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| Motivation to Learn: An OverviewCitation: Huitt, W. (2001). Motivation to learn: An overview. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved [date], from http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/motivation/motivate.html Definition The following definitions of motivation were gleaned from a variety of psychology textbooks and reflect the general consensus that motivation is an internal state or condition (sometimes described as a need, desire, or want) that serves to activate or energize behavior and give it direction (see Kleinginna and Kleinginna, 1981a). - internal state or condition that activates behavior and gives it direction;
- desire or want that energizes and directs goal-oriented behavior;
- influence of needs and desires on the intensity and direction of behavior.
Franken (1994) provides an additional component in his definition: - the arousal, direction, and persistence of behavior.
While still not widespread in terms of introductory psychology textbooks, many researchers are now beginning to acknowledge that the factors that energize behavior are likely different from the factors that provide for its persistence. Importance of motivation Most motivation theorists assume that motivation is involved in the performance of all learned responses; that is, a learned behavior will not occur unless it is energized. The major question among psychologists, in general, is whether motivation is a primary or secondary influence on behavior. That is, are changes in behavior better explained by principles of environmental/ecological influences, perception, memory, cognitive development, emotion, explanatory style, or personality or are concepts unique to motivation more pertinent. | | |
| Subsequent factor analyses suggested the existence of two groups of items in both the study methods and motivation scales. The factors reflected study organization, study attitudes, and two forms of motivation described as achievement motivation and fear of failure. The distinctive nature of these two forms of motivation was confirmed both in interviews (Entwistle, Thompson, & Wilson, 1974) and through the use of cluster analysis (Entwistle & Wilson, 1977). This statistical technique separated three groups of successful students: one apparently motivated by hope for success (Atkinson & Feather, 1966), one by academic interest, and the final group by fear of failure (Birney et al., 1969). Already it was clear that there were two forms of intrinsic motivation here, one which derived from the reinforcement of high academic self-esteem and the other from interest in the subject matter itself (Entwistle et al., 1974). Motivational Factors in Students' Approaches to Learning
By Noel Entwistle
2000 http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~clarks/educ301/motivationandlearning.htm Attitudes and attitude changeAttitudes have three main components: cognitive, affective, and behavioral. The cognitive component concerns one's beliefs; the affective component involves feelings and evaluations; and the behavioral component consists of ways of acting toward the attitude object. The cognitive aspects of attitude are generally measured by surveys, interviews, and other reporting methods, while the affective components are more easily assessed by monitoring physiological signs such as heart rate. Behavior, on the other hand, may be assessed by direct observation. Behavior does not always conform to a person's feelings and beliefs. Behavior which reflects a given attitude may be suppressed because of a competing attitude, or in deference to the views of others who disagree with it. A classic theory that addresses inconsistencies in behavior and attitudes is Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance, which is based on the principle that people prefer their cognitions, or beliefs, to be consistent with each other and with their own behavior. Inconsistency, or dissonance, among their own ideas makes people uneasy enough to alter these ideas so that they will agree with each other. For example, smokers forced to deal with the opposing thoughts "I smoke" and "smoking is dangerous" are likely to alter one of them by deciding to quit smoking, discount the evidence of its dangers, or adopt the view that smoking will not harm them personally. Test subjects in hundreds of experiments have reduced cognitive dissonance by changing their attitudes. An alternative explanation of attitude change is provided by Daryl Bem's self-perception theory, which asserts that people adjust their attitudes to match their own previous behavior. Attitudes are formed in different ways. Children acquire many of their attitudes by modeling their parents' attitudes. Classical conditioning using pleasurable stimuli is another method of attitude formation and one widely used by advertisers who pair a product with catchy music, soothing colors, or attractive people. Operant conditioning, which utilizes rewards, is a mode of attitude formation often employed by parents and teachers. Attitudes are also formed through direct experience. It is known, in fact, that the more exposure one has toward a given object, whether it is a song, clothing style, beverage, or politician, the more positive one's attitude is likely to be. One of the most common types of communication, persuasion, is a discourse aimed at changing people's attitudes. Its success depends on several factors. The first of these is the source, or communicator, of a message. To be effective, a communicator must have credibility based on his or her perceived knowledge of the topic, and also be considered trustworthy. The greater the perceived similarity between communicator and audience, the greater the communicator's effectiveness. This is the principle behind politicians' perennial attempts to portray themselves in a folksy, "down home" manner to their constituency. This practice has come to include distinguishing and distancing themselves from "Washington insiders" who are perceived by the majority of the electorate as being different from themselves. In analyzing the effectiveness of the persuasive message itself, the method by which the message is presented is at least as important as its content. Factors influencing the persuasiveness of a message include whether it presents one or both sides of an argument; whether it states an implicit or explicit conclusion; whether or not it provokes fear; and whether it presents its strongest arguments first or last. If the same communicator were to present an identical message to two different groups, the number of people whose attitudes were changed would still vary because audience variables such as age, sex, and intelligence also affect attitude change. Many studies have found women to be more susceptible to persuasion than men, but contrasting theories have been advanced to account for this phenomenon. Some have attributed it to the superior verbal skills of females which may increase their ability to understand and process verbal arguments. Others argue that it is culturally determined by the greater pressure women feel to conform to others' opinions and expectations. The effect of intelligence on attitude change is inconclusive. On one hand, it has been hypothesized that the greater one's intelligence, the more willing one is to consider differing points of view. On the other hand, people with superior intelligence may be less easily persuaded because they are more likely to detect weaknesses in another person's argument. There is, however, evidence of a direct link between self-esteem and attitude change. People with low self-esteem are often not attentive enough to absorb persuasive messages, while those with high self-esteem are too sure of their own opinions to be easily persuaded to change them. The most easily persuaded individuals tend to be those with moderate levels of self-esteem, who are likely to pay a reasonable amount of attention to what those around them say and remain open enough to let it change their minds. The medium of persuasion also influences attitude change ("the medium is the message"). Face-to-face communication is usually more effective than mass communication, for example, although the effectiveness of any one component of communication always involves the interaction of all of them. The effects of persuasion may take different forms. Sometimes they are evident right away; at other times they may be delayed (the so-called "sleeper effect"). In addition, people may often change their attitudes only to revert over time to their original opinions, especially if their environment supports the initial opinion. The information-processing model of persuasion, developed by psychologist William McGuire, focuses on a chronological sequence of steps that are necessary for successful persuasion to take place. In order to change listeners' attitudes, one must first capture their attention, and the listeners must comprehend the message. They must then yield to the argument, and retain it until there is an opportunity for action-the final step in attitude change. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2699/is_0000/ai_2699000027 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ATTITUDE
Attitude Change Attitudes represent our covert feelings of favorability or unfavorability toward an object, person, issue, or behavior. Formally, attitude is defined as “a learned predisposition to response in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object” (Fishbein and Ajzen 1975, p. 6). Consumers lean these attitudes over time by being exposed to the object directly (experience) or through receiving information about the object (e.g., advertising). Our learned attitudes serve as general guides to our overt behavior with respect to the attitude object, giving rise to a consistently favorable or unfavorable pattern of response. Then how do advertisers reinforce, change or create consumers’ attitude? The next section accounts for this issue. Attitude reinforcement, change and creation – controlled process - Fishbein’s Attitude Theory
This section is based on Fishbein’s (1963) attitude theory, since this theory has had perhaps the greatest influence on consumer attitude research over three decades. According to Fishbein, attitude is an independent measure of affect for or against the attitude object, which is a function of belief strength and evaluative aspect associated with each attribute. Fishbein drew his support for this proposition from behavioral leaning theory. Simply stated, his contention was that an attitude toward an object is more or less automatically learned as one learns about the object itself. That is, when one learns about a new product, that leaning occurs in the form of beliefs about product attributes. Associated with each attribute is an evaluative aspect, which can be thought of as a “sub-attitude,” an attitude toward that attribute which already exists. For example, you knew how you felt about softness in toilet tissue before you ever heard of Brand X. Through the psychological processes of mediated generalization and classical conditioning, the affect associated with softness becomes associated with Brand X as well. This is true for all salient attributes of Brand X. Thus, the overall attitude toward Brand X is derived from the original, underlying attitudes toward the attributes of Brand X. The “amount” of affect transferred from each evaluative aspect is a function of the belief strength associated with the attributes; the stronger the belief, the greater the amount of the attribute’s evaluative aspect that will generalize to the attitude object. Therefore, Fishbein’s attitude theory captures how beliefs attributes of a certain object lead to the attitude toward that object. The notion of attribute salience has important implications for attitude change within the Fishbein theory. Since attitudes are viewed as being causally determined by cognitive structure, then the Fishbein theory implies three basic strategies for attitude change:
1) Change the belief strength associated with an attribute, 2) change the evaluative aspect associated with an attribute, and 3) introduce a previously nonsalient attribute into cognitive structure. Therefore, advertisements focusing on one (or more) of the above three strategies should succeed in changing, reinforcing or creating one’s attitude.
Post-Attitude-Change: Explicit Attitude vs. Implicit Attitude
When an attitude changes from A to B, what happens to A? Most theories assume, at least implicitly that the new attitude replaces the former one. However, emerging research in psychology suggest that a new attitude can override, but not replace, the old one, resulting in dual attitudes. One of which is an automatic, implicit attitude and the other of which is an explicit attitude. Implicit attitudes as evaluations that 1) have an unknown origin (i.e., people are unaware of the basis of their evaluation); 2) are activated automatically; and 3) influence implicit responses, namely, uncontrollable responses and ones that people do not view as an expression of their attitude and thus do not attempt to control. Applying the concept of implicit attitude to the present framework of how advertising works, consumers can possess implicit attitude by being repeatedly exposed to advertising stimuli even when it is placed in peripheral vision area. That is, unconscious processing of advertising placed in one’s peripheral vision area generates implicit attitude that is stored in memory, and this implicit memory influence consumers’ future responses that is beyond one’s control. Examples of implicit attitudes are evaluations resulting from mere exposure, people are aware of their attitude but not where it came from; implicit prejudice, people seem to be unaware of the evaluation that they possess a negative evaluation of an out-group. Because the implicit attitude is habitual and automatic, it is the default response that is expressed when people do not have the capacity or motivation to retrieve the more recent attitude. The explicit attitudes expressed and acted on when people have the motivation and cognitive capacity to retrieve it. For example, when consumers are under time pressure, they are unable to retrieve their explicit attitudes from memory and thus react to a stimulus based on their implicit attitudes, which has been activated automatically. On the other hand when not under time pressure, consumers retrieve and react to a stimulus based on their explicit attitudes. However the implicit attitudes can be overridden by explicit attitudes that take longer to retrieve, particularly if the implicit attitudes are not very strong. Therefore, in the framework of how advertising works, implicit memory certainly is closely linked to implicit memory. That is, when advertisements are placed outside of one’s focal attention area, with sufficient number of repetition, consumers can have an implicit memory as well as implicit attitude that guide their behavior under certain circumstances such as under limited motivation and cognitive capacity. |
http://www.ciadvertising.org/SA/fall_02/adv382j/khkim05/howadwrok/attitude.htm | | |
| Attitutes for Success in Research Go to main page "To know the road ahead, ask those coming back."
- Chinese proverb INTRODUCTION One's attitude is an important ingredient of success in research. What is attitude? Persisting feeling or emotion of a person that influences choice of action and response to stimulus. Defined as a disposition or tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain thing (idea, object, person, situation). They encompass, or are closely related to, our opinions and beliefs and are based upon our experiences. Training that produces tangible (real) results starts by changing behavior...which ultimately changes attitudes. (from “Learning, Performance and Training Definitions”) In general, attitude is a mind-set, a state of mind. It encompasses the feelings, understandings, and beliefs that one has about something. Different individuals obviously have different attitudes. Their attitudes about different subjects have been shaped by their knowledge and experiences and by the combination of traits (characteristics) that comprise their personalities. | | | Attitude:
Mind-set, a state of mind with
feelings + emotions
+ understandings + beliefs knowledge + experience + traits & personalities → attitude | THE RESEARCH ATTITUDE | | | | A positive but realistic attitude will help a researcher be successful in research. Unfortunately, some people who are new to research have an idealized, preconceived notion about research. According to such researchers everything goes as planned as in undergraduate laboratory classes: · set up the apparatus · start the process, · take data, · throw the results into the computer, · and voila-beautiful results. In reality, research rarely proceeds in such an idealized way. Failures and setbacks occur and are unavoidable in research. Dealing with such problems will influence any researcher's ultimate success in a project and attitude towards research. How you deal with problems encountered in research is a primary indicator of your research attitude. How do you deal with failure? How do you react when you face an apparent dead end in a project, whether it is writing a paper, building a model kit, performing research, or almost anything in life? | | | Research rarely proceeds in an idealized way. Failures and setbacks are common and unavoidable Solution:
A positive but realistic attitude | Attitude was informally defined above as a mind-set. More formally, an attitude is a learned internal state of mind that influences personal decision making with respect to some activity or person. Attitudes can be acquired (obtained) directly by doing or indirectly by learning from either human models or reading. That is, attitudes are the result of learning, with positive attitudes developed from positive experiences and negative attitudes developed from negative experiences. New attitudes can be developed, and existing attitudes can be modified by external events. Three elements are necessary for the learning of an attitude: · motivation, · performance, · and feedback. As you approach a new activity, past experiences create an expectation, and this expectation is a motivating factor in learning. If the motivation leads to performance, the performance can reinforce the expectation, thus solidifying attitude development. For the attitude to become an element of one's decision making, then feedback, direct or vicarious (indirect), in the form of success in applying the attitude, is an important element of attitude learning. One's attitude towards research influences how a person mentally approaches research, including all work and human interactions related to that research. Your initial attitude will influence the extent to which you are motivated toward involvement in research. Do not allow negative feelings to keep you from getting involved in research. | | | Attitudes are the result of learning:
(+) experiences → (+) attitudes
(-) experiences → (-) attitudes Elements of attitude learning:
motivation, performance, feedback approach a new activity → past experience →expectation → motivation → performance → reinformance of the expectations →attitude development So never allow negative feelings | It is this initial mind-set that will also determine how well you will deal with the problems that you encounter in your research projects: · A positive attitude will enable you to find solutions to problems as quickly as possible. · Dealing properly with failures will minimize their effect on the quality of the research results and maximize your success as a researcher. · A negative attitude will hamper (hinder, delay) your efforts in research, both in terms of technical proficiency and in terms of the interpersonal relationships that research requires. Top of Page | | | A (+) attitude = fast solutions, high quality research A (-) attitude = waste of time, poor technical proficiency, weak interpersonal relations | MOTIVATION TOWARD RESEARCH Setting goals that are high, but still within one's ability, often serves as motivation that enables an individual to achieve his or her goals. Extending this idea to the topic of research, motivation toward research can be generated by setting goals. In this sense, research is like a wheelbarrow (handcart). Nothing happens until it is pushed. The goals push the research wheelbarrow. Several traits can serve as positive motivation toward developing the proper research attitude. Several of these traits will be discussed here. | | | Set high but realistic goals
 | I Can Do It! Because research often involves long periods of time without noticeable progress, an “I-can-do-it” attitude will improve your likelihood of success. This element of attitude can be viewed as the confidence factor. Self-confidence will help you when progress slows or when you hit stumbling (barrier) blocks. Please also note that although confidence is very important for success in research, over-confidence can be detrimental (harmful). It is important to believe that the hard work that you put into research will ultimately yield success. However, you should temper (soften) your self-confidence with an equal amount of realism. Begin by accepting the fact that everything will not work correctly at first. But at the same time, believe that you will still be able to overcome the problems and produce useful results. To be successful, you must thoroughly study what you are researching. As you learn more about a subject, you will gain more self-confidence. Never forget that being positive and feeling confident that you will succeed are two principal ingredients of a good research attitude. | | | I can do it =
self-confidence + hard work
Caution: be realistic,
Over-confidence can be harmful. | I Will Enjoy Research! If your initial expectation is that research will be stressful and unrewarding, then you will be negatively motivated toward getting involved in research resulting with a negative attitude towards research. To prevent this, it is important to begin your initial attempt at research expecting to enjoy research. Then, a small success that follows a setback will begin to develop a positive attitude toward research. Many researchers, even those who enjoy their work, find research stressful. This is especially true when something goes wrong: maybe an experiment that required weeks of preparation failed before measurements could be made, or the resulting data do not seem rational. The best way to avoid the stress caused by research is to embark (launch) on the project with the belief that satisfaction may need to wait until the research has been completed. Does that sound rational to you? Think about a professional athlete. After having won a game, the stress of the stressful training days and journeys will be forgotten. The same is true about research. While the research may produce stressful situations, a "love of the game" can help you control the stress and work toward success in research. While you will not have this love-of- the-game attitude when you first get started in research, it will come with time. One effective way to ensure that you will enjoy research is to find an interesting topic. As long as your topic interests you and you have a good mentor (advisor, supervisor), you will enjoy the research. As you progress in your research, you may find it more interesting, and your effectiveness at doing the research will increase. Moreover, after having experienced failures, you will not as readily get frustrated or overwrought (exhausted) by them. Your research experience will allow you to confront setbacks with a more positive attitude. | | | A good initial attitude:
Research is joyful and rewarding The rule of thumb:
Failures are normal. Satisfaction may need to wait until the research has been completed. Find an interesting topic:
"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life" (Confucius) | Talent + Success, Talent + Hard Work = Success Successful researchers are generally expected to possess both natural intellectual ability (intelligence) and an ability to solve problems. A "straight A" student is often perceived as possessing those qualities. Previous academic success can lead a highly successful student to truly believe in his or her talent alone. Such a student “may” expect that research will be easy and effort will not be a factor in his or her success. Such a person typically has unrealistic expectations and a false sense of confidence in his or her ability. Similarly, an average student may feel that he or she has less potential to do research than a "smart" student, thus believing that he or she has less chance of success in research. Success in research is not assured to anyone, not even a genius. Success is determined by a number of factors. While intellect is a factor, numerous others, including determination, persistence, and the desire and confidence to overcome failures, are also involved. Numerous examples from the history of research show that you can succeed with whatever talent you have as long as you are willing to expend the proverbial (widely known) perspiration (sweat). Some researchers never fared well in school. Thomas Edison was thought to have little talent. However, he had faith in his ability and continued working toward worthwhile goals. Edison's famous quotation, "Success is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration" highlights the point. Evidence shows that research is not limited to those with the high grade point averages. If you are just an average student, don’t worry, because you can still be successful in research with hard work, dedication, and faith in your ability. You can be successful! Conversely, if you have exceptional grades, do not believe success in research is assured. The bottom line is that intellectual ability certainly helps, but only to a certain point. Success in research is the result of many other factors, including attitude, proper time management, moral character, and the ability to interact effectively with others. | | | success ≠ high IQ instead, success =
IQ + determination + persistence + desire and confidence to overcome failures "Success is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine-percent perspiration" (Edison) So, everybody can be successful with enough hard work + dedication + faith in one's ability | I Wonder How That Works! Are you curios? (Do you eagerly seek out knowledge of topics with which you are unfamiliar?) Natural curiosity is a trait that is important in developing a positive attitude towards research. Curiosity promotes a desire to learn, especially enlarging one's knowledge. But research takes learning beyond your personal knowledge. Research advances the state of the art, so your curiosity can inspire you to expand society's knowledge base. Thus, curiosity is a natural motivating force toward succeeding in research. Curiosity is important in two principal ways. · First, your curiosity leads you to want to “investigate a problem”, that is, to research a topic. · Second, curiosity causes you to “remain guarded”. Curiosity prevents you from slacking off (uninterested), because it leads you to question your results. | | | Curiosity - eagerly seeking out knowledge - desire to learn:
A (+) attitude
A natural motivating force Curiosity:
- leads you to investigate
- guards you (more investigation, high quality results) | Top of Page PERFORMANCE-RELATED ATTITUDES As indicated previously, performance is the second phase of attitude learning. In this phase, experiences reinforce initial perceptions and cause to develop positive or negative attitude in research: Successes can build your self-confidence, and as you gain experience, you will become more successful. Conversely, failure can destroy self-confidence and can even discourage you from research. | | | | Failure - a Reality of Research Success and failure are two sides of the same coin. Failures will not prevent you from reaching your goal. · Failures commonly occur in research, and it is rare to find where failure has not been a factor in a major research project. How often have we been reminded of the need to learn from our mistakes? · Failure, strange as it may seem, is an inevitable part of a researcher's success. It is extremely rare for anyone to get perfect results on their first try. You need to be persistent in checking even seemingly good results until you absolutely convince yourself of their accuracy. · If a failure is viewed as insurmountable (impossible to overcome), then the frustration will lead to disillusionment (release from misbelief) and your confidence will waver (damage). Persistence, which is the belief in holding firm to your research goals despite setbacks or failures, is a positive trait for researchers. Finding errors in your work is not the only way that you will encounter failures. Failures occur when equipment breaks down, uncontrollable factors introduce too much random variation into the results, a computer program is difficult to debug, unexpected results such as outliers occur for which an explanation is not immediately evident, and health problems arise. Any of these can delay progress, cause disappointment, and reinforce negative elements of the research attitude. Delays in research are common, and you should not get discouraged by them, as they can reduce your self- confidence. You should not give up merely because of temporary setbacks. Instead, learn how to deal with them. One way is to put the work aside for a short period of time: a day, two, or maybe even a week. During this time try to accomplish other tasks, either related or unrelated to the research. For example, you could begin writing a draft of sections of the research report that will be needed when the research is complete, or you could concentrate on course work. You could even clean up your backyard at home. The trick is to make a positive contribution to some aspect of your life such that eventually you will be more likely to approach the problem with a positive attitude. Going into research with this attitude will help you to handle failures effectively. 
| | | Success and failure:
Two sides of the coin Failures are common in research:
Don't we learn more from our mistakes? Failures are inevitable:
Just be persistent and seek the accurate results until you are convinced Don't allow your feelings to go down by failures:
Hold firm to your research goals Delays are common and discouraging:
Give a break and do something else which is easily accomplishable (introduce a (+) attitude) | Failure in the Experimental Design. One way of making progress when the research is at a standstill (complete halt) is to review your records of the research. By retracing the steps that you have completed, your creative talent may help you identify a weak link in your experimental design or analysis. A research notebook is an important input to the discovery of the problem. A well-kept research notebook includes all data and observations from the experiments. It also includes any thoughts you have about possible conclusions. Any environmental conditions should also be recorded. The notebook includes the past, the present, and the future: past events, present data and analyses, and thoughts about future needs and activities. A detailed and organized notebook provides an accurate history of the project and should enable you to locate mistakes and find ways to overcome setbacks that you encounter. Once you hit a dead end, you need to take a step backward, assess the situation, and be creative in generating alternate solutions. If you have trouble coming up with ideas, try discussing the problem with a group of your peers or with your mentor. Group brainstorming sessions are useful for generating ideas. Also, try to learn from your setbacks and failures. Use your critical thinking skills to extract some useful information from the setback or failure. In addition to resolving the problem, you should also enhance your problem-solving skills. Creativity enables you to turn failure into a learning experience, allowing you to gain insight that can help you get over the setback or failure in the short term, as well as providing a long-term benefit of avoiding dead ends in the future. | | | Review your records Have a well-kept research notebook be creative in finding alternative solutions to "dead ends" Discuss with others for "ideas" enhance your problem solving skills | Failure of the Hypothesis. In the face of a problem, it may be necessary to revise the objectives of the research. Even if the initial hypothesis turns out to be false, that in itself can be a significant outcome of the research. Being inflexible may make you reluctant to change your objectives, which can retard or prevent real progress. Creativity, combined with observation, can pay dividends (awards) at every stage of research. | | | Revise the objectives of the research Be flexible for real progress Make use of creativity and observation | Top of Page ADAPTING YOUR PERSONALITY A number of traits have been discussed so far: self- confidence, persistence, curiosity, and creativity. Many others are important to a researcher. Skills related to these traits should be enhanced, while traits that hinder your ability to be successful in research need to be changed. Where it is difficult or impossible to change, recognition of the problem may enable you to prevent the trait from limiting your success in research. Memory. One problem that most people have is forgetfulness. Being forgetful does not mean that you cannot remember anything, just that you do not have total recall at all times. Everyone forgets things at times. Numerous memory training techniques are available commercially. However, the simplest one is also one of the most useful: if you need to remember something, write it down. Use yellow sticky notes, daily planners, or the like. Notes and lists are great devices to jar your memory. Above all, though, the key memory aid in research is a research notebook. A research notebook should include all of your data, everything that you did, and all your thoughts, regardless of how inconsequential they may seem at the time they occurred. Self-Confidence. Self-confidence is another trait that is desirable in a researcher. Very often, a lack of self-confidence is a problem, especially for someone new to research. Experience helps most people become more confident in their abilities to do research-related work. The more setbacks you have experienced, the more confident you will become in your ability to overcome obstacles in your research. Curiosity. Curiosity is another important characteristic. It is linked to persistence. Curiosity gets you to question something, or wonder about it. Persistence drives you to do the actual work and investigate the problem that stimulated your curiosity. It is the curiosity-persistence drive that is important, even if you initially believe that a solution is not possible. Honesty. Honesty is an important trait for a researcher. Honesty is the condition of being trustworthy, fair, and free of deceit (cheating) and fraudulent (guilty) behavior. If a researcher is not honest, he or she may falsify data. Never trust the work of a dishonest researcher. You can never know how much, if any, of it is usable. While honesty is important in all three phases of attitude learning, it is of special significance in the performance phase. Numerous instances will occur in research where your honesty can be tested. An honest attitude will be reinforced when you record and analyze all data honestly and the results support your research. Your honesty will be especially tested when the data do not support your hypothesis. However, if you conduct yourself in an honest manner even in the face of failure, it will act as feedback to reinforce an honest attitude. | | | Be aware of your "negatives":
change! - make them "positive"
if impossible, prevent their interference to your success If you want to remember something:
write it down!
Never ever trust your memory even though you are proud of it. Self-confidence develops by time: There is always a way to overcome obstacles in your research. Curiosity - persistence drive makes solutions possible Honesty: the condition of being trustworthy, fair and free of cheating and guilty behavior A researcher should never falsify data. (honest data recording and analysis) | Top of Page RELATIONSHIPS WITH MENTORS/ADVISORS The mentor or advisor is not a peer (friend). You should think of your mentor as your superior because of his or her role, which is to advise you in your research project. This superior/subordinate relationship exists because the advisor has more experience at research, greater technical knowledge, and usually holds an official institutional position that carries the responsibilities of a superior. Two aspects of your research attitude are especially crucial to the special relationship between you as a beginning researcher and your mentor. · First, you must respect your mentor. The mentor cannot help you if you do not respect him or her. Without respect, the lines of communication between the two of you will not function properly and the synergy that should arise from your association disappears. Part of your respect for your mentor should be not just for the person, but for his or her technical knowledge and professional experience. In some cases, the subordinates (someone under the authority of another) may have greater intelligence than the mentor. However, this does not mean that the student knows more. The mentor often has more experience than the student. That experience gives your mentor knowledge you cannot possibly have, knowledge you must respect. · Second, you must also realize that his or her knowledge is not infinite. Mentors are often involved in the research because they seek knowledge, not because they know the answer. However, they have knowledge that can help you succeed. This is the knowledge that you seek. People should think of mentors as individuals who are themselves learning. If mentors knew everything to begin with, then your research would be pointless. Thus, choose a mentor with whom you can work. It will be far easier to work with a mentor who has an attitude compatible with yours than one with whom you are not compatible. Top of Page | | | Advisors are not your friends! They are your superiors. They have:
- more experience at research,
- greater technical knowledge,
- holds an official position Respect them!
If not:
- no healthy communication
- no synergy Their knowledge is not infinite!
If they know the answer, why should they seek knowledge (research)? Working with an advisor is like marriage:
Choose an advisor with whom you can work! "To know the road ahead, ask those coming back."
- Chinese proverb |
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