Motivational Processes Affecting Learning

A set of vocabulary flashcards defining key terms and concepts from Carol S. Dweck's research on the motivational processes influencing cognitive performance and learning.

Achievement motivation

A class of goals specifically involving competence, categorized into learning goals and performance goals.

Learning goals

Motivational targets in which individuals seek to increase their competence, understand, or master something new.

Performance goals

Motivational targets in which individuals seek to gain favorable judgments of their competence or avoid negative judgments.

Adaptive motivational patterns

Patterns that promote the establishment, maintenance, and attainment of personally challenging and valued achievement goals; also known as the mastery-oriented pattern.

Maladaptive motivational patterns

Patterns associated with a failure to establish reasonable goals or maintain effective striving, often characterized by challenge avoidance and low persistence; also known as the helpless pattern.

Mastery-oriented pattern

An adaptive behavior pattern characterized by challenge seeking and high, effective persistence in the face of obstacles.

Helpless pattern

A maladaptive behavior pattern characterized by challenge avoidance, low persistence, and negative affect when confronting obstacles.

Social-cognitive approach

A research framework that emphasizes cognitive mediators—how children construe, interpret, and process information—to understand motivational phenomena.

Cognitive mediators

Psychological factors representing how children construe a situation, interpret events, and process relevant information.

Entity theory

The belief that intelligence is a fixed trait or a static entity, which tends to orient individuals toward performance goals.

Incremental theory

The belief that intelligence is a malleable quality that can be developed, which tends to orient individuals toward learning goals.

Transfer of learning

The tendency to apply or generalize what one has learned to novel tasks that embody similar underlying principles.

Attribution retraining

A motivational intervention that teaches children to attribute their failures to effort or strategy instead of ability to improve persistence.

Teacher expectancy effects

A phenomenon, also known as a self-fulfilling prophecy, where a teacher's impressions of a student's ability actually affect that student's performance.