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
Implications of the Behavioural Approach for Education
- reinforcement should be clear and specific for a particular behaviour
- find a good reinforcer
Humanistic Approach to Motivation
- need for fulfilment and personal growth is the key motivator for all behaviours
- looking for new ways to grow to experience psychological growth and self-actualization
- motivation: encourage peoples inner resources to achieve successful personal growth
Humanistic Approach to Motivation: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1970)
- model of basic human needs as a hierarchal structure
- lowest need: physiological needs e.g. food, sleep
- highest need: self-actualisation e.g. meaning, acceptance
- Maslow concludes that what motivates people is unmet needs, once lower need is met it is no longer a motivator
- self-actualisation is never actually met, there is need for constant improvement
Humanistic Approach to Motivation: Implications of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1970) in Education
- behaviour is not reduced to an environmental response, takes a holistic approach where a child’s physiological needs must be met before their cognitive needs can be
- highlights the importance of self-esteem in learning
Humanistic Approach to Motivation: Limitations of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1970)
- interviewed Gandhi, Mother Theresa and Einstein, makes it difficult to generalise
- individual differences: people place different values on the same need
Emotions and Learning
- research on neural function is making it increasingly obvious that there is no cognition without emotion
- emotions have an impact on learning and academic achievement (Pekrun, 2002)
Educational Implications of Motivation
- repeating the same reward reduced the reward prediction error (RPE) - higher RPE -> more dopamine released -> increased learning and motivation
- IMPLIES? introduce a range of positive reinforcements in new ways to sustain motivation
- monetary reward undermines intrinsic motivation (Murayama et al, 2010)
- IMPLIES? reward doesn’t have to be physical e.g. give positive feedback
- social (e.g. fair treatment) and physical pleasure activate the same brain area (Lieberman & Eisenberg, 2009)
- IMPLIES? social reinforcement would be an effective motivator
- social (e.g. unfair treatment, punishment) and physical pain activate the same brain area (Lieberman & Eisenberg, 2009)
- IMPLIES? discriminations, punishment etc at school and affect brain development
Importance of Emotion Regulation
- positive emotions promote learning and negative emotions inhibit learning
- highlights the importance of emotion regulation to help children be in a positive learning atmosphere
Neuroscience of Emotion Regulation: Implications for Education
PFC Amygdala (responsible for emotions) interaction increases with age
- implies older children are better at regulating emotions than younger ones
- younger children need more detailed instruction to help regulate emotion. Discussions with caregivers will help build more effective management plans to reduce the impact of negative emotions in the classroom
Implications of Positive Emotions on Learning
- younger children seems especially responsive to positive reward and feeback
- IMPLIES? use more rewards with young children to incentivise learning
- presence of a caregiver can reduce stress responses to negative stimuli
- IMPLIES? presence of a caregiver can help children regulate emotions
Enhancing Extrinsic Motivation in Students
- express clear expectations: students should know explicitly what is expected from them
- feedback: should be frequent, immediate and clear
- praise: should be specific, task-related and achievable but not too easily achieved
- teach student to praise themselves e.g. ‘a pat on the back’
Enhancing Intrinsic Motivation in Students
- arouse interest: show students how material can be useful to them
- maintain curiosity: use a variety of teaching methods
- help students to set own goals
Learned Helplessness and Overcoming Learned Helplessness in the Classroom
- students may develop a defensive pessimism to protect from negative feedback, this may arise from inconsistent positive and negative reinforcement
Overcoming?
- give students opportunities for success in small steps with immediate feedback
- attribution training: improve belief in the causes of ones own successes or failures to promote motivation for future achievement
- self-esteem programmes: increase ‘can do’ attitude
- positive feedback systems
