Liu's blog

At the beginning of the story, Okabe holds a strong sense of agency, believing that he has a high degree of control over events, especially through his "mad scientist" persona, Hououin Kyouma. Okabe perceives himself as someone capable of affecting the timeline using his discoveries, like sending "D-Mails" (messages to the past), which significantly impacts how he approaches challenges. During this phase, Okabe feels that he can successfully control time-related experiments. He has confidence in his scientific abilities and believes in his power to make significant changes. This perception of control contributes to positive emotions such as joy and curiosity. Okabe places a high value on knowledge and exploration, considering his scientific pursuits not only intellectually stimulating but also inherently meaningful. For Okabe, the value of making a breakthrough in time travel is tremendous. Okabe’s excitement about time travel reflects this state of mind, he is curi...

Rintaro Okabe experiences a complex set of attributions that impact his emotions and motivations throughout the story. For Okabe, the narrative is shaped by how he interprets the unfolding events, especially as he deals with repeated time travel attempts and the consequences of his actions on the people he cares about. Okabe often attributes the outcomes of events internally, especially when it comes to protecting the people he loves, such as Kurisu and Mayuri. For example, he blames himself for failing to prevent Mayuri's death each time he returns to the past. These internal attributions make him feel responsible for the tragedies that keep happening around him. This self blame leads to intense guilt, despair, and emotional exhaustion. On the other hand, when things go well, Okabe may sometimes attribute success to external factors, such as luck or the capabilities of his friends. These inconsistent attributions of internalizing failures while externalizing successes can negative...

Rintaro Okabe’ psychological motivations can be understood in terms of goal hierarchies. The hierarchical ideas of the goal complex suggest that different types of goals and motivations interact with each other, from broad life goals to specific situational motivations. Rintaro Okabe's motivation demonstrates how larger, underlying reasons for action can shape his specific, day-to-day pursuits. One of the key drivers for Okabe is the desire to protect others, particularly his friends, and to live up to the expectations he sets for himself as the leader of the "Future Gadget Lab." This kind of motivation could be classified as introjected motivation, in which the individual feels pressure to act to maintain a sense of self-worth or to avoid guilt. For Okabe, his sense of responsibility often makes him feel pressured to save those he cares, and he is afraid of failing on them. This need to maintain his own internal standards or those that he believes others hold on him lead...

Cognitive Evaluation Theory and Organismic Integration Theory are particularly relevant to Rintaro Okabe’s motivation. For Cognitive Evaluation Theory, this theory focuses on intrinsic motivation and the role of three psychological needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Cognitive Evaluation Theory posits that individuals feel motivated to engage in activities that enhance their sense of mastery (competence), allow them the freedom to make choices (autonomy), and foster a sense of connection with others (relatedness). For Organismic Integration Theory, on the other hand, deals with different forms of motivation, which includes external regulation (where behavior is controlled by external rewards or demands) and integrated regulation (where behavior is fully aligned with one’s sense of self and personal values). Organismic Integration Theory describes how individuals move from being externally motivated to more self-determined forms of motivation as they internalize and integrate ...

  The value in Expectancy-Value Theory refers to the worth that an individual attaches to the outcome of a goal or activity. In Expectancy-Value Theory, values can be broken down into different types, including attainment value (the importance of success in achieving a goal as part of one's identity or personal standards), intrinsic value (the enjoyment or satisfaction derived from performing an activity), utility value (how useful or instrumental the activity is in achieving other goals), and cost (the perceived negative aspects of pursuing the goal, such as effort, time, or emotional pain).There are also more components included in value, such as instrumentality (It measures how useful an activity or goal is in accomplishing one’s broader aims or satisfying personal values) and achievement goals (the specific objectives that an individual sets in pursuit of desired outcomes, which can evolve as personal circumstances and values shift over time). Now that we understand these conce...

  In Steins;Gate, Rintaro Okabe's journey is heavily influenced by his evolving self-efficacy. His belief in his ability to change outcomes and control the course of events fluctuates throughout the series, and these changes directly impact his motivation, perseverance, and overall goal striving. At the start of Steins;Gate, Okabe exhibits high self-efficacy, although it's tied to his eccentric persona as a "mad scientist." He believes strongly in his ability to push the boundaries of science, create inventions, and uncover conspiracies. His confidence is bolstered by his self-proclaimed identity as “Hououin Kyouma,” which acts as a mental shield, allowing him to pursue risky and unconventional projects. His early high self-efficacy is a significant source of motivation, pushing him to experiment with time travel technology and assume he can control its outcomes. Okabe’s confidence and sense of self-efficacy are further reinforced when he discovers the success of the ...