Motivation Paper

The purpose of this paper is to consider how the aspects of my personality effect my motivation in school. I will first attempt to uncover the relationship between personality and motivation. In this paper I focus on the personal characteristics that I feel motivate or de-motivate me the most. These characteristics include (1) a high level of agreeableness, (2) having low emotional stability and (3) having general low self-efficacy. After describing each characteristic I will explain how each trait may have a negative effect on my scholarly achievement. Finally I will uncover ways to cope with the potentially stress inducing aspects of school.

Our personality is what sets us apart from everyone else. It is a unique set of qualities and characteristics that triggers our emotions and elicits a response to situations. Motivation is the internal drive each individual has to meet an end goal. There are three main personality characteristics that effect my motivation in relation to course work. (1) I have a high level of agreeableness. Agreeableness is the extent to which a person is friendly and approachable. To be high in agreeableness means that I can work efficiently with others. I am able to work effectively on group assignments and can be a pleasant and tolerable person to work with. The second characteristic I have used to describe myself is (2) having low emotional stability. Emotional stability is having the appropriate emotional control. Having low emotional stability means that I do not always project or feel the appropriate emotions. Low emotional stability leads to a higher degree of self-doubt, depression, and insecurity this can cause an individual to be more prone to stress. Potentially this means that I am harder on myself and my self-worth decreases. The third characteristic I have used to describe myself is (3) having low general self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is an individual’s belief about their ability to perform successfully in challenging situations. Having a low self-efficacy means I feel that I do not have the ability to perform successfully in my academics when the coursework is too challenging. There are many characteristics that describe my personality however I feel that these three are the most relevant to my academic achievements.

Each of the characteristics of my personality that I have described has the potential to compromise my academic success. Having (1) a high level of agreeableness could actually reduce the quality of my academic performance. When working on group assignments having a high level of agreeableness may decrease lack of creativity as well as leading to more groupthink situations. Groupthink is the desire for harmony and conformity in a group setting. Being high in agreeableness may stop me from introducing a new idea to avoid group conflict. This may result in lower grades because the assignment is less enriching due to conformity and a set time frame. Having (3) a low general self-efficacy also has an effect on academic success. Each course differs in material and the way that they are taught. Some are more theory based and some are mathematical. If the course I’m taking is math based and math is a weaker area for me then I automatically put myself in a position where I don’t believe that it is possible for me to succeed. Psychologically I believe I will receive a predetermined final grade in the course and this predicts effort that I will put in ultimately leading to that grade.

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