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Assignment Title: E-Portfolio

Student Name

School Name

Date:
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Executive Summary

In this paper, I have selected six of my previously done assignments and written papers

and evaluated them critically to get an understanding that what have I leaned so far in this

semester and how this knowledge will benefit me in the long run, when I march upon my

professional career. Here in this course I have learned different sort of theories related to

motivation, intuition, counter-intuition, change blindness, mental blindness, etc. The course

helped me a lot in understanding different new this to whom I was not aware previously. In this

paper, a detailed reflection is given over each part of the work that I have previously done, which

exhibits the level of my understanding regarding the course and also how I perceive different this

that we have studied in the class.

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Change Blindness

The human brain has often been described as a natural super computer capable of

discerning and interpreting various phenomena concurrently. In fact, researchers continue to be

awed at their discoveries on the capabilities of the brain. Nevertheless, like any other organ or

machine, sometimes there are moments when its performance lags, and it fails to interpret

occurrences even if other organs responsible for perception are in direct contact with such

occurrences. This brings us to the phenomenon of change blindness.

Change blindness is a term used to describe the difficulty that some observers find in

noticing, appreciating and interpreting various objects that come directly in their visual field.

These people usually fail to notice that there is a change in their visual field due to other

distractions. I have experienced change blindness a number of times, and I have always come out

of such situations reeling on why I had not paid attention to it in the first place. My most

memorable moment of change blindness came at a bus station.

I was waiting to board a bus that was headed to my home. The bus arrived in time and

stopped right in front of me. I picked my bags to get on board and just about then, a woman

approached me to ask for directions to a nearby mall. She must have been a visitor because she

was carrying a map. I offered to help by pinpointing where the mall was from the bus station. At

that time, she was standing right in front of me and just behind her was the bus I was supposed to

get into. I was so engrossed in giving her directions that the bus left in my full view and another

came to occupy the same place all without me noticing a change.

After I finished giving her directions, she appreciated my help and I went on to board the

bus. The journey started and somewhere along the way, I noticed that we were taking a different
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route from the one I anticipated. I asked the person sitting next to me where the bus was headed

to, and she gave me a name that I was not familiar with. It was then that I realized I had taken the

wrong bus. The memories started coming back to me at that moment. I had just experienced

change blindness! I said to myself.

Reflection

With the help of this paper, I have been introduced to the concept of change blindness to

which I was not aware previously. I have learned that change blindness is neither a disease nor a

disability rather it is a psychological phenomenon, which usually happened due to the lack of

focused attention towards a particular object. For example, it is evident from the example that I

have shared in the paper regarding a real life event, in which I experienced change blindness, as

at that instance of time I had focused my entire attention guiding the female and thats why due

to lack of focused attention towards the bus I lost it and even didnt notice it passing through the

bus stop.

As the topic was totally new to me, therefore I had done lots of research over the topic

and learned about a number of mechanisms and procedures through which a person can test

whether he has experienced change blindness. I found that the most common testing mechanism

is the Flicker Paradigm, this paradigm explains that in order to check whether a person is

experiencing or suffering from change blindness, he would have to go through a certain

experiment. The experiment will be conducted in a real time situation, where the person would

be exposed to a series of same pictures, distinguished from inserting slight dots or changes and

blank spaces between them. The person would be asked to focus and detect the changes in these

pictures, when they are displayed simultaneously. This will help the experimenter in detecting
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whether the person has experienced any change blindness during the experiment because if the

person does not respond to a change or dot in any of these pictures, he would be supposed to

have experienced change blindness during the experiment.

I have also learned that change blindness is not necessarily connected with the continuous

shifts or changes in images because if we critically recall our daily routine, we would come to

know that most of the times, we left our cell phones somewhere in our room and start searching

for it, while most of the time it is just lying in front of us. Similarly, after recounting a number of

car accidents that I came across at different times in my life, I recalled that the person at fault

always claim that he did not see them coming towards him, or he was totally unaware of their

existence over the road. This mean that instead of counting the image shifts in a particular

situation, it is rather more necessary that one should focus his attention towards the visual scenes

and specific features of the object under consideration.

After doing this paper, I came across a deep sea of knowledge and information regarding

the change blindness phenomenon and now I usually notice different activities of my daily life

that I used to ignore in past. This help me in improving my daily routine and the perceptions, I do

regarding different events and objects.

The Effects of Cell Phones on Attention: Annotated Bibliography

DiSalvo, D. Just how Blind are you when talking on a Cell Phone? Neuronarrative. Web. 3

February 2016.

This article provides the conclusions of a study carried out to measure the effects of

mobile phones on peoples attention. According to the findings of the survey, only 8.3 percent of

mobile users notice an obnoxiously dressed clown on a tricycle in the park as compared to
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between 32 and 57 percent of participants walking without any cell phones. The study showed

that more than 75 percent of mobile users experienced inattentional blindness. This article is a

blog entry by a writer who is experienced in science, culture and technology topics.

Heenan, A. The Effects of Conversation on Working Memory and Situation Awareness in

Simulated Driving. A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral

Affairs in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in

Psychology (ProQuest Dissertations). Ottawa, Canada: Carleton University, 2010. Print.

The dissertation attempts to study the numerous ways conversations affect or impairs

peoples attention, especially when driving. The author finds that conversations including those

carried out on phones cause inattentional blindness. The article is a dissertation published by

ProQuest.

Parker-Pope, T. What Clown on a Unicycle? Studying Cellphone Distraction. The New York

Times. Web. 3 February 2016.

The article provides findings of a study that tried to find out whether Cell phone

conversations make people miss things because they are distracted. The outcome of the study is

that Cell phone causes enough distraction to make people miss important things. The article is an

online source published by the New York Times.

Scholl, B., Noles, N., Pasheva, V. and Sussman, R. Talking on a Cellular Telephone

dramatically increases Sustained Inattentional Blindness. Journal of Vision 3 (2003):

156. Print.
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The article shows that people are significantly oblivious to their environment when

having conversations on their cell phones. This is a scholarly journal that was used as a note in

Chabris and Simmonss book.

Reflection

The study of these articles, dissertation and books helped me in understanding and

evaluating the concept of inattentional blindness, which mean that people usually do not notice

different important things in their surroundings because their attention is being focused on some

other thing. Although, the study of failures of awareness has a long history, but due to the recent

technological development and inventions, it practical importance has been increased. While

researching over the topic, I have also learned that when people are keenly focusing upon certain

static thing or picture, at that time the moving objects or things in their surroundings can easily

divert their focus/attention from the objects under consideration and cause an inattentional

blindness among them.

I have learned that a more direct distinction between awareness and actions can be made

by conducting a unique experiment known as visual search task. Members were given a heap of

various shapes on a PC screen and were requested that move the articles to locate a specific one.

Much of the time, individuals have moved the objects without recognizing it as the one that they

can select, i.e. the target image. Hence they utilized the visual information for directing their

behavior without fundamentally turning out to be intentionally mindful of which picture they

moved. Usually most of the members come to know that the objects that have missed during

their observations were the one, which could be selected as a suitable target. It is also observed
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that they have moved lots of objects, which could be otherwise selected as a target object during

their trail and these objects do not come to their attention even in several future moves.

Besides different sort of arguments that I came across during studying these articles, I

learned that people usually experience inattentional blindness regarding objects that are not a

part of their current tasks. Because their attention is usually focused at the current task, instead of

exploring or evaluating other objects in the surrounding. It is also observed that people also

unintentionally ignore or become unaware about things that are not common in their culture, for

example, people from different cultures are usually not interested in the materials or things that

do not belong to their own identity or culture.

I have also learned that a number of dangers and threats, particularly threats to human

lives can arise due to inattentional blindness, for example, when we are conversation over cell

phones, we usually give our full attention towards that conversation and ignore all the things that

are happening in our surroundings, which might be threatened to our lives or the lives of other. I

have just recalled an incident that a person was driving his car and also talking over his cell

phone, he suddenly hit another car from the back, while I was standing there at the road bank.

When he was asked for his irresponsible attitude, he told that he was very much busy in his

conversation, so he did not notice the increase in the speed of his car to that extent that he hit the

other car in front of him. Hence, I realized the importance of this psychological phenomenon in

our daily life and also learned that this issue should be properly addressed to avoid all sort of

future losses.

Reading a Book: The Invisible Gorilla

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The most striking and provoking aspect when reading this book is that it makes the reader

less sure of oneself. It is a good thing for readers to discover this truth, the misconception that

our minds do not or less function much the way we perceive they often do. In this book, the

author has illustrated this concept in greater detail by utilizing some scientific findings and a

wide assortment of stories. It is an eye opener for readers to discover how we miss a whole lot

about how we view ourselves and the world. It is interesting revelation how faulty intuitions

influences our reasoning and usually leads us into trouble and the corrupt systems that exist in

the society.

The author attempts to explain the high amount of money companies would spend to

launch products yet the analysts within these companies know it will fail. Also, it is fascinating

how police officers may fail to notice a brutal assault, yet they run past the scene. In the book, it

is interesting to discover how award-winning movies possess several editing errors. The

experience and perception about our surrounding are based on our thinking, and everyday

illusions always limit it. From the book, the author reveals how the human brain is always

tempted by the immediate, effortless self-improvement and quick fixes. Apparently, the author

has disclosed the possible incidences when we can fall into traps of faulty intuitions and some of

the ways we can reduce these effects in our everyday life.

As true this information may be, there are certain areas to which I will disagree with the

author. It remains uncertain to believe how intuition may occur in big companies. In enterprises,

the process of launching a new product undergoes intense analysis and investigations. Therefore,

it is less likely that a company would spend billions of money to sanction the development of a

product it is known it will fail in the long run. It is hard to figure out how faulty intuition will

land one into trouble if one is careful enough to discover and evaluate things in details. It is
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confusing to rely on this concept because the human brain can decipher information and

judgments of a person are always right. For a healthy individual, this may not easily happen

except when one is ill.

By claiming that a police officer would pass by a crime scene without noticing may not

be true. A crime scene is often marked by a large crowd and loud noises that may be heard

perhaps even more than a mile away, so it is not easy to believe that a police officer will fail to

notice such an incidence. Though it is true poor judgment may bring about faulty intuitions, on

the other hand, it must not be taken to the end. It this book, Invisible Gorilla, it seems the author

has placed more emphasis on outright failure to perceive and experience situations as they are. It

then remains that the author has over do this explanation and may raise more questions among

the readers. It should be appreciated this kind of faulty perceptions and experiences do occur at

some point in ones life, but it should be understood that the chances of it happening are quite

small. As such this concept should be approached properly to avoid confusion.

Reflection

After reading this book, I feel really uncertain about my own capabilities and my own

self confidence because this book explains a psychological disorder, known as mental blindness,

which mean that people usually do not recognize the impact of their action over the things

related to them. I also learned that the famous saying that nothing remains forever is logically

and factually a very true saying, similarly, the memory of a human mind fades over time because

it is usually distorted by the beliefs, interests and desires that an individual experience in his life.

It is evaluated that events and things that occur after the happing of certain experiences usually

distort the memory associated with these experiences and incidents because the medical sciences
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also claims that a normal human mind only store some important information in its permanent

memory, while the rest of the information is stored for a shorter period of time and usually

discarded on daily basis because the human mind is not capable of managing and storing of a

flood of information for a longer period.

This is the reason that the memory of certain significant occasions like a question that

where were you on 9/11? are barely ever accurate over the long haul, and why individuals

infrequently come to genuinely trust that their mate's anecdotes truly transpired. However, we

tend to surmise that memory is impartially honest, on similarity with a computerized recording.

This fantasy clarifies why we consider onlooker confirmation much excessively important,

especially if the individual is certain (studies demonstrate that even exceedingly sure witnesses

give inaccurate recognizable pieces of proof over a shockingly high extent of the time), and we

are regularly unforgiving, when memories end up being incorrectly. This argument has been

supported by the author by giving a real life example of Hillary Clintons description, which was

recalled by her in the election campaign of 2008. Hillary told that when she visited Tuzla, Bosnia

in 1996, she had a really tough time there and experienced a war field, while she was reported by

the media as attending there a calm ceremony, where her picture was captured while kissing a

Bosnian Child. However, her statement was highly criticized by Christopher Hitchens, who

commented that Hillary was either lying or just fanaticizing the past because no one can retain

that much memory in his/her mind over such a long period.

I learned that its a natural psychological phenomenon that we usually think that we know

lots of things, but in reality our knowledge is usually very limited and we know only those things

that are related to our field of study or to which we came across at sometime in our lives. For

example, most of the American thinks that they are strong and intelligent from an average
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American citizen, similarly, about 70% Canadian claim that they are smarter than an average

Canadian citizen. Hence, it is termed as an illusion of cause, because there are certain things that

cause the people to think that they have an extraordinary implication or effects over the

surroundings. Another misperception is also discussed in the paper, which is termed as the

illusion of potential, this is explained in the book that most of the people think that they are

just using a limited portion of their mind, while they have a vast potential of untapped

capabilities in their brain. After reading about this phenomenon, I was totally surprised because I

also think the same and therefore, I dugout the matter in more detail. I learned that this

psychological issue is common in majority of the people because I noticed in a conversation with

my friends and other classmates that everyone has the same misperception about their minds and

it is also true to some extent.

For example, in our daily routine we usually do relatively little study and consider that

our mind is not that much capable to read a whole book in a single day, but when we come to our

exam days, there we even readout more than one books in a more limited time. Similarly, when a

person is given some sort of task that involve creativity, he usually use his utmost efforts and

push his mind to search even those ideas, which are usually consider odd in our daily routine.

Finally, from this book I have learned that if we are unable to eliminate these illusions from our

minds, then the awareness of this fact is quite enough for us to evaluate how we think and

perceive our actions and the actions of others surrounding us.

Speech of Mr. Simmons on Counter-Intuition

It is my belief that Mr. Simmons is both a smart and influential person in his 2010 talk he

presented several points and bits of evidence to supports his topic of Counter-Intuition. He uses a
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few popular videos and uses a bit of humor to make his points to the audience. He uses some

topics from his book however leave some material out in an effort to focus on a specific point.

His first video of course is the video known as the invisible gorilla. This video is of six

people passing two basketballs as the video is played the audience is asked to count the times the

balls are passed. After the video most of the audience reported they did not notice the person in

the gorilla suit walk thru the frame. This provided proof that the human mind does not notice as

much information as the popular belief thinks it does.

His second piece of evidence is another video of a man asking for directions. In the

middle of the video the man asking for directions is switched with another person and the person

giving directions did not notice the change. This helped to validate the point the human mind

does not notice as much as we think it does

All the things that Mr. Simons presented to his audience seemed to work and fit well with

his topic of counter-intuition.

Reflection

The speech of Mr. Simons is quite comprehensive and covered different aspects of human

behavior and counter-intuition. He gave a number of examples in his speech by judging the

behavior and response of different people towards a particular event or how they perceive things

by playing different videos to the audiences and viewers. I learned that the effective

communication and assessment of something can be done through the use of non-verbal

mediums for example, the use of videos instead of verbally telling the situation or examples that

Mr. Simons wanted to communicate to the audiences for checking their response and how they
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perceive things is a clear evidence of the fact that visual aids make his assessment of the

audiences more reliable and effective.

From the critical evaluation of the examples given by Mr. Simons in his speech, it is

found that people just notice those things around them on which they keenly focus because in the

example of basketballs, audiences were initially asked to focus their attention upon counting of

balls, therefore most of them have not noticed the person walking in the gorilla suit. Similarly, I

have also experienced a number of such incidents in my life, for example, once I was standing

there at the corner of our street, my sight suddenly got an attraction to a 2 years old child, who

were playing with a ball. He was very cute and doing cute acts, which fascinated me and I

focused my all attention towards his innocent acts, I got too much involved in him that I even

forget my bicycle that I parked near me. When I moved my attention from him, I just realized

that someone has stolen my bicycle just from the front of me, I got really surprised.

The speech of Mr. Simon further added to my knowledge the impact of counterintuitive

actions over human mind and the surroundings. I learned that the subjective nature and an

intuition confines the objectivity of what to call irrational/counter-intuition since what is illogical

for one might be natural for another. This means that the perceptions of people changes with the

addition of new knowledge because according to the outcomes of a research study people are

usually found unaware about certain things and therefore, they perceive them irrational, while in

reality they are intuitive in nature. For example, a common man may perceive the applied

mathematics or quantum mechanics as counterintuitive because they have no knowledge

regarding the said subjects, but once they acquire certain understanding about these subjects,

they would not consider them counterintuitive anymore. Hence, finally I concluded that the
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perception of a human being varies with variation in his knowledge and experience about

different things and therefore, people perceive different things in a different ways.

Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us

Daniels book entitled Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us, 2009, offers

appropriate guidelines and information to managers and employees regarding what best

motivates them to enhance their performance. It explores the traditional strategies for inspiring

the organizational members. Even though it does not discourage these methods, it points out the

significance of focusing on an inner drive as a strategy for enhancing the productivity and

performance of the workers. Correspondingly, it covers the importance of motivating employees,

and effective human resource practices that contribute to the improved performance of the firm.

The author has used practical examples and cases to help the readers appreciate the benefits of

inspiring a team to cultivate inner drive; it will empower them to work with minimal supervision

characterized by increased productivity.

The first chapter covers the rise and fall of motivation. Traditionally, workers were

strictly required to adhere to the policies of the organization to avoid frictions with the

management. However, managers noted that the employees could not still deliver their best even

when they abided by all the regulations of the company. For that reason, they deliberated

designing strategies and programs that would inspire their teams to enhance their performance

while still working in the confinement of the organizational policies. It gave rise to inspiring

workers to increase their productivity. Nevertheless, the punitive measures put in place to
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penalize the underperforming members who did not adhere to the rules and regulations of the

company were no longer useful. The routine strategies used to motivate workers became

apparent with minimal impact on the performance of the employees.

The second chapter provides a detailed assessment of the carrots and sticks, a

strategy for motivating organizational workers. It identifies seven reasons behind its

ineffectiveness and contribution to the good performance of the corporation. The method focuses

on improving the behavior of the employees through policies that govern their working

relationships. The technique is keen on formulating policies that determine the rewarding and

punishment of the organizational members. It is of the essence for the staff to adhering to the

working regulations but still employ their innovativeness and creativity to enhance their

performance.

Included inside of the second chapter is part "A". In this second part of the chapter, the

author discusses the cons of the carrot and sticks method as well as finding alternative methods

to motivating employees to complete tasks that are not "routine" as well as "routine" tasks. First,

there are "routine" tasks which can be rewarded with an "if-then" reward which would motivate

the employee to complete tasks that are known to memory and employee knows of rewarded

compensation for completed tasks. Second, there is the "now-that" reward which is concluded in

a formal "non-routine" base and will be compensated to the employee after the task has been

completed. The compensation should be fair compared to other companies under the same type

of requirement for each position.

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The third chapter scrutinizes both Type I and X and the role each plays in encouraging

the employees to heighten their productivity and performance. It is imperative for the strategic

management to identify and categorize workers into this distinct classification to empower them

to increase their output. The type I behavior is inspired more by intrinsic desires than extrinsic

ones. On the other hand, the extrinsic motivators are critical for encouraging heighten

performance in type X workers.

Reflection

After reading this book, I came across different motivation theories and mechanisms,

usually used by the employers of different organizations for motivating their employees. It is

evaluated that a motivated employee can perform several times more effectively than a non-

motivated one because factors that act as motivators for them fuel them to outperform in their

organization. I learned about different motivators or factors that motivate employees in their

work place, these bare broadly classified into extrinsic motivators and intrinsic motivators.

Extrinsic motivators usually include those factors that are used to satisfy the physical and

external factors of employees such as, need for money, promotion, bonuses, and attractive

perquisites, etc whereas, intrinsic motivators are those factors that are used to satisfy the

internal or mental/psychological need or an employee, for example, most of the employees get

motivated, when their work is recognized and they are rewarded with encouragement and

acknowledgment.

Different chapters of this book discuss different theories and real life examples to explain

the topic in more detail and with more authentic evidences. I learned that motivation is not a

continuous and consistent characteristic of a person or employee because it is literary impossible

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for an employee to remain motivated all the time. It is rather a process that is exposed to lots of

ups and downs, for example, if an employee is given a repetitive nature or routine task, he may

loss his motivation over time because research showed that any sort of task or activity that lacks

innovation and creativity de-motivate the employee performing the task. This further helped me

in evaluating that innovation and creativity also act as a motivator and help in rising or pushing

the inner drive of employees to perform with his utmost potential.

The book also discussed the carrot and stick rule regarding its implications for the

achievement of work place motivation. I learned that there are different types of employees

working in an organization; some of them may be motivated through positive appraisal and

rewards for their performances. Such type of employees are usually defined as risk and

responsibility takers because they do not wait for the instructions of their higher authorities for

performing any particular task, rather they take an initiative from their own side and try to

achieve best results for the organization.

Hence, such employees are motivated well through both the intrinsic and extrinsic

motivating factors. While on the other side, there are certain employees in an organization, who

are not potentially interested to work at all. They are usually rest lover and try to avoid taking

responsibilities, therefore, in order to motivate these employees management is usually require to

tighten their policies and internal controls. They use coercive acts for motivating such

employees, for example, if an employee is continuously reporting absentees in an organization,

he can be only motivated by the threatening him through dismissal or imposition of penalties in

case he continue such behavior. Hence, I learned that the choice of motivating factor for different

employees by the management depends upon the attitude of each individual employee and his

response towards these factors.

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Finally, I observe that the study of this book has added a lot to my knowledge and teach

me different methods of the performance evaluation of employees and how these can be made

more efficient and effective in the long run. The different real life examples, discussed in this

book also helped me in understanding the impact of different theories and their specific

implications in real life. It also helped me in evaluation of the various factors, which can be used

as motivators for employees. Therefore, I made an understanding that factors which could

motivate an employee may not act as motivator for the other employee because everyone have

their own individual preferences and needs, so that while setting a plan for employees

motivation, it is necessary for the management to critically consider different factors and

contingencies that may arise in the course of execution of that particular plan.

Popular Readership

The worlds lack of motivation is astounding. In every establishment there will always be

certain individuals who complain that the others are unmotivated. The schools teachers will say

that their students are unmotivated. The companys senior management will criticize their

employees lack of motivation. All of the people in positions of authority have the same

questions: How do I motivate everyone else? Are there any secret formulas for motivation?

Well, there is always bad news and good news. The bad news is that no one has found the

secret formula that the sorcerer Merlin used to motivate King Arthur to take action. The good

news is that the authors Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci have written an article which

makes it needless to search for the secretive magician. In the article Intrinsic and Extrinsic

Motivations: Classical Definition and New Directions, Ryan and Deci define what types of

motivations best stimulate people to take action and fulfill tasks. The article defines intrinsic
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motivation as what inner goals or desires cause an individual to be motivated while extrinsic

motivation is external situations which force an individual to act (Ryan and Deci 55). According

to Ryan and Deci, intrinsic motivation is much more effective than extrinsic motivation, which

may cause the individual to become resentful of the tasks or not perform to his or her greatest

capacity (55). In general, a persons motivation is much greater when he or she is personally

involved in the given task and not being forced by an external factor.

The topic of motivation is much more complicated than the general idea of motivation.

Many people believe that one is either motivated or not and fail to notice what factors influence

motivation. In the article, Ryan and Deci apply both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in a

classroom setting and explain how educators can use both in their profession. The same

principles of motivation can easily be applied to employees in a corporate environment. In the

end, different people are motivated differently and Ryan and Deci have provided a valuable

resource for all motivators.

Intellectual Readership

The subject of motivation has yielded many research studies over the past few years. In a

classical context, motivation was considered to be what caused an individual to complete a

certain mission. In recent years, many individuals in the field of education and business have

been searching for how to better motivate students and employees. The new environments have

caused researchers to renew their studies on the topic of motivation and, more specifically, what

motivates a person.

Motivation can be seen as intrinsic, coming from the individual, or extrinsic, coming

from an external factor. In the article Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classical Definition
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and New Directions, Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci re-examine the two types of

motivations in order to see what impact each type has on a person. The paper concludes by

stating what factors link intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to the self-determination theory.

According to the articles conclusion, intrinsic motivation is the model for self-determined

behavior while extrinsic motivation may fluctuate in its relation to the theory of self-

determination (Ryan and Deci 65). Ryan and Deci have taken classical definitions and expanding

upon them in order to relate to a more modern environment.

Now that companies and educators know that motivations are made up of various

components, they could use the information from the article to better assess their students and

employees. While there may be certain individuals who do not relate to either intrinsic or

extrinsic motivation from the beginning, a type of intrinsic motivation may be planted in the

individual in order to be nurtured or a negative or positive extrinsic motivation may be put into

place.

Reflection

During this course, I learned about different methods of motivations that are typically

used in both an academic and professional context. Historically it was perceived that it is only

the corporate sector workforce that are needed to be motivated in order to perform well and

contribute into the hefty profits of the employers. However, with the passage of time, awareness

has been increased among the people and they realized that the term motivation should not only

be restricted to the motivation of employees at workplace rather its a more broaden term and can

be applied to different settings of a persons life. For example, a teacher may need to motivate

his/her students, a friend can motivate other friend to take an initiative, etc.
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Moreover, I have learned a number of new things regarding motivation from these two

articles, for example I learned that productivity at workplace can only be increased, if the

employees of that particular organization are well motivated. The concept of intrinsic and

extrinsic factors are discussed in these articles and stated that these are the two major motivators

that could be used to motivate someone. Intrinsic motivator refers to the internal factors or

incentives that can give an inner drive or satisfaction to the employees, while extrinsic

motivation includes those factors, which are used to externally motivate an employee by

satisfying their external needs.

I learned that intrinsic motivators are usually more effective then the extrinsic factors

because it is also evident from the Abraham Maslow, who categorizes different factors in order

of their importance as a motivator for the employees. He stated that the factors that can motivate

an employee start from the satisfaction of his physical needs like Physiological and safety, then

after the satisfaction of these needs, they become less effective to motivate them, hence the

employee move towards the satisfaction of their intrinsic nature needs, for example,

love./belonging, esteem, self actualization. These needs usually do not become obsolete even

after their satisfaction, however in certain circumstances their impact could become less

effective, but these factors would work as motivator in the long run. It is therefore, considered as

more effective motivation factor as compared to the other extrinsic factors.