Theoretical Framework for the Lack of Motivation
- Part 1: For Those Who Lack Motivation
- Part 2: Effects of the Lack of Motivation on School and Home Behavior
- Part 3: Theoretical Framework for the Lack of Motivation
- Part 4: Developmentally Appropriate Strategies to Meet the Lack of Motivation at School
- Part 5: Developmentally Appropriate Strategies to Meet the Lack of Motivation at Home
- Part 6: Keeping Track of Motivational Progress
Part 3: Theoretical Framework for the Lack of Motivation
The lack of motivation is something many scholars in many places have faced. It seems to happen to even to the so-called “best of us.” This means such a situation is not limited to a poor scholar, which makes it something relevant to no special group of people. It is understood that there are factors that contribute to a lack of motivation.
One factor is what researchers refer to as “learned helplessness” (Ford, 102). This is where the scholar has developed habits that have favored being helpless. Ford (105) also suggests four complimentary aspects of the lack of motivation:
- Ability beliefs
- Effort beliefs
- Characteristics of the task
- Value placed on the task are conceptualized as common cores that overlap with one another
Usher (2012, 2) also summarizes a general consensus of the four dimensions of motivation. In this case, at least one of these dimensions must be satisfied in order for a student to be motivated:
- Competence — The student believes he or she has the ability to complete the task.
- Control/autonomy — The student feels in control by seeing a direct link between his or her actions and an outcome and retains autonomy by having some choice about whether or how to undertake the task.
- Interest/value — The student has some interest in the task or sees the value of completing it.
- Relatedness — Completing the task brings the student social rewards, such as a sense of belonging to a classroom or other desired social group or approval from a person of social importance to the student.