picture in my mind

Had math. Was only ever so slightly better than chem. Still have transport in mammals and transport in plants to complete for bio tomorrow.

Look at what I found when I was searching for psych-related jobs on the net. A study on how rewards are often not a motivator for a task.

In the laboratory, rats get Rice Krispies. In the classroom the top students get A's, and in the factory or office the best workers get raises. It's an article of faith for most of us that rewards promote better performance.

But a growing body of research suggests that this law is not nearly as ironclad as was once thought. Psychologists have been finding that rewards can lower performance levels, especially when the performance involves creativity.

A related series of studies shows that intrinsic interest in a task - the sense that something is worth doing for its own sake - typically declines when someone is rewarded for doing it. If a reward - money, awards, praise, or winning a contest - comes to be seen as the reason one is engaging in an activity, that activity will be viewed as less enjoyable in its own right.

Turk! This is probably why you find you can't seem to write or you seem to lack inspiration nowadays! Because you're not writing for the sake of writing, you're writing for school. That's also probably why you find writing our stories the easiest. Because we decided to start the story on our own; voluntarily. You're not forced. And writing is definitely a form of creativity.

In a 1982 study, Stanford psychologist Mark L. Lepper showed that any task, no matter how enjoyable it once seemed, would be devalued if it were presented as a means rather than an end. He told a group of preschoolers they could not engage in one activity they liked until they first took part in another. Although they had enjoyed both activities equally, the children came to dislike the task that was a prerequisite for the other.

Which is why telling your child, "If you get A for math, I'll buy you a bike" is not such a good idea. I think if we want our children to get As, tell them the As are not that important, but that they should enjoy learning for what it is. And the As will come naturally, as an unnecessary bonus.

Oh my god. This gives psychological evidence to the well-loved phrase: I was born intelligent. Education ruined me.

Artists must make a living, of course, but Amabile emphasizes that "the negative impact on creativity of working for rewards can be minimized'' by playing down the significance of these rewards and trying not to use them in a controlling way. Creative work, the research suggests, cannot be forced, but only allowed to happen.

Hope that helps a bit.

Now I can see why people start to hate their jobs over time. They no longer work for the joy of it, but work for money. The work becomes a means to an end... and it becomes hated. And performance level drops.

WHICH IS WHY... If I do like psychology, I should do it! Right? Then I'd be learning psychology cause I want to and I won't be doing some popular uni course just for the sake that I get a degree and get a secure job. That's not enough motivation and will increase the likelihood of my not doing well academically.

That study also explains why privately-tutored kids are such geniuses! They're not ruined by the whole grading system.

But now... Regardless of this bit of fascinating revelation of the human mind (Oh, I do think psych's for me!) I have to get off the net, go mug Bio, so I can get good grades. Hah.