Motivation

This is Unit Seven, part one, on motivation: what it is, where it comes from, when rewards backfire, and how students explain their own successes and failures. Unit Six closed on choosing between teacher direction and student initiative. Unit Seven asks what makes students want to learn at all. Carry one idea through this part: the same behavior can come from different motives, so look for the reason behind it. At the entry on classifying attributions, the part shows how the reason a student gives for a failure shapes what comes next. By the end you will be able to tell intrinsic from extrinsic motivation. To explain when rewards undermine intrinsic motivation. To predict performance from arousal and task difficulty. To state what the evidence says about Maslow's hierarchy. And to classify an attribution on Weiner's three dimensions.

Seven entries on what motivation is: intrinsic and extrinsic motives, rewards that backfire, culture, and two families of theory.

What motivation is.

EDP 0601 Motivation

Motivation is the wants or needs that direct behavior toward a goal, and theories differ over where those wants come from: inborn needs, reinforcement, or the learner's own beliefs. One student practices free throws until dark; another stops when practice ends. The same behavior can come from different motives, so teachers look for the reason.

Two sources of motivation.

EDP 0602 Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation comes from the satisfaction an activity itself brings; extrinsic motivation comes from getting something from others, such as grades, praise or prizes. A student who reads history because the stories fascinate her is intrinsically motivated; one who reads it for the grade is extrinsically motivated. Most motivation mixes both.

When rewards backfire.

EDP 0603 The Overjustification Effect

The overjustification effect is the finding that an expected extrinsic reward for an activity a person already enjoys can reduce intrinsic motivation for it, as a child who loved drawing, paid for each picture, draws less once the payments stop. The reward does not add to the enjoyment; it can replace it as the reason.

Which rewards do the harm.

EDP 0604 Which Rewards Undermine?

The overjustification effect is qualified: tangible rewards such as money harm intrinsic motivation more than intangible ones such as praise, and expected rewards harm more than unexpected ones, so a surprise great work differs from money promised in advance. How much rewards harm is contested; some researchers find praise can raise intrinsic motivation.

Motivation and culture.

EDP 0605 Culture and Motivation

Motivation reflects culture: in collectivistic cultures, acting for the sake of one's family or group is a common and valued motive, as a student works hard in school to honor her family's sacrifice. Working for the group is not a lesser motive, and teachers avoid judging students' motives by one culture's standard.

Classrooms that foster intrinsic motivation.

EDP 0606 Conditions for Intrinsic Motivation

Classrooms encourage intrinsic motivation when students feel they belong and are respected, evaluation is de-emphasized, students have some control, and tasks are challenging but doable, with a clear rationale, as a teacher lets students choose among three project topics and explains why the skill matters. These return as self-determination theory's needs.

Two families of theory.

EDP 0607 Innate and Cognitive Theories

Theories of motivation fall into two broad groups: innate theories, including instinct, drive, arousal, behavioral and Maslow's, and cognitive theories, including interest, attribution, expectancy-value and self-efficacy. Hunger driving a student to the cafeteria fits an innate theory; a belief that effort pays off fits a cognitive one. Self-determination theory bridges them.

Six entries on innate theories: instincts, drives, arousal, and the stress and anxiety that tests can bring.

Instinct theory.

EDP 0608 Instinct Theory

Instinct theory, associated with William James, explains behavior as driven by instincts, unlearned, species-specific patterns of behavior, like a spider spinning a web without ever seeing one spun. The theory faded because lists of instincts disagreed, and much behavior once called instinctive turned out to be learned.

Drive theory.

EDP 0609 Drive Theory

Drive theory holds that deviations from homeostasis, the body's balanced state, create needs; needs produce drive states, and behavior that reduces the drive is repeated until it becomes habit: thirst builds, a student drinks water, and the drive falls. In drive theory, extrinsic reinforcers such as grades act as incentives.

Two kinds of drive.

EDP 0610 Primary and Acquired Drives

Primary drives are biological, such as hunger and thirst; acquired drives are learned, such as the drive for money, love or music. A hungry student is driven by a primary drive; one saving for a guitar, by an acquired drive. Acquired drives are learned through experience, not built into the body.

Arousal and performance.

EDP 0611 Arousal and the Yerkes-Dodson Law

Arousal theory holds that people try to maintain an optimal level of arousal, and the Yerkes-Dodson law adds that performance is best at moderate arousal, with simple tasks done best at relatively high arousal and complex tasks at lower arousal: running laps benefits from pep, a calculus exam from calm.

Stress as appraisal.

EDP 0612 Stress as Appraisal

Stress is a process of appraising events as threatening or overwhelming. A primary appraisal judges a stressor's potential harm; a secondary appraisal judges the options for coping and how effective they will be. Two students face one exam, and the one who sees threat and no way to cope feels more stressed.

Test anxiety.

EDP 0613 Test Anxiety

Test anxiety is negatively related to scores on standardized tests and entrance exams and to grades; it runs higher when tests are high-stakes, and low self-esteem strongly predicts it, so a student calm on practice quizzes may struggle on a final. The relations are small to moderate: one influence, not the whole story.

Eight entries on behaviorism, rewards, Maslow's hierarchy and its evidence, and interest, including interest that distracts.

Behaviorism's view of motivation.

EDP 0614 Behaviorism and Motivation

Behaviorism treats motivation as outward behavior: the likelihood of a response is the motivation, and reinforcement is the motivator, with positive reinforcement serving as an incentive. The approach helps when a teacher cannot yet read a student's inner motives, as with a new language learner, though behaviors are ambiguous across cultures.

A classic study of paid puzzles.

EDP 0615 Deci's Puzzle Study

In Deci's nineteen seventy-one study, students paid to solve interesting puzzles later worked on them less than students who were never paid: pay turned an enjoyable puzzle into a job, and the job ended when the pay did. The harm is smaller with flat-rate pay and well-defined tasks, so rewards are used selectively.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

EDP 0616 Maslow's Hierarchy

Maslow proposed a hierarchy of innate needs: deficiency needs, physiological, safety, belonging and love, and esteem, which must be met first, and growth needs culminating in self-actualization, which is brief and not reached by everyone. A student who arrives hungry or afraid struggles to focus on fractions.

What the evidence says about the hierarchy.

EDP 0617 Maslow and the Evidence

Maslow's hierarchy is a contested classic: research has found little support for a strict sequence of needs, and the theory is criticized for its subjective nature. Teachers can still use it as a reminder that hunger and fear block learning. Teach the hierarchy and the evidence together; knowing the model is not endorsing its order.

Two kinds of interest.

EDP 0618 Situational and Personal Interest

Situational interest is triggered by the immediate situation, such as a surprising fact or image, like a demonstration that makes a can collapse; personal interest is a lasting preference a learner brings to many situations, like a lifelong love of space. Interest draws more attention than effort alone, though the two blend.

Does interest cause learning?

EDP 0619 Does Interest Cause Learning?

Personal interest correlates with achievement, and the causal direction runs at least partly from interest to learning: children learned more from books they chose themselves, as a reluctant reader devours a self-chosen book about sharks but stalls on an assigned one. The arrow runs both ways, since achievement also builds interest.

How interest develops.

EDP 0620 Four Phases of Interest

Hidi and Renninger's four-phase model traces interest from triggered situational interest, to maintained situational interest, to emerging individual interest, to well-developed individual interest, as a field trip sparks curiosity, a unit sustains it, and a student begins reading on her own. The model is underspecified, with limited empirical support.

Interesting details that backfire.

EDP 0621 Seductive Details

Seductive details are jokes, colorful pictures or interesting asides unrelated to the point, and they can distract learners and mislead them about what matters: a slide on the water cycle decorated with a shark-attack story leaves students remembering sharks. Struggling students are hurt most, since seductive details add extraneous load.

Six entries on how students explain success and failure, and on their belief in their own ability.

Explaining success and failure.

EDP 0622 Attribution Theory

Attributions are beliefs about the causes of one's successes and failures. Weiner's attribution theory sorts causes on three dimensions: locus, internal or external; stability, stable or unstable; and controllability, controllable or uncontrollable. I failed because I didn't study is internal, unstable and controllable. Attributions affect motivation whether or not they are accurate.

The payoff: classifying attributions.

EDP 0623 Classifying Attributions

Here the part's idea does its work. Weiner's dimensions classify the four classic causes of success and failure. Ability is internal, stable and uncontrollable. Effort is internal, unstable and controllable. Task difficulty is external, stable and uncontrollable. Luck is external, unstable and uncontrollable. After a failed chemistry quiz, I'm no good at science is an ability attribution; the quiz was unfair is external and stable; I used the wrong study method is internal, unstable and controllable. Mixing up effort and ability reverses the theory's advice, and stable causes predict the same result next time, which is why an ability explanation for failure is so discouraging.

Which attributions to encourage.

EDP 0624 Which Attributions to Encourage

Attributing success and failure to internal, controllable causes such as effort and strategy supports motivation; ability attributions can breed complacency or collapse after failure, and external attributions remove the incentive to learn. You found a better method beats you're so smart. Effort attributions must be honest, backed by right-level tasks and reliable marking.

Belief in one's ability at a task.

EDP 0625 Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy is a person's belief that they can carry out a specific task; it differs from self-concept and self-esteem, which are broader, and from actual ability, so a student may have low self-esteem overall yet feel confident solving equations. Self-efficacy works best at or slightly above a student's true capacity.

What self-efficacy affects.

EDP 0626 What Self-Efficacy Affects

Self-efficacy affects which tasks students choose, how long they persist, and how they respond to failure, and each effect has a bright and a dark side: a confident student persists through a hard proof, but that same persistence may go to a video game instead of homework. It aims effort; it does not choose the goal.

Building self-efficacy.

EDP 0627 Building Self-Efficacy

Teachers build self-efficacy by setting goals with students, comparing students with their own past performance rather than with others, linking effort to improvement, and giving informational rather than evaluative feedback: you solved six of ten last week and nine today, instead of you're above average. Stressing gradual growth keeps each success visible.

Look at what you can now do. You can tell intrinsic motivation, the satisfaction of the activity itself, from extrinsic motivation, what others give for it. You can explain when rewards undermine intrinsic motivation: expected, tangible rewards for activities students already enjoy. You can predict performance from arousal: moderate arousal is best, higher for simple tasks and lower for complex ones. You can state the evidence on Maslow: little support for a strict sequence of needs. And you can classify an attribution by locus, stability and controllability, and see why effort and strategy are the explanations to encourage. Part two turns to the sources of self-efficacy, expectancy-value, self-determination and goals.