Recently in Motivation Category

I recently read a research article named, "Mind-Set Matters: Exercise and the Placebo Effect" by Alia J. Crum and Ellen J. Langer.  They were investigating the placebo effect and affecting your mind-set.  Crum and Langer's participants were all female room attendants or house cleaning in a hotel.  They randomly assigned the participants into two groups.  The control group was not told anything, they were told to continue their job as normal.  The experimental group was continually reminded they were getting a lot of exercise throughout their daily responsibilities at work.  However, both groups were doing the same amount of work throughout the day. 

At the end of the four week, study the control group behavior had not changed.  However, the experimental group reported feeling much healthier to Crum and Langer.  Not only did these participants report feeling healthier, when compared with the control group, they showed a decrease in weight, blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index.  I found this result fascinating.  Both groups were doing exactly the same job.  However, when one group was continually reminded how much exercise they were getting in their jobs, they actually became healthier.

This study reminded me of the cognitive dissonance theory.  This theory suggests people need to justify their behavior, feel rational, and feel in control.  According to Reeve, cognitive dissonance occurs from "inconsistency between what one believes (I am competent) and what one does (I act competently)..." (Reeve, pg. 278, 2009).  Cognitive dissonance does not always refer to being psychologically uncomfortable, but also can be applied to your positive goals.  The women who were reminded of how much exercise they were getting at work might strive to reduce any dissonance.  They may believe they are working harder and therefore are healthier. 

Although they attempted to control the study, there may have been possible problems with the participants.  One issue would be exercising outside of work and the other issue may be working harder during their shift.

My question is what do people think of the placebo effect?  Can it really alter your way of thinking?

Crum, A.J. & Langer, E.J. (2007).  Mind-set matters: Exercise and the placebo effect.  Psychological Science (18)2, 165-171.

 

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_specter_the_danger_of_science_denial.html

I figured I would make my last post from ted.com, since I have really come to enjoy this site over the course of this semester. This video is of Michael Specter discussing the recent denial of scientific advances. Michael briefly discusses the progression of lifespans in his family from generation to generation. He mentioned that each generation has lived a decade longer than the last, and he plans to live till 90. Through the course of this video he discusses the ways in which we are able to engineer foods to make them more nutritious. We, as a community, have decided that foods that are not 100% natural should be shunned from our diet. However, we are willing to take pill after pill in hopes that it will help us feel better. We have virtually wiped out the threat of small pox in our country, so we no longer get the vaccine. What if small pox is reintroduced? We will all be susceptible once again. The discussion of what problems vaccines can cause has been brought down to the ground by science every time that it is brought up. Yet, people still believe that they are doing their children a favor by neglecting to give them their vaccinations. However, if an unvaccinated individual travels the world and contracts a disease outside of the protective bubble of the United States, not only would they run into a problem for themselves, but they could bring a problem for the rest of us.

What is it that motivates people to take such risky behaviors, but claim them to be safer? Is it the need for power? Reeve describes this as the need to be in control of situations. Could it be that people feel as though they have more control over situations if they eat food that is not genetically engineered or if they avoid vaccinations?

How did this video make you feel? Personally, it really got me thinking about what I felt to be health conscious. I always believed that vaccinations were necessary, and that it was rather ignorant to over look the research that has been done to prove it. This video just reiterated that point for me.

Building Community in Organizations

I found this article through one of my other classes, but I think that it relates to Motivation and Emotion more than anything else in psychology. The article discusses six steps to having a healthy, cooperative community.  Many times it referrers to areas in the business context, but I also think it would be applicable to everyday life.  Although the article does come across as somewhat candy-coated, I still think the general ideas have great meaning behind them, even if they aren't 100% generalizable to every type of community. 

The text discusses the aspect of engagement (Reeve, 165) in a way that encourages motivation.  This is the same basic concept that the article is getting at, only more specified.  The article wants to motivate members of a given community to take part and care about that community, where as Reeve discusses the model of engagement in a broader basis.  Engagement can involve anything that someone cares about, including psychological needs. Engagement also taps into emotions as well, causing for even more intensified involvement in the given activity.  Building a strong community anywhere (whether it's at work, school, or home) can be much easier if these guidelines of engagement are implemented. Table 6.4 (Reeve, 164) in the text shows how the aspects of an environment can trigger engagement and fulfill different psychological needs. While many of these terms are different that those provided in the article, they stem off of the same ideas and constructs. 

 

The six principles of an engaged community are:

1. Communicate a compelling message.

2. Build a guiding coalition.

3. Create principle-based versus compliance-based guidelines for decisions and behaviors.

4. Identify early engagement indicators.

5. Generate continuous opportunities for dialogue at all levels.

6. Plan assimilation strategies for new members and new leaders.

 

While some of the terminology may seem complex, the article explains how simple each principle really is. Many of the terms stem from concepts that we have learned in the past about Motivation and Emotion.  The first aspect, communicating a compelling message, gets into the concept of involvement and relatedness, and almost acts like an advertisement.  Reeve discusses the importance of relatedness (Reeve, 161-162) and how high levels of relatedness can increase levels of social interaction, higher functioning, resilience to stress, and lower chances of psychological dysfunctions.  In order to get people engaged in a given situation, they must first feel as if they have a social relation to that community or event and have a sense of involvement within that situation.

The second principle, building a coalition, corresponds with the idea of leadership. Reeve (196) discusses how leadership skills can effect and influence the people around that leader.  Reeve also discusses how power can also change the attitudes of peers. With a high-quality leader, subordinates will be more likely to participate fully within the community, and be happier with their community overall.   

The third principle, principle-based vs. compliance-based guidelines, revolves around the idea of autonomy and control over situations.  Reeve discusses the importance of fulfilling the need for autonomy (Reeve, 145-146).  This area is crucial in discussing something such as a community or job setting, and can have a huge impact on the level of happiness and satisfaction each individual experiences.  Using guidelines that promote autonomy, rather than strict rules, can enhance individual's level of involvement and engagement within that group.  This can also improve performance and satisfaction in that particular situation.

The next principle deals with early signs of motivational concepts. Once people seem to show an interest in engagement, it reinforces the leaders and those involved by showing them that the engagement is possible and helpful. Reinforcing the behaviors of both leaders and subordinates is a good way to keep motivations high and keep everyone involved (Reeve, 115). In turn, this can help to keep the levels of engagement constant in the community setting.            Principle number five revisits aspects of relatedness and competence.  Encouraging communication is a way to gain relationships with each individual, strengthening their levels of engagement.  This also has an impact on their levels of competence (Reeve, 154).  Increasing communication increases levels of interaction with the environment, establishing a perception of competence.  Competence is the need to have an effect on the environment, as well as master optimal challenges (Reeve, 155).  Increasing the levels of communication and increasing opportunities for challenges is a great way to get individuals engaged in which ever community they may be in.

Assimilation strategies for new members and leaders is applying the concepts of all of these situations into one, making new members feel as though they are involved, making the steps of engagement easier to adapt to. In short, it takes aspects of all of the other principles and applies them to the single new member in order to make them feel as though they are engaged in that community, and so that they can begin to take part in each of the six principles.

 

Can you think of any other psychological concepts that we have discussed in class that relate to this article? Are there any that DON'T apply to these principles?

 

 

 

http://positivesharing.com/2006/12/why-motivation-by-pizza-doesnt-work/

I found this article for my organizational psych class, so those of you are in there may have already seen this, but I feel it fits our class well also.  This is a really good article about the power of intrinsic motivation compared to extrinsic motivation in various situations. The author goes one step further though by distinguishing between negative and positive motivation. Negative motivation is when you attempt to keep someone from doing something negative by reminding them of the negative consequences.

For example, in the article, the author describes how people that have heart surgeries are told if they don't start eating right and taking care of themselves than they will DIE. This is clearly the ultimate negative consequence, yet when people with heart surgeries are told this, then checked in on two years later, only 10% of the people are actually making some sort of change in their lives. Instead encouraging patients to look at the positive things in life and work towards making the most of these, they have a much better results, as about 70% of these people changed their lifestyle.

As we have all heard over and over, intrinsic motivation encourages us to seek out and accomplish difficult tasks much more effectively.  Reeve (2009) says that intrinsic motivation is so great because it bring out our encourages us to be persistent, be creative, it enhances our conceptual understanding, allows us to  achieve things which in turn contributes to our psychological well-being.  The article posted above is a quick and interesting read, and I encourage everyone to check it out!

 

Guilt in Advertising

This article was very interesting to read.  It describes the different ways that advertisements can tug at our emotions.  Guilt appeal is a great way to get consumer's attention, and it's used quite a bit in the advertising world.  A good example of this is the commercials showing the dying polar bears without ice to live on, or the cute little puppies and kittens without homes.  Another classic example of this is the commercials about the children struggling in poor countries, asking you to help them with a "dollar a day."   Seeing these commercials evokes an emotional response, and leads the viewer to feel guilty, something advertisers are counting on.  The hope is that if you feel guilty about these poor puppies and children, you will give them money to try and help them or "save a life."
Previous research found that mothers were the most likely target and more susceptible to these types of advertising techniques, so it was mothers that were used in this research study.  They actually discovered that many times commercials and advertisements that used guilt as a motivational factor to buy the product actually evoked some levels of anger in the participants. This anger acted as a mediator between the guilt and the consumer's attitudes about the product or advertisement.   This anger also seemed to affect whether or not the participants reported that they would buy the product or not. Though it may sound surprising that these depressing commercials could evoke anger, think about the last time you saw the Haiti relief commercials? Or the American Christian Children's Fund? Yes, they are all depressing and raise some amount of guilt, but at the same time many Americans feel that things need to change in our own country first.  The article also discusses aspects of annoyance, and how the annoyance levels of these commercials can raise levels of anger as well.
Many commercials of the commercials like this act on the principle of relatedness.  This aspect is also discussed in the book (Reeve, 161, 2009).  Commercials want to make you feel as though you have a connection with the people or animals shown in the advertisement.  This may be why they show close ups of big puppy eyes, and probably why they send you a "personalized letter and photo of the child you're saving."  The advertisements are attempting to make you feel as though these people and animals are just like you or similar to you, your pets, or your children, and this makes us feel as though we should help them.  The letters and pictures that the children's fund sends to you also plays a role in feedback, because these things give you good feelings about your donation, it will reinforce the behavior and allow you to associate donating with good feelings (Reeve, 117).
Using these types of positive reinforcements once they have the consumer to a point where they have made a donation increases the chances that they will make an additional donation in the future.  Making people feel good about the things they have done (donating money, volunteering) is a way to provide a reward, and eventually this reward could develop into intrinsic motivations.  When someone consistently volunteers and contributes to the community, there are positive feelings associated with the outcomes.  This acts as a reinforcement/reward to begin with. As they continue to participate in these types of activities, the reward may evolve into an intrinsic motivation (Reeve, 111) because they are so used to those feelings and actions that they feel a basic internal drive to continue with their good feelings and positive contributions to the community. Along with this, another aspect of intrinsic motivations is the idea of challenge. People who participate in things such as Habitat for Humanity or other volunteer programs many have had feelings of guilt in order to get them started, but then a challenge developed and lead to more intrinsic motivations (Reeve, 111).
These commercials also incorporate the idea of sociability. When we feel as though everyone is donating to these funds (when they say "over a million Americans donate daily," or things of that nature), we don't want to be the only one's not donating.  We have a drive to donate just because we hear that there are many other people donating. It's almost as if these commercials are peer pressuring us into donating to their particular fund.
Many aspects of the textbook can be seen in these emotion-provoking commercials.  They play off of the fact that human's levels of self-perceptions can change at the drop of a hat (Reeve, 279).  When we don't act on these donations, our mind often creates a negative affect from the guilt we experience, which leads us to feel bad about ourselves and could lower our self-esteem (Reeve, 266).  The main difficulty here, according to Reeve, is that raising self-esteem is motivational intervention.  Adversely, the lowering of self-esteem may also be a motivational intervention if you look at the effects that these commercials have on people.  Because these commercials have made people feel bad, it motivates them to donate their money in order to feel good again. Then, every time we donate money and get those good feelings, it reinforces that behavior so that the behavior continues.

There are many other aspects of psychology within these types of commercials. What are some other areas where psychology comes into play within advertisements? What about within the media in general? How do these things affect our everyday lives when we aren't even thinking about them?

Http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_gupta.html

Another TED Video. Love This Site!

Music is medicine, music is sanity. This statement is just part of Robert Gupta's talk about Nathaniel Ayers, a schizophrenic American musician, who has been the subject of many newspaper articles written by Steve Lopez along with a 2009 film adaptation based on these columns called The Soloist which starred Jamie Fox and Robert Downey Jr. Though I have not seen the film, this lecture as a musician interested me and was very inspiring. The story has two very interesting points from a psychological perspective, the Ayers and his relationship with schizophrenia, along with his relationship to music.

Gupta talks about his first encounter with Ayers, who upon first meeting him definitely recognized his symptoms of schizophrenia he referred to it as jumbled, but in a gregarious, jovial way, relating baseball to Beethoven's 4^th symphony. He then had a normal civil conversation about music. Gupta points out that Ayers has refused treatment because of his previous experience with shock therapy, thorazine and handcuffs. These methods have left a lasting terrible impression on Ayers mind. Ayer's is prone to many schizophrenic episodes, wandering the streets while his own mind torments him. After accepting the request for lessons from Ayer's, upon arrival Gupta felt very threatened. Reeve attributes this fear Gupta felt was a result of him anticipating a harmful event like Ayer's schizophrenia taking over and him exploding. Yet he still was motivated to maintain this relationship. Why would Gupta be motivated to do such a thing, even under adverse conditions? I believe it was a combination of a genuinely high expectancy and outcome expectations along with a need for intimacy and achievement, especially when these needs can be met in the field of his passion.

Not having seen the movie, and being a musician myself I am perplexed and in awe at the amazing level of change the music makes in his cognitive processes. When giving the lesson, instead of talking scales and theory, Gupta just began playing. The more he played, the more Ayer's manic rage transformed into an advanced understanding, curiosity and grace, the music being the catalyst of this incredible almost invisible pharmaceutical. His mind changed and he spoke about music with a transformed sense of insight. He was then again the brilliant Juliard student who related on a personal level, playing many of his favorite pieces by ear. Reeve says that emotions energize and direct behavior, this sea of emotions that musicians feel may have a very large role in this transformation. Gupta says through the artistic lens that is a musician's creativity, that music changes us. For Ayer's specifically music is medicine, it is his sanity, it also helped Ayers feel affiliation again, the deficit of no social-relationships could not have contributed positively to his condition in any way.

The emotional level of Ayer's love and appreciation for music helped him find his mind. While I do not know how his story ends, I am certainly inspired and reminded of why I play myself. It truly reaches down to a person's core. This brings so many questions about the emotional significance of music. Does it directly satisfy a need? What is its purpose? Why does it make people feel such intense emotions? There are many theories out there, but none of them have quite explained the creativity aspect. Why is it that when a musician writes a song  or plays a song that is significant to them it makes them feel complete? It is a feeling like no other feeling in the world. This is definitely something I will be looking into further, especially the relationship between music, emotion and moods.

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

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

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

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

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

John's video (proposing the questions)

Hank's video (responding)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5:00 PM = 17 minutes twirl free!

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

http://digg.com/d31LEDK

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

In the article below,

 http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html

personal goal setting is expanded upon: 

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

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

 

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

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

S- specic

M- measurable

A- attainable

R- realistic

T- timely

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

Praise is not always motivating.

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

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

Your personality has a lot to do with what types of stimuli in the world you seek out and avoid.

Take this brief quiz http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

and then after you hit score it, click on the first link available (type description by Keirsey) and read the description.

How accurate do you think this assessment is?

Notice how the quiz itself is focused on various behaviors. What factors contribute to your motivation to approach/avoid these various situations?

      In a study done on stress in the workplace and how it affect our productivity the outcomes was interesting. It seems to be that merely having the ability to control the source of ones stress is beneficial in coping with the situation. A study broke people up into two groups. Both groups had to write/journal about anything the desired. In the middle of the writing there would be a big annoying sound that started to interrupt their thought. One group was told that if the large noise came they could not make it stop. The other group was told that when the large noise happens they had a choice to stop the distraction. Interestingly enough, those individuals who were not able to control the situation showed a lack of emotion in their writing. They had not excitability, creativity or motive to write at all. Whereas the group which could stop the disruptive sound had an increased amount of emotion, creativity, and motive in their writing AND not one of the people in that group asked someone to stop the disruptive noise (Even though they had the CONTROL to do so). Therefore, it appears that its not the disruptive aspects of our lives that are stressing us out, it's the uncontrollable disruptive aspects of our life that produce the most stress to individuals.

 

http://www.humannatureatwork.com/Workplace-Stress-2.htm

http://newsroom.ucr.edu/news_item.html?action=page&id=1958

In my Healthy Psych class I am currently taking, we read an article on conscientiousness increasing longevity in elderly people.  I thought it was interesting and decided to find another article supporting the one I read in class. 

The article I found was called "Conscientious People Live Longer" done by Howard S. Friedman, professor of psychology, and Margaret L. Kern, a graduate student at the University of California, Riverside.  In the article, Friedman states, "...conscientious individuals have better health habits and less risk-taking, but they also travel life pathways toward healthier psychosocial environments..."  Friedman and Kern found three specific facets of conscientiousness: responsibility/self-control (responsible, not implusive); order (organized, disciplined); and achievement (achievement-oriented, persistent).  From their meta-analysis they also found achievement and order were the strongest components for linking conscientiousness and longevity.

This article intrigued me because I am interested in learning how conscientiousness, achievement, and order help increase the longevity of peoples' lives.  I feel like conscientious people are more intrinsically motivated to live healthier lives and focus on making healthy, not reckless, decisions.  After reading about Atkinson's model on achievement goals in the book, I think conscientious people are motivated by mastering their goals.  They will continually work to improve themselves and overcome challenges in order to make progess in their lives to reach their "standard of excellence" (Reeve, pg. 183, 2009).  Friedman and Kern also found that highly conscientious people, on the average, live two to four years longer than low conscientious people.  Highly conscientious people also seem to live more stable lives and less stressful lives.

http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~culture/sussman.htm 

This article is taken out of an online textbook and concerns culture and psychological implications of living, working, or studying in another culture.  The article goes through the steps of the "sojourner cycle" that goes from first immersion into another culture through returning home to the native culture.  It was a really fascinating read, and brought up a lot of thought-provoking ideas.

The article raises the important issue of how people are deeply rooted in culture without even being aware of it.  This process is called "enculturation" and is the formation of our thoughst and behavior to be similar to those in our culture.  The article explained how many people don't realize the extent of their enculturation until they experience being in a different culture.  When in another culture, one can examine his or her own thoughts and behaviors based on differences or similarities that arise from experiencing the non-native culture.  I found this point particularly interesting because so many people never get or take the opportunity to experience anything different than the culture they were raised in. 

There are so many benefits to being able to more objectively see how your culture has affected who you are.  Enculturation has a natural way of making people believe that their way of thinking or behaving is "right" because that is what they have always known.  Experiencing something different is definitely strange and may feel "wrong" but I think having one's eyes opened to alternative ways of living is important.

Although there are many benefits to experiencing another culture, some of the potential problems are worth noting.  When someone goes to another culture, their sense of identity must be redefined and will probably change at least a little.  This is important to recognize especially when the traveler returns to his or her home culture, as he or she may have trouble re-adjusting to native culture.  Traveling to a different culture can also be a negative experience if the culture is very different from the native culture.  If the native culture has strict ways of doing things or strict beliefs, seeing another culture live in a way that is contradictory to that can be uncomfortable and ego-shattering.  The article goes into more detail on this...you should read it.

This article brought up several motivation questions in my mind:

What motivates some people to constantly seek out new experiences and new cultures, while others are highly motivated to remain in a "bubble" of like-mindedness and similar behavior?

I think thrill-seeking/adventure-seeking is a particular motivation that would cause some people to seek out new cultural experiences.  Motivators for willing choosing to avoid new cultural experiences could be preservation of the ego/self identity, or simply the potential discomfort and fear that could come along with experiencing a new culture.