Psychology essay - human motivation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Psychology - human motivation - Essay Example That is why; fear, positively, lead people to undertake challenges, to create order from chaos, to regulate their drives, or to become involved in interesting activities. For instance, if a man feels anxious to drive in a freeway, he could be compelled to conquer his fear by practicing freeway driving. Meanwhile on a negative note, the fear that the same man felt could motivate the non-self-determined behavior of yelling obscenities at someone who drove up beside him unexpectedly. In contrast to external motivation factors such as the use of food as a reward, fear, as with other intrinsic motivation factors, there are no rewards separate from the internal, spontaneous states that accompany or immediately follow the behavior. Here the â€Å"reward† is intangible because it takes the form of a certain set of feelings. Finally, the role of fear in motivation is best illustrated in the way behavior reinforces the responses that terminates fear. This analogy, which was set forth by Roderick Wong, is said to explain the incidence of compulsions in human behavior. According to Wong, â€Å"such behavior is assumed to be motivated by fear, and maintained by fear reduction.† (p. 192) 2. The theory that learning has something to do with human motivation falls in the realm of behaviorist approach, which argues that motivation is a result of factors generated by the environment more than arising within an individual. Here, a person’s current actions are determined by the successes or failures of past actions. To cite an example: My motivation to attend musicals is determined by the fact that my first and succeeding outings to the theater were pleasurable and it did reduce my stress, therefore the increasing frequency of my attendance to musicals was reinforced. Socialization hence is very important in learning as these provides a good amount of experiences – both good and

Science Activities in the Kindergarten Term Paper

Science Activities in the Kindergarten - Term Paper Example Science Activities in the Kindergarten Parents and teachers must ensure that they adequately expose children to the basic realities of life, with an educative approach; appropriate to their age group. Teachers play one of the most influential roles during ‘early childhood’ since they spend anywhere between four to eight hours a day with their students during their formative years. This makes it imperative for teachers to develop and inculcate the qualities of listening, understanding, respecting and empathizing, so that they may improve on their relationships with students. ‘Counseling skills’ form an integral part of training programs that are specially designed for teachers and have been found to have a long – term impact on the social learning and psychological wellbeing of the students (Hutchins & Vaught, 1997). As a newly appointed pre – school teacher at an international school, I would be expecting a dynamic, diverse, multi – cultural classroom environment. The age gro up of the children in my class would be in the category of three to five year olds. Some of the children’s families would hail from white backgrounds while a majority would come from families that are of diverse origins such as Asians, Africans, Arabs, Native Americans, etc. Some may be well versed with the American way of life, language of English as well as the customs. Cultural attributes may vary between individualist and collectivist tendencies. Communication is believed to be dependent on two factors: ‘the speaker’ (usually the teacher) and ‘an active addressee’ (the pupil), both of whom need to actively participate and differentiate as per the social and cultural environment (Poimenidou and Christidou, 2010). Culture is believed to influence participation, acquisition, transmission and invention. However, the children and their families who hail from diverse backgrounds may not be very conversant in English, may be of a different cultural mind set and may require time and assistance in adapting to the new environment. The one ‘diverse background’ that I would like to focus on is the ‘Asian community’. The Asian community has always intrigued me due to its tremendous sub classification and branches within itself. The most amazing fact is that, within the Asian community, cultures are so varied and different from each other. ‘Asians’ include people from China, India, Pakistan, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore (to name a few). Chinese, Koreans and Japanese individuals characteristically possess physical characteristics such as distinctly slanted eyes and a rather small build. In general, Indians, Pakistanis and those from Singapore and Malaysia have a darker skin tone than their Chinese or Japanese counterparts. Historically, India and Pakistan were under the British rule until the year of independence and partition respectively.   China  is one of the world's oldest  c ivilizations, ruled by various dynasties at different time periods, culminating in the Chinese Civil War and proclamation of the People’s Republic of China. Japan evolved from the Meiji period and was occupied by the United States up to the year 1952, following which it attained significant economic growth. Singapore was conquered by the Japanese during the World War II; however, followed by British rule and was finally declared an independent republic in the year 1965. Traditionally, these communities were rather conservative in their approach and hierarchical in structure, wherein males and senior individuals