Motivation: Cultural Influences

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Motivation Cultural Influences

• EDU 330 Educational Psychology
• Daniel Moos, PhD

2
Motivation Cultural Differences (I)

• Anglo-American children
• More interested when allowed to make a personal
  choice in learning (Iyenggar Lepp, 1999)
• Asian children
• More motivated when trusted others (authority
  figures/peers) make choice for them (Iyenggar
  Lepp, 1999)
• Chinese children
• More motivated when do schoolwork in order to
  please parents and teachers (in contrast to
  Western students engage in self-handicapping
  other maladaptive outcomes (Cheng Lam, 2013)

3
Motivation Cultural Differences (II)

• Pursuit of avoidant goals
• Negative predictor of well-being in US
  (individualistic culture)
• Non (or even Positive) predictor for South
  Koreans and Russians (collectivist culture
  Elliot et al. 2001)
• Western theorists of motivation argue that higher
  the self concept, higher the academic achievement
  (Schunk Pajares, 2009)
• East Asian students tend to have lower ability
  beliefs, but higher academic performance than
  Western students (Stevenson et al. 1990)
• Western students who have higher opinion of
  abilities typically do worse on international
  comparative achievement tests compared to Asian
  students (Kaiser at al. 2002)

4
Personal Investment (PI) Theory Introduction

• Personal Investment Theory
• Focuses on how persons choose to invest energy,
  talent, and time in particular tasks
• Does NOT assume people from a given culture will
  choose to invest effort in same set of activities
• Does NOT assume that they will invest for same
  reasons

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Personal Investment (PI) Theory Assumptions (I)

• Assumes whether a person will invest energy
  depends on interaction between
• Sense of self (who am I?)
• Perceived goals (what do I want to achieve?)
• Facilitating condition (what is the environment
  like?)

6
Personal Investment (PI) Theory Assumptions (II)

• Sense of self (who am I?)
• Academic self-concept
• Sense of purpose
• Self-reliance

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Personal Investment (PI) Theory Assumptions (III)

• Perceived goals (what do I want to achieve?)
• Task/mastery goals (increase ones understanding)
• Ego/performance goals (wanting to do better than
  others)
• Social solidarity goals (wanting to enhance a
  sense of belongingness)
• Extrinsic reward goals (wanting to get
  praise/rewards)

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Personal Investment (PI) Theory Assumptions (IV)

• Facilitating condition (what is the environment
  like?)
• Social-contextual environment
• Parental support
• Teacher support
• Negative peer influence

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Personal Investment (PI) Theory Ending question

• Think of a instance where your decision to commit
  energy, time, and effort reflects the core
  assumptions of the PI theory
• Sense of self (who am I?)
• Perceived goals (what do I want to achieve?)
• Facilitating condition (what is the environment
  like?)