David Shenk cites that Yo-Yo Ma's, "early life contained all the known ingredients for the brewing of extraordinary achievement: an early and intensively conditioned musical brain, world-class training resources, and a desperate personal desire that researchers universally agree is the key to precocious success" (95).
It is clear that motivation is an important factor in determining one's success in a particular field. No matter how many resources or talents one has, without the motivation and desire to succeed, one will not taste success.
Shenk provides us with information of the formation of all the elements, except for motivation. What is the source of motivation? Is it solely psychological or can genes also play a role? What are the necessary factors that nurture the "rage to master" (95)? Does parental involvement play a role? Is there a specific time period during a person's lifetime that the desire to succeed and level of motivation is at a zenith, or is it solely based on the time and circumstances? Relate your response to Ecology and Behavior.
- Rohan Dasika (rohandasika@gmail.com)
It is clear that motivation is an important factor in determining one's success in a particular field. No matter how many resources or talents one has, without the motivation and desire to succeed, one will not taste success.
Shenk provides us with information of the formation of all the elements, except for motivation. What is the source of motivation? Is it solely psychological or can genes also play a role? What are the necessary factors that nurture the "rage to master" (95)? Does parental involvement play a role? Is there a specific time period during a person's lifetime that the desire to succeed and level of motivation is at a zenith, or is it solely based on the time and circumstances? Relate your response to Ecology and Behavior.
- Rohan Dasika (rohandasika@gmail.com)
Part 1
ReplyDeleteSuccess is something that everyone wants to achieve, but the difficult part is how to achieve success. Everyone wants to be deemed as successful, but not everyone can be granted with that title. Special talent and dedication are necessary in order to achieve success and also, one needs to be presented with all the resources. For example when referring to Yo-Yo-Ma, Shenk states on page 95, "early life contained all the known ingredients for the brewing of extraordinary achievement: an early and intensively conditioned musical brain, world-class training resources, and a desperate personal desire that researchers universally agree is the key to precocious success." Yo-Yo-Ma wasn’t simply deemed successful because he wanted to, he had to make use of his talents and his training resources.
Another factor is motivation, which I believe is the most important in all. According to Kendra Cherry of about.com, “motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors.” This is stating that motivation is what causes us to act and what causes us to strive for our goals or success. If one is not motivated to do something, then most likely the work he or she is doing is average and he or she will not succeed. Motivation is what puts you over the top. The question is where does motivation come from. In order to understand this we must differentiate between the two types of motivation, which are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivations are those that arise from within the individual. For example the task of completing a crossword puzzle for personal gratification. Extrinsic motivations are those that arise from outside an individual and often involve rewards and prizes(money). So the source of motivation can be from outside oneself or inside oneself. I believe that the source of motivation is mostly psychological, but genes do play a part in certain situations. For example, genes and motivation can work hand in hand when talking about athletics. According to Elizabeth Quinn of about.com, “Most physiologists agree that the current limits have to do with our genetics specifically genes that regulate our cardiovascular endurance and muscle fiber type, but some factors are much more variable. Things like nutrition, motivation, environment and advances in equipment all allow for dramatic improvements in athletic performance.” So in order to achieve athletic success, motivation and the genes that regulate cardiovascular endurance and muscle fiber type are necessary.
kjdesai5@mac.com
Krish Desai
Part 2
ReplyDeleteI believe that parental involvement is very vital in the whole process for success. Parents should be backing up their child’s decision on what ever he or she wants to strive to achieve. Also, it is most likely that the parent and child have a bond or a similar hobby that he or she wants to strive for, so it is most likely the parent that introduces their child to the activity that the child wants to succeed in. Also, the time period that the someone picks up something they are innately good at is very important. The ideal age would be during development and growth during the single digit years because that is when the child is learning the most. A prime example would be the Suzuki method, which states that at a very young age is the best time to teach a kid something new. Also, parental support is key in order to determine the future success of the kid. There are special instances when someone has an epiphany at a older age that they want to do something great for his or her life, but the best time to start and get motivated is at a young age. All of this can be related to the Ecology and Behavior unit.
Animals, similar to humans have goals everyday and it can be as simple as a lion catching a buffalo. If a lion is starving, then that is the motivation factor to go be successful and go get some food. Also, the best time period to start getting motivated and to start the path to success would be during the sensitive or critical period because it is the a limited developmental phase when certain behaviors can be learned (Campbell 1126). Also, parental involvement is only important in humans. The work of Konrad Lorenz shows that imprinting has a life long impression. Imprinting is teaching the young about the basic behaviors of a distinct species. This is related to evolution in that if the environment where to change for an animal then the behavioral habits will have to change for not only the young but for the parent. This change would be taught during the critical period and from then on the species will have adapted to the change and now have a different behavior.
http://psychology.about.com/od/mindex/g/motivation-definition.htm
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/anatomyandphysiology/a/genetics.htm
kjdesai5@mac.com
Krish Desai
Part 1
ReplyDeleteShenk argues that there is no such thing as innate “talent”; everyone is born with the potential to become world-class in any field. Anyone could have become the next Picasso or Mozart, he says; nobody is born limited with a bad voice or arm. Nothing comes easily to people, no matter their level of genius later in life; for example, in the case of Beethoven, claiming that he just “saw” music would have him “rolling in the aisles” according to Shenk, because that ability only came after “years of intensive work and…horrific abuse” (116). In Shenk’s eyes, to claim that Beethoven had innate talent would undermine his years of discipline.
Talent is not inborn, but developed as a result of hours of deliberate practice; Shenk says, “talent is not the cause but the result of something” (60). In order for one to carry out the dedication necessary to attaining that talent, one must have motivation, a willingness to dedicate hours upon hours, to “sacrifice time, money, sleep, friendships” (120). So “talent” is not the key to success, but motivation. Shenk argues motivation is developmental. Motivation can come from many sources- hatred, ambition, passion, and etc. Motivation can appear at any age, depending on the experiences that have shaped an individual, and thus that individual can go on to extraordinary achievement at any age. For instance, a child can become a prodigy by being exposed to music from the time they were a fetus and being motivated by an environment full of music and being surrounded by the discipline around them. Mozart was “bathed in music from well before his birth” (61). As Krish mentioned, parental support is vital to developing success; in the case of Mozart, Leopold, his father put “off his official duties in order to build an even more promising career for his son” and “openly giving preferred attention to Wolfgang over his daughter” (63). There lies the reason Wolfgang became a world-renowned composer and Nannerl failed; as a child, she had just as much promise as Wolfgang, but Wolfgang was able to gain more motivation and thus more success because of the disproportionate amount of attention paid to him, allowing him the massive amounts of practice necessary to develop “extraordinary talent”.
- Akshay Ramachandran (ramachandran.akshay11@gmail.com)
Part 2
ReplyDeleteI agree with Krish in that an ideal time to develop a talent for humans is before the age of 10, but this does not mean talent can be cultivated later in life. Parental support is merely more efficacious on developing a child’s abilities if they are young. According to an article on personalexcelence.com, before someone can be termed an “expert” in their field, one must practice “roughly 3 hours every day, for 10 consecutive years” (http://personalexcellence.co/blog/10000-hours-to-develop-talent/ ). A child merely has more time to develop a talent because a 50-year-old can achieve extraordinary things as well, but is more limited by his or her environment. Usually, adults no longer have a parent willing to devote hours to making them a prodigy and are also weighed down by other commitments. As Shenk says, “it is obviously far more possible for an unmarried 20-year-old to practice deliberately…than a married 45-year-old with two young kids and a jumbo mortgage” (124). But with the right motivation and time, there is no saying that middle aged adults cannot change the world with their potential either. According to a study done by Wayne State University School of Medicine, humans possess a critical period, which has maximum learning capacity (http://synapse.princeton.edu/~brained/redshirting/chugani98_preventive_medicine_glucose-use-child-brain.pdf). There is a zenith for learning capacity, but not necessarily one fore motivation, which depends more on time and circumstances.
In terms of animal behavior and ecology, the environment an organism develops in could be a good source of motivation. As seen in the Kalenjin tribe of Kenya, long- distance running is vital to survival in the Kenyan’s environment. The wealth of a Kenyan man is determined by the size of his herd of cattle and wealth enhances a man’s ability to court women. As humans are generally monogamous (one male mates with one female), a Kenyan man’s ability to run and keep with cattle is directly related to survival and reproduction. Therefore, over centuries of male competition for cows, certain traits such as running speed and endurance have emerged as selective advantages. The high altitude of Kenya causes the air to be thin and living in this condition helps training for long- distance running.
- Akshay Ramachandran (ramachandran.akshay11@gmail.com
Part 3
ReplyDeleteMotivation drives behavior because of the biological theme of structure and function. Motivation must be something that is caused by the environment and spurs intensive practice that can then change the brain. The brain doesn’t change to increase motivation, but can change in response to motivation. Shenk gives the example of the plasticity of the human brain with the London cabbies to prove that intensive practice actually does physically change us. He cites Anders Ericsson, who said “When individuals deliberately push themselves beyond the zone of relative comfort and engage in sustained strenuous physical activity…they induce an abnormal state for cells in some physiological systems…these biochemical states will trigger the activation of dormant genes within the cells’ DNA” (69). This relates to the idea of epigenetics as certain conditions can activate gene expression that is present for many individuals but only expressed in some. The environment determines which genes become activated and the genome provides potential. The stretching of the brain allows the brain to become “engraved” with new configurations that allow a buildup of skill. The structure of the brain allows for plasticity as different types of brain cells, such as neurons and vascular cells, which rely on “a highly specialized cellular organization” to transfer information throughout the body (Campbell 1048). These factors are involved in neuroplasticity (the lifelong ability of the brain to reorganize neural pathways based on new experiences). In order to learn or memorize a fact or skill, there must be persistent functional changes in the brain that represent the new knowledge. According to washington.edu, neuroplasticity does not consist of a single type of morphological change, but includes several different processes that occur throughout one’s lifetime (http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/plast.html). The brain’s structure and ability to adapt to its function of constantly allowing us to learn new skills, we would not be able to attain talent through practice, and our motivation would come to no fruition, but our brain’s plasticity does not contribute to us attaining more motivation; that is environmental.
- Akshay Ramachandran (ramachandran.akshay11@gmail.com)