From Homeless to Harvard : The Lizz Murray Story (2012)

FROM HOMELESS TO HARVARD 1

From Homeless to Harvard :

The Lizz Murray Story

Hafizatul Salma Harif Fathilah (101059)

Centre for Foundation Studies of International Islamic UniversityMalaysia

HSM 2263 Basic Psychology, Section 817


Semester 3, 2011/2012

Miss Asmiza Shamshi

16 MARCH 2012

Introduction

In previous class, we watched the story entitled “From Homeless

to Harvard” that it is quite related to one of the chapter in our

textbook which is Motivation and Emotion. The story was chosen as

it is a good example of motivational story that tells the

audience about the real meaning of life along with how situation

can lead us to survive. With the help of elaboration of the

scenes by the lecturer, it is much easier for us to understand

connection between motivation theory and examples showed in the

movie. Hence, we were asked to summarize the story with some

theories. This task was being done individually with sincere

opinions to show our point of view to the topic related. The

story was being summarized and had become the trigger for us to

write about what motivates us and how to achieve it in a real

life. From the experiences gain throughout the story did

affecting my studies, to be excelled and nothing is impossible to

achieve, no matter who you are.


Motivation Theory

The term motivation is defined as the ‘process that

initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors so that

physical or psychological needs or wants are met’. This is what

causes us to act, such reading a book to gain knowledge or

working to earn money for survival. It involves the biological,

emotional, social and cognitive forces that activate behavior.

Normally, we used the term motivation to describe why a person

does something.


Extrinsic and intrinsic motivations are both lay under the

types of motivation which related to the reward or satisfaction

that one achieves. Some people are motivated to act or behave in

certain way because of the pleasurable external reward such

getting a present or being praise for every good grade on a

report card, which refers to extrinsic motivation. Whereas,

intrinsic motivation is closely related to the reason behind the

act itself which is rewarding or satisfying in some internal

manner?

Both may affect the result of work or behavior as concern in

one of the research done by Teresa Amabile about the creativity

of children in doing artwork and the results are: Extrinsic

motivation decreased the degree of creativity shown in the

experimental group’s artwork when compared to the creativity

levels of the children in the intrinsically motivated control

group.


Approaches to Understanding Motivation

Drive-reduction approaches are aiming to gain support

involved the concepts of needs and drives. What is need? It is a

requirement of some material such as food or water that is

essential for survival of the organism, in this case is human

being. When we as a human have a need, it then leads to

psychological tension and physical arousal that motivates us to

act in order to fulfill the need and reduce the tension. This

tension is called drive. A drive creates an unpleasant state, a

tension that needs to be reduced.

The theory is branch out into two kinds of drives, primary

and acquired (secondary). Primary drives are those who involve

survival needs of the body such as hunger and thirst while

acquired (secondary) drives are those that are learned through

experience or conditioning, such as the need for money or social

approval. Then, a theory of motivation was suggested about the

importance of three psychological needs such achievement,

affiliation and power. This is also known as the theory of needs.


The need for achievement (nAch) is a need that involves a

strong desire to succeed in attaining goals that are realistic

and also challenging ones. Next, the need for affiliation (nAff)

that consider oneself who need to have a friendly social

interactions and relationships with others or in other word, seek

to be popular and liked by others around them. The last need in

this theory is the need for power (nPow). People with this need

want to have control or influence over others and make an impact

on them, as long as their ideas being used, regardless of whether

or not leading to success.

The final approach had taken place by the study of Abraham

Maslow. He was an American psychologist known as one of the

founders and principal exponents that proposed about humanistic

approaches. It manifests the series of ongoing hierarchy of needs

in order to achieve the highest level of personality fulfillment.

There are 8 stages of needs shows in figure below:


According to Maslow, a person started to fulfill their basic

needs before proceeding to other needs till they reach the self-

actualization point. Whereby at this point, a person will fully

reached and satisfied his or her human potential. There are also

peak experiences, when the times come at least temporarily for a

person to achieve self-actualization, because there will always

be up and down in our life.

Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story


The dramatization is written by Ronni Kern, based on true

story of a girl named Elizabeth Murray or known as Lizz Murray

that comes from a problematic family. Her mother was a drug

addict, alcoholic, legally blind and suffers from schizophrenic

(mental disorder characterized by a breakdown of thought

processes and by poor emotional responsiveness). While, her

father seemed not to care about what happen at home, he just sat

down on the couch and read books. He was a genius; even he

managed to answer all difficult questions on the quiz show

correctly.

The story begin with the conflict between her sister, Lisa

and her mother about money that she kept because they need it to

survive and buying food. She rarely goes to school, because of

her care towards her mother. Till the day when the paramedics

come to her house to take away her mother for the treatment, she

then go to school back. She was treated as a trash at school,

because she had a hygiene problem. Her teacher, Miss Wanda even

amazed at her for getting 100 marks in the test. During her

absent to school, she did read a lot in encyclopedia given by

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_disorder


Eva, her neighbor who found the encyclopedia in a trash, the

whole set except from R to S.

Miss Wanda insisted her to go to school every day because

she was an intelligent kid and did tolerate with her if she could

not attend the class with full attendance. Deep in her heart,

Lizz felt sad about school and do not know how to talk about it

with anyone. The house that she lived in was not a house that we

can call a home, mess was all around the corner. There was a day

when the people from children welfare came to her house to get

her and brought her to the group home for teenagers. Her life

became more miserable and traumatic there after witnesses one of

the girl there being beaten extremely. After a few years, she

went home and met her family, and found out that her father was

placed under the shelter for homeless and lost their apartment.

She went back to her old apartment, but nothing was there.

She was so regret that she does not go to school and had a new

mission in life. On the next day, she goes to school and met new

friends. Not long after that, she run away when her grandfather

do not let her best friend, Chris to move in but instead her


friend being chased out from her house. They became homeless and

went to a new strange city to survive. Many obstacles that Lizz

had to go through before she found out that her mother died.

After the funeral, Lizz met her father to ask help for the

permission to go to school.

By that, she could go to school and finish 4 years of high

school in two. That was her aim, and she studied everywhere, even

when she was working and in the subway. She was one of the 10 top

students who get a chance to go to Boston, with the expenses paid

trip. At Harvard, she was amazed with the surrounding of the

college. She really wanted to be part of it, and she looked for

any scholarship that she can apply for her dream to become true.

Then, she was became one of the final candidates of scholarship

by The New York Times. Her story, from homeless to Harvard

supposed to be a good example for other people to motivate

themselves no matter how hard the condition is.


The story itself being chosen to show how surrounding gives

impact to our life. The struggle to survive in satisfying hunger

is one of the psychological needs showed in these scenes:

The first scene shows how Lizz and her sister struggling with her

mother for the money, so that they can use the money to buy food.

Instead, when her mother gets the money, she lied and get out of

the house and went out to buy drug. Lizz who followed her mother

then satisfy her hunger when she found some buns in the trash.


Next, she really wanted to be with her family, be accepted

and belong. All her life was dedicated for her family, especially

her mother that she loves so much. She met Chris at the school,

and they become very close. These showed the third stage of needs

which is belongingness and love needs where Lizz need love and

care from her family and friend.

But after her mother died, she realized that she needs to

take care of herself and be strong to face all the challenges and

obstacles that came afterward. She went to the school, get good

grades and really aim to finish four years of high school studies

within two years. She had a good consuming of time between

working and studying. She took five regular subjects, weekend

with programming subject, night school learning French and

studied sciences and practicing algebra till late at night. Her


dedication and courage to learn was so strong and consistent. The

acts are rewarding and satisfying her because she really want to

learn and go to college after she and her friends at school went

to Harvard themselves to see the college life. These scenes show

her drive for cognitive needs, which reminds her to have

knowledge, meaning in life and self-awareness.


It then leads her to the next stage of needs, which is the

self-actualization need. She found her self-fulfillment and

realizes the potential to be someone successful in life. She

applied for the scholarship by The New York Times to pursue her

studies to college.

Lizz, who among the candidates that get the chance to changeher life by going to college found the transcendence needs given by The New York Times. The authority who gave out the scholarshiphelps the students to achieve their self-actualization,


especially Lizz who was a homeless and come from problematic family.

Self motivation

From the story, I would like to motivate myself to achieve

all the needs in order to become someone successful in life. I

want to be extraordinary and unique. People will point out to me

and asked who you are in the future. There is only one answer,

me. I am going to struggle and demand this world to be in my own

particular view. Nobody should set boundaries or limitation of

what my dream should stop at, but instead, I will do it for self

fulfilling. Why must we fulfilling others target or question if

within ourselves, we could not find the way to it? I was thankful

to have family and friends that supported me since the beginning

of life.


They never force me to follow their expectation but they

guide me. They gave me the real meaning of love, support and

care. At this point, I just realized that we need other people,

for myself to fulfill my desire and interest, and for them to

show my appreciation towards my achievement. Back in time, I

think my first ambition is the path that I am going towards now.

I had never told my real ambition during school, because I was

ashamed that people will take it as a joke. For me, it is a real

target that I want to achieve. Whatever I do, I will do it

according to what I like, and I really want to be the famous

person in the world. I found this interesting to be considered as

a dream.

Assuring that I am not going to be the philosophers or the

scientists who invented the technologies, but my point is, I want

to be someone that being recognize and remembered by other people

that I love around me. That is my world. I want the freedom of

choice to choose my life afterwards is going to be my decision.

Whatever it takes, I am going to be a travel journalist. I will

travel a lot, and share my views to the reader. Along with that,

I am not going to miss a chance to enjoy my interest in


photography and videography. I love arts, and I want myself to be

as unique as what art it is.

Someday, I will have my own business in the area that I love

so much. Combining the greatest taste of the world, healthy

awareness and fitness will hit my target. Everything is in my

mind and I will try my very best to achieve it. However, the

priority is my family. Seeing my parents smiling and happy for

what I achieved is the only price that suits my target. I will

never let them down, and for that, I must be someone that they

can be proud of.


Conclusion

The challenges while doing the assignment is to really understand

each situation and relate them with the motivational theory found

the chapter in Psychology. The story really affecting my mindset

and leads to the motivational drive to perform well in studies

and be passionate in whatever I do. I had learned from the story,

that everyone deserves to get the opportunity to learn and within

ourselves, we must have the passion to love the knowledge.

Without knowledge, the view to see the world will be more narrow

and useless. We will never want to be out of the box and achieve


our self-actualization. Therefore, we must have the courage to

change our life for a better bright future.

Bibliography

Chapman, A. (Copyright 2001). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Retrieved March 15, 2012 from

http://paf9120fall2010.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html


Cherry, K. (n.d.). What is motivation? Retrieved March 10, 2012,

from http://psychology.about.com/od/mindex/g/motivation-

definition.htm

Ciccarelli, S. K., & White, J. N. (2009). Psychology. NJ: Pearson

Prentice Hall.

Schizophrenia. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 10, 2012,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia

http://psychology.about.com/od/mindex/g/motivation-definition.htm

http://psychology.about.com/od/mindex/g/motivation-definition.htm

From Homeless to Harvard : The Lizz Murray Story (2012)

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