Deadlines make you productive, but what do they do to your motivation? Trajectories in quantity and quality of motivation and study activities among university students as exams approach
IntroductionRecent research has emphasized that achievement motivation is context-sensitive and varies within individual students. Ubiquitous temporal landmarks such as exams or deadlines are evident contextual factors that could systematically explain variation in motivation. Indeed, research has c...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1224533/full |
| _version_ | 1827595630409678848 |
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| author | Jan Dirk Capelle Kerstin Senker Kerstin Senker Stefan Fries Axel Grund |
| author_facet | Jan Dirk Capelle Kerstin Senker Kerstin Senker Stefan Fries Axel Grund |
| author_sort | Jan Dirk Capelle |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | IntroductionRecent research has emphasized that achievement motivation is context-sensitive and varies within individual students. Ubiquitous temporal landmarks such as exams or deadlines are evident contextual factors that could systematically explain variation in motivation. Indeed, research has consistently found that university students increase their study efforts as exams come closer in time, indicating increasing study motivation. However, changes in study motivation for a specific exam as it comes closer have rarely been investigated. Instead, research on developmental changes in expectancy and value beliefs has consistently founds that achievement motivation declines over a semester. Surprisingly, declining motivation thus apparently coincides with increasing study efforts for end-of-semester exams.MethodsThe present research investigates this apparent contradiction by assessing how exam-specific motivation and study behavior change under equal methodological conditions as an exam draws closer. Using parallel growth curve models, we examine changes in expectancy-value beliefs, performance approach and avoidance motivation and study behavior as well as motivational want- and should-conflicts among 96 students over eight weekly measurement points.Results and discussionResults show that students study more for their exam as it comes closer and increase their use of surface learning strategies more rapidly than their use of deep learning strategies. However, even exam-specific expectancy and attainment value beliefs decline while performance-avoidance motivation increases over time, indicating that students increasingly study out of fear to fail as exams come closer. Consistent with these findings, students’ experience of should conflicts decreases while their want conflicts increase over time. We discuss several possible mechanisms underlying our findings in addition to potential theoretical consequences and suggest future research opportunities to better understand students’ changes in situative motivation and study behavior in the context of temporal landmarks. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T02:57:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-95f245d0641f4fd1a438e2c41d1a3246 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T02:57:12Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-95f245d0641f4fd1a438e2c41d1a32462023-12-05T04:18:05ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782023-12-011410.3389/fpsyg.2023.12245331224533Deadlines make you productive, but what do they do to your motivation? Trajectories in quantity and quality of motivation and study activities among university students as exams approachJan Dirk Capelle0Kerstin Senker1Kerstin Senker2Stefan Fries3Axel Grund4Department of Psychology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, GermanyInstitute of Psychology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, GermanyLuxembourg Centre for Educational Testing (LUCET), University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, LuxembourgIntroductionRecent research has emphasized that achievement motivation is context-sensitive and varies within individual students. Ubiquitous temporal landmarks such as exams or deadlines are evident contextual factors that could systematically explain variation in motivation. Indeed, research has consistently found that university students increase their study efforts as exams come closer in time, indicating increasing study motivation. However, changes in study motivation for a specific exam as it comes closer have rarely been investigated. Instead, research on developmental changes in expectancy and value beliefs has consistently founds that achievement motivation declines over a semester. Surprisingly, declining motivation thus apparently coincides with increasing study efforts for end-of-semester exams.MethodsThe present research investigates this apparent contradiction by assessing how exam-specific motivation and study behavior change under equal methodological conditions as an exam draws closer. Using parallel growth curve models, we examine changes in expectancy-value beliefs, performance approach and avoidance motivation and study behavior as well as motivational want- and should-conflicts among 96 students over eight weekly measurement points.Results and discussionResults show that students study more for their exam as it comes closer and increase their use of surface learning strategies more rapidly than their use of deep learning strategies. However, even exam-specific expectancy and attainment value beliefs decline while performance-avoidance motivation increases over time, indicating that students increasingly study out of fear to fail as exams come closer. Consistent with these findings, students’ experience of should conflicts decreases while their want conflicts increase over time. We discuss several possible mechanisms underlying our findings in addition to potential theoretical consequences and suggest future research opportunities to better understand students’ changes in situative motivation and study behavior in the context of temporal landmarks.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1224533/fullLGCMparallel process modelmotivationexpectancyvaluemotivational conflict |
| spellingShingle | Jan Dirk Capelle Kerstin Senker Kerstin Senker Stefan Fries Axel Grund Deadlines make you productive, but what do they do to your motivation? Trajectories in quantity and quality of motivation and study activities among university students as exams approach Frontiers in Psychology LGCM parallel process model motivation expectancy value motivational conflict |
| title | Deadlines make you productive, but what do they do to your motivation? Trajectories in quantity and quality of motivation and study activities among university students as exams approach |
| title_full | Deadlines make you productive, but what do they do to your motivation? Trajectories in quantity and quality of motivation and study activities among university students as exams approach |
| title_fullStr | Deadlines make you productive, but what do they do to your motivation? Trajectories in quantity and quality of motivation and study activities among university students as exams approach |
| title_full_unstemmed | Deadlines make you productive, but what do they do to your motivation? Trajectories in quantity and quality of motivation and study activities among university students as exams approach |
| title_short | Deadlines make you productive, but what do they do to your motivation? Trajectories in quantity and quality of motivation and study activities among university students as exams approach |
| title_sort | deadlines make you productive but what do they do to your motivation trajectories in quantity and quality of motivation and study activities among university students as exams approach |
| topic | LGCM parallel process model motivation expectancy value motivational conflict |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1224533/full |
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