Understanding Of Human Motivation Research Articles

Interplay of motivation and self-regulation throughout the development of elite athletes

ABSTRACT Recent development in the understanding of human motivation has highlighted the crucial and reciprocal role of motivation on cognitive processes. In elite sport settings, athletes are subject to external forces that do not necessarily correspond with their inherent drives. However, they seem to develop cognitive competencies to cope with external forces, when planning, monitoring, and reflecting on their high-level achievements. The current study aims to explore likely interactions between motivation and cognitive processes as athletes develop from novice to elite levels. Five female Olympic and World Championship medallists were interviewed. A thematic analysis revealed how motivation and self-regulation competencies interchangeably influenced athletes’ career trajectories asynchronously. Chronologically, four themes emerged: 1) Motivational shifts evoked planning and self-control competencies, 2) The external control constrained athletes’ self-regulation, 3) Self-control and reflection in extrinsically driven athletes, and 4) Elite athletes’ multidimensional motivation and self-regulation profile. Initially, intrinsic motivation prompted athletes’ participation, but the competitive nature of sport activities led to a shift toward more external forms of motivation. This motivational shift was accompanied by changes in self-regulation competencies, particularly planning and self-control, rather than self-reflection. Over time, athletes’ increased sport-specific self-confidence contributed to further refinement of self-regulation competencies and integrated motivational regulations. Rather than exploring motivation and cognitive competencies individually, current study findings highlight dynamic interactions between these concepts that influences athletes’ ongoing development to elite level performances.

A Sense of Obligation: Cultural Differences in the Experience of Obligation.

In this investigation of cultural differences in the experience of obligation, we distinguish between Confucian Role Ethics versus Relative Autonomy lay theories of motivation and illustrate them with data showing relevant cultural differences in both social judgments and intrapersonal experience. First, when judging others, Western European heritage culture (WEHC) participants (relative to Confucian heritage culture [CHC] participants) judged obligation-motivated actors more negatively than those motivated by agency (Study 1, N = 529). Second, in daily diary and situation sampling studies, CHC participants (relative to WEHC participants) perceived more congruency between their own agentic and obligated motivations, and more positive emotional associations with obligated motivations (Study 2, N = 200 and Study 3, N = 244). Agentic motivation, however, was universally associated with positive emotions. More research on a Role Ethics rather than Relative Autonomy conception of agency may improve our understanding of human motivation, especially across cultures.

Abstract IA20: Maximizing the impact of risk prediction models: Leveraging lessons learned from risk communication research

Abstract The most promising new medications are doomed to be ineffective if not adequately prescribed and taken as directed by patients, highlighting the grave importance of understanding the vicissitudes of human behavior. The same might be said of risk prediction tools. Irrespective of their quality and validity, the successful use and impact of such tools hinges firmly on a thorough understanding of human motivation, emotion, and cognition – the building blocks of human behavior and decision-making. In general, people desire to minimize loss, uncertainty, and ambiguity, and they hold defensive self-serving beliefs about their risk and risk factors, particularly when they compare themselves to other people. People also construe risk in terms of dimensions such as dread, absolute frequency, controllability, and intuition rather than objective likelihood, and fail to consider base rates when assessing risk (rendering their risk judgments non-Bayesian). They also endeavor to appear to themselves and others as rational actors, often leading to the paradoxical choice of non-dominant options, and are influenced – often beyond awareness – by incidental emotions and secondary motives such as managing existential anxiety when evaluating personal risk and making consequential decisions. People also vary greatly in how they use and comprehend numerical information and in the comfort with which they do so. Risk communication strategies have been developed to reduce the undesired consequences of these phenomena on risk perception and decision making, and in some cases can be implemented quite easily into the outward design of a risk prediction tool as well as the manner in which it is used in clinical practice. Citation Format: William MP Klein. Maximizing the impact of risk prediction models: Leveraging lessons learned from risk communication research. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Improving Cancer Risk Prediction for Prevention and Early Detection; Nov 16-19, 2016; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2017;26(5 Suppl):Abstract nr IA20.

A career in sport and exercise medicine

From helping an athlete win an Olympic medal to encouraging a sedentary patient to begin an exercise programme, sport and exercise medicine doctors need enthusiasm, a wide range of clinical skills, and a good understanding of human motivation. A career in sport and exercise medicine involves skilled diagnoses and treatment of many musculoskeletal conditions; however, it is not just about musculoskeletal medicine. The role entails being flexible and working in a multidisciplinary team. It can include helping elite athletes achieve their best, amateur sportspeople bounce back from injury, and people with chronic illnesses such as diabetes manage their condition and improve their health through exercise medicine. You might work in primary or secondary care or in NHS clinics or within recreational, professional, or disability sport—many people juggle a portfolio career. The aim of sport and exercise medicine is to enable and encourage people to take part safely in physical activity and sport throughout life, at whatever level is right for them. During a varied four year training programme, which starts after completing specialty training year 2 (ST2), you’ll learn about musculoskeletal and exercise medicine, disease prevention, rehabilitation, psychology, and wellbeing in the workplace. #### Common cases in sport and exercise medicine 1. Safe exercise for beginners— How would you advise an obese 50 year old man who has type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and patella-femoral knee pain who wants to become more physically active? Although exercise can help patients improve general health, lose weight, and reduce cardiovascular risk, you need to balance the risks for someone unused to exercise who already has …

“I Have Been Trying to Get Them to Respond to Me”: Sexuality and Agency in Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalytic theory has seen many changes in the past 100 years. But in the process, sexuality, as the centerpiece of our understanding of human motivation and conflict, seems to have gotten lost. As they did a century ago, clinicians today deal with sexual transferences and countertransferences. And issues of gender and sexual orientation are widely discussed. Yet, across most current theoretical perspectives, nothing compels us to focus on sexuality, as such, in the way that was once absolutely essential.During the same period, psychoanalytic approaches have consistently been concerned with questions of personal agency, i.e., its disruption in development and restoration in treatment. Indeed, the aim of treatment was traditionally understood as enabling patients to repossess their experience of themselves as “agents” in relation to their own disowned motives, affects, and drives (“where id was, there shall ego be”). In contemporary interpersonal, intersubjective, and relational perspectives, the issue of agency takes on even more central significance.This article explores how these two seemingly different conceptual and developmental frameworks—sexuality as a function of mind, and agency as a derivative of relational experience—may be compatible. Here, I examine the relationship of sexuality and the experience of agency in parent–child and analyst–patient relationships, and suggest that sexuality as such may yet have a central role in contemporary psychoanalytic thinking and in our understanding of the basic nature of psychic functioning.

The Revision and Validation of the Academic Motivation Scale in China

Self-determination theory (SDT) has contributed greatly to our understanding of human motivation. Based on SDT, the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) was developed to assess students’ motivation to learn. AMS has been successfully applied to the educational context in Western cultures. However, no psychometrically validated version is available in China. The present study aimed to revise and validate AMS in China. The AMS was administered to 882 traditional high school students and 419 vocational high students. A retest was administered to 67 traditional high school students 2 months later. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) demonstrated that the seven-factor model fitted the data well in both samples. Further analysis revealed that each subscale showed satisfactory Cronbach’s alpha and test–retest reliability. The AMS also showed significant correlations with criteria such as basic psychological needs, school satisfaction, perceived autonomy in the classroom, and other motivational counterparts, demonstrating good criterion-related validity. Group comparison showed that traditional high school students were more intrinsically motivated, less extrinsically motivated, and less amotivated than vocational high school students, providing support for its discriminant validity. In conclusion, the Chinese version of AMS was psychometrically sound and could be applied in China.

Moral reasoning as a model for health promotion

The paper describes a model of moral reasoning used to guide the conduct of health researchers and recommends that this model be applied in health promotion. It argues that this model is a more appropriate and sound way of thinking about the means and ends of health education, with implications for both research and practice. When faced with ethical dilemmas about the most appropriate course of action in health research, investigators and bioethicists conduct normative analyses to identify good reasons for choosing one option over another. These reasons provide the grounds for determining what one should do, and for changing past practices in light of new moral considerations. Since the research community seems to think that this is a good way to guide and change their own behavior, this model of moral reasoning appears to have relevance and potential application to the field of health education, which engages in analogous processes of seeking to inform and change the behaviors of the lay public. The article sets this approach in the context of a humanistic understanding of human motivation and presents two case examples to illustrate the process of moral reasoning. The humanistic model outlined here helps to explain why health promotion has not made much progress in developing effective behavior change programs and it offers a more promising prospect for demonstrating success by identifying a broader range of relevant outcomes. The paper concludes by recommending that greater attention be paid to the ethical dimensions of human agency in order to develop a more coherent body of knowledge to advance both research and practice in health promotion.

Explaining Preferences in a Multinational Organization

The European Commission and the Integration of Europe: Images of Governance. By Liesbet Hooghe. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press. 292 pp., $65.00 cloth (ISBN: 0-521-80667-4), $23.00 paper (ISBN: 0-521-00143-9). Liesbet Hooghe's study of the preferences of top European Union (EU) officials makes an important contribution to the literature on the European Commission in the field of EU studies. Yet, The European Commission and the Integration of Europe purports to do much more than that. As Hooghe herself ambitiously claims, the book seeks to contribute to the theoretical literature in political science on preference formation. This ambition is very much in line with a general trend in the study of EU governance, which places greater emphasis on what the study of the European Union can tell us more generally about the world of politics (Marks, Hooghe, and Blank 1993; Hix 1999). It is also something that EU researchers have not done so well in the past. Hooghe's intention, in short, is not only to offer the reader an analysis of her very satisfying data (which she does), but also to add to a more general understanding of human motivation. To outline the content and approach adopted by The European Commission and the Integration of Europe is relatively easy. Hooghe has taken a great deal of care to spell out and explain her theoretical framework, methodology, and research methods. The book's primary empirical objective is to provide an account of the preferences of top …

Hume on Tranquillizing the Passions

Hume on Tranquillizing the Passions John Immerwahr Borrowingafragmentfrom thelyric poetArchilochus, Sir IsaiahBerlin once divided thinkers into two categories: foxes, who know many things; and hedgehogs, who know only one, "one big thing."1 Although Berlin does not include Hume in either list, it is tempting to put him with the foxes. Indeed, Hume's corpus is brilliantly eclectic, ranging with equal facility over an impressive array of seemingly diverse subjects such as epistemology, ethics, political science, religion, psychology, history, criticism, economics, and demography. Many of Hume's admirers have not even attempted to find a unity here, and Hume's less generous critics have attributed this diversity to an incessant hunger for "literary fame" which supposedly led Hume from topic to topic, always searching for popular acclaim and recognition.2 The dazzling diversity of Hume's thinking has obscured some important underlying themes; Hume is more of a hedgehog than he initially appears. At the centre of many of Hume's discussions is a recurring conviction about the nature of human well-being and the means to obtain it. This insistence—which can be found in each stage ofHume's career and in writings on virtually every topic—provides one way of finding an overarching unity to his thought and invites us to rethink some ofthe conventional wisdom about Hume. In this essay I argue that many of Hume's investigations are informed by his early distinction between calm and violent passions. Wherever we turn we find Hume insisting that people arehappiest and governments are most stable when emotional calmness prevails. Hume alsohas astrategy, which Icall "moderation through opposition," which is designedto"tranquillize and soften"the passions.3 This strategy also becomes a stylistic principle which informs Hume's own writing, especially his popular works. This essay begins with a brief discussion of the calm/violent distinction itself. I then sketch out the role ofcalm passions in Hume's treatment of rationality, happiness, morality, politics and religion. Next I turn from Hume's diagnosis to his proposed cure, and discuss the strategy that Hume presents for enhancing the calm passions; indeed, Hume's writing style itselfis often designed to implement this strategy. I then discuss the context of Hume's insight, arguing that while it grows out of a cosmopolitan continental paradigm of using Volume XVIII Number 2 293 JOHN IMMERWAHR passions to oppose passions, Hume's own use ofit is tailored to rather specific features of the political and intellectual life of eighteenth centuryEdinburgh. The essay concludesby discussingthe implications of these findings for reading ofHume's works. Passions: Calm and Violent One characteristic feature of the thinkers of the "Scottish Enlightenment" was a desire tofound moral concepts in a scientific and empirical understanding ofhuman nature, rather than upon abstract conceptions of virtue and justice.4 These thinkers were particularly interestedin non-cognitivistelements ofhuman nature, such as"taste," "sentiment" and the "passions,"5 and they were also interested in discriminatingamongthe feelings and passions to discover those which were most beneficial to the individual or society. One Scottish philosopher who was particularly influential upon Hume in this connection was Francis Hutcheson. In discussing the passions, Hutcheson distinguished between what he called the "calm desire of good" and the "particular passions towards objects immediately presented to the senses." Hutcheson noted that these calm desires were frequently powerful enough to conquer particular passions such as "lust or revenge."6 The calm passions are thus very important to our understanding ofhuman motivation. As in so many other things, Hume also appears to be influenced by Hutcheson on the existence and importance of "calm passions." Early in Treatise 2, Hume expands on Hutcheson's idea that our experience ofan emotion or passion can be described as either "calm" or "violent"7 (also "soft" or "tender," "rough" or "fierce").8 The main difference between calmness and violence has to do with the intensity with which a passion is experienced. When we experience violent passions we feel an "uneasiness" (T 418) and sometimes "disorders and agitations" (E 17).9 Other passions are "calm" in that they cause "no disorder in the soul" and "little emotion in the mind" (T 417).10 Hume's main point is that...

MOTIVATING STUDENTS TO ACTIVELY ENGAGE IN READING

An understanding of human motivation is an essential component of effective reading instruction. Rather than rely totally upon making activities “fun” for students, this paper proposes that the understanding of basic theories of motivation can result in a pervasive concern for motivation in the classroom. Utilizing a balance of intrinsic and extrinsic means of motivation, teachers can set the stage for increased involvement and learning.

Ego-Oriented Preaching

Ego-oriented and superego-oriented preaching styles are strikingly different in their methodology and in their understanding of human motivation. Long-term, constructive results are the product of ego-oriented preaching while superego-oriented preaching yields quick but ineffective results. The objective of ego-oriented preaching is the formation of an identity in which persons know themselves loved in spite of their faults and in which they use their abilities productively within the world as it is given.

Medical responsibility for juvenile delinquency.

Juvenile delinquency is due to the child's need to create situations of transient fear and to express discontent as well as to taunt and mimic the behavior and attitudes of the emotionally insecure parental figures. A plea is made for a wider acceptance of recent advances in the understanding of human motivation. The physician has an important role in community education to its responsibilities in the rearing of children.