* Featured Character
Haphuco ♂ - The main character
Rika ♀ - Roku's childhood friends, an university student following psychology
Dorin ♂ - An university student who is a tenant inside Buido's house like Haphuco
Hakyo - The name of the city where Haphuco is living in
Essay Topic :
The purpose of this essay is to provide you with an opportunity to identify how motivation may play a role in student performance by discussing the various theories of motivation and identifying how the Cognitive Theory of Motivation relates to the success of students.
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INTRODUCTION
This essay is all about Motivation.
According to the English dictionary, Motivation is defined as a reason or a feeling to do or want to do something.
There is Motivation behind drinking water (i.e., because you are thirsty), there is Motivation behind going to the LFC (i.e., because you want to eat delicious fast food), and there is also Motivation behind students' studying.
Students study not only just for their grades but for the sake of their future. Neglecting study will result in their future being bleak and they will be highly likely unable to become helpful civilians for society. Therefore, it's an essential mission for education to help or more topic-focused, to motivate students to study.
The purpose of this essay is to identify the role of Motivation in students' ability to perform in schools. The essay will dive into the concept of Motivation way deeper than its definition in the dictionary by discussing various theories of Motivation, emphasizing on the Cognitive Theory of Motivation which relates to the success of students.
BODY
To talk about Motivation in psychological terms, information has been collected in Psychology: Australian and New Zealand edition (4th ed.). Cengage Learning Australia. of Bernstein, D.A., Pooley, J., Cohen, L., Provost, S., Cranney, J., & Drew, N. (2024). (i.e., specifically, in Chapter 9: Motivation and Emotion - Chapter 9.1: Concepts and theories of motivation)
Motivation is defined as the influence that is responsible for the initiation, execution and persistence of behavior. Whether it is hunger, thirst, love, or greed, psychologists use Motivation to explain the relationships between environmental stimuli and behavioral responses.
According to psychologists, the source of Motivation can be classified into four categories :
+ Basic physiological factors (i.e., need for food, water,...)
+ Emotional factors (i.e., emotions like panic, fear, anger, love and hatred can influence behavior, sometimes in the most extreme way)
+ Cognitive factors (i.e., people's perceptions of the world, their beliefs about what they can or cannot do, and their expectations about how others will respond to them, which make them behave in certain way)
+ Social, cultural and environmental factors (i.e., the influence of parents, teachers, siblings, friends, television and other sociocultural forces.)
Based on that, psychologists have formulated several theories of Motivation. There are :
+ Instinct Theory : Some human behaviors already exist from birth and motivate individuals to act in a specific way.
Example :
No drinking = Die → Motivated to drink water
+ Drive Reduction Theory : Humans have a state of equilibrium or homeostasis (balance). When the state becomes imbalanced, it motivates individuals to restore the balance and therefore act in a specific way.
Example :
Hunger causes imbalance → Motivated to eat → Full after eating → Balance restored
+ Arousal Theory : Humans have an optimal level of arousal which is different for each person. When the level is below or above the optimal level, it motivates individuals to change the level back and therefore act in a specific way.
Example :
Like skydive → Been a while skydiving → Level of arousal below optimal level → Motivated to do skydive
OR
Not fond of skydive → Being forced to skydive → Level of arousal above optimal level → Motivated to avoid skydiving
+ Incentive Theory : Humans are motivated to attain desirable stimuli and avoid unwanted stimuli.
Example :
Do the essay → Earn enough mark to pass the unit → You are happy
Not do the essay → Fail the unit → You are finished
SO
Motivated to do the essay
The above-mentioned theories are considered as Biological and Behavioral Theory. The focus of the essay, the Cognitive Theory of Motivation, extends beyond biological drives and external rewards by focusing on internal mental processes — especially how people perceive, interpret, and evaluate their situations.
In essay writing, the information needs to be collected from high-quality academic sources which are peer-reviewed, authored by experts, published in reputable journals or by academic publishers, and provides reliable, evidence-based, and replicable findings.
To explain about Cognitive Theory of Motivation and provide empirical evidence of its concept and application on student performance, three resources have been collected :
+ College student intrinsic and/or extrinsic motivation and learning. of Li, Y.G., McKeachie, W.J., and Kim, Y.C. (2003).
+ Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentives jointly predict performance: A 40-year meta-analysis. of Cerasoli, C. P., Nicklin, J. M., & Ford, M. T. (2014).
+ Expectancy–value theory of achievement motivation. of Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. S. (2000).
Cognitive Theory of Motivation includes several distinct theories (like Expectancy-Value Theory, Self-Determination Theory, Goal-Setting Theory, and Attribution Theory), and many of them involve or are influenced by Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation.
Li, Y.G., McKeachie, W.J., and Kim, Y.C. (2003) mentioned that Intrinsic Motivation arises when a person finds the activity itself fulfilling or enjoyable, while Extrinsic Motivation is driven by external outcomes, such as receiving a reward or avoiding a penalty based on performance.
For example, the passion that a student shows in a subject which makes them try hard in the examination is Intrinsic Motivation while the reward to be able to go to the Disney Land if another student gets a good grade in the examination which makes them try hard is Extrinsic Motivation.
Li, Y.G., McKeachie, W.J., and Kim, Y.C. (2003) also said that the relationship between Intrinsic Motivation and Extrinsic Motivation, rather than being opposite to each other and straightforwardly incompatible to each other, has a more complex relationship than people would have thought.
This relationship is explained in more detail by Cerasoli, Nicklin, and Ford (2014), through a study that they conducted.
The study carried out a thorough meta-analysis examining the link between intrinsic motivation and performance by searching multiple databases and gathering unpublished studies. At the end, the study justified the six ideas Cerasoli, Nicklin, and Ford (2014) made earlier in the article :
+ Intrinsic Motivation is linked to better performance outcome.
+ This connection is especially strong when the task emphasizes quality over quantity.
+ When Extrinsic Motivation is present but not directly tied to performance, they enhance the positive impact of Intrinsic Motivation.
+ In contrast, when Extrinsic Motivation is directly tied to performance, they tend to weaken the influence of Intrinsic Motivation.
+ For tasks focused on output quantity, Extrinsic Motivation are more effective predictors of performance than Intrinsic Motivation.
+ However, for tasks emphasizing performance quality, Intrinsic Motivation is a more reliable predictor than Extrinsic Motivation.
So what's the importance of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation in student performance. The study conducted by Li, Y.G., McKeachie, W.J., and Kim, Y.C. (2003) showed its idea :
This study focuses on two primary types of learning motivation: Extrinsic Motivation (aimed at achieving good grades) and Intrinsic Motivation (driven by a preference for challenges). The research examines whether students with different combinations of these motivations perform differently.
The study found that moderate Extrinsic Motivation was more beneficial than High extrinsic motivation, and higher Intrinsic motivation was positively linked to better grades. The most favorable combination was moderate Extrinsic Motivation paired with high Intrinsic Motivation, as these students exhibited lower test anxiety, higher self-efficacy, and used more effective study strategies like elaboration and organization. This suggests that Extrinsic Motivation can complement Intrinsic Motivation, rather than being in conflict with it and students need both types of Motivation to perform well at school.
So for Extrinsic Motivation, an important takeaway for teachers is that they don't need to remove all incentives for good grades to foster both cognitive and long-term learning objectives of students as a moderate level of Extrinsic Motivation is actually beneficial to students.
While Intrinsic Motivation is created by the students themselves, teachers should not let the students alone as they may be unable to maintain their level of Intrinsic Motivation, as mentioned in the result of the study conducted by Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. S. (2000).
Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. S. (2000). addressed these issues through three key longitudinal studies. In all studies, children completed questionnaires assessing their beliefs about abilities, expectations for success, and how much they valued various activities, alongside other constructs.
The research revealed that, as children age, their ability-related beliefs and values often become more negative, particularly during early adolescence. Children tend to perceive themselves as less competent in various activities and assign less value to these activities. Two main explanations are offered for this decline: first, as children grow, they become better at understanding and processing evaluative feedback and engage more in social comparisons, which leads to more realistic, though more negative, self-assessments. Second, the school environment changes in ways that emphasize evaluation and increase competition among students, which can lower children's achievement beliefs.
As students grow older, they tend to feel more negative about their ability which may harm their Intrinsic Motivation which is based on passion, fulfillment and enjoyment.
So for Intrinsic Motivation, an important takeaway for teachers is that they should encourage students to be confident about their ability to perform as a high level of Intrinsic Motivation is beneficial to students.
CONCLUSION
Motivation influences the behavior of humans. There are several theories of Motivation, one of them is Cognitive Theory of Motivation which has been especially discussed in the essay, about its application on student performance. In Cognitive Theory of Motivation, there are Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation. To perform well, students need both types of Motivation, in particular, a moderate level of Extrinsic Motivation and a high level of Intrinsic Motivation. Therefore, a decent amount of incentives from outside should still be given to students and students should be encouraged to believe and be confident in their ability to perform.
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Rika : Done with the essay,...
Rika : Dorin ?
Dorin : Yeah...
Dorin : I hope I survive with this one...
End of Chapter 13.5 : Essay ( Bonus Chapter of Volume 2 )
Next Chapter - Chapter 14 : Kill Zone