The purpose of this thesis is to examine some projective techniques that can be used to study consumer attitudes. The measurement of attitudes is an interesting but perplexing one, mainly because of their abstract nature. Many instruments have been used, notably the direct method of questioning and the scaling techniques. These are based upon two important assumptions: (1) that the individual is aware of his attitudes and can verbalize them and (2) that the individual is willing to reveal these attitudes to an interviewer who is a total stranger. Researchers have recognized the weaknesses of these assumptions and have turned to more indirect approaches. The usefulness of projective methodology in consumer interviewing is undeniable. Their more subtle, indirect, unstructured and flexible approach overcomes some of the weaknesses found in the more direct methods. But these techniques have some limitations which have been severely criticized. The validity and scientific value of these tools are subjected to great controversy. Yet, it is not enough to list their shortcomings. It is necessary to spell out what they are invalid for and why. More research has to be done especially in comparing the responses derived from these methods which those obtained from other tools, on the same subject of inquiry and under similar circumstances. The author has relied solely on secondary data in the study. Any empirical testing of these techniques calls for a considerable amount of experience and skill in psychology and consumer behavior. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The study set out to investigate the question: "What type of people, driven by what motive(s) seek physically risky activities "for fun"? Professionals who obtain normal rewards (fame, money) for such activities were excluded. A number of hypotheses formulated in the context of personality and motivation theory were studied. Hypothesis I stated that risk has motive-like qualities. Hypothesis II, consisting of 5 sub-hypotheses, tested predictions derived from psychoanalytical theory which regards serious interest in risky pursuits as counterphobic efforts to allay one or more of the following anxieties: (l) general feelings of inadequacy; (2) feelings of masculine inadequacy; (3) morbid fear of death; (4) death-wishes; (5) repressed anxieties of parental abandonment. Hypothesis III postulated presence of belief in magic and superstitions and/or concern with power fantasies; and Hypothesis IV predicted a general tendency to over-use the defense mechanisms of repression and denial by risk-seekers. Hypothesis V, derived from social learning theory, predicted that risk-seekers would tend to come from homes where early risk-taking was either positively reinforced by "loved" parents, or negatively reinforced by "unloved" parents. Instruments included Boyar's (1963) fear-of-death scale, abridged; several items from Cattell's (1958) High School Personality Questionnaire (H5PQ) which measure source trait D; several new attitude scales which had been devised for this study; 3 cards from Murray's (1943) Thematic Apperception Test; Blum's (1950) Blacky card No. 6.; and Gough's (1965) Adjective Check List (ACL), administered once under ego-concept and a second time under ego-ideal instructions. All instruments were assembled into an anonymous questionnaire format. Mean perceived danger levels (mpdr's) of 40 sports, rated on a 7-point scale, were established in a pilot study with 167 university students serving as raters. Three of the sports with above-average mpdr's were chosen to represent "risky sports": mountaineering, skydiving and scubadiving. Three below-average mpdr sports, similar to the risky sports but minus the danger-element, were selected as control sports; hiking, piloting a small plane and sailing. Data are generally presented for the combined risk groups vs. combined controls. Subjects were selected randomly from membership lists of clubs which promote the particular sport, subject to the following restrictions: S must be male; born on or moved to this continent before age of 10; must be skilled and have shown "devotion" to "his" sport; if he is a control S, he must be disinterested in the risk-sport for which he serves as a control. Ten 5s represented each sub-group giving a total of N = 60. Age levels across groups were homogeneous, and only 5 "eligible" 5s were lost and randomly replaced. Only Hypotheses I and V received positive support. Risk has motivational qualities; and risk 5s tend to come from homes with the predicted interaction pattern, and a positive attitude to risk-taking. Personality profiles derived from the bough Adjective Check List showed all groups significantly high in need for achievement, dominance and endurance, and low in succorance, when compared to population norms. Risk 5s showed significantly low heterosexual interests. Findings are interpreted as demonstrating that for the average risk-seeker these sports do not act in a counterphobic capacity. All indicators identify him as a mentally very healthy specimen. Low heterosexual interest is seen as "genuine", probably due to hormonal and/or early training conditions and not due to anxieties. Evidence is adduced that risk-seeking is actually a universal human trait although its investigation has been largely neglected by psychology. Some early and recent trends are seen as consistent with the above interpretation. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

This study attempts to explicate the observable differences in the rate of upward social mobility among the various ethnic groups in terms of a configuration of motives. The results of earlier studies investigating the relationship between achievement motivation and social mobility had indicated that the achievement motivation by itself is not sufficient to satisfactorily explicate the problem of differential rate of social mobility. It has been suggested that it may be necessary to incorporate the affiliation motive as the second motivational factor affecting social mobility. This study proposes to pursue this suggestion further. The general hypotheses to be tested here are as follows. 1. Ethnic groups vary in their motivational orientation, and they can be classified into groups of similar motivational configuration (motivational groups) determined by the relative strengths of the tendencies to approach success and to avoid failure, the two components of achievement motivation, and the affiliation motive. 2. These motivational groups vary in their levels of occupational and educational aspirations which are assumed to be indices of potential mobility. 3. Because of the feeling of alienation, the affiliation motive would be stronger among the members of the ethnic minority than among the members of the culturally dominant group, and it is expected that among the former the affiliation motive is more significant as a determinant of aspiration levels than the achievement motive. The sample consisted of all available Grade 11 and 12 boys from three Vancouver schools. The test consisting of the Thermatic Apperception Test (TAT), Mandler-Sarasen Test Anxiety Questionnaire (TAQ), and a set of questions designed to establish subjects' ethnicity, social class, occupational and educational aspirations were administered in a number of separate group sessions in each of the schools. Both the TAT and TAQ were scored in accordance with the relevant scoring manuals and the occupational aspiration score was determined by a modified version of the system used by Rosen. The results are in general not conclusive. The hypothesized relationship between motivational configuration and occupational aspiration is apparent although the trend is not statistically significant. There is, however, no apparent relationship between motivational configuration and educational aspirations. The results further show that when class is taken into account the aspiration scores of the members of the upper class is related neither to achievement nor to affiliation. The question of the relative strengths of affiliation and achievement motives also remains unresolved. It was concluded that the theory of achievement motivation may find useful applications in the problems of socio-economic phenomena, but these results indicate the improvements in both theoretical and methodological areas must be made in order to obtain more reliable results. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The current study addresses the questions of what determines intrinsic motivation, how do the factors that determine it work, and what kinds of cognitive learning may be achieved in an intrinsically motivating environment? A microcomputer game environment, involving one instructional and one noninstructional game, was selected for the study. Two game-specific parallel tests of motivation involving the factors of Challenge, Curiosity, Control, and Fantasy were constructed. An achievement test of algebra relating to the content of the instructional game and involving the learning of Concepts, Rules, and Procedures was also constructed. In an experiment involving 134 10th-grade students, a test of divergent feeling, measuring how creative the students feel about themselves, was administered. The subjects were then randomly assigned by gender and class to either an experimental or a control group. Following a practice session, the experimental group played each game twice and answered a test of motivation each time, while the control group played the noninstructional game twice and used worksheets twice to practice the mathematical content of the instructional game. The test of algebra was administered to all subjects after the last playing session and in the fifth week following that. The results revealed that each of the four factors of Challenge, Curiosity, Control, and Fantasy played a role in determining the intrinsic motivational effects of the games. The games did not differentiate in motivation between boys and girls or among students with different levels of perceived creativity. There were no significant differences in achievement or retention between the experimental and control groups: the worksheets were just as effective as the game in enabling the learning of Concepts, Rules, and Procedure on both the post-test and retention test. Gender differences in mathematics achievement, favouring boys over girls, were accounted for, in part, by the level of perceived creativity. Challenge, Control, and Fantasy correlated positively with cognitive learning. For the instructional game, there was no significant change for the factors of Challenge, Curiosity, and Fantasy; but student motivation attributed to Control increased significantly. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

People who participate in adult education do so for a variety of reasons. The British Columbia Telephone Company (B.C. Tel) reimburses employees who take courses, and does so because it is assumed that employees participate in education for job-related reasons. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which employees utilizing B.C. Tel's "Financial Assistance Plan" take courses for "job" or "non job" reasons and to determine the extent to which different "motivational types" (derived from contrasting job with non job motivational orientation scores) possessed different socio-demographic characteristics. Boshier's Education participation Scale (EPS), along with Helmreich and Spence's Work and Family Orientation Questionnaire (WOFO), were assembled in a questionnaire that also measured the socio-demographic characteristics of employees utilizing the B.C. Tel Financial Assistance Plan in 1985. EPS items were subjected to a judging process that identified those deemed to be "job" and those deemed to be "non job" oriented. Of the 250 questionnaires distributed through B.C. Tel's internal mail system, 159 useable ones were returned. A total EPS "job" score was derived by calculating the mean over the relevant items, a total "non job" score was derived using the same method for items in this category. Respondents with the highest "job" scores (i.e. most likely enrolled for job-related reasons) were younger employees, those with shorter periods of employment with B.C. Tel, and union employees. Those with the highest "non job" scores were older employees, respondents with children, and management employees in staff positions. Although the first phase of the analysis revealed significant relationships between socio-demographic and EPS variables, a multivariate analysis which simultaneously considered both "job" and "non job" scores was needed because many participants were enrolled for both reasons. Job motivation is not the opposite of, or does not exclude, non job motivation. Thus, a discriminant analysis was performed where the dependent variables were four motivational types. TYPE I respondents were high job/high non job motivated, TYPE II were high job/low non job motivated, TYPE III were low job/low non job motivated, and TYPE IV were low job/high non job motivated. It was concluded that predicting participant type was possible using only two socio-demographic variables, age and employment function. TYPE I participants were younger than TYPE III and IV, and were more likely to be union employees. TYPE II participants were similar in age to TYPE I, but were more likely to be in management. TYPE III participants were mostly management and were older than TYPE I and II. TYPE IV were similar in age to TYPE III, but were evenly split between union and management. Further research is needed concerning the application of the EPS in a business setting. The judging process used to determine "job" and "non job" scores is worthy of further examination in a larger context. As well, it would be useful to examine if other categories exist. Finally, construct validation of the typology of participants developed in this study through in-depth interviews conducted with representative respondents of a similar sample could ratify or refine the classifications used in this thesis. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

This study investigated the extent to which motivational characteristics influence an adult's decision to engage in an education program. The purpose of the study was to determine the efficacy of a growth-deficiency model of motives for participation in adult education programs, and to determine the concurrent validity of the Education Participation Scale as a measure of growth or deficiency motivation. Few theoretical models have been developed to explain why people participate in adult education courses. Combining adult life cycle concepts, Maslow's motivational concepts, and research by Boshier, a growth-deficiency model of motives for participation was described. Growth or deficiency motivation was hypothesized as being associated with continuous or sporadic participation in adult education. It was also hypothesized that the age or stage of the life cycle and the socio-economic status of participants are associated with growth or deficiency motivation. The model was tested with 240 Richmond adult education participants. Subjects completed a socio-demographic questionnaire, the Eysenck Personality Inventory, (E.P.I.) the Seif- Actualizing Values (S.A.V.) subscale of the Personal Orientation Inventory, (P.O.I.) and the revised Education Participation Scale, (E.P.S.). E.P.S. data was subject to factor analysis and orthogonal rotation with six factors being produced. E.P.I. Neuroticism scores, S.A.V. scores, and E.P.S. factor scores were related through correlation and analysis of variance to variables such as age, participation index, educational attainment, occupational status, personal and family income, course content, marital status and sex. The results indicate that continuous learners tended to be growth motivated while sporadic learners tended to be deficiency motivated. Older participants, in comparison to younger participants, were growth motivated while younger participants were deficiency motivated. High socio-economic status participants tended to be growth motivated while low socio-economic status participants tended to be deficiency motivated. The findings generally confirm the growth/ deficiency model, but further research is required to clarify the motivational orientations of adults, 55 years of age and older, as an insufficient number of older adults were represented in the sample. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

Denna studie syftar till att bidra med kunskap om faktorer som påverkar anställdas motivation till kompetensutveckling i en organisation. Syftet har vidare specificerats utifrån tre motivationsfaktorer —ekonomiska incitament, arbetsklimat och personlig utveckling i yrkesrollen. Studiens teoretiska grund bygger på Self-Determination Theory, en motivationsteori vilken fokuserar på inre och yttre motivation hos människan. Den tidigare forskning som presenteras i uppsatsen bygger på studier kring motivation och kompetens i olika samhälleliga kontexter och utifrån ett organisations-och individperspektiv. Studiens empiri baseras på en fallstudie med enkät som datainsamlingsmetod. Urvalet består av 570 anställda inom en sektion i en organisation med totalt ca 2000 anställda i IT-branschen. Resultatet baseras på 186 respondenters enkätsvar.Resultatet i studien kan tolkas som en generellt hög drivenhethos respondenterna. Motivationen att kompetensutvecklas i organisationen ligger till stora delar i den personliga utvecklingen i yrkesrollen men även arbetsklimatet i skepnad av kollegor och chefer bidrar stort till hur respondenterna motiveras både i arbete och utveckling. Respondenternas motivation att kompetensutvecklas för lärandets skull väger således tyngre än eventuell ekonomisk kompensation. Resultatet tyder vidare på en samstämmighet mellan organisationens engagemang kring kompetensutveckling för sina anställda och hur respondenterna ser på sitt lärande och sin utveckling i organisationen.

This is a case study in a Norwegian junior high school where pupils and teachers have been interviewed about the pupils’ school motivation. The purpose of this study is to find out how the pupils and the teachers experience how the pupils’ motivation for learning is affected by moving the education and teaching from the school building to a farm nearby. The recorded interviews were analyzed by qualitative thematic analysis. The pupils express that their motivation mostly is promoted by external motivational factors, such as the farm itself, supportive relations and practical work. Teachers’ experience show that pupils’ motivation is affected by both external and internal factors and they mean that the biggest outcome is the fact that it helps the pupils strengthen their school identity, personal development and become better citizens in the future. Important effects that promote motivation are adapting the education to the students’ proximal development zone, scaffolding support at the farm and close holistic collaboration around the pupils. Challenges with using a farm are financial and organizational. The results show that pupils and teachers are over all convinced that the farm as an alternative educational arena promotes pupils’ motivation for learning.

Rezension zu Klaus Rothermund/ Andreas Eder: Motivation und Emotion. Lehrbuch. Basiswissen Psychologie. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag, 2011

Distansarbete har tidigare ansetts vara framtiden. I och med Covid-19 pandemin och folkhälsomyndighetens rekommendationer, har processen skyndats på och idag är rekommenderat distansarbetet en vardag för många. Distansarbetet innebär att de sociala tillfällena på arbetsplatsen blir färre och tidigare forskning menar att det kan ha negativ inverkan på arbetsmotivationen. Då flertalet undersökningar visar att både företag och anställda tror på en framtid där distansarbetet kommer fortsätta, är det av stor vikt att undersöka vilka effekter distansarbetet har. Då medarbetarnas motivation har en betydande roll för en organisation är det viktigt att skapa medvetenhet och kunskap kring vilken inverkan rekommenderat distansarbetet har på motivationen, vilket är syftet med förevarande uppsats. För att skapa denna medvetenhet och kunskap har ett empiriskt underlag samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer där elva medarbetare från ett företag inom IT-branschen har medverkat. Studien drar slutsatser om att medarbetarna upplever sig sakna den sociala kontakten med sina kollegor men att den däremot inte är lika viktigt för arbetsmotivationen som vissa teorier påstår. Studien har kunnat uppmärksamma att andra behov som exempelvis känsla av självständighet, utvecklande arbetsuppgifter och möjlighet till att påverka sitt arbete har en mer och större betydande roll för medarbetarnas motivation under det rekommenderade distansarbetet. Studiens resultat bidrar till att skapa större kunskap kring hur medarbetares arbetsmotivation kan bibehållas om distansarbetet fortsätter efter pandemin. / Teleworking has previously been considered the future. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Public Health Agency's recommendations, the process has been speeded up and today recommended telework is a daily occurrence for many. Teleworking means that the social opportunities in the workplace have become fewer and previous research believes that it can have a negative impact on work motivation. As surveys show, both companies and employees believe in a future where teleworking will continue, it is of a great importance to investigate the effects of telework. As motivation of the employees has a significant role for an organization, it is important to create awareness and knowledge about how recommended teleworking affects motivation, which is the purpose of the present thesis. To create this awareness and knowledge, an empirical basis has been collected through semi-structured interviews in which eleven employees from a company in the IT industry have participated. The study concludes that employees feel that they lack social contact with their colleagues, but that this is not as important for work motivation as some theories claim. The study has been able to draw attention to the fact that other needs, such as a sense of independence, developing work tasks and the opportunity to influence their work, have an increasingly significant role in employee motivation during the recommended distance work. The results of the study contribute to creating greater knowledge about how employees' work motivation can be maintained if teleworking continues after the pandemic.