Lecture 2 - Motivation 06.11.2024

motivation

the impetus that gives purpose or direction to behaviour and operates in humans at conscious or unconscious level.

a person’s willingness to exert physical or mental effort in pursuit of a goal or outcome.

→ willingness to put something in

(what is that something? mental/physical?)

  • link to effort but not purspose

  • motivation is directed to something or to avid somethings

  • motivational strength

  • motivations has to do with effort

    • willingness to invest effort

effort

the subjective mental strain a person experiences while meetings the mental workload of a task

effort refers to the subjective intensification of mental and/or physical activity in the service of meeting some goal.

→ putting something in

effort - objective perspective

effort is what translated motivation to performance

have an assignment, motivated to do it, put in the effort, get the grade

conditions in which this is not the case - where there is no translation

  • high ambiguity

  • high complexity

  • do not have the internal resources

but → only when the effort is invested in the right activity

  • motivation is important for effort and effort is important for performance.

but → people may also use clever strategies and behaviours lowering effort.

  • strategising in advance in order to not have to invest as much effort into the task

motivation as a mechanism driving effort

one way to think about motivation

full motivation + full effort = maximum capabilities.

expectancy theory vroom

motivation as rational calculation

  • motivation is the product of valence, instrumentality and expectancy

  • valence → value of outcomes

  • instrumentality → performing well will lead to desired outcomes

  • expectancy → belief that effort leads to desired performance

example promotion

  • promotion is good for me → valence

    • no - too many responsibilities

    • yes, money

  • performing well leads to promotion → instrumentality

    • no, in the company you need to know the right people

    • yes, this is a real meritocracy

  • i have the resources, i can do it and it would lead to performing well → expectancy

    • no ETC

    • yes ETC

as a formula

motivation = expectancy x instrumentality x valence

how it appear to us - we rather feel it - its just there or not → strong or weak

situations where we think about it? valuable etc. but not the same s being motivated

is motivation just rational calculation?

maybe seeing motivation only as something rational is not the full story.

evidence is not so clear

creativity - intuition ??

what besides rational considerations may matter in motivation?

  • happy feelings

  • satisfaction

  • showing capabilities

basic needs theory

sub-theory of SDT

  • satisfaction of basic needs related to effective functioning, well-being and more autonomous motivations

  • autonomous motivations more likely to fulfill these needs

  • autonomy→ experience oneself a a causal agent (not job autonomy)

    • your autonomous in your choice

    • you do it cause you want to

  • competence → experiencing oneself as competence

    • i can do it

    • i improved - i am capable

    • i am in control

  • relatedness → experiencing oneself as part of a group, belonging psychologically

    • relating to the rest of the group

SDT

there is extrinsic and intrinsic motivation

there are 4 types of extrinsic motivation

  • external regulation

    • contingencies of reward and punishment

    • controlled motivation

    • avoid pain

  • introjected regulation

    • self-worth contingent on performance; ego-involvement

    • moderately controlled motivation

    • e.g., show off skills

  • identified regulation

    • importance of goals, values and regulations

    • moderately autonomous motivation

    • e.g., help the poor

  • integrated regulation

    • coherence among goals, values and regulations

    • autonomous motivation

    • e.g., help the poor

difference between identified and integrated regulation:

if you are identified with something, there is a value or goal you have and there is no conflict.

if you are integrated with something - there is no conflict with any other value you have (does this ever happen)

intrinsic motivation:

  • interest and enjoyment of the task

  • inherently autonomous motivation

  • e.g., love to dance

amotivation:

  • absence of intentional regulation

  • lack of motivation

  • e.g. doing your taxes

goal setting theory

specific hard are better than “do your best”

hard goals are better than easy goals

behavioural intentions regulate choice behaviour

why is it a problem to set easy goals? why will you not perform well? → its not motivating, you’ll just stop once you achieve the easy goal cause you are done.

set goals thatare more likely to lead to better performance.

essential elements of goal-setting theory and the high performance cycle

(there is a figure to go with info below)

moderators:

  • goal commitment

    • the higher the goal commitment, the stronger the relationship between goal and performance

  • goal importance

  • self-efficacy

  • feedback

  • task complexity

    • too easy, no good performance - too hard, no good performance - inversed u shape

goal core:

  • specificity

  • difficulty (e.g., performance and learning goals, proximal goals)

goal core leads to performance (e.g., productivity, cost improvement) which is moderated by moderators (above) and mediating mechanisms (below). performance leads to satisfaction with performance and rewards which leads to willingness to commit to new challenges which leads back to goal commitment (in moderators above)

mechanisms (mediators - the graph is wrong):

  • choice/direction

  • effort (mediator or moderators)

  • persistence

  • strategies

goal setting theory - how to set goals in order to achieve performance

different people, different goal

people can be motivated by different goals (e.g., power, affiliation , etc)

people can be motivated to gain something or to avoid something

  • avoidance →

  • approach motivations better for performance

people can be motivated by internal or by external forces.

goals

“the end state toward which a human or non-human animal is striving: the purpose of an activity or endeavor”

“target of proficiency to be achieved in a task within a set period of time. “

  • abstractness

  • specificity

    • being nice in life vs being nice to my brother

  • proximity

    • in one hour vs in one year

  • remoteness to human needs

    • being famous vs being secure

goal structures

  • hierarchical

  • ETC

  • ETC

goal orientation

  • learning goal orientation → focus on developing ones competence by acquiring new skills mastering new situations, and lear nin from experience

  • proving goal orientation → ETC

  • ETC

  • ETC

goal orientation matters for work (vandewalle etc)

for instance, how people respond

ETC

ETC

why is learning goal orientation good?

why is avoiding goal orientation bad?

self-efficacy

self-efficacy is the belief in one’s ability to successfully accomplish a specific task or goal.

links most closely to expectancy in Vroom’s theory because it reflects confidence that one’s efforts will lead to effective performance

“im confident that with the next feedback and my preparation, ill be able to handle any question on the exam”

social cognitive theory (bandura, 2001)

people as anticipative, purposive, and self-evaluating proactive regulators ETC

ETC

ETC

people’s beliefs regarding their capabilitites ETC

ETC

ETC

control theory

**insert graph

continuous feedback loop that functions to assess and respond to discrepanices frtom a desired state

proposes that behaviour changes from moment to moment to keep perceived aspects of the self and world close to desired reference values/states → reference values: goals, standards, or ideals.

control is achieved through actions ETC

self-efficacy and performance

opposed to socio-cognitive theory, control theory suggests that self-efficacy could also lead to decreased performance (i.e., due to overconfidence, optimism)

maybe the relationship between self-efficacy and performance is the other way around, and good performance leads to more self-efficacy (e.g., the experience of mastery)

problem → many studies are only between, not between.

if you only compare people, how do you know the relationship between self-efficacy and performance

we want to see the within person

ETC??

a table.

→ self-efficacy may be primarily a product of past performance ETC

maybe too high self-efficacy and too low self-efficacy is maladaptive → having a realistic view on ones abilities is key for performance.

but this applies to all areas of life, not only work

and this does not mean that we are not agentic, self-regulating agents

ETC