Motivational Tendencies Research Articles

Мотивация специалиста силовых структур как основная компонента профессионально-личностной надежности в сложных ситуациях

<p>The article discusses the motivational aspects of professional and personal reliability of a specialist of law enforcement agencies. The peculiarities of the dynamics of his professional motivation in difficult situations are revealed. The ways of maintaining it at the level necessary for the performance of professional tasks are highlighted. The problem of controlling and increasing the motivation of a specialist as a professional is investigated, which makes it possible to effectively provide psychological support for a professionally significant motivational orientation. Theoretical analysis and experimental approbation of the problem solution are presented. The sub-components of the motivational factor in the course of a number of studies are justified: dispositional motivation; situational motivation; stable Self-image in the context of fulfilling professional duty; reflexivity of motives. The features of the resulting motivation dynamics are investigated, it is experimentally established that the dynamics of a specialist’s motivation in various professional situations has its own patterns and is implemented in they are divided into the main four stages. In situations of practical activity, the motivational factor of professional and personal reliability, according to the authors, is constantly present at the background level. The main motivating component for actions to perform professional tasks directly in a situation is the presence of a rationalized professional dispositional motivation; awareness by a specialist of the professional and personal consequences of his actions; the ability to reflect, self-determination, that is, to arbitrarily activate internal situational motivation.</p>

The evolutionary sociology of J.Turner: An introduction to the concept of Spencer selection

This paper describes the main ideas of J.Turner related to his concept of Spencer selection. In his concept, he made an attempt to formulate the basic principles of Spencer selection, and also provided an argument showing how H.Spencer's evolutionary approach, contrary to popular belief, can be relevant for sociology today. J.Turner believes that the main driving forces of human evolution strengthened (or introduced) certain cognitive, motivational and behavioural tendencies, and people used these tendencies purposefully to create a certain culture and social structure. H.Spencer's explanation does not directly ignore sociological explanations of the dynamics and evolution of social systems, unlike simple modern evolutionary explanations of institutionalisation in terms of evolving behavioural tendencies based on the concept of natural (Darwinian) selection. The latter are used in evolutionary psychology and sociobiology based on implicit assumptions about the automatic nature of the process of transforming neurological reactions and behavioural tendencies into social structures and institutions. The basis of Spencerian selection is formed by a certain set of needs of people (individual level) and social differentiation of institutional organisation (reproduction, regulation, production and distribution) as the population grows (societal level), as well as changes caused by war with their specific dynamics. Thus, Darwinian ideas about the natural selection of individual organisms can be counted as sufficient for understanding and explantion of the evolution and dynamics of the layers of sociocultural phenomena traditionally studied by sociologists. For this purpose, it is necessary to turn to a special type of selection of superorganisms, formulated by H.Spencer in his works at the dawn of the formation of sociology itself as a separate science. In addition, in itself, such a combination of sociological and biological models of social processes is promising for the development of individual multidisciplinary research programmes that can subsequently significantly strengthen and enrich the social sciences as a whole.

Influence of Gamification Elements on Explicit Motive Dispositions

Explicit motive dispositions are the psychological needs that drive the behavior and play a predictive role in the selection of the achievement goal. In the presence of situational incentive cues, the variables of explicit motive dispositions may arouse/suppress. Similar to these incentive cues, gamification elements (such as leaderboards, points, badges, etc.) offer motivational affordances that either increase or decrease performance and engagement depending on the agent’s perception. However, this similarity, and the effects of motivational affordances on the agent’s explicit motive disposition and the selection of subsequent achievement goals, have not been thoroughly investigated. In this paper, the gamification elements (leaderboard and points) of the DRACO gamification system are redesigned to provoke explicit motive dispositions of the students. The results of the field study revealed that the experiment group had a significantly lower fear of failure and power motives (both hope and fear), fewer selections of performance-avoidance goals, and performed better based on theory exams and course grades compared to the control group. Consequently, it supports the hypothesis that gamification elements could provoke explicit motive dispositions and could affect the subsequent achievement goal selection, and the design of the gamification elements could be a determinant factor in this behavior change. Furthermore, this study contributes to a systematic Spanish translation of the UMS-3 questionnaire.

From explanation of the past to prediction of the future: A comparative and predictive research design in the Social Sciences

Business and Psychology research (and the Social Sciences, in general) is heavily biased toward explaining the past. The holy grail in such explanation-oriented research is to develop causal theory, and to test this theory with historical data against a null no-effect benchmark. We seek to expand the methodological toolkit by adding a comparative and predictive research design. First, by organizing an inter-theory battle, we move away from classic null hypothesis testing. Second, by predicting the future, we add prediction as a complement to the traditional explanation of the past. By way of illustration, we select a case in the Entrepreneurship field and theorize about the ranked predictions as to the relative growth performance of a sample of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). For this, we adopt two widely acknowledged theories in the literatures of Business and Psychology: The Competitive Strategy theory and the Motive Disposition theory. We use Gamblers' Ruin or Random Walk theory, arguing that company growth cannot be predicted, as the null benchmark. After identifying key explanatory predictive variables of our basic pair of theories, with Gamblers' Ruin or Random Walk theory's non-predictability as our benchmark, we produce ranked predictions as to the relative growth performance of 294 Belgian entrepreneurs and their SMEs. Later in 2023, we will test the predictive accuracy of these two selected theories and their predictive variables by comparing the predictive rankings with realized growth, as well as vis-à-vis randomness.

L2 Motivation

Globalization has led to the spread of English, which has become the world’s international language. As a result of its importance in social, economic, and political spheres, many countries have introduced English language learning in their school curricula. However, despite its importance many learners still seem to struggle with English second language (L2) motivation, which is an important element of L2 learning success. The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between several phases of learners’ motivation, including learners’ attributions of past English L2 learning success, current motivational characteristics, and motivation to learn English in the future. Using the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) as a framework, it was found that past learning experiences did not have a significant effect on current learner motivational dispositions. However, elements of the L2MSS had an effect on learners’ intentions to exert effort into future English language learning. In other words, Croatian university students’ L2 motivation was based on their visions for the future rather than on past learning experiences. Moreover, it appears that the ideal L2 self plays a much stronger role in learners’ motivation compared to the ought-to L2 self, and this motivation is tied to utilitarian motives for learning English. In addition, the results showed that other motivational components, such as interest, as well as L2 anxiety, are important elements of learners’ motivation, suggesting cognitive as well as affective aspects in this motivational profile. The complexity of motivation as shown in this study suggests the need for further investigations in various contexts.

Expanding the Discrete Emotions in Physical Education Scale (DEPES): Evaluating Emotions With Behavior and Learning

ABSTRACT Purpose: Students’ affective experiences represent essential physical education (PE) learning outcomes. However, measuring these essential internal processes and understanding how they relate to behaviors has been difficult and limited thus far. The purpose of this study was to expand the Discrete Emotions in Physical Education Scale (DEPES) from the original three in-activity emotions (enjoyment, boredom, and anger) to include three additional outcome-related emotions (pride, shame, and relief). Method: Exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) analyses investigated the factor structure for the DEPES expansion with middle school (i.e., 6th, 7th, & 8th grade) students from the United States (N = 495; Mage = 11.96 (SD = .98), 57% Female). Additionally, we examined predictive validity with relevant outcomes including perceived social competence, disruptive behavior, and multiple meta-cognitive knowledge beliefs (declarative, conditional, and procedural). Results: ESEM for the six emotions showed good model fit. Standardized factor loadings yielded strong primary loadings with minimal cross loading, suggesting discriminant validity for both in-activity and outcome-related emotions. Also, predictive validity of students’ disruptive behavior (21%), social competence (40%), and metacognitive knowledge (40–57%), accounted for a significant portion of knowledge variance. Conclusion: The six emotions measured by the DEPES can provide clear and precise information on students’ affective experiences in PE. Furthermore, measuring a variety of discrete emotions can help researchers/teachers capture unique motivational tendencies in students’ behavior and knowledge. The evidence speaks to how limiting general positive/negative affect may be when trying to understand students’ motivation/behaviors in PE. Overall, the DEPES can make valuable contributions to PE research and practice.

Oxytocin enhances neural approach towards social and non-social stimuli of high personal relevance

Oxytocin (OT) plays a pivotal role in a variety of complex social behaviors by modulating approach-avoidance motivational tendencies, but recently, its social specificity has been challenged. Here, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted with forty young adult men, investigating the effect of a single-dose of OT (24 IU) on behavioral and neural approach-avoidance. Frontal alpha asymmetry, indexing neurophysiological approach-avoidance, was obtained from electroencephalographic recordings while participants were presented with a series of pictures, individually rated in terms of personal relevance (i.e., high versus low positive/negative emotional evocativeness) and categorized as social or non-social. Additionally, participants could prolong (approach) or shorten (avoid) the viewing-time of each picture, providing a measure of behavioral approach-avoidance. Intranasal OT enhanced both behavioral and neural approach (increased viewing-time), particularly towards negatively valenced pictures of both social and non-social nature, thus challenging the notion that OT’s effects are specific to social stimuli. Neurally, OT specifically amplified approach-related motivational salience of stimuli that were self-rated to have high personal relevance, but irrespective of their social nature or rated affective valence (positive/negative). Together, these findings provide support to the General Approach-Avoidance Hypothesis of OT, suggesting a role of OT in amplifying the motivational salience of environmental stimuli with high (personal) relevance, but irrespective of their social/non-social nature.Clinical Trial Number: The study design was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04443647; 23/06/2020; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04443647).

Hidden cues for approach and avoidance motivation: implicit cognitive associations among patients with Nonadherence to HIV treatment

ABSTRACT Although patient motivation related to HIV treatment is widely acknowledged as a key factor related to consistent adherence and engagement with medical care, research has predominantly focused on explicit rather than implicit cognitive processes that underlie motivation. This study identified and examined implicit cognitive processes that influence approach and avoidance treatment motivation in a sample of 30 HIV patients with suboptimal adherence and poor engagement with medical care. Study participants were predominantly African American (87%) and gay/bisexual (63%). We examined 173 thought statements about treatment collected from patients during two previous studies. Thematic analysis described how implicit cognitive associations influenced patients to approach or avoid treatment and medical care. Findings revealed three major contextual categories of treatment-related thoughts: links with routines and habits, connections to physical changes and reactions, and interpersonal associations. Within each category, implicit cognitive associations about treatment in terms of these daily life events and experiences cued approach and avoidance motivational tendencies without the patient’s awareness. Findings from this study support the need for interventions that use implicit, less effortful approaches aimed at promoting adherence and improving the retention of patients with poor engagement.

Motivational Tendency Differences Between the Pre-qin Confucianism and Legalism by Psycholinguistic Analysis.

Among the hundred schools of thought that flourished during the pre-Qin era, Confucianism and Legalism are the most important ones as their thoughts cast a longstanding influence on the Chinese culture—cultural-psychological formation of the Chinese people. Most of the previous researches focused on analyzing the similarities and differences of the thoughts of Confucianism and Legalism, and few of them analyzed their motivational tendencies. This paper conducted a word frequency analysis of pre-Qin Confucian and Legalist classics with CC-LIWC, an independently developed program for classical text analysis, and made comparative research into the motivational tendencies of the two schools of thought in terms of psycholinguistic differentials. According to our research results, the use of words representing power (M = 0.1377, SD = 0.0104, p = 0.014) and reward (M = 0.0151, SD = 0.0042, p = 0.037) is more frequent in Legalist classics than in Confucian classics, whereas the use of words representing affiliation (p = 0.066), risk (p = 0.086), and achieve (p = 0.27) shows no significant difference between Confucian and Legalist classics. This paper believes that both Confucianism and Legalism are mainly motivated by power, which is the most distinct feature of their motivational tendencies, and that Legalism is more motivated by power and reward than Confucianism; both Confucianism and Legalism are outcomes of the monarchy society with the former showing the reserved side of monarchy and the latter showing the uninhibited side of monarchy; an effective political methodology is absent in Confucianism, while utilitarianism constitutes the cornerstone of the political philosophy of Legalism.

Motivation and Second Language Pragmatics: A Regulatory Focus Perspective.

This study investigates how learners’ chronic motivational characteristics, that is their regulatory focus (Higgins, 1997), can account for differences in L2 pragmatic production in general and across situations with different levels of power, social distance, and imposition. One-hundred-twenty-one L1-Mandarin learners of English as a second language completed a regulatory focus questionnaire and a discourse completion task focusing on two types of speech acts: request and opinion. Multiple regression results showed that learners’ promotion focus, concerned with advancement, growth, accomplishments, positively predicted their pragmatic production in general, and especially in situations where the learner is subject to a higher degree of imposition, has lower power and is socially distant from the interlocutor. On the other hand, the prevention focus, which is concerned with safety, security, and calmness, negatively predicted pragmatic production, especially in those situations. The findings provide support for the role of motivational dispositions in the level of learners’ L2 pragmatic competence. Theoretical and instructional implications are discussed.

Curiosity helps: Growth in need for cognition bidirectionally predicts future reduction in anxiety and depression symptoms across 10 years

IntroductionDecreased motivational tendency to seek out, engage in, and enjoy investing in complex cognitive processes in a sustained manner (need for cognition; NFC) may be a predictor and consequence of heightened anxiety and depression symptoms (ADS). However, the majority of investigations on this topic have been cross-sectional, which hinders causal inferences. MethodsThe current study thus determined the within-person relations between NFC and ADS by using random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) and bivariate dual latent change score (BLCS) approaches to separate between- and within-person effects. RI-CLPM and BLCS also present with advantages of adjusting for regression to the mean, baseline scores, autoregressive and lagged effects, and minimizing measurement error. Community-dwelling adults (n = 6750) completed the Mental Health Inventory-5 and trait-level NFC scales approximately every one year across 10 years. ResultsRI-CLPM showed that within persons, lower level of NFC predicted higher future level of ADS, and vice versa (d = -0.852 to -0.498). Likewise, BLCS demonstrated that within persons, smaller change in NFC forecasted larger subsequent increase in ADS, and conversely (d = -0.631 to -0.519). Findings remained after adjusting for socio-demographic covariates. ConclusionConsistent with theories, findings suggested that the within-person level-to-future level and change-to-future change relations among NFC and ADS were bi-directional and negative, with moderate-to-large effect sizes. Targeting NFC may treat or prevent the emergence of depression and anxiety disorders. Such efforts may include augmenting or personalizing evidence-based cognitive-behavioral therapeutic strategies for individuals with or at-risk for heightened ADS.

Seek What You Need

In Motive Disposition Theory, the affiliation motive describes our need to form mutually satisfying bonds, whereas the power motive is the wish to influence others. To understand how these social motives shape play experience, we explore their relationship to Self-Determination Theory and Flow Theory in League of Legends. We find that: higher intimacy motivation is associated with greater relatedness satisfaction, autonomy satisfaction, enjoyment, and the flow dimension of absorption; higher prosocial motivation with more effort invested and the flow dimension fluency of performance; and higher dominance motivation with lower relatedness satisfaction but higher competence satisfaction and increased flow in both dimensions. We demonstrate that in addition to being driven to satisfy universal needs, players also possess individualized needs that explain our underlying motives and ultimately shape our gaming preferences and experiences. Our results suggest that people do not merely gravitate towards need-supportive situations, but actively seek, change, and create situations based on their individualized motives.

A closer look at elementary school students' epistemic beliefs – Latent profiles capturing concepts of knowledge and knowing in science

Epistemic beliefs (EBs) are a key issue in educational research and are relevant for students' learning from as early as elementary school. To quantitatively measure EBs in the domain of science, researchers commonly utilize self-report questionnaires that capture the dimensions of source, certainty, development, and justification of knowledge. Going beyond analyzing these measures of EBs from a variable-centered perspective, recent research has focused on a person-centered approach, for example, on latent profile analysis. By applying this approach, we investigated the number and characteristics of science EB profiles among 680 third- and fourth-grade students—a neglected age group in this line of research. We identified three profiles that showed level and shape differences in their science-related EBs: relatively absolutistic/static, absolutistic/evidence-based, and sophisticated. Moreover, these profiles differed considerably in their scientific inquiry competencies, motivational dispositions, and social background. We discuss implications for the development and promotion of elementary school students' science EBs.

Children’s sweet tooth: Explicit ratings vs. Implicit bias measured by the Approach avoidance task (AAT)

The study aimed to assess the application of the Approach avoidance task (AAT) with children to measure implicit motivational tendencies towards foods differing in sweetness and calorie content and to explore the relationship between approach bias and explicit measurements of expected liking, attitudes, and hunger state and their relation to paired-preference tasks. The simplicity and game-like procedure of the AAT, where participants use a joystick to pull or push pictures, seems particularly suitable to measure implicit motivational biases in children. However, to our knowledge, this approach has not been used with children in a food related context.Children aged 9–11 participated in the study (n = 114). Their implicit bias towards pictures of snacks was measured via AAT. The test instruction was based on pushing or pulling the joystick according to picture category, food vs. non-food: food (18 snack pictures varying in sweetness and calorie) vs. non-food (18 pictures visually similar to the respective food stimuli). Further, children rated their expected liking of the snack pictures, answered an attitude questionnaire related to health and sugar consumption, and completed two paired preference tests tasting real samples under blind condition and choosing between a sugar and no-sugar added chocolate milk take-home pack.The percentage of non-valid AAT responses was relatively high, leading to low testing power. There was a significant difference in approach bias between food pictures and non-food pictures; approach bias was positive for food and slightly negative for non-food. Within food pictures, no significant effect of sweetness nor calorie was found. Nevertheless, children’s approach biases were linked to their expected liking ratings, which revealed a clear preference towards high sweetness and high calorie snacks. Individual differences in children’s approach bias to pictures differing in sweetness and calorie content were related to their hunger state but not to their attitudes or preference towards chocolate milk, indicating relevance for situational food choices. In the present study, questionnaire-based measurements (affective and cognitive attitude towards sugar, sugar craving and using food as reward) were however associated with children’s preference towards chocolate milk (blind and/or informed). Higher scores in the measured attitude subscales craving for sweet food, using food as reward, affective attitude towards sweet food and cognitive attitude towards sweet food were associated with higher odds to choose the sugar added chocolate milk. Methodological considerations and recommendations with regards to the use of approach-avoidance testing with children are critically discussed.

Refining the Short Social Dominance Orientation scale (SSDO): A validation in seven European countries

People and societies differ in their tendency to justify inequalities and group hierarchies, a motivation that has been labelled social dominance orientation (SDO). In order to efficiently measure this motivational tendency, Pratto and colleagues (2013, https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550612473663) proposed the four-item Short Social Dominance Orientation (SSDO) scale. The present study comprehensively assesses the SSDO scale’s psychometric properties in seven European countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, France, Hungary, Italy, and Poland). Using large and diverse samples from these countries, we propose a measurement model to assess the scale’s structural validity and we assess measurement invariance (MI), reliability, and convergent validity. Results suggest that the scale is sufficiently reliable, shows theoretically predictable and consistent correlations with external criteria across countries, it exhibits at least partial scalar and partial uniqueness MI across the seven countries and full MI across gender. These findings offer support for the psychometric quality of the SSDO scale and its usefulness for cross-national and multi-topic social surveys.

Motivational disposition towards psychological characteristics of israeli children with inflammatory bowel diseases: A case-control study

BackgroundPsychological stress is a general and non-specific factor associated with many health conditions, including Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD). It is related not only to external stressors but also to internal characteristics which enhance patients' vulnerability to stress. PurposeTo identify specific psychological characteristics of pediatric IBD related to stress. Design and methodsA case-control-cohort study that compared the psychological characteristics of 49 patients and 56 comparisons. The psychological characteristics were defined by four belief types – beliefs about self, general beliefs, beliefs about norms, and goals – which refer to a set of specific themes. ResultsThe belief types differentiated between the two groups, and the patients were characterized by six themes: like routines, strive to get others' love, caring about the body and the health, doing things only at their own pace, expressing negative emotion without regulations, and feeling over-identification with others. Patients' likelihood of being characterized by the themes is 2.18 to 2.90 times higher than the comparisons. ConclusionChildren with IBD are characterized by a set of specific psychological characteristics. These characteristics were discussed mainly concerning generating chronic stress (e.g., over-identification with others) and interpersonal conflicts (e.g., doing things only at their own pace) among the patients. Implications for practiceIt is suggested to healthcare workers to be aware of the specific psychological characteristics of children with IBD, and sensitive to these characteristics during interactions with them. Besides, the characteristics may pave the way for developing a targeted psychological intervention that corresponds specifically to the patients' needs.

Consumer collecting identity and behaviors: underlying motivations and impact on life satisfaction

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand the role that collector identity salience and collecting behaviors have on life satisfaction. The authors also investigate the role that dispositional motivations play in strengthening an individual’s collector identity salience.Design/methodology/approachAn online panel management system was used to recruit and compensate a diverse sample of 215 US consumer collectors. The structural model was tested with partial least squares structural equation modeling.FindingsA partial least squares structural equation model of data collected from a survey of US consumer collectors reveals that creative choice counter conformity and mortality legacy positively enhance collector identity salience, whereas materialism has no effect. Despite not affecting collector identity salience, materialism is found to negatively affect life satisfaction. Crucially, collector identity salience is found to positively affect collector engagement, which, in turn, enhances life satisfaction.Originality/valueThis research contributes to consumer behavior literature in three distinct ways. First, the authors build upon extant literature which has revealed creative choice counter conformity and mortality legacy as underlying dispositional motivations that contribute to collector identity salience. Second, while materialism has been tied to collecting behaviors via conceptual studies, the authors also examine the broader impact of materialism on an individual’s life satisfaction. Finally, the authors explore how collector identity salience and collector engagement contribute to satisfaction with life.

The role of metacognitive competences in the development of school achievement among gifted adolescents

Gifted underachievers perform worse in school than would be expected based on their high intelligence. Possible causes for underachievement are low motivational dispositions (need for cognition) and metacognitive competences. This study tested the interplay of these variables longitudinally with gifted and non-gifted students from Germany (N=341, 137 females) in Grades 6 (M=12.02years at t1) and 8 (M=14.07years). Declarative and procedural metacognitive competences were assessed in the domain of reading comprehension. Path analyses showed incremental effects of procedural metacognition over and above intelligence on the development of school achievement in gifted students (β=.139). Moreover, declarative metacognition and need for cognition interactively predicted procedural metacognition (β=.169), which mediated their effect on school achievement.

The relationship of motive disposition and situational incentives to individual differences in choking under pressure.

Motive disposition theory posits that individuals exhibit stable differences in their achievement, affiliation, and power motives - shaping their capacity to perceive performance, social affiliative, or competitive contexts as rewarding. Whereas this approach has been employed in research on individual differences in motor performance, it has not been considered in predicting individual differences in choking under pressure. Typical pressure manipulations often use competitive or team settings which also constitute prime examples of power and affiliation incentives. Consequently, we hypothesized participants' affiliation (vs. power) motive to be related to golf putting performance in team (vs. competitive) settings. In addition, due to the performance feedback provided by the task, it should also generally appeal to participants high in achievement motivation. Specifically, after a familiarization phase a total of 115 participants completed a baseline assessment of golf putting performance, followed by an experimental block manipulating the task's incentives (competition, team, control) between participants. Analysis of participants' previously assessed motives revealed that both participants' affiliation and achievement motive were positively related to performance (variable error) under pressure. No effects emerged for the power motive. These findings highlight the role of personality differences in predicting motor performance variability in pressure situations. We discuss the specific contributions of projective and self-report motive measures and touch upon possible avenues for coaches and practitioners to counter choking effects.

PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND NUCLEAR ROCKET CARRIERS IN THE CONTEXT NORTH KOREA PROBLEMATICS

The study analyses the implications and seeks linkages between North Korea's weaponization and selected allied states on the commercial level, which is assessed in the context of economics, technology, political situation, power issues and security. The actors analysed are dependent on foreign aid, particularly North Korean aid, despite the strong motivational tendencies and the resources invested in both missile and nuclear programmes