00055 Effect of attitude on motivation

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wvanfleet
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00055 Effect of attitude on motivation

Post by wvanfleet »

Kris,

We disagree regarding:

"00055 It is possible to think mostly about the things that make one feel good, or mostly about the things that make one feel bad, and feeling good most of the time promotes more motivation to do one's part to make the world a better place, whereas feeling bad most of the time interferes with such motivation."

I'm surprised you disagree, and would like to hear your reasons. Should it be reworded? Is it contrary to some findings?

Bill

kristyte
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Re: 00055 Effect of attitude on motivation

Post by kristyte »

In my experience, something that makes me feel overwhelmingly bad will typically motivate me to take action, leading to action I was unlikely to otherwise take with the goal of feeling better or good about it. So I disagree with the statement because I'm not so sure good feelings are necessarily more positively correlated with motivating one to action than are bad ones, and perhaps different things motivate each person differently, so perhaps making the blanket statement in regards to motivations is too strong. What motivates people to do good things is definitely an interesting topic and perhaps far less studied or understood than what motivates people to do bad things.

wvanfleet
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Re: 00055 Effect of attitude on motivation

Post by wvanfleet »

Yes, I understand and agree. But I do wonder whether what is meant by the belief statement comes across clearly. The belief is not referring to the sudden onset of a situation that evokes bad feelings, but instead to the state of mind of chronic distress (sadness, fear, anxiety). It is really referring to the difference between a state of pessimism vs. a state of optimism.

First meaning:
feeling-good-most-of-the-time promotes more motivation to do one's part to make the world a better place, whereas feeling-bad-most-of-the-time-interferes with such motivation ("most-of-the-time" meaning "chronically" or "most days, most of the day")

Second meaning:
feeling good most-of-the-time-promotes more motivation to do one's part to make the world a better place, whereas feeling bad most-of-the-time-interferes with such motivation ("most-of-the-time" meaning "usually," as in "usually promotes" or "usually interferes with")

The first meaning is the one meant in the belief statement. Do you think you were using the second meaning?

A good example might be depression, which certainly interferes with motivation, right? So maybe the belief does need rewording. Or maybe even with the first meaning (the intended one) it still is not accurate. What do you think?

wvanfleet
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Re: 00055 Effect of attitude on motivation

Post by wvanfleet »

Kris, I changed the wording of this belief (00055), such that I think that the ambiguity is cleared up and that you will now agree with it. What do you think?

"It is possible to think mostly about the things that make one feel good, or mostly about the things that make one feel bad, and spending most of one's time feeling good promotes more motivation to do one's part to make the world a better place, whereas spending most of one's time feeling bad interferes with such motivation."

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Re: 00055 Effect of attitude on motivation

Post by Terry W »

We care for our ourselves and to our specific species...as we would with anything else that we would encounter in nature
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