Week 4 Post 3

Chapter nine was fascinating to read. There are so many key concepts I drew from this chapter as being insightful and worth knowing. One specific concept I found rather thought provoking was motivational argument. A motivational argument can either be channeled to an audience's passions or needs. I think when a speaker or an advertisement takes the "I need it," approach then they are very successful. I know that when I go shopping with my mom the words "I need it" often fall off my lips. In all honesty I don't really need another purse but sometimes we want things so much that we justify that we need them.

In this section of the reading pg 268 it goes on to explain Maslow's needs hierarchy. Reading about Maslow was a brush up for me because I have taken a couple of psychology courses. It is fascinating to me how our basic needs can be tied into argument speeches. If a speaker can convince an audience that they need to get behind a bill and the speaker states it in way that suggests to the listeners it would be for their own benefit; then the audience would be more likely to get involved. It is very clever to mix human need and emotion into things like political speeches because so many of us make decisions with our hearts and not our heads.

We vote for people we like, we buy clothes that make us look good so that people will like us, we diet to feel better and to get love or attention. So many of the things we do are because of our hierarchy of needs that is why I really enjoyed finding the connection in my own life.