Key Ideas
- Motivation influences how we adapt to certain life stages.
- Our motivation for certain goals changes over time.
- Secondary Motives are often change as grow and learn about family expectations.
- In school, it is important to develop intrinsic motivation as opposed to extrinsic motivation, as intrinsic motivation will help with with perseverance in reaching long-term goals, such as university admission.
Example
- A child may be more motivated to search for food.
- On the other hand, an adult may be more concerned with safety.
- This influences the behaviours they are motivated to do.
Example
- An adult may be more motivated to look for a job than a teenager.
- This is due to the fact that they are at different life stages.
Case study
Józsa et al. (2018)
Aim
To explore the relationship between maternal parenting style, motivation, and academic success in early adolescence in a Hungarian population.
Method
Both the adolescents and their mothers completed questionnaires.
- The adolescents completed a questionnaire assessing their motivation for learning as well as information on their mother's parenting style.
- The mothers completed a questionnaire assessing their child's motivation to learn as well as their parenting style.
- The researchers also reported the grades of the adolescents in maths, Hungarian literature, grammar, and science.
Results
- There was a positive correlation between motivation and parental care.
- There was a positive correlation between academic success and parental care.
- The same was seen for volitional support.
Link to Concepts
- Change: As a person changes and develops, so do their motives.
- Measurement: The above case study uses questionnaires to measure its variables, which makes self-report bias a possible consideration.
