Chapter 12- Motivation

Question 1

motivation

Answer 1

an internal state that arouses, directs, and maintains behaviour, can view as either personality traits and individual characteristics, or a state/temporary situation (usually a combination of trait and state: motivational traits may set your general level or range of motivation, but certain situations may engage you more or less within that general range, five general approaches: behavioural, humanistic, cognitive, social cognitive, sociocultural conceptions

Question 2

amotivation

Answer 2

a complete lack of any intent to act- no engagement at all

Question 3

intrinsic motivation

Answer 3

motivation associated with activities that are their own reward, no need for incentives/punishments, natural human tendency to seek out and conquer challenges as we pursue personal interests and capabilities, on a continuum with extrinsic, but at any given time we can be motivated by aspects of each

Question 4

extrinsic motivation

Answer 4

motivation created by external factors such as rewards and punishments, not really interested in the activity for its own sake, associated with negative emotions, poor achievement, and maladaptive learning strategies, provides incentive to try new things, give extra push to get started, or helps persistence to complete a mundane task, four types: external regulation, introjected regulation, identification, integrated regulation

Question 5

locus of causality

Answer 5

the location- internal or external- of the cause of behaviour, the main difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

Question 6

reward

Answer 6

an attractive object or event supplied as a consequence of behaviour, part of the behavioural interpretation of motivation, promise of an A is incentive, actually receiving the grade is the reward

Question 7

incentive

Answer 7

an object or event that encourages or discourages behaviour, part of the behavioural interpretation of motivation, promise of an A is incentive, actually receiving the grade is the reward

Question 8

humanistic interpretation

Answer 8

approach to motivation that emphasizes personal freedom, choice, self-determination, and striving for personal growth, intrinsic sources of motivation are a persons need for self-actualization, motivation encourages people’s inner resources

Question 9

expectancy x value theories

Answer 9

explanations of motivation that emphasize individual’s expectations for success combined with their valuing of the goal, part of social cognitive view of motivation, if either factor is zero, there is no motivation to work toward the goal, cost can also be added, values have to be considered in relation to the cost of pursuing them

Question 10

sociocultural views of motivation

Answer 10

perspectives that emphasize participation, identities, and interpersonal relations within communities of practice (students are motivated to learn if they are members of a classroom that values learning)

Question 11

legitimate peripheral participation

Answer 11

genuine involvement in the work for the group, even if your abilities are undeveloped and contributions are small, part of the sociocultural view of motivation, in building an identity with the group, we move from legitimate peripheral participation to central participation

Question 12

need for competence

Answer 12

the individual’s need to demonstrate ability or mastery over the tasks at hand, part of self-determination theory, results in a sense of accomplishment, promotes self-efficacy, and helps learners establish better learning goals for future tasks

Question 13

need for autonomy

Answer 13

the desire to have our own wishes, rather than external rewards or pressures, determine our actions, part of self-determination theory

Question 14

cognitive evaluation theory

Answer 14

suggests that events affect motivation through the individual’s perception of the events as controlling behaviour or providing information, explains how student experiences such as being praised or criticized, reminded of deadlines, assigned grades, given choices, or lectured about rules can influence their intrinsic motivation by affecting their sense of self-determination and competence, all events have two aspects: controlling and informational, high control: diminished motivation, information+competence: high intrinsic motivation, information w/o competence: low intrinsic motivation

Question 15

goal

Answer 15

what an individual strives to accomplish, directs attention to the task and away from distractions, energize effort, increase persistence, and promote the development of new knowledge and strategies when old strategies fall short, goals that are specific, elaborated, moderately difficult, and proximal tend to enhance motivation and persistence

Question 16

goal orientations

Answer 16

patterns of beliefs about goals related to achievement in school, four main orientations: mastery (learning) performing (looking good), work-avoidance, and social

Question 17

mastery goal

Answer 17

a personal intention to improve abilities and learn, no matter how performance suffers, quality of engagement in the task is higher, tend to seek challenges, persist when they encounter difficulties, and feel better about their work

Question 18

performance goal

Answer 18

a personal intention to seem competent or perform well in the eyes of others, goal is to outperform others to look smart, what they learn is unimportant, may act in ways that interfere with their learning (cheating, shortcuts), common in highly competitive classrooms,

Question 19

work-avoidant learners

Answer 19

students who do not want to learn or to look smart, but just want to avoid work, feel successful when they do not have to try hard, when the work is easy, or when they can goof off

Question 20

social goals

Answer 20

a wide variety of needs and motives to be connected to others or part of a group, some help but others hinder, goal of bringing honour to your family or team by working hard or being part of a peer group that values academics

Question 21

epistemic (epistemological) beliefs

Answer 21

beliefs about the structure, stability, and certainty of knowledge, and how knowledge is best learned, influences motivation and the kinds of strategies used, several dimensions: structure of knowledge, stability/certainty of knowledge, ability to learn, speed of learning, nature of learning

Question 22

entity view of ability

Answer 22

belief that ability is a fixed characteristic that cannot be changed, students who hold an entity view of intelligence tend to set performance-avoidance goals to avoid looking bad in the eyes of others, teachers who have entity views are quicker to form judgements about students and slower to modify their opinions when confronted with contradictory evidence

Question 23

incremental view of ability

Answer 23

belief that ability is a set of skills that can be changed, children hold an incremental view, associated with greater motivation and learning, teachers who hold incremental views tend to set mastery goals and seek situations in which students can improve their skills, because improvement means getting smarter

Question 24

attribution theories

Answer 24

descriptions of how individual’s explanations, justifications, and excuses influence their motivation and behaviour, weiners three dimensions: locus (location of the cause, internal/external), stability (whether the cause of the event is the same across time and in different situations), and controllability (whether the person can control the cause), high sense of self-efficacy: attribute failures to internal, controllable attributions

Question 25

self-efficacy

Answer 25

a person’s sense of being able to deal effectively with a particular task

Question 26

learned helplessness

Answer 26

the expectation, based on previous experiences with a lack of control, that all one’s efforts will lead to failure, causes three types of deficits: motivational, cognitive (pessimism towards learning prevents opportunities to practice and improve skills and abilities), and effective (depression, anxiety, listlessness)

Question 27

mastery-oriented students

Answer 27

students who focus on learning goals because they value achievement and see ability as improvable, focus on setting mastery goals to increase their skills and abilities, not fearful of failure, attribute success to their own effort, strong sense of self efficacy

Question 28

failure-avoiding students

Answer 28

students who avoid failure by sticking to what they know, but not taking risks, or by claiming not to care about their performance, set performance goals, hold an entity (fixeD) view of ability, lack a strong sense of self-worth and competence, never develop a strong sense of self-efficacy, take few risks or adopt self-defeating/self-handicapping strategies

Question 29

failure-accepting students

Answer 29

students who believe their failures are due to low ability and there is little they can do about it, believe ability is fixed, likely to become depressed, apathetic, and helpless, can be prevented through varied assessments and setting goals

Question 30

self-handicapping

Answer 30

students may engage in behaviour that blocks their own success in order to avoid testing their true ability, characteristic of failure-avoiding students

Question 31

flow

Answer 31

a mental state in which you are fully immersed in a challenging task that is accompanied by high levels of concentration and involvement, individuals in flow experience greater enjoyment in the task, continue working without prompting, and tend to generate higher quality, more creative products, occurs when prepared for the task, has high self-efficacy for performance, intrinsically motivated by the activity, and has sufficient control or autonomy in the situation to direct and drive the learning experience

Question 32

arousal

Answer 32

physical and psychological reactions causing a person to feel alert, excited, or tense, involves both psychological and physical reactions, high arousal: pressure to do well, you need sleep but youre wide awake, high anxiety can impede performance, better for simple tasks, low arousal: late night, sleepy, attention drifts, not spurred into action, better for complex tasks

Question 33

anxiety

Answer 33

general uneasiness, feeling of tension, can be both a cause and effect of school failure, has both trait and state components, has both cognitive (worry, negative thoughts) and affective (physiological and emotional reactions) components, cognitive interference model: anxiety interferes with performance by drawing necessary cognitive resources away during testing phase (anxiety blocks retrieval), or students with high anxiety are less effective at organizing information, engaging in study strategies, and performing on tests even in the absence of evaluative pressure, anxiety affects preparation, performance, and reflection

Question 34

motivation to learn

Answer 34

the tendency to find academic activities meaningful and worthwhile and to try to benefit from them

Question 35

academic task

Answer 35

the work the student must accomplish, including the content covered and the mental operations required, four main components: importance/attainment value, interest/intrinsic value, utility value, and costs (negative consequences that might follow from doing the task such as not having time to do other things or looking awkward), value of accomplishing the task is bound up with internal needs, beliefs, and goals of the individual

Question 36

importance or attainment value

Answer 36

part of tasks, the importance of doing well on the task, how success on the task meets personal needs, closely tied to the needs of the individual

Question 37

interest or intrinsic value

Answer 37

part of tasks, the enjoyment a person gets from a task

Question 38

utility value

Answer 38

part of tasks, the contribution of a task to meeting one’s short term or long term goals

Question 39

authentic task

Answer 39

tasks that have real-life problems the students will face outside the classroom, students are more likely to see the genuine utility value of the work and are also more likely to find the task meaningful and interesting, eg problem based learning, service learning

Question 40

problem-based learning

Answer 40

methods that provide students with realistic problems that do not necessarily have “right” answers

Question 41

goal structure

Answer 41

the way students relate to others who are also working toward a particular goal, three goal structures: cooperative (students believe their goal is attainable if other students will also reach the goal), competitive (students believe they will reach their goal only if other students do not reach their goal), individualistic (students believe their own attempt to reach a goal is not related to other students attempts to reach a goal)

Question 42

cognitive view of motivation

Answer 42

emphasize intrinsic motivation because they view people as active and curious, believe that behaviour is determined by our thinking, not simply whether we have been rewarded or punished for the behaviour in the past, behaviour is initiated and regulated by plans, goals, schemas, expectations, and attributions

Question 43

self-determination theory

Answer 43

we all need to feel competent and capable in our interactions in the world, to have some choices and a sense of control over our lives, and to be connected with others- to belong to a social group

Question 44

need for relatedness

Answer 44

desire to belong and to establish close emotional bonds and attachments with others who care about us, connected students are more emotionally engaged in school, positive teacher relationships increase the likelihood that students will succeed in high school