Final post

This class helped fill me in on many different aspects of motivation. There were many interesting points in the text and slides that I did enjoy learning. I will start off by saying to be motivated is to be moved into action or thought by an incentive, or a motive. But these are not the only factors that come into play there are also emotions. Motivation as a whole is a product of biological, psychological, and environmental variables.

One of the things I was most interested in learning had to do with the environment affecting an individual physiologically. This theory I am talking about is the opponent process theory. This theory goes into detail about how a body responds to the environment that is associated with the use of drugs, and has this response which actually protects the internal processes of the individual. I originally had no idea that the environment could have this effect on people. The theory of homeostasis is also very interesting and has a similar concept of keeping the body at a healthy level (without the interaction of drugs), alerting the individual of certain needs as well as keeping levels of energy coming in and energy going out even.

Another thing I really enjoyed doing in this class (although last minute) was reading the articles assigned. The hierarchy of needs also really stood out to me. It is a very interesting concept and I believe of great relevance. It makes perfect sense that the most basic needs have to do with survival, but as one completes these needs they are motivated to continue up latter. I found it very interesting that the failure to meet needs would keep an individual from moving up this hierarchy.

The luck factor was also a very interesting article. It defined the need for an open mind, and a positive attitude to be more likely to have better luck. I read this book called the Celestine prophecy that I believe related to these principles to a certain extent. In this book one of the insights involves becoming aware of coincidental occurrences, and that nothing is actually a “coincidence”. Similar to the ideas being spoken about the luck factor these insights represented a freedom, and pushed individuals to embrace coincidental and lucky occurrences.

In my other class aging and mental health, my professor continuously told us throughout the semester that behavior is a product of the person and the environment. This relates to motivation, the behavior can be seen as the motivation, the person involves both psychological and physiological processes, and environment is the setting individuals reside in. Through this class I have learned that physiological processes are triggered due to environmental stimuli, and even further that there is a reciprocal relationship between the three in the same way. Overall it was very interesting learning about motivation and all the different aspects involved.