Learning Environment and Academic Achievement Motivation

A healthy learning environment, such as through high-quality teacher-student interactions is a vital part of an effective educational experience. Additionally, improving the quality of teacher-student interactions within the classroom depends upon a solid understanding of the nature of effective teaching for adolescents. 

Pressley and colleagues (2003) draw from their studies of effective teachers to suggest that effective teaching strategies can be organized into decisions regarding motivational atmosphere, classroom management, and curriculum and instruction. Eccles and Roeser (1999) suggest that schooling is optimally characterized by organizational, social, and instructional processes that help regulate children and adolescent's development across cognitive, social-emotional, and behavioral domains.  

Meanwhile, teacher-student interactions have the potential to affect students on many levels including achievement, motivation, and adjustment to school (den Brok et al, 2005). Research on teacher-student interactions in early childhood, elementary, and secondary settings have shown that some types of classroom interactions can have a positive effect on various outcomes, including student's academic development, achievement. and attitudes toward learning (Burchinal et al, 2002; Pianta, 1999). In addition, these teacher-student indications can be predictive of student achievement and motivation as early as the elementary years and potentially continue into the middle grades.  

Defining the characteristics of high-quality teacher-student interactions is critical to examining their impact on student outcomes. Gardiner & Kosmitzki (2008) defined high-quality teacher-student interactions as consistent, stable, respectful, and fair interactions that facilitate the student's view of their teacher as a secure base. Therefore, students will be more likely to engage in help-seeking behaviors that, in turn, positively correlate with student achievement.

High-quality teacher-student interactions can also be typified by rich communication in instrumental exchanges between the teacher and the student (Pianta et al, 2013) Open communication between the teacher and students can enable students to engage more deeply with content through classroom discourse and seek teacher assistance more confidently.            

Smart (2014) articulates that:

Aspects of the the classroom learning environment are also influential in student's individual goal orientations (Anderman & Patrick, 2012). Teachers who promote competition and place a high value on test grades may foster the development of performance goal orientations in their students. Conversely, teachers who value understanding of concepts and emphasize individual effort over grades are more likely to encourage the development of mastery goal orientations in their students. Evaluation practices are especially influential in goal orientations. As students move into the middle grades and high school, an increased emphasis is placed on normative evaluation, which encourages students to view their performance in comparison to the performance of other students. These normative evaluation practices work to foster performance-orientated goal structures within classes, and ultimately, in students (Ames,1992).    

He conducted a mixed methods study between student perceptions of teacher-student interactions and motivation in middle-school science classrooms. He found that significant positive correlations were identified between student's mastery orientation and their perceptions of their teacher's leadership and friendly/helping behaviors. "Similarly, significant positive correlations were found between student's value for learning science and their teachers' leadership and friendly/helping behaviors."(Smart 2014).

Finally, students who reported high motivation and high perceptions of teacher cooperative interactions described the most instances of teacher helpfulness and understanding."Not only did these students describe their interactions with their teachers more positively than students with low motivation, they also described positive interactions in much greater detail" (Smart 2014).

Overall, these results indicate that student's perceptions of teacher interpersonal behaviors have a significant impact on motivation and that fostering positive classroom interactions aids in attaining a higher quality of education.    
  

Society and Academic Achievement Motivation

Recent development of research on motivation in education has tried to understand the role that sociocultural contexts play on students' academic motivation.

Liem and his colleagues (2012) conducted a study aimed at testing the mediating role of individual-orientated and social-orientated achievement motives in linking value orientations (e.g. achievement, security, conformity)  to achievement goals (mastery-approach, performance-avoidance etc.).    

They state that:

values and achievement motivation orientations are socioculturally-rooted antecedents of achievement goals because individuals develop these basic personality factors through socialization. As societies and cultures are associated with different sets of affordances and constraints that facilitate and inhibit the internalization and expression of values (Schwartz, 2005) and motives (McClelland, 1985;Yu & Yang, 1994), a particular set of values and achievement motivation orientations is more strongly endorsed in one culture than those in others. 

For example, Australian adolescents were higher than their Singaporean, Filipino, and Indonesian counterparts on values serving individual interests (e.g. self-direction, hedonism), whereas the reverse was true for serving collective interests (e.g. conformity, security). Similarly, Lieber and Yu (2003) demonstrated that US students were higher than their Taiwanese counterparts in individual-orientated achievement motive whereas the reverse was true for social-orientated achievement motive.  

 "Achievement goals are not only posited to lead to achievement but are also catalyzed by different sources" (Liem 2012). Competence-based variables (achievement motive, fear of failure) and relationally-based values (e.g. affiliation motivation, fear of rejection) are among intrapsycholgical antecedents of achievement goal endorsement (Elliot, 2006).

Earlier, I have mentioned that achievement motivation positively predicted mastery-approached and performance-approach goals, whereas fear of failure positively predicted mastery-avoidance and performance-avoidance goals. In addition, Spence (1985) argues that competence-related constructs that have been studied as predictors of achievement were characteristically 'individual orientated' or mirror individualist values. However, 'other-orientated' competence-related predictors were less frequently studied.  

Liem's study sought to distinguish individual-orientated and social-orientated achievement motives and relate them by assessing their differential effects on the four types of achievement goals. For example, Yu and Yang (1994) argued that individual-orientated achievement motivation might not fully explicate achievement-related processes and outcomes in Eastern and collectivist culture, in which individual prioritizes the primacy of their family's goals and accomplishments than those of their own. "Further, in collectivist cultures, conformity values and social norms play a key role in individual's behaviors more so than individual personality dispositions" (Markus & Kitayama, 1991).

Putting this in perspective, we can now conceptualize achievement motivation differently when taking social values into account.

 For example, early definitions of achievement motivation tried to define it as an internal drive to meet or fulfill a particular standard. Similarity, Yu and Yang (1994) conceptualized achievement motivation orientation as a cognitively-based general inclination that energized behavior and orients individuals to pursue a certain achievement standard. Specifically, socially-orientated achievement motivation was defined as an inclination to achieve a standard of excellence set by significant others (e.g. teachers, parents), whereas individual-orientated achievement motivation is an inclination to achieve a self-determined standard of excellence.

Furthermore, Liem used Schwartz's (2005) cultural value theory in which 10 values (security, conformity, tradition benevolence, universalism, self-direction, stimulation, hedonism, achievement, and power) to try to explain individual and social orientated achievement motivation and motivational goal perusal.

Finally, Liem found that security and conformity values positively predicted social-orientated achievement motivation, self-direction values positively predicted individual achievement motivation and hedonism values negatively predicted both achievement motivation orientations.Also, some values were found to be direct predictors of academic achievement.  

Overall, we can see that society can have a significant effect on academic achievement motivation particularly when there is is a strong infleunce to conform and compare one's performance with others. Also, we learned that values and achievement motivation orientations can be sociocultural antecedents that give rise to achievement goals and achievement.          

What is the Self-EfficacyTheory of Achievement Motivation?

In the last informational post, we briefly mentioned that achievement goal theory branches into two predominant approaches: expectancy-value theory and self-efficacy theory. Expectancy-value theory states that individuals are more likely to engage in a particular achievement task when they expect to do well and when the task has some value to them. (This is the scale I am using personally to measure my variables for achievement motivation.) Self-efficacy theory, on the other hand, emphasizes the importance of individual judgments of capability.

Today, I desire to provide a short look into self-efficacy theory and relate it to academic motivation.

Besides cognitive factors, various motivational factors were have been found to be important predictors of first-year academic achievement and study persistence. "In a meta-analysis of psychological correlates of university student's academic performance in general, performance self-efficacy was found to be the strongest correlate, followed by high-school GPA and ACT scores" (Richardson et al 2012).Self-efficacy is similar to psychological self-concept which alongside autonomous motivation has been repeatedly associated with academic achievement.  

Self-efficacy is defined as "People's judgements of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of actions required to attain designated types of performances" (Bandura, 1986, p.391). Much research has clarified the role of self-efficacy as a mechanism underlying behavioral change, maintenance, and generalization. For example, there is evidence that self-efficacy predicts such diverse outcomes as academic achievements, social skills, smoking cessation, pain tolerance, athletic performances, and career choices (Bandura, 1986). Individuals who feel efficacious are hypothesized to work harder and persist longer when difficulties than those who doubt their capabilities.

"Self-efficacy theory postulates that people acquire information to appraise efficacy from their performance accomplishments, vicarious experiences, forms of persuasion, and physiological indexes" (Schunk 2014).  For example, students can acquire positive persuasory feedback which enhances self-efficacy (e.g. "You can do this"), but this feedback will be temporary if subsequent efforts turn out poorly. Students also derive efficacy information from physiological indexes (e.g. heart rate and sweating). Bodily symptoms signalizing anxiety might be interpreted to indicate a lack of skills.  Schunk (1989) discussed how self-efficacy might operate during academic learning.

At the start of an activity, students differ in their beliefs about their capabilities to acquire knowledge, perform skills, master the material so forth. Initial self-efficacy served as a function of aptitude and prior experiences. Such personal factors such as goal setting and information processing, along with situational factors affects students while they are working. Motivation is enhanced when students perceive they are making progress in learning. In turn, as students work on tasks and become more skillful, they maintain a sense of self-efficacy for performing well.

 Expectancy-value theory stresses the notion that behavior is a joint function of people's expectations of a particular outcome of performing a behavior and the extent to which they value those outcomes. (Eccles,1983). However, Self-efficacy theory differs from expectancy-value formulations in its emphasis on student's beliefs concerning their capabilities to learn and effectively employ the skills and knowledge necessary to attain the valued outcomes.

According to multiple assessments and statistical tests, self-efficacy predicts motivational outcomes fairly well. Significant and positive correlations (rs = .38 to .42) have been obtained between self-efficacy for learning assessed before receiving instruction and subsequent rate of problem-solving (Schunk & Hanson, 1985). Shell, Murphy, and Bruning (1989) found that self-efficacy accounted for significant portions of the variability in both reading and writing achievement. Collins (1982) demonstrated that self-efficacy predicts motivation and achievement across levels of student ability. Children identified as high, average, or low in mathematical ability, were classified as high or low in efficacy for solving word problems. In one test, children who were given some problems to solve (some were insolvable) and could rework any they missed. Low- and average-ability students with high efficacy worked on insolvable problems longer than did low-efficacy students. Finally, regardless of ability, students with higher efficacy reworked more problems than did students with lower efficacy.    

All in all, self-efficacy is another model of achievement motivation that is being extensively evaluated and tested alongside achievement goal theory as a predictor of individual success.    

Literature Review: Conformity and Deviation (Part 1)

    

Conformity is one of the most notorious areas of study in the field of social psychology. Earlier we mentioned it as “the act of changing one’s behavior to match the responses of others" (Cialdini, 2004). But now we are going to investigating it through the lens of the earliest formalized studies of it and how it relates to conversion, deviation, and other significant sociological tendencies. Without further ado, I bring to you Conformity and Deviation by Berg and Bass! 

"Conformity, resistance, and conversion share basic psychological processes in common, based on the fact that an individual requires a stable framework, including salient and firm reference points, in order to orient himself and to regulate his interactions with others" (Helson, 1955; Sherif, 1936). An individual's framework provides them with the opportunity to establish themselves and, as a result, controls their behavior with regards to internal and external influences. Therefore, someone with a well-defined personal composition would be said to be capable of filtering out information that is inconsistent with themselves. 

In the absence of such a framework, the individual can seek ways to orient themselves in social contexts which may lead them to consider or accept conforming attitudes. For example, subtle influences to someone's behavior, under optimal conditions, can cause shifts in attitudes, opinions, and understandings even when the person is unaware of this. In other words, "Conversion can be produced by demonstrating the inadequacy of as a presently accepted frame of reference and then introducing another which is more satisfactory"(Berg & Bass, 2). An example of this occurs when a person comes into a social situation where his actions, judgments, or opinions different than those of others. This leads to a dilemma, in which the individual must decide to either succumb to peer influence and conform or maintain his personal position and deviate from the group. Successful influence or pressure towards conformity is called conversion and occurs when someone corresponds his behavior to match that of others. On the other hand, not deciding to change one's framework and remaining independent of the group is called resistance or deviation.

Individuals appear to be more susceptible to conformity pressures when expressing social opinions and ideological attitudes and when dealing with abstractions rather than concrete experience or well-acquainted, factual subjects. When an individual is uncertain about their own beliefs or is uninformed, they tend to be easily influenced by others.  Tendencies toward conformity and conversion are heightened when an individual is with others, at least three in member, where the others are in uniform agreement or whose opinions are only slightly off from that of the individual's beliefs. "From a personality angle, the kind of individual who is least able to resist conformity pressures, and probably interrogation pressures as well, is submissive, lacking in self-confidence, less intelligent, lacking in originality, authoritarian-minded, lacking in achievement motivation, conventional, and searching for social approval"(p.28).       

Berg and Bass cite hundreds of conformity studies explaining how they were implemented to try to find factors leading to conformity. They view conformity as being conceived as the reflection of successful influence. Going from that definition, the authors applied a general theory of interpersonal behavior to create multiple theorems and hypothesizes that affected conformity and deviation. They are as follows:

           1. The importance of the group, the situation, and the individual members are relative
matters. We can increase or decrease the significance of each at will (p.17).

2. Group goals modify subsequent behavior to the extent that they are relevant to the members of the group (p.51)

3. Immediate rather than ultimate effectiveness is more significant for understanding interaction among individuals (p.54).

4. Members will tend to behave in ways to maintain or increase a group's effectiveness to the extent the group rewards its members  (p.75). Assuming that absence of conflict in interactions is rewarding, members will conform to each to each other rather than disagree in the expectation of maintaining secure, harmonious, and satisfying relationships.  

5. Conformity is greater in more attractive groups (p.244).

6. If the group’s source of attraction to members is its control of what is wanted by the members, the group has the power to coerce motivated members, resulting in increase in public but not necessarily private conformity with increases in attraction. The greater the group’s control, the more conformity is likely to occur. (p.241).  

7. If the group’s source of attraction is its perceived greater ability to cope with problems than can be done alone, members can be persuaded by the group’s decisions - resulting in increases in both public and private conformity with increases in the group’s attractiveness (p.240).  

8. The clearer the group’s rewards and goals, the more attractive will be the group (p.65); hence the clearer its goals, the more members will conform to the group.

9. The more members share the same goals obtainable through cooperation, the more likely they will be attracted to each other (p.69); hence the more members will share the same goals obtainable through cooperation, the more likely they are to conform to each other in their behavior.

10. A group is more attractive, the greater the rewards which may be earned by membership and the greater the expectation of earning them (p.60); hence the greater rewards and expectancies of reward for membership, more likely the conformity to group demands.   

11. Current effectiveness promotes subsequent attractiveness (p.79); hence conformity currently is likely to be greater in a group that experienced effectiveness earlier; more dissension and deviation is likely to occur in a group with a preceding history of failure.  

12. Members of groups are motivated by consideration or lack of it: promises of reward, support, affection, or threats of punishment, burdensome demands and deflation of self-esteem (p.99). Since conformity is defined as a reflection of influence,

13. Leadership is accomplished by initiating structure - making others more able to overcome the obstacles thwarting goal attainment (p.101). Assuming conformity is the obverse of leadership, it follows that conformity of an individual will depend on the extent others in his group instruct, supervise, inform, or decide for him.  

14. Influence occurs sooner, to a greater extent and brings more reinforcement as a consequence of interaction (p.129). Assuming that conformity reflects leadership, a function of interaction, conformity to the demands of others is more likely to occur faster when interaction is possible.  

15. As problems facing the group become more difficult or as the members become less able to cope with their problems, more leadership becomes possible (p.134). Since conformity is a reflection of leadership, as problems of the group become more difficult or as the members become less able, conformity is likely to increase in that group.

16. If the difficulties facing a group are too great, members’ expectations of failure may make the groups sufficiently unattractive to cause the members to withdraw rather than attempt to solve the problems or attempt to succeed as leaders (p.137). Assuming that conformity is the observe of leadership, if the group's difficulties are too great, members may deviate further from the norms of the group rather than increase in conformity.  

17.  The task-oriented leader will attempt leadership most often when the group is

attractive to him because of its tasks and the rewards for task success (p. 155). Considering conformity as the obverse of leadership, the task orientated member will attempt to conform to his group to the extent it is attractive to him because of its tasks and rewards for task effectiveness, and when he sees such conformity enables him to achieve task success.    

18. The interaction-orientated member will avoid attempting leadership likely to disrupt current patterns of interaction or likely to involve risks of making mistakes while interacting with others (p. 156). Considering conformity as the obverse of leadership, the interaction-orientated member will attempt to conform to avoid disrupting current patterns of interaction or to avoid making mistakes while interacting with others.   

19. The self-orientated member is more concerned with his success rather than effectiveness as a leader (p.153). Considering conformity as the observe of leadership, it follows that the self-oriented member conforms to the extent that doing so meets his personal needs irrespective of whether it is conducive to the task or interaction effectiveness of the group.   

20. One member can persuade another if he has demonstrated his ability to solve the other member’s problems (p.162). Considering conformity as the obverse of leadership, it follows that one member will conform to the suggestion of another if the other has demonstrated his ability to solve the first member’s problems.

21. In a wide variety of situations, the more fluent, intelligent, original, and adaptable member is more likely to succeed as the leader (p.166). Considering conformity as the obverse of leadership, it follows that in a wide variety of situations, the less fluent, the less intelligent, less original, and less adaptable member is more likely to conform to the suggestions of others.   

22. The would-be leader cannot be too much more able than those he leads to succeed maximally as a leader (p.177). Considering conformity as the obverse of leadership, it follows that a member may be unable rather than unwilling to conform to the norms of his group, because of his very great lack of ability of others in his group.   

23. The ability of the leader must be relevant to solving the problems of the groups he expects to lead (p. 174). Considering conformity as the obverse of leadership, conformity of the less able person will depend on his inadequacies in solving the particular problems of the group in which he is a member.  

24. If he has been successful and effective earlier, a leader will succeed and be effective to a maximum in any situation the more it actually resembles the earlier one (p.183); assuming that conformity is a reflection of leadership, conformity to others will be maximum in a new situation the more the new situation resembles an earlier one in which conformity occurred in the same way for the same reasons.

25. Successful leaders are more likely to have been the youngest child in their family; had  facilitating, stimulating, approving, accepting parents; and come from harmonious, friendly, tolerant, family atmospheres (pp.195-198). Assuming conformity is the obverse of leadership, it follows that, conformists are more likely to have been the oldest child in their family; had domineering, inconsistent, rejecting, parents; and come from discordant, unfriendly, intolerant family atmospheres.     

26.  Conformity to group standards and decisions is greater among more influential members and those closer initially to the majority or group decision (p. 247).   

27. The higher one’s status, the more likely he is to succeed as a leader among those of lower status (p. 269). Assuming conformity is the obverse of leadership, it follows that the lower one’s status the more likely he is to conform to those of higher status.   

28. Conformity to the person with status but without power will continue until it became apparent that the figurehead has only the symbols of status. Even then, others may conform ritualistically to the powerless bearer of status symbols because the ritual is habitual and satisfying in its own right, or is a custom approved by the group whose violation would bring social disapproval (p. 267).  

29. The higher one’s esteem, the more likely he is to succeed as a leader among those of lower esteem (p.289). Assuming conformity is the obverse of leadership, it follows that the less esteem a member has, the more likely he is to conform to the suggestions of others.

30. The more esteemed member can be more persuasive if his esteem depends on being perceived as being able to solve the group’s problems; he can be more coercive if his esteem depends on his personal control of what is desired by others in the group (p.289) Assuming conformity is the obverse of leadership, it follows that (a) a member is more likely to be persuaded, conforming both publically and privately, if his lack of esteem is due to lack of ability and (b) he is more likely to be coerced, conforming both but not privately, if his lack of esteem is due to his lack of personal power.   

31. Conformity to group decisions, modal opinion, or norms of behavior, should be greater among groups where mutual esteem is high.   

32. The person with high self-esteem appears more likely to change others, to lead others, rather than be changed by others to conform readily.

33. Increases in self-accorded status reduce the tendency to conform.

34. Events preceding the conformity behavior or taking place concurrently may result in the failure of what would have been conforming behavior.

35. Conformity is likely to be greater in situations of crisis or emergency.

Hey, nobody said sociology was particularly fun (but understanding others is quite fascinating). To summarize, the authors spend a significant part of the first quarter of the text to enumerate numerous conditions and factors that affect rates of conformity and deviation. They interpret conforming behavior as an aspect of the general phenomenon of interaction. In this sense, they were able to form generalizations about conformity through a wide collection of facts which have been well established.      

If you're interested in the book  (or dubious about my claims), you can pick it up from Amazon: Conformity and Deviation.

What are Achievement Goals?

Methods of motivation and goals play a significant part in academic development. Research suggests that only 25% of the variability in children’s achievement outcomes can be accounted for by their scores on tests of intelligence (Neisser et al., 1996). “A likely source of some of the additional variability is the specific achievement-related beliefs that children bring to the learning context: How talented am I in science? Am I am poor reader because I’m not trying hard enough, or am I just not very smart? How well do I want to perform in math and how hard will I strive to meet this standard? Indeed, considerable empirical evidence exists to support the claim that children’s beliefs about their intellectual competencies and views about the importance of school success have a powerful impact on academic behaviors and outcomes” (Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998).  

 Achievement goals are competence-based aims that individuals create as means to take action they are motivated to pursue.  Individuals typically have motives for their actions, so we can thus analyze goals from an orientation point of view. An important distinction in achievement goal literature is the difference between performance and mastery goals. We can differentiate between people's reasons for doing well as either ego or task related. Specifically, task (mastery) goals reflect perceived competence in terms of task mastery or evaluative standards. In this approach, individuals are learning for its own sake. Meanwhile, Ego-related (performance) goals reflect performance relative to the performance of others. A performance goal orientation is characterized by questions such as "Can I do better than others?" or "Will I look smart?"

On the other hand, a student with a learning goal orientation would more likely ask questions like "Can I improve my knowledge on this subject?" or "How can I do this task?"Studies within the achievement goal theory show that the pursuit of mastery goals was associated with various positive outcomes, including intrinsic motivation, self-regulated learning, and deep-level learning, whereas performance goals were found to be positively related to surface processing but unrelated or negatively to deep-level processing or self-regulated learning.

 Performance goals were found to predict academic performance in some research, but other studies failed to confirm these findings. As a result of conflicting data, further divisions in goals were created to include the idea of mastery approach goals (MAp), mastery avoidance goals (MAv), performance approach goals (PAp), and performance avoidance (PAv) goals. The rationale was that competence can be valued as a positive outcome to be achieved or incompetence can be valued as a negative outcome to be avoided.

 PAp goals are believed to yield positive effects, especially on achievement, because the external focus that characterizes these goals leads people to select strategic study strategies that yield high achievement. In contrast, PAv goals hinder learning and achievement, because the concern for failure is likely to disrupt the learning process, undermine the pleasure of learning and achievement, and result in low performance. Mastery goals appear to be primarily predictive of achievement that reflects deep learning.

This chart below provides a basic representation of the distinctions:

Achievement goal theory continues with autonomous and controlling goals and further subsets of goals. This desired to look at goals from "why" rather than the "what". 

Since its development, significant contributions have been made to the research and practice in education and psychology. Achievement goal theory has provided an influential framework for conceptualizing student motivation. Though complex, analyzing goals and people's intentions for their actions can allow for greater insight into motivation, learning, and achievement.

What is Achievement Motivation?

Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst, or reading a book to gain knowledge.

Achievement motivation functions as a subjective and internal psychological drive, enabling individuals to pursue work they perceive to be valuable and eventually achieve their goals. From this, achievement motivation can best be defined as the need for success or the attainment of excellence. Other than being seen as an intrinsic need to excel, it has also been viewed as a desire to do well relative to a standard of success, such as through competition.

Understanding and harnessing such a psychological feature would provide a tremendous amount of productivity and utility in all possible social sectors. Since students form values, self-concepts, and beliefs about their abilities at a young age, the development of achievement motivation has significant implications for later careers and routes of success. With a greater and growing impetus on achievement in today’s world, the influence of motivation in the field of achievement motivation has been noteworthy to attaining specific goals.

Introduction

Greetings from Beyond the System!

Have you ever wondered why there seem to be two types of successful people? There is the first type, ones with hidden connections, and the second, mavericks with ingenious creative minds.

Do you see the difference between these two paths for success, and how they fit into our social system? If you don't my hope is that you will as you delve deeper into this blog.

 This blog site will capture, with the most unfolding exhilaration that a psychological study could ever contain, my thoughts, experiences, and analyses. My intentions for this expedition going forward is to detail my progress in my Senior Project, on Achievement Motivation and Conformity and my delightful internship, all while amusing and illuminating the minds of those who read this blog.

Through this paradigm-defying journey, we will bring the notion of the system and its truths to light. Here you will find a compelling compilation of convincing facts, deeply illuminated with critical analysis, which will challenge you to rethink how you view the system.

~May you realize the limits so that you may transcend them! 

I.D.T.