Motivation Flashcards
What is Motivation?
A set of processes that arouse, direct and maintain human behaviour towards attaining a goal (Greenberg & Baron, 2003)
Trait vs State Motivation
Trait: internal and largely task independent. Personality traits have an effect
State: temporary motivational response, largely task dependent
Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic: behaviour is performed for its own sake, motivation is self-applied
Extrinsic: behaviour performed due to anticipated consequences, motivation is applied by other
Deci (1997): money decreases intrinsic motivation
Deci, Koesther and Ryan (1999): meta-analysis showed that extrinsic reward undermines intrinsic motivation
Cognitive Theories of Motivation
Suggest behaviour is initiated and regulated by expectations, plans, goals, schemas and attribution
Cognitive Theory of Motivation: Expectancy Theory (Atkinson, 1964)
Motivation = perceived probability of success x incentive value of success
Expectancy: belief that working hard will result in achieving desired level of performance
Valence: value assigned to possible rewards
Implications of the Expectancy Theory (Atkinson, 1964) for Education:
- tasks should be neither too easy nor too difficult to obtain
- success must be within reach, but not easy, for all students
Cognitive Theory of Motivation: Attribution Theory (Weiner, 2000)
Focuses on how people explain the causes of their successes and failures
Explanations tend to have 3 characteristics:
- Locus: people tend to attribute success to internal causes and failure to external causes
- Stability: stable is no possibility to change e.g. genetics. Unstable is changeable e.g. effort
- Controllability: controllable means more likely to put in effort. Uncontrollable e.g. teachers mood means less likely to be motivated
Implications of the Attribution Theory (Weiner, 2000) for Education:
- teachers should praise for effort (unstable and controllable) rather than intelligence (stable and uncontrollable)
- students must understand that what happens to them is a result of what they do
Cognitive Theory of Motivation: Goal Setting Theory (Locke, 1968)
The goal is the outcome a person is trying to accomplish to satisfy emotions and desires
Locke & Lathan (2002) Goals improve performance because they:
- direct students attention
- energize effort
What Factors Make Goals Effective (SMART Goals)?
Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Time-bound
Implications of the Goal Setting Theory (Locke, 1968) for Education:
Teachers should:
- set specific and clear goals for students with low motivation
- set goals obtainable within a short period of time
- provide accurate and timely feedback
4 Types of Motivations and Goal-Orientations in Schools:
- Mastery/task oriented students: motivated by desire for knowledge acquisition and self-improvement
- Performance oriented students: motivated by desire to gain recognition from others and earn good grades - desire to look clever
- Work avoidance
- Social
4 Subtypes of Goal-Orientation in Schools:
- Mastery approach-oriented: motivated to master academic skill
- Mastery avoidance-oriented: motivated to seek to avoid misunderstanding the given task. Yperen, Elliot & Anseel (2009) state this is probably the worst
- Performance approach-oriented: motivated to demonstrate more ability than other. Elliot & Moller (2003) state may be good
- Performance avoidance-oriented: motivated to avoid appearing stupid to others
Brophy (2005): do performance goals actually exist?
Psychoanalytic Theory for Motivation
- focuses on the concept of drive in motivation
- suggests actions and behaviours are as a result of internal instincts
Behavioural Approach to Motivation
- based on rewards and reinforcement (Operant conditioning. Skinner, 1938)
- motivation is based on external factors
- reinforcement of specific behaviours can help children to develop specific habits
- positive reinforcement = increase behaviour
- negative reinforcement = decrease behaviour