Reflections

Today, we talked about motivation.  This is also the topic in psychology this week.  There are many types of motivation.  In psychology we talked about Maslow's heirarchy. He states that first we must fullfill the first level of the pyrimid before we even think about the levels above it.  The first level included things like food, water, shelter, relieving ourselces and etc.  I think it's really interesting if you think of how a little kid acts when they REALLY have to go to the bathroom.  They don't care about that awesome slide down the street or even the candy bar you wave in front of their face; they just want to go to the bathroom.  The urge is motivating them to concentrate on what is needed and only that.  Another example would be hunger.  When you are hungry, you don't usually just push the chance to eat off to the side.

When we talk about motivation in IS 101, we look at motivation in a different light.  There is intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.  Intrinsic is basically when you are motivated for reasons from within.  An example would be a runner. When I do not do very well in a race, I don't quit.  It's intrinsic because I stay on the team or compete again in the hope to improve.  Extrinsic is when motivation comes from outside sources.  You can use a runner for extrinsic also.  An extrinsic runner in the above example might quit, because their motivation would come from approval, winning, or credit.