Week 6 Entity vs. Incremental

Please list some skills, domains, activities, etc. in your life that you tend to apply Dweck's entity theory.

- Writing, english, singing, 

Please list some skills, domains, activities, etc. in your life that you tend to apply Dweck's incremental theory.

- Sports, Math, Sewing, Skiing, Cooking, Motorcycling, Work, Fitness, Piano

Please discuss how your past and present occupational choices may be influenced either direclty or indirectly by either the incremental or entity theories?

- The occupations that I enjoy participating in and continue to participate in are ones where I have an incremental theory outlook on the particular activity.  If I feel like I am in control of my experience and can influence the outcome through hard work and effort, I enjoy these activities more.  The occupations where I have an entity theory view I don't like the activity and dread paticipating in such activity.  I think the reason I enjoy the activities that I have more of an incremental theory view towards is because in Csikszentmihaly & Nakamura's article "The Concept of Flow" they talked about how the quality of a person's experience is influenced by the subjective challenges and subjective skills rather than the objective ones.  This ties into the incremental vs. entity theory because in an incremental theory the individual is measuring subjective skills such as learning goals rather than performance goals which can be measured objectively.  

- Another way that my occupational choices are influenced by the entity theory is if I feel like I don't have a particular skill in an activity such as soccer I choose not to participate and instead just say that "soccer isn't my sport."  Which really is just a cop out excuse, I do realize that if I wanted to be better at soccer I could be through practice, but since that is something that I am not motivated to do at this point it is easier for me to have an entity theory view and just simply avoid the occupation by saying that I'm not good at it.  

Describe the relationship between the self theories and your ability to particpate in and develop increased performance in your new occupation?

- With regards to my new occupation the incremental theory applies well, being that I started out as a beginner and know that through practice and time I can be better and learn more songs and skills on the ukulele.  Although sometimes I am finding a hinderence in my "incremental theory" outlook on playing the ukulele, because I find myself in the relaxation section of the concept of flow chart and being content at staying in that category.  Which if I continue to stay in the relaxation phase of flow I will block the amount of progression and subjective skills and challenges I could have if I would push myself to a state of flow.  

Week 5

1) Briefly update the group on the pursuit of your new occupation.  What's new?

This week I learned to play the song "Someone to Lava Me" from Pixar's short movie "Lava."  

2) After re-examining the characteristics of flow (Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, p. 90), discuss whether you have experienced this state.  If so, what activities have brought it about, and how often has it occurred?

Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi described being in flow with the folllowing characteristics:

- Intense and focused concentration on what one is doing in the present moment

- Merging of action and awareness

- Loss of reflective self-consciousness

- A sense that one can control one's actions; that is, a sense that one can in principle deal with the situation because one knows how to respond to whatever happens next

- Distortion of temporal experience (typically, a sense that time passed faster than normal)

- Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding, such that often the end goal is just an excuse for the process.

I experience flow in a variety of activities.  I've experienced flow through sports, education, motorcycling, playing the piano, work, etc.  One activity that puts me in a state of flow is math homework. Now you are probably thinking that I am crazy.  I probably am, but I was/am the student who would rather to 10 hours of math homework than write a paper or read a book for a class. Although I didnt' take many math classes in college, I would get estatic anytime we had math related homework in Chemistry, Physics, or Biomechanics.  I loved solving the problems and working through the process to get the right answer.  I felt very much in control and had confidence in being able to figure out the problem, time would pass by and I wouldn't even mind, and I was excited during the working of the problem and even more satisfied when I had found the right answer. 

Another activity that regularly allows me to experience flow is playing volleyball.  The only requirement here is that since I did play volleyball through high school I am used to playing at a higher level.  So in order to experience flow while playing volleyball, the skill level of those I am playing with needs to be around a varsity level in order for there to be a right challenge for my skills.  When I play with a group who is not very skilled or competitive, I find myself in the boredome or apathy category in the flow diagram and do not find as much enjoyment from the activity.  

3) Analyze your new occupation in regard to its current level of challenge for you and your current skill.  Does the occupation appear to have the potential to create a flow experience for you?  What would have to change in order for this to occur?

- I have been playing the piano since I was six years old.  With a background in how to read and play music, changing from one musical instrument to another is not very difficult.  So it didn't take long to pick up the ukuele and understand the chords and rthyms.  Currently I have been playing more beginner level songs on the ukulele, and would say that my skills are above the challenge and so I am in a state of relaxation when I play.  

- In the Resilience book it says "Flow is a state of mind that occurs when our thoughts are focused on the activity at hand and we want to pursue whatever we are doing for its own sake" (pp. 60-61).  With this description of flow I would say that I experience brief moments of flow as I practice, but it isn't like with my math homework where I would stay in flow throughout the entire assignment. I think the best way for me to experience more flow while playing the ukulele would be to switch from the calculative thinking of "I'm playing for an hour each week for an assignment and to write a blog" to more meditative thinking where playing the ukulele becomes more meaningful and I see the picture that goes beyond an assignment for class. 

4) Analyze your personal characteristics and preferences in regard to the information about autotelic personalities (see pp. 93, 95, and 97-99).  How closely do you fit that personality type?  How might your personality affect the attractiveness of the flow experience as a motivator to choose particular occupations in your life?

Some of the characteristics of a person with an autotelic personality include: one who has a general curiosity and interest in life, persistance, is motivated by intrinsic rewards, has well-defined future goals, and tends to enjoy life or "generally does things for their own sake, rather than in order to achieve some later external goal."  I would not classify myself as a full on, 100% autotelic personality.  I have been told countless times to "take time to stop and smell the roses"  because I find myself so focused on the future that I sometimes forget to enjoy each day.  I do prefer tasks that challenge my skills and where I learn and grow from the situation rather than apathy situations. Liking the growth that comes from a challenge, my personality has motivated me to pursue occupations in my life that would create the opportunity to exeperience flow.  

Week 4

Nothing too crazy happened with playing the ukulele this week, I learned a new song and a new strumming pattern on the ukulele.

One space that has become a place or as Casey describes it a "container of experiences"  is the living room in my parent's house.  We moved into this house when I was 3 years old and since then memories have been collecting within this space.  Memories such as Christmas morning, practicing the piano, and family parties all help to transform this space into a place. Some of my favorite memories within this space are the countless hours my brothers and I spent playing volleyball using the railing on the stairs as the volleyball net and Nerf basketball!  All in all this living room is not just a space within my parent's home, but rather it truly is a "container of experiences" where memories continue to be formed.  

I practice the ukulele in my room.  My room was just a space to me 6 months ago when I moved in, but that is slowing changing as different experiences and memories are being made in this space.  Tuan explained that  "What begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to know it better and endow it with value."  Practicing the ukulele in my room is an experience that allows me to be creative and provides other memories so that when in my room I think of the ukulele.  Not only is my room becoming a place, but it is also becoming my home. 

Week 3

This week was a crazy week that dragged on forever.  I have gotten used to the four day school weeks, and so having five days was an adjustment!  Since school was busy and I was focused on other assignments and tests, the ukulele was not my priority.  Each night before I went to bed I would play for 10-15 minutes.  I kept practicing the same song I learned last week and tried several different strumming patterns with it.  

Hasselkus' idea that occupation may enrich one's spirituality and vice versa is something that I have found to hold true in my one life.  For me spirituality has been closely connected to occupations that have come through my religion, such as attending church, reading scriptures, or through prayer.  In addition to occupations that are tied to both my religion and spirituality, activities such as going running or enjoying nature.  Each of these occupations allow me to connect my inner self to my outer self.  Most of the occupations that I connect with spirituality allow for meditation and time to reflect. 

When first thinking about whether playing the ukulele has enriched my spirituality, I initially thought that there was no way that it has.  But as I continued to think about my thoughts and feelings as I play the ukulele I realized that there is satisfaction that has come from being able to create something.  The ability to create gives me a sense of connectedness.  

The Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF) 3rd edition classifies spirituality as a client factor and defines spirituality as the "Aspect of humanity that refers to the way individuals seek and express meaning and purpose and the way they experience their connectedness to the moment, to self, to others, to nature, and to the significant or sacred." In my opinion, much of the controversy that has come with spirituality and the health field comes from a misunderstanding of what spirituality is and how it influences the health and well being of an individual. Since spirituality is a way that individuals express meaning and purpose and as Hasselkus explained that occupation and spirituality are intertwined.  I find it appropriate for Spirituality to be a client factor because client factors are individual to the client and influence the client's performance in occupations.  For each individual spirituality is going to be expressed differently.  The impact that spirituality will have on an individual and his or her occupations will be dependent on the meaning he or she associates with spirituality. 

Week 2

After getting home from the music store last week I took the ukulele out of it's box. I was excited to start playing and hearing the fun sounds of the ukulele.  I ran my finger across the strings and was instantly disappointed.  My ukulele sounded horrible!  It hadn't crossed my mind to check to see if it was in tune before I left the store.  So there my ukulele sat in its box underneath my bed for the next few days.  It wasn't until Tuesday when campus was closed and I was home with all of my roommates that my roommate Jessica offered to help tune my ukulele.  She has this really neat tuning device that clips to the end of the ukulele.  As you play a string it tells you how to adjust the strings to get the ukulele in tune!  It was pretty exciting when I finally got all four strings to the green area and the ukulele finally sounded like a ukulele.  My excitement went away pretty fast as my roommate proceeded to tell me that when you play the ukulele there are certain strumming patterns and proceeded to say "down-down-up-up-down-up" as she strummed her ukulele.  Puzzled is a pretty good description to how I was feeling as I attempted to get my right hand to go down-down-up-up-down-up.  After a while of repeating the strumming pattern I decided that it was time to try and learn a song.  So I did the only logical thing and started watching videos on YouTube.  I found a video that had the chords displayed on the screen as the guy was demonstrating how to play the song.  Being that I didn't know any of the chords, I paused the video every few seconds and drew each chord in sequence out on a piece of paper.  Once this task was finished I then attempted to play the song.  I would pause between each chord and awkwardly place my fingers on the strings and then say "down-down-up-up-down-up."  Over and over and over again.  Many times I thought to myself, I'm never going to sound like Jessica when she plays, but I kept trying.  Tuesday evening I was feeling more comfortable with the ukulele and came out and played the "song" for my roommates and asked if they could guess what song it was.  It wasn't until I was almost done with the song that they guessed correctly.  I was actually surprised, because if I didn't know what song I was trying to play there is no way that I would have been able to guess.  Needless to say there is still a lot of improvement to take place as I continue to learn the ukulele.

Learning to play the ukulele is my new occupation for the semester.  Occupation, a word that is so comprehensive that it has many, many different definitions. . . . How does learning to play the ukulele fit in as an occupation? 

Clark et al. (1991) described occupation as "the ordinary and familiar things people do everyday." Currently, there is nothing that feels ordinary or familiar about playing the ukulele.  

Yerxa (1994) says that occupation is "engagement in self-initiated, self-directed, adaptive, purposeful, culturally relevant, organized activity."  Well, practicing the ukulele has been self-initiated and self-directed with the help of people on YouTube. Adaptability - I am a beginner and am adapting practice to better meet my needs.   Purposeful - I am learning something new and it happens to be a homework assignment.  

Golledge (1998) offered a simplified definition of occupation, "the daily living tasks that are part of an individual's lifestyle."  Playing the ukulele has only recently become a daily task but I wouldn't go as far to say that playing the ukulele has become part of my lifestyle.

Why would playing the ukulele fit well with one definition of occupation, yet not fit in at all to another definition of occupation?  Isn't an occupation an occupation?  Anyways, I guess that is part of the reason we still struggle to explain what Occupational Therapists do, and why Hasselkus explains that the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework provides many definitions of occupation.

If I were to apply Willcock's  model of occupation "doing + being, becoming, belonging = survival and health" to playing the ukulele, the majority of what I am focused on is the doing aspect of the occupation.  As far as the being, becoming, and belonging aspects of this model, over this week I have been frustrated and excited and everything in between, but there is less frustration the more I practice the song I learned this week.  The feelings of frustration will hopefully continue to diminish as I find more enjoyment out of playing the ukulele.

Week 1

You know that point in the semester when you have so much stuff you should be doing, but you come up with lots of ways to keep busy to prolong doing your school work.  The times when having dance parties, going to get ice cream, and playing volleyball aren't even questions in your mind, you are going because if you don't you would be in the library studying for your exam.  Even cleaning your apartment and going to the gym sound like great ideas, because well you haven't worked out all semester but in high school health class they told you that exercising was good for your brain. Well for me this situation may or may not occur way more than once a semester, but I can usually count on it happening around finals week each semester.  My second semester of college was no exception!  With only a few days left in the semester my roommate and I were in the living room avoiding school work for a couple of hours as she played the ukulele and then proceeded to show me a few of the basics.  It was so much fun and way more memorable than studying a couple more pages in my sociology book.  Since that jam session I have wanted to learn to play the ukulele, but have never made it a priority.  So here I am 5 years later finally making steps towards the goal of learning the ukulele.

Most of the steps that I have taken in efforts to start my new occupation fall in the calculative thinking.  I researched ukuleles online before deciding to purchase a ukulele at a local music store. In addition to purchasing the ukulele I have talked with friends who play the ukulele who are willing to help teach me the basics.  As of right now my occupation is going to be heavy in calculative thinking until I am comfortable with the basics of the ukulele and can move towards more meditative thinking.  I am hoping that the meditative thinking will come more into play as I  learn to enjoy playing the ukulele and choose songs that have more meaning to me.

The only personal experience I have had with a ukulele is the one that I described earlier with my roommate.  Although this experience has given me a small amount of personal meaning in my desire to learn the ukulele, the majority of my desire to learn is coming from societal expectations that may come from class or my desire to conform with my current roommates who play string instruments as well.