Motivation and social cognitive theory Schunk, Dale H.; DiBenedetto, Maria K.
Contemporary educational psychology,
January 2020, 2020-01-00, Volume:
60
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
•Social cognitive theory is a major theory of motivation.•The theory postulates that internal processes lead to behavioral outcomes.•The conceptual framework is based on reciprocal interactions ...between variables.•Researchers continue to address key issues and new research directions.
This article discusses motivation from the perspective of Bandura’s social cognitive theory. Motivation refers to processes that instigate and sustain goal-directed activities. Motivational processes are personal/internal influences that lead to outcomes such as choice, effort, persistence, achievement, and environmental regulation. Motivation has been a prominent feature of social cognitive theory from the early modeling research to the current conception involving agency. The conceptual framework of reciprocal interactions is discussed, after which research is summarized on behavioral, environmental, and personal influences on motivation. Key internal motivational processes are goals and self-evaluations of progress, self-efficacy, social comparisons, values, outcome expectations, attributions, and self-regulation. Critical issues confronting the theory include diversity and culture, methodology, and long-term effects of interventions. The article concludes with additional recommendations for future research on contexts, conceptual clarity, and technology.
Although research on organizational ambidexterity has exploded in the past several years, the determinants of individual‐level ambidexterity have received little scholarly attention. This is ...surprising given that management scholars increasingly highlight the benefits of combining explorative and exploitative activities in individual employees’ work roles. Using data collected by a two‐wave survey of 638 employees nested in 173 groups across 34 organizations, our research demonstrates that both psychological factors and leadership predict employees’ ambidextrous behaviour. Our results demonstrate that general self‐efficacy positively predicts ambidextrous behaviour through learning orientation. In addition, we show that employees exhibit higher ambidexterity when their group managers demonstrate paradoxical leadership; that is, a leadership style that couples strong managerial support with high performance expectations. Paradoxical leadership also moderates the relationship between learning orientation and individual ambidexterity such that employees’ ambidextrous behaviour is highest when paradoxical leadership and employee learning orientation are simultaneously at high levels.
Studies of innovative behavior (the generation, dissemination, and implementation of new ideas) have generally overlooked the agency perspective on this important type of performance behavior. Guided ...by social-cognitive theory, we propose a moderated mediation relationship to explain why and how employees become motivated to make things happen through their innovative endeavors. First, we propose that within-individual increases in organizational trust and perceived respect by colleagues promote within-individual increases in creative, persuasion, and change self-efficacy over time. Second, we propose that within-individual increases in self-efficacy beliefs promote within-individual increases in idea generation, dissemination, and implementation over time. Finally, we propose that psychological collectivism (a between-individual variable) is a moderator, and that a higher level of psychological collectivism weakens the positive relationship between within-individual increases in self-efficacy beliefs and within-individual increases in innovative behavior. Repeated measures collected from 267 employees in Italy at 3 time points over an 8-month period generally support our proposed dynamic moderated mediation relationship.
One of the major neuropsychological models of personality, developed by world-renowned psychologist Professor Jeffrey Gray, is based upon individual differences in reactions to punishing and ...rewarding stimuli. This biological theory of personality - now widely known as 'Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory' (RST) - has had a major influence on motivation, emotion and psychopathology research. In 2000, RST was substantially revised by Jeffrey Gray, together with Neil McNaughton, and this revised theory proposed three principal motivation/emotion systems: the 'Fight-Flight-Freeze System' (FFFS), the 'Behavioural Approach System' (BAS) and the 'Behavioural Inhibition System' (BIS). This is the first book to summarise the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of personality and bring together leading researchers in the field. It summarizes all of the pre-2000 RST research findings, explains and elaborates the implications of the 2000 theory for personality psychology and lays out the future research agenda for RST.
In electronic government (hereafter e-government), a large variety of technology adoption models are employed, which make researchers and policymakers puzzled about which one to use. In this ...research, nine well-known theoretical models of information technology adoption are evaluated and 29 different constructs are identified. A unified model of e-government adoption (UMEGA) is developed and validated using data gathered from 377 respondents from seven selected cities in India. The results indicate that the proposed unified model outperforms all other theoretical models, explaining the highest variance on behavioral intention, acceptable levels of fit indices, and significant relationships for each of the seven hypotheses. The UMEGA is a parsimonious model based on the e-government-specific context, whereas the constructs from the original technology adoption models were found to be inappropriate for the e-government context. By using the UMEGA, relevant e-government constructs were included. For further research, we recommend the development of e-government-specific scales.
•Nine adoption models are reviewed.•29 different adoption constructs are identified.•The UMEGA outperforms all other models for e-government•Government context should be taken into account.•The UMEGA is simpler to use and has a better explanatory power than the UTAUT.
With increased emphasis being placed on entrepreneurial thinking and acting in today's careers, we have witnessed growing research on entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) over the last two decades. ...The present study provides a systematic review of the literature on the theoretical foundations, measurement, antecedents, and outcomes of ESE, and work which treats ESE as a moderator. Based on the review, an agenda for future research is developed and implications for entrepreneurship education and training highlighted. In doing so, the need to consider alternative theoretical perspectives to improve understanding of how ESE influences outcomes at different levels of analysis is highlighted. In addition, the review identifies a need to a) examine the factors which drive short-term fluctuations and long-term changes in ESE, b) examine the developmental precursors of ese in childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, c) examine the negative/curvilinear effects of ESE, d) investigate whether ESE can be treated as a collective level phenomenon, e) look at the effects of ESE on outcomes outside of entrepreneurial contexts, and f) improve measurement and research design.
•We conduct a systematic review of the literature on entrepreneurial self-efficacy.•Prior work has adopted social cognitive theory to explain its development.•Researchers should consider new theoretical perspectives to examine its effects.•Opportunities for empirical advancement are also highlighted.
Social cognitive theory is founded on an agentic perspective. This article reviews the core features of human agency and the individual, proxy, and collective forms in which it is exercised. Agency ...operates through a triadic codetermination process of causation. Knowledge from this line of theorizing is widely applied to effect individual and social change, including worldwide applications that address some of the most urgent global problems.
Immersive virtual reality (VR) is predicted to have a significant impact on education; but most studies investigating learning with immersive VR have reported mixed results when compared to ...low-immersion media. In this study, a sample of 118 participants was used to test whether a lesson presented in either immersive VR or as a video could benefit from the pre-training principle, as a means of reducing cognitive load. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two method conditions (with/without pre-training), and one of two media conditions (immersive VR/video). The results showed an interaction between media and method, indicating that pre-training had a positive effect on knowledge (d = 0.81), transfer (d = 0.62), and self-efficacy (d = 0.64) directly following the intervention; and on self-efficacy (d = 0.84) in a one-week delayed post-test in the immersive VR condition. No effect was found for any of these variables within the video condition.
•An interaction between media and method in learning was investigated.•The pre-training principle was tested when learning about cells with VR and a video.•Pre-training increased knowledge, transfer, and self-efficacy only in VR.•There was a main effect for perceived enjoyment indicating higher enjoyment in VR.•Results provide evidence for a media effect through an interaction with instructional method.
Grounded in Bandura’s (2001) social cognitive theory of mass communication and Giles' (2002) model of parasocial relationship (PSR) development, the current research examines how a viewer's wishful ...identification with an online video game streaming personality and emotional engagement with other viewers lead to behavioral loyalty through PSR with their favorite live-streamer. To test the proposed mediation model, the researchers conducted a survey using a representative sample drawn from a national panel of a professional survey firm in South Korea. Results of a mediation analysis employing structural equation modeling reveal that both wishful identification and emotional engagement have indirect effects on behavioral loyalty through PSR. Put another way, a viewer's likeliness to continue viewing a live-streaming game increase as the viewer develops stronger PSR. The current research also demonstrates that wishful identification and engagement with others/streamers develop into PSR, as suggested by Giles' PSR development model.
•Social cognitive theory explains the behavior of viewing live-streaming games.•We examine the role of parasocial relationships (PSR) in repeated viewing.•Wishful identification (WI) and emotional engagement (EE) predict PSR.•PSR has a positive effect on repeated viewing.•PSR fully mediates the effect of WI and EE on repeated viewing.
This study examines the influence of the tertius iungens orientation on knowledge-sharing activities and individual job performance within enterprise social media environments. The empirical analysis ...reveals that knowledge self-efficacy, social interaction ties, and the norm of reciprocity positively influence the tertius iungens orientation and knowledge-sharing activities in social media, while enjoyment of helping does not have a significant influence. In addition, the tertius iungens orientation has a significant impact on knowledge-sharing activities in social media, which in turn influences individual job performance. Based on the results of this analysis, this study discusses the research findings and proposes theoretical and practical implications of the study as well as the research's limitations.
•The influence of tertius iungens orientation within social media context.•The impact of individual and social factors on tertius iungens orientation.•The relationship between tertius iungens orientation & knowledge-sharing activities.•The indirect effect of tertius iungens orientation on individual job performance.•Theoretical and practical implications for enterprise knowledge management.