Educational Psychology

Pupil motivation

The aim of the chapter is to introduce current approaches to pupil motivation.


Questions:

What is a motivation?

What is an example of a primary motive?

What is an example of a secondary motive?

Who is the author of the hierarchy of needs?

What is the usual sequence of needs in Maslow's hierarchy?

What is intrinsic motivation?

How can we support intrinsic motivation in students?

What is extrinsic motivation?

How can extrinsic motivation be beneficial?

What are the downsides of relying on extrinsic motivation in school?

According to Self-Determination Theory, what are the three needs that are most likely to lead to intrinsic motivation?

What is frustration tolerance?

How can we foster higher frustration tolerance?


Motivation and needs


Motivation = an internal process (with purpose or direction, intensity and duration) that makes a person move toward a goal. It operates in humans at a conscious or unconscious level.


  • Need = an internal state of deficiency or excess in the body (hunger=>alimentary behavior=>food)
  • Incentive = an external stimulus (material or immaterial) - serves as a motive for behavior (approach/appetence x avoidance/aversion).
The general principle of motivation is to maximize the pleasant (the principle of hedonism) and minimize the unpleasant, which serves to maintain and restore mental balance (the principle of homeostasis = constant physiological state, or mental equilibrium).


Motives are frequently divided into:

(a) primary - physiological or organic motives (drives), such as hunger, thirst, and need for sleep.

(b) secondary -  learned, sociogenic or psychological = individual interests, habits, values and goals.


An example of sociogenic needs could be McClelland´s theory of acquired needs:

  1. The need for achievement - the need to achieve something, overtake others, prove something and be recognized.
  2. The need for power - the need to dominate and compete, to rule, to feel strong compared to others, to influence others and to have power over them.
  3. The need for affiliation-intimacy - the need to belong somewhere, collaborate with others, to be accepted and popular, to be part of society, relationships and to further develop these relationships. 


Particular behavior can have more motives or the same type of behavior, can have different motives. For example a disruptive behavior in a classroom can be a way of getting adult´s attention in a one pupil or an attempt to gain respect from peers for another pupil.

 


Kalat, J. W. (2007). Introduction to Psychology, 8th Edition. Belmont CA: Wadsworth Publishing.
5 pages
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Maslow´s hierarchical model of human needs


Abraham Maslow proposed that there is a hierarchy of needs and that people pay attention to higher needs only when lower ones are satisfied.


A comprehensive article about Maslow´s hierarchy of needs and its revisions
McLeod, S. A. (2018, May 21).Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation is characterized by doing something purely because of enjoyment or fun. People do the thing for the sake of the activity alone (the process itself is pleasant, e.g learning about psychology of motivation). With extrinsic motivation, a person tends to do a task or activity mainly because doing so will yield some kind of reward or benefit upon completion. Or the person may be motivated not to do something in order to avoid punishment, when s/he will be found out. In school context pupils are externally rewarded by good grades, praised by teachers or parents. Extrinsic motivation can be used to bring children to activities they haven´t tried before and thus they may later discover they enjoy them and instrinsic motivation develops...or not. External punishments can discourage certain behaviors before the child has mental capacities to understand possible consequences.

According to Self-Determination Theory (Richard Ryan and Edward Deci) the intrinsic motivation is more likely to occur in people who are self-determined and they have been fulfilled in the area of three particular needs:  

  1. the need for autonomy - urge to be causal agent of one’s own life and act in harmony with one’s integrated self (autonomy not mean to be independent of others)
  2. the need for competence - seek to control the outcome and experience mastery.
  3. and the need for relatedness - want to interact, be connected to, and experience caring for others.

If these needs are met, the theory argues that people will function and grow optimally. 



Further reading
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a selfdetermination theory perspective Definitions theory practices and future directions
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An example of pupil´s motivation for Physical Education (PE)
Retrieved (24.11.2020) from: https://www.jing.fm/iclipt/ThJobx/


Motivation and frustration

In order to achieve a goal, one usually has to make an effort and overcome obstacles: external (objective - factors of the situation) or internal (subjective - internal conflict, lack of skills, exhaustion); passive or active. Passive obstacle is "just there" (prison bars) , whilst active obstacle is usually a person actively preventing us from reaching our goal (parent´s prohibit a teenager from going to a party).

Goals are most likely to increase motivation to achieve if they are specific, challenging but achievable, and positive.

Frustration (an emotional state) occurs when it is not possible to reach a goal due to an obstacle. Frustration is the thwarting of impulses or actions that prevents individuals from obtaining something (a child is prevented from playing with a visible toy).

If our needs are frustrated for longer periods of time it can result in deprivation, that has long term effects on mental and physical health. e.g. emotinal deprivation in children.

Frustration tolerance = ability to tolerate a certain degree of frustration. The higher frustration tolerance is good for the ability to sustain motivated behaviors in uncomfortable situations, cope with setbacks and delay gratification.

Ability to delay gratification in children was tested in Walter Mischel´s "Marshmallow experiment", its predictive value about school achievement later in life was recently disputed, but youtube videos are interesting to watch. Replication studies pointed out, that children scoring lower on ability to delay gratification were more likely to be from poorer homes (food is today, who knows about tomorrow) or children found the experimenter promising another marshmallow untrustworthy.

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