'Motivation is the process whereby goal-directed activity is instigated and sustained'
Pintrick and Schunk 1996:4
Motivational psychologists - focus in the motors of human behaviour in the individual rather than in the social being. (drive, arousal, cognitive self-appraisal).
Social psychologists - see the action as the function of the social context and the interpersonal/intergroup relation patterns, as measured by the social attitudes.
The gap between the perspectives is gradually narrowing.
Social cognition - cognitive concepts integrated into traditional social psychological models.
Reasoned Action theory
The chief determinant of action is a person's intention to perform the particular behaviour.
- attitude towards the behaviour
- subjective norm' i.e. the person's perception of the social pressures put on him/her to perform the behaviour in question.
Planned behaviour theory
'perceived behavioural control' i.e. the perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behaviour.
Approaches: expectancy-value theories, goal theories and self-determination theory.
Expectancy-value theories:
According to the main principles, motivation to perform various tasks is the product of two key factors: the individual's expectancy of success in a given task and the value the individual attaches to success in the task.
Underlying expectancy-value theories - similarly to most cognitive theories - is the belief that humans are innately active learners with an inborn curiosity and an urge to get to know their environment and meet challenges, and therefore the main issue in expectancy value theories is not what motivates learners but rather what directs and shapes their inherent motivation.
Researchers emphasise various different factors that form the individual's cognitive process; from an educational point of view, the most important aspects include processing past experiences (attribution theory), judging one's own abilities and competence (self-efficacy theory), and attempting to maintain one's self-esteem (self-worth theory).
- The guiding principle in attribution theory is the assumption that the way humans explain their own past success and failures will significantly affect their future achievement behaviour.
- Self-efficacy theory refers to people's judgement of their capabilities to carry out certain specific tasks, and, accordingly, their sense of efficacy will determine their choice of the activities attempted, as well as the level of their aspirations, the amount of effort exerted, and the persistence displayed.
- In self-worth theory of achievement motivation, the highest human priority is the need for self-acceptance and therefore 'in reality, the dynamics of school achievement largely reflect attempts to aggrandise and protect self-perceptions of ability' (Covington & Roberts 1994).
Value:
A model of task values by Eccles and Wigfield consists of four components: attainment value (or importance), intrinsic values (or interest), extrinsic utility value, and cost.
p120
References:
Dornyei, Z. (1998) Motivation in second and foreign language learning. Thames Valley University, London.
Pintrick and Schunk (1996) Motivation in education: theory, research, and applications. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
