Motivation: Cultural Influences EDU 330: Educational Psychology Daniel Moos, PhD

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)

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)

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

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?)

Personal Investment (PI) Theory: Assumptions (II) Sense of self (who am I?) Academic self-concept Sense of purpose Self-reliance

Personal Investment (PI) Theory: Assumptions (III) Perceived goals (what do I want to achieve?) Task/mastery goals (increase one’s 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)

Personal Investment (PI) Theory: Assumptions (IV) Facilitating condition (what is the environment like?) Social-contextual environment Parental support Teacher support Negative peer influence

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?)