation you can observe someone’s behavior, engagement, physiology, and self-report. The topic that I found to be most interesting about expressions of motivation was behavior. This was the most interesting to me because observing behavior is something that everyone can do. According to our textbook, there are eight aspects of behavior that express the presence, intensity, and quality of motivation. These are attention, effort, latency, persistence, choice, probability of response, facial expressions, and bodily gestures.
Motivation is not something that can be easily summed up. When studying motivation you are studying the processes that give behavior its energy and direction. This means that the behavior has strength as well as purpose, such as achieving some sort of goal. Motives are internal processes that energize and direct behavior. However, there are more specific types of motives such needs, cognitions, or emotions, which drive behavior.
The thing that was most memorable to me was Freud’s Drive Theory. When I think of Freud, my first thought associates with psychoanalytic theory. It was interesting to learn his views on motivation. Freud believed that all behavior was motivated and that the purpose of behavior was to serve the satisfaction of needs. He thought that biological urges were constantly recurring conditions that produced energy buildups within the nervous system. With these energy buildups, he believed that the nervous system would produce psychological discomfort, and if these buildups were unchecked there could be a threat to physical and psychological health. Drive therefore was a warning system and action must be taken. The motivated behavior would continue until the drive or urge was satisfied. Freud summarized his theory with four components, source, impetus, aim, and object. Even though his theory was very creative, there were three major criticisms. These were an overestimation of the contribution of biological forces to motivation, and overreliance on data from case studies, and the ideas were not scientifically testable.
I find the concept of what motivates us extremely interesting, I have found myself asking questions about what I am doing or what the person next to me is doing and why. It appears that in relation to motivation the question of why, is very fundamental and important to understanding why someone or an animal does something. If we don’t examine why an individual is doing something then it will probably be difficult to understand what motivates them. I found the idea that motivation varies in intensity to be interesting because I had never thought of this concept. Intensity can vary within one individual, such as working hard one day and slacking the next day. Also two individuals that are engaged in the same activity may express different variations of motivation, one may be working hard and the other not. Motivation and emotion can influence our thoughts, feelings, and our dreams or goals. Exercise seems to become more and more difficult as we get older, but why? In the book it was stated that researchers asked adolescents why they exercise. The students said it was fun and that they felt good about themselves. Thus incorporating preferred sports and activities promotes intrinsic motivation. If adults were able to find what motivates them or interest them in terms of exercise they are more likely to exercise more. Thus we need to question why we begin taking part in an activity as well as why we are doing the activity.
The idea of motivation theory looks at what gives behavior its energy as well as its direction. Energy shows that a behavior has strength and direction implies that behavior has a purpose. Thus we have the energy to achieve a goal and the direction guides us to our goal and shows there is a purpose in the act we are doing. There are external and internal aspects that influence our decisions and motivation. External events are the environment, social, and cultural, aspects that attract or repel us from engaging or not engaging. While internal events energize and direct behavior. If I was going shopping for clothes my environment greatly impacts my motivation to go in a few ways such as the weather as well as who is going with me. In terms of internal motives if I am hungry then I am going to be motivated to get something to eat. Overall our motivation to do something is more complicated than I previously thought. There are questions we need to ask in order to fully understand why an individual does something. And it is important to understand that we are all motivated differently and at different intensities.
Previous opinions of motivation impacted our idea of motivation today. Instinct, will, and drive were the main focus of motivation I early times. I found Charles Darwin’s ideas to be interesting; he introduced the idea of adaptation to the environment. He felt that animals were instinctive and when the appropriate stimulus was present they would act in a particular way to defend themselves. The concept of drive eventually came about replacing instinct. Drive motivated a behavior such as the body’s needs. Hull thought physiological and bodily needs were the main source of motivation. And he thought motivation could be predicted before it occurred. Eventually this idea was forgotten as well. Individuals began to view motivation as behavior being energized and directed by a multitude of interacting instances. This is how I view motivation, I think there are several factors that cause of to do something, as well as why we begin doing something. It is interesting to see how the history of motivation occurred and how it continued to grow into what it is today. The most memorable thing I have learned was that there are several reasons and questions as to why we do what we do. And I can see how it’s difficult to fully understand motivation because we are all motivated differently and in different directions.
Throughout the reading, the topic that stood out as interesting to me was the core concept of motivation and emotion. Getting to the in depth reasoning behind what motivates us, how motivation affects our behaviors, what effects of motivation has on our emotions ect. was extremely interesting. The section in which discussed the expression of motivation and how there are different levels of amount and type of motivation people experience also interesting to read about. To read about how complex motivation and emotion can be was fascinating to me and is what I am looking forward to learn more about throughout the remainder of the reading and during class lectures. I also found the descriptions in chapter 2 0f the Grand Theories and Mini Theories and how they are used to explain motivation in different ways to be interesting. Seeing how the research and understanding of motivation and emotion has changed over the past 100 years helped to put the science of motivation and emotion into perspective.
I feel that describing the amount of depth that motivation has would be extremely important to someone who wasn’t in this class. I myself was shocked to read how complex motivation can be. I would start my description of motivation as something that affects almost every aspect of our lives. Motivation isn’t simply why we do, or why we partake in a certain behaviors. Motivations is a complex reasoning as to why we do certain things that includes many different aspects such as where is the motive coming from ( internally or externally), how it affects our behaviors, how it affects our emotions, and how motivation expresses itself in the amount of motivation we are experiencing.
The one thing that stood out to me the most throughout the reading is how complex motivation can be. Whenever I thought about motivation prior to the start of this class, I didn’t give it much thought about where motives come from and how it affected so many other aspects. Before starting the reading I knew I had a lot to learn about motivation and emotion, but didn’t realize there would be so much depth behind motivation and emotions.
While reading chapters 1 and 2, I found that there are a lot of topics that interest me. One of the topics that I found to be the most interesting was the behavioral expressions of motivation. These include intention (concentration on a task), effort (exertion put forth while trying to accomplish a task), latency (the delayed response following a stimulus event), persistence (time between the irritation of response until its cessation), choice (picking on course of action over the other), facial expression (movements in face, such as, a frown), and finally, bodily gestures (posture, movements with the body). These may seem obvious after reading it, but it amazed me how many expressions within motivation that I don’t even recognize I do. I also thought that the history in origins behind motivation were interesting. I found it interesting because it is linked back to the ancient Greeks, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, which are linked to many other topics that I have learned about in the past.
I would tell them that everything they do in their everyday life is based on motivation. Things we do such as running, eating, flying in a plane, expressions we show, and things we think about. Much of motivation is taking place when we don’t know it such as facial expressions and choices we make. We have many motives in use at all times but usually one motive is the strongest and dominates the others. This is usually because it is appropriate for the time and environment you may currently be in.
The most memorable thing I got from reading this chapter is everyone has motivation to do one thing or another. For instance, run in a race, work, or help heal someone that is sick, but they all tend to be different. Intrinsic motivation is based more on curiosity to a stimulus as extrinsic motivation is based on an outside stimulus such as money. Also I realized how much of a factor emotions play a part in motivation with feelings (verbal emotional experience), physiological preparedness (heart rate), function (specific accomplishment at moment), and experience (our public communication to others). These are things I take for granted in my own motivation that I will remember from now on.
Motivation and Emotion are two of the biggest aspects of psychology that interest me the most because there isn’t anything that we do in life that doesn’t have some sort of motivation or emotion behind it. The topic that interested me the most was the different sources of motivation that we have. It puts into perspective why we do everything we do. This Labor Day weekend, I have a family get-together, and it was interesting to see that the source of motivation to go to that get together was most likely introjection and intrinsic motivation. I feel kind of guilty because I haven’t seen them in so long due to moving back to school and growing up in general. It is also enjoyable to see my family and my younger cousins. I have always been interested in motivation, especially in others, because if you observe the world around you, you can see motivation working all around us. Working at Hy-Vee myself, why do the employees provide better customer service compared to employees of another store? We don’t get paid more than others, but yet we still try to go beyond what is expected of us. It has always been very interesting and enjoyable to observe these kinds of qualities of others.
If I were to explain to someone that is not a member of our class what motivation and emotion is, I would explain it as something that occurs before our actions and extends all the way until after the action has been completed. One example that was used in the introduction, and was mentioned a number of times after in the chapter, was working out. Working out is one of those things that does have multiple health benefits and has many other positives about it. Those positives, however, are mostly preceded with some pain, discomfort, and the possibility of injury. If there was no motivation to do something, like working out, then there would be no action performed. If an overweight person gets told by a doctor that they need to lose weight, then that would be a motivation to go work out. The motivation then kicks in the actual action of heading to their local gym and exercising. During the action there are motivations and emotions running wild as well. The person may be experiencing discomfort or pain, but they have motivation to run another mile because they set a goal or the running has put them in a positive mood. The next day, they may wake up feeling sore, yet feeling better about themselves. This motivates them to go back to the gym again.
The most memorable thing to me about this reading was the different expressions of motivation. I enjoyed this because I can observe expressions in the world around me. One example that comes to mind is how much guys can change when they’re around a girl they like. Their behavior is completely different than what they were five minutes before she showed up. A different example is how some people can get extremely involved in a school project, but if they have to go in front of the class and present it, they become much disengaged from it because they have anxiety. It’s almost as if they cannot remember any information they learned. These kinds of studies interest me very much.
Reading Chapters 1 and 2 in my textbook really gave me a nice introduction to what motivation entails. From the assigned reading, there were a few pieces of information that really stood out to me.
One thing in particular that I found to be interesting is how motivation completely ties into all other areas of psychology. The book states over and over again how you cannot entirely discuss other areas of psychology without tying them into motivation, and you cannot entirely discuss motivation without including other areas of psychology. Therefore, it seems to me that motivation is obviously an important part of understanding behavior.
Another topic that I found interesting from the reading is how motivation as a whole has completely evolved. The book discusses how motivation was, at one time, the most important area of study in the field of psychology. It seemed as though everyone was obsessed with figuring out how the will, the instinct, and the drive worked. But, after those grand theories had fallen through, there was a decline in support of motivation theories. It was almost as if psychologists and other researchers had come to a standstill because they could not come up with how motivation really worked. After a while though, there was a reemergence of motivation study, and it is apparently still a huge area of research today. I found the whole process of the ups and downs of motivation’s history to be pretty interesting.
A final topic from the reading that really intrigued me is that different types of motivations exist. Motivations are complex, and they can either be intrinsic or extrinsic. Motives vary in intensity, as well as in type, and this can be seen through motivations and emotions.
Based on my understanding of this chapter, if I had to describe to someone not in this class what motivation is all about, I would tell them that motivation is a very complicated matter. It has been through a long process of trying to weed out what fits and what does not fit. Motivation has to do with why people behave the way that they do. It has to do with emotions, needs, cognitions, and external events. Motivation can be expressed through the body and self-report. Motivation is something that ties into almost all other areas of psychology and is used to describe why people do what they do.
The most surprising or memorable thing I learned about in this reading was about the three grand theories of motivation, which were will, instinct, and drive. This was memorable for me because I could not believe that people actually thought that motivation could be all encompassed by one big idea. I have never been under the impression that motivation is something simple, so it just kind of threw me off when I read that section of the book.
After reading chapters one and two, the thing that stood out to me the most was the section on themes in the study of motivation. To be even more specific, the section that states there are different types of motivation was what caught my eye. I first believed that you either are motivated or you are not and there was nothing in between. I did not know that for each aspect in life there was a type of motivation to go with it. For example the motivation to succeed in class is different from the motivation to not fail a class. The person who is looking to succeed usually does a little better than the one who just does not want to fail. This explains alot about why I am good in class and scademics and why I am horrible at sports. I always set my mind to achieve A's in class, but when playing something like volleyball or basketball I just tell myself not to miss the ball or the basket. I have a way of motivation for each thing I do in life. Thats why I found the different types of motivation in these chapters interesting.
If I had to describe to someone else what motivation was, the first thing I would tell them to do is think about the question "Why?" and what causes a behavior. This is what motivation is all about, trying to explain what makes someone do what they decide to do. Each person has their own reason to doing something and deep down they know what their motive was to doing that one thing. It does not even have to be one motive. A person usually has many motives all for just one action or behavior.
The most memorable thing from the reading was that motivation has so many in depth parts to it that really helps explain why motivation is so important in a persons life. We need it to adapt to changes in life in order to survive. We need it to prepare for action and make sure we are paying attention to the important things in life. It plays such a big role in our lives, but gets very little attention during day to day processes. Now that I know how big of an aspect motivation is, I will always be asking "Why?".
I was very interested right of the bat with one of the first examples in chapter 1: motivational reasons to exercise. I spent a lot of time looking at that table of "sources of motivation" and considering my own sources of motivation for excersize. As much as I hate to run, with the little time and money I have for workout classes, and the pain and stiffness that comes after every workout... I still do it. I still manage to drag myself to the gym and get through it. Well, sometimes I do it. It seems like every day there is a battle going on in my mind: do I go workout, or not? Each side wins on different occasions, and I'm realizing that it all happens solely because of motivation. And it's not just the fact of going to workout - it's how hard I work out, how long I work out, the type of workout I choose, and ultimately how I feel about working out. I am interested and curious to learn about these different theories of motivation sources - such as flow, possible self, and perceived competence. I'm also curious to learn how I can increase my motivation to excersize (as well as other things). Overall, I guess the things that interest me the most is how I can relate to this information and put it to use in my own life.
One other area that interested me was also in chapter 1: motives vary over time and influence the ongoing stream of behavior. It makes me feel better to know I'm not the only one that struggles to keep attention and motivation for studying when other things tempt to pull my motivation elsewhere. I'm interested in learning more about how different motivations constantly strengthen and fall with combinations of other motivations during the same time.
If I was trying to explain motivation to someone, I would start just as the book did - by addressing the two main questions that motivation attempts to answer: What causes behavior? Why does behavior vary in its intensity? This makes it easier for me to see what the point of studying motivation is. Motivation is a way of explaining why we do they things that we do. It explains what gives us energy, drive, and persistence in some activites, and also why we continue to neglect other activities. Motivation can come from inside of us - from our basic needs and desires, or from things and people around us. It can be very simple: the reason we do what we do. It can also be very complex, expressed in our behavior, engagement, physiology, and self-report. We all have motivation, but we all differ in the intensities and types of motivations for different activites.
One of the most memorable things of the reading for me were the early theories - especially on drive. Hull's drive theory even had a formula! It is incredible to me how people can think so scientifically, even about a human function such as motivation. To explain why we do what we do, Hull broke it down into a formula that showed how habit and drive produced behavior. Even though this theory is outdated and no longer used, the study of motivation is still a scientific one. It is hard for me to put emotions and instincts that I experience every day into a experienment or scientific theory. I am still getting used to this part of psychology - the fact that it is ultimately a science.
One of the topics that seemed interesting can be found in Chapter 1. This involves the effect motivation has on behavior and how one can observe and make inferences about others behavior. As we discussed in class, an outside party can never truly know what motivates a person but one can look at a person’s behavior and guess what is motivating the person to take part in that behavior. Not only can behavior and motivation be linked, but the antecedent and motivation also have a clear connection. The book states that “when we know the antecedents to a person’s motivation, we can predict people’s motivation states in advance…” This reminds me a lot of the Behavior Modification class I took which I really enjoyed. An observation of someone can reveal what is motivating them. For example, if there is a successful, wealthy person who came from poverty, one can infer that his poor upbringing motivated him to be successful. The poor upbringing is the antecedent which leads to being motivated to work hard. The behavior modification aspect of these two chapters is a topic that definitely stood out to me.
In describing behavior, one must discuss “what causes behavior?” and “why does behavior vary in intensity?” I assume most people think of motivation as the first question only. This would be true; motivation is an inference about what causes behavior. If someone took part in an eating behavior, an inference can be made that this person was hungry and the hunger motivated him to eat. It is more complicated than that, however. Motivation also explores the reason the eating behavior took priority over other possible behaviors. This is because the intensity of the motivator (hunger) was larger than the intensity of other motivators. The main point one should know about motivation is that it covers the reason for behavior and the reason for the intensity of the behavior.
The most memorable item from the chapters was the variety of origins for influencing behavior. At the end of chapter 2 it says researchers all agree that there are complex, multi-layered reasons for behaviors. Motivation does not just come from one spot in the brain or because of one thing. There are many perspectives that contribute to the field. In the real world, people may want to place a label on someone’s behavior as being caused by one thing, when really there are a plethora of reasons for the behavior being observed.
In my personal opinion, Freud was completely crazy. That’s why, I enjoy I reading his studies to see what ridiculous outcome he came up with. I found his drive theory to be interesting. His theory stated that our behaviors were to satisfy our needs. The book gives the example of how Freud believed that the biological urges of the nervous system were constantly recurring conditions that caused buildups within the nervous system. His example of biological urge was to be hungry, and the result of the buildup was anxiety. I don’t know about you, but I don’t get anxious when I’m hungry. Due to much shock, there were criticisms about this study, such as it not being scientifically testable and his case studies came from “disturbed individuals”.
Motivation is expressed in four ways: behavior, engagement, brain activations and philosophy and self-report. Behavior examples of motivation are concentrating on the task, putting effort into completing the task and being persistent. Engagement is simply keeping track of one’s behaviors. Motivation researchers use brain activations and philosophy to measure a person’s brain activity. Self-report is the easy way to collect information, but not always accurate due to people lying. With self-report, you can use a survey or interview so that the people are less anxious. We can use motivation to motivate our employee’s to do something or to have our roommates help clean the apartment. Motivation can tell us how we can improve our lives and the lives of others. Motivation also allows us to acknowledge the outcomes of the things that we care about, our performances and our well-being. It influences our thoughts, feelings, dreams and aspirations. Motivation informs us of not only our wants, but also our personal, social and cultural learning.
The most memorable thing to me was reading about the cognitive revolution. Cognitive revolution is when motivation researchers began to look at the importance of internal mental processes. Psychology’s image of human functioning changed from “mechanical” to “humans”. This means that they focused more on the cognitive constructs (goals) and less on the environmental and biological constructs. These events lead to the movement of humanism. The movement explained psychology’s new understanding of human beings as inherently active, cognitively flexible and growth motivated.
I think that the most interesting thing I came away from the reading with was how rapidly the field of psychology has changed, and how theories that were accepted as the truth back in the day are now mostly ignored or laughed at. However, even though many theories of psychology have come and gone, it is important to remember that those theories established a foundation for us to build on. Without figures like Freud who were not afraid to dive into the mysteries of the human psyche, we would still believe that psychological disorders are caused by demons or bad blood.
I would explain motivation as the thing that gets us up to do things, whether its to eat or go to school or to move to another country. Motivation is created by both internal motives, such as hunger or emotions, and external motives, such as receiving money for working at a day job. Internal and external motives often combine to create powerful motivation to reach a goal; for example, if a bear is attacking you, you have the obvious external motivation of certain death coming at you, but you also have the internal motivation of the fight or flight response helping direct your behavior (hopefully towards a survival-oriented goal).
The most interesting thing I came across while reading was the idea that there is both positive and negative motivators. When I read this I instantly thought of drug addicts and how they have to deal with both of these motivators constantly when dealing with their chemical of choice. They have the obvious positive motivation of getting high when they obtain the drug, but they also have the negative motivator of painful withdrawal symptoms if they do not get the drug. I thought this was a very vivid example of just how powerful motivation of all types can be.
One topic I found to be interesting is the way behavior varies in its intensity. It’s early in chapter one, but it got my attention because I feel like I am that way all the time. Some days I’ll wake up so motivated to accomplish school work and all of my goals, and sometimes I don’t even want to get out of my bed. I feel like that affects the way I make decisions as well, as I am terrible at that. Motivation varies between hours, days, and years. It also varies from person to person and from subject to subject. Before this I didn’t realize how much motivation varied. I also found it interesting and didn’t realize that motivation can also be negative. Pain, hunger, distress, fear, etc., are all negative events that motivate us to avoid these things. I had never thought about motivation in this way of avoidance.
If I had to explain to someone outside of this class what motivation was all about, I would probably tell them that it is actually more complicated than you would think. I would tell them the two perennial questions that include “What causes behavior,” and “Why does behavior vary in its intensity?” I think these are two very important questions to assess when talking about the definition and aspects of motivation. Motivation deals with what causes behavior and the intensity of behavior. For example, what causes someone to try hard in school? Maybe it is because their parents are paying for school so they want to try hard, or maybe they have an internal motivation driving them to succeed. That would be the “cause” of trying hard in school. However, maybe one day you are feeling lazy or sick, so the intensity of this behavior decreases drastically. Thus, motivation decreased, which in turn decreased the intensity of the behavior. Motivation also contains many other aspects, which wouldn’t necessarily be included in my description to another person, but should be noted! I might also include the definition that motivation is an internal process that energizes and directs behavior. This would be the most precise and simple definition. I would also include that there are many different types, themes, and expressions of motivation as well.
Lastly, the major thing that really stuck out to me was how complicated motivation is. Before reading these chapters I just assumed motivation was simple. Either you are motivated to do something or you’re not! But now I realize how many different aspects and theories there are and all the different types. I guess that was the most surprising to me!
One topic I found interesting in these chapters was in chapter two. Freud and Hulls' drive theories. It really reminded me of intrinsic motivation. Something that comes from inside of you that motivates you to act, a drive. I may be wrong, and I suppose I will learn more about it this semester. I have learned some about intrinsic motivation in my business. I am a health coach for a comprehensive, optimal health program and we talk A LOT about intrinsic motivation. I am excited to take this course because so much of my life has to do with motivating people and finding new ways to motivate them, and myself. The chapters talked a lot about weight loss as a means for motivation, which I could relate to. I liked that.
If I had to describe motivation to a stranger, I would talk about something along these lines. Motivation is a very complex "thing" or "action". You cannot see motivation, so it is hard to measure, as scientists. It started out as something within the self. Motivation, less than 100 years ago was known as something inside of oneself making thy self move or become active. Like psychology, motivation was first seen as in a philosophical manner. It was our will that made us do things. Then it went to our drive. What ever our body naturally told us we had to do was what we needed to do, like go the bathroom, or hunger. In present day, we have come a long way since such simplistic ideas of motivation. We now know that motivation doesn't only come within us, it comes from outside of ourselves. We are still learning more and more about motivation, seeing it is such a new idea. But psychologists are fascinated by the question, "Why do we do what we do".
Finally, one thing that really surprised me about this chapter was how complicated psychology makes common sense. I believe I have heard this saying before, but especially with motivation, this becomes true. Psychology has made motivation and emotion, something that we do on the daily, almost confusing! There are so many unanswered questions about what we do so naturally, which makes life (and this class) interesting! Looking forward to learning more.
One thing I found interesting while reading the first chapter was the question of “what causes behavior?” The textbook took this seemingly basic question and broke it down into a series of five specific questions. These questions included: why does behavior start, why is behavior sustained overtime, why is behavior directed towards some goals yet away from others, why does behavior change its direction, and why does behavior stop? Up until this point I had never really thought of behavior in these terms. It was intriguing to read about how just one behavior can produce so many questions as to why he/she participated in that behavior, which is a good indicator as to how complex this topic really is.
Another thing I found interesting was the “Why We Do What We Do” section. This section spoke about why explaining motivation is much more complex than it may seem. It stuck out to me because I am guilty of thinking motivation lies within self-esteem, incentives, rewards, and praise. However, as this section points out, thinking those things define motivation would be inaccurate. There is no real empirical evidence to support those claims. Instead, the textbook directs you to a list of more than a dozen theories which hold a much better understanding of what motivation and emotion truly is. However, the majority of the theories on the list are theories that I have never heard of. This sparked an interest for me to want to get familiar with them throughout the semester so that I can gain a true understanding of motivation and emotion.
When explaining what motivation is to someone, based on what I got out of the reading, I would start by telling the individual that it’s much more complex than they may realize. Motivation varies between different people, but yet we all share common motivations as well (e.g. hunger). In the simplest terms I would I would define motivation as a form of energy that guides our behavior in a way that is unique to everyone to carry out whatever it is we desire.
After reading the chapter the most surprising thing to me was the amount of detail that goes into defining motivation and emotion. There is an entire textbook dedicated to defining these terms for people like you and me. Perhaps it was closed-minded of me to believe motivation lacked this much depth. With that said, I look forward to gaining a true understanding motivation and emotion as the semester goes on.
The most interesting topic was the new paradigm discussed in Chapter 2. Before the new paradigm, there were three grand (all encompassing) theories discussed in the book. The were the will (supported by Rene Descartes), instinct (popularized by William James, who was influenced by Darwin's findings), and Drive (supported by Sigmund Freud, and Clark Hull, each creating their own drive theory). Motivation's new paradigm however is based on a multiple levels of influence. The behavior does not have a single grand cause, but it is energized by a multitude of multilevel and co-acting influences.
Motivation is what energized our behaviors. Motivation is the cause of our behaviors. Although we can "see" how motivated someone is, we cannot see what the source of the motivation is. There are two fundamental questions that motivation revolves around. They are: What causes behavior? and Why does behavior vary in it's intensity? There are four sources of motives. They are needs, cognition, emotions, and external events. Needs, cognitions and emotions make up the category of internal motives. Needs are conditions that are essential for the wellbeing of the individual. Cognition refers to mental events. Emotions are how we react to important events. External events are the environmental, social, and cultural sources of motivation.
The most memorable thing was the three grand theories (will, instinct, and drive). But more specifically, instinct was the more memorable one for me. It was more memorable because it made me think of the Nature vs. Nurture debate. I never thought about motivation that way before. I was thinking while reading that section, that internal motives, such as need, are like the biological factors. You are motivated to find something to eat because you are hungry and you need to eat to survive. And external events would be environmental or nurture influences. Such as getting praised for getting good grades. You will likely try to get good grades even more. Then I figured that the two actually interact with each other and that there is a multi-level of motivational sources interacting. For example, you are hungry and want food, but you don't have any money to get food. You will then try to find money (whether it be working or selling something) to be able to buy your food.
One of the topics that were most interesting to me was the extent of engagement in chapter 1. Like we talked about in class, we can never know what motivates a person to behave the way they do but we can look at how motivated a person is by their engagement. According to the book engagement refers to the “behavioral intensity, emotional quality, and personal investment in another’s persons’ involvement during an activity.” To monitor someone’s engagement, one needs to look at that person’s behavior, emotion, cognition, and voice. I found this the most interesting because I never knew there were four levels of engagement in motivation a person could have.
If I had to describe what motivation was to a person not in our class I would ask them to think about why people do the things they do and what would motivates them to behave that way. Everything we do is based on our motivation. Going to class, eating, exercising, showering, every behavior we do is caused by our emotion. We have both internal and external motives. Internal motives energize and direct behavior. Needs, cognitions, and emotions are some examples of internal motives. External motives are environmental, social, and cultural sources of motivation that have the capacity to energize and direct behavior. Examples of external motivators are money or being praised.
After reading chapter 1 and 2, I was really surprised to learn how complex understanding motivation is. I have never thought about why I do some of the things I do. Also, the most memorable part for me was all the grand theories and mini-theories to motivation there are. All the early historical studies are different but all embraced will, instinct, and drive as the three grand theories.
From your reading, which topic(s) are most interesting to you?
Something that is very interesting throughout these two chapters is that motivation is so involuntary. In the whole grand scheme of everything we (as humans) do, is driven by motivation. What we want, what we do, how we do it, why we do it? These are all questions that motivation contributes to our behaviors in our lives.
Another aspect of motivation that I find intriguing is that through motivation, we learn and apply our knowledge to everyday situations. Throughout a person’s life, all situations and experiences that a person encounters, our minds comprehend that and through motivation we learn how to deal with future situations that are similar to that. For example: coaching athletes and raising children are two ways that over the course of time our minds change the way we think, feel, and behave toward the situation.
If you had to describe to someone not in this class what Motivation is all about, what would you tell them based on your understanding of this chapter?
The study of motivation is primarily based off of two perennial questions: 1) What causes behavior? and 2) Why does behavior vary in its intensity? These are the two broad questions that are asked, but within these two, are sub-questions that can also be asked. For example: Why does behavior start? Why does behavior stop? These are underlining questions that derive from the two main general questions.
Along with the topic of motivation it is tough to decipher what it truly is just because there are so many different aspects to it. This makes it hard to know “why we do what we do.” Motivation is a complex thing and there are different types of motivation such as intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is driven by your behavior, whereas, extrinsic is driven by which the environment does something out of your control.
Finally, I would tell them that motivation can be so involuntary and even though we tend to not always be award of the decisions we make, our thoughts tend to drive majority of those actions and decisions.
What was the most surprising or memorable thing you learned about in this reading?
The memorable thing from these two chapters is the developmental process that motivation has undergone. Motivation is not just come down to one logical point. As I mentioned before, motivation is far too complex and has so many aspects that it is impossible to generalize it. Yes, the research helps to grasp information, but it still will never be able to find the true answers of why individuals are motivated to do what they do. All humans are different from each other, which makes us unique, but also makes it tough because we get motivated in millions of different ways.
It is interesting to see what thoughts/ideas have been modified over time, as well as, how they could challenge and replace ideas that were irrelevant and make them into something to consider for future accomplishment toward the study of motivation.
From your reading, which topic(s) are most interesting to you?
I am just generally fascinated by human behavior & motivation. The idea that there are multiple forms of motivation at work within one individual is so intriguing to me. Literally everything that an individual does in a day is driven by a number of possible reasons, both internal and external reasons. The thing I find the most fascinating is that an individual can be motivated to do something one day & then the very next day lack any motivation to do the exact same thing. Additionally, we are all driven by basic motivations, however which of these basic motivations drives us is different within each individual. The inconsistencies within motivation and behavior across individuals is absolutely fascinating to me. The more I read this chapter the more I thought about my motivations and the motivations/behaviors of everyone around me. To borrow an example the book used, one day I may be very motivated to exercise because of a workout commercial I saw on tv, or a picture of a very fit person in a magazine. However the next day, the very same images won't motivate me to do anything but continue to sit on the couch.
If you had to describe to someone not in this class what Motivation is all about, what would you tell them based on your understanding of this chapter?
I would simply explain to them that while other fields of psychology study and attempt to explain the what and how of an individuals behavior, motivation explains why. It is the reason we are driven to do things, but it is also more complicated than that. Because motivation is so inconsistent not only across different people, but also within one individual, it is much more difficult to study. There are internal motivators (needs,cognitions, and emotions) and external motivators (environmental, social, and cultural). Simply put, motivation is the reason we act the way we do.
What was the most surprising or memorable thing you learned about in this reading?
I think just how truly complicated motivation is. I just sort of always thought about motivation as why we act the way we do, but thats really over simplifying it. It is also why we avoid doing something, and motivations vary from person to person, and within an individual from day to day or even minute to minute!
I really like some of the tables in Chapter One. Table 1.1 shows that there are so many reasons for people to exercise. I looked at the table and thought about the items one by one, wondering if they applied to me. Apparently I need to put some of these ideas in my head, so I can get myself moving more often! Table 1.2 is really great in that it shows different aspects of behavior. Before I read this chapter I never knew that behavior can be divided into so much detail! Table 1.3 brings back all the "terrible fun" I had in the biopsychology class. I guess we can look at motivation from a microscopic point of view, but at this point there still seems to be too many missing links between physiological responses and rhetorical thoughts. Are people not motivated to think? One thing that prevent us from associating physical activity to mental event is that brain parts are adaptable. This added complexity makes defining mental processes with physical attributes difficult.
Before I dig into the second question I would like to answer the last one ahead here. The most mind-bugging item in these two chapters is the model of motivation. Figure 1.2 simply looks wrong to me, and for that reason, Figure 1.5 also seems to be doubtful to me. I am not saying that those elements should not be there, but the way they are arranged really does not make sense to me. For example, how could emotion be an internal motive? For someone who grew up in a collective culture this concept is simply absurd. Anyway, I don't want to fail this class, and this isn't my time to fight the system---yet, so I will sit back and watch what people are preaching right now. But who knows, maybe few decades later this model will be completely overthrown and replaced.
From what I have read so far I would tell people that the study of motivation is a giant black hole that has sucked in tons of philosophers, psychologists, and even some biologists. The focus of the study has been switching back and forth between humanistic free will and animalistic instincts. To some extent the cognitive perspective also leans towards the humanistic view. In recent decades, this discipline has become a big puzzle of a hundred "kingdoms" that share no common ground. Well, that is a little bit exaggerated, but I will just show you that ridiculously big Table 1.5. Look at that long list! Now how am I supposed to remember all that?
I found it interesting about how the intensity of motivation is different for everyone and for different situations. We all have basic motivations and emotions such as hunger or sadness. However depending on the situation the intensity of those things can be very different for each person. For example the intensity of hunger for someone who is just looking for a late night snack is going to be very different than a starving child in Africa who hasn’t ate in days.
I would say that motivation is not what I always assumed it to be. Motivation can come in many different forms. Motivation does not just occur when you are being a track star or the president of the class. For example you can be motivated to go eat food. You can be motivated to go to sleep. You can also be motivated to watch TV. These examples all have different motivators and the intensity or impact of that motivation may be different for everyone. You may be motivated by hunger and that is what causes you go eat food. You may be motivated by exhaustion to go to sleep. You may also be motivated by your favorite TV show to go watch some television.
I guess the most surprising or memorable thing that I learned from the reading was that motivation occurs all the time. I used to think that when someone was motivated it meant that they were the over-achiever, top of the class, and/or the sports star. I learned though that motivation happens all the time. You are motivated to sit down and watch TV, go grab something to eat, or go to sleep. There are tons of motivators out there and they are different for everyone. Also the intensity to which you feel that motivation is different for everyone.
I found great interesting in reading about the grand theories of chapter two. Grand theory is a theory that seeks to explain the full range of motivated action. It explains why we eat, drink, work, play, compete, fear certain things, read, fall in love, etc. The book stresses three grand theories will, instinct, and drive. As time goes by these theories all evolved from one another, each becoming more complicated than the next. The book has a good section that explains the development of a scientific discipline. First, in the pre-paradigmatic stage, a budding science emerges. Scientists use different methods, pursue different problems, endorse different solutions, and basically disagree and argue. In the second stage (paradigmatic) the scientists and participants succeed in reaching a consensus on what constitutes as their theory. The third stage (crisis and revolution) explains that a theory is tested when a concept cannot be explained by the current theory and eventually leads to a new way of thinking. The last stage (new paradigm) explains the new way of thinking and changes the old ways discipline. I thought this was important because it explains how we move from one Grand theory to the next.
Will was one of the first grand theories. Its origins can be traced back to Plato and Socrates. Descartes even had his theories on it. The problem with will is that no one understood what caused someone to be motivated to do something. Philosophers had troubles trying to figure out the cause and effect relationship of motivation and the motivators (will). Philosophers had the task of trying to make sense of if the will or mind isn’t controlling are motivation, than what is? This is where the next grand theory, instinct, comes into play.
Instinct arose from a physical substance from the genetic endowment; which means they are physically real. So this genetic/inherited motivation made animals act in a certain way. This became popular after Charles Darwin’s biological determinism. It took away from the mentalistic motivational concepts and headed towards mechanistic and genetic ones. Williams James explained further that all we needed for motivation was a stimulus. An example would be when a cat sees a mouse. The sight of the mouse activates a complex set of inherited reflexes that generated impulses to specific actions. The problem with instinct theory is everyone thing we did would have to be instinctive. If I twiddle my thumbs it must have been the twiddling thumb instinct. Instinct fails to explain the causes of such meaningless behaviors. This lead to a motivational concept to replace instinct.
Drive replaced instinct theory in the early part of the 1900’s. Drive arose from a functional biology, one that understood that the function of behavior was to service bodily needs. If the body needed food, water, sleep, etc., the body would recognize this and then be motivated to service the body’s needs. Freud’s drive theory had 4 parts to explain what drive exactly was. Source- a bodily deficit occurs, impetus- the intensity of the bodily deficit grows and emerges into consciousness as a psychological discomfort (anxiety), object- seeking to reduce anxiety and satisfy the bodily deficit, the person searches out and consumes a need satisfying environmental object, Aim- if the environmental object successfully satisfies the bodily deficit, satisfaction occurs and quiets anxiety. Eventually drive theory was also proved to be limited. Motivation was found to be outside of one’s bodily function. An example is someone with anorexia, they are hungry so their body tells them to eat but they don’t want to eat because of their mind telling them no. So it became clear that motivation arose from bodily and mentally stimulating functions.
If I were to explain what motivation was to a stranger I think I would start with the basic definition and explain of motivation. Motivation is the behavior in which we act to fulfill some sort of need whether it is psychological or physical. We have to ask ourselves what causes our behavior for motivation and why does the behavior vary in its intensity. To explain what causes behavior we have to ask ourselves another series of questions, why does behavior start? Once begun, why is behavior sustained over time? Why is behavior directed toward some goals yet away from others? Why does behavior change its direction? Why does behavior stop? If you can answer those questions you might have an idea on how you’re motivated. We can then elaborate more on it to see if this motivation is external (reward seeking) or internal (interest seeking). If internal, what needs, cognitions (mental events), emotions determine our motivation. The more we can dig into what is the main cause of our motivation, the better we can understand the motivators/drives that motivate us.
I think the most surprising thing I found in this chapter was just the complexity to what actually motivates us. Beforehand I would just think in simple terms to motivation (I want to get in shape so I run.). After reading the chapters, the act running has so much more meaning behind it. Why did this running behavior start? Because I want to get into shape. Once begun, why does is this behavior sustained over time? Because in order to get the body I want, I have to keep up the running behavior in order to shape my body. This behavior is more important than other because my desire for a good body means more than other goals which might be minimal. Behaviors for such a goal might change depending on my results. If I got my goal I my stop or if my goal was not met, I may change my intensity to obtain the goal. Just with those simple questions I’ve broken down some walls to why I’m motivated to do such a behavior. I’d say after just doing a little bit of reading of motivation I’m very surprised that I’m able to break down why I’m motivated to do something.
Some days I am motivated to sit down and finish all of my homework assignments in one sitting, but other days I just want to be a bum on the couch. Some days I am more motivated to workout than other days. The book said there is an art in motivating others as well as ourselves. I wish I knew the reasoning behind motivation and I look forward to learning more about it. I enjoy people watching and I sometimes ask myself why is he or she acting that way or wearing that? I never realized how much motivation plays a role in our everyday life until now!
I found it interesting that there are different types of motivation that exist and how behavior and motivation varies among individuals. The first chapter talked about school and how motivation plays a role in your grade for a particular course. It made me take a step back and think to myself what I want out of my classes and what it takes to achieve that goal.
I also found Freud’s and Hull’s Drive Theories noteworthy. Freud thought that behavior was motivated and the purpose of the behavior was to satisfy the need. Hull on the other hand thought that motivation could be predicted ahead of time.
If I had to describe to someone on campus not in this class what motivation was about, I would first ask if I could talk to them. I’d ask them what is motivating them to talk to a complete stranger? What motivates them to listen to me explain about motivation? What is motivating them to go to class today? I would tell them that motivation is within us all the time. Motivation is constant and always varying. I would tell them that everything they have done today was motivated in some way.
I found it surprising that motivation is everywhere and yet it has only been studied and looked at for less than one hundred years. I would have thought that it would have been a lot longer than that. I found a lot of this information interesting and can’t wait to learn more about it!
From your reading, which topic(s) are most interesting to you?
I found the first chapter to be the most interesting because it not only discussed the scientific definitions of all of the components of motivation and emotion, but it gave real life examples and really made me think and relate it all to my real life. These are not only helpful for understanding the concepts, but they make me realize how much depth is in every decision I choose to make or not make and why I am making that decision. I particularly like the table on page four that gives fourteen different reasons for exercising and the corresponding source of motivation that goes with it. The reasons focus on needs, cognitions, emotions, and external events. The sources of motivation focus on behavior, engagement, brain activations, and self-report. It is crazy to me that a chart like this could be made for everything we are motivated to do!
If you had to describe to someone not in this class what Motivation is all about, what would you tell them based on your understanding of this chapter?
Motivation is an extremely important study for psychologists and scientists because it foreshadows life outcomes that we care deeply about, including the quality of our performances and our well-being. The particular field of psychology has been challenged over the years, and it has changed and evolved into many theories that have become the concept of motivation. Every behavior has specific energy and direction behind it, and the study of motivation digs deeper to figure out the "why's" and "how's". There are many types of motivation, all of which have different approaches and advantages, but ultimately, motivation most importantly, it tells us what we want and strive for, and why we do the things we do.
What was the most surprising or memorable thing you learned about in this reading?
The most memorable thing to me out of these two chapter was the way motivation expresses itself. Because it is a private experience, and you cannot see another person's motivation, you can still infer motivation through the study of another person. Just like the book explains inferring hunger through observation, one could also infer tiredness and their desire to go to sleep. Through the amount of times they yawn, put their head down, talk about sleeping, and their attention level, one can infer how tired another person is by studying their behavior manifestations. By studying their sleep patterns, knowing how much sleep they have gotten in the past 24 hours and how much they have accomplished in one day are other ways to infer tiredness through studying the antecedents that give ride to motivational states.
Some days I am motivated to sit down and finish all of my homework assignments in one sitting, but other days I just want to be a bum on the couch. Some days I am more motivated to workout than other days. The book said there is an art in motivating others as well as ourselves. I wish I knew the reasoning behind motivation and I look forward to learning more about it. I enjoy people watching and I sometimes ask myself why is he or she acting that way or wearing that? I never realized how much motivation plays a role in our everyday life until now!
I found it interesting that there are different types of motivation that exist and how behavior and motivation varies among individuals. The first chapter talked about school and how motivation plays a role in your grade for a particular course. It made me take a step back and think to myself what I want out of my classes and what it takes to achieve that goal.
I also found Freud’s and Hull’s Drive Theories noteworthy. Freud thought that behavior was motivated and the purpose of the behavior was to satisfy the need. Hull on the other hand thought that motivation could be predicted ahead of time.
If I had to describe to someone on campus not in this class what motivation was about, I would first ask if I could talk to them. I’d ask them what is motivating them to talk to a complete stranger? What motivates them to listen to me explain about motivation? What is motivating them to go to class today? I would tell them that motivation is within us all the time. Motivation is constant and always varying. I would tell them that everything they have done today was motivated in some way.
I found it surprising that motivation is everywhere and yet it has only been studied and looked at for less than one hundred years. I would have thought that it would have been a lot longer than that. I found a lot of this information interesting and can’t wait to learn more about it!
I was motivated to do this assignment as the means to a desired grade in the class. The time it took to read and do this short write-up outweighed the possible dent it would make in my overall grade to just not do any of the outside work. Near the end of the semester, I may not feel the same way. If I had some other objects of my attention, they might seem more worthwhile to me and I would not be sufficiently motivated to do my work. Motivation is in literally everything we do. Even when it may seem like a spur of the moment decision to skip a class, there is motivation at work. When you do work before it's due, there is a motivation for that. People will react to the same situation in different ways. On warm, sunny days, class attendance seems to diminish. Some students choose to skip and enjoy the weather while others are not sufficiently motivated to miss a class. All of what I've just described is contained in the first chapter of our text and will become much more clear as we go on and I find all of it very interesting and look forward to it immensely.
To me, one of the most interesting parts of these chapters was the expressions of motivation. Not only does motivation affect behavior, but there are other aspects that one can determine motivation by monitoring. That, along with the different types of motivation, can greatly influence how we look at this class and what we'll be learning. Those ideas can greatly change how someone thinks about the term "motivation"
If I were to try to describe the concept of motivation to someone outside the field, I would try to put it as simply as possible. Motivation is the underlying cause of our behaviors, thoughts, feelings, etc. We do not act unless sufficiently motivated to do so in some way. The act itself can be rewarding as in intrinsic motivation or it could have some other, later benefits as well as preventing negative outcomes. This probably isn't the best possible definition but it is one that an outsider could easily understand.
The thing I found most memorable about these chapters is how the author writes about how the field of motivation and emotion is incredibly interesting, yet, reading the book seems to make the interesting subject more dull. It seems to be a subject that lends itself more to real life examples and classroom discussion to more easily understand and appreciate it. However, it obviously is an interesting subject and I can tell the author attempts to make it as personable and relatable as possible using so many good examples. There are many questions it poses that are very interesting, my most memorable of which would be the second fundamental question in motivation study. The intensity of motivation differs, both individually and between people. That, to me, is one of the biggest, most intriguing and memorable parts of the first chapter.
I would have to say that one of the topics I found most interesting was about how motivation differs from individuals. I guess I never realized that two people can feel the same motivation but one individual could feel it a little more intense than the other person. Like for example, I used to play sports throughout high school and there was always a saying my coach would say. He would say “when it comes down to winning, it’s about who wants it more.” Reading about motivation brought me back to those days I kind of now understand what he was talking about, because everyone wants to win, it just whose motivation kicked in. I am one of the most competitive people ever; I say that because I have been told this many times, even if it’s a game for fun I will give 110%. This past summer, we had a family reunion and we played softball against each other, well I got carried away and got so many cuts and burses. I am not even sure I know what motivates me to be the way I am, and I have never thought about it until now. Another subject in the book that interested me was the section about Charles Darwin and instincts. Darwin study evolution and how birds on different islands adapted to their environments. It was more like survival of the fittest; these birds had to learn how to survive, while the years past the generations started to evolve and grow accustomed to the islands. According to the book Darwin also studied “how animals use their resources to adapt to the prevailing demands of an environment” (pg. 27). This section got me thinking to myself how we know what to do in certain cases. Is there such a thing as natural instinct or is it an unrecognized motivation that we just react to?
If I had to explain motivation to someone I think I was start by telling them that individuals express motivation differently. There are many characteristics to motivations, but basically we would like to know what give a particular behavior its energy and direction. There are two constant questions to motivation, which are, what causes behavior and why does behavior vary? I would finally explain that motivation is something we cannot see; we can just see the behavior of a person.
The most memorable subject from both chapters had to be the fourteen different motivation reasons. On table 1.1, there were different sources of motivations and as I was reading the table, I started incorporating those sources to different situation other than exercising. I also like in the introduction about motivational sciences. First off I did not know there are motivational scientists, and then I read how what they accept and do not accept. Motivational sciences do not accept quotes from basketball coaches as perfect answers, but they do accept inspirational quotes. There was something about that quote that made me write it down; I guess the way I think about it is that coaches go on TV so they are going to say what the audience wants to hear, whereas inspirational quotes were said out of feeling.
As I was reading the assigned chapters for this class, I could not help but continually think of how the topic of motivation was affecting me. I would begin reading a paragraph and found myself thinking, “Why did I continue reading onto the next paragraph? Why am I motivated to complete this assignment on time? Are my peers just as motivated as I am to complete this assignment?” (These thoughts began to flow persistently, one right after the other until I forced myself to take a break and focus on the actual reading).
Even though we have only had about three class periods, I am already thinking about motivation more in my day-to-day life than I would have before taking this class. I am scrutinizing my behaviors and thoughts more than usual, as well as attempting to see other’s motivations behind their actions. It seems like a never ending cycle as I realize how often motivation is present in our lives. Motivation is constantly/always attached to everything we do – every decision, every action, etc.
Personally, one topic I found interesting was how much motivation differs between individuals even if the situation present is the same for everyone involved. There are numerous aspects that go into a specific person’s motivation level. With these in mind, one is better able to understand why people act differently even if they are in the same situation as others. Another topic that I found interesting was how easily one can be motivated or unmotivated. A simple scenario where your friend mentions how she feels the need to work out again tomorrow, and suddenly you might feel motivated to work out again as well. Or, if your professor tells you that the assigned reading is optional, you might say to yourself, “Good, I was not planning on reading those chapters anyway.” Either way, motivation is indeed present and can be easily manipulated depending on the situation as well as the motivation level of the individual making the decision.
Based on my understanding of the chapters, I would describe motivation as something that is continually present – whether one consciously considers it or not. One cannot simply “get away” from motivation as it is present in even our most minute decisions (i.e. hunger, fatigue, etc.). To better understand motivation, one can think of the study of motivation and how it attempts to answer the causes of behavior as well as why the behavior varies in intensity. Simply asking the person: why they came to campus today at the specific time, why did they wear a polo when they could have worn a t-shirt, why they are going to the Union to eat lunch, etc. is a means of describing motivation. It proves to the person that motivation is present in every decision made, and that it is not a simple topic to understand.
The most surprising or memorable thing I learned about in this reading was how often motivation is present. I know I have stated this at other points in this post, but motivation is a constant factor in every decision we make. Surprising! I have never thought this in-depth about the question “Why?” I was surprised at how many different aspects went into defining motivation, and how it was such a difficult topic to study and understand. After reading the chapters I now understand why so much time and effort are spent on the study of motivation – this ever-present variable will never be avoidable.
From your reading, which topic(s) are most interesting to you?
Honestly, it was all fairly interesting to me. I was intrigued by the definition of emotion given in the book, as it is described as short-lived phenomena of four different parts. I was also interested in the eight-part breakdown of behavior expressions. I also found instinct to be interesting, as I sometimes find myself doing something or feeling a certain way about a situation or person without ever knowing why. For example, when I go for a walk at night, and some noise or a shadow moves, I automatically look around or pick up my pace, regardless of whether or not I know what the noise or shadow was. Or, when you hear a car approaching, and you automatically start drifting towards the side of the road, I know I do this before I even realize that there is a car coming when I'm listening to music.
If you had to describe to someone not in this class what Motivation is all about, what would you tell them based on your understanding of this chapter?
I would tell them that motivation is what makes you get up in the morning, eat, sleep, breathe, and go to class, as well as do your homework, or anything else you do in your life. A person is constantly motivated to do one thing or the other, and it varies from person to person. People are motivated to do things they don't even realize, like wear blue today instead of the red shirt, or how to comb their hair or shower. Motivations encompasses your body's physical needs, your mind's wants, and everything else in between.
What was the most surprising or memorable thing you learned about in this reading?
I was surprised to find out that motivation hasn't been studied that long, as I would have thought that it would have been studied for ages. I was also shocked about the analogy of exercise, and I thought to myself, 'Yeah, why do people do that?' As far as the strain and effort it takes in doing those kind of activities. It was also interesting to me to read about how, even in the exact same situation, a person could be motivated to do something totally opposite than another.
I really thought that the hierarchy of motivations was interesting because honestly at this moment of procrastination it really explains the lack of my internal motives. first I looked at all the internal motives and was like neat-o, but then I was like wait a second. I am doing these things right now, Like for example the need to get this assignment done before the end of the post date is directly related to the grade i get in this class, so that scratches that point out... there is definitely a need because it involves the nurturance of my mind.
currently I am a student an easy assumption we can all make by me myself writing this blog at this very moment, from this assumption we can verify my cognitions as well. My expectations to finish this paper in diligent time and to not be totally ashamed of it at the same time. Hopefully through these expectations i gain success instead of failure, as it can be one or the other. hmm plans and goals that are set to strive for through this very blog exist only in the future as the present succeeds me.
And the most interesting part, EMOTIONS! which are "orchestrated" by "feelings, physiological preparedness, Function, Expression" This includes our aspirations and motivations to do things as well, if I didnt have the sound emotional capacity at this time, this blog would hence not be.
The study of motivation and emotion in general captures my attention. There were topics throughout the reading that I found highly interesting. However, the main concept I find most interesting is that of the complexity of motivation and emotion. This is also the topic I find most memorable because I think motivation is something that we just don't typically think about on a day to day basis. Motivation is just something that is, that just happens, and it is not a primary practice for human beings to ponder questions such as "Why am I acting this way?" or "Why am I motivated to do this task?" throughout their day. I also find it interesting that the questions to ask are never ending. You can continually ask "why?" And it is through "why" that we find answers to the complex ideas of motivation and emotion.
Based on my understanding of the chapter, I would explain that to begin to understand motivation and emotion, we must first ask the questions "What causes behavior?" and "Why does behavior vary in its intensity?" (pg 5) We must also begin asking why an individual begins a task before we ask why they continue or sustain the task. Motivation has the ability to affect our behavior in several ways. It affects our desire to initiate tasks, persist, change, direct our goals, and terminate our tasks. Not only does the intensity of motivation vary between individuals, but it also varies within an individual. Someone may be more motivated than another person to perform the same task or one individual may be more motivated to perform one task over another task.
I would continue to describe motivation and behavior by explaining that behavior has both energy and direction (pg 8). It has energy meaning that that there is strength in the motivation to behave in a certain way. It has direction meaning that the behavior is driven by purpose, a reason to behave in that particular manner. There are internal and external variables to motivation. Internal behaviors are those that address our needs (conditions necessary to maintain stability in life and nurture growth), cognitions (thoughts, beliefs, expectations, and self-concept), and emotions (expressions, how we react to important events). External variables include the environment, our social, and our cultural surroundings.
Motivation is private and unobservable (pg 10). It is different across cultures, peoples, and individuals, it is personal. Motivation is dynamic, ever-changing. It's what gets us out of bed in the morning. It's what drives us to eat and drink. It's what encourages us to answer questions in class or complete and assignment. It is complex and continuously being further defined or even redefined.
In chapter two, I found the change of ideas, concepts, and theories throughout history to be very interesting. This also illustrates the complexity of the study of motivation. Through the study of motivation and emotion, there has been a large progression of understanding, implementation of theories, and reevaluation of theories. From the earliest theories and concepts of motivation, that of Plato's hierarchical tripartite soul (appetitive, competitive, and calculating) to dualism (the passions of the body vs. the reason of the mind) (pg 25); from will to instinct to drive; from grand theories, those that are all encompassing, to mini theories, those that identify something specific, the study and understanding of motivation and emotion is constantly progressing and changing.
Flow continues to be of great interest to me, both academically and personally. I am focused on the intricacies of intrinsic motivation as they are utterly vital to me. It is my biggest problem area.
Motivation by definition is the driving force behind all behavior, even behaviors such as sleeping,a need or inaction which could be a number of things. Any reason you can think of falls into some category or aspect of motivation.
Let's discuss inaction, the behavior of doing nothing. The obvious choice would be for positive affect, or feeling good. Sometimes it just feels good to kick back and relax. In some ways it's vital.
Another form of inaction caused by positive affect could be to let someone get something they deserve. While the morals of such an action are easily debatable, it is much harder to debate the gratification that comes with letting someone who was giving you some trouble you be hassled by someone else when you could step in. This one is often shown in movies, where an antagonist bully character is later then bullied. Sometimes the protagonist steps in, but in equal instance the protagonist chooses to do nothing. We see them as heroes and moral paragons if they defend the bully who was picking on them, and when they don't, we still justify them as heroes on the basis of the bully deserving what happens to him.
This is how intricate motivation can get.
Terms And Definition
Flow- The rush or zone of calm and focus that comes from an optimal challenge.
Motivation-The underlying source that causes individuals to choose one behavior from among the many behaviors they could take in a given circumstance.
Intrinsic Motivation- Motivation that is purely internal, driven by forces at work within the individual. A broad category of motivation.
Need-Behaviors that are essential for the continuance of well being of a living creature.
Positive Affect- A good feeling
Feelings-Subjective emotional experiences
From your reading, which topic(s) are most interesting to you?
Before reading Ch. 1 and 2, I had never thought about how deep and complex motivation is. There are activities we do because our bodies need to, like eat, and sleep. These are things all people must do to keep themselves alive. What about other activities that people do? People are motivated to do all different types of behaviors and activities and everyone has different goals. No one person is the same when it comes to what they want to accomplish. I keep thinking about how much culture, values, beliefs and expectations play greatly into motivation. People want to be accepted into the group around them so they want to do whatever it takes to fit in. If they are around athletic people, for example, that person will probably be more motivated to work out and practice then someone who does not want to be part of that group. Another example I keep thinking about is if a person grows up in a family that goes to church regularly they might be more motivated to keep going. Yet, there will be some days where they just do not want to go even though it is what is expected. Why could this be? It could be that inner emotions come into play. How a person is feeling plays into how motivated he or she is to do a task. Everyone is so different and it is hard to predict exactly what a person will do because there are so many different layers to motivation, and I cannot wait to start really looking deeper into all the layers. We can only see a little bit of why a person might do something. If we notice they do not eat for a day we can predict that they will be very hungry. What about the things we can’t see like the interworking of their mind and emotions. I keep thinking of motivation and emotion as an iceberg. We can see a little bit of it on the surface but there is so much more that is hidden underneath, that is what I want to explore.
If you had to describe to someone not in this class what Motivation is all about, what would you tell them based on your understanding of this chapter?
Even though everyone is motivated differently everyone is motivated to do something. People are motivated by human nature to eat, drink and sleep. People also have wants. There are some things that they want to accomplish and goals they want to reach. Everyone is driven by different forces. Motivation in general is a strong desire to a particular task. People are motivated to do many different activities and who that person plays greatly into what they will be motivated to do. A person’s beliefs, values, culture, and emotion will often help predict if a person will be motivated to do a particular task or have a particular goal.
What was the most surprising or memorable thing you learned about in this reading?
I was surprised by the fact that the study of motivation and emotion has really only been around for about one hundred years. We look at motivation and emotion is so many different classes, not only just in the psychology field. I have also talked about motivation and emotion a lot in my religion classes and leisure youth and human services classes. Motivation and emotion are a part of our everyday lives. People take for granted emotions and behaviors; we just do things without thinking why. We often judge people for things they do without thinking why they did that. It is so important to understand why someone might be acting one way or another. If a person is having a bad day and not working as hard as normal we need to remember that we cannot just label them as lazy. There is always a reason for why they are doing or acting the way they are. We need to see the bigger picture. Many researchers and psychologists have tried to find theories to explain motivation and emotion. It surprises me how many different theories there are. Many have been disproven as totally accurate and yet almost all have a bit of truth in them. Everyone one is different and the main thing is to try to figure out why they are doing what they are doing without just jumping to conclusions.
One topic that I found very interesting was Freuds Drive Theory. According to the text, "Freud believed that all behavior was motivated and that the purpose of behavior was to serve the satisfaction of needs." He believed that things like hunger (biological urges), were conditions that are constantly recurring conditions that produce a build up of energy in the nervous system. He thought that the nervous system tried to constantly maintain a low level of energy, but that it was constantly being interupted by the emergence of biological urges. The build up of energy in the nervous system would then result in psychological discomfort, or "anxiety." Freud believed that drive was a sort of emergency alert system, telling the body that it needed to take some sort of action to relieve the "anxiety." Once the motivated behavior was performed it would continue until the drive was satisfied. Freud summarized his drive theory with 4 components. Source, impetus, aim and object. His theory obviously recieved some criticism.
If I had to explain to someone what motivation is all about I would start with a definition. Motivation is the process that gives behavior its energy and direction. Energy means that a behavior has strength and direction means that the behavior has a purpose. What causes a behavior to have energy and direction come from forces within the individual and the environment. There are 3 internal motives which are needs, cognitions, and emotions. Needs are conditions within a person that are essential to maintain a healthy life. Cognitions are menatal processes like thoughts, beliefs, expectations, self-concept. According to the text, "cognitive sources of motivation revolved around the persons ways of thinking." Finally, emotions are short lived and organize how we react adaptively to important life events.
What suprised me in the reading was that the study of motivation and emotion hasn't been around that long. It seems like it's so basic to human functioning and I would think that it would have been studied much longer than what it has been. It is a part of our everday lives that I think a lot of people really don't think about very often. Everyone is motivated for one reason or another and everyone experiences emotions. I find it very interesting to learn about why we do what we do, and what goes on in our brains when we feel a certain way. These topics are what really got me interested in psychology.
1.)Interesting topics to me
Before reading the required readings I found myself interested and asking myself the same questions that I found in the beginning of chapter one. What causes behavior and why does our behavior vary in its intensity. So naturally when I stumbled upon these questions being answered it was intriguing. Behaviors are all around us, everything we do is a behavior, we as humans obviously do a behavior because we want something, were required to do It or we unknowingly just do it. When I think of the question what causes behavior I think of it as why would someone do that and it got me thinking, I often ask myself this question on a daily basis about people around me, many times a day. Which got me to think further into on an average of 5 times walking in between classes I find myself looking at someone and mentally thinking, why in the world would they do that.” However, I never stop and question myself on why I am doing something. The next question was on regards of intensity, before this class I had always asked myself these question; why can’t I study like this person, why can’t I work out like this person, why can’t I do this and that and so forth. My point here is that’s all I would do, I would question myself and my motivation towards something, but I never did anything or figured out why I can’t seem to do things in a way other people can, and by reading this chapter I realized there is a lot more explanation and detail into the reasoning of doing or being motivated to do something.
Another part I found interesting to myself was the section on was how to tell if someone is motivated, as an athlete there had been a few instances where a coach would come up to myself or a teammate and make a comment about how they didn’t seem to think we wanted to play or thought we didn’t have our head in the game. When in all reality it was the complete opposite. This is why I liked this section because it reminded me that you don’t always see motivation, and in my opinion based on the kind of personality someone has they will express their motivation in different ways. I sometimes wouldn’t be jumping around and hollering before a game, but rather I would go into my own zone and prepare myself, this was my type of motivation; I didn’t need to get wild and crazy to become motivated, I needed to calm myself and really focus in the task at hand. With that said, after reading this section now instead of saying to myself or criticizing other people for not doing something, or seeming as if they don’t want to do something, I need to step back and realize they could very well be trying their hardest or very motivated in what they are doing; but I just show my own motivation in a different way so I’m not recognizing theirs.
2. If you had to describe to someone not in this class what Motivation is all about, what would you tell them based on your understanding of this chapter?
I would first start off by observing a simple behavior that the person I am talking to about motivation is emitting. Something simple, such as fidgeting, texting, smiling, etc. I would then ask them why they are doing this behavior; let’s say I ask them why they are texting. I guarantee you when I confront them about texting while were talking they most likely won’t even realize they were doing it, let alone being rude, and also they will have to sit back and question why their texting in the first place. In other words what is motivating them to pick up their phone in the midst of our conversation and respond to a text? That’s exactly what it is, why did they the need to do something and what pushed them to do it. Was it something that they needed to do or was there some type of emotion tied into the reason of texting back to promptly.
3. What was the most surprising or memorable thing you learned about in this reading?
The most interesting thing I learned from the reading would have to be the section on Theories, as stated in class obviously for something to obtain the title “theory” it has to have a crap load of data and evidence supporting it. I found it interesting how as time developed people realized that we needed to stop looking at the grand theories (will, instinct, and drive) and focus on the “mini-theories”, as the book called them. This was interesting because it just reminded me that although information at a certain place in time is valid and has evidentiary support, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t room for improvements and new findings.