Daniel Bentley: Finding the Underlying Mechanism
“I’ve always loved analyzing and studying people, in hopes to learn more about the ways the mind works.”
I hope to make a large impact in my research. I am very interested in motivational psychology because I happened to be a lazy kid growing up. And I look back at my grades and my SAT scores, and I was only like a shell of what I could have been. I could have grown exponentially in high school had I have had someone like that who could have pulled me aside and said listen, "If you focus on this aspect of school rather than just the dreariness and the grades and everything."
Then, maybe I would have been more inspired and I would have had a love for learning which didn't fully develop until I came here to Landers. My love for motivational psychology is one of the reasons why I joined the research lab and Landers. Once I discovered psychology research, I kind of realized that I could also develop methods or find the underlying mechanisms which cause people the problems.
We are focusing on a project which rates iPhone and iPad apps on their success at motivating or improving physical fitness. So we're looking at apps that provide constant motivation or different areas of motivation, which can hopefully propel people and help them continue to work out and exercise and maintain a good health. And they can hopefully live long and prosperous lives. I want to, hopefully, apply for PhD programs where I can get a PhD in Clinical Psychology. If I'm able to change one person's life, I think that will be worth it to go into Psychology.
“I was always fascinated by the brain,” begins Daniel Bentley, LCM ’14. “Every little new discovery leads to many more question.”
To satisfy a portion of his curiosity during college, Daniel joined the research laboratory of Dr. Leib Litman for two years at Lander College for Men.
After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in psychology, the 2014 alumnus was accepted to Hofstra University’s PhD program in clinical psychology. His research now focuses on motivational psychology—the mind processes that guide us to goal-oriented behaviors.
In a way, his interest in motivational psychology stems from his recollections of a childhood he could’ve had.
“I was a lazy kid in elementary school, academically. I look back on my grades and SAT scores, and I realize I was only a shell of what I could’ve been…Had someone pulled me aside and found a way to motivate me more, then maybe I would’ve been more inspired in school and in my learning.”
This is Daniel Bentley’s story.
