Motivation: origin, contributing factors

[LazyBum201]

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<p>Since i started the thread, i will answer the question on what i mean by “motivation”. Primarly what i mean is - how much the individual is motivated to do things (on their own, without being told to do them) such as (1) get a job during the summer, or, (2) do what is necessary to get good grades in school - either high school or college, or, (3) to try out for sports, join clubs, run for offices, etc.,. </p>

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<p>Different people will be motivated to different levels for each of the above areas (or might be, anyway). Our son has wanted “a job” since he was very small; at 2 years and 1 month of age, he said one morning, “Daddy’s working. Mommy’s working? Where’s (his name)’s work?” Soon after turning 8, he had three job offers (all in programming) from chatting with men who owned tech companies or ran a million plus budget university lab, and by the time he was 9, he had talked us into allowing him to accept one. Our son has also always wanted to have good grades, but he’s not always been wild about doing homework, so he’s motivated to learn material and do well without having to do <em>work</em> any more than he needs to for some topics (while others he goes over and above what is needed by a long way). He’s always been very into joining groups (and was on a college sports team, on the SGA, in numerous clubs and organizations in college and in graduate school, is co-director for one program and on the executive committee for his dorm government and so on), to the point where we have felt the need to intervene and insist he drop some (like debate team as the competitions were eating into too much of his weekends, we felt).</p>

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<p>Many kids don’t think much beyond today, while others are aware of, and base some of their actions, on ‘the future’.</p>

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<p>Our son certainly seems to fall into the latter group there, though sometimes it doesn’t <em>seem</em> like it (for example, when he opted to go listen to the XKCD comic writer speak on campus rather than work on a final project worth 40% of his course grade that was due in a few days and then went to a party the next night rather than work on the project yet again…we felt he was tossing away an A in that course, yet he still got an A+ in the class).</p>

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<p>Motivation could also include things like doing chores, keeing one’s room clean, seeing where one could be helpful and offering help (but those type of things go beyond pure motivation, and include traits such as selfishness and/or selflessness.</p>

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<p>He kept a clean room when living at home with us without us much having to say anything, and for a graduate student (at least at his U), seems to keep a fairly clean dorm room (much as it might seem a mess to those who haven’t seen the OTHER graduate students’ rooms) and often offers to help others, again to a point where I think he overextends himself at times.</p>

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<p>Maybe another way of looking at the issue is, what issue/things does each individual consider important, or not important? And why do some students consider grades, jobs, sports, clubs, etc. important, while others do not?</p>

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<p>Part of it will be that some students like formal education and don’t mind being indoors while others crave the outdoors and/or a lack of structure, and some like exercising their brains while others prefer exercising their bodies while others like to exercise both in good measure, and some are more into socializing and/or service while others prefer more independent pursuits. In other words, it boils down to personality and individual preferences/style.</p>

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<p>I have a very difficult time,personally, viewing the two different areas as “equal but different”. I think the area of {grades, jobs, ECs} falls into an area of "not easy to do NOW, not fun to do NOW, but necessary NOW for rewards in the FUTURE. Whereas, the second area {motivated to become good at video games, motivated to have friendships} fall more into an area of “fun NOW” but nocessarily related to, or associated with the FUTURE.</p>

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<p>Don’t sell short those who are in the ‘fun now’ group - many such “laid back” people are the ones who come up with the new wet suit or surfboard or video game or such that is the foundation for multi-million dollar companies. There is much to be said for having a strong interest in things, even if they aren’t the things many feel are “high potential” things at the time the interest begins.</p>

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<p>I have been puzzled for years, wondering why some kids are very motivated, and some are not. So far, I have not seen or found a coorelation between the parents and kids.</p>

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<p>Have you considered home environment rather than just career success of parents?</p>

<p>[Relationship</a> Between Quality of Home Environment, Locus of Control and Achievement Motivation Among High Achiever](<a href=“http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:HpZZb9WkNlgJ:www.krepublishers.com/02-Journals/JHE/JHE-19-0-000-000-2006-Web/JHE-19-4-000-000-2006-Abstract-PDF/JHE-19-4-253-257-2006-1345-Jaswal-S/JHE-19-4-253-257-2006-1345-Jaswal-S-Text.pdf+motivation+correlation+to+parents&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=us&client=firefox-a]Relationship”>http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:HpZZb9WkNlgJ:www.krepublishers.com/02-Journals/JHE/JHE-19-0-000-000-2006-Web/JHE-19-4-000-000-2006-Abstract-PDF/JHE-19-4-253-257-2006-1345-Jaswal-S/JHE-19-4-253-257-2006-1345-Jaswal-S-Text.pdf+motivation+correlation+to+parents&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=us&client=firefox-a)</p>

<p>“Results showed that good quality of home environment had significant positive correlation with ‘high’ level (P<0.001) of achievement motivation among high achievers. It was found that as the quality of home environment gets deteriorated, the level of achievement motivation also gets deteriorated. ‘Internal’ locus of control had significant positive correlation with quality of home environment. ‘External’ locus of control was non-significantly related with achievement levels and quality of home-environment.”</p>

<p>Naturally, this doesn’t explain how siblings have such different levels of motivation, but I suspect birth order has a big effect there. Once a child has claimed the “star student” status or such position, other children might feel they ought to focus on the “bum status” for attention or the “social star” status or whatever.</p>

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<p>To reveal my situation, both of my kids are very smart (academically), but neither of them are overly motivated. My son scored a 34 composite in the ACT (very good score), and was one of only 3 students, in his graduating class, to have obtained better than a 4.0 in all 16 quarters in high school. Yet, his good grades come more because he is so smart, and doesn’t require much effort, then due to being highly motivated. (in some ways it is a curse). </p>

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<p>I have written much the same about this situation (people being able to coast on having a strong brain).</p>

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<p>My daughter is not quite as smart as my son, but she is much more motivated. She has an 3.86 her freshman year (not quite as high as my son’s GPA), yet she spends far more time studying -then my son ever did. Yet, even she does not do much more than she thinks is necessary. </p>

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<p>My college biology teacher friend told me at lunch yesterday that the more evolved species do not waste effort…they don’t swim when it’s cold in the water to conserve energy, for example, and she feels that people who don’t do more than necessary are simply smart enough to conserve their energy for other things. My brother had around a 3.0 in high school, but he was freakin’ brilliant and anyone who’s ever spent 5 minutes chatting with him since he was a toddler could tell that, so nobody ever really worried about how his grades were before he hit college. He felt his time was better spent inventing things, and so they were. The Bionic Man was a popular TV show when we were kids and he said as a young teen, “Someday, I will invent an artificial arm that can play the piano as well as a human arm can.” He has won numerous honors and an inventor of the year award for a patent for an arm that can function just off of the user “thinking” of what it wants the arm to do, just like we use our human arms. His blowing off high school grades didn’t hurt him in the least (nor did not going to a top tier college), and indeed, might just have helped him.</p>

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<p>It just has me curious, what motivates kids to do well (academically) or to become involved in sports, clubs, etc.</p>

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<p>Part of it could be what natural talent they have. People often like doing what they have talent doing. Part of it could be how people react to what they do (like if a parent reprimands a kid not making a goal in soccer, the kid is probably less likely to want to take up soccer than if the kid, at least in the formative years, gets accolades for simply hitting the ball rather than missing the ball). Part of it could be what astrological sign the person was born under (I jest here, but then again, who the heck has studied that to really have a clue? No doubt some Gemini has - I hear they love identical twin studies!).</p>