Research, Ambition, and Adults

According to Stephen Vassallo in "Self-Regulated Learning," it defines a self-regulated learner (SRL) as “the strategic pursuit of learning goals, in which individuals set goals, monitor performance, and evaluate behavioral strategies and psychological conditions.” 


You may ask how a SRL relates to an ambitious adult? I will compare the definition of a SRL to ambitious adults I have interviewed. First, I have noticed from my research that ambitious adults, ranging from ages 23- 53, know it is imperative that they are strategic with their life choices. When they make life choices they typically analyze how the choice will affect their whole life. They are aware that their choices at home, will affect their career and their choices in their career, will affect their home. They independently set smaller goals while working towards their larger goals. Whether their long term goals include retirement or gaining more of an education, they are still strategic about their life choices.
 

Questions ambitious adults may ask themselves in in order to monitor their behavioral performance may be:

Is there room for improvement?
Are they in the same place as where they started?
How can they improve themselves?
Am I being challenged?
What should they be changing to more efficiently reach their goals?

While they are reaching and creating new goals, they tend monitor their psychological performance by noticing that some jobs aren't worth sacrificing family time, while other jobs feel more fulfilling. It has been almost routine for me to hear in interviews that they want to do, what they love and they don't want what they love, to feel like work. Another thing I noticed with the more ambitious individuals is that they were more able to recognize signs of an impending burn out. When you put all of these tools together it is a concoction for success.


Dear Women,

My educated guess is that ambitious women have an innate understanding of the psychological conditions and the behavioral strategies that are seen throughout their life. According to Dan Golemen Ph D in, "Are Women More Emotionally Intelligent Than Men" on Psychology Today, women are genetically more empathetic than men. Women’s innate understanding of empathy proves women naturally have a better understanding of their own psychological conditions and shows they can naturally evaluate their own behavioral strategies used in the definition of Self-Regulated learning. Using empathy, women constantly scan their environment for dangers and opportunities, to satisfy their basic needs. They get a constant body-mind report about the state of the world through their feelings thus giving them an understanding of their own psychological conditions. According to Robert Stone at Psych Central, "Empathy gives us a quick assessment about whether something is good for us or bad for us and they motivate us to take action accordingly." Taking action requires behavioral strategies. Not every woman is natural at these things but it is proven that most women are more empathetic than men. While women possess a natural ability to evaluate psychological conditions and behavioral strategies there are still other parts of Self-Regulated learning that women should be taught.

Note to men:

As you have noticed, I am not a man. I can see evidence in my own life and compare it to the research in the previous paragraph but I cannot feel what it's like to have "man" thoughts. Now that, that is clarified, note that I can only give you others research and observable evidence on self-regulation for a man. According to Gregory L.Jantz in Brain Differences Between Genders, "Male brains utilize nearly seven times more gray matter for activity while female brains utilize nearly ten times more white matter. What does this mean?" "Gray matter areas of the brain are localized. They are information- and action-processing centers in specific splotches in a specific area of the brain. This can translate to a kind of tunnel vision when they are doing something. Once they are deeply engaged in a task or game, they may not demonstrate much sensitivity to other people or their surroundings." This shows that men can be more focused on their goals with less time for "other" things. So while women could be better at monitoring their own needs, men would be better at staying focusing on their goals. The bathroom gossip is less likely to get in the way of your work.

I think it would be important for us to note the opposite genders natural abilities and use these findings to help improve each others focus or empathy. If we took time to accept and understand the differences in our natural abilities, would we still have a war on gender? What if we understood that when women's closer friend and coworker were sad, they would loose focus or when men are asked to multitask, they  would feel a lack of empathy to those around them. To clarify, when I say, understand, I don't mean let them stop mid project pack up and leave or allow a man to be unruly due to disruption. I mean, figure out a way show understanding to a women who is feeling flustered or distracted. For a man, figure out a password of few words (i.e. time for bacon) you could chant, so he knows he's needed but allowing him time to find a good place in his work to break for discussion. There are ways to solve these problems and I think behaviorists have the answers to fix these problems. If you have a company invest in them and ask them to develop ways to allow men and women to excel with their natural abilities rather than letting these abilities hinder them. We have created a workplace with that divide. How can we bring these two genders together in unity?