"The Argument"
David Shenk claims that motivation is key in increasing your personal IQ and succeeding in life. He refers to the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire to emphasize the stark differences of people with different motivating factors (121).
Do you think it is possible that motivation could be potentially passed down through genes? In the sense that one individual might have a higher propensity to be motivated than another. Would this be an evolutionary benefit?
-Sachin Vasikaran (sachinvasikaran@gmail.com)
I believe that motivation driven by feelings is not genetic, because that type of motivation is drawn from our own experiences and reactions to those experiences. When we are born, we don't have any of those types of experiences to motivate us such as, for example, the intense desire of Yo-yo Ma to please his father and sister (Shenk 95). However, motivation can be fostered very early on by the type of family one is born into, or the type of environment one grows up in.
ReplyDeleteCampbell describes "character" as "a heritable feature that varies among individuals, such as flower color" (263). A "trait" is described as a "variant for a character" (263). Motivation clearly does not fall into these categories because it is not a concrete, measurable character with different, distinct traits. Rather, it is a feeling that is much more murky than the GxE model, because there is no evidence that genes even control feelings or thoughts . We also know that thoughts cannot be inherited because the beliefs and views of parents are not necessarily passed on to the children; more often, they are taught from an early age.
Though motivations by feelings/thoughts are probably not genetic, there are certain instincts that are universal in humans, and for this reason, possibly genetic. In a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health, showing images of babies' faces to adults activated brain circuits that reflected "preparation for movement and speech as well as feelings of reward" (Bornstein). The images triggered a "deeply embedded response" (Bornstein), and that response could have had a genetic basis. Instincts such as the fight-or-flight survival instinct also seem to be inherited, and these inborn instincts have a clear evolutionary benefit of survival. These instincts also motivate some of our actions for our children and our responses to danger, so in that sense, motication by unconscious instincts could be inherited.
(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120316094532.htm)
-Akila Khan (starlight608@gmail.com)
In a GxE world, I believe that motivation is more a part of the environment factor than it is the genetic. Even for the Kenyans, who have so many great Olympic runners, there seemed to be an external motivation that helped them run faster. Although not the only origin for their skill, for many Kenyans,0 “the better a young man was at raiding [cattle] –in large part a function of his speed and endurance- the more cattle he accumulated” (Shenk 103). This economic factor was an incentive that wasn’t directly related to their genetics, but still proved advantageous if they worked hard.
ReplyDeleteThere actually is a theory called the James-Lange Theory of Emotion that says “an external stimulus […] leads to a physiological reaction”("What is the James-Lange Theory?"). In other words, our behavior is affected by the events that occur in our lives, and I think motivation emerges from a similar concept. That motivation isn’t something humans just have sitting in them, but that events occur that motivate us and lead to a certain behavior.. It’s a little different than emotions –which ARE our interpretations of those physiological changes- but either way they aren’t things that can be passed genetically. I agree with Akila that there are certain universal human instincts such as good feelings of reward, but there isn’t evidence that these thoughts/feelings that become motivation are genetic, and I think those are still more affected by external stimulus, even if the responses are very similar.
In the animal world, genetics themselves may be a motivation. For an example, altruism is defined as “reducing [one’s] individual fitness but increasing the fitness of other individuals in the population” (Campbell 1138). For some species, altruism may be a result of kin selection “which favors altruistic behavior by enhancing reproductive success of relatives” (Campbell 1139). Thus, there is a form of motivation that’s wanting your genes to pass on generation to generation, but it is the environment that sets up the situations for altruistic behavior, not the genetics themselves.
(http://psychology.about.com/od/jindex/g/jameslange.htm)
Agnes Kwon (akwon0215@gmail.com)