Bakgrund: Vid medelåldern drabbas många individer av muskuloskeletala sjukdomar som kan förebyggas och rehabiliteras genom styrketräning. Studier har gjorts på vad som motiverar människor till fysisk aktivitet men är bristfällig gällande motivation till styrketräning. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att undersöka vilka faktorer som motiverar styrketränande personer i medelåldern till att styrketräna, samt att redogöra för hur kön, grupp- och individuell träning, träningsvolym och hur länge en person styrketränat påverkar motivationsfaktorerna. Metod: Femtiofem personer mellan 40-60 år besvarade ett digitalt frågeformulär om vad som motiverar dem till att styrketräna. En del av enkäten innehöll bakgrundsfrågor om deltagarna. Den andra delen innefattade en modifierad version av formuläret RM 4-FM. Resultat: Deltagarna drevs främst av inre motivation och identified regulation. Det fanns en signifikant skillnad i typ av motivation mellan könen, där kvinnorna skattade högre på frågor gällande identified regulation (p=.028). Det fanns ingen signifikant skillnad mellan personer som tränade individuellt eller i grupp (external regulation: p=.500, introjected regulation: p= .517, identified regulation: p=.391, intrinsic regulation: p=.918) och inget samband mellan antal tränade timmar per vecka (p=.109) eller hur länge en person har styrketränat (p=.663) med relative autonomy index (RAI. Konklusion: Resultaten ger insikt i att personer i medelåldern drivs mer av inre motivation till styrketräning och att kvinnor tenderar att motiveras mer av inre drivkrafter, men kan inte generaliseras till hela populationen. Fortsatt forskning krävs för att undersöka relationen mellan motivation och styrketräning hos personer i medelåldern. / Background: During the middle-age, it is common to obtain a variety of musculoskeletal conditions, however, strength training reduces the risk to obtain these complications. There are many studies with the goal to research motivational factors that contribute to physical activity, however, there are few studies that have similar objectives related to strength training.  Objective: The objective of this study was to better understand what motivates middle aged individuals to strength train.  Method: In this study, 55 participants between 40 to 60 years old, completed a questionnaire about motivational factors to strength training. The first part consisted of background questions and the second part, a modified version of the RM 4-FM questionnaire.  Results: The results from the questionnaire showed that a majority of the sample were driven by intrinsic motivation and more specifically identified regulation. Group comparisons showed that women on average scored higher on the questions related to identified regulation (p=.028). There were no significant differences between individuals who train individually or in group (external regulation: p=.500, introjected regulation: p= .517, identified regulation: p=.391, intrinsic regulation: p=.918) nor seen in correlation between training volume (p=.109) and training experience (p=.663) with RAI. Conclusion: The results of this study show that individuals who strength train are predominantly incentivised by intrinsic motivation and women tend to have a stronger intrinsic motivation than men, however further research is required to continue to explore the complex relationship between motivation and strength training habits.

Sjukvården har utvecklats till att bli en arbetsplats som upplevs alltmer stressig för de anställda. Vården har sedan 80-talet utformats utifrån New Public Management och trots regeringens budgettillskott på sex miljarder kronor förväntas många behövas sägas upp. Dessutom upplevs en högre arbetsbelastning, vilket har bidragit till ökad stress och lägre motivationsgrad inom sjuksköterskeyrket. Tidigare forskning har visat att det finns en korrelation mellan belöningssystem och motivation. Belöningssystem är problematiskt inom den offentliga sektorn då den inte kan tillämpa monetära belöningssystem likt den privata sektorn för att styra och motivera de anställda. Syftet med denna studie är därför att förklara och förstå hur icke-monetära belöningar kan påverka arbetsmotivationen bland sjuksköterskor inom offentlig sjukvård. Detta genom att utgå från tidigare forskning om Self-Determination Theory och förväntansteorin. För att besvara syftet med studien genomfördes en kvalitativ studie som tillämpade semistrukturerade intervjuer som datainsamlingsmetod. Urvalet bestod av tio respondenter med en yrkestitel som sjuksköterska och yrkeserfarenhet om minst ett år. Respondenterna har kunnat bidra med kunskap och erfarenheter som givit information för att kunna koppla redan erkända teorier med verksamheten inom sjukvården. I resultatet kunde därefter olika teman kodas fram i intervjuerna vilket har varit påverkan av stress, typ av belöning, belöningarnas påverkan på arbetsmotivationen, förväntan och ansträngning samt relation till chef.  Slutligen har resultatet analyserats mot det teoretiska ramverket och med detta besvarat studiens syfte och frågeställningar. Kunskap om arbetsmotivation och belöningssystem har därpå varit en central del i att sammanväva utvalda teman med respektive belöning som påverkar arbetsmotivationen. Resultatet indikerade att sjuksköterskors arbetsplatser inte har tillräckliga belöningssystem för att minska stress och öka arbetsmotivationen. Det framgår att positiv återkoppling, utvecklingsmöjligheter och ansvar var de typer av belöningar som hade högst preferenser, men att andra typer även var av betydelse. Vidare visade studiens resultat att icke-monetära belöningar påverkade arbetsmotivationen i positiv bemärkelse av samtliga respondenter. Resultatet kan därav vara till nytta för att skapa diskussioner om hållbara belöningssystem och ge verktyg som chefer kan implementera i verksamheten. / Healthcare has evolved into an increasingly stressful workplace for employees. Since the 1980s, healthcare has been shaped by New Public Management, and despite the government's budget increase of six billion SEK, many are expected to be laid off. Furthermore, there is a perceived higher workload, contributing to increased stress and lower motivation among nurses. Previous research has shown a correlation between reward systems and motivation. Reward systems are problematic in the public sector as it cannot apply monetary reward systems like the private sector to manage and motivate employees. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explain and understand how non-monetary rewards can affect work motivation among nurses in public healthcare, based on previous research on Self-Determination Theory and expectancy theory. To address the study's purpose, a qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews as the data collection method. The sample consisted of ten respondents with a nursing background at least one year of professional experience. The respondents have been able to contribute knowledge and experiences that provided information to link recognized theories with healthcare operations. The results of the interviews yielded several themes, encompassing the effects of stress, reward types, the correlation between rewards and work motivation, expectations, effort, and the supervisor-employee relationship. Finally, the results were analyzed against the theoretical framework, thereby addressing the study's purpose and research questions. Knowledge of work motivation and reward systems has been a central part of integrating selected themes with respective rewards that influence work motivation. The results indicated that nurses' workplaces do not have sufficient reward systems to reduce stress and increase work motivation. Positive feedback, development opportunities, and responsibility were the types of rewards with the highest preferences, but other types were also significant. Furthermore, the study's results showed that non-monetary rewards positively influenced work motivation for all respondents. Therefore, the results can be useful for creating discussions about sustainable reward systems and providing tools that managers can implement in their operations.

The purpose of this study is to explore individuals perceptions of competence development and workplace motivation. It aims to identify the mechanisms through which competence development influences motivation. The study was conducted through a qualitative research method where the data was collected through twelve employees and managers within one organization. The study integrated thematic analysis to explore how competence development influences work motivation, guided by the self-determination theory. Findings highlighted that competence development, established with effective feedback, recognition, peer influence, collaboration, and supportive organizational cultures significantly boost both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and enhances organizational outcomes. Aligning these initiatives with employees’ needs is essential for optimizing organizational effectiveness.

Date: 05/29/2024 Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, 15 ECTS. Department: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Kevin Forsberg (2002/03/08), Warda Jama Hussein (2000/02/19), Jimmy Tolis (1998/11/18). Title: How does white-collar workers’ perception of AI impact their work motivation from an SDT perspective?  Supervisor: Edward Gillmore Keywords: AI, autonomy, competence, motivation, self-determination theory, flexibility, confidence, control, influence.  Research question: How do white-collar workers perceive the potential impact of AI on their work motivation? Method: Utilizing the phenomenon of digitalization amongst white-collar workers as the empirical context, a quantitative research approach was adopted. The primary data was collected through a questionnaire that was distributed among white-collar workers within a Logistic & Supply chain company. Conclusion: The results of this research show that white-collar workers perceive that AI will enhance the sense of autonomy and competence, which in turn will increase their expected work motivation.

This study explored the relationships between school counselors' motivational orientation, perceptions of the importance, and levels of implementation of Academic and Personal/Social Development Standards as a strategy for supporting academic achievement. A secure online survey was sent to 539 Virginia elementary school counselors; 212 completed the questionnaire reflecting a response rate of 39%. Participants rated their perceptions of the importance and their levels of implementation of 26 Virginia Academic and Personal/Social Development Standards (Virginia Department of Education, 2004). The Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS; Guay, Vallerand, & Blanchard, 2000) assessed participants' type of motivation for incorporating personal/social development interventions into their programs as a strategy for supporting academic achievement. Participants' ratings confirm both types of Standards are perceived as highly important for supporting academic achievement and are implemented at relatively high levels. A correlation matrix demonstrated three of the four motivation scores were not related to either perceptions of importance or to levels of implementation of either type of Virginia Standard. Four regression models indicated that the motivation predictor variables accounted for no more than 6.3% of the variance in participants' perceptions of the importance and levels of implementation of either type of Virginia Standard. Finally, the hypothesis that Intrinsic Motivation would be the most salient type of motivation for implementing Virginia's Personal/Social Development Standards as a strategy for supporting academic achievement was not supported. However, high mean scores on the Identified Regulation subscale suggest participants do possess internal motivation for incorporating personal/social development into their programs. Based on the results, several recommendations were offered. School counselors should collaborate with school leaders, embrace accountability practices, and advocate for the necessity of maintaining a comprehensive program focus. Counselor educators can familiarize students with research pertaining to the contributions of different types of development on achievement and emphasize the importance of utilizing the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model (ASCA, 2005). Implications for future research include replicating this study with principals and secondary school counselors, evaluating how Standards are interpreted and applied between school counseling programs, and examining other constructs found in the motivation literature that may better explain school counselors' desire to maintain a comprehensive program focus. / Ph. D.

This dissertation focuses on the development and testing of a conceptual framework for student motivation in mathematical discussion. Specifically, this document integrates Yackel and Cobb's (1996) framework with aspects of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), as described by Ryan and Deci (2000). Yackel and Cobb articulated the development of students' mathematical dispositions through discussion by facilitating student autonomy, incorporating appropriate social norms and co-constructing sociomathematical norms. SDT mirrors these factors and describes a similar process of self-regulation through fulfillment of the individual needs of autonomy, social relatedness, and competence. Given the conceptual overlap, this dissertation examines the connection of SDT with mathematical discussion with two studies. The first study examined the effect of student frequency of explaining mathematics on their perceived autonomy, competence and relatedness. Results of HLM analyses found that more frequent explanation of mathematics had a positive effect on students' perceived mathematics autonomy, mathematics competence, and relatedness. The second study used a triangulation mixed methods approach to examine high school geometry students' classroom discourse actions in combination with their perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Results of the second study suggest a higher perceived sense of autonomy is indicative of more engagement in mathematical talk, but a measure of competence and relatedness are needed for such engagement to be fully indicative of mathematical discourse. Rather, students who lacked a measure of perceived competence or relatedness would cease participation in mathematical discussion when challenged by peers. While these results need further investigation, the results of the second study provide evidence that indicates the necessity of fulfilling all three SDT needs for engagement in mathematical discussion. Evidence from both the first and second studies presented in this dissertation provides support for the conceptual framework presented. / Ph. D.

Environmental education (EE) programming has been found to lead to positive behavioral and attitudinal outcomes in student participants. Among a variety of factors, the characteristics of EE program instructors have been found to play a role in driving these outcomes. This thesis investigates the specific motivators of EE instructors and the links between instructor autonomy, prior experience, and program outcomes. I used a multi-methods approach to investigate these themes and have organized the results between two chapters that are manuscripts intended as separate journal publications. Chapter 2 presents a qualitative study that identifies the salient motivators of EE instructors, as well as organizational practices that affect EE instructor feelings of autonomy, competence, relatedness, and the meaningfulness these instructors feel within their jobs. Chapter 3 presents a quantitative study analyzing the impact of autonomy and prior experience on program outcomes by linking instructor and student participant survey responses from a sample of 166 EE programs performed throughout 57 different organizations across the US. Results led to the following recommendations for EE organizations: (1) promote job enrichment elements for their instructional staff, including the implementing of participatory evaluation processes; (2) encourage instructors to take "ownership" of programming, such that they continue to practice and develop competence over time; (3) increase instructor autonomy as they gain further experience. / Master of Science / Environmental education (EE) programming has been found to lead to positive behavioral and attitudinal outcomes in student participants. Among a variety of factors, the characteristics of EE program instructors have been found to play a role in driving these outcomes. This thesis investigates the specific motivators of EE instructors and the links between instructor autonomy, prior experience, and program outcomes. I used a multi-methods approach, employing semi-structured interviews and surveys to investigate these themes, and have organized the results between two chapters that are manuscripts intended as separate journal publications. Chapter 2 presents a qualitative study that identifies the salient motivators of EE instructors, as well as organizational practices that affect EE instructor feelings of autonomy, competence, relatedness, and the meaningfulness these instructors feel within their jobs. Chapter 3 presents a quantitative study analyzing the impact of autonomy and prior experience on program outcomes by linking instructor and student participant survey responses from a sample of 166 EE programs performed throughout 57 different organizations across the US. Results led to the following recommendations for EE organizations: (1) promote job enrichment elements for their instructional staff, including the implementing of participatory evaluation processes; (2) encourage instructors to take “ownership” of programming, such that they continue to practice and develop competence over time; (3) increase instructor autonomy as they gain further experience. This research provides information to better EE organizational management in the aims of promoting motivated employees and ultimately effective program outcomes.

The aim for this study is to analyze teachers’ view on coloring and their perception of student motivation at vocational upper secondary school programs history class in Sweden. Five semi-structured interviews were conducted with five history teachers who taught at the same school and have experience of teaching the history course for vocational programs. The interviews were analyzed in relation to self-determination theory and vertical and horizontal knowledge. The result showed that students following vocational programs were seen as less motivated towards the subject of history than the students following theoretical programs. However, upon closer analysis the differences were found to correlate more with the teachers’ perceptions of the student’s inner motivation than the programs being followed. These groups provided an inner motivation for the students and the deciding outcome for how hard they were going to work at the course. At the same time, they performed better in the subject of Swedish than in history. This can be interpreted as the students adopting an autonomous-or inner motivation because they were willing to work harder on a subject that they deemed as more important for their future vocation. The results also showed that teachers’ use of coloring knowledge related to the perception of their student’s future salary and that this image contributed to the students’ loss of inner motivation and to a focus on external motivation in relation to the students’ future vocation. Teachers perceive that students following vocational programs want knowledge that gives them an understanding of society. However, as vocational programs devote fewer hours to subjects such as history and Swedish, they do not have time to study these subjects in as much depth. The time limitations and coloring of horizontal knowledge made the vocational students experience fewer opportunities of vertical knowledge. This means the information that they saw as relevant and interesting, such as modern history, is limited. This is as consequence of the curriculum dividing students into vocational -and academic students. This potentially limits the students in their learning about democratic public discourse. Students following vocational programs are perceived by their teachers as less motivated to achieve higher grades, or to work to get a pass grade, even when their teachers perceive they have the ability to achieve a pass or higher grade. This connects to the course plan’s structure by people in power, giving them no chance for higher education when graduating, and the grades are in the hands of the teachers.

Given the high rates of treatment drop-out and non-compliance within empirically-based treatments for OCD, it is important to increase our understanding of factors that impact the treatment process. Two studies were conducted to evaluate the clinical utility of the Obsessive Compulsive Consequences Scale-Revised (OCCS-R) and increase understanding of the relationships between the prognostic factors of motivation, insight, treatment compliance and treatment outcome. Study 1 used maximum likelihood Confirmatory Factor Analysis to show the OCCS-R's four factor solution was an adequate fit in a sub-clinical college population. Study 2 evaluated the clinical utility of the OCCS-R for predicting treatment outcome and its relationship to identified predictor variables. The OCCS-R predicted treatment drop-out but did not predict symptom improvement. Some support was found for predicted relationships between the OCCS-R and its factors, a general measure of motivation and treatment compliance. No variables predicted symptom improvement. Insight and initial symptom severity predicted treatment motivation which in turn predicted treatment compliance. / Ph. D.

Med utgångspunkt i den aktuella skol- och samhällsdebatten gällande PIRLS 2021, som visaratt svenska elevers intresse för läsning har försvagats, ville vi undersöka fenomenethögläsning. Denna studie undersöker högläsning utifrån tre olika perspektiv: lärare, elev ochvårdnadshavare. Studien är koncentrerad till att omfatta elever i årskurs 3 och berörhögläsning i både hem- och skolmiljö. Utifrån studiens frågeställningar undersöker vi ivilken omfattning lärare och vårdnadshavare högläser, vilka prioriteringar och utmaningarlärare uttrycker gällande högläsning samt hur eleverna upplever högläsningen i både skolanoch hemmet. Studien utgår från de teoretiska perspektiven litteracitet, sociokulturelllärandeteori, kognitivism samt grundläggande motivationsteorier. Det teoretiska ramverketsträvar efter att kasta ljus över den komplexa dynamiken mellan högläsning, språkutvecklingoch motivation inom svenskämnet. En kvalitativ forskningsmetod där intervjuer tillämpadesi kombination med kvantitativa inslag i form av en enkätundersökning ligger till grundstudiens insamlade empiri. Vidare kan studien förstås utifrån ramarna för en fallstudie, då tvåolika skolor i skilda socioekonomiska områden omfattas. Totalt innefattar studien femlärarintervjuer, 24 elevintervjuer samt en enkätundersökning bestående av 40 vårdnadshavare.Studiens resultat visar att det föreligger stor diskrepans gällande i vilken omfattning såvällärare som vårdnadshavare högläser inom de två olika skolområdena, vilket påverkarelevernas tillgång till litteracitetspraktiker. Även om lärarna uttrycker en enighet kring atthögläsning gynnar språkutvecklingen, visar studien att lärarna prioriterar högläsning olikaoch har en splittrad syn på aktivitetens primära syfte. En gemensam upplevelse hos lärarna äratt organisatoriska-, grupp- och individrelaterade utmaningar föreligger, vilket begränsarderas handlingsutrymme. Resultatet visar att samtliga elever efterfrågar mer högläsningoavsett skolområde samt att möjlighet till delaktighet vid litteraturval skiljer sig åt. Vidareuppskattas lärarens läsinlevelse och engagemang kring högläsningspraktiken. Det föreliggeren varierad grad av stöttning och stor variation i språklig input inom ramarna förhögläsningen såväl i skolan som i hemmet. Studiens slutsats är att de elever som har störstbehov av högläsning utifrån ett språkutvecklande perspektiv, erhåller minst.