Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Motivational Variables (motivational + variable)
Selected AbstractsExpertise, Evaluative Motivation, and the Structure of Citizens' Ideological CommitmentsPOLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 5 2007Christopher M. Federico Political psychologists have typically argued that ideological commitments are structured in a bipolar fashion, where a positive evaluation of conservative objects implies a negative evaluation of liberal objects (and vice versa). Individual differences in conformity to this pattern are usually attributed to an ability-related variable, i.e., political expertise. Departing from this strict focus on ability, this study examines the hypotheses that an important motivational variable,the need to evaluate, or the desire to form opinions of objects as "good" or "bad",would (1) predict deviations from ideological bipolarity, even controlling for expertise; and (2) moderate the relationship between expertise and deviations from bipolarity. Data from two national surveys provided evidence for these hypotheses and indicated that the results extended to deviations from bipolarity in evaluations of presidential candidates and political parties. [source] Sex differences in school achievement: what are the roles of personality and achievement motivation?EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 3 2008Ricarda Steinmayr Abstract It is consistently reported that despite equal cognitive ability, girls outperform boys in school. In several methodological steps, the present study examined sex differences in school achievement and some of the most important personality and motivational constructs in a sample of 204 females and 138 adolescent males (mean age M,=,16.94 years; SD,=,0.71). Grades in Math and German as well as grade point average (GPA) served as achievement criteria. Intelligence, the Big Five of personality and motivational variables (achievement motives, goal orientation, task values and ability self-concepts) served as predictors. After controlling for intelligence, girls' grades were significantly better than boys'. Mean sex differences were found for most variables. There were no gender-specific associations between predictors and grades. Agreeableness, work avoidance, ability self-concepts and values ascribed to German mediated the association between sex and grades in German. Controlling for ability self-concepts and values ascribed to Math enhanced the association between sex and math grades. We concluded that personality and motivation play important roles in explaining sex differences in school attainment. Results are discussed against the background of practical and methodological implications. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Individual differences in children's understanding of social evaluation concernsINFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2002Robin BanerjeeArticle first published online: 27 AUG 200 Abstract Recent research suggests that children's understanding of self-presentational behaviour,behaviour designed to shape social evaluation,is a function of both cognitive and motivational variables. Furthermore, the motivational factors involved are likely to reflect individual differences in the salience of concerns about social evaluation. The present research represents a first effort to determine whether measures of such differences are indeed associated with the understanding of self-presentational behaviour. In a first experiment, a teacher rating measure of self-monitoring was found to be positively associated with the understanding of self-presentational motives. In a second experiment, a more narrowly specified self-report measure of public self-consciousness was found to have a similar association with the understanding of self-presentation, with no such association found for private self-consciousness. These preliminary results make it clear that our formulations of development in social cognition must indeed include a consideration of individual differences in motivational orientations. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Perceived ease of use in prior e-commerce experiences: A hierarchical model for its motivational antecedentsPSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 9 2010Tao Sun This study develops and tests a theoretical model to evaluate the motivational factors behind perceived ease of use in prior e-commerce experiences. This hierarchical model includes need for arousal as the independent variable; general self-efficacy, technological innovativeness, and consumer self-determination as the mediating variables; and perceived ease of use in prior e-commerce experiences as the dependent variable. Tested by data generated from a survey of 290 consumers, the model yields satisfactory fit and contributes to the literature by adding more intrinsically motivational variables to predict perceived ease of use. Practical and academic implications are also discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] | ||||||||||