Ch 1&2 Reading Blog due Monday 1/16 @ midnight

Ch. 1 and 2 Blog
I found the material in the first chapter to be dry, but the second chapter was more interesting, particularly the development of motivation theories. I found Darwin’s instinct theory to be especially interesting, because I never thought of his work as a contribution to psychology. However, I now know that he largely contributed to the association of physiological behavior in psychology, and the body’s influence on the mind. Prior to this theory, Descartes’ theory about the will was the prominent grand theory of motivation. This was a vague theory and very difficult to study, as scientists later learned. However, by connecting the body to the mind, the instinct theory established objective methods to explore motivation theories. Scientists then developed more knowledge about motivation, leading to further theories.
Motivation is a complex force from multiple sources. The particular situation influences motivation in the individual, in which the specific response will vary according to the individual. This individual is influenced through their physical needs, emotions, cognitions, by an external source, or a combination of any of these to approach or avoid a specific behavior. For instance, if I was walking down the street and a man started chasing me, I would be influenced to avoid him by running in the opposite direction. In this case, the man would be an external source motivating me to run away, but my body may speed up my blood pressure and increase adrenaline to prepare to run, my emotions may make me feel threatened or scared, or my cognition may tell me I need to get away to a safe place. However, my roommate may run up to him and fight in this situation.
I was most surprised when I read about the concept of the grand theories, stating there was one complete explanation of motivation. This seemed odd to me, because every psychology class I have taken stressed the concept of diverse causes all factoring into an effect. I understand the scientists in that time were without our contemporary knowledge, but it seems illogical to assume such a complex topic could be simply explained by a single cause. Take a clock for instance. It works because many little parts maneuver in such a way to produce a particular effect. I was just surprised that no one compared a concept like that a theory of motivation for so long.

As many textbooks go, the material in the opening chapter comes off as very boring and lifeless. As much as this disinterests many readers it is a necessary beginning to a book to lay the groundwork of the topic. Through the many definitions and experiments referenced in the first chapter, readers find a basic sense of what motivation is really all about. It varies from person to person, it comes from different places, it has many faces, and it something ingrained into us from birth. Motivation can come from external events or internal speak. As humans we have physical needs, emotions, and cognition and they are all essential to overall well-being. When explaining motivation to another person it becomes a simple answer with complex variations and explanations. Antecedent present themselves which results in out motivation condition consisting of physical needs, emotional needs, and cognitive thought processes. This motivation allows to to avoid or approach a course of action and eventually engage in a timely manner. An interesting part of chapter one was the Box 1, "Why Do We Do What We Do on page 7. The point that stood out most to me was the claim by the author and former president of the APA that there are no findings that support the idea that Self Esteem causes anything at all. In today's world Self Esteem is a vital concept when it comes to how one interacts with their world. I was shocked to read about how little faith renowned psychologists have in the concept. In chapter two the author delves into several theories explaining motivation. Such theories include grand theory, Drive Theory, and Will. A Grand Theory is a large perspective that explains a grand scheme of things. One being, "will motivates all action. Another old theory is instinct theory as explained by Charles Darwin willpower was a truly uniquely human power and this is what separated man from animal in motivational spectrums. This theory later had become replaced by drive theory which was introduced in 1918 by Woodworth. When needs are not met drive becomes a prominent motivation and pushes people to fulfill themselves. Sigmund Freuds theory of course played off of drive theory by explaining that all drive was towards personal satisfaction. One interesting point I got out of this theory was that drive is supposed to motivate humans and animals to satisfy their needs. This made me wonder if needs go long enough without being met, at which point does a person or animal make poor decisions because they are so driven to get their needs. When does an animal get hungry enough that it attacks a human. At what point does a drug addict become needy enough to steal or even kill to get what they need.

Terms Used: Grand Theory, Will, Drive Theory, Freuds Drive Theory, Instinct Theory, Self Esteem, Motivation, Cognition

While starting off reading chapter 1, I thought the material was rather boring, and thought it would definitely be a long and boring read; but after getting into the end of chapter 1 and into chapter 2 the material started to get more interesting. There was a couple interesting topics that I am excited to learn and read more about. Honestly one of the first interesting things I saw while reading chapter 1 was just the 2 perennial questions. 1. What causes behavior and 2. Why does behavior vary in its intensity? I thought this was nice to read about because it was a good starting point to get into the chapter. I don’t know if people really think about it, but I think both of those questions are rather important in life, and we may use them more than we realize. Behaviors are something that everyone uses every day of their life, and are constantly going on. I know I always ask myself and think to myself ‘why did they do that?’ or “what is that?” Also, it is interesting to really think about how the intensity changes in every person with every situation. Also, the table in page 4 was interesting when it was explaining the different reasons people do things, such as for fun, which would come from intrinsic motivation, or because someone is in a good mood, which would be positive affect. These two questions were interesting to me because it really made me start to think about motivation and the behaviors that go along with it.
After reading chapter two, there were a few interesting topics. Usually I do not really enjoy history, but a lot of the issues and topics from this section were things I had either never heard of, or things I just didn’t know much about. Mini theories were something that really caught my eye. Mini theories are connected to a specific phenomenon. Some of the mini theories that I have never heard of were: Expectancy X value theory, flow theory, and the effectance motivation theory. Also, I thought that these theories would have been older then they really are. The book explains that they were between 1960’s and 1970’s; I thought they would have been from an earlier time.

I think the question of ‘what is motivation all about,’ is quite hard to answer, because it is based on so many different things. Motivation is forced by so many different aspects, so it really depends on the person on which types of motivation are going to inspire you to do something. An individual can be motivated to do something by many different things, and responses such as physical, emotional and cognitive. I really liked the example in the book about exercising. For example, I may exercise because the ‘freshman 15’ is starting to catch up to me, but my dad exercises because he has high cholesterol and wants to stay healthy; yet my roommate may exercise because she is extremely stressed out. The source of motivation is going to be different depending on the person and situation. Also, the central nervous system, brain and psycho physiological states are all going to be different and change depending on the individual.

One of the most interesting things I learned from reading these chapters is the number of theories that are out there that explain motivation and emotion. Obviously there are MANY theories out there for every subject, but I did not realize there were so many for just motivation and emotion. On just one page in the textbook they show over 20 theories, yet there are many more as well.

Terms: motivation, behavior, positive affect, intrinsic motivation, mini theories, effectance motivation, flow theory, expectancy X value theory.

Ch. 1 and 2 Blog

In this reading, the topic that I found to be most interesting is how originally people tried to separate humans from animals when it came to motivation. It wasn's until Darwin had introduced the "man-animal dualism" that people stopped looking at motivation as merely a human entity.
In chapter one, it was made very clear that motivation is a multi-faceted subject that can not be summed up or defined easily. Certain questions were raised to help us better understand motivation. These questions included, "What causes activity - not only our behavior, but also our thoughts, our feelings, and our dreams?" Another question raised was, "Why does motivation vary in intensity?" Not only do we need to look at why someone does something, but also for how long and how much effort they put into it. Not only can the intensity change, but different people may have different levels of motivation for the same activity. To further complicate it, the same person may even have different levels of motivation for the same activity during different times. Another way that chapter one describes the study of motivation is to look at the "processes that give behavior its energy and direction." Motive is the internal process that drives them both. In addition to "forces in the individual" there are also outside environmental factors and past experiences that can affect people's motivation. Motivation can be expressed in many different ways for many different people. These behaviors can range from body gestures and facial expressions, but there are also physiological changes association with motivation including, but not limited to cardiovascular and hormonal changes.
The most memorable part in the reading, I found is how there are so many different variables that must be entertained when looking at motivation. I have never considered how so many different things come into play that can make people motivated or unmotivated for certain tasks or activities. It was fascinating to me how the great thinkers had so much trouble trying to fully understand and define motivation.From the original grand theories to finally breaking it up into mini-theories.

Terms: motivation, motive, grand theories, mini theories,

Blogs Chapter 1 & 2

Motivation can be described as both the internal and external drive to accomplish different tasks. With motivation we can become responsible and respectable people because work ethic and drive are very respectable traits. Something that seems so obvious now is also very interesting to me. Motivation and emotion control our actions thoughts and feelings. The social context which we are in also affects the way in which we express our motivation, but our motivation are still expressed through the actions or lack of action we display. I also find it very interesting how we choose to express our emotions in different situations. Behavior, engagements, and brain activations all play on each other when understanding and then explaining motivation.

My initial reaction when reading Chapter 2 specifically was “gosh I hate theories,” but through theory I fell I have a better understanding. I respect the “all-encompassing” grand theories because they all are finding different ways to explain motivation. But what I also try to remember is that even the social context of which these scholars are developing these theories may influence their motivation. And then when and how we apply these theories to different motivation examples. What I was having difficulty with when reading through the theories is trying to separate the meaning of drive, initive, and will, they all seemed to be very similar in meaning when applying and developing theory around them. They all seem to be the same type of feeling, action, and thought when trying to explain motivation. I always find it very interesting how many topics and even psychology itself were not included or relevant during the past.

After reading Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 I found many things interesting. The first topic that really got my attention was the different levels of intensity an individual may experience with their behaviors. The second fundamental question that goes along with motivation is, “Why does behavior vary in its intensity?” This was interesting to me because I think it is something most students can relate to at this point in the semester. Everyone has started new classes, new work schedules, new work out regimens, new diets and so on. After the New Year many people feel like they get a fresh start and want to do things “right” this time around. Such as reading all the assigned chapters, working ahead in class, working out every day and eating healthy all the time. Motivation varies for individuals in intensity depending on the behavior. Some people can be actively engaged during one behavior and completely unengaged when it comes to a different behavior. Studying what motivates people is different from person to person.

The second topic that I found interesting was internal motives. Internal motives are something everyone can relate to, but it may be overlooked at times. This term is used to describe the specific motives; needs, cognitions, and emotions. Needs are conditions that are essential to maintain human life, growth, and well-being. Cognitions are thoughts, beliefs, expectations, and the self-concept. Emotions are short-lived subjective-physiological-functional-expressive phenomena that display how individuals react to life events. There are many activities that people do every day and may not even be aware of what motivates them to do so, such as having a schedule that consists of going to work, then class, and then working out in the afternoon. If you were suddenly required to work at night, you would then have to work out at a different time. Perhaps getting up early and working out seems absolutely horrible, so you stop working out all together.

Based on the readings, I would describe Motivation as an ongoing, ever-changing process. Motivation starts with antecedent conditions, which in other words, is the environment. Being surrounded by positive energy and optimism as opposed to negative energy and pessimism are going to have a definite change in the level of motivation an individual possesses towards a particular behavior. The individual then must consider their needs, cognitions and emotions. All of these play a significant role in motivation. Based on the individual, their motives may rise and fall depending on what it driving them. Changes in motivation are displayed in numerous ways through behavior, engagement, brain activations and physiology, and self-report. Overall, motivation is a complex topic that varies depending on the individual and the motives behind the behavior.

One memorable thing from the readings was the term “grand theories”. This was memorable for me because I have heard it before and it is self-explanatory. Grand theories explain the full range of motivated behaviors. Such as why we eat, drink, sleep, love, go to school, work, etc. Motivation is a fairly new subject in Psychology and in the 1960’s three grand theories of motivation were initiated; will, instinct, and drive. These three concept work together to create “grand theories”.

Terms: motivation, intensity, behaviors, vary, internal motives, needs, cognitions, emotions, self-concept, antecedent, self-report, grand theories, will, instinct, drive

The second chapter was much easier to read compared to the first. Out of all of the grand theories of motivation, which included will, instinct, and drive, I found the drive theories interesting, even though they are not popular anymore. I found that Hull’s drive theory captured my attention more than Freud’s. The book pointed out some of the flaws in Freud’s drive theory that suggested bodily urges, such as hunger or thirst, created a build up of energy in the nervous system. Once the energy reached a threshold, it needed to be released by satisfying the urge. If the urge went unsatisfied, there would be physical and psychological damage. Freud’s theory was criticized for focusing too much on the biological aspects of motivation and using a sample that was not representative of the population. The theory was also criticized for its inability to be tested. The book then described Hull’s drive theory. Hull suggested that motivation could be predicted. He also suggested that drive was the intensity behind the behavior, or the “energy”, and learned habit guided the behavior. Drive theory was more about an inactive individual, but modern research into motivation views the individual as always moving and doing something. Mini-theories replaced grand theories in popularity due to their ability to touch on all aspects of motivation.

I was surprised when I read that motivation has roots in every area of psychology. I was also incredibly surprised to read that in the 1970’s, motivation psychology was on its way out. It took until the 1990’s, when the University of Nebraska held a large conference for the big names in motivational research, for motivation to come back into its own field.

Terms: Grand Theories, Motivation, Will, Instinct, Drive, Drive Theory, Mini-theories

I first enjoyed reading about as the two main questions about what causes behavior and why does behavior vary in intensity. This was interesting to read about because there are so many times a day I have that exact thought, why did she do that, why did I do that? I also really enjoyed the section about how motives vary over time and influence the ongoing stream of behavior. Motivation is a constantly changing process. What once motivated us to do a particular thing may change or increase/decrease over an amount of time. Chapter 2’s most interesting part was reading about the grand theories, the most interesting to me was drive, probably because it made the most sense to me.
If I had to explain to someone what motivation is all about I would tell them that it is the understanding of what causes behavior. In order to understand this is to break it down by what starts the behavior, what makes it continue and what makes it stop?
The most memorable thing to me in this chapter was they types of motivations that exist. Students who learn out of an Intrinsic motivation show more creativity, positive emotion and conceptual learning than those who learn from extrinsic motivation. I knew beforehand about the different types of motivation, but I didn’t know the outcome because of the two.
Terms used: extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, grand theories, motivation, behavior and drive.

Surprisingly the Grand Theories in chapter two were most interesting to me. Usually I glide over theories and find them to be extremely uninteresting, repetitive, and sometimes confusing. However, the transitions between each grand theory caught my attention. Each theory built on the preceding idea. Descartes’s will theory was an excellent base for the study of motivation. Of course flaws arose and it was understood that the theory needed more substance. The problem of identifying and explaining the motivator and the motivation contributed to the end of the theory. Next, William James and William McDougall did their part to introduce biology and science into the motivation theory. With help from Charles Darwin’s scientific findings, instinct became the new phenomenon. Instinct could be explained biologically as something that was inherited through genes to make an animal act a certain way. This too had imperfections. Questions arose on how many instincts humans had and whether they truly existed. To replace the theory of instinct, the notion of drive was adopted. Like instinct, drive had a biological basis. The main idea behind drive was that behaviors were performed to control bodily needs. The drive theory eventually dies out and mini-theories are introduced.
Motivation is driven by mental, biological, environmental and other factors. Motivation is the source of our behaviors. We are driven to do things that are uninteresting, unappealing, and sometimes even painful for the outcome we expect to get in the end. Motivation leads us to act in certain ways, do certain things, and sometimes to not do something. We constantly have numerous motives that need attention at one time. Depending on the situation, some motives will have greater strength than others. Those with greater strength will be acted upon first. Every individual has different amounts and types of motivation.
The most memorable sections in the reading dealt with education. I’m a Communication Sciences and Disorders major, very relatable to education. I was intrigued by what I saw on page 17 in the text, “Students who learn out of an intrinsic motivation show more creativity, positive emotion and conceptual learning than do students who learn out of an extrinsic motivation.” I’ve observed some clinical settings with a speech-language pathologist where motivation is a key ingredient to a successful session. I’m excited to learn more about different types of motivation in hopes to better stimulate and encourage future clients in the field of speech-language pathology.
Terms: Grand Theories, will, instinct, drive, mini-theories, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation

Ch. 1&2 Blog
At first glance at the book I thought to myself “man this is a lot of reading” and had no idea on what to expect. After reading the two chapters I found myself more interested in the first chapter rather them than the second. One reason is probably that I don’t care too much for history. What caught my eye was the breakdown of motivation; the study of motivation concerns those processes that give behavior its energy and direction. That energy and direction comes from internal motives and external events.
Now I’m not saying all this is news to me I just found it more interesting in the fact that it breaks it down by asking question after question such as: why does behavior start, why does behavior change it direction, and why does behavior stop? All of which break motivation down, along with other factor that co-inside with motivation, to a somewhat basic understanding. This in turn making it easier to say that motivation is the thing that keeps us alive and kicking, the thing that wakes you up every morning.
I’d have to say the most surprising thing I learned would have to be from chapter two. Even though motivation went from being a “grand theory” to mini-theories, I found it interesting that will, instinct and even drive all got replaced even with Freud’s and Hull’s drive theory.

The topic that I found most interesting in the first couple of chapters was how the study of motivation has been a bumpy road and changed so much over the years. The study of motivation started with the grand theories of will, instinct, and drive and developed into mini-theories or specializations. Just like in any other field of psychology, there is too much information in the study of motivation to bunch it together and expect any progress.
I found Hull’s drive theory to be very interesting. In his theory, that was physiology based, he said that drive arose from bodily disturbances such as hunger, thirst, pain, sex, and air deprivation. Once these disturbances arose, drive energized behavior. Basically what he said is that if you have to pee, your body controls the urges and guides you to a certain behavior (go to bathroom).
Another topic that I found interesting was about how motives and external events give behavior its direction. Motives are internal processes that energize and direct our behavior in the form of needs, cognitions, and emotions. We’ve all heard these three terms before but I never really thought about how they all worked together to control our behavior. Needs are conditions within the individual that are essential for maintenance of life and include: hunger and thirst. Competence and belongingness are also included in this category because they are psychological needs. Needs direct our behavior because they generate wants, desires, and strivings for certain things. Cognitions refer to our thoughts, beliefs, and our expectations. Cognitions guide our behavior in an obvious way because its what we are thinking about and what we are working to accomplish. Emotions are the most confusing of the three to me because emotions are a very confusing thing to understand. Emotions are short-lived phenomena that direct how we react at that time to certain events. Examples of emotions include: joy and anger. Emotions contribute to our behavior because they control how we feel, our physiological preparedness, function, and expression.
If I were to describe to someone what motivation is the only thing that I could say is that it is very complicated and encompasses many ideas that have been changed or added for years.

Well I hate to jump on the bandwagon here but I will…chapter 1 laid out the basic foundation for the coursework and it was boring. What’s new though…that’s always what ends up happening. Regardless it was somewhat useful information that I’m sure will come in handy later on in the class. One of the most beneficial aspects of the chapter was to ask me to define motivation myself. I defined it as a driving force, either internal or external, that causes us to act in a particular way. The text then said that whatever my definition was it was sure to change as I went through the text and came to better understand the material. Having them lay out in table 1.1 several different “sources of motivation” like “flow” and “possible self” (both terms I have never heard of before) was very insightful to see what we will be working toward understanding.
In chapter 2, however, just like everybody else it picked up and got much more interesting. The theory that I best enjoyed exploring was that of the grand theories which has 3 parts including will, instinct and drive. Although in the end they all fell short in the end they all had their high points and valuable contributions. Will implied that humans make their own decisions and thus can be very unpredictable. However, this doesn’t align with behavioral patterns that psychologists often find. Instinct, arose to popularity with Darwin for obvious reasons, and attempted to break the long held distinction between humans and animals to show that all behaviors are largely driven by external stimuli. Well that about starts out with what I have learned in the first little bit in this book. Looking forward to continuing to learn about motivation theories and the like.

As many of the comments before me stated, chapter one was boring and dry. However, what interested me the most was in the first chapter. I knew that being a motivation course, we would talk about the different theories in motivation. However, I still had never thought of motivation as something you could break down into different pieces. It may sound silly but I’m really interested in seeing what falls under external motives, internal motives, and also needs, cognitions, and emotions. Seeing how motivation can be broken down brings a whole new light to the subject for me. I’m most interested in learning about goal-setting theory and achievement motivation theory.

To explain motivation to someone with no idea but the basics about it, I would break it down nice and simple. It is what causes all of our behavior. Not just why we do certain things, but why we do everything. Even though you didn’t notice it, something motivated you to want to talk to me. It is essentially the "why" behind everything.

Two things surprised me about the reading. I may sound like a middle school student when I say this, but I’ve honestly never heard of grand theories or mini-theories. I’ve just always learned about different theories. However, after reading chapter two, it is extremely logical that there is a break down. It did not surprise me, however, that the different mini-theories were able to say more about the study of motivation than grand theories. It is basically impossible to fit an entire broad subject like motivation into just one theory when there are so many different facets of it. The other aspect that surprised me was that drive and motivation are not quite the same thing. I have always used the two interchangeably and never though of them as separate concepts. However, it makes sense that drive theory was initially a theory on motivation.

Terms Used: Motivation, External Motives, Internal Motives, Goal-Setting Theory, Achievement Motivation Theory, Grand Theories, Mini-Theories, Drive Theory

I was excited to start reading this book. I wanted to know why we do what we do, also. I wanted to know what motivates us and why. Starting off in the first chapter I thought it was awfully boring. It kept asking the same questions and I was getting annoyed. It really talks about the different things that motivates different people. To me it was common sense, though. I thought to myself "duh" rewards motivate people and "duh" praise motivates people. But the paragraphs about the different intensity's definitely caught my interest. Our society is very into being healthier so to me I always wanted to know why some people have more intensity to stay in shape and motivate themselves to workout. I find it crazy how one day we can be really motivated to eat healthy and workout but the next day have no motivation. I am very interested to read this book and find out more. I am getting to the point where I feel like we will never answer the question, "WHY".
To me, chapter two was more interesting. I learned a lot that I didn't know. I liked how it gave a history of how motivation became a concept in psychology. Also, how motivation has changed over the years and became what it is today. I think that's important when taking a course called motivation and emotion. As I was reading through chapter 2, I really agreed with the three grand theories of will, instinct, drive. Even today I believe they have a huge impact on everyone's motivation. It's neat to see how much the theories have changed throughout the years and to see how far this particulate subject has come.

Motivation and emotion are terms that are often overlooked by many. There is ususlly no need to ask yourself what they really mean, but asking ourselves what they mean is the first step to understanding the effect they have on everyone. As the book said, self esteem is an effect not a causal variable. Self esteem reflects the way our lives are going and it is one of the aspects of motivation. When I thought of what motivation means, my answer was, motivation is a drive that helps individuals complete their desired goals. After reading through the text, I was thrilled to see Freud and Hull's drive theory. I was on the right path but there is so much more to the theories of motivation and emotion than anyone would expect. The grand theories are all interrelated and I don't think one has more effect than another, but they all work together.

What I was interested in was the questions that were asked throughout the chapters, because they really make the reader want to interact and stay involved in the material that is being read. For example, the first chapter asked, "Do you understand why people might be more willing to exercise under some conditions yet less willing under other conditions? Im my experience, I am more willing and motivated to workout when I know my fiance is coming home. He is in Afghanistan right now, so while he is gone I feel no need to exercise because I have no one to impress. However, when his arrival gets closer I start working out excessively. This question alone made me think deeper into the question. Why do I need to workout to impress my fiance? Shouldn't I want to workout for myself too? Because in the end, it is only benefiting you.

If I were to explain what motivation is to someone, I would tell them it is a way of thinking. Optimism is crucial to keeping up your self esteem and striving for more things in life. I don't think we should ever be conent with life, there is always more to explore.

Considering how long psychology has been researched, I was surprised to find out that the first Motivation textbook wasn't written until 1964. When I think about the past, there seemed to be so many accurate theories. It really surprises me that it took so long for soemone to research a concept that is so innate to everyone.

Terms: Motivation, Emotion, Drive, Grand Theories, Self esteem, Freud and Hull's drive theory, optimism

Chapter 1 & 2 Blog

Motivation is the study of processes that give behavior its energy and direction. Energy means the behavior has strength, it is relatively strong, intense, and persistent. Direction means behavior that has a purpose. It is aimed towards achieving some particular goal or outcome. Motivation and emotion influences our thoughts, feelings, and dreams and aspirations. Motivation goes through a process of antecedent conditions, motive status, a sense to want to approach or avoid, and energizing and directing behavior, engagement, physiology, and self-report.
Motivation starts with antecedent conditions. These lead to the motives. Internal motives are internal processes that energizes and directs behavior. Needs, cognitions and emotions are under this category. Needs are conditions within an individual to survive. Examples would be biological need for food and water, which are shown through hunger and thirst, and psychological need of competence and belonging, which are shown through environmental mastery and warm interpersonal relationships. Cognitions are one's mental events, like thoughts, beliefs, expectations, and self-concept. Examples could be one's beliefs in their abilities in a sport or in a school subject, expecting themselves to succeed or fail, or who they strive to be. Emotions are short-lived subjective-physiological-functional-expressive happenings that show how we react to a stimulus. With feelings, physiological preparedness, function, and expression, these allow us to create a pattern of emotions to anticipate, react, and cope to important events. External events are things in the environment, social, and cultural life that are motivational. Environmental examples are: receiving money for doing chores, temperatures, or getting a trophy.
The motive status of needs, coginitions, emotions, and external events give way to a sense if a person "wants to" or to approach or avoid motivation. This is exemplified in energizing and directing motivation with behavior, engagement, physiology, and self-report. Motivated behaviors includes: attention, effort, latency, persistence, choice, probability of response, facial expressions, and bodily gestures. Engagement involves behavior, emotional, cognitive, and involvement in the activity. Physiology contains the activity from the central nervous system and the hormonal system and shows the biological side. Self-report tells one self's motivation through questionnaires or interviews.
The thing that surprised me the most was that the study of motivation and emotion was fairly new. The field of motivation has only been around for less that 100 years. One of the main questions psychologists ask is "what is the reason behind one's actions?" I felt something important as "why we do things" would be a topic that was looked into seriously a long time ago.
In the reading, I found the "grand theory" the most interesting. It is the all-encompassing theory that tries to explain all motivated actions. Why we basically do anything. "The will motivates all action" is a grand theory of motivation, along with instinct and drive. In the past, will was thought as choosing whether to act or not, striving, to make impulses to act, and resisting, or self-denial or delayed gratification. Contemporary psychologists recognizes that the mind, or will, thinks, plans, and forms intentions before actions. To keep up their effort, people set goals. I found it funny that the solution to choosing whether to act or not, striving, to make impulses to act, resisting, and keeping up their effort, was as simple as setting a goal.
TERMS: motivation, antecedent conditions, internal motives, needs, cognitions, emotions, external events, motivated behaviors, engagement, physiology, self-report, "grand theory", will

One thing that initially stood out to me in these chapters is now many different fields of psychology are at work in motivation studies. Obviously, there were several things I had heard in BMod, as motivation sciences look at behavior, and motivation to change or repeat a behavior is key in behavior modification. Motivation science is like biological psychology in looking at the physiological needs that elicit certain behaviors as well as the physical responses to emotions. Other than that, the first chapter was like most first chapters in textbooks and somewhat dry. I was amused by the fact that I was not very motivated to read the section in one sitting. It entertained me more when I got to the section of behavioral expressions of motivation. I read through the table and compared my own behaviors with it. I already knew my motivation was pretty low due to a long, difficult day having worn me out, but looking at specific things like my lessened attention and effort and a longer latency period between opening my book and actually starting to read. Having something to relate to the words on the page increase the persistence of my reading until I managed to get through it.

In reading the section on grand theories, the definition of a grand theory being something able to give one reason for every aspect of a particular phenomenon threw me off. My first thought was "we can DO that?". The idea of will controlling everything didn't make much sense to me because there isn't a very good operational definition of will, but then Darwin shot it down with instinct. Instinct as the reason for some motivation makes sense, but again it didn't fit the definition of a good grand theory because it didn't explain everything. Drive theory, as well, didn't quite work. My trouble with grand theories is the need to find an exception, because I feel like there always will be one. I don't think it's possible to create a grand theory for motivation, but it is possible to have enough mini-theories for there to be an explanation for any motivational situation that arises. Up until this point, I didn't know there were grand or mini theories. Usually they're just presented as 'theories'. I don't think I know of any grand theories for any of the sciences, simply because there always seems to be one outlier or exception to every all-ecompassing theory.

If I were to explain motivation to somebody who has taken this class, I'm probably just tell them simply that motivation is the 'why' behind everything we do, even the seemingly unconscious things, and it is studied to explain and predict behavior. I'll have a much better explanation of motivation after the semester is over.

Terms: motivation, needs, grand and mini theories, physiological/physical responses, behavioral expression of motivation, attention, effort, persistence, latency, drive theory, will, instinct

Chapters 1 & 2 Blog:

In my readings i found that chapter one was slow to start but very informative overall. One thing that interested me were the internal motives. A motive is an internal process that energizes and directs behavior. It is a general term to identify the common ground shared by needs, cognitions, and emotions. These are also seen as three specific types of motives. Needs are conditions within the individual that are essential and necessary for the maintenance of life and for the nurturance of growth and well-being. Cognitions refer to mental events, such as thoughts, beliefs, expectations, and the self-concept. Emotions are short-lived subjective-physiological-functional-expressive phenomena that orchestrate how we react adaptively to the important events in our lives.
The study of motivation concerns those processes that give behavior its energy and direction. Motivation is what drives us to do something and also drives us to complete the started event or task at hand. Motivation relies on external events and internal motives, in which needs, cognitions, and emotions are seen as three specific types of motives.
Something i found both surprising and memorable is that eight aspects of behavior express the presence, intensity, and quality of motivation. Those eight aspects are attention, effort, latency, persistence, choice, probability of response, facial expressions, and bodily gestures. These aspects of behavior provide the observer with data to infer the presence and intensity of another person's motivation. This surprised me because i had no idea that there were this many aspects of behavior, but not that i see them written out i can understand how they all work together when expressing motivation.

Terms: Internal Motives, Needs, Cognitions, Emotions, Motivation, Behavior.

From your reading, which topic(s) are most interesting to you?

I thought that it was interesting that Reeve compared Freud's structural model of the psyche (id, ego, superego) to Plato's (appetitive, competitive, calculating), because there does seem to be a certain face-validity in such a comparison. He didn't really discuss either of these views, however (merely referring to them as waypoints in the historical understanding of motivation), which was rather a change from the repetitive and redundant explanations he gave for every other point made in these two chapters.

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?

From the reading, I would explain that "the study of Motivation concerns those processes that give behavior its energy and direction" (Reeve, 8). These processes may be internal motives (i.e., needs, cognitions, emotions) or external stimuli or events (e.g., money, being praised). The study and understanding of motivation has taken many directions over the years: as mentioned above, Plato and Freud were among those who put forth grand theories attempting to explain all motivation as stemming from a single aspect; whereas today, motivation is considered to be multifaceted and is examined across disciplines through multiple 'mini-theories'. Motivation was formerly explained more in terms of biology (e.g., biological needs, instincts, drives), but is now seen to be complex and multidimensional.

What was the most surprising or memorable thing you learned about in this reading?

I always think it is surprising when an author attempts to introduce a topic by presenting historical antecedents first, so that the outdated information is what sticks most firmly in the reader's mind. Not that I don't think that historical context is useful in understanding the evolution of such concepts; I just think it is better to establish those concepts clearly and firmly in the reader's mind before presenting a lot of historical info and then saying, "but forget all that, because the Truth is..."

Due to a delay in the arrival of my textbook, I am just not submitting my response over chapters 1 and 2. I found the information with in the first chapters to be interesting, but realizing that it is just touching on the framework of the study of motivation. Reeve points out that individuals can be motivated by different things as well as differing in the intensity in which they are motivated. I found the reasoning for why one may exercise as an example to be educational. There are so many aspects that drive people to become motivated. The two previously stated questions point to exactly what one looks at when determining motivation.
I also found it interesting in chapter one the idea about how motivation is a dynamic process. One’s motivation is based off of motives. If one motive is stronger than the other; the individual will tend to go with the stronger of the two. Such as right now, as I am typing this, I am thirsty. Even though I may be thirsty, I feel as though getting this summary written (considering it is being sent in late) is more important that running downstairs to get water. Our actions are constantly being controlled by internal motives and external events. The internal motives are subdivided into needs, cognitions, and emotions. The needs aspect focuses on biological requirements, whereas cognitions refer to mental processes about the person’s thoughts, beliefs, and what they are expecting to arise. The final subtopic, emotion, is referred to as how individuals react in the environment. The other main factor in determining motivation is external events. These can be viewed as things in the environment such as the context or stimuli that directs a certain behavior to occur.
The second chapter focused on the history of motivation and its study. Philosophers and psychologists alike have focused for many years on what motivates a human. In the early study of motivation, the grand theories were formed. These theories were comprised of will, instinct, and drive. These theories now are not supported completely. They are all important in the study of motivation, but we do not believe that it is these three factors that control one’s motivation completely. Will was explained as the combination between striving and resisting. In the end it was not supported due to lack of knowledge about the brain. Charles Darwin brought the second grand theory, instinct, to the surface. Instinct was thought to be the inherent way that a human would react due to biological/genetic explanations. Instinct, as well as drive, were cancelled out because they did not include all human behavior, just a select groupings of behavior. Drive was described as what the body needs to return back to homeostasis. Many individuals had supported drive with theories of their own, such as, Freud and Hull. After the grand theories, there were many mini-theories that arose. These theories, described by Reeve, tried to understand: motivational phenomenon, certain circumstances that affect motivation, groups of people, and theoretical questions.

Terms: Motivation, motives, needs, cognitions, emotions, internal motives, external events, grand theories, will, instinct, drive, mini-theories

Chapter one was very interesting to me. I am very intrigued by a few topics. One, how we need to breakdownan action to understand the motivation behind it. I observed a friend drinking a pop and asked myself some of the questions. How intensly was she drinking it? What gestures were made? She just grabbed the bottle and dranks slowly while interacting in our conversation. From this, I gathered that she was not physiologically thirsty, so her motive was just wanted to enjoy the taste. A motive is an internal disposition to approach positive incentive and avoid negative ones. I also enjoyed how this chapter made me think about how our mind and bodies can prioritize our needs and movives. When I have a test to study for, am thirsty, and have to go to the bathroom, the most important action can change over time. While I'm studying, making this the top priority, Iget thirsty. When i take a drink, the thirst overrires the motive to study. After drinking a lot, having to go to the bathroom will increase in motive, making this higher on my motives list.
Reading about Adaptation made me think more about how motivation works. Adaptation is the need to adapt to change. Motivation helps a person understand what they want, however, they need to adapt to actually change it.

If I were to explain what motivation is to a person I would tell them the general definition is to be moved into action. I would also explain it is something to push or drive a person to act on something.

The most memorable topic I read about was the Approach and Avoidance Tendancies. This really opened up my mind about achieving goals. Motivation includes good and bad parts. People usually get bad outcomes when trying to stay motivated to reach a goal, such as hunger, pain, and stress. For a person to achieve their goals, they basically need to look forward to, want, and work with the bad parts to get to the good parts. The negative needs to motivate as much as the positive. A great example would fall under weight loss. If a person has pain from the work outs and is hungry from dieting, they tend to fail at the goal. This is because it is very discouraging to have the negativity. The negative impact makes people want to just give up and quit. If they were to strive for the pain and hunger,or work with it, the goal would become easier to achieve.

Terms used: motive,motivation,adaptation,

I found the reading a little hard to get into. However, I soon got into it because I am constantly wondering why people do what they do and why different people do different things. I also wonder how and why different circumstances change their behavior. Motivation interests me because it is constantly changing and it is mysterious in a way. You cannot know for sure what motivates someone to perform a certain action, but you can make educated guesses. I am intrigued because the process is so complex. An action could only occur momentarily and you could miss details that would help you determine the motivation for that action. You have to observe the situation and the individual in order to make an educated guess.
I was interested in the motivational reasons to exercise because my major is movement and exercise science. Exercise can be a big endeavor and many people struggle to find the motivation to work out. I was surprised to see that there were so many sources of motivation. I have talked about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, goals, and values being sources of motivation to exercise in a few classes, but I had not thought that there was much more to it. The list of sources of motivation made me realize that motivation is a very complex thing and many factors contribute. Motivation is occurring all the time, all around us. No matter what behavior you are engaging in, there is a motive behind it. I learned that there are three categories of internal motives: needs, cognitions, and emotions. I had never really thought of pain avoidance as a motivator to take aspirin. I realized that I took aspirin to get rid of my headache, but I had never really thought of that as a motivated action. It was just an automatic behavior.
I was not particularly interested in reading about the history of motivation. I am more interested in the application of motivation, but I understand the need to lay out the history. The grand theories of Freud’s Drive Theory, Hull’s Drive Theory, will, instinct, and drive were incomplete because they did not explain the whole spectrum of behavior. I think the mini-theories would do a better job because they are more specialized.
I would describe motivation as what influences the behaviors that we engage in. Motivation constantly changes depending on our needs and desires. Differing levels of needs and desires compete for our attention. The one that has the highest level of urgency wins, and we engage in that behavior. For example, if I was starving, I would seek out food. My stomach growling would be the (environmental) event. My motive would be hunger. As a result, I would find food to eat.
The most memorable thing I learned from these chapters is that motivation affects everything we do and that our motivations are constantly changing from minute to minute. Previously, I thought of motivation as more of a lasting thing: Either you are motivated to do something or you are not. I had not really thought of why you might be motivated to do something one day and not motivated at all the next.
Terms: motivation, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, goals, values, needs, cognitions, emotions, grand theories, will, instinct, drive, mini-theories