Motivation and emotion/Nuggets of truth/Previous years

2020[edit | edit source]

Motivation[edit | edit source]

What makes for a good day - to meet needs in Self determination theory
Psychological needs (autonomy/competence/relatedness) and seeing how they look in the workplace
Intrinsic motivation leads to better performance and persistence
Being able to understand what motivates me and relate to content personally
I didn’t realise how often I don’t satisfy my psychological needs in a day (feeling incompetent with uni, not having a choice over what I do because of either work or uni, having to isolate myself to get work done)
You should be trying to incorporate satisfaction of your psychological needs into everyday life, e.g. giving yourself a choice, partaking in something you will be able to feel competent in, and connecting with others.
How motivation influences everything we do, and how we can optimize it
Explanatory styles: much of motivation is not so much about reality, than perceptions. Negative perceptions undermine performance and happiness.
Being controlling when someone is being disruptive is detrimental to their motivation and can actually make them more defiant!!
Expression of motivation
Optimism can be learned, and having a belief in perceived control can help with a growth mindset
Cognitive evaluation theory - explains how all events have two functions (controlling behaviour and informing competence)
The relationship between attitudes and motivation
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - suggesting that humans can be organised in a hierarchy (physiological and then psychological)
The large part that motivation plays into our cognitions and it’s level of importance.
Formalising intrinsic and extrinsic thought (SDT)
Extrinsic and intrinsic motivators. How to use extrinsic effectively and the importance of intrinsic in motivation.
We have autonomy, competence, relatedness needs
Partnership between goals, needs and well-being.
Learning about mastery vs. performance goals made me reassess my approach to uni -- previously used to approach it as “I can get better grades than my siblings to show everyone I’m the better child”, but have now approached it in a way that is more focused on what I’m actually trying to achieve.
That Ted talk about the people with amnesia who still preferred their painting was wild
Power needs, affiliation/relatedness needs, achievement needs
Choice is vital to motivation; students who are allowed agency to choose assignment topics tend to feel more motivated.
Working towards having mastery goals (rather than performance goals) and a growth mindset (rather than a fixed one) is an incredibly worthwhile pursuit - both for one’s well-being and success.
It’s important that your goals are both challenging and within your abilities.
A lot of motivation is unconscious.
Performance can be enhanced by being selective about goals rather than having too many goals.
Goals aligned with personal values are congruent and easier to pursue than incongruent goals which are not aligned with personal values.
Learning how to activate flow states and experience them more often will benefit both your mental health and the quality of your work.

Emotion[edit | edit source]

"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions." Dalai Lama XIV. Linking with Reeve chapter 17: motivation and emotion are flexible to apply, but require long-term application.
Take-home from my book chapter: being congruent. Considering our life as a whole: our working/studying life and home-life being complementary or leading to conflict. Reflecting on Ryff's 1995, 6 facets of well-being: self-acceptance, interpersonal relations, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life and personal growth and how they all link together. The outcomes of being incongruent may lead to psychological distress and how often do we not realise this link?
All emotions are good and have a meaning/reason for why we feel them
Incorporating compassion into your everyday life can impact you in the best possible ways. Feelings of guilt, shame and other negative emotions diminish.
Increasing your emotional vocabulary helps you understand how you’re feeling.
All our emotions have evolved to help us
That we should experience emotions, but work towards managing them effectively.
The four components of emotion and how they work together to influence our emotions. And that we can make changes by intercepting at these points.
Core emotions, self conscious emotions , and the cognitively complex ones
The most significant thing for me when it came to emotion was that for once the psychodynamic perspective actually sounded reasonable.
We underestimate well-being and the effects on/in our life.
All emotions serve a purpose - negative emotions are just as valuable as positive ones.
Part of emotional literacy is learning to become friends with all of our emotions - they have a place in our lives.
One of the strategies for enhancing happiness is to learn how to broaden-and-build on the experience of positive emotions.
A lot of our emotional lives are triggered by encounters with other people.
One of the most challenging emotions to learn is compersion (rather than jealousy) - feeling good about someone else’s pleasure.

Other[edit | edit source]

Delving into motivation and emotion has given me more to reflect on. Tutorials and lectures were very interesting and useful in general. SDT - intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, James said this theory was the most applicable and I now see why!
TED talks and similar have been great. They have provided further insights into a very interesting and thought-provoking unit. I have forwarded them on to others (not involved in psychology). Thank you James.

2019[edit | edit source]

Approach behaviour is stronger than avoidance behaviour.
"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose that response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." (Viktor E. Frankl)
Exercise regularly - it has many health benefits including enhancing mood.
Focus on intrinsic motivation more and extrinsic less.
In the face of challenges, keep going.
Intrinsic motivation stronger than extrinsic motivation.
In workplaces and education: encourage autonomy, competence, relatedness.
Motivation can be both conscious and unconscious. We aren't always aware of our motivations.
People who feel they have no control, or little control, over their environment don't fare well!
Positive moods enhance creativity on short tasks, negative emotions enhance creativity on tasks of longer duration.
Thrive on your success.
When you achieve something really acknowledge it! Self-efficacy.

2018[edit | edit source]

By identifying how we respond to unexpected changes we may influence our emotional reactions and better adapt to our environment.
Designing and writing a book chapter on a topic you're interested in was a valuable experience that I enjoyed and I'm proud of.
Emotions vs. mood.
Even when people are in bad/unpleasant situations, being able to change the situation so they can become more happy isn't as simple as it seems.
Goal-setting and goal-striving: gave me some tips for my own life
How to make stress your friend language=en - Really enjoyed this ted talk from earlier on in the semester
I want a carrot for this comment James
Ideologies - how these can motivate people through humanistic psychology and how people are "evil".
Impacts of goal sharing (findings from book chapter).
Intrinsic motivation is a more effective form of studying. Focusing on things you're interested in increases productivity.
Mindfulness has a significant effect in psychological therapy (from book chapter).
Motivation is private and can usually only come from yourself.
Self-awareness about link between job choice (interests) and personality and need satisfaction (book chapter).
The surprising science of happiness (TED talk in Tutorial 6).
The work done in the book chapter - will take its knowledge into my profession.
Time perspective has a significant influence on the human experience.