published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Past research has revealed that both people’s beliefs and situational factors affected people’s goal orientation. This study investigated the interactive effects of competition and theories of intelligence on people’s goal orientation. A 2x2 between-subject factorial design was adopted. Seventh graders (N = 132) were primed with either incremental or entity theory of memory. The students were randomly assigned to either competitive or non-competitive condition. Motivational outcomes were measured after all the four groups received failure feedback. Findings showed that the effect of competition marginally overrode the effect of theories of intelligence in the entity condition. There were no statistical significant changes in self-efficacy and interest on the task before and after the setback in the groups. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

The present study examined the relations between incentive, engagement and task value with reference to the Regulatory Engagement Theory (Higgins, 2006).With two incentive interventions (reward and utility), contribution of engagement on task value was tested through a mediation analysis. Significant results were obtained in the utility intervention group. Participants demonstrated higher task value and stronger engagement after intervention, a significant mediated effect also revealed that engagement explained the effects of intervention on task value. Results in the reward intervention group did not yield statistical significance but were in expected direction. The mediating effect of engagement in the relation between incentive and task value was generally supported, but the strength of effect varied upon the choice of incentives. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / abstract / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

This experiment was performed to assess the interactive effect of incentive strength and task difficulty using measures of behavioral intensity. Subjects faced an easy or difficult task in order to avoid having to listen to aversive radio static. Half of the subjects were to hear a loud noise and half were to hear a soft noise. Prior to task commencement, five measures of behavioral intensity were taken—two timing measures, two counting measures, and one measure involving the amount of error in filling in scantron bubbles. Results showed that one timing measure and three mood adjectives followed the predicted pattern, but not in a statistically significant fashion. The patterns indicated the energization remained low and uniform when subjects heard soft noise, but increased as a function of task difficulty when subjects were exposed to a loud noise. Results are discussed in terms of Brehn’s energization theory of motivation. / Department of Psychological Science

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 34-40). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.