Drama Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Drama - Essay Example Amanda decides marriage is the only answer for Laura and forces Tom to find a beau for his sister. Unfortunately, the one he finds, while perfectly acceptable to both Laura and Amanda, is already engaged. This leaves Laura with a broken heart, symbolized by the broken unicorn Laura encourages him to keep as a souvenir. The play is a tragedy because Amanda, having had the opportunity to learn from her past, continues to live in a dream-world of her own creation, effectively crushing her children’s chances to create their own dreams. Amanda reveals her dreams in her expectations for her children. She continues to hold out hopes for a good marriage for her daughter in spite of her extreme shyness and poverty. This starts with her own recitation of the quality of her suitors, â€Å"My callers were gentlemen – all! Among my callers were some of the most prominent young planters of the Mississippi Delta – planters and sons of planters† (I, 148). Her expectations for her son are that he become like one of these old suitors in spite of his own youth and lack of education or social advancement. These expectations reveal that â€Å"Amanda lives in the past and imposes unrealistic rules of conduct upon her children† (Popkin, 1960, p. 46). Immediately upon Tom telling her that he has a friend coming over for dinner, Amanda already considers him her daughter’s future husband. Tom tries to reign her in by stating â€Å"Lots of fellows meet girls whom they don’t marry† (V, 184 ), but Amanda just tells him to â€Å"talk sensibly.† This emphasizes Amanda’s tendency to crush the realities of their situation and the ideas of her children beneath her own dreams and memories. Richard Vowles (1958) describes the play’s dreamlike qualities as another element intended to point out this oppression: â€Å"One scene dissolves into another. There is, indeed, almost a submarine quality about the play, the kind of poetic slow motion that

Health Promotion Essay Example for Free

Health Promotion Essay Throughout history public health effort has been directed to the control of transmissible diseases, reduction of environmental hazards, and provision of safe drinking water. The Greeks believed that ill health developed from an imbalance between man and his environment, not unlike contemporary public health theories of multifactorial disease causations, in which environment plays a prominent role (pg 5). In the middle ages (AD 500-1500), epidemics of infectious disease spurred collective activities by communities to promote the public’s health, presaging the later formation of boards of health and public health departments In the 1800s. Medieval cities were run by councils who supervised disease prevention, sanitation, and protection of community health. The first public health revolution was the struggle against infectious disease in the late 1800s and early 1900s, which involved sanitation and immunization. The second revolution was spurred by the prevalence of chronic disease, including heart disease and cancer. In 1979 Healthy People marked a turning point in the approach and strategy for public health in the US. Americans adopted simple measures to enhance health including: Eliminating cigarette smoking, reduction of alcohol misuse, moderate dietary changes to reduce the intake of excess calories, fat, salt, and sugar. Other ways to enhance health include moderate exercise, periodic screenings such as high blood pressure and certain cancers. Healthy people recognized that in the past, individuals did not have complete control or responsibility over their health status in part because of socioeconomic and environmental determinants (pg 29). The differences between historical and contemporary health promotion is that they were both based from different time periods, where back then there preventions were based off the knowledge they had. In the present times we have gained and learned so much more especially from our history, that we now have better advanced ways to promote health with preventative measures learned and understood through findings and experience. The differences developed in order to continue with the promotion of health in a better advanced way, which will better the future for generations to come.

Is Psychology Reductionist and Is This a Bad Thing?

Is Psychology Reductionist and Is This a Bad Thing? Reductionism can be defined as a theory that reduces every complicated phenomena into a number of simple psychological components or principles and then identifies or explains these phenomena merely in terms of those fundamental parts (Sloane, 1945; Peele, 1981; Ausubel, 1982; Barendregt Rappard, 2004; Vul, 2011). For instance, in psychological studies reductionism tend to oversimplify all cognitive processes, human behaviour or social activity into more basic component, and so disregard the complexities of human mind. The reductionist approach has led to several vital discoveries in scientific studies as they compromise simpler explanation for a complicated phenomenon and, the effects of one variable can be solely isolated and tested, in order to discover causal relationships. For example, in order to develop an understanding of stress the nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system needs to be studied (Minton, 1994). Rose (1997, as cited in Nagel, 1998) introduced few types of reductionism; philosophical reductionism, which implies that if all science is unitary psychology should easily merge into other sciences, thencomplex psychological behaviour needs to be broken down to physical laws (Jessor, 1958). Methodological reductionism; for instance, in order to find out about the nature of memory and specifically deduce something related to the structure of long-term memory, (Hulme, Maughan Brown, 1991) conducted a study based in a laboratory, giving participants a list of familiar and unfamiliar words to remember.Based on the findings a generalisation of how human long-term memory functions may be made. However, these kinds of researches in psychology are at the reductionist level. Currently the type of reductionism that is of most interest in psychology claims that all behaviours should be reducible to biology (Oppenheim Putnam, 1958; Peele, 1981), meaning that most mental phenomena (consciousness) are equated with biological phenomena. In this essay the idea of reductionism will be analysed through psychological research and a conclusion can then be made based upon evidence to decide whether psychology is a reductionist or not. Reductionism tends to be applicable when explaining behaviour in basic terms, with the more focused sciences at the top and general sciences at the bottom. Behaviours can be explained at different levels, ranging from molecular (physics), followed by the intracellular (biochemistry) then parts of individual’s (physiology), people’s behaviour (psychology) and finally the behaviour of groups (sociology).For instance, mental disorders may be explained by neurotransmitters (physiology) or in terms of the mind (unconsciousness) and in terms of social systems (dysfunctional family). However, when explaining behaviour all level of explanations needs to be taken into account. For example, by taking physiological explanation into account schizophrenia is caused by excess levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine located in the brain (Howes Kapur, 2009; Jentsch, Robert Roth, 1991). The evidence for the involvement of dopamine comes from drugs, such as amphetamines (when taken by people without psychiatric disorder) cause behaviour that resembles the positive symptoms of schizophrenia (Angrist, Rotrosen Gershon, 1980). The drug has the effect of increasing dopamine levels in the brain. However, one problem with this dopamine hypothesis is that not every patient with schizophrenia who takes drugs to reduce dopamine levels has their symptoms reduced, and also everyone who takes drugs that increases levels of dopamine may not show the symptoms. This clearly shows that individual differences are difficult to explain by reductionists, mainly because despite being in its smallest constituent, behaviour is oversimplified. This suggests that dopamine cannot be the only explanation, as every human being is uniqueand therefore all respond differently. So, reductionist explanation is limiting, because the same symptoms or behaviour in two persons may be caused by different factors, such as environmental or biological factors (Walker Diforio, 1997). However, The best solution is probably the diathesis stress model, which combines all approaches together. The diathesis-stress model indicates that physiological explanations tend to offer a predisposition to mental illnesses. Also, an alternative explanation is that a stressful life event causes the onset of mental disorders (Walker Diforio, 1997; Eberhart, Auerbach, Bigda-Peyton Abela, 2011). The individual may have a predisposition to the disorder but only people who experience stressors will develop the disorder. The diathesis stress model can be applied to the cognitive and biological explanation, suggesting that people may have vulnerability for mental illness but the disorder only manifests itself when triggered by life events or when a person misinterprets other people’s behaviour. Although physiological explanation can be seen as reductionist and simplistic, they do offer explanations of mental disorders behaviour. Understanding what is going on in abnormal behaviour by relating it to healthy behavioural processes is undeniably reductionist, but sometimes reductionism helps psychology to devise treatment strategies for mental illnesses. They are not intended to provide exhaustive explanations for why these symptoms exist. They do however; offer some kind of insight into what it might feel like to experience such disorders. For instance, offering anti-depressants to treat patients suffering from depression may seem like an optimum solution but the underlying cause may be disregarded, such as unconscious mental process or personal experience. However, physiological reductionism attempts to consider a more humane tactic to treat certain mental illness, as the individual with mental illness are not to be blamed and the patients have essentially no control or choic e in the matter. Nevertheless, most of these theories are merely reductionist-oriented explanation. In addition, there is some evidence proposing that mental disorders are inherited or at least there is a significant genetic component (Petronis, 2004). Family, twin and adaption studies have been used to investigate this genetic explanation. If the cause of mental disorders were entirely genetic, then the concordance rate between MZ twins would be 100% (Evans Martin, 2008). However, Evans Martin (2008) research have notfound100% concordance so it clearly shows that other factors must be involved in the onset of certain disorders. It is impossible to isolate the effects of genes (nature) from nurture (shared environment) when studying behaviour. Therefore, studies that indicate the concordance rates for disorders must be treated with caution, to avoid impractical cause and effect links. Furthermore, Bandura (1965) claimed that social learning has an influential role on children’s aggressive behaviour. However, biological explanations of aggression have stressed factors that have nothing to do with social learning butmore to do with biological influences, such as the role of hormonal mechanisms. For example, high levels of testosterone have shown to be associatedwith aggressive behaviour (Archer, 1991). These findings emphasise that aggressive behaviour cannot be purely base on a learned behaviour. Also, this explanation neglects to take into account various approaches to explain certain behaviour and therefore being a reductionist.Additionally, there are significant methodological problems in these experimental researches, as research usually does not equate to real world, which could then lead to falsification of the findings. Also, using the social learning theory (Bandura, 1965) to isolatecertain behaviour into various chunks may not provide a full underst anding of how behaviour functions as a whole. This suggests that reductionism may be appropriate for simpler systems rather than a complex human behaviour. However, Morley and Hall (2003) argue that genetic vulnerability associated with anti-social behaviour only inadequately predict an increased risk of aggressive behaviour in an individual than the general population.Other factors (such as environmental influences) determine whether aggressive behaviour is displayed in a particular situation. Similarly, (Hines and Malley-Morrison, 2005)claim that some people are more likely to commit anti-social behaviour as a result of their genotype. Alternatively, suggesting that genetic influences are probabilistic rather than reductionist. Twin researchers also assume that MZ and DZ twins raised in the same environment experience the same experience with their co-twin, therefore any greater similarity between MZ twins must be due to the greater genetic similarity. However, Evans and Martin (2003) suggest that parents, teachers and peers treat MZ twins more similarity than DZ twins; therefore greater similarity in terms of aggressive behaviour may also be due to the greater similarity of their experiences. In this respect, various approaches needs to be considered to explain behaviour, as using simple explanations may be inappropriate. Having said that reductionism can be appropriate for some levels of explanation, it makes more sense to use cellular biology to explain living cells, rather than psychology.But if all animals and humans are made of atoms, then their behaviours can be reduced to a physical level. Researches believe that the two types of units including the physical brain and physical mind interact with each other (Pandya, 2011). Also suggesting that the mind can have an influence on physiology. For example, Martin, Martin, Rai, Richardson and Royall (2001) found that same level of serotonin was altered in the brain of depressed patients who received psychotherapy and those who received drug as a treatment. On the other hand the multi-store model (MSM), which was proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) uses mechanistic, computer analogies to explain cognitive processes such as attention, memory and problem solving. This model is using reductionism to explain how memory functions, as the brain is equated with acomputer system. This model plays a restricted role in understanding evolution or memory, as it describes memory at a reductionist-level. Also, research associated with memory often involves memorising a list of nonsense words to measure the capacity or the duration of long-term and short-term memory, and the findings often offer an erroneous explanation of memory in general (Hulme Maughan Brown, 1991).Researches have found limited evidence for long-term memory. The finding to such studies should not be generalised, as the key variable is oversimplified.However, some research have found evidence for long-term memory, Bahrick, Bahrick and Wittlinger (1975) investigated recall of high school yearbooks photos to find out the duration of long term memory, they found 90% accuracy of long term memory, mainly because the information was meaningful to the participants. In addition, reductionism overlooked the notion of emotion, mostly because it is difficult to determinehow someone is feelingbylooking at neurotransmitters located in the brain. Nevertheless, studies have found that certain hormones such as noradrenalineleads to better memory performance in an individual (Stegeren, 2008). This yield to the conclusion that perhaps there may be an association between biology and behaviour (emotion). However, while it is possibleto observe how human brain responds to certain sounds by looking into a scanner, the scanner cannot reveal how the person feels when they hear a particular sound. For instance, (Schmidt and Trainor, 2001) found that certain section of the brain associated with happiness is stimulated while listening to a particular sound, however this does not mean that the person is happy. In this respect, using reductionism may not be an unacceptable way of assessing feelings. There are many arguments against the idea of reductionism in psychological studies. A prime example of these disagreements involves the discussions of nature versus nurture that whether environmental factors have any involvement in shaping behaviour. Ecological influences can shape behaviour throughout the lifespan even if that person was born with certain genes associated with mental disorders; environmental factors such as family and society play a major role in shaping any further behaviour. The diathesis stress models places an importance on the interaction between the person and their environment, suggesting the biological predisposition to any mental disorders is dormant until stress in the environment makes it active. The diathesis stress model brings together unrelated causal factors into a unified model. The flexibility of the model is that individual differences can account for various contributing factors of mental illnesses (Patten, 2013; Sloane, 1945). This means that the model can explain most instances of mental disorders. The source of stress could be genetic, or perhaps disrupted and inconsistent parenting and communication within family. All the factors above have been suggested as having a causal role in the development of mental disorders, although none of them alone is sufficient to cause the disorder. For example, it seems as though schizophrenia is a complex disorder reflecting problems with genetics and birth, as well as with more general problems living in a busy society. However, such factors do feed into the diathesis stress model described. Alongside with the biological explanation schizophrenia should also be treated at the level of experience. However, further research is sorely needed in the area of reductionism in psychology, as most of these explanations are inconsistentbecause in psychology human behaviour cannot be explained entirely in terms of one single factor, such as physiology, genetic, culture, ethnicity or cultural factors. Therefore, the all these factors should not be disregarded as most people suffering from mental illness may have distinct personality traits, specific genotype or abnormal brain structure, which makes them more vulnerable to develop certain type of mental disorder.Furthermore, reductionist theory fails to explain realism in psychology, as it only view a series of components rather than the whole, which can lead to inadequate explanations of the reality. Perhaps acknowledging all phases of explanations such as physiological, ecological or emotional could lead to a better understanding of the reality.Finally, the reductionist approach has been criticised by many, nonetheless the fact that stu dying the brain allows a deeper understanding to the cause of most behaviour cannot be ignored. Word count: 2200

Achieving the American Dream :: Essays on the American Dream

From the nineteenth century to the present, the United States has been hailed as a â€Å"land of opportunity† where individuals could achieve personal, political, religious, and economic freedoms. The image of the â€Å"land of opportunity† was true to different degrees for the African-American sharecropper in the postwar South, the immigrant at Ellis Island, and the wealthy capitalist or manager in the period from eighteen-sixty five to nineteen-fourteen with the African-American being at the low end of the rung and the capitalist being at the top.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The newly freed African-American in the postwar South had the hardest time achieving freedoms due to white men considering them as inferior. As on southerner of the time said, the â€Å"ex-slave was not a free man; he was a free Negro† . This is best exemplified in the Black Codes and Jim Crow laws of the time. If we look at the African-American of the time and compare them to the rest of the citizens of United States then they were seriously lacking in the basic freedoms granted to American Citizens. However, if we take a different approach and compare them to what they were only decades earlier, then we see that they had gained many freedoms which they formerly did not have which Reverend E.P. Holmes, a black Georgia preacher best stated when he said â€Å"Most anyone ought to know that a man is better off free than as a slave, even if he did not have anything, I would rather be free and have my liberty† .   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  African-Americans established their own churches, schools, social clubs, and even businesses which provided services such as insurance, banking, hair cutting, and funerals to the black community. With the help of the federal government they took great steps in gaining more freedoms. The Freedmen’s Bureau was the first step congress took to aid the newly freed slaves. The Freedmen’s Bureau’s main purpose was to help negotiate labor contracts, provide medical care, and help set up schools for the freedmen. The second step congress took was in passing the Civil Rights act of 1866 which states that â€Å"all persons born in the United States†¦ excluding non-taxed Indians, were citizens entitled to full and equal benefits of all laws† . Two years later, congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment which reaffirmed citizenship for all persons- regardless of race-born or naturalized in the United States and forbade any state from abridging th e privileges and immunities of citizens; to deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; or to deny any person equal protection of the laws.

Enlightenment/Romanticism Essay

The age of man is rife with varying motivations and personal reasoning. Over millions of years, life shifted from mere survival, with our minds drawn to food and shelter, into times of political intrigue and welfare reform. Buried in the layers, the Age of Enlightenment and the (difficult to define) Age of Romanticism are found. Within these two periods are some of our history’s most profound shifts in thinking. The Age of Enlightenment brought scientific reasoning to the forefront of everything. Life was distinct, understandable and predictable. Man contemplated his purpose empirically, studied methodically to come to a true conclusion. According to Anne Branham, the enlightenment allowed our founding fathers to question man’s natural rights in the world of the living. She uses Benjamin Franklin as the incomplete figure of true enlightenment. The one man who had his hands into all things scientific and technological fought actively for the â€Å"earthly rather than heavenly rewards† (55). Our most important living document, the American Constitution, finds its epicenter in the freedom to choose our own representation after careful contemplation and consensus-driven selection (59). Paintings reflected life as a physical entity. Portraits of people became the chosen artwork of the day, a marking of life in that moment. American History portraits painted by John Trumbull show the events in a concise manner, the emotions of the people stern and musing. Other artists, to include Anton Van Maron and Antonio Visentini, of this period (late Enlightenment) follow this same theme of capture rather than sensitize (GroveArt Online). Writers such as Locke, Paine, and Smith questioned preconceived beliefs, broke them down in their parts, studied them empirically, then transformed them into new ideals and theories; changing the way things were done for centuries. Their articulations of thought changed the way business and politics were conducted, a system we still hold to today. Burnham suggested when we take a good look at these writers (Locke in particular) we can see the seed of transformation that inspired Thomas Jefferson (58). The line between the Enlightenment and Romanticism appears quite blurred. It is not as though humankind stopped short all of a sudden and agreed to change their thinking. What is evident, however, is that change took place. Today, we are no longer as ideal in questioning what is right for man. This period began as a revolt of sorts against the aristocracy and their accepted norms. People began to concern themselves with emotions and the feelings of things. Psychologists such as Freud and Jung came into play. Not only what is wrong with you, but also why, and how does it feel to have that problem? Peckham questions the validity of an actual movement in that the need and subsequent fight for revolution does not in fact mean an actual change in thought amongst the world’s people. Was there in fact a change in mind away from the scientific and toward the ideal and the emotional (6). In terms of government, America found itself growing out of control. States began to fight over the issue of slavery and valuing one man’s right to property over another man’s right to dignity and the ‘pursuit of happiness’ as it were. Civil War breaks out, the basis set against the colder ideas of the Enlightenment. These ideas one can conceivably see as justifying slavery if numbers add up. Authorship offered a new selection during this era, the novel. Mary Shelley writes about the timeless battle of man versus nature with her creation of â€Å"Frankenstein.† Man’s emotional struggles in life marked the center of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, Jane Austen’s Emma, and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. Peckham, writing in the time of Picasso, states: â€Å"Picasso has in his painting expressed profoundly the results of the freedom that romanticism has given to the creative imagination, but he is detested by most people who have seen his cubist or post-cubist painting – as well as by a great many who has not. He is at home in the universe, but not in his society† (21). This simple statement takes us back to a time when the questioning of fundamental things, like shapes and colors, was not appreciated. One forgets Picasso died in 1973 – only 33 years ago. Although these two distinct ages followed each other in general timeframe, there are some obvious similarities. In some ways, the transcendentalists, modernists and post-modernists, have all maintained the basic trend in life, which is to ask questions and present the answers in a way that society will gain from them as well. The questioning being the most serious of crimes against the calm nature of a society, with the actual answer following a close second. The difference lies in the questions asked, the answer given and the format preferred. For each successive generation, the questions drive a little deeper, the context of the situations a little more complicated. The answers are increasing more personal, much to the chagrin today of the older citizens. Art today is far racier and stressing in it nature. Artists have the freedom to push the observer to his or her max. Life seems to be struggling toward a certain height where all questions are ok, all answers accepted. Works Cited Branham, Anne K. â€Å"Teaching the Enlightenment in American Literature: Shedding Light on Faith and Reason.† The English Journal 87.3 (1998): 54-59. GroveArt Online. (18 Oct 2006). Peckham, Morse. â€Å"Toward a Theory of Romanticism.† PMLA 66.1 (1951): 5-23.

Definition and Examples of Doxa in Classical Rhetoric

Definition and Examples of Doxa in Classical Rhetoric In classical rhetoric, the Greek term doxa refers to the domain of opinion, belief, or probable knowledge- in contrast to episteme, the domain of certainty or true knowledge. in Martin and Ringhams  Key Terms in Semiotics  (2006), doxa  is defined as public opinion, majority prejudice, middle-class consensus. It is linked to the concept of doxology, to everything that is seemingly self-evident in terms of opinion, or conventional practice and habit. In England, for example, talk of the genius of Shakespeare is part of the doxa, as is a meal of fish and chips or a game of cricket. Etymology:  From the Greek, opinion What is Doxa? [T]he condemnation of rhetoric as trafficking in opinions about justice has dogged the art ever since Plato wrote Gorgias. . . . The Sophists in Gorgias hold that rhetoric creates truth that is useful for the moment out of doxa, or the opinions of the people, through the process of argument and counterargument. Socrates will have no part of this sort of truth which, nevertheless, is essential to a democracy.(James A. Herrick, The History and Theory of Rhetoric: An Introduction, 3rd ed. Allyn and Bacon, 2005) Two Meanings in Contemporary Rhetoric In contemporary rhetorical theory, we can distinguish two meanings of the classical term doxa. The first is more faithful to the classical heritage; it therefore stems from an epistemic perspective grounded in the contrast between certainty and probability. The second unfolds along a social and cultural dimension and is concerned with sets of beliefs widely espoused by popular audiences. These two meanings do not necessarily represent a shift from classical to modern theory. Aristotle distinguished doxa as opinion, from episteme as certainty. But in listing various beliefs with a high degree of probability- such as revenge being sweet, or rare objects as more valuable than those that exist in abundance- he also identified specific cultural, social (or what we call ideological) assumptions based on which the premise of an argument can be seen as plausible and be agreed upon by the members of a particular community.(Andreea Deciu Ritivoi, Paul Ricoeur: Tradition and Innovation in Rheto rical Theory. SUNY Press, 2006) Rational Doxa In The Republic, . . . Socrates says, Even the best of opinions are blind (Republic 506c). . . . One can never be the master of ones own doxa. As long as one lives in the domain of doxa, one is enslaved to the prevailing opinions of his social world. In the Theaetetus, this negative meaning of doxa is replaced by a positive one. In its new meaning, the word doxa can no longer be translated as belief or opinion. It is not something passively received from someone else, but rather actively made by the agent. This active notion of doxa is given by Socrates description of it as the souls dialogue with itself, asking itself questions and answering, affirming and denying, and finally making a decision (Theaetetus 190a). And the decision can be rational if the souls conversation is rational.This is the theory of rational doxa, the doxa plus logos . . ..(T. K. Seung, Plato Rediscovered: Human Value and Social Order. Rowman Littlefield, 1996)

Importance of motivation

Importance of motivation Introduction Psychologists’ view on origin of motivation The complexity of motivation due to unpredictability and fluctuation from one individual to another and at different times has led to various theories being postulated to explain its causes. However, these psychologists agree that in way or another motivation is influenced by both biological and external factors.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Importance of motivation specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Theories on motivation Goal-setting theory Postulates that some individuals are driven to success by the goals they set. The success is measured by reaching the desired definite end. Such people set specific goals which are moderate in nature. The goals have close proximity and limited security of success. Moderate goals limit the chances of quitting or becoming complacence which are characteristics of tough or easily-achieved goals. Thus, such goals genera te optimal drive to success. Setting of goals is only possible because human beings have self determination to succeed. This is what is postulated by the self-determination theory which explains what drives human beings to achieve. This theory opines that humans are inherently driven to grow and develop and hence our source of motivation inborn. However, these inherent motivators are activated by external factors. This primary innate needs include; the need to control the events of our lives in order to feel connected to others and be competent in our skills. Thus, since we are able to control these primary inherent needs by controlling our thoughts and conscious, we can channel them towards striving for excellence. We are able to control our desires for success, and feelings of pleasure and acceptance. The Need Hierarchy theory This theory states that human beings are only driven to success by those needs which they have not satisfied. Have complex needs, we satisfy our needs from bottom up with those on the higher levels satisfied first. As one moves up the hierarchy of needs, the drive to achieve increases. Thus, the drive that an individual has for quenching his thirst or filling an empty stomach is lower compared to that of achieving his full potential or self actualization which is the highest level of need.Advertising Looking for essay on psychology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The Incentive theory This theory incorporates various aspects of the other theories and proposes that human beings are driven by incentives. These incentives can both be intrinsic or extrinsic and bring satisfaction in the form of physical rewards, pleasure and acceptance. Even though the rewards of pleasure and acceptance are intrinsic, their achievement is usually activated by external stimuli. However, it has to be noted that external and internal stimuli sometimes work antagonistically. Continued usage of external stimuli as a source of motivation may eventually replace the innate drive to succeed. Such external stimuli become part us and may even turn into ‘innate’ stimuli. Since our autonomy is very important, usage of external stimuli should limited less they replace our intrinsic stimuli. Self-efficacy and self-esteem as motivators Self evaluation of capabilities and comparing it with the task at hand is a source of intrinsic stimuli which can drive us to success despite the challenges. High levels of self-efficacy will lead to high levels of motivation and vice versa. This is because it only by believing in ourselves that we can take on challenges. The motivation resulting from self-esteem or feeling good about one’s self is not strong enough to enable us complete a goal despite the challenges. Ego and goal-orientation are also internal stimuli which can provide incentives which can motivate us. Conclusion Motivation plays a critical role in our daily lives i ncluding planning our goals in life. Hence, more evidence based research should be done on it. The research studies should include such areas as religion. Moreover, the motivation factors and psychology of athletes who use high performance drugs should also be studied.