Senioritis Research Paper

Danielle Wilk
Mr. Karavage
Psychology
Pd. 2
November 12, 2014
Senioritis/ Junioritis Project
Senioritis is a stage in which most seniors go through but, other classes go through something like it as well. The definition of senioritis is as follows:
“Noun. A crippling disease that strikes high school seniors. Symptoms include: laziness, an over-excessive wearing of track pants, old athletic shirts, sweatpants, athletic shorts, and sweatshirts. Also features a lack of studying, repeated absences, and a generally dismissive attitude. The only known cure is a phenomenon known as Graduation.” (4)
This definition shows that there is no possible way to get rid of senioritis but I disagree. I believe that the student needs both intrinsic and extrinsic

motivation for students to senioritis. Extrinsic motivation is a motivation that is given to you or you give it to yourself (7). Intrinsic motivation is a reward that motivates you and comes from the inside (8). Of course you have that one extrinsic motivation of graduation but, seniors and students need to have intrinsic motivation too. Senioritis is a disease that can be cured before graduation all the students need to do is use intrinsic motivation to help themselves push through senior year.
Senioritis is REAL. It may come in different forms but it is real. There are many signs and symptoms of senioritis. Some examples are bad grades, attitude about homework and school projects, poor hygiene, cut of classes, hard time getting up in the morning, laziness, increased absence from school, drug and alcohol use and, dangerous actions (5). The best part of senior year everyone thinks is the parties, prom and graduation. But, how can you expect to get through senior year without getting good grades, being alive and, having the attendance to go to prom let alone graduate.
The idea that troubles me most though is that why / how did I start having senioritis as a freshman or as some people call freshitis.

The definition that I came up with is as follows: a disease that freshman get normally after the first month of school when they were whatever is on the top of the drawer in there dresser, they start studying less and not caring about anything. The only thing that stopped my freshitis was the last day of school. Same thing happened for me as a sophomore but it started a little latter. Which we call sophitis and then there is junioritis too. This year I started having signs of junioritis when the seniors started having the signs for senioritis. My sign were different though from last year to this year. First of all I started to notice that I did not care about marching band as much as I normally did. Next thing I noticed was I was starting to not care about my school work as much as I did at the beginning of the year. My last sign was that I started to care less about my chores and my privileges. I don’t know many student in this school but back at home a lot of my friends had senioritis last year and the only thing that got them motivated was the extrinsic motivations there teachers gave

them.
At home my school gave me A LOT of extrinsic motivation for me to do good things and to get good grades a lot of the staff called me the golden child.

My biggest extrinsic motivation was being able to sit and watch movies in the guidance office all week except for Monday if I had all A’s and B’s. Another one was they would buy me lunches when they would order out. The last one was I was aloud to do whatever I wanted during finales if I had all A’s for the year. So of course I would get good grades just to get these rewards but I also got excited and happy (intrinsic motivation) when I would get a hundred on a test also I would not go to a party if I got below a B so that was my way of giving myself some intrinsic motivation. When I came here though it all changed and it became exceptionally hard for especially having to actually go to classes every day. So of course I had to give myself some intrinsic motivation by making goals for myself and I just kept on adding new ones. I also had extrinsic goals too I made goals like if I would get a good grade on a test then I would have one of my personal snacks and the same for other things too. Also if I got good grades I rewarded myself by going to stage crew and alternative sports. Another of my favorite motivations was calling Jazz. If I would do something good like get a hundred on some big test or something like that that was really important and vital for me I would reward myself by calling and talking to my best

friend Jazz.
Senioritis is a curable disease. In order to cure this disease the student with the disease needs to create intrinsic motivation for themselves. They can be big or small. The student may also create extrinsic motivations but they cannot include graduation, prom, or any other huge senior event. The student can create little things like going out for ice cream if they get an A on a paper. Going to the mal if all of their homework is done on Friday. Even a movie would be acceptable but, nothing as huge as graduation. Another thing that may help them is looking back and seeing what they have done opposed to looking forward and seeing the finish line.
Works sited
1. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Direction (Ryan and Deci)
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
3. http://www2.fiu.edu/~cryan/motivation/intrinsic.htm
4. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Senioritis
5. http://parentingteens.about.com/od/HighSchoolSenioritis/a/Signs-And-Symptoms-Senioritis-Identify.htm
6. http://www.nacacnet.org/studentinfo/articles/Pages/Senioritis.aspx
7. http://giftedkids.about.com/od/glossary/g/extrinsic.htm
8. http://giftedkids.about.com/od/glossary/g/intrinsic.htm