Over the past 25 years, the role of motivation in sport has increasingly received attention in scientific research. A model that is central to this research, is Ryan and Deci’s (2000b) Self–determination Theory (SDT), which is based on the assumption that human behaviour is motivated by the extent to which it satisfies the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. Surprisingly little research has been done to date on the relation between self–determination and performance among South African rugby players. An improved understanding of the role of motivation in performance among university rugby players, as well as the role of bursary awards, can generate better knowledge and may help to identify, manage and motivate players better at an early stage. The goal of this study was to explore the relation between self–determination and performance among a group of university rugby players. The first objective was to establish whether there are performance differences between players who are intrinsically motivated (IM), extrinsically motivated (EM) and amotivated. A second objective was to establish whether players who receive bursaries are more intrinsically motivated, extrinsically motivated or amotivated, and how this relates to their performance. Participants were an availability sample of 51 u/19 and u/21 university rugby players of the North–West University Rugby Institute who completed the Behavioural Regulation in Sport Questionnaire (BRSQ) (Lonsdale et al., 2008) and who were assessed in terms of performance by themselves, the principal researcher, a sport scientist and the coach. Data was analysed by means of the Spearman ranking correlation coefficient, cluster analyses, the t–test and Chi Square test, to determine the differences in terms of performance between the intrinsically motivated, extrinsically motivated and amotivated participants, and also between bursary holders and non–bursary holders. Because an availability sample was used, the meaningfulness of results according to effect sizes and their guiding values were determined for practical meaningfulness, rather than focusing on statistical inference and p values. Firstly, it was found that IM correlates positively and practically meaningful with autonomous EM and that it correlates negatively (small to practically visible) with controlled EM and amotivation. Autonomous and controlled EM correlate negatively, and with a small effect. These correlations in general fit appropriately in with Ryan and Deci’s (2000b) self–determination continuum. It was found that IM, autonomous EM and bursary awards correlate positively with performance, in contrast with controlled EM and amotivation. It was indicated that both IM and autonomous EM could possibly contribute to a feeling of agency and subsequently to better performance. However, it is important to note that no cause–effect deductions can be made, and that the results cannot necessarily be generalised to other rugby players. The contribution of this study is that it indicates that all forms of EM are not necessarily bad for performance, and that autonomous EM and discerning bursary awards can appropriately motivate rugby players towards performance. The exact nature and mechanism according to which autonomous EM influences performance should, however, be investigated by means of larger random samples in future research. / Thesis (M.A. (Research Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

This research inquires into whether the motivation of students learning English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at the upper-intermediate level improves when thematic instruction is employed in the classroom. This is the first time that a theme-based integrated skills approach was implemented at the Department of Basic English (DBE), METU at the intermediate and upper-intermediate levels. With the outcome of the needs analysis carried out by the administration, it was realized that students at the preparatory school needed to use integrated skills as reflected in &lsquo / real life&rsquo / . Moreover, thematic instruction was seen to be a requisite in the new curriculum since content is a key motivating principle. Hence, since one of the main concerns was the motivation of students attending courses at the preparatory school, there was a need to examine whether using this mode of instruction at the upper-intermediate level was able to ameliorate student motivation. For this research, firstly a pilot study and then qualitative analysis using in-depth interviews developed on the basis of the pilot study was employed. Therefore, using a triangulation of different kinds of data on related questions, interviews were carried out with 14 students on three separate occasions at the end of each span from the upper-intermediate group, two administrators and six upper-intermediate instructors. From the point of view of the students it appeared that generally content encouraged learning and improved English proficiency if the themes/topics were found to be of interest. However, the degree of impact of the themes and topics on student motivation largely depended on whether the student was intrinsically motivated or not. If the student was intrinsically motivated, content had a nominal affect on motivating them. The study showed that if the themes are linear and have a parochial focus on topics, too much time is spent on a theme, a redundancy of lexical items are taught, unnecessary details are included, and difficult and academic language used, these led to student demotivation in respect of content. Thus, indicating a greater variety of content was needed.

This study's aim was to investigate whether self-determined behaviour and achievement motivation impact learner's academic performance. Convenient geographic sampling was used to select three pnmary schools in Soshanguve. A likert type questionnaire was used to collect data from 120 learners. Item analyses were preformed to investigate the reliability of subscales. Three hypotheses were tested using analysis of variance and Pearson product moment correlations. The first, which predicted that intrinsic motivation is positively related to academic achievement, was not supported. Both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated learners achieved better in academic tasks than amotivated learners. The second, which predicted a negative correlation between extrinsic motivation extrinsic motivation and academic performance, was also not supported. The third, which predicted that there is a negative correlation between amotivation and academic performance, was confirmed. General conclusions, recommendations, and limitations of the study are discussed. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

This study's aim was to investigate whether self-determined behaviour and achievement motivation impact learner's academic performance. Convenient geographic sampling was used to select three pnmary schools in Soshanguve. A likert type questionnaire was used to collect data from 120 learners. Item analyses were preformed to investigate the reliability of subscales. Three hypotheses were tested using analysis of variance and Pearson product moment correlations. The first, which predicted that intrinsic motivation is positively related to academic achievement, was not supported. Both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated learners achieved better in academic tasks than amotivated learners. The second, which predicted a negative correlation between extrinsic motivation extrinsic motivation and academic performance, was also not supported. The third, which predicted that there is a negative correlation between amotivation and academic performance, was confirmed. General conclusions, recommendations, and limitations of the study are discussed. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

The aim of this work is to investigate, which behaviour at school is perceived by early adolescents (age average 14-16 years) as cheating, whether it is possible to classify this behaviour into specific types (factors) and whether these can be linked with individual student variables (sex, GPA, number of missed classes, student goal orientation, worry, self-efficacy, and achievement value), as well as with the contextual variables (parents goal orientation, teachers goal orientation, satisfaction with the school, neutralization, peer cheating behaviour, and cheating punishment). The obtained data were statistically evaluated (N = 401). Using exploratory factor analysis based on students self-reporting the frequency of the behaviour classified as cheating, two types of dishonest behaviour were extracted: cheating (copying, hinting) and falsification (forgery of signatures, absences). Two student factors, school approach (motivation) and to school avoidance (amotivation) orientation, and two context factors, teachers and parents goal orientation, were extracted as predictors of cheating. Results showed that neither parents nor cheating punishment had significant influence on cheating and falsification. The structural model confirmed that a positive relationship with teachers goal orientation and GPA had the highest influence on falsification. Student avoidance to school, student approach to school, and teachers goal orientation had the highest influence on cheating. Cheating and falsification were well correlated. The values of regression coefficients remained similar after removing the parent factor from the model. The structural equation model explaining the relationship of latent endogenous cheating and falsification variables with the three latent exogenous variables (avoidance to school, approach to school and teachers goal orientation) and the three manifest variables (sex, GPA and peer cheating behaviour), fitted the data well. The model explained 42% of cheating variance and 39% of falsification variance

Tidigare forskning har visat att barn kan delas in i olika roller vid mobbningssituationer i grundskolan,det är därför av intresse att hitta faktorerna som påverkar vilken roll som elever kan komma att ha. I denna uppsats är syftet att analysera samband mellan motivationer (Extrinsic, Amotivation,Identification) och beteenden (Defending, Passive och Pro-Bullying). Det är även intressant attundersöka om det finns eventuella skillnader i beteende beroende på ålder och kön. För attanalysera samband mellan psykologiska begrepp används latenta variabler i samröre medfaktoranalysmodeller (SEM), denna typ av modell tar inte hänsyn till skillnader mellan klasser,således används även multilevelmodeller. Den senare av de två modellerna tar hänsyn till skillnadermellan klasser men inte det faktum att variablerna är latenta. En ytterligare aspekt av uppsatsen är att jämföra metoderna med varandra och analysera eventuellaskillnader i slutsats. Det kommer att användas två typer av multilevelmodeller i uppsatsen, en medmedelvärden som skattning på den latenta variabeln och den andra multilevelmodellen använderfaktorpoäng som beräknas via en konfirmativ faktoranalys. Resultatet visade att det finns signifikanta samband mellan alla typer av beteende och motivationer iminst en av metoderna som användes. I alla metoder fanns det signifikant positiva relationer mellanPassive och Amotivation, Defending och Identification samt mellan Pro-bullying och Extrinsic.Samband som hade en signifikant negativ relation i alla metoder är Passive och Identification, Pro-bullying och Identification samt mellan Defending och Amotivation. Relationer som är signifikanta men endast i en metod är Pro-Bullying och Amotivation, Passive och Extrinsic samt Defending ochExtrinsic. Dessa relationer har positiva samband. Det finns ingen relation mellan kön respektive ålder och ett specifikt beteende som blev signifikant ialla metoder. Relationer mellan beteende och ålder respektive kön som blev signifikant i minst enmetod är Passive och kön, Defending och kön samt mellan Defending och ålder. Resultatet från dettaär att killar är mindre passiva och mer Defending jämfört med tjejer. Relationen mellan Defendingoch ålder är negativ. Intraclass-korrelationen och Likelihood ratio-test visar att det finns signifikant varians mellan klasser ide tre beteendena när en modell utan förklarande variabler testas. Testet visade att det inte fannssignifikant varians i beteende mellan skolor. Likelihood ratio-test på modeller med förklarandevariabler visar att det endast vid beteendetypen Defending fanns en signifikant skillnad mellan eleveri olika klasser. I övriga beteende finns det alltså inte signifikanta skillnader mellan klasser. Skillnaden mellan faktorpoäng och medelvärde blev väldig liten, det blev endast skillnader irelationen mellan Defending och ålder. Mellan SEM och multilevel är skillnaden större och där finnsdet skillnader i slutsats i fem stycken relationer. Dessa är Passive och Extrinsic, Pro-Bullying ochAmotivation, Passive och kön, Defending och Extrinsic samt mellan Defending och kön. / Previous research has shown that children can be divided into different roles during situations ofbullying in primary school. Therefore, it is of interest to find factors that affect what those roles couldbe. In this thesis, the purpose is to analyze the relation between motivation (Extrinsic, Amotivation,Identification) and behavior (Defending, Passive, Pro-Bullying). It is also of interest to analyzepossible differences in behavior depending on age and gender. To be able to analyze relationsbetween psychological concepts, latent variables will be used in conjunction with models for factoranalysis (SEM). This type of model does not take differences between classes into consideration,therefore multilevel models will also be used, where the latter takes differences between classes intoconsideration but not the fact that the variables are latent. Another aspect of this thesis will be to compare the methods to each other and analyze potentialdifferences in drawn conclusions. There will be two different types of multilevel models, one ofwhich uses mean as the estimator for the latent variable while the other model will be using factorscores that are calculated with a confirmative factor analysis. Results showed that there are significant relations between all types of behavior and motivations inat least one of the methods used. In all the methods, there were significant positive relationsbetween Passive and Amotivation, Defending and Identification, as well as Pro-Bullying and Extrinsic. Relations that had a significant negative association were Passive and Identification, Pro-Bullying andIdentification, as well as Defending and Amotivation. Relations that were significant, but only in one method, are the following: Pro-Bullying andAmotivation, Passive and Extrinsic, Defending and Extrinsic. These have a positive relation. There is no relation between gender, or age, and a specific behavior that was significant in all themethods used. Relation between behavior and age, or gender, that was significant in at least one, isPassive and gender, Defending and gender, Defending and age. The results from this show that boysare less passive and more defending compared to girls. The relation between Defending and age isnegative. The intraclass correlation, and Likelihood ratio test, shows that there is a significant variancebetween classes in the three behaviors when a model without explanatory variables is being used.The tests also indicated that there was no significant variance in behavior between schools. ALikelihood ratio test of models with explanatory variables show that the only type of behavior with asignificant difference between students and classes is Defending. The difference between factor scores and mean was very small, there were only differences in therelation between Defending and age. Between SEM and Multilevel, the difference is greater, wherethere are differences in conclusion in five of the relations; Passive and extrinsic, Pro-Bullying andAmotivation, Passive and gender, Defending and Extrinsic, as well as Defending and gender.

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Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka motivation inom virtuella arbetsmiljöer. Vidaresyftar studien även till att jämföra skillnader mellan olika generationer gällande motivation ivirtuella arbetsmiljöer.Metod: I denna studie har en kvantitativ metod applicerats med hjälp av enwebbenkätundersökning. Studien är hypotetisk-deduktiv där hypoteser härleds från denteoretiska referensramen. Den data som samlats in består av 84 svar, vilka bearbetades iprogrammet SPSS där oberoende t-test och medelvärdesanalys genomfördes.Resultat & slutsats: Av de motivationsfaktorer som studerats motiveras den äldregenerationen av flexibilitet och självstyre och bra ledarskap, samt delvis av teknologiskbekvämlighet. Den yngre generationen motiveras av flexibilitet och självstyre, teknologiskbekvämlighet och bra ledarskap, samt ledarskap kopplat till social närvaro. Studien har ävenfunnit att de faktorer som leder till motivation, också kan leda till amotivation inom virtuellaarbetsmiljöer om de hanteras oaktsamt.Bidrag: Studiens praktiska bidrag är en ökad förståelse för olika generationers motivationhos medarbetare inom virtuella arbetsmiljöer, vilket kan underlätta ledararbete ochHR-processer. Studiens teoretiska bidrag ger framför allt en indikation på motivationsfaktoreroch amotivationsfaktorer inom virtuella arbetsmiljöer genom de teoretiska modeller somutvecklats. Vidare bidrar studien även med teoretiska förslag på nya perspektiv på Herzbergstvåfaktorteori och Hawthornestudien. / Aim: The purpose of the study is to investigate motivation in virtual work environments.Furthermore, the study also aims to compare differences between different generationsregarding motivation in virtual work environments.Method: In this study, a quantitative method has been applied using a web based survey. Thestudy is hypothetical-deductive where hypotheses are derived from the theoreticalframework. The data collected consists of 84 responses, which were processed in the programSPSS where independent t-tests and mean value analyses were performed.Results and conclusions: The older generation was found to be motivated by flexibility andself-management and good leadership, as well as in part by technological comfort. Theyounger generation is motivated by flexibility and self-management, technological comfortand good leadership, as well as leadership linked to social presence. The study additionallyfound that the factors which lead to motivation also can lead to amotivation in virtual workenvironments if they are handled negligently.Contribution: The study's practical contribution is an increased understanding of differentgenerations' motivation among employees in virtual work environments, which can facilitateleadership work and HR processes. The study's theoretical contribution primarily provides anindication of motivational factors and amotivational factors within virtual work environmentsthrough the theoretical models that were developed. Furthermore, the study also contributeswith theoretical proposals for new perspectives on Herzberg's two-factor theory and theHawthorne study.

Existing scales were modified and factor-analysed through "prepilof' and pilot studies for exploring relations between academic motivation, achievement, and cognitive factors such as locus of control (LOC), attributions, perceived self-determination and ability. Distinct, conceptually meaningful factors emerged. Thirty-seven hypotheses were tested on Unisa students. Among notable findings were: • Internal LOC related to academic motivation, but treating LOC as a set of distinct factors rather than a bipolar dimension offered more insights (e.g. "Impotence" rather than other external LOC factors related negatively to · achievement). • Little was gained from categorising attributions according to Weiner's dimensions. • Intrinsic motivation and "identified regulation" related positively to motivation. • Students' (especially unsuccessful students') expectations of success and perceptions of their ability were over-estimated. • Different factors related to motivation and achievement in different cultural groups. • Although motivation and achievement are usually positively related, this did not apply to disadvantaged groups. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Existing scales were modified and factor-analysed through "prepilof' and pilot studies for exploring relations between academic motivation, achievement, and cognitive factors such as locus of control (LOC), attributions, perceived self-determination and ability. Distinct, conceptually meaningful factors emerged. Thirty-seven hypotheses were tested on Unisa students. Among notable findings were: • Internal LOC related to academic motivation, but treating LOC as a set of distinct factors rather than a bipolar dimension offered more insights (e.g. "Impotence" rather than other external LOC factors related negatively to · achievement). • Little was gained from categorising attributions according to Weiner's dimensions. • Intrinsic motivation and "identified regulation" related positively to motivation. • Students' (especially unsuccessful students') expectations of success and perceptions of their ability were over-estimated. • Different factors related to motivation and achievement in different cultural groups. • Although motivation and achievement are usually positively related, this did not apply to disadvantaged groups. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)