Ambition ǀ a reseach project for Cambridge university




A research project to understand how past experiences and upbringing impact on the character trait known as ambition, and what the individual can do to access this behaviour to achieve perceived success.
Introduction

Throughout history ambition has been lauded as a ‘secret formula’ that, once gained, can lead anyone along the path the “success “.

The definition of ambition is a strong desire to do something, and whilst it is commonly thought of as an emotion, it is more correctly recognised as a personality trait, meaning it is consistent over time.


By its definition then, it is a driver for action; whether this is good for society will be dependent on the action itself, but without ambition we are unlikely to get progress.

This has led me to look further into the questions:  “Is ambition what it seems?”,  “what drives people to be ambitious?” and “can people motivate themselves to become ambitious?”

Methodology

For my research I looked over the internet and at recent articles, blogs and podcasts surrounding this subject trying to combine different angles and opinions to better understand the foundation of ambition. I then looked further into their sources.

Research

There seem to be a number of factors surrounding ambition, the main drivers of appear to be:

Genetics

Studies of identical twins separated at birth have shown that their ‘ambition profiles’ overlap considerably at about 30 – 50%. According to geneticist Dean Hamer of the National Cancer institute  ‘ In genetic terms, that's an awful lot, but it still leaves a great deal that can be determined by other experiences’. -Time – the science of ambition 

Brain activity

In different research they were trying to understand what happens in the brain when an ‘ambitious person’ is working. A group of students were asked to do task and MRI scans done on their brains whilst doing the task. The task itself was unimportant – what mattered was how strongly the students felt about doing the task well, and where in the brain that feeling was processed. In general, the researchers found that students who scored highest in persistence had the greatest activity in the limbic region, the area of the brain related to emotions and habits. "The correlation was .8 [or 80%]," says professor of psychiatry Robert Cloninger, one of the investigators. "That's as good as you can get."-Time . Whether this behaviour is genetic or developed cannot be determined from this research.

Gender

Economists in Universities in the US (1) got together 40 men and 40 women and gave them five minutes to add up as many two-digit numbers as they could, paying  50¢ for each correct answer. They were not competing against one another but simply against the house. Later, the game was changed to a tournament in which the subjects were divided into teams of two men or two women each. Winning teams got $2 per computation; losers got nothing. Men and women performed equally in both tests, but on the third round, when asked to choose which of the two ways they wanted to play, only 35% of the women opted for the tournament format; 75% of the men did.-Time   Some argue this shows that men are more ambitious than women, others that it's not that women aren't ambitious enough but that they are more selective about when they engage in competition.  "Primate-wide, males are more directly competitive than females, and that makes sense," says Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis. "But that's not the same as saying women aren't innately competitive too." There are differences of opinion as to whether ambition and competition are inextricably linked.

Social status
“How wealth or poverty influences drive is difficult to predict. Grow up in a rich family, and you can inherit either the tools to achieve (think both Presidents Bush) or the indolence of the aristocrat. Grow up poor, and you can come away with either the motivation to strive (think Bill Clinton) or the inertia of the hopeless.

When measuring ambition, anthropologists divide families into four categories: poor, struggling but getting by, upper middle class, and rich. For members of the first two groups, who are fighting just to keep the electricity on and the phone bill paid, ambition is often a luxury. For the rich, it's often unnecessary.


It appears to be members of the upper middle class, reasonably safe economically but not so safe that a bad break couldn't spell catastrophe, who are most driven to improve their lot. "It's called status anxiety," says anthropologist Lowe, "and whether you're born to be concerned about it or not, you do develop it."”-Time

Circumstances

Circumstances may give you the impetus to act to strive towards a goal. Nelson Mandela was ambitious to give black people equal rights to ‘the whites’ in South Africa, without the injustice there may have been no ambition. 

Level of contentment.

There is a point of opinion which states that ambition is only for the unhappy. If you are truly happy and content there is no need to push yourself, however this would contradict the understanding of true happiness which involves setting yourself achievable challenges to give satisfaction. “The right level of ambition does lead to an increase in happiness “-practical discipline” -Wisdomination

A yearning for supremacy can create its own set of problems. Heart attacks, ulcers and other stress-related ills are more common among high achievers — and that includes nonhuman achievers. The blood of alpha wolves routinely shows elevated levels of cortisol, the same stress hormone that is found in anxious humans. Alpha chimps even suffer ulcers and occasional heart attacks. Time magazine

View of success

Some people may have different views of success and this will drive their ambition. To be ambitious you need to believe in the outcome you are driving towards, it may be for the result itself or for the financial or positional gain you may achieve from it.

One person’s success may be another person’s idea of failure – top marks at the expense of your mental health, profit at the expense of another’s security. Ambition comes in many forms.
How to become more ambitious

It is debatable whether you can change someone’s inherent ambition. There are no hard rules for the kinds of families that turn out the highest achievers. Most psychologists agree that parents who set tough but realistic challenges, applaud successes and go easy on failures produce kids with the greatest self-confidence.-Time

It seems that having a positive experience of ‘success’ without a negative impact surrounding failure leads to a willingness to try again. To take the risk to put your efforts and enthusiasm in to a new task. Above all the ‘prize’ needs to be seen to be worth the effort.

Small steps outside of your comfort zone give your brain a new baseline off which you can further work on. Taking the first step in this new direction is the most important thing as the successful “completion of tasks brings  about the change inside of you that procrastinators think they need to start the tasks in the first place.”-Time 

Conclusions

Looking over this research there are some simple conclusions we can make about this prestigious trait.

The levels of ambition people have is based loosely off their genetics

Ambition can be for good or bad

For a person to act on their ambition they need to have an outcome that they believe in.

Men and women display ambition and their competitive element differently with women being more selective

Your upbringing and status has the greatest effects upon ambition with upper middle class kids, raised with realistic goals tending to be more ambitious.

Too much ambition is bad as it can lead to high levels of stress which can be bad for your health.

Discussion

There are many people online telling us how to achieve ambition and although not backed by research they are backed by a large number of people’s personal backing and experiences. As a summary of what they say “set small achievable goals with intentional exceptions”

Bibliography

Time- science of ambition: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1126746,00.html

Oxford English dictionary: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/

Wisdomination. -Practical discipline: https://www.wisdomination.com/practical-discipline/

Wikipedia- ambition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambition

Not over thinking podcast episode 10: https://www.notoverthinking.com/

T.A. Judge, J.D. Kammeyer-MuellerT.A. Judge, J.D. Kammeyer-Mueller-Journal of Applied Psychology (JUL 2012)

Psychology today- heaven and hell- the psychology of emotions

1- Lise Vesterlund of the University of Pittsburgh and Muriel Niederle of Stanford University