What Motivates People?

• Briefly explain why you are interested in studying your topic:  

Junior year, I did a research paper on motivation.  It was a 50 minute project presentation of statistics, quotation, and other filler information I looked up the night before to try to fill up my 50 minute time slot.  

While I was presenting, I realized that I hadn't gone in depth enough on the topic, and I should because it was really interesting to me.  At the end of my presentation, I opened up the floor to  questions.  My friends in that class wanted to mess with me so one asked in a very sarcastic tone, "What motivates you?"  I hadn't even thought about that.  I knew a bunch of random statistics, and people who study motivation, but I hadn't even thought about it on a personal level.

• The overall question I plan on answering by the end of the project:  What is the most successful type of motivation?

• Sub questions I will need to answer in order to answer the overall question:  What are the different types of motivation?  How do different types of people react to the different kinds of motivation?  Do different types of motivation impact people around the world differently?

• My plan of research (what specific Library Databases, specific websites, names of authors, people, etc. will I pursue to find the answers to the questions above):

I will look into a lot of motivational speakers, like Chris Herren and Mawi Asgedon, to see how their use of rhetoric and their use of different types of motivation influence people.

I will also do research on the internet using the schools databases, and use other peoples blog posts to try to get a gauge on what types of motivation other people think is successful.