Week 10 - Motivation

Definition
• Motivation is defined as the force that:
1) Energies Behavior -- What initiates a
behavior, behavioral patterns, or
changes in behavior? What determines
the level of effort and how hard a
person works? This aspect of
motivation deals with the question of
"What motivates people?"

Definition
2) Directs Behavior -- What determines
which behaviors an individual
chooses? This aspect of motivation
deals with the question of choice and
conflict among competing behavioral
alternatives.

Definition
3)Sustains Behavior -- What determines
an individual’s level of persistence with
respect to behavioral patterns? This
aspect of motivation deals with how
behavior is sustained and stopped

Five basic questions
Psychologists studying motivation focus on questions
such as:
• What choices do people make about their behavior?
• Having made a decision, how long is it before the
person actually gets started?
• What is the intensity or level of involvement in the
chosen activity?
• What causes a person to persist or to give up?
• What is the individual thinking and feeling while
engaged in the activity?

Motivation theories
• Drive theory
• Arousal theory
• Expectancy theory
• Goal setting theory

Drive theory
• Motivation arises from biological needs
within our bodies that create
unpleasant states of arousal – the
feelings we describe as hunger, thirst,
fatigues, and so on
• In order to eliminate such feelings, we
engage or do certain things to restore a
balanced physiological state, or
homeostasis

contd….. Drive theory
• Behaviors that work – ones that help
reduce the appropriate drive – are
strengthened and tend to be repeated.
Those that fail to produce the desired
effects are weakened and will not be
repeated when the drive is present
once again

Biological
Needs
e.g. food
Drive
State
e.g. hunger
Strengthen
= Reduce drive
Activation of
behavior
Weakened =
Not reduce drive
Drive theory

Arousal Theory
• Similar to Drive Theory, Arousal theory
states that we are driven to maintain a
certain level of arousal in order to feel
comfortable
• The difference is based on the ideas
that different individuals perform better
at different levels of arousal and that
every individual seeks to find its
optimum level.

contd…. Arousal Theory
• A part of the arousal theory is the Yerkes-
Dodson Law (simple tasks require a high
level of arousal to get the motivation to do
them, while difficult tasks require low arousal
to get the proper motivation)
• For example, you may have found that doing
your boring busy-work homework requires a
lot of effort on your part (due to low of
arousal) while doing a difficult brain teaser is
fun and is easy to concentrate on.

Yerkes-Dodson Law
The graph of performance vs. arousal is an inverted U: Performance
improves with increased arousal up to a point, and then it drops off.
Optimum performance on an easy task occurs at a higher level of
arousal than on a difficult task.

Expectancy theory
• It describes the relationship of what
people value (Valence), the effort
(Expectancy) and the behavior,
performance, or action is needed to
obtain it (Instrumentality).

Expectancy
• The expectancy is the belief that one's
effort (E) will result is attainment of
desired performance (P) goals.
• This belief, or perception, is generally
based on an individual's past
experience, self confidence (often
termed self efficacy), and the perceived
difficulty of the performance standard
or goal

Instrumentality
• It is the belief that if one does meet
performance expectations, he or she will
receive a greater reward
• When it is perceived that valued rewards
follow all levels of performance, then
instrumentality is low
• For example, if a lecturer is known to give
everyone in the class an "A" regardless of
performance level, then instrumentality is
low.

Valence
• It is the value the individual personally
places on the rewards.
• Factors that may influence valences
include, values, needs, goals, and
preferences
• For example, “How much I really want
an "A" in educational psychology”?
(Need)

Goal Setting Theory
• People are motivated to work toward
and achieve goals.
• Goal-setting is an important
motivational process
• Goals enhance performance by
clarifying what type and level of
performance is expected and required

How does goal setting work?
• Achieving goals lead to the feelings of
success and competence
• Failing short of a goal creates
dissatisfaction and thus, we are
motivated to work hard to avoid failure

Enhancing the effectiveness of
goal setting
• Assign or set specific goal
• Assign or set difficult yet attainable
goal
• Involve students in their goal-setting
• Provide feedback on goal attainment
• Goal commitment is enhanced when
goals are public, self-set, and when
individuals have internal locus of
control

Approaches to motivation
• Behavioral approach
• Humanistic approach
• Cognitive approach
• Social learning approach

Behavioral approach
• Classical conditioning states that
biological responses to associated stimuli
energize and direct behavior
• Operant learning states the primary
factor as consequences: the application of
reinforcers provides incentives to increase
behavior; the application of punishers
provides disincentives that result in a
decrease in behavior

Behavioral approach
• Behaviorists explain motivation with
concepts such as “reward” and
“incentive”
• techniques of behavior modification on
the assumption that students are
motivated to complete a task by being
promised a reward of some kind – e.g.
praise, grade, a token to be changed for
some desired object, privilege of
engaging in a self-selected activity

Humanistic approach
• Humanistic interpretations of motivation
emphasize such intrinsic sources of
motivation as a person’s needs for “self-actualization”
• People are continually motivated by the inborn
need to fulfill their potential
• to motivate students means to encourage
their inner resources – their sense of
competence, self-esteem, autonomy, and
self-actualization

Cognitive approach
• human behavior is influenced by the
way people think about themselves and
their environment, not simply by
whether they have been rewarded or
punished for the behavior (behavioral
views)
• Behavior is initiated and regulated by
plans, schemas, expectations, and
attributions

Theories related to
cognitive approach
1. Bernard Weiner’s attribution theory
• Every individual tries to explain success
or failure of self and others by offering
certain “attributions”.
• These attributions are either internal or
external and are either under control or
not under control

contd….Theories related to
cognitive approach
1. Bernard Weiner’s attribution theory
• Students attribute their successes or
failures can be characterized in terms of
three dimensions: locus (location of the
cause internal or external to the person),
stability (whether the cause stays the
same or can change), and responsibility
(whether the person can control the
cause).

Eight combinations of locus,
stability and responsibility
Internal External
No
control
Unstable
e.g. Sick the
day of the
exam
Stable
e.g. Low
aptitude
Unstable
e.g. Bad
luck
Stable
e.g. School has
hard
requirements
Control Unstable
e.g. Did
not study
for the test
Stable
e.g. Never
studies
Unstable
e.g. Friends
failed to
help
Stable
e.g. Instructor is
biased

Attributions for success and failure
Attribution theory describes and suggests the implications of people’s
explanations of their success and failures
Attribution
Stability
Stable Unstable
Internal
Success:
Failure:
Ability
“I’m smart.”
“I’m stupid.”
Effort
“I tried hard.”
“I didn’t really try.”
External
Success:
Failure:
Task difficulty
“It was easy.”
“It was too hard.”
Luck
“I lucked out.”
“I had bad luck.”

Theories related to
cognitive approach
2. Leon Festinger’s (1957) cognitive
dissonance theory
• when there is a discrepancy between two
beliefs, two actions, or between a belief and
an action, we will act to resolve conflict and
discrepancies
• create the appropriate amount of
disequilibrium (motivation) that leads the
individual to change his behavior and
which in turn lead to a change in thought
patterns

Social learning approach
• are integrations of behavioral and cognitive
approaches
• Characterized as expectancy x value theories
== it means that motivation is seen as the
product of two main forces, the individual’s
expectation of teaching a goal and the value
of that goal to him or her
• Motivation is a product of these two factors
because if either factor is zero, there is not
motivation to work toward the goal

Theories related to social learning
1. Vroom’s (1964) Expectancy theory
• An individual will act in a certain way
based on the expectation that the act
will be (valence) followed by a given
outcome (expectancy) and on the
attractiveness of that outcome to the
individual (instrumentality).

Theories related to social learning
2. Achievement Motivation: The Desire
to Excel
• Individuals differ greatly in the desire
for achievement. For some persons,
accomplishing difficult tasks and
meeting high standards of excellence
are extremely important. For others,
just getting by is quite enough.

Types of motivation
• Intrinsic motivation
– Natural tendency to seek out and conquer
challenges as we pursue personal interests and
exercise capabilities
– Tied to self-efficacy and self-determination
– It relates to
• the experience of being competent (self-efficacy) and
self-determining
• the emotions of interest and enjoyment
• the drive that pushes an ongoing interaction with the
environment of seeking and conquering challenges that
are optimal for one’s capacities

contd…. Types of motivation
• Extrinsic motivation
– Behavior where the reason for doing it is
something other than an interest in the
activity itself
– may range from being determined largely
by controls to being determined more by
choices based on one’s own values and
desires (the beneficial things that one can
gain)

Differences: ext. & int. motivation
• Differ in terms of the reason for acting, that is,
whether the locus of causality for the action is
internal or external – inside or outside the person
• Internal locus of causality / intrinsic motivation:
students freely choose an activity based on
personal interests
• External locus of causality / extrinsic
motivation: students choose an activity because
something else outside is influencing them

Techniques to increase intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation
Intrinsic Extrinsic
•Explain or show why learning a
particular content or skill is
important
•Create and / or maintain curiosity
•Provide a variety of activities and
sensory stimulations
•Provide games and simulations
•Set goals for learning
•Relate learning to student needs
•Help student develop plan of
action
•Provide clear expectations
•Give corrective feedback
•Provide valuable rewards
•Make rewards available

Suggestions for teachers
• Try to make every subject interesting. Make
study as active, investigative, “adventurous,”
social, and useful as possible.
• Use behavior modification techniques to help
students exert themselves and work toward
remote goals
• Make sure that pupils know what they are to
do, how to proceed, how they will know they
have achieved goals

contd……. Suggestions for teachers
• Take into account individual differences in
ability, background, and attitudes toward
school and specific subjects
• Do everything possible to satisfy the
deficiency needs – physiological, safety,
belongingness, esteem
• Enhance the attractions and minimize the
dangers of growth choices

contd……. Suggestions for teachers
• Direct learning experiences towards feelings of
success in an effort to encourage a realistic
level of aspiration, an orientation toward
achievement, and a positive self-concept.
• For students who need it, try to encourage the
development of need achievement, self-confidence,
and self-direction.
• Try to “send your students away from your
instruction anxious to use what they have
been taught – and eager to learn more.”

Week 10 - Motivation

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Week 10 - Motivation