I have been thinking about motivation and how I am personally motivated (internally rather by externals).
A very close friend of mine goes to a therapist mostly to be told "good job" (her description of why she goes) about whatever she is working on in therapy and when she hears that from the therapist, it makes her both feel good and want to do more/better so the therapist will say it again. And then how bad she feels and wants to do more if the therapist does not praise her - and how it motivates her to try to do something to get that praise.
For me, it is at best neutral for that therapist to say "good job"(or the reasonable equivalent) to me. It usually angers me - who the hell is she to tell me good (or bad) job. It does not make me want to do X again or better or anything positive. With others, it does not usually enrage me, but it does not make me all yea either. Growing up my mother used to berate me for how hard I was for her to motivate. She even would go on about it when I was grown. Pretty much if I could not figure out how something was useful either as an ideal/value I believe in or as a practical thing for me, I am not really motivated to do it. It is usually that I have to decide and praise or pressure from the outside is not going to move me.
I was just wondering if the idea (or reality) of the therapist's praise or lack thereof is a motivating factor for others.