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Home > Survey Says > Latest Survey Results > Moving Motivations | |
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Moving Motivations
YouTube: Jessica's Daily Affirmation About the Survey We spend a lot of time wondering, "Why do people
do the things they do?" Instead of sitting around asking questions,
we put SmartGirls to the test! SmartGirls took our survey and told
us what gets them going. Skim through and only look at the charts to
see the results for each question, or read the text for analysis and
critical thinking, too! About You Before you read the results of our survey, take a look at the SmartGirls who answered it. Do you have anything in common with the people who responded? A whopping 396 SmartGirls took our survey. The majority were female (Figure A) and between the ages of 11 and 15 (Figure B). Another interesting statistic from our survey is that 38% of the SmartGirls who took our survey were oldest children (Figure C). That means that for every 3 people taking our survey, 1 of them was an oldest child! Defining Success When you're motivated, what are you motivated for? Is there some special goal that drives you? 36% SmartGirls believe that success means having no regrets -- which is another way of saying, "Being successful means following your heart and doing what makes you happy." (See Figure D.) But what's interesting is that SmartGirls' idea of success and what they want from life aren't the same thing. Sure, most SmartGirls [121] want to have no regrets, but they would also rather travel the world [68] and have a lot of friends [86] than cure cancer [60] or make money [80] (Figure E). Part of knowing when you've been successful is knowing when to move on. We asked SmartGirls how they know if they were really good at something (Figure F). Most SmartGirls [139] use their own feelings to know when they're good at something. They use their mind and their heart to understand it inside and out. Many SmartGirls [96] have to push themselves a little harder to know if they're truly good at something. They think of success in terms of preparation for something even bigger. When they can move on, they're ready. Some SmartGirls [59] figure out how good they are at something by comparing themselves to others, although some know they're good by not being the worst [52], and others know they're good by being the best [7]. For a few SmartGirls [44], the only way they can be sure they're good at something is when someone who knows what "good" means tells them they're good by giving an award.
School School requires us to motivate ourselves almost every day. Not only do we have schoolwork, we also have to motivate ourselves to treat our friends well, to behave well, and to get involved. Part of being motivated is being happy, so we asked SmartGirls to tell us what they think the best part of school is right now.
Most SmartGirls feel like they're getting direct out of school, such as education [107], relationships [100], or preparation for future success [94]. For others [24], school is about rising to the top and being the best, no matter what else is going on. For 68 SmartGirls, there's nothing good about school at all! Still, when someone looks back on their experiences so far and names the best, that doesn't mean they don't wish there could be more. When SmartGirls asked themselves what they wanted out of school, see Figure H to see what they had to say! Almost half of the SmartGirls who answered this question want a perfect report card every semester [200]. That's not exactly the same as actually learning something useful, like 83 SmartGirls want. Is that the same reason 25 SmartGirls want a good letter of recommendation? Or is wanting a good letter of recommendation more related to the social success of being voted class president [9]? For some SmartGirls, the best thing about school is just getting through it without arousing the ire of parents [31]. But for many SmartGirls, the best thing school could give them is their crush as their lab partner... and probably not just to talk about chemistry! So if grades are more important than learning something useful, we'd expect most SmartGirls to want to take only easy classes. But when put the question, that's not what we found (See Figure I)! Surprisingly, only 1 in 5 SmartGirls want all easy classes [81]. Almost as many would rather have all challenging classes [58]. The overwhelming majority of SmartGirls want a balance of both [258]. Knowing that the reality is that sometimes you take easy classes and sometimes you take hard classes, we asked SmartGirls to tell us what they thought about getting rewards for good grades. It'd be nice to get $25 for every A... or would it? (See Figure J.) 32 SmartGirls said they wouldn't bother to get good grades if there wasn't a reward. At the same time, 16 SmartGirls said they wouldn't get good grades even if there were a reward [16]; they just don't care! The majority of SmartGirls, though, said that rewards aren't important because they care so much [203]. They would get good grades regardless of a reward because they can see how grades are related to their future success. That doesn't mean no rewards, though! Quite a few SmartGirls say they don't rewards for things that don't matter, but they appreciate the acknowledgment when they've done something challenging [145]. So, overall, do grades help people learn or hurt people's motivation to learn? We asked, SmartGirls answered (Figure K):
Unfortunately, 1 in 3 SmartGirls say that grades either don't motivate them [57] or actually prevent them from truly learning [75]. Hopefully, these SmartGirls have other things that help keep them focused and motivated. For most SmartGirls, though, grades provide that extra push they need to try harder to learn at school [267].
Now and Later Although school is one really obvious way to learn about what motivates us and what doesn't, there are tons of choices we make every day that are just as revealing. We thought we would compare SmartGirls' big goals against everyday choices. Do their motivations on the little things line up with what they want out of life?
Why would you enter a school contest to sell the most tickets? The majority of SmartGirls [104] said they would be most likely to do it if the money went toward a good cause, like charity. A lot of SmartGirls [76] would do it for personal gain to win the cool prize. Just as many [73] SmartGirls just think that contests and competition is fun, and that's a good enough reason. Fewer SmartGirls [60] would do it just because everyone else was doing it. The fewest SmartGirls [36] go beyond competing to wanting to win and the best.
Many SmartGirls [41.9%] said that their main reason for going to college was to graduate and get a high-paying job with their new degree. The next most popular reason to go to college was to learn about lots of different things [26.2%]. The good thing is, those two things are what college is for! There are other things that can happen at college, though, and SmartGirls are still interested in the parties and meeting new people [19.4%]. Some SmartGirls don't want to go to college at all. Luckily, only 18 SmartGirls said that the only reason they would go to college is to make their parents happy. Hopefully they'll like it if they go!
Are you interested in fame? Power? Helping others? Recognition? There are lots of reasons to run for class president, but the most popular reason SmartGirls would run for class president would be because they actually have some good ideas that would improve the school [30.4%]. Good for you, SmartGirls! Other SmartGirls are pragmatic about what it takes to get into college. They'd do a good job, but mostly because they want to prove they'd do well in college [23.3%]! For other SmartGirls, they just like to be involved and active [20.5%]. That's great! Keep your minds busy.
One easy way to volunteer in your community is to help out your local soup kitchen. Look them up online or ask your teachers if they can help you find one. 31.8% of SmartGirls said that volunteering at soup kitchens feels good, and that's enough of a reason to do it! 19.9% of SmartGirls know that volunteering at a soup kitchen will increase community service hours, and being involved in the community makes them look good on college applications. It's enough for 18.1% of SmartGirls that volunteering helps others, even if it isn't fun. Why would you volunteer at a soup kitchen?
It's hard to live an active, social life and not hear about the latest new consumer technology, like cellphones and computers. Do you get caught up in the buzz? If you do, that's okay, because 40.5% of SmartGirls do, too. They just want the cool new computer! 30.6% of SmartGirls actually want to practice computer skills on their new computer. 19.4% of SmartGirls would be more likely to buy the computer if they knew that some of the profits were going toward a good cause, like helping orphaned children.
Careers take up a big part of your life. Most people with full-time jobs work 40 hours or more every week. So what would make your career the most worth it to you? For 33% of SmartGirls, they just want money. Who cares what the job is, as long as they can do and buy whatever they want in their free time! Almost as many SmartGirls, 28%, don't care if they're dirt poor as long as they fulfilled by the career and know that they are helping others. 15.5% of SmartGirls are more concerned with personal development and how much they will get to keep on learning on the job. Less than 1% of SmartGirls don't care what they do at all!
Schools often have events to raise money. Or, they rent out their school so that other people can use the rooms to hold events. Have you ever been to a school event like that? One such event is a carnival with lots of different games in different rooms where you can win tickets and exchange them for prizes. They need lots of volunteers to help out and keep the cost low so that the money they raise is enough to be helpful. Would you go to an event like this? What would have to happen to make you go? For 42% of SmartGirls, just because it's for a good cause is a good enough reason. The next two most popular reasons to go, at approximately 16% of SmartGirls each, were because all their friends were going or because a cute guy asked them to go.
One thing people are asked a lot is for help. When you're asked for help, what's your mean reason for helping? For SmartGirls, the main reason they would help out someone else is because they just like to be nice. The next most popular reason to help is because helping others helps themselves. When they help someone else, they get better at what they're doing, too. For all of these big reasons why SmartGirls make little choices, the most popular things were to help others, support good causes, make money, or prepare for college. What motivates you? Tough Decisions The little decisions, overall, are easy. Even if they might have an impact on the big things, like where you go to college or what job you'll get, the impact is probably too small to ruin your chances if you mess up. But what about the big things, the tough decisions? If your main motivation for the little things is to enjoy yourself and have fun, keep things easy, and not stress, will you keep those same priorities in important situations? Or do your motivations change?
One of the hardest decisions is when you think you have to hurt other people in order to save yourself. We're generally taught that we can do what we want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone, but does that change if our life is on the line? For almost half of SmartGirls, they're just not sure. 47.8% of SmartGirls said that they would ... sometimes use the medicine. They want to live! For 16.7% of SmartGirls would use the medicine without any hesitation. 35.5% of SmartGirls would rather die than hurt others by getting the medicine. It's hard to say who is right and who is wrong. Hopefully you won't ever have to make that choice!
Helping others isn't always about hurting yourself -- physically. As a matter of fact, helping others often helps yourself a lot! But that's not what makes decisions hard. Hard decisions require sacrifice. Some sacrifices are about money. We told SmartGirls that they knew how to invent something that would help a lot of people. Unfortunately, the time and resources to invent it would leave them broke in the process! Would they still invent it? Only 16.6% of SmartGirls said that they would definitely not invent it. They'd rather have their money. 42% of SmartGirls would definitetly invent it. Maybe they'll make more money later. 41.3% of SmartGirls aren't sure what they would do. Maybe they would and maybe they wouldn't -- they need more information to decide.
Next we asked SmartGirls to decide between loyalty and safety. If your friend has a secret that could hurt someone, either herself or others, but she trusts you not to tell, which is more important? Her trust, or safety? SmartGirls had a really hard time deciding, and it was split almost evenly! 50.8% said that they would tell somebody who would help. For them, keeping their friend and others safe was worth a possible fight or losing the friendship. For 49.1% of SmartGirls, the thought of losing their friend outweighted the danger. Something bad might not really happen, or maybe they could try to convince their friend in confidence, or maybe they want to keep trust so they can keep an eye on the danger. Maybe they don't trust adults. Or maybe loyalty is enough of a reason!
It's no big secret that doing the right thing is often tedious or boring, especially compared to the wrong things. So what would tempt you to bend your beliefs and do what you wanted to do? For 30.2% of SmartGirls, it would take some kind of reward at the end that would make it all worth it. For 24.4% of SmartGirls, all it would take for them to do it would be pressure from the people they know or the media. An equal number of SmartGirls said that they would do it to help others or just because no one else would find out.
Another hard decision is between integrity and success. Is it okay to sacrifice your integrity if it means you'll get ahead? 32% of SmartGirls said that they would be happy to sacrifice a small amount of their honesty and integrity and copy their friend's homework. In this situation, the sacrifice was worth it. However, 68% of SmartGirls disagreed. They'd do all kinds of things to not be dishonest. They would ask their teacher for more time, turn it in unfinished, not turn it in at all, or finish it even if it's wrong. Completing it, even if it isn't perfect, was the most popular of these options with 32% of SmartGirls making this choice. One important thing to notice as that 64% of of SmartGirls would finish the homework no matter what -- the deadline was important to them. The only difference was whether they would do it alone or through a friend -- and on that choice, SmartGirls were split perfectly evenly. Thank you for taking the time to look through the results of the Moving Motivations survey! As you can see, there are lots of different reasons why SmartGirls might do something. You'll notice that there weren't any questions where no SmartGirls picked a certain category. Every SmartGirl is different and has different motivations. What are yours? Read below for our critical thinking questions and talk them over with your friends! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
1. Which type of success is more important?
2. Are grades more important than an actual education?
3. Is NOT helping others the same as hurting them?
4. Do "right" and "wrong" exist if no one else is there?
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