Michael's Fun Blog

  In the past, like with season one, Mike Wheeler holds a large priority and value on leading and protecting his friends, which he holds to be pivotal to his identity. He especially values protecting Eleven. During season one, Mike also exhibits a strong sense of control, believing that with working with his friends Dustin and Lucas, they can find Will from the Upside Down and that only effort is stopping them. Mike placing the values on friendship and having a strong sense of control directly affects his emotions and motivation. Him feeling in control gives him emotions of happiness and relief, believing that everything is in his hands which means he can control the outcome.  As the future unfolds like in season two, Eleven disappears and Mike's values and sense of control begins to shift. During season two, his values of leading his friends starts to shift to him valuing finding Eleven one day. Mike changing his values makes him appear withdrawn and depressed to his outsider...

  Attribution theory is a psychological theory that seeks to explain how people interpret events and their causes. Attribution theory has internal attributions and external attributions. Internal attributions attribute the cause to be from the person, while external attributions attribute the cause to some other external event, like another person. This theory also has parts of stability and controllability. In the Netflix series Stranger Things, attribution theory and its components can be observed and analyzed through the character Michael Wheeler. Today, we will be looking at examples of how Mike Wheeler made cognitive attributions that impacted his emotions and motivation. We will also be seeing how the pattern of his attributions impact his short and long term emotions and motivation. Looking at the second season, we can find an example of how Mike Wheeler made a cognitive attribution that impacted his emotions and motivation. In season two, at the start of the season in episo...

  Achievement motives shape why someone ultimately chooses to pursue a goal, and we see in Stranger Things how what shapes Mike's goals and how he pursues them respectively. Both hope for success and fears of failure both work together to shape Mike's actions and how he interacts with others throughout the seasons. Today, we will be looking specifically at his hope for success/success orientation and fears of failure, analyzing them throughout the series. Looking firstly at hope for success/success orientation relating to Mike Wheeler's specific goals, we can see this play out in the first season of the show. One specific goal that Mike has in the first season is to protect others and lead the group, which is largely driven by a hope for success from Mike. By acting out and protecting others and leading the group, Mike believes that he can make a difference, feel competent, and more. A specific scene where this is demonstrated of where he can make a difference and protect i...

Cognitive Evaluation Theory is a subtheory in self determination theory, alongside Organismic Integration Theory. The theory states that external factors like rewards and feedback for example influence and affect an individual’s intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is the desire to do something because of interest to the person. Cognitive Evaluation Theory is also made up of parts like competence and autonomy. When competence and autonomy are both supported, intrinsic motivation in a person can actually increase as people naturally desire to be competent and autonomous at tasks in life.  In Stranger Things, Mike Wheeler goes on to demonstrate Cognitive Evaluation Theory multiple times, and that is the discussion of today to seeing just how this theory plays out amongst him in the show. One example of this is Mike having his competence be supported by his friends throughout season one, which boosts his intrinsic motivation which is to help, lead, protect, and solve. On specifi...

Expectancy-value theory seeks to explore and explain why people choose to engage in certain tasks. The expectancy component, like self-efficacy, seeks to explore how likely people believe they will succeed at a task. However, for today, we will be looking more at the value part, which describes how important the task is to us.  Mike Wheeler's has several values that drive his motivation. One value that Mike holds from the start of the show which guides him as a loyal friend and leader are the values of friendship. Friendship is incredibly important to Mike as we have seen from earlier blog posts where friendship is so important in fact, that it serves as the motivation for Mike to seek and look for his friend Will who was kidnapped to the upside down.  Another value that Mike holds is bravery. Mike values bravery since it is a trait that allows him to be successful as a leader. From time to time again, Mike is thrown into treacherous situations, especially in season three in o...

In this week's blog posting, we will be analyzing how Mike Wheeler's self-efficacy plays out in Stranger Things. Self-efficacy, put simply, is the belief someone has about their own ability to succeed or carry out at a particular task. In other words, it is the confidence someone has in being able to do something successfully.           Sources of Self-Efficacy       Before we look at how Mike's self-efficacy changed over time, it is important to first elaborate on the sources of Mike's self-efficacy. One source of self-efficacy for Mike that is perhaps the most displayed in the show is friendships or relationships. Time and time again, Mike's confidence and his belief that he can carry out the tasks he has are constantly being shaped by his friends. For example, in season 1, Mike gets attacked by two school bullies at the quarry near his house until Eleven shows up and defeats the bullies using her powers. This moment is pivotal in the ...