Unit 1️⃣ Flashcards
What is Motivation?
The study of motivation requires objective evidence based on empirical data obtained from rigorous and reviewed research.
To explain the reason behind a behavior, we need a theory of motivation; its objective will be to explain what motivational processes are and how they work to energize and direct behavior.
How is motivation described?
Motivation is described as a desire for change, either within oneself or in one’s environment.
This desire can manifest in various forms:
• Changing behavior: Acting differently or adopting new habits.
• Changing thoughts: Altering one’s mindset or perspective.
• Changing feelings: Seeking different emotional states or responses.
• Changing self-concept: Transforming how one views or identifies oneself.
• Changing the environment: Modifying or influencing one’s surroundings.
• Changing relationship dynamics: Improving or altering interpersonal interactions.
The study of motivation and emotion as a behavioural science
• Motivational questions require objective, empirical evidence from rigorous, peer-reviewed research.
• Relies on empirical methods: testable hypotheses, operational definitions, observational methods, and objective statistical analyses.
• Rejects non-scientific sources, like inspirational quotes, in favour of data-based evidence.
Empirical testing in Motivation Studies.
• Continual testing of motivational concepts against new findings is essential.
• Concepts without supportive empirical evidence should be discarded.
• The need to improve useful concepts and discover new explanatory ideas.
Which is the importance of theory in M&E?
• A theory organizes knowledge to describe, understand, and explain phenomena.
• Motivation studies aim to answer ‘Why?’ questions about behavior, thoughts, and feelings.
• A good theory identifies and explains the relationships among observable phenomena, like causes and effects of achievement motivation.
With Good motivational theories we avoid to talk about behavioral science like a random person in the street.
Which two fundamental questions does the study of motivation tries to answer?
• What causes behavior?
• Why does behaviour vary in its intensity?
Cause and variability
When we talk to people in everyday life, when we ask students about their own motivation theories, the most popular theories people embrace are:
• Self-esteem and praise
• Incentives and rewards
Misconceptions
• Self-Esteem: Widely believed to drive good outcomes, but evidence shows it’s a result, not a cause, of life’s successes.
* Self-esteem is an effect, reflecting life’s circumstances, not a motivational cause.
• Incentives and Rewards: While seemingly effective, they can undermine intrinsic motivation and focus on compliance rather than genuine engagement.
*Incentives and rewards need to be given carefully, because removing them tends to damage the Person’s preexisting motivation to engage in that same task without the promise of reward (Deci, Koestner, & Ryan, 1999).
What does really drives behaviour?
The study of motivation concerns those internal processes that give behaviour its energy, direction, and persistence:
• Energy: Behavior has strength, intensity, and resilience.
• Direction: Behavior has purposeful and goal-oriented.
• Persistence: Behavior has endurance over time and across situations.
What really drives behaviour
Mappa concettuale
Antecedents conditions: *external events * social context —> internal motives
—> Needs, Cognitions, Emotions —> Energized,goal-directed,and persistent (motivated) Action
What is a Motive?
A motive is an internal process that energizes, directs and sustains behaviour.
Which are motives?
- Needs
- Cognitions
- Emotions
Needs
Needs are essential conditions for life maintenance and well-being.
Include both Physiological and psychological needs.
The generate wants, desire, and strivings for life maintenance and growth.
How are needs divided?
Needs are divided in:
- Primary needs which are Physiological needs like hunger, sleep etc..
- Secondary needs which are Psychological and social needs like power, achievement etc..
Cognitions
Cognitions involve mental events such as thought, beliefs, goals and self-concept.
The influence motivation by shaping how a person thinks and approaches tasks.
Cognitive motivation includes plans, goals, mindsets, beliefs and self-perception.
Example: If you believe that studying hard will get you good grades, that belief motivates you to study.
Emotions
Emotions are reactions to significant life events.
They create adaptive responses to challenges, threats, or opportunities.
Emotions synchronize these aspects to prepare for and cope with different circumstances.
Which are the four components of Emotions?
• Feelings: Which are Subjective, verbal descriptions of emotional experience.
• Arousal: Which is Bodily mobilization to cope with situational demands.
• Purpose: Which is Motivational urge to accomplish something specific at that moment.
• Expression: Which is Nonverbal communication of our emotional experience to others.
What are External Events?
External events are environmental, social, and cultural offerings that affect a person’s internal motives.
Environmental events include specific attractive stimuli such as money and events such as being praised.
Environmental events can also be unattractive stimuli such as a foul odor or being yelled at.
Social contexts include general situations, such as a classroom or workplace climate, a parenting style, or the culture at large.
Expressions of Motivation
Motivation is a private and unobservable experience. You cannot see another person’s motivation.
However, there are the five tell tale ways that you can know motivation when you see it.
• Behavior
• Engagement
• Psychophysiology
• Brain activations
• Self-report.
Behaviour
Seven Behavioural Expression of Motivation and Emotion
- Effort: Exertion put forth during a task. Percentage of total capacity used.
- Persistence: Time between when a behavior first starts until it ends.
- Latency: Duration of time a person waits to get started on a task upon first being given an opportunity to do so.
- Choice: When presented with two or more courses of action, preferring one course of action over the other.
- Probability of response: Number (or percentage) of occasions that the person enacts a particular goal-directed response given the total number of opportunities to do so.
- Facial expressions: Facial movements, such as wrinkling the nose, raising the upper lip, and lowering the brow (e.g., a disgusted facial expression).
- Bodily gestures: Bodily gestures, such as learning forward, changing posture, and intentionally moving the legs, arms and hands.
Engagement
Engagement, is a complex and multidimensional construct that involves how deeply a personis involved in a task.
• Behavioral Engagement
• Emotional Engagement
• Cognitive Engagement
• Agentic Engagement
For example: in a classroom setting, you can gauge a student’s motivation by looking at their effort and persistence (behavioral), interest and enjoyment (emotional), strategic learning approaches (cognitive), and their active contribution to the class (agentic).
Psychofhysiology
The term psychophysiology refers to the process by which psychological states (motivation, emotion) produce down stream changes in one’s physiology.
Psychophysiology is the study of the interaction between bodily and mental states.
Example: Using these measures,motivation researchers monitor a person’s hormonal activity, heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, pupil diameter, skin conductance, skeletal muscle activity, and other indicators of physiological functioning
Brain Activation
Five Psychophysiological Expressions of Motivation & Emotion
- Hormonal activity: Chemicals in saliva or blood, such as cortisol (stress) or catecholamines
(fight-or-flight reaction). - Cardiovascular activity: Contraction and relaxation of the heart and blood vessels (as in response to an attractive incentive or a difficult/challenging task).
- Ocular activity: Eye behavior—pupil size (extent of mental activity), eye blinks (changing cognitive states), and eye movements (reflective thought).
- Electrodermal activity: Electrical changes on the surface of the skin (as in response to a significant or threatening event).
- Skeletal activity: Activity of the musculature, as with facial expressions (specific emotion), bodily gestures, or shifting one’s weight from side to side during a boring hallway conversation (desire to leave).
Self Report
- Advantages:
• Directly assesses individual perceptions and experiences.
• Easy to administer to many individuals.
• Can target specific motivational aspects. - Challenges and Limitations:
• Discrepancy between self-reported motivations and actual behavior.
• Inconsistencies between stated feelings and physiological indicators.
Example: A person might report low anger but exhibit physical signs of aggression and increased heart rate.
