Blog Post 2, Intrinsic Motivation

For my first attempt, I stood really close to the trashcan, so my confidence level was extremely high. I made it in, partially because I was so close, and partially because I felt very confident about my abilities. However, when I stepped away, my confidence definitely went down. I didn't make it in the second time (though it hit the rim!).

My original goal was almost "too" reasonable - I was practically in the trash can, I was so close. However, I thought that the reason I made it was because I was so close, not as much because of my confidence- therefore, when I stepped back, I thought "oh shoot, I'm not close anymore, I won't make it". I know that accomplishing reasonable goals helps increase confidence for the second time around, but I think my goal wasn't reasonable enough in that I was so close, it would have been nearly impossible not to make it.

When I didn't make the shot, I blamed low hand-eye coordination. This is why I didn't have a lot of confidence: I thought, "oh shoot, now that I'm far away, there's no way that I'll be able to get the ball inside the trash can - I'm terrible at this sort of thing". That's a stable uncontrollable attribution. I definitely felt a loss of intrinsic motivation here. I was like, "oh, I won't make it, I'll just throw it randomly and hope for the best", instead of really wanting to make it and concentrating on it.