Questions tagged [motivation]
For questions relating to mechanisms that modulates behavior, either as an initiator, limiting influence, or sustainer.
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What makes people easily subscribe to pseudoscientific theories?
There are many theories/disciplines that have been categorized as pseudoscience in the scientific community.
The list includes many things that are regularly even quoted in media like graphology, ...
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Does evidence support Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?
Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs (shown below) is a popular concept and is often taught in basic psychology courses, and often less objectively taught in Business and Marketing courses.
A common problem ...
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How long should I work before taking a break?
I'd like to work as effectively as possible for 8-9 hours a day, whether at work or studying.
At some point in completing my major in psych I remember hearing about the importance of taking breaks ...
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What is the motivation model behind StackExchange?
I noticed that I didn't sleep yesterday for no reason and spent the whole night to answer questions in one of the communities in here. Why did I do this? I still come here every hour and check if ...
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How long can a person stay happy, excited and motivated about something new?
I'm interested in learning more about studies or experiments that determine how long a typical person can stay excited about something new:
...
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What is the term for human beings' tendency to obey without thinking?
I'm wanting to read more about a certain human behavior, but I am not sure what the proper term for it is, so some of the things I am finding aren't what I am looking for. I'm interested in how Humans ...
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What causes a person to be curious, inquisitive and explorative?
Why do humans (primates) tend to be curious, inquisitive and explorative?
They want to know things that they do not. They explore stuff in an attempt to find something new which makes them ...
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What exactly is meant when it is said that only you can make yourself happy?
From Lifehack:
Thinking that having a significant other will complete you.
If you are not a whole person already, then having a romantic partner will
not make you whole. Plus, it puts a lot of ...
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Why do certain activities seem to co-occur with well learnt skills?
I have found that when I do certain activities, while engaged with them, I am inclined to do other activities, as well, which come naturally and do not seem to break productivity of the first ones, ...
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What are effective strategies for increasing concentration and motivation when doing seemingly passive activities such as reading journal articles?
Background
Unfortunately I am not a specialist in Cognitive Science I am just a regular CS student who has big interest in cognitive science.
I want to share with you some interesting observation I ...
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How can motivation be increased by improving brain chemistry with nutrition and activities?
I'm reading some material about motivation and brain chemistry.
One of the interesting articles is "7 Ways to Increase Motivation by Improving your Brain Chemistry". I'm interested in a more ...
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How strong is the need to belong?
Are there any studies that measure the need to belong?
Does this need vary greatly from person to person or is there a tight deviation?
What would explain why some have very little need to belong ...
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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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Can motivation for sex be transformed into productive motivation?
Sex seems to be a fundamental drive. To satisfy sexual desire, a person will often masturbate or have sex.
What happens if a person abstains from anything sexual?
Can this drive be "transferred" to ...
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Does law of attraction have psychological basis? [closed]
A common claim in business and self-help seminars is that optimists are luckier.
Is it true that optimism leads to greater success in life?
If so, what part of the brain support this so called "...
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"Wanting to do" without being "able to do"?
For those with disordered avoidance, a common theme is the inability to do something which is beneficial and, perhaps more importantly, even pleasurable.
For those that study motivation, intrinsic ...
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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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Why do higher incentives lead to lower performance for non-rudimentary tasks?
I have watched a number of times this excellent video where Dan Pink discusses the science of motivation. The video states that the higher incentives, the lower performance for non-rudimentary (not ...
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Is there experimental support for John Perry's "Theory of Structured Procrastination"?
John Perry's theory of structured procrastination can be summed up as follows:
Some people are inherently predisposed to be procrastinators across a wide range of domains
Such procrastinators are ...
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How can I use gamification to encourage people to complete workplace training?
I am looking for ways to improve the likelihood people will perform mundane but required workplace training. I am looking into gamification techniques.
My organisation requires that employees ...
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What is the neurological basis of maintaining self discipline?
Self Discipline, as defined in this meagre Wikipedia article as being
as the ability to motivate oneself in spite of a negative emotion
This is partly distinct from self control and willpower ...
user4185
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Is the depletion effect of self-control reliable?
Although a lot of research (Muraven, 1998) has indicated the ego depletion of self-control, a recent paper (Xu, 2014) claims that they fail to replicate the depletion effect: impaired performance in ...
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Name of the bias where someone really needs something after they find out it exists
I'm looking for the name of the cognitive bias that is expressed in the following story.
A fellow coworker was instrumental in getting a 75 gallon fish tank installed in the lobby of the company that ...
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Do the motivations and fears behind Enneagram have any scientific reasoning?
Background
The Enneagram personality typing system defines set of motivations and basic fears for its nine personality types among people.
The system seems to be aimed at personal development of a ...
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What's the optimal way to space out rewards in order to maximise motivation?
I'm working on an educational product, and we're thinking of introducing some gamified aspects to motivate students to use the product. One of these will be the concept of 'levels' - when a student ...
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Does motivation and interest correlate highly with IQ and can someone be smart but perform poorly in a particular field?
Suppose a person is considered intelligent based on his IQ score. For example, suppose Bob has a high IQ score and is very interested in pure mathematics. He would most probably excel in this field. ...
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What are other methods to induce ego depletion besides using emotional videos and thought suppression?
Muraven and Baumeister (2000) proposed that self-control is a limited resource akin to strength or a muscle, to deplete this limited resource leads to subsequent self-regulatory failure. Ego depletion,...
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What makes some things more fun than others universally?
Recently I have been presented with the question, "What makes something addictive, and why are some activities more addicting than others?" This question intrigues me, as logically, the answer would ...
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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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Is procrastination greater when skill is low and rewards offer low status boost and does this lead to efficient task allocation in groups?
I am very interested in procrastination, because it is such a clear sign of lack of motivation. I have a hypothesis about why we procrastinate, which I would like to get tested by you.
The assumption ...
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What causes lack of energy? The relative importance of testosterone versus emotional, genetic, and environmental factors
Some people assume that males lack of energy because of low testosterone.
I would think that lack of energy could be due to esteem levels, emotional abuse, low self-worth, and even genetics to some ...
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What is the relation between fun and motivation? Are they the same?
Are 'having fun in doing something' and 'being motivated to do something' the same thing?
If not, how are fun and motivation related? Is there any formal definition on this? Would it be possible to ...
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Why do some people only work well under pressure?
It is common for people to procrastinate. Putting off tasks until the resulting deadlines get closer and there comes a point at which the person will fire into action.
(whether this point leaves ...
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Is it good to take playful breaks at work?
I read this Washingon Post article about groups that are trying to encourage play in "workaholic" adults. I'm curious if anything is known on the psychological effects of taking playful breaks at work....
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Psychologically, how does volunteer work help the volunteer?
This question has intrigued me for a long time, ever since I experienced it first hand (and continue to do so). Some feel a compulsion to 'step up' and lend a hand to someone in need. An example, ...
user3554
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Are you more successful if you publicly commit to pursuing a difficult goal?
If you have an ambitious goal, does it help to publicly commit to that goal? For example, if someone is training for a long distance triathlon but doesn't know whether he/she will be able to pull it ...
user7759
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What are the real motives of people helping to each other?
I'm wondering sometimes why people want to help someone. What are the real motives of it? The Karpman drama triangle says that 3 types of people exist and one of these types is rescuer and as I ...
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Is it sufficient to say self control eliciting the reduced ERN (error-related negativity) in cognitive control tasks?
The limited resource model of self control suggests that the exertion of self control can impair performance in subsequent cognitive control tasks (for details on the model, check this question. Most ...
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Evolutionary motivation for the existence of pleasure?
It seems like pleasure goes beyond needs. What is its purpose? Is it supposed to make you not do anything, because of how good you feel?
Are there animals that don't feel pleasure, but only have needs ...
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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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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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What are the key predictive traits of therapeutic success?
In my answer here, to this question : Does hypnotherapy/hypnosis, in any form, for any type of disorder, work?
It brought up the valid question of why people quit therapy. Obviously, if the therapy ...
user10932
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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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Why do we find things fun?
One may cause to argue that Fun activities are solely based off psychological and physical identification with certain activities, but surely there is a deeper analysis on why we find things fun.
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Why does a person not change their employment when they have the urge to do so?
This is a question I have been fighting for a long time. I thought it was an individual issue, but I've recently noticed, that it's common for a lot of people I know.
A person feels the need or urge ...
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How to change someone's beliefs? [closed]
I tried to change my brother's beliefs. He gets motivated by some bad ideas. Following my attempt to change his beliefs, his beliefs have become even stronger.
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Is there any actual evidence for the common model of the "real you" and a separate section that contains all your weaknesses?
I have heard this model used or implied by multiple community sources, and some which have been endorsed; most will use different names for the two parts, for example the "subconscious" and &...
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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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What is the mechanism behind one's fascination in a topic or subject? [closed]
I've been reading about saliency and wondering about its relationship to human interests, particularly hobbies or fields of study. I am thinking that there are typically patterns in what kinds of ...
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What count as an exposure?
From this answer (emboldenment is mine) :
If you want to go with modern cognitive theories of motivation, then a good concept to explore would be PLOC (Perceived Locus of Causality), or how much you ...
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