A Brief Note On Steven - Reflective Essay

Being determined will help one overcome adversity.Take for example Jim Abbott, who was born without a right hand.He played baseball which put him at disadvantage , but with the help of his parents and coaches.“"It was my parents, my coaches and teachers, literally pulling me to the side and saying you can do

The one area in my life right now that I use a lot of willpower is my lifestyle. I recently had gotten of track with my weight and eating habits. I’m trying to get back on track but it has been a challenge. I have to have the power to not eat the snacks and try to eat healthier snacks. I give the attention to the things that matter the most to me.

I believe that through mental toughness and dedication you can achieve many goals. Such feats are often not attained by everyone simply because they either are of the mindset that they cannot do it or they do not even try. No matter how tremendous or minuscule your end goal may be, if you do not at least attempt to achieve the goal, you may find in the future that you will become accustomed to creating an excuse for not putting forth effort. Being mentally strong is often difficult for people, especially when faced with some type of adversity, whether that be due to school, home life or relationships with peers. Lacking mental strength can be a deciding factor as to if you sink or sail in many things in life.

Carter, K & Seifert, C. M. (2013) Learn psychology. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Vince Lombardi once said, “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.” Most people throughout the world strive for success in whatever they may be doing, and along with this, many reasons contribute to why success is achieved or not. If a person does not succeed, they may automatically blame themselves because of their level of strength. Others may blame themselves for not having enough knowledge about what they are trying to succeed at. The real reason that people may not succeed, however, is their low level of will, determination, and happiness. Both knowledge and strength combine to help a person succeed because of the will and determination that

In Chapter One, it discussed psychology’s roots and big ideas. In the first section of the power point that explained about how psychology came to be, Sigmund Freud’s contribution to Psychological Science sparked my interest. I have conducted my own research on him just two years ago for a project in the eighth grade and learned much about his personal life. I also recall in your last lecture, you mentioned how he interpreted dreams as representations of what our sexual desires and urges were. The slide on psychology’s current perspectives attracted my attention as well, more specifically the perspectives on behavior genetics, social-cultural psychology, and psychodynamics. Psychodynamics’ focus is how behavior comes from unconscious urges,

In wrestling, there are weight classes, and for matches you have to be under a specific weight to be able to wrestle. Sometimes that is a very simple thing to do, such as making sure you don’t eat excessive amounts of food the night before. However, other times you may have to sweat it off by running in uncomfortably hot clothing for lengthy periods of time. A wrestler has to be diligent and be able to have the willpower to resist the urge to have a snack when they are hungry, or when they have to cut a large amount of weight and practically starve themselves. Willpower is built up during wrestling, as you learn to endure and overcome whatever you have to do without breaking and keep working forward.

Kelly McGonigal defines willpower as choosing what matters and willing to agree with your values and goals even when some part of you doesn’t want to. Additionally, willpower is defined as the ability both to remember what matters most and the willingness to do things that support those goals even when self-doubt is present. She adds that there are three forms of willpower, I will, the willingness to continue when tired or bored, I won’t, the ability to resist and I want, the sense of what your morals are. Research reveals that we have limited willpower; it is possible to run out of willpower if you use it up. Kelly McGonigal is skeptical of this research, she believes what is limited is the ability to force ourselves to do things we don’t

Tara Parker-Pope ‘s article How to Boost Your Willpower breaks down key ways to help anyone

this willpower because although it was something I needed to improve on, it wasn't going

The world of science consistently generates new studies in various fields, yielding results that can revolutionize society and shine light on the world we know so very little about. However, it is easy to get lost in specific studies and view each one as its own, independent discovery. And while each experiment provides an important look into the complexities of this world, science is an amalgamation of many discoveries strung together in complex ways. This way, the merits of each study can interrelate in order to further understand something else. In the realm of positive psychology, it is important that a number of different scientific discoveries work together to explain an overarching topic. For example, two studies that are interrelated are Martin Seligman’s exploration of learned helplessness, and Roy Baumeister’s study on willpower depletion. Both are important in their own rights, but by comparing both Seligman and Baumeister’s experiments, scientists can discuss the overarching concept of willpower as a depletable resource.

What I learned in Chapter Five is that willpower is recognized as one of the utmost important keystone habits for individuals to be successful. Willpower can be strengthened by mapping it out into a habit. Consequently, willpower is similar to a muscle, the more you work it the stronger it gets and it spills into other areas of your life. Once you get into that willpower frequency, your brain come to be trained at helping you focus on goals, as a result reach success.

Out of modules 2-5, my favorite topic I learned about was "Psychology's Family Album". One of the father's of psychology in this "Family Album" is William Wundt. William Wundt opened my eyes on how a stimulus reacts, and also how I can see this reaction in my everyday life. I now analyze how people react in certain situations. One example of this is when I was younger I used to annoy my sister to get a reaction out of her. I was being a stimulus because I was provoking her, which caused her to react in a negative way. Another example of a stimulus I see in my everyday life is the weather. Weather is a constant stimulus, it can cause people to be overly hot or even too cold.

Willpower, synonymously referred to as self-control, or self-regulation, is a highly adaptive ability which allows individuals overcome habits and regulate emotions, urges and actions. How does our understanding of willpower affect us? Many modern researchers suggest that willpower is a limited energy supply, and that this energy supply is common for all acts of willpower (making decisions, controlling emotions, task performance). Baumeister’s strength model of willpower suggests that using willpower consumes an inner resource, leaving people with less willpower to exert on subsequent tasks (Baumeister et al, 1998). But what about the opposite? If we tell individuals that performing an effortful task could improve performance on the subsequent task – would this show otherwise? How do our different beliefs about willpower affect us?

Start by enhancing your ability to focus. The scientifically proven way to improve your focus and therefore your ability to have more willpower is through meditation. Research to the benefits of meditation and mental health is overwhelmingly positive. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to find a study saying meditation is negative for you. It isn’t even just the positive impact on your mental strength – studies have shown meditation to be beneficial for your physical health as well. Meditating can provide you with more energy, which is useful for your mental strength as well. When you have energy, you are more able to make good decisions and have the mental and physical strength to keep moving forward.