Cognitive Theories Of Motivation Research Articles

Werkloosheid en sociaal isolement

In an investigation of the relationship between unemployment & social isolation, two contrasting hypotheses are tested: (1) the status inconsistency theory (a social structural theory that stresses the structural causes for disequilibrium), & (2) the theory of mental incongruity (a cognitive motivational theory, stressing mental causes). These theories differ not only about the occurrence of social isolation, but also in predicting from whom the unemployed will be isolated. They were tested by longitudinal interview data over a 1-year period with a sample of unemployed & a control group (total N = 244) in the Netherlands. In general, support was found for (2) but not (1). At the end of the year, there was little evidence of social isolation. If isolation occurred, it was mainly from mentally threatening contacts, this being dependent on the unemployed R's attitude toward work. 13 Tables, 36 References. Modified HA.

Hypervigilance–avoidance pattern in spider phobia

Cognitive-motivational theories of phobias propose that patients’ behavior is characterized by a hypervigilance–avoidance pattern. This implies that phobics initially direct their attention towards fear-relevant stimuli, followed by avoidance that is thought to prevent objective evaluation and habituation. However, previous experiments with highly anxious individuals confirmed initial hypervigilance and yet failed to show subsequent avoidance. In the present study, we administered a visual task in spider phobics and controls, requiring participants to search for spiders. Analyzing eye movements during visual exploration allowed the examination of spatial as well as temporal aspects of phobic behavior. Confirming the hypervigilance–avoidance hypothesis as a whole, our results showed that, relative to controls, phobics detected spiders faster, fixated closer to spiders during the initial search phase and fixated further from spiders subsequently.

Ethnicity, Effort, Self-Efficacy, Worry, and Statistics Achievement in Malaysia: A Construct Validation of the State-Trait Motivation Model

The relations between motivational constructs, effort, self-efficacy and worry, and statistics achievement were investigated in a sample of 360 undergraduates in Malaysia. Both trait (cross-situational) and state (task-specific) measures of each construct were used to test a mediational trait (r) state (r) performance (TSP) model. As hypothesized, all three traits were found to be empirically distinguishable from their state counterparts in a confirmatory factor analysis. In a structural equation model, each trait also had a direct effect on its corresponding state as hypothesized. Most importantly, state worry and state effort had significant direct effects on statistics achievement in the predicted direction. Gender and ethnic (Malay vs. Chinese) differences and other predictions related to social cognitive theories of motivation also were analyzed and are discussed. Overall, results provide strong evidence for the utility of the state-trait distinction as applied to motivational constructs and are consistent with findings from U.S. samples.

Motivation, Working Memory, and Decision Making: A Cognitive-Motivational Theory of Personality Vulnerability to Alcoholism

This article presents a cognitive-motivational theory (CMT) of the mechanisms associated with three basic dimensions of personality vulnerability to alcoholism, impulsivity/novelty seeking, harm avoidance, and excitement seeking. CMT describes the interrelationships between activity in basic motivational systems and attentional, decision-making and working memory processes as the mechanisms associated with variation in each personality trait. Impulsivity/novelty seeking reflects activity in both appetitive and inhibitory motivational systems, greater attention to reward cues, and increased emotional reactivity to reward and frustration. Harm avoidance reflects individual differences in fearfulness and activity in specific inhibitory systems. Excitement seeking reflects the need to engage in appetitive behaviors in less predictable environments to experience positive affect. CMT also describes the impact of working memory and the specific motivational processes underlying each trait dimension on the dynamics of decision making from the perspective of decision field theory.

Classroom Applications of Cognitive Theories of Motivation

This article examines cognitive theories of motivation and their application to classroom experiences of students and teachers. Students' explanations of their school experiences are considered within the frameworks of expectancy × value theory, self-efficacy theory, goal orientation theory, and attribution theory. These same theories are used as lens through which teachers' classroom behaviors are viewed. Suggestions are offer for incorporating cognitive theories of motivation into pre-service and in-service programs for teachers.

Personal Computers in the Learning Environment and Student Motivation

Abstract Based on cognitive theories of motivation it is argued that, in the absence of computer anxiety, computer assisted learning can enhance several types of intrinsic student motivation because it allows for highly individualized learning.

Predicting Jealous Responses: The Influence of Adult Attachment and Depression on Threat Appraisal

This study tested a model of romantic jealousy based on cognitive motivational theory (White & Mullen, 1989) and formulations from adult attachment studies (Hazan & Shaver, 1987). A causal model was tested in which attachment, depression and situational threat were hypothesized to predict jealous responses through their effects on appraisal of threat. Imagery scenes, depicting varying levels of threat by a romantic relationship rival, were presented to 135 undergraduates. The model fit the data very well. Threat appraisal was predicted by attachment, depression and level of situational threat. Appraisal, in turn, predicted positive and negative relationship perceptions and emotions reported in response to jealousy-evoking situations. Results were interpreted as suggesting that attachment style and depression indirectly influence affective and cognitive responses to jealousy-evoking situations by functioning as schemas which influence the appraisal of a rival relationship. Insecure attachment and depression were also found to be related to less effective coping strategies. Findings regarding depression and ineffective coping suggested implications for the personal and relationship adjustment of persons with secure and insecure attachment.

Faculty at work: Focus on research, scholarship, and service

Within the framework of cognitive motivation theory, selected personal and environmental motivational variables for faculty in eight liberal arts and science departments from community colleges, liberal arts colleges, comprehensive colleges and universities, and research universities were regressed against faculty allocation of work effort given to research, scholarship, and service. The data came from a 1988 national survey of faculty.Gender, (sociodemographic), quality of graduate school attended, career age, andrank (career); self-competence andself-efficacy regarding research, scholarship, and service andpercent time prefer to give to research, scholarship, and service (self-valuations); andinstitutional preference, consensus andsupport, andcolleague commitment to research, scholarship, and service (perception of the environment) were entered into regressions.R 2s were generally strong (.64 for liberal arts-I institutions) and significant. For all institutional types,self-valuation (self-competence and-efficacy) motivators significantly accounted for the explained variance.Sociodemographic andcareer variables did not explain appreciable amounts of variance.

New Techniques for Effective Training Management

Argues that training has two special qualities which make its effective management different from managing other functions. These are (1) an internal service not usually seen as central to the core business and (2) an attempt to influence human performance. Puts forward ways of effectively managing training, including developing a marketing plan and monitoring developments in training. Links this with the cognitive theory of motivation and how this can be harnessed and used.

Faculty at work: Focus on teaching

Within the framework of cognitive motivation theory, selected personal and environmental motivational variables for faculty in English, chemistry, and psychology from community colleges, comprehensive colleges and universities, and research universities were regressed against faculty allocation of work effort given to teaching. The data came from a 1988 national survey. Gender (sociodemographic); quality of graduate school attended, career age, and rank (career); self-competence, self-efficacy, institutional commitment, personal interest in teaching, and percent time preferred to give to teaching (self-valuations); and institutional preference, consensus and support, and colleague commitment to teaching (perception of the environment) were entered into regressions. R 2 were generally strong (.86 for community college chemists) and significant. For all institutional types, self-valuation and perception of the environment motivators significantly accounted for the explained variance whereas sociodemographic and career variables did not.

Faculty at work: Focus on research, scholarship, and service

Within the framework of cognitive motivation theory, selected personal and environmental motivational variables for faculty in eight liberal arts and science departments from community colleges, liberal arts colleges, comprehensive colleges and universities, and research universities were regressed against faculty allocation of work effort given to research, scholarship, and service. The data came from a 1988 national survey of faculty.Gender, (sociodemographic), quality of graduate school attended, career age, andrank (career); self-competence andself-efficacy regarding research, scholarship, and service andpercent time prefer to give to research, scholarship, and service (self-valuations); andinstitutional preference, consensus andsupport, andcolleague commitment to research, scholarship, and service (perception of the environment) were entered into regressions.R 2s were generally strong (.64 for liberal arts-I institutions) and significant. For all institutional types,self-valuation (self-competence and-efficacy) motivators significantly accounted for the explained variance.Sociodemographic andcareer variables did not explain appreciable amounts of variance.

Motivation and de-motivation in secondary education: Student characteristics

Many teachers and parents complain that a substantial subgroup of pupils in high school lacks the right kind and/or the necessary level of motivation for school work. In the main part of this study, data from 1824 pupils in three types of secondary education show that the de-motivated and well motivated groups of pupils can be identified in terms of their scores on several traditional motivational predictor measures that are firmly rooted in cognitive theories of motivation: achievement motivation, test anxiety, intrinsic versus extrinsic orientation, causal attributions of successes and failures, and expectancy-value theories. High, medium and low motivated subgroups are formed on the basis of students' self-ratings and teachers' ratings (criterion measures). Based on these positive findings, we use then in the final part, the cognitive theories of motivation from which the predictor measures were derived to formulate a number of suggestions to prevent or remediate motivational problems in high school.

Explaining within-semester changes in student effort in junior high school and senior high school courses.

Within any course, as a semester progresses some students reduce their effort and others by harder. Virtually every cognitive theory of motivation suggests that changes in ability perceptions partially determine these changes in effort. Researchers have also cited changes in students' valuing of the course and changes in extrinsic pressures as determinants of effort changes. Covariance structure modeling was used to test 4 alternative models concerning the determinants of effort in a sample of 167 junior high school and 155 senior high school students

Effects of risk and ambiguity on judgments of contingency relations and behavioral resource allocation decisions

Motivation has been defined as the allocation of time and effort across competing demands. Such resource allocation problems are made more difficult when the relationships between activities and desired outcomes are uncertain. Cognitive theories of motivation assume that individuals make judgments about the associations of specific activities with desired outcomes, then choose actions based on those judged associations. These theories assume that uncertainty affects the judgments of the associations, but not the decision based on those judgments. However, recent research on decision theory with binary choices suggests that uncertainty has separate and distinguishable effects on judgments and on the choices made based on those judgments. In a laboratory experiment subjects learned two act-to-product contingencies under two levels of risk and two levels of ambiguity. The contingencies were judged as more linear than the actual contingencies when learned under uncertain conditions. Furthermore, decisions to allocate time across the two activities were biased in the direction of the more certain associations. This research extends the literature on risk with gambles and provides some additional insights into the way which judgment and decision processes differ. Implications for behavior change in industry and future research directions are discussed.

Academic achievement and future time perspective as a cognitive–motivational concept.

A new approach to future time perspective (FTP) was taken by integrating FTP into cognitive theories of motivation. Valence and instrumentality measurements of 23 general motivational goals were made in a group of 251 high-school boys. Goals were classified in three time zones: near future, distant future, and open present. Results showed that students with high grade point averages (GPA) and high study persistence attached significantly higher valence to goals in the distant future and perceived studying hard as more instrumental for reaching goals in the distant future and open present, than students with low GPA and low study persistence.

Audience uses and Gratifications: An Expectancy Model

Investigations as to why people attend to mass communications have generally not dealt with one of the assumed basic concepts of uses and gratifications research, namely, expectations about gratification. Nor have studies i n the area shown much concern for the question of whether gratifications sought from exposure to media are subsequently obtained; and if so, or if not, how this affects later expectations and patterns of exposure. This article describes a cognitive theory of motivation, expectancy-value theory. It then derives an expectancy model of media exposure in the framework of uses and gratifications research-a model which utilizes expectancy-value measures of audience gratifications in order to be able to predict subsequent levels of exposure to media. The model is illustrated by a small set of three-time panel data, the results of which support the view that the model has predictive validity. The article concludes that expectancy-value theory holds promise for extending uses and gratifications research beyond studies of the “charting and profiling” of reasons for attending to the media.

Generalized and specific expectancies: Sequential mediators of interpersonal behavior1

AbstractTwo experiments confirmed sequential mediation of social interaction by investigating the effects of generalized expectancies on specific expectancies and the effects of specific expectancies on performance. Both experiments used a simulated tutoring task in which the subject took the role of tutor while a confederate took the role of student. In Experiment 1 subjects combined generalized expectancies about the effectiveness of certain tutoring responses with specific situational information to produce specific expectancies about the results of the tutoring responses under the experimental circumstances. Experiment 2 replicated this finding and showed that specific expectancies of the relative effectiveness of different responses influenced which response was performed more. Results were discussed in terms of cognitive motivation theory and social learning theory.

A cognitive theory of motivation for treatment.

A cognitive theory of motivation for treatment.