Questions tagged [motivation]
For questions relating to mechanisms that modulates behavior, either as an initiator, limiting influence, or sustainer.
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What is the difference between a need, a drive, and a motive?
Going by Hull's drive-reduction theory, as stated in Psychology, by Ciccarelli, 4th edition:
A need is a requirement of some material (such as food or water) that is essential for survival of the ...
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Are societies capable of sacrificing time and energy exclusively for the benefit of future generations?
I was thinking on how environment conservation efforts might be enhanced or enforced and I was reflecting that people have to develop a colective conscience that would allow them to spend extra time ...
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Is there a name for the idea that completing a simple task increases the likelihood of completing further tasks?
In a graduation speech to the University of Texas, Naval Adm. William H. McRaven made the following statement:
"If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day....
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What hormones stimulate non-sexual intimate behaviour?
From wikipedia article sexual motivation and hormones, it is said that testosterone/estrogen, oxytocin and vasopressin are stimulating sexual behaviour. But I'm wondering if any of these hormones are ...
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is saving money intrinsic or extrinsically motivated? [closed]
the 16 basic desires theory states that saving/collecting is intrinsically motivated. (Steven Reiss)
but monetary incentives usually fall under extrinsic motivation.
if you spend less you have more ...
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Does self-handicapping lead to lower future effort?
I'm reading Deppe and Harackiewicz's (1996) article on self-handicapping and intrinsic motivation, which suggested that people who engaged in self-handicapping behaviors showed more interest in a task ...
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Is staying with an abusive partner actually indicative of Stockholm syndrome? [duplicate]
For the longest time, I've wondered why it is that people who are physically or mentally abused by their partners stay in these relationships. Further, it seems, admittedly from personal experience, ...
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What is (or is there) a clear distinction between cognitive and motivational explanations for a hypothesis?
For example, I see there is even a cognitive theory of motivation. I closest I can find is that cognitive explanations are more about the thought process of an individual which led to certain ...
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Benefits of Preserving Dopamine
I recently came across a short piece on Twitter advocating for the preservation of dopamine release. The writer stated that a list of things should be avoided to preserve dopamine.
Preserve your ...
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Why our brain can't fool itself to constantly produce dopamine?
There are experiments [1] showing that our brain tries to maximize amount of dopamine. At the same time it is the brain who controls the dopamine level, because the reward system is located in the ...
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What causes passion, psychologically and chemically, and how does it last? [closed]
I recently finished reading "Habits of a happy brain", which discusses the role of oxytocin, serotonin, endorphin, dopamine, and cortisol in seeking behavior.
The book argues that we evolved to ...
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Is there any update on the hypothesis on primary emotions corresponding on "love"?
Fisher (2000) hypothesized that sex drive, attraction and attachment are the three primary emotions correspond to mating, reproduction and parenting behaviors; those are three discrete constellations ...
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Are there any tests for one's belief or philosophy?
I know of the varying types of personality tests and I find them interesting (specifically HEXACO due to it having multiple facets to expand its 6 main factors and I believe it is open-source or free ...
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What is the difference between work engagement and flow?
Work engagement has three aspects: vigor, dedication, and absorption.
Flow according to wikipedia "is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a ...
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Can the V * I * E theory of motivation explain the motivation of Nelson Mandela?
Background
The V * I * E theory of motivation (Galbraith & Cummings, 1967; Vroom, 1964) posits that if either the value of a goal, its instrumentality or the expectancy to reach it is zero, then ...
user14074
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Why do some people refuse to wear their seat belt while being aware of the risks?
I have multiple friends that simply refuse to wear their seat belt whenever they ride in a car. I make them wear it when in my car, but in any other situation they choose to go without it. They are ...
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Effects of quantity and quality of breaks on learning
Are there papers which discuss the effects of quantity and quality of breaks during learning? Do state of the art papers have a common ground?
So far I have found these papers:
The Fourth R: Recess ...
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Are there any critiques on the Self-Determination Theory by Deci & Ryan?
I am currently reading about the self-determination-theory (SDT) and tried to find an article dealing with the disadvantages of this theory. However i couldn't find anything. Does anybody know some ...
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Should you completely get rid of your temptations or do them in moderate amount? [closed]
So, I am preparing for this really important exam that requires me to give maximum time to studying and lately, I have found myself addicted to this television series. Although I study during my study ...
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Grit — is it distinct from correlates of success?
There's been quite a splash in the field of psychology around the concept of grit introduced around 2007 (Wikipedia article). For example, the associated TED talk has been viewed more than 10 million ...
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Theories of Human Motivation
I have heard the true saying that without motivation, there will be no action on anything which needs to be done. I can't remember where I heard it but I have wondered about what help there can be to ...
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How does timing of pleasure / dopamine / reward influence the formation of positive association? [closed]
Suppose the following idealized experiment:
Setup:
A pill/medication which simply induces pleasure. Perhaps something like a perfect dopamine antagonist with no side-effects. Call it P
A task which ...
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Approach-Avoidance Conflicts [closed]
I remember from my university days learning about approach-avoidance conflicts. Briefly, many situations are perceived as having an upside and a downside:
If upside>downside, we are likely to be ...
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Why Does My Motivation Fluctuate So Much? [closed]
I'm motivated to do a lot of stuff when I get up from the PC to go to the toilet.
But once I sit back down at the PC, all the motivation evaporates.
Explanation and how to fix it?
How to psych ...
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What is the point of living a life if we're all going to eventually die? [closed]
So I've had this question over the past week since New Years. I am currently 21 years old and yea, time flies so fast. New years just feels like one year closer to death. Can you believe it? The ...
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How to induce procrastination in an online experiment?
I am designing an experiment to evaluate potential interventions for reducing procrastination. I am hence looking for one or more tasks to induce procrastination in an online experiment with ...
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Is there a definitive list of intrinsic motivators?
I'm trying to work out how to get my team to understand that different people in the team get different things out of work (excluding the financial drivers).
I want to explain this in terms of ...
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Does Contextual switching Boost Motivation?
Does contextual switching (or its derivatives thereof such as multitasking) increase one's motivation to further continue with the original activity?
An example: I see people at the gym who listen ...
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What specific studies are there about looking up answers for non-credit assignments? [closed]
Are there (psychology) studies you've come across that are about how students perform after looking up certain answers--not all answers--for homework that is not graded? (I do not mean students who ...
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Reading and understanding difficult material [closed]
I am not an university graduate but I have a passion for learning. I want to learn computer science and I keep on searching some good reference material. Recently I found some lecture notes on TOC of ...
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Does suppressing a desire make it more powerful?
Based on my minimal knowledge of old Freudian Psychoanalysis, if our drives and urges are not met they become more powerful, even overwhelming, for the individual, perhaps causing them psychological ...
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Correlation between sex and achievement [duplicate]
I heard an anecdotal opinion that according to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis, people who don't fulfill themselves sexually tend to be more diligent. I would like to know; was any research conducted ...
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What theory explains where motivation to do something depends on perception of others' input?
I'm trying to read up on the phenomena where one person's desire/motivation to do a certain task or obligation within a system of process is influenced by whether he thinks others in that process are ...
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Effects of Game-based Learning on Motivation for Learning
I have already asked this question here, but I did not receive my answer. I found this site a more appropriate place to ask it.
I found many studies discovering the impacts of game-based learning on ...
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Social loafing vs. Free riding
In different papers I see these terms with very close definitions. Are they different things? If yes, how one can differentiate them?
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Do dissatisfaction with a job and relationships share the same mental mechanism?
The modern world has two new ways of finding abundance of employment and relationships:
Job boards, career sites and recruiters for finding jobs
Online dating sites for finding dates
While seemingly ...
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How does one internalize the delayed reward of exercise?
For the past few years my target has been to work out every morning (resistance training). On average I have only made it to the gym around 2 out of every 5 mornings. On days on which I do make it, I ...
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Environmental cleanliness: what is cognitively fresh?
The concept of freshness has developed over the last century to involve a range of sensations and responses to tastes, smells and feelings associated with foods, the environment and cleaning products. ...
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Disprove that Humans are selfish
Psychological egoism, can anyone provide an everyday action which a healthy human mind would carry out which doesn't have the motive of preservation of the individuals own life at heart?
For example, ...
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Do "overview" sections increase learning outcome?
Suppose a math textbook contains an overview chapter for each part of the textbook. The intent of those overview chapters is to motivate and introduce the new mathematical concepts which will be ...
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Which theories explain that given a choice of hard and easy tasks one would pick the easy one?
Which theories deal with cost benefit analysis? For example, given a binary choice of hard and easy tasks (eg. Picking low hanging fruit, stealing what is not bolted down, cheating on a test, taking a ...
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How do I make myself think before I act? [closed]
How do I suppress strong emotions in favour of doing the right thing?
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Provable ROI for call center rest periods?
Think you can help make life better for a nation of call center workers?
At a large insurance company, I used to work in the call center for both Auto Claims and then Homeowner Claims, before I was ...
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Are people with high willpower more likely to succeed at keeping a diet then people with lower willpower?
I remember reading that the amount of measured willpower is uncorrelated with dieting success.
On the other hand there are various popular article that suggest that there a link.
What does the ...
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TOTE: Desired vs perceived state = Fight or flight
A key concept in 1960s control theory is TOTE (Test-Operate-Test-Exit)1:
The concept seems to be neatly mapped to a modern cognitive concept:
The brain constantly compares perceived state to the ...
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Why is it that some (yet not all) people may struggle to retain information unrelated to what they are interested in?
It seems to me that some people find it difficult to retain information that is not naturally salient to them. This isn't the case for all people, however. There exist people that will put in the ...
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Does limiting one's trivial decisions free more energy for bigger decisions?
I've read a number of times that "successful" people limit the number of trivial decisions they make on a day-to-day basis in order to have more energy for bigger decisions. A common example cited (e....
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Is there any objective proof of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs [duplicate]
Abraham Maslow posited a whole lot of things in the theory that is called Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Among the things that he posited was the progression from more "basic needs" like physiological ...
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Is there a term for behaving to the opposite extreme of a way one has been forced to behave?
I believe I'm having so much trouble figuring this out because I'm not sure what question to ask. As a few examples,
A child of an extremely religious family engaging heavily in behaviors considered ...
user9658
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Are Free Will and Motivation related?
I'm aware of numerous experiments, like Stanford prison experiment, Milgram experiment which indicate that humans can act in ways opposite to their best intentions.
For the purposes of this question,...
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