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