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.

 

I recently read an article that discussed women's inbuilt fear of getting fat.  It discusses how women, more than men, react negatively when they see other obese women.  They do not react negatively against these other women, but instead react in a way that their brain focuses attention on their own self image.  When they see other women who are over-weight they process their own identity and self reflection, therefore solidifying their need to remain thin.  This can be the first stage of eating disorders, but this reaction is seen in many women, even those that externally would say that they were not worried about their image.  

John's video (proposing the questions)

Hank's video (responding)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

http://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).   

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!

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."

While doing my daily internet searching, I came across this article explaining the motivation behind assisting others with suicide.  This article doesn't say there is an open doorway now for assisted suicides, but it does say there may be a new framework as to how lawyers will choose who should be prosecuted and who shouldn't. 

"It made clear that someone acting out of compassion, to help a terminally ill patient with a "clear, settled and informed wish to die" is unlikely to face the courts. "

"But persuading or pressuring the victim to kill themselves, or benefiting from their death, would encourage prosecution. "

I found this extremely interesting, because as a student in this motivation class, I couldn't help but think what if there wasn't an extrinsic motivation, but an intrinsic one?  If someone helps another committ suicide and is not receiving any money from their will etc they may not be prosecuted, but what if someone just wishes for them to die because of dislike or revenge?  You know that, NOT in most cases, there is the potential for this type of situation to come along. 

Also, by allowing the person more choices, does that persuade them in a different direction than what they were originally thinking?  When giving someone autonomy, they can second guess initial decisions-- An example-- Person A was diagnosed with cancer and was given X amount of time to live.  Person A was motivated to stay alive as long as possible to try and beat the odds.  Person A was then given to option to be given a drug that woud ultimately kill them within an hour.  By giving someone the option alone is a form of persuasion .  INow there is a decision to be made, and dont you think the drug option would be in the back of their heads on a 'bad' day? 

I also understand the other side of this extremely controversal topic-- if someone is an immense amount of pain/on their death bed and the family no longer wants to have them suffering so they collaborately (with the patient if applicable) decide what would be best. 

I think deciding of whether or not to prosecute someone is a very complicated issues-- I believe there are more factors involved than just whether or not the person assisting is receiving some kind of benefits from the death. 

I hope no one takes offense to this article, I just thought it was extremely interesting-- both sides shown here.  I hope you guys thought it was as interesting as I did--

I found an article that discusses how many universities have taken up new policies with regard to informing parents about their children's underage drinking.  They stated that most colleges will alert parents for major problems, such as being hospitalized or taken to the police station, however they do not involve parents for minor transgressions such as being caught with alcohol in their dorm.  Some schools have decided to inform parents of every alcohol or drug related issue that involves underage students.  Their reasoning behind this is that alcohol abuse on campuses has become a major issue and they feel that parental intervention could be one way to prevent it.  Many students simply do not agree with this policy.  

Why is money so important?

That was my reoccurring question while watching this last movie, Wall Street .  It has also crossed my mind many times.

 

One unfortunately obvious reason is to live in this world.

I just personally do not like money.  I think it can control a person.  It breeds inequality and I wish instead of trading money for our goods and services instead we gave something in return.  Like trading a perfectly good milking cow for magic beans.   What about the good ol' days?   

 

Sometimes I just wonder what this world would be like if ALL money was erased.  Used instead to wrap packages.  Or have it cleaned and recycled to make clothes or accessories, or bags, or something that people need.  I guess I should be careful how I use that word, need, since we have been talking so much about our needs as people in class.  Maybe we shall say something that is important to people.

 

Is money a part of our needs? We have to say yes, because in this day and age we have to earn money to go to the store to purchase the food that is going to feed us when we're hungry.  We have to pay the utility bill in order to turn on the faucet and get delicious cold water, whenever we want it (rather than whenever we need it). 

 

Equality: so we are all created equal right?  Is this really true if you are born into a filthy rich family or if you are born in some alley and you're living on the streets with your mom?  How is that equal?  Just think if every single person in the whole world had the same about of money?  Just think if every job paid the same salary.  What if everyone was really equal in that way?  Could that improve our way of life?  Would there be less greed for money and more greed for love? 

 

I think then people would actually enjoy going to their job. There was an experiment that tested self-perception of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.  This article is attached below.  There was a group of college men part of an experiment that were coming in to put together a puzzle.  The independent variables were either a blank or a picture puzzle and getting paid or no payment.  The results showed that the picture puzzle completed without getting paid was the most enjoyable.  So what is happening to us then when we add in that extrinsic variable, money?

 

 

 http://psycnet.apa.org.proxy.lib.uni.edu/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=1975-31777-001

(then just click on the "pdf" option)

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA96Fba-WHk

This video is from a television show and it shows positive reinforcement.  Whenever the girl would do something that one of the guys thought of as "good behavior" he would reward her with chocolate (incentive).  He would do this without telling her that it was something good; just reinforce the behavior with a reward. 

In the book, in chapter 5, the author discusses extrinsic motivation which comes from environmental incentives and consequences.  In this case, the extrinsic motivator would be chocolate, the reward recieved for the behavior.  Extrinsic motivation is related to positive reinforcement because of the "do this and you will get that" behavior that people are trying to change or adjust.  The motivation was to get the chocolate as a reward for doing what people consider to be a good action or behavior. 

These types of teaching happens a lot with child rearing and teaching kids what kinds of behaviors are appropriate and which aren't.  Intrinsic motivation happens in these situations because people are recieving positive feedback for their behaviors.  So that is a natural motivation for people to do a behavior, when they are rewarded. 

In chapter 5 we have been talking about intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. This article shows the importance of these in the workplace. The article mentions that having employees who are intrinsically motivated will be better for the company in the long run because they will be more apt to work and find more joy in their work. This article does a good job of explaining what motivation is and why it is important to have in the workplace.

The article mentions three main ways to extrinsically motivate employees. The first way is with a promise of some sort of reward. I think this is definitely a motivation. In a past job I had, we were promised a "bonus" if we got so many products out by the end of the day and it motivated the team to work harder. The second way mentioned was by offering the opportunity for growth. For someone who is very ambitious and wants to move up in the company this is a great motivator. The third way that they mentioned was giving the employee recognition. I have always been motivated when given recognition for good work that I have done.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/importance-of-extrinsic-motivation-at-the-work-place.html

I figured there is no time better than the present to touch of the drive and story of an Olympic athlete. I think we all know by now, being an Olympian takes much more than an occasional practice. Being an Olympian takes commitment, determination, drive, and natural ability. These athletes practice for hours on end. Then, when they are done, they go to sleep and wake up to do it all over again. Training is nothing less that extreme. Anything other than being the best is not acceptable, because no one goes to the Olympic games with out the desire to bring home gold. Every athlete dreams of being an Olympian, and every Olympian dreams of being recognized as the best... to be positively reinforces with a gold circle draped from their neck. 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95949912

 

I found this NPR article on motivating school children to be rather interesting and perhaps somewhat controversial. It talks about paying children according to their attendance, quality of work, and behavior in class. My initial reaction to this story is that this type of program is a great experiment. We already spend tremendous amounts of money on education, but continue to get very poor results in many schools. I think money has sometimes been mindlessly thrown here and there, and we don't see any good come from that. It has sometimes been said that raising the teacher pay will bring in higher quality people or that bringing in various new classroom materials will help students learn, but the problem seems to be deeper than that.

As was mentioned earlier on our blog, one major problem is "stupid homework." By no means am I referring to all, or even most, homework, but in my educational experience I have had plenty of assignments that have just been downright meaningless. You waste a great amount of time, learn nothing, and feel like you've lost a few brain cells in the process. Another part of the problem is that the belief that homework/studying is unpleasant and to be avoided has been instilled in many of us from a very early age. There seems to be a negative connotation with learning, and I think we should work harder to change that, perhaps by doing more to support "science is fun" programs and others like it. If students perceive educational activities as fun, they will find greater energy to put into their learning.

I also think schools can put too much emphasis on grades, which can subsequently cause some children to focus only on letter grades and many others to become apathetic about the education system. Although I have generally got rather good grades throughout my academic career, and a certain amount of assessment is surely needed, putting so much of the emphasis on a few short (and sometimes poorly written) tests does not seem to be the best approach. Sometimes such tests tell you very little about the students except perhaps their abilities to discern/anticipate what information will be asked on the test and cram accordingly. I think many students feel this way, and they feel discouraged when think that they will not be fairly evaluated.

This may be more a problem in the high school and college environments, but I think another very serious problem with our education is an overwhelming lack of clarity in certain classroom environments. Sometimes students are required to read very old texts that are written in an English language that is very different from our own. It is unreasonable for students to be required to read these texts without any guidance from the instructor - the professor should be there for a reason. In college, I know of at least one professor who gets away with murder by having "discussion-based" classes in which the student is given no other instruction than to "read the textbook" - such professors contribute nothing yet get paid in full. When teachers do not present material in a clear, thought out, and interesting manner, the student can become very discouraged and the learning process is heavily impeded. It is a far from ideal outcome to cause some students to have anxiety attacks and others to give up entirely. More needs to be done to address this problem.

The controversy that arises from this Pay-To-Behave experiment also merits attention. A question that inevitably arises is, "Even if these financial incentives greatly increase academic performance, is teaching children to learn solely for money to be desired?" Some would probably argue that it is no different than receiving an allowance for doing chores or a paycheck for a job, but I am still not entirely sure how I would feel if I were one of the parents. I am not sure I would be comfortable sending a child through this program if I thought it would cause them to place money above everything else.