COGNITIVE FACTORS

IN MOTIVATION

Reference: Ormrod, J. E. (2016). Human Learning (7th

Global ed.) [E-book]. Pea r son Education.
 INTERESTS
One form of intrinsic motivation.
* Positive affect accompanies interest

Personal Interest Situational Interest

Relatively stable and manifest
Evoked by something in the
themselves in consistent patterns in
environment b y something unusual,
choice a n d making over time.
new, or surprising.

e.g.: Someone w h o w a s interested in Lego sets

e.g. Stopping o n the side of the r o ad during
a s a kid m a y p u r s u e carpentry or another
y o u r r o ad trip to enjoy the wonderful sunrise
profession that requires building things in
their adulthood.

* M a y also be called Individual Interest

 Effects of Interest

Interest promotes more effective information processing.

People w h o are interested in a topic devote more attention to it

a n d become more cognitively e n g a g e d in it. They’re more likely
to p r o c e s s information in a meaningful, organized, a n d
elaborative fashion.

- They’re more likely to u n d e rgo conceptual c h a n g e if they

encounter information that contradicts their existing
understandings.
The type of interest makes a difference:

Situational interest is of the “catch” variety

It e n g a g e s y o u for a s h o r t time, but y o u quickly move o n to

something else, a n d s o cognitive processing a n d learning are apt to
be limited.

Some situational interests are of the “hold” variety

You s t a y with a t a s k or topic for a lengthy period.

*Hold-type situational interest a n d enduring personal interests are

ultimately more beneficial t h an catch-type interest
 Furthermore, interest and knowledge seem to perpetuate each
other; Not only does personal interest in a topic fuel a quest to
learn more about the topic but also the increasing knowledge that
one gains can, in turn, promote greater interest.
 EXPECTANCIES AND VALUES
- Some theorists have proposed that motivation for performing a task is a function of two variables.
- A person must have high expectation for success, and a person must believe that performing a task has
direct or indirect benefits (value).
Effects of Expectancies and Values
● Children in the preschool a n d early ● Older children a n d adults are
elementary school y e a r s often intrinsically motivated because
pursue activities they find both high expectancy a n d high
interesting and enjoyable, value are present.
regardless of their expectancies of
e.g.: A p e r s o n with a ps ych o l o gy degree will
success.
devote their time in learning theories of h u m a n
learning a n d have high expectancy they can
master them, therefore they are motivated to
learn it. They have high values of music too, but
have low expectancy in becoming successful a s
a musician, s o therefore they don’t value it a n d
don’t work h a r d for the interest.
 Factors Influencing Expectancies and Values

● Prior s u c c e s s e s a n d failures in a particular domain make a

difference
● Other factors affect expectancy level a s well, including the
perceived difficulty of a task, the quality of instruction, the
availability of res ources a n d support, the amount of effort
that will probably be necessary, etc.
 Expectancy-value theorists have suggested reason why value might be high or low:

Importance Utility Interesting Cost *Others

Some activities Have high value Are valued A person may ● Other
are valued because they’re simply because see little or no activities m a y
because they’re seen a s a me an s they bring value in a n be associated
associated with to a desired goal. pleasure and activity. with too m a n y
desirable enjoyment. b a d feelings.
personal
qualities. ● Social and
cultural
factors
influence
values a s well.
 GOALS
❑ People’s goals also influence their cognitive processing.

❑ Goal attainment results in considerable self-satisfaction,

e nha nc e s self-efficacy, a n d leads to higher s t a n d a r d s for

future performance.

❑ Goals are beneficial only to the extent that they're

accomplishable.
 CORE GOALS
General goals of considerable priority for us at any
given point in time—that seem to drive much of what
we do
 ACHIEVEMENT GOALS
Mastery goal
a desire to achieve competence b y acquiring additional knowledge
or mastering new skills.

Performance goal
a desire to present oneself a s competent in the e ye s of others.

Performance-approach goal
a desire to look good a n d receive favorable judgments from others.

Performance-avoidance goal

a desire not to look bad a n d receive unfavorable judgments.

 Effects of Achievement Goals
❑ Students with m a s tery goals tend to e n g a g e in the very activities that will
help them learn: They p a y attention in class, p r o c e s s information in w a y s
that promote effective long-term memory storage, a n d learn from their
mistakes.
❑ In contrast, students with performance goals—especially those with
performance-avoidance goals—may s t a y a w a y from some of the very t a s k s
that, because of their challenging nature, would do the most to promote
m a s tery of new skills.
❑ Performance-approach goals are a mixed bag: They sometimes have very
positive effects, spurring students to achieve at high levels, especially in
combination with m a s tery goals a n d high self-efficacy.
❑ Motivation to learn—a general tendency to find learning activities meaningful
a n d worthwhile a n d therefore to attempt to get the maximum benefit from
them.
 Work-Avoidance and Doing-Just-Enough Goals

❑ Students m a y want to avoid having to do classroom t a s k s at

all, or at least to exert a s little effort a s possible. In other
words, they m a y have a work-avoidance goal.
❑ A similar goal is a doing-just-enough goal. A
doing-just-enough goal is in some respects a performance
goal, but the focus isn’t o n demonstrating competence or
hiding a lack of it.
❑ Students with work-avoidance or doing-just-enough goals
u s e a variety of strategies to minimize their workload.
❑ Students are likely to adopt work-avoidance goals when they
find little pleasure a n d value in academic subject matter, have
low self-efficacy for learning it, a n d see n o long-term payoffs
for mastering it.
 Social Goals Career Goals
The nature of students’ social goals Most children and adolescents
clearly affects their behavior a n d include career goals a m o n g their
academic performance. long-term goals.
If students are especially concerned M a n y y o u n g people, especially those
about their social s t a t u s a n d popularity, raised in fairly traditional cultures,
they m a y willingly e n g a g e in risky tend to limit themselves to
behaviors that high-status peers gender-stereotypical careers.
suggest. Certainly ge n de r stereotypes aren’t
If stu de n ts want the approval of the only things affecting learners’
low-achieving peers, they m a y exert little career goals; self-efficacy,
effort in their studies a n d possibly adopt expectancies, values, a n d social
work-avoidance goals. goals are also involved.
If they want to gain a s e n s e of power
over others, they’re apt to bully
vulnerable classmates .
 Coordinating Multiple Goals
❑ People u s e a variety of strategies to juggle their diverse goals.

❑ People are most successful a n d experience better emotional well-being

when their multiple goals all lead them in the s a m e direction.

❑ Accomplishing one goal simply isn’t compatible with accomplishing

another.

❑ The extent to which people make a connection between what they do

a n d what h a p p e n s to them.
ATTRIBUTIONS
FRANCIS VIANA A, LENDERO

B S – PSYCHOLOGY III
 Attribution
□ It is the people’s explanation for their success and failures.
□ Attributions is their belief of what causes what.

People are often eager to identify the causes of the things that happen to them
especially when events are unexpected.

□ Attributions are an example of knowledge construction in action: people interpret new

events in light of existing knowledge and beliefs about themselves and the world and then
develop what seems to be a reasonable explanation of what has happened.
□ Attributions are self-constructed, they may or may not reflect the true state of affairs.
 ATTRIBUTIONS
Three key dimensions on which people’s attribution vary…

1. Place (Locus): Internal vs External

□We sometimes attribute the causes of events to either external or internal
things.

Internal things – the factors within ourselves

Example: when we attribute good grades to hard work and believing, and
poor grades to lack of ability

External things – factors outside ourselves which reflects social

norms Example: when we attribute our scholarship as being
lucky
 2. Temporal Stability: Stable vs Unstable
□We sometimes think that events are result of either stable or unstable
factors.

Stable factors – things that probably won’t change in the near future
Unstable factors – things that can change from time to the next

3. Controllability: Controllable vs Uncontrollable

□We sometimes attribute it to controllable and uncontrollable factors.

Controllable factors – things we can either directly/indirectly change or

influence
Uncontrollable factors - things over which we don’t influence
 Two subcomponents of
Controllability

1. Contingency
□ One must believe that there is a contingency between the
behavior and the outcome.

2. Sense of Competence (Self-efficacy)

□ Capability of performing necessary behavior.

A student may know that good grades will result from making correct responses in
class but may not believe he/she has the ability to make those responses. In this
situation, there’s a sense of contingency but no sense of competence.
 EFFECTS OF ATTRIBUTIONS
Emotional Response
□ Learners apt to feel self-conscious emotions only if they themselves have done.
□ When they do something and succeeded they feel happy about it and when they fail, they tend
to be sad.
Reaction to Reinforcement and Punishment
□ People’s interpretation of the reinforcements and punishment they experience influence the
long term effects that reinforcement and punishment are likely to have.
□ These two can only be effective when people realize their own behavior – something over
which they have control – has been the cause of which consequences.
Self-efficacy and Expectancies
□ When learners attribute their success and failures to stable factors (innate ability or inability) –
they expect their future performance to be similar to their current performance.
□ In contrast, when they attribute success and failures to unstable factors (effort or luck) – their
current success has a little influence on their future success.
 EFFECTS OF ATTRIBUTION
Effort a n d Persistence

□ Learners are most likely to exert effort a n d persist after a failure if they attribute the
failure to internal, unstable, a n d controllable variables.
□ Learners w h o try h a r d a n d still fail are likely to conclude that they don’t have the ability.
□ Thus, learners are more productive when they attribute failure in ineffective strategies.

Learning Strategy

□ People’s attributions a n d resulting expectations for future performance clearly affect the
cognitive strategies they apply to learning tasks.
□ Students w h o expect to succeed in the the classroom a n d believe that academic s u c c e s s
is a result of their own doing are more likely to apply effective s t u d y strategies.

Future Choices a n d Goals

□ Learners attribution affect the achievement goals they set for themselves. Again, their
belief in intelligence come into play. If learners have a n entity view, they’re apt to set
performance goals a n d a s s e s s their s u p p o s e d inborn talent b y comparing themselves.
In contrary, learners w h o subscribe to inremental view are apt to set m ast er y goals and
a s s e s s their ability b y monitoring their p r o g r e s s over time.
Factors Influencing the Nature of Attribution
Age

Situational Cues

Patterns of Past Successes and Failures Verbal

and nonverbal m e s s a g e s from Others Culture

Gender

Self-protective Bias Image

Management
 Explanatory Style

Ma stery Orientation
Vs

Learned Helplessness
 Explanatory style: Mastery Orientation vs Learned Helplessness
□ The general way to interpret and explain a person’s day-to-day events and consequences is
known as the explanatory style.
□ When a person attribute their accomplishments to their own ability and effort. This attitude
is known as mastery orientation.
□ Other people attribute success to outside and uncontrollable factors and believe that their
failures reflect a relatively permanent lack of ability.
□ Researchers have identified a number of ways in which people with mastery orientation
differ from those with learned helplessness.
□ People with mastery orientation have good mental health and behave in ways that lead to
higher achievement over the long run.
□ People with learned helplessness behave differently: because they underestimate their
ability, they set performance goals that they can easily accomplish, avoid challenges that
maximize their learning and growth, and respond to failure in counterproductive ways that
guarantees future failure.
 Explanatory Style: Mastery Orientation vs Learned Helplessness
Extreme c a s e s of learned helplessness manifest in three ways…

1. Motivational effect – the individual is slow to exhibit r e s p o n s e s that will yield desirable
outcomes or enable escape from aversive situations.
2. Cognitive effect – the individual h a s trouble learning new behaviors that would improve
environmental conditions.
3. Emotional one – the individual tends to be passive, withdrawn, anxious, a n d depresses.
Roots of Learned Helplessness
□ When aversive events occur repeatedly a n d a n animal can’t avoid, escape from, or
otherwise terminate them, the animal give u p a n d passively accept them.
□ Therefore, people, too, begin to exhibit s y m p t o m s of learned helplessness when they
can’t control the occurrence of aversive events.
□ Helplessness can also develop when people observe other individuals having little
control over their lives.
□ Giving children negative feedback without providing s u g g e s t i o n s about how to improve
can also instill helplessness, especially when the feedback calls into question the
children’s overall competence a n d worth.
Explanatory style: mastery orientation vs learned
helplessness
□Praise for successes can eventually lead to helplessness particularly if the
praises only focuses on children’s natural, inherited talents, and then
children subsequently experience failures in the same domain.
□To sum it up, helplessness is a roundabout way in which people try to
maintain a sense of control.
□A mastery orientation is an increased tendency to
self-regulate one’s own learning. In fact, a truly effective learners regulate
not their approach to learning a task but also their motivation and affect.
 How Motivation and Affect Are Intertwined
With Self-Regulation
Self-regulating learners have both a sense of competence (self-efficacy)
and a sense of autonomy

Self-regulating learners tend to be those who set mastery goals for

their performance and attribute successful outcomes to things they
themselves have done
 Self-regulating learners enhance their motivation
in a variety of ways:
● Aligning assigned tasks with areas of interest.

● Setting goals.

● Focusing on productive attributions.

● Minimizing enticing distractions.

● Reminding themselves of the importance of doing well.

● Enhancing the appeal of a task.

● Self-imposing consequences.
Emotion Regulation
Self-regulating individuals rein in unproductive o n e s a s much a s they can. They try
to put a positive spin on disappointing events.

Internalized Motivation
❖ It refers to situations in which, over time, people gradually adopt behaviors that
other individuals value, ultimately without regard for the external consequences
that s u c h behaviors m a y or m a y not bring.

❖ Internalized motivation is a n important aspect of self-regulated learning. It

fosters a general work ethic in which a n individual spontaneously e n g a g e s in
activities that, although not always fun or immediately gratifying, are essential
for reaching long-term goals.
Edward Deci and Richard Ryan have proposed that internalized motivation may evolve
in the following sequence:
1. External regulation
The learner is motivated to behave in certain based primarily on the external consequences
that will follow various behaviors.

2. Introjection
The learner behaves in particular w a y s in order to gain other people’s approval

3. Identification
The learner now sees certain behaviors a s being personally important or valuable

4. Integration
The learner h a s fully accepted the desirability of certain behaviors and integrated them into an overall
system of motives and values