Motivation and Personality - Movie Review Example

Crash Psychology: Motivation and Personality al Affiliation Crash Psychology: The Power of Motivation “In the episode,Crash Course Psychology: The Power of Motivation, a story of Aaron Ralston tells about feeling motivated and the psychological reasons that enable one feel motivated. Hank in his discussion relates a story of Ralston in conjunction with four theories of motivation. He talks about the optimal arousal as a theory of motivation. In the theory, in every individual’s life experience, there are two contradicting forces of stimulation and relaxation.

The two forces urge an individual to act in opposite directions. In order to reach the right level of arousal or the urge, which enables one’s actions to be acceptable in a societal setup, the individual balances between the two forces of stimulation and relaxations. The next theory is that of drive reduction. To this theoretical perspective, Hank takes cognitive of physiological processes within an individual which make people act in certain ways. He exemplifies hunger as a feeling that results from a physiological process and would drive one to look for food.

The drive caused by hunger cannot be eliminated in any other way except by finding food. Therefore, the reaction of finding food to eat is a drive reduction in itself. Also, he talks of the evolutionary perspective as yet another theory of motivation. In this theory, he makes an explanation that one’s daily experiences coupled with instinct drive allow one to act in certain ways. People are in constant need to do something, and that presence of a given tendency does not in itself imply that the status is likable.

People are ever inclined to see or do something different in their environment, and this would urge and direct their behavior. Finally, Hank makes a mention of the Maslow hierarchy of needs as a determinant of one’s behavior and actions. Once the needs of the lower sections of the pyramid are met, actions and behavior are no longer directed toward their achievement, but toward the attainment of those on the upper sections of the pyramid. Crash Course Psychology: Measuring personality The episode “Crash Course Psychology: Measuring personality” Hank makes an examination of how characters help in carving out a wholly thinking personality.

Again in this episode, he explains the perspectives that are responsible for molding an individual’s personality. One such is the trait and social cognitive perspective. He explains that fundamental traits and characters which one exhibits are at the heart of understanding one’s personality. In this regard, Hank organizes traits into five categories as consciousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness and extraversion. Each one of the trait categories lies in its spectrum with highs and lows.

For instance, an individual may find himself lying at a point within the high sense of extraversion and low sense of extraversion. Care must be taken to note that the high sense of extraversion also implies a low sense of introversion. The position of an individual in the spectrum of a given trait is useful in predicting one’s behavior and attitude, hence knowledge of his personality. He emphasizes that these measurements applicable in ascertaining the average behavior rather than behavior in any specific situation.

The social cognitive perspective is but an extension of these traits in the context of the social environment. Finally, Hank makes a mention of reciprocal determinism. In this perspective, he notes that the environment one finds himself in help in the reinforcement of behavior. Because everyone chooses the environment to be in, Hanks conclude that one is both a creator and a product of the situation he surrounds himself with. To curb emotional disorders, he suggests that restraint and locus of control are employed by individuals.