Liz Murray: Self-Determination

        Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET) is a sub-theory of self-determination. It asserts that all external events have an effect on people's intrinsic motivation, with a controlling aspect and an informational aspect. Controlling events are used to control people's behaviors, such as a teacher provides praises to students but the under meaning is the student should do good anyways. In this case, people's autonomy and intrinsic motivation decrease, and extrinsic motivation increases. Informational events are used to confirm people's capabilities and provide positive feedbacks, such as a teacher provides positive and specific feedback to a student that it was nice to see he/she helped others. In this case, people's competence and intrinsic motivation increase, and extrinsic motivation decrease. CET also states that intrinsic motivation can be facilitated if basic psychological needs can be satisfied, which are autonomy, competence, and relatedness. For example, if a person is interested in playing guitar, and he decides to go to a guitar training session to be competent, and his surrounding people encourage and support him, then this person's intrinsic motivation of playing guitar is at a high level. 

        In Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray's Story, CET is applied. I will state from three aspects: autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and environment factor is embedded in each section. 

        When Liz lived in her father's apartment, she had the autonomy of doing things because none of her parents was responsible for taking care of her. She had the choice of whether to go to school or not, and she usually chose not, even though when Child Welfare threatened her that if she still did not go to school, she would be sent to the crazy group home. However, Liz chose to stay home and learn. The lady who lived upstairs, Eva, gave her The Encyclopedia, and Liz read a lot of it. Because she still did not go to school, Child Welfare finally sent her to the crazy group home, and she lost her autonomy there. She had to clean the bathroom, watch and experience bullying every day until she got out there. After she arrived at her grandfather's apartment, she found out all her books were gone, and the only way to obtain knowledge was to go back to school. She went back to school and decided to become homeless since her grandfather did not like her. While she was homeless, she still brought books with her to read while others were hanging around. Liz went back frequently to check how her mother was doing and take care of her. A significant reason that Liz could not focus on her studies was her mother, which will be stated more in the "Relatedness" section. Liz loved her mother very much, and it caused a heavy responsibility on herself that she had to take care of her mother and herself. Even though she chose to do this, it still is a "had to" thing, and she did not have too much autonomy from this aspect. After her mother died, Liz had full autonomy to do things. She decided to go back to school and finish a four-year program in two years. She decided to make every effort to make her life better. At this point, Liz was using her autonomy to self-direct and support her learning process and regulation. 

        Liz was smart. With missing school days and only doing reading at home, she was able to make a 100 on the promotion exam when she was in elementary school. When she applied to the private high school, she was able to write the whole application essay while she was waiting for the interviewer. After she entered the program, she decided to accelerate the four-year program to two years. Liz was a hard worker: she set up her challenge and did everything to accomplish her goal. She read when she was in the subway; she got up early and stayed up late to study; she put the reading materials on the wall when she was washing dishes for her part-time job. She was not satisfied with an A- on her assignment, and what she wanted was an A, the best. Because of her effort, she got first place in the whole school, and she won the trip to go to Boston, which made her want to go to college and get highly educated. After she came back, she applied for the New York Times scholarship and won the prize to get into Harvard University. Liz set up her challenge, and she made every effort on it through seeking her potential to gain, grow, and improve, and that was how she succeeded. 

Relatedness runs through the whole story. Liz had a deep attachment with her mother, Jean. When she was young, and Jean was not addicted to drugs, she had a great childhood memory. However, things had changed a lot after Jean got a drug addict. As mentioned before, none of Liz's parents was responsible for taking care of her. Her mother, Jean, would take away money to buy drugs and did not care about how her daughters would eat. Her dad would sit on the couch and do his own business no matter what the room was going through. When Jean went insane with drugs, she became a person that Liz did not know. Liz wanted to help her, but she did not know how to. When Jean was sent to the hospital, Liz followed along and tried to go with her, but she was not able to. With watching Jean in the ambulance suffering from pain and being helpless, Liz thought it was not because Jean did not want to become a good mother, and it was because she did not have any more to give to her children. Liz understood her mother, and she did not feel hurt that her parents paid little attention on her needs because she thought their needs were more urged that needed to be met and satisfied compared to hers. 

Because Liz kept not going to school, Child Welfare came to Liz's father's apartment and intended to send her to the group home. Liz's father did not say anything and kept doing his business until the Welfare person blamed him for not getting Liz to school. All he did was shirking the responsibilities and stating Liz was a feminist that she got her own mind. He packed Liz's suitcase and gave it to Liz by saying "I am sorry" and returned to the kitchen to prepare his food. He ignored how Liz was begging not to go to the group home and how she felt helpless. Until Liz left, he kept quiet. 

After Liz got out of the group home, she went back to school and made a new friend, Chris. Because of similar experiences, and they both did not want to stay where they were, they decided to become homeless. During that period, they supported and cared about each other, bringing some light to each other's life. Liz would still go back to her grandfather's apartment to check how her mother was doing and take care of her. Often, her mother was drunk when she came back, and Liz helped clean her and put her on the bed. She kept this process until her mother died. 

Liz was alone again: her dad was gone, her grandfather hated her, her friend left her, and now her favorite person also died. She could focus on herself now instead of anyone else. She decided to go back to a high school and continue learning. She met David there, who gave her a chance to change her life. David inspired and encouraged her to become a college student, and the trip to Harvard stimulated Liz to work harder to become a well-educated person. 

Another turning point was before Liz got into that private high school, it was required to have a parent meeting with David. Liz found her dad and asked if he could help her. He went with her to fill out the school requirement, so Liz could start a new life there. His dad said to her before he left, "Stay in school. I blew this, but you can do it." Liz cried. Even though her dad never showed care to her, I think at this moment, Liz felt supported and loved, which provided her strength to make her future bright.  

From my point of view, Liz was born into this kind of family. It was hard for them to provide a nourishing environment to increase her intrinsic motivation of learning and growth, and Liz had to carry a lot for this family. However, fortunate things were that she got people like Eva, David, and Chris, who supported her for a period of time. Because she believed that education could make her life better, her intrinsic motivation of learning increased and decreased because of her surroundings but never disappeared. No matter what she experienced, she always held hope and believed "the road would rise up to meet [her]." As she kept trying and working hard, her future was becoming brighter.