Motivating Humans: Goals, Emotions, and Personal Agency Beliefs

Book Description

"Motivating Humans represents an excellent integration of different motivational constructs. . . . The main purpose of Ford's book and his theory, motivational systems theory (MST), is to provide an integrative and coherent model of motivation that synthesizes the various constructs from the different theories into one comprehensive framework. . . . It represents an important addition to the knowledge base on motivation and will be generative of much future research. Moreover, the book presents the framework in a scholarly, yet readable, fashion that makes the book accessible to professional psychologists as well as graduate and undergraduate students." --Paul R. Pintrich in Contemporary Psychology Why do people do the things they do? In Motivating Humans, Ford answers this age-old question and offers the reader a precise and comprehensive description of the basic substance of human motivation--what it is, how it works, and how it impacts what people do and how well they do it. He also shows how classic and contemporary motivation theory in education, management, and psychology can be integrated into a coherent and unified framework called Motivational Systems Theory, from which he derives 17 principles for motivating humans. Different from any other motivation book, Motivating Humans presents numerous unique features: a variety of concrete examples to bridge the gap between abstract theory and the world of practical human affairs; an applications chapter that explores such issues as ways to promote social responsibility in youth, ways to increase work productivity and job satisfaction, and ways to increase learning and school achievement; the most up-to-date coverage of recent studies in motivation; and, pedagogical devices, including summary tables to help the reader digest and remember key information. Unique, comprehensive, and accessibly written, Motivating Humans will inspire a wide readership, including professors and students in psychology, management, education, developmental psychology, and clinical psychology. Class-Tested: What the Students Say . . . "The chart on the history of motivational theory organized broadly by MST concepts was extremely helpful in providing the reader with a look at the field in a glance." "First and foremost, the fact that this is a legitimate psychological theory and I can understand it, having had very little other exposure to psychology, is a very strong aspect of the book. Is refers to and explains a variety of psychological theories and principles without losing me. Also, any theory that seems to unify a large volume of disparate work is always attractive to mr, especially if it does a good enough job surveying its predecessors as I think the book does. Finally, I think that the summary of the LSF in chapter two was integral to the 'largeness' or wide-view of the book. It helped to tie in and explain the 'whole-person' approach to motivational theory." I really liked how MST emphasized the role of emotions in motivation and human action where other theories had rationalized them. Emotions are very powerful and, I believe, virtually impossible to explain away--something that I think psychology does too readily." "Motivational Systems Theory is the most comprehensive and compelling theory of human motivation which I have seen to date. Martin Ford has taken an impoverished and muddled field of psychological inquiry and transformed it into a coherent and useful tool for explaining human behavior. Chapter 6 is especially brilliant. It gives an overview of all the major (and most of the not-so-major) theories and capitalizes on their similarities rather than their differences." "Most practitioners in schools and business recognize the value of motivating people and do so operating from their gut; it is good to know that there is a workable and logical theory to put behind the practice and help refine it. Chapter 7 is particularly helpful; one could read this chapter and none others and still benefit." "Finally, a book which will help educators turn their students on to learning. It should be required reading for all classroom teachers." Praise for this volume . . . "Motivating Humans, by Martin Ford, presents one of the most complete and comprehensive theories of human motivation yet to be proposed. This is a significant work that is essential reading for all interested both in understanding motivation and in applying motivational principles in the workplace." --Robert J. Sternberg, Yale University "Motivating Humans is a well thought-out and well-organized book that focuses on issues of motivation. Educators, in particular, will be interested in this volume. It utilizes a combination of logic and existing literature to build its case. . . . Martin Ford's work is creative, yet analytic. Motivating Humans will certainly stimulate some serious class discussion." --Gerald R. Adams, College of Family and Consumer Studies University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada "Using a broad, systems perspective, Ford has skillfully organized a wide and all-too-often confusing array of advances in motivation theory and research. Students, researchers, and practitioners in education and psychology should find this book most helpful in providing a clear and thought-provoking introduction to the field." --Ruth Kanfer, Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota "Motivating Humans contains a wealth of information--from theory to application--to help educators increase school learning and achievement. Twenty-five pages of bibliography alone make this book attest to its thoroughness. A chapter of theories of motivation can only be regarded as definitive--some 31 theories of motivation are described and arranged in a table format. . . . Ford regards facilitation, not control, as the guiding idea for motivating people; an idea that fits nicely with the growing role of teacher as facilitator. Wisely, he offers no ready formula for facilitating motivation, for 'there are no magic motivational buttons that can be pushed to make people want to learn, work hard, and act in a responsible manner.' But Ford does offer a comprehensive glimpse into the mechanism of motivation for those who are trying to find their own paths toward inspiring it. . . . It deserves the highest praise and the widest reading for its treatment of such a complex subject in such an accessible and thorough manner. Motivating Humans should serve long as the standard source and reference on motivation." --Educational Leadership

Customer Reviews:

An Integrated Theoretical Framework of Human Motivation.......2002-01-26

Regardless of your expertise in this subject matter, you should read this book (if you have not already). It is an outstanding work, using a systems-theoretical approach to integrate the many theories related to personality and motivation. Like S. Ceci's work in the cognitive domain, "On Intelligence More or Less...," Ford is absolutely the best single source for anyone interested in understanding the domain of personality and motivation, for fun or profit!

tedious at times, but worth the effort to read and apply.......1997-12-02

the discussion of goals, and Personal agency beliefs and the tables that acompany them are fresh,useful, and thought provoking

Book Description

This highly-informative monograph will provide a basic reference on coffee rust for both investiga-tors in the field and those en-tering it. The research con-ducted has been organized based on principles of epidemiology and plant disease management, provid-ing both theoretical and practi-cal information. This approach enables discussion of the past, present and future of coffee rust research in broad plant patholog-ical areas of biology, epidemiol-ogy, genetics and breeding for disease resistance, fungicide technology and application, and disease management. In addition, an analysis of epidemics, breed-ing programs, and other rust man-agement practices in India, Kenya and Brazil are included. This new text will contain over 45 figures and 40 tables for both investigators in the field and those just entering it.

Book Description

Technology today allows the collection of biological information at an unprecedented level of detail and in increasingly vast quantities. To reap real knowledge from the mountains of data produced, however, requires interdisciplinary skills-a background not only in biology but also in computer science and the tools and techniques of data analysis. To help meet the challenges of DNA research, Data Analysis Tools for DNA Microarrays builds the foundation in the statistics and data analysis tools needed by biologists and provides the overview of microarrays needed by computer scientists. It first presents the basics of microarray technology and more importantly, the specific problems the technology poses from the data analysis perspective. It then introduces the fundamentals of statistics and the details of the techniques most commonly used to analyze microarray data. The final chapter focuses on commercial applications with sections exploring various software packages from BioDiscovery, Insightful, SAS, and Spotfire. The book is richly illustrated with more than 230 figures in full color and comes with a CD-ROM containing full-feature trial versions of software for image analysis (ImaGene, BioDiscovery Inc.) and data analysis (GeneSight, BioDiscovery Inc. and S-Plus Array Analyzer, Insightful Inc.). Written in simple language and illustrated in full color, Data Analysis Tools for DNA Microarrays lowers the communication barrier between life scientists and analytical scientists. It prepares those charged with analyzing microarray data to make informed choices about the techniques to use in a given situation and contribute to further advances in the field.

Customer Reviews:

Get a solid foundation for microarray data analysis........2007-02-18

I'm more than 2/3 through the book and I've never encountered a topic that I feel could have been better presented. My definition of a Great book is that I can understand and follow it, and this definitely is a Great book! Thanks to the author for writing such readable text. This text has not made it to my bookshelf at work, it stays on my desk.

a great book to read about microarray data analysis.......2006-08-07

I have entered the area of microarray data analysis three years ago, having an engineering/machine learning background which includes good knowledge of statistics. After reading many journal papers about particular algorithms for microarray data analysis, I felt the need to read a book so that I could get the big picture of the field. At the beginning I was skeptical about reading Draghici's book because it was recommended to me as "excellent" by a biologist. I was pretty sure that given my background I will get bored of it quickly. My intuition failed me in this case because after reading it, I found it too as being far from ordinary, and answering my needs as well.

The book is an easy-to-follow introduction to the area of microarray data analysis covering areas from image analysis and preprocessing, to differential expression, clustering, and high level analysis such as ontological analysis. The book is particularly useful in underlying common pitfalls with microarray data. Examples include failing to correct for multiple testing in microarray experiments and the misuse or overuse of the clustering algorithms. Abounding examples and clear illustration are given to support every single aspect treated in the text. In my opinion, graduate level students in biology, bioinformatics and statistics can greatly benefit from the lecture of this book.

Another positive aspect is the fact that, with the exception of one chapter about the available commercial software, this book was written by just one author. This gives a continuity of ideas and a consistency of notations and terms throughout the entire book. This is usually not found in many other books on this topic as they are sometimes just edited collections of chapters written independently by different authors (see for instance the text by Berrar et. al which has about 40 contributors).

A great incentive for me in writing this review was reading an overzealous critique to this book, written by Eric Wu in this webpage. I found some of his comments to be particularly misleading and out of context. For instance he says "the book only deals with the bare minimum of data analysis". Compared with other books in the field, the topics about data analysis covered in the book are not only more numerous but much more thoroughly explained. This book does not expedite the reader to some references but cares about explaining the things. If this book is the "bare minimum" at 500 pages, how is Mr. Wu going to characterize the other well known books in the field such as Knudsen, Simon, Speed, Baldi, etc. which have at most half as many as this book has. Knudsen, for instance, takes the reader from absolute measurements to and including ANOVA in 17 pages. Draghici covers the same topics in 7 chapters or about 250 pages, and that would be without counting the chapters on the basic statistics or image analysis. Another example of biased assessment is when Mr. Wu says "Exploratory data visualizing and data mining algorithms are not covered thoroughly in this book. For example, principal component analysis (PCA) is presented as a subsection of a chapter." The PCA description in the book is more than just fine to me. The book is not supposed to be an encyclopedia of statistics. What the reader needs to know is how PCA can help with the visualization of these multidimensional data sets and not necessarily give all the details about PCA.
A last example I give of superficial judgment in Mr. Wu's view is the so called "inflation of Type I error rate". Mr. Wu says: "... if the probability of making a correct conclusion excludes the probability of making Type II errors, 1 - p should be stated as the probability of not making Type I errors".. In general, this statement would be true. However, the paragraph from the book to which Mr. Wu is referring to actually starts by saying: "When the t statistic for a gene is more extreme than the threshold..." etc. If the observed statistic is more extreme than the threshold, the statistical reasoning requires us to reject the null hypothesis. In this case type II errors (false negatives) CANNOT occur. Hence, in this case, the probability of drawing the correct conclusion is indeed 1-p, exactly as stated in the book.

Overall, I find that the value you get per dollar spent when buying this book is high, and thereby I would strongly recommend it.

Dr. Adi L. Tarca, Windsor (CANADA)

Simple Great.......2006-05-16

This book is a must to understand fundamental statistical analysis of microarray data. Must have it.

Excellent book. Highly recommended!.......2006-04-04

Being a book worm, as soon as I started working with microarrays I bought a bunch of books on the subject. After six months working with this technique and reading chapters on all the books I've bought I can say with certainty that Draghici's is the best introductory book on microarrays. Other books around are better at describing protocols or explaining the math involved in microarray data analysis but Draghici's book does a very good job at explaining how to analyse microarray data for the biologist (and maybe for other publics but statisticians). Everytime some friend ask me for hints on chapters or books to read for learning (or re-learning) statistics I suggest this book. The first chapters are an excellent review of the basics of statistics necessary for day to day practice. The only complain I have is that the shareware software that comes with the book does not work anymore (it's trial period has already expired and therefore it is not possible to install it even if you get a brand new book). I read this book from cover to cover and I think that, considering how readable it is, anyone could do it.

Introduction to Statistical Data Analysis of Microarrays.......2004-09-28

The targeted audience of this book is biologists who are eager to get an understanding of the analysis tools they use for microarrays. The book does an excellent job addressing this tier of audience.

The book has plenty of examples. Almost all the examples, whether fake or real, are microarray-related. Whenever needed, figures or charts are provided to illustrate ideas. A few chapters that introduce basic statistical concepts provide solved problems and exercises. All these efforts are worthwhile making difficult statistical concepts easy to understand in the context of microarrays and making the book especially valuable for biologists who do not have strong background in statistics.

This book has an emphasis on major statistical aspects of microarray data analysis. There are 17 chapters in this book. About 8 of them are directly related to statistics. Especially, there is one whole chapter devoted to multiple hypothesis testing, one chapter for ANOVA, and one chapter for experimental design. The above subjects are presented in a thorough, yet easy-to-follow style. Statistical issues are often not well addressed in published papers using microarrays. This book on microarray data analysis does an excellent job emphasizing this aspect.

The title of the book indicates "data analysis". However, since this is not a clearly defined term, you should be aware that the book only deals with "the bare minimum" of data analysis. That is routines, such as normalization, transformation, statistical testing, and clustering, that have to be carried out each and every time. Exploratory data visualizing and data mining algorithms are not covered thoroughly in this book. For example, principal component analysis (PCA) is presented as a subsection of a chapter. It does not provide explanations on concepts such as loading factors nor scree test. Series data (e.g. time series) are on two pages only and there is no mention of Fourier transformation. Support vector machine (SVM), which is widely used today as a supervised classification method, is not presented at all.

As I mentioned at the beginning, the targeted audience is biologists. If you are a statistician or a bioinformatician who wants to mathematically explore data analysis algorithms, you should look somewhere else. You may be disappointed that many concepts are not rigorously or accurately defined in this book. For example, the book uses capital letters to denote random variables. But the concept of random variables is not rigorously defined in the book. One of the consequences is the weak definition of mathematical expectation. Another example is the inflation of Type I error rate. On page 220, the author claims that the probability of "drawing the correct conclusion" is 1 - p, where p is the calculated probability of a statistic versus a parameter. However, if the probability of making a correct conclusion excludes the probability of making Type II errors, 1 - p should be stated as the probability of not making Type I errors.

In summary, this is a good book on microarray analysis tools for biologists using microarrays. However, people who are seeking in-depth descriptions of these algorithms should look somewhere else.

Average customer rating:

Step by step instructions

Field Dressing and Butchering Rabbits, Squirrels, and Other Small Game
Monte Burch
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Game | Meat, Poultry & Seafood | Cooking by Ingredient | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Hunting | Hunting & Fishing | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Shooting | Hunting & Fishing | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
General | Sports | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Field Dressing and Butchering Upland Birds, Waterfowl, and Wild Turkeys

Field Dressing and Butchering Deer: Step-by-Step Instructions, from Field to Table

The Ultimate Guide to Small Game and Varmint Hunting: How to Hunt Squirrels, Rabbits, Hares, Woodchucks, Coyotes, Foxes and More

The Ultimate Guide to Squirrel Hunting: Everything You Need to Know to Hunt This Popular Game Animal

Dressing & Cooking Wild Game: From Field to Table: Big Game, Small Game, Upland Birds & Waterfowl (The Complete Hunter)

ASIN: 1585742309

Book Description

How to bring small game from field to table.

Customer Reviews:

Step by step instructions.......2007-09-16

This book takes you step by step through the butchering many popular small game/varmint species, complete with easy to understand drawings and photographs. This book makes everything clear and easy to understand.

Average customer rating:
New Practical Chinese Reader Workbook, Vol. 1

Manufacturer: Beijing Language and Culture Univ. Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

Chinese | Instruction | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
General | Reference | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

NEW PRACTICAL CHINESE READER TEXTBOOK 4CDs Vol 1

New Practical Chinese Reader, Textbook Vol. 1

New Practical Chinese Reader: Workbook, Vol. 1

New Practical Chinese Reader, Workbook Vol. 2

New Practical Chinese Reader, Textbook Vol. 2

ASIN: 7887031966

Product Description

These are the audio CDs that accompany the work book for the New Practical Chinese Reader 1 series. Each track represents individual lessons, from lesson 1-14.

New Practical Chinese Reader: Workbook, Vol. 1

Average customer rating:

A review from a real user
Chinese methods
Great Addition to the Textbook
Think twice before buying workbooks

New Practical Chinese Reader: Workbook, Vol. 1
Liu Xun
Manufacturer: Beijing Language & Culture Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Readers | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

Writing Skills | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 7561910428

Book Description

Compiled under the sponsorship of the China National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOTCFL) and in consultation with the Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK) Guidelines, the New Practical Chinese Reader (NPCR) series is designed to help native English speakers easily learn Chinese. Based on the time-tested Practical Chinese Reader (PCR), the revised and updated NPCR combines the grammatical strengths of the old PCR with contemporary material and more emphasis on learning to use Chinese in everyday conversation.

NPCR consists of 70 lessons in six volumes, covering beginning to intermediate levels, for three years of instruction. Features include balanced training in speaking, pronounciation, grammar, and vocabulary; gradual increases in difficulty, and a cyclical approach to learning with constant review of language structures, functions, and cultural knowledge; an abundance of practice material suitable for students to use inside and outside the classroom; and a new, systematic approach to the teaching of Chinese characters.

Customer Reviews:

A review from a real user.......2006-11-10

A very good book to learn chinese in a course with a teacher.

Chinese methods.......2006-02-25

New Practical Chinese Reader is an excellent textbook for beginners in Chinese. The materials are presented in a simple though explicit way, helped visually, which makes it easier to understand and memorize the contents.

Great Addition to the Textbook.......2006-01-05

The Workbook is an excellent addition to the Chinese Reader Textbook; it helps you memorize words and practice pronunciation as well as develop basic writing skills. No question, you are not going to write like a native Chinese just by using the Workbook but it will certainly put you on the road to a better understanding of the characters and how they are combined to form complex words.

Think twice before buying workbooks.......2005-12-27

I recently purchased textbook 1, textbook 1 audio CDs, and workbook 1 for this series. Although the quality of the textbook lessons seems excellent, and the audio CDs for the textbook are very clear, I wish I had not purchased the workbook.

The workbook has various exercises such as matching the pinyin to the sound, matching the characters to the pinyin, writing the characters, completing sentences, and such like. The first puzzlement came when I listened to the audio CDs I bought with the textbook; there is nothing on them that resembles the "match the pinyin to the sound" exercises. The second puzzlement came when I tried to find the answer key in the workbook. After more research on Amazon and elsewhere, I was able to piece together what you would need to make a complete set just for book one:

New Practical Chinese Reader Textbook 1, $19.95
New Practical Chinese Reader Textbook 1 Audio CDs, $29.95
New Practical Chinese Reader Workbook 1, $12.95
New Practical Chinese Reader Workbook 1 Audio CDs, $16.95
New Practical Chinese Reader Workbook 1 Instructor's Manual, $14.95 (Amazon has it, but it's hard to find)
New Practical Chinese Reader Workbook 1 Instructor's Manual Audio Tape, $9.95 (Amazon doesn't have this; I found it at www.chinabooks.com)

I have nothing negative to say about the quality of the lessons, but I wish I had known how many things I needed to buy to make the workbook usable.

It would be good if Amazon would disclose this somewhere in its editorial descriptions of the books.

Book Description

Which effects are best achieved with a film or digital camera? Which effects are best applied in an image editor? "Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0: Photographers' Guide" answers these questions and more! It cuts right to the heart of the most misunderstood-but easily applied-tools in Photoshop Elements 3.0, examining each from a photographer's perspective. This unique guide is filled with surprisingly effective examples, simple to follow techniques, and tricks that serve as a jumping-off point to spark your own creativity into action. You don't need to be an ace photographer or image editing expert. This straight-forward book contains everything you need to use Photoshop Elements 3.0 to enhance your images with the kinds of effects you admire.

Customer Reviews:

A solid intro to Elements for traditional photographers.......2005-04-18

A solid introduction to Photoshop Elements 3 that will appeal to photographers moving from traditional film and darkroom printing to digital photography. While this book doesn't venture too far into 'advanced' techniques, and doesn't explore the 'hidden features' mentioned in some other Elements guides, it does cover all the essentials and includes some useful tips and techniques. Comparisons with film camera and darkroom techniques will appeal to traditional photographers.

If you're new to Elements, this guide will give you a thorough grounding, but if you've been using Elements for some time and are looking for more advanced techniques then you'll probably find another book more interesting.

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 3.0: PHOTOGRAPHERS' GUIDE

Average customer rating:

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 3.0: PHOTOGRAPHERS' GUIDE

Manufacturer: Thomson Course Technology PTR Boston
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Adobe Photoshop | Digital Photography & Video | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000IA2MVW

Average customer rating:

Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0: Photographers' Guide
David Busch
Manufacturer: Thomson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Adobe Photoshop | Digital Photography & Video | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000VHTOTA

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