Motivation science controversies and insights mimi bong

Motivation Science: Controversies and Insights

Mimi Bong

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Motivation Science

Motivation Science

Controversies andInsights

Editedby MIMI BONG, JOHNMARSHALL REEVE, AND SUNG-IL KIM

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ISBN 978–0–19–766235–9

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DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197662359.001.0001

Acknowledgments

AboutthebMRISymposiumonMotivation

Contributors

Introduction

SECTION I WHAT IS MOTIVATION?

1. What Is Motivation?

What Is Motivation, Where Does It Come from, and How Does It Work?

CarolS.Dweck,MatthewL.Dixon,andJamesJ.Gross

Energization and Direction Are Both Essential Parts of Motivation

AndrewJ.Elliot

What Is Motivation?

EdwinA.Locke

Motivation Processes and Outcomes

DaleH.Schunk

Motivation Is the Interaction Between Dispositions and Context

DeborahStipek

Motivation Is the State of Wanting Something . . . But Do We Want the Right Things?

KennonM.Sheldon

Wanting to Feel Effective in Our Goal Pursuits for Both Outcomes and Process

E.ToryHigginsandEmilyNakkawita

Pleasure, Utility, and Goals: Motivation as a Value-Based Decision-Making Process

Sung-ilKim

Jingle-Jangle Fallacies in Motivation Science: Toward a Definition of Core Motivation

ReinhardPekrun

Academic Self-Concept: A Central Motivational Construct

GeetanjaliBasarkodandHerbertW.Marsh

Motivation Resides Only in Our Language, Not in Our Mental Processes

KouMurayama

InsightsGainedfromControversy1

SECTION II WHAT ARE THE CURRENT CONTROVERSIES IN MOTIVATION SCIENCE?

2. Are Motivational Processes Universal Across Cultures and Contexts?

Does One Size Fit All? Cultural Perspectives on School Motivation

DennisM.McInerney†

Where Will Michelle Go to College? Culture and Context in the Study of Motivation

PaulA.Schutz

Can We Really Say that Motivational Processes Are Universal Across Cultures and Contexts?

BrianaP.Green,DeLeonL.Gray,ElanC.Hope,andJamaal S.Matthews

Vitamins for Psychological Growth: A Universal Foundation for Motivating Others

BartSoenensandMaartenVansteenkiste

Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect: Universality of Psychological Comparison Processes

HerbertW.MarshandGeetanjaliBasarkod

InsightsGainedfromControversy2

3. Is There Such a Thing as “Good” Motivation and “Bad” Motivation?

Some Motivations Make Us Happier Than Others

KennonM.Sheldon

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Motivation

NikosNtoumanis

Less Is Sometimes More: Differentiating “Mustivation” from “Wantivation”

MaartenVansteenkisteandBartSoenens

Do We Sometimes Surrender Our Good Motivation for Bad? Some Reflections on the Quality of Motivation

AllanWigfield

Good Versus Bad Motivation? Avoiding the Lure of False Dichotomies

PatriciaA.Alexander

InsightsGainedfromControversy3

4. Does Extrinsic Incentive (e.g., Rewards, Competition) Undermine Motivation?

Extrinsic Rewards Undermine Motivation in the Classroom . . . Sometimes

EricM.Anderman

Extrinsic Incentives/Rewards: Short-Term Fix That Can Undermine Long-Term Motivation

WendyS.Grolnick

Interest and Its Relation to Rewards, Reward Expectations, and Incentives

SuzanneE.HidiandK.AnnRenninger

Competition Can Enhance Motivation—But Typically Undermines It

JohnmarshallReeve

InsightsGainedfromControversy4

5. Can We Control Our Motivation?

The Unconscious Sources of Motivation and Goals

JohnA.BarghandPeterM.Gollwitzer

Two Routes to the Self-Regulation of Motivation and Goals

PeterM.GollwitzerandJohnA.Bargh

The Uneasy Relationship Between Conscious and NonConscious Motivation

TimUrdan

Controlling Your Own Motivation Is an Acquired Skill

ChristopherA.Wolters

A Key to Motivation Is Thinking and Acting Like You Can Change Things

ErikaA.Patall

Finding the Second Wind: Motivation Is Within Our Control

EllenL.Usher

InsightsGainedfromControversy5

6. Can You Distinguish Motivation from Cognition and Emotion?

Cognitions and Emotions Energize and Sustain Motivation

DaleH.Schunk

Dissecting the Elephant: Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation as Distinct but Intertwined Entities

ReinhardPekrun

Exploring the Boundaries Between Motivation, Cognition, and Emotion: Theoretical, Empirical, and Practical Distinctions

PatriciaA.Alexander

Transactions Among Motivation, Emotion, and Cognition: Blurring the Lines

PaulA.Schutz

Are Cognition, Motivation, and Emotion the Same or Different? Let’s Abandon That Thinking

KouMurayama

InsightsGainedfromControversy6

7. What Are the Unanswered Questions and Unresolved Controversies in Motivation Study?

Understanding Motivation: So Much Is Known, So Much Left to Learn

TimUrdan

How Does Context Shape Motivation?

MimiBong

Is a Focus on Looking Smart Beneficial for Students’ Engagement, Learning, and Achievement?

LisaLinnenbrink-Garcia

Is There a Need for Psychological Needs in Theories of Achievement Motivation?

AllanWigfieldandAlisonC.Koenka

Should Theoretical Integration Occur in the Motivation Literature? Considering What, for Whom, and When AlisonC.KoenkaandAllanWigfield

InsightsGainedfromControversy7

SECTION III HOW DO WE MOTIVATE PEOPLE?

8. How Do We Motivate People?

How Do We Motivate People? Connecting to People’s Existing Goals and Values

CarolS.Dweck

Creating a Motivating Learning Environment: Guiding Principles from Philosophy, Psychology, and Pedagogy

PatriciaA.Alexander

Easy to Get People to Do Things, More Challenging to Facilitate Their Motivation

WendyS.Grolnick

When It Comes to Motivating Others, What’s Easy Is Not Always What Works

ErikaA.Patall

Motivating People: It Depends on What, and It Depends on When

EricM.Anderman

How Do We Motivate People? By Working with Their SelfBeliefs

EllenL.Usher

A Control-Value Approach to Affective Growth

ReinhardPekrun

How to Foster Motivation? The Need-Based Motivating

Compass as a Source of Inspiration

MaartenVansteenkisteandBartSoenens

You Can Motivate Others by Nurturing Five Experiences

That Satisfy Their Need for Autonomy: Authentic Inner Compass, Authentic Intentions, and Freedom

AviAssor,MotiBenita,andYaelGeifman

Improving Social Contexts Can Enhance Student Motivation

KathrynR.Wentzel

What Teachers Need to Know About Promoting Student Motivation to Learn

HelenPatrick

InsightsGainedfromControversy8

SECTION IV WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF MOTIVATION SCIENCE?

9. What Is the Most Fundamental Limitation in Contemporary Motivation Theory and Research?

Is Academic Motivation a Tree Trunk, a Fan, a Wall, a Rope, a Snake, or a Spear? No, It’s an Elephant and It’s on Fire

EllenA.Skinner

Gaps in Contemporary Motivation Research: A Biopsychological Perspective

AndrewJ.MartinandEmmaC.Burns

Identifying the Role of Social Relationships in Motivating Students to Learn

KathrynR.Wentzel

Most Motivation Research in Education Is Not Yet Useful for Teachers

HelenPatrick

Motivational Researchers Must Move Beyond Linear Models to Consider Motivational Processes as Part of a Complex System

LisaLinnenbrink-Garcia

The Most Fundamental Limitation in Motivation Theory and Research Is Our Theories

EricM.Anderman

Infatuation with Constructs and Losing Sight of the Motivational Phenomenon

AviKaplan

Theoretical and Methodological Disintegration Is the Most Fundamental Limitation in Contemporary Motivation Research

BenjaminNagengastandUlrichTrautwein

InsightsGainedfromControversy9

10. What Will Be the Most Significant Development in Motivation Science in the Next Decade?

The Next Decade: Making Motivation the Foundation of Psychology Again

CarolS.Dweck

Harnessing Biopsychology and Mobile Technology to Develop Motivation Science in the Next Decade

AndrewJ.Martin,EmmaC.Burns,RogerKennett,andJoel Pearson

Digitization Will Bring Profound Changes in Educational Practice and Research on Motivation

UlrichTrautweinandBenjaminNagengast

Understanding Human Motivation and Action as a Complex Dynamic System

AviKaplan

Assessing Motivation Dynamically

DaleH.Schunk

Motivation in the Wild: Capturing the Complex Social Ecologies of Academic Motivation

EllenA.Skinner,ThomasA.Kindermann,JustinW.Vollet, andNicoletteP.Rickert

Community-Engaged Research: The Next Frontier in Motivation Science

DeLeonL.GrayandBrookeHarris-Thomas

InsightsGainedfromControversy10

References

NameIndex

SubjectIndex

Acknowledgments

The book would simply not exist without the 57 motivation scientists who contributed their essays, so our first expression of gratitude is to our authors. Another essential group who made the book possible was the editorial team at Oxford University Press—Abby Gross and Katharine Pratt. They shared our enthusiasm and vision for this volume from the very beginning and remained supportive throughout. We would also like to express our appreciation to Allan Wigfield at the University of Maryland, who provided excellent early critiques on the direction of the volume. The four anonymous reviewers of our book proposal offered many detailed and extremely helpful suggestions, and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts. We took their comments seriously and, by doing so, substantially improved the quality and scope of the volume. We shared this book-writing journey with the past and present members of the Brain and Motivation Research Institute (bMRI) at Korea University. The bMRI Symposium on Motivation has been possible because of their dedication and yearning for new learning. We hope they hear their voices in the pages of this volume. Finally, we would like to thank our families. We are eternally grateful for their love, encouragement, and support.

About the bMRI Symposium on Motivation

The bMRI Symposium on Motivation is an annual international symposium hosted by the Brain and Motivation Research Institute (bMRI) of Korea University in Seoul, Korea. Each year, leading figures in the field of motivation science visit Korea University to present their theories and findings. Below is a list of the international keynote speakers at the past bMRI Symposia:

Edward L. Deci, Judith Harackiewicz, Deborah Stipek, Allan Wigfield

Ruth Butler, Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Bernard Weiner, Kathryn R. Wentzel

Patricia A. Alexander, Suzanne E. Hidi, Reinhard Pekrun, Richard M. Ryan

Avi Assor, Wendy S. Grolnick, Kennon M. Sheldon, Maarten Vansteenkiste

Daniel Ansari, Layne Kalbfleisch

Andrew J. Martin, Allison M. Ryan

Tim Urdan, Ellen L. Usher

Erika A. Patall, Helen Patrick

Benjamin Nagengast, Christopher A. Wolters, Shirley L. Yu

Andrew J. Elliot, Herbert W. Marsh

K. Ann Renninger, Ulrich Trautwein (Symposium canceleddue to COVID-19) (Symposium heldonline due to COVID-19) John A. Bargh, Roy F. Baumeister

Eric M. Anderman, Lynley H. Anderman

The bMRI Symposium on Motivation began in 2009 and continues year after year. International and local scholars share and discuss their programs of research during this event.

Contributors

Patricia A. Alexander, PhD

Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology

University of Maryland College Park, MD, USA

Eric M. Anderman, PhD

Department of Educational Studies

The Ohio State University

Columbus, OH, USA

Avi Assor, PhD

School of Education

Ben Gurion University of the Negev Beer Sheva, Israel

John A. Bargh, PhD

Department of Psychology

Yale University

New Haven, CT, USA

Geetanjali Basarkod, PhD

Institute for Positive Psychology and Education

Australian Catholic University

North Sydney, Australia

Moti Benita, PhD

School of Education

Ben Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva, Israel

Mimi Bong, PhD

Department of Education

Korea University

Seoul, South Korea

Emma C. Burns, PhD School of Education

Macquarie University

Sydney, Australia

Matthew L. Dixon, PhD

Department of Psychology

Stanford University

Stanford, CA, USA

Carol S. Dweck, PhD

Department of Psychology

Stanford University

Stanford, CA, USA

Andrew J. Elliot, PhD

Department of Psychology

University of Rochester

Rochester, NY, USA

Yael Geifman, PhD

School of Education

Ben Gurion University of the Negev

Beer-Sheva, Israel

Peter M. Gollwitzer, PhD

Department of Psychology

New York University

New York, NY, USA

DeLeon L. Gray, PhD

Department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences

North Carolina State University

Raleigh, NC, USA

Briana P. Green, MS

Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education

Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI, USA

Wendy S. Grolnick, PhD

Department of Psychology

Clark University

Worcester, MA, USA

James J. Gross, PhD

Department of Psychology

Stanford University

Stanford, CA, USA

Brooke Harris-Thomas, MA

Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education

Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI, USA

Suzanne E. Hidi, PhD

Applied Psychology and Human Development

University of Toronto

Toronto, ON, Canada

E. Tory Higgins, PhD

Department of Psychology

Columbia University

New York, NY, USA

Elan C. Hope, PhD

Department of Psychology

North Carolina State University

Raleigh, NC, USA

Avi Kaplan, PhD

Department of Psychological Studies in Education

Temple University

Philadelphia, PA, USA

Roger Kennett, PhD, Bsc, DipEd

School of Education

University of New South Wales

Sydney, Australia

Sung-il Kim, PhD

Department of Education

Korea University

Seoul, South Korea

Thomas A. Kindermann, PhD

Department of Psychology

Portland State University

Portland, OR, USA

Alison C. Koenka, PhD

Department of Educational Psychology

University of Oklahoma

Norman, OK, USA

Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia, PhD

Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education

Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI, USA

Edwin A. Locke, PhD

Robert H. Smith School of Business

University of Maryland

College Park, MD, USA

Herbert W. Marsh, PhD, DSc

Institute for Positive Psychology and Education

Australian Catholic University

Sydney, Australia

Andrew J. Martin, PhD

School of Education

University of New South Wales

Sydney, Australia

Jamaal S. Matthews, PhD

Combined Program in Education and Psychology

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Dennis M. McInerney†, PhD

Department of Special Education and Counselling Education University of Hong Kong

Ting Kok, Hong Kong

Kou Murayama, PhD

Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology

University of Tübingen

Tübingen, Germany

Benjamin Nagengast, Dr. phil.

Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology

University of Tübingen

Tübingen, Germany

Emily Nakkawita, MA, MPhil

Department of Psychology

Columbia University

New York, NY, USA

Nikos Ntoumanis, PhD

Danish Centre of Motivation and Behaviour Science

Southern Denmark University

Odense, Denmark

Erika A. Patall, PhD

Rossier School of Education

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA, USA

Helen Patrick, PhD

Department of Educational Studies

Purdue University

West Lafayette, IN, USA

Joel Pearson, PhD School of Psychology

The University of New South Wales

Sydney, Australia

Reinhard Pekrun, PhD

Department of Psychology

University of Essex

Colchester, Essex, UK

Johnmarshall Reeve, PhD

Institute for Positive Psychology and Education

Sydney, Australia

K. Ann Renninger, PhD

Department of Educational Studies

Swarthmore College

Swarthmore, PA, USA

Nicolette P. Rickert, PhD

Department of Psychology

Georgia Southern University

Statesboro, GA, USA

Dale H. Schunk, PhD

Teacher Education and Higher Education

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Greensboro, NC, USA

Paul A. Schutz, PhD

College of Education

University of Arizona

Tucson, AZ, USA

Kennon M. Sheldon, PhD

Department of Psychological Sciences

University of Missouri

Columbia, MO, USA

Ellen A. Skinner, PhD

Department of Psychology

Portland State University

Portland, OR, USA

Bart Soenens, PhD

Department of Developmental, Personality, and Social Psychology

Ghent University

Ghent, Belgium

Deborah Stipek, PhD

Graduate School of Education

Stanford University

Stanford, CA, USA

Ulrich Trautwein, Dr. Phil.

Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology

University of Tübingen

Tübingen, Germany

Tim Urdan, PhD

Department of Psychology

Santa Clara University

Santa Clara, CA, USA

Ellen L. Usher

Office of Applied Scholarship and Education Science

Mayo Clinic

Rochester, MN, USA

Maarten Vansteenkiste, PhD

Department of Developmental, Social and Personality Psychology

Ghent University

Ghent, Belgium

Justin W. Vollet, PhD

Department of Psychology

The University of Texas Permian Basin

Odessa, TX, USA

Kathryn R. Wentzel, PhD

Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology

University of Maryland College Park, MD, USA

Allan Wigfield, PhD

Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology

University of Maryland College Park, MD, USA

Christopher A. Wolters, PhD Educational Studies

The Ohio State University Columbus, OH, USA

Introduction

Motivation science has advanced tremendously in the past decade. However, it is now clear that future progress is going to be stalled by the extent of disagreement among motivation scientists to some basic, yet controversial, questions. To help move motivation science toward greater coherence, we decided to recruit prominent scholars to voice their contrasting perspectives. Such debate is not only interesting, but it also makes future research, discoveries, collaborations, and applications more fruitful. It is in this spirit that we put together a volume to address those controversies that are most likely to provide insight.

The three editors of this volume are or have been professors of educational psychology and faculty members of the Brain and Motivation Research Institute (bMRI) at Korea University. Since 2009, we have hosted an annual international symposium called the bMRI Symposium on Motivation, whose name we came up with to pay tribute to the pioneering Nebraska Symposium on Motivation (1953-present). Each year, we have invited leading figures in the field of motivation to deliver their keynote addresses (2009-present). In 2018, the bMRI Symposium on Motivation celebrated its 10th anniversary. Given this successful and well-received history, we saw the need for and interest in the present volume to commemorate the symposium’s 10-year history.

Purpose of the Volume

Because many excellent handbooks on motivation exist, we wanted to try something different—be provocative. We wanted to provoke creative ideas among the authors and readers. By sharing current

thinking and providing innovative insights into the important questions and controversies in the study of motivation, we wanted the volume to inform readers about cutting-edge theory and research in motivation that they can use to generate fresh and effective applications and interventions.

Question Selection Criteria

To achieve that end, we ask 10 thought-provoking questions that define contemporary motivation science’s most important, controversial, and provocative ideas. These questions deal with the nature of motivation, cultural differences in motivational processes, evidence-based strategies to enhance motivation, unresolved controversies, predictions of the future, and more. For each question, we invited multiple prominent scholars around the globe to provide their independent answers. This format allowed us to offer the reader multiple answers to each motivation question. No one right answer exists. Instead, multiple international authors share their views on each particular question. In this way, readers gain a rare opportunity to see how different theorists and researchers recognize, evaluate, and prescribe solutions to the same motivation problem. As editors, we hope the commonalities, disagreements, and uniqueness in the authors’ approaches will become evident to the readers.

Structure of the Volume

This volume features four sections, each of which highlights a different core question:

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What is motivation?

What are the current controversies in motivation science?

How do we motivate people?

What is the future of motivation science?

Within each section are more specific questions. We intentionally framed these more specific questions in a yes/no format to encourage the authors to agree or disagree with the controversial proposition and to explain the rationale behind their answers. Upon invitation, each author (or author team) chose up to three specific questions they wanted to address. As a result, a minimum of 4 to a maximum of 11 answers accompany each of the 10 specific questions in this volume.

Overall, the table of contents features 4 core questions, 10 specific and controversial questions, and 67 individual author responses. A total of 57 motivation scientists participated in answering one or more of the specific questions, allowing this volume to represent various unique and shared perspectives on each issue. Because the authors presented solid scientific evidence for their respective position based on their expertise and research record, it is not a right-or-wrong situation. Rather, we leave it to the readers to decide whose response or position they find most persuasive.

Tone of the Volume and Intended Audience

The volume targets the motivation science research community, graduate students, and a variety of professionals and practitioners (e.g., educators). While this represents our intended audience, we are optimistic that readers outside the field of contemporary motivation study will also find the book interesting, personally relevant, and professionally useful. To help make our volume attractive to a broad scope of readers, we asked the authors to tell some good stories in an informal and conversational tone and avoid jargon and technical terms as best they could. We wanted to make the book approachable for anyone interested in understanding motivational phenomena and improving the motivation of oneself and others, such as parents, employers/employees, and college students. To reach these more applied audiences, we added a concise discussion at the end of each specific question that

reiterates the main points articulated in the multiple essays and explains in plain language how the authors’ views are similar to or different from each other.

Editors’ Reflections

Putting this volume together has been a pleasant journey. The authors’ essays inspired our thinking and expanded our perspectives about the issues and controversies in contemporary motivation science. We are certain that readers will experience the same intellectual stimulation and satisfaction that we experienced while reading the authors’ insightful contributions. We have been deeply impressed by our motivation colleagues and their thinking about motivation. Without a single exception, all of the authors conveyed their passion and commitment to the study of motivation, which will be evident to the readers as they survey the essays. The greatest reward for us out of the whole process is our renewed respect for and confidence in both our colleagues and the current state of motivation science. It is our hope that this volume advances the 10 controversies and produces a whole new set of interesting questions for the next generation to consider.

In Seoul and Sydney, Mimi Bong, Johnmarshall Reeve, and Sung-il Kim

SECTION I

WHAT IS MOTIVATION?

Question 1

What Is Motivation?

What Is Motivation, Where Does It Come from, and How Does It Work?

CarolS. Dweck, Matthew L. Dixon, andJames J. Gross

Motivation is often taken for granted in psychology, perhaps because it is hidden beneath the actions we take. The relative visibility of our actions and the relative invisibility of their motivational underpinnings may explain why some researchers—such as many who study cognition, intelligence, or personality—do not see their phenomena as arising from and importantly influenced by motivation. In fact, an eminent social-personality psychologist told one of us how his graduate school advisor had assured him that “motivation was assumed” and did not require further attention.

Our view is quite different. We see motivation as foundational to virtually all important actions or choices and therefore foundational for all forms of skilled performance or adaptive functioning. And, therefore, critical to acknowledge and understand.

But even for those of us who acknowledge and study motivation, many questions remain, and the purpose of this essay is to pose some of those questions and venture some answers to them.

What Is Motivation, and Where Does It Come From?

Motivation can be defined as the processes that drive, select, and direct behaviors (see Reeve, 2018), but direct them toward what? Toward our goals. In simpler terms, motivation answers the

question: What do people want, and how do they go about getting it?

Where does motivation come from? How does it get started in the first place? To shed light on this, we turn to the concept of “needs.” We see needs as the crucible from which motivated behavior arises (see Deci & Ryan, 2000; Dweck, 2017, 2021; Reeve, 2018). We are all born with needs that jump-start the goal-oriented, motivated behaviors that are critical to survival and thriving. These are both physical needs (such as hunger and thirst) and psychological needs (such as the need for social relationships, optimal predictability, and competence).

In fact, we are built not only to experience these needs but also to fulfill them. For example, babies have built-in attentional and behavioral preparedness that helps them orient toward and interact with hunger-fulfilling, relationship-building, and competence-building situations. Babies also have truly remarkable cognitive, informationprocessing, and inferential abilities that are present at birth to help them learn about need-fulfilling situations and further ensure that these critical needs will be met in the future (Dweck, 2017, 2021). Thus, we propose that these needs form the basis upon which human motivation is built.

We further propose that needs come to life through specific goals. That is, needs and the opportunities to fulfill them are not enough. Fulfilling needs requires a specific goal (a mental representation—an “image” in the mind—of a desired state) and then goal-oriented behavior designed to bring one closer to that state. Indeed, we view goals as the central concept in motivation (see Fishbach & Ferguson, 2007).

How does motivation change with development and experience?

As children (and adults) pursue need-fulfilling goals in the context of their world (family, culture) and their biological make-up (e.g., temperament), they learn about what works and doesn’t work. That is, they learn which actions in which situations lead to pleasurable outcomes and which don’t. They then use this information to build models of themselves, other people, and their world and how it all works, and they use these models to guide future goal choices and

goal pursuit strategies (see Dweck, 2017, 2021). Of course, these models are flexible and take people well beyond the basic needs they are all born with.

As people develop, then, they build a repertoire of need-fulfilling goals and the means to achieve them. Over time, their pattern of goal choices and goal pursuit may become more recurrent, characteristic, or “trait-like” and may become what we might call their personality—their characteristic ways of thinking, feeling, and acting (see Dweck, 2021; McCabe & Fleeson, 2016). That is, we may see the developing patterns of goal pursuit as a basis for the development of personality.

How Does Motivation Work?

How do people choose among the many goals they could pursue? Above, we defined goals as mental representations of desired states, but every moment presents us with many opportunities to imagine desired states and act in ways that bring us closer to those states. With all the internal stimuli (thoughts, feelings) and external stimuli bombarding us at any given time, how do we even begin to decide what we desire and what we wish to pursue?

Some theories propose that there is a dedicated brain area, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, that computes and compares the values of different possible goals and decides which is the best choice (e.g., Levy & Glimcher, 2012). Instead, we suggest that the winning goals are not chosen by an all-knowing overseer, but rather emerge from the pack based on the strength of their mental representation or, loosely speaking, the strength of their activation in our minds. Do we want to prepare for an upcoming presentation? Or FaceTime with a good friend? Or watch a video we’ve been eager to see? We suggest that both internal and external stimuli can heighten or dampen the representations of these candidate goals based on the costs and benefits of each; that is, how much we value that goal, how salient it is to us at that moment, and how easy or hard it will be to achieve.

Those goal representations that are activated more than others or activated beyond a certain threshold are the likely frontrunners to becoming active goals. We view this process as continuous and dynamic, so that goals can recede or come forward from one moment to the next. Yet it would not be adaptive to change course every other moment. Therefore, in this context, it is interesting to think about what sustains goals that require long-term pursuit so that they are not superseded or crowded out by momentary upstarts. Thus, we need to understand

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how people invest longer-term goals with importance (greater representational strength) that lasts, how people create shorter-term, subordinate goals that are rewarding (in themselves and as markers of progress) to keep themselves on track toward the longer-term goals, and how other self-regulatory processes might help people to keep pursuing important longer-term goals even in the absence of more immediate rewards or obvious progress.

Are we saying that motivation is mostly about factors that are internal to the person? Many motivational processes, being psychological, can be considered internal, but contexts and environments are also critical. They not only shape people’s motivation over time and in the moment, but also are key to the success of people’s goal pursuits. In a recent study with a nationally representative sample, Yeager and his colleagues (2020, 2022; see also Yeager et al., 2019) examined the effects of a motivational intervention for US students making the difficult transition to high school. The intervention taught students a growth mindset: the idea that their intelligence is not fixed and that they can grow their brains and develop their academic and intellectual abilities. The program also included exercises in which students considered how they could put a growth mindset into practice in their schoolwork.

We found meaningful effects of the intervention on math grades for students whose math teachers held more of a growth mindset, but, interestingly, not for students whose math teachers held more of a fixed mindset. This was true even though students from both

contexts showed equal enthusiasm for the concept and equal desire to put it into action right after the intervention sessions. These findings suggest that teachers with more of a growth mindset created an environment in which students’ new or enhanced growth mindset beliefs and behaviors could be put into practice, take root, and turn into higher grades, whereas teachers with more of a fixed mindset did not. That is, when supportive practices or opportunities were lacking, enhanced motivation to pursue challenges and persist in the face of difficulty could not be sustained.

What Is the Scope of Motivation?

Is all behavior motivated? We propose that virtually all voluntary behavior is motivated. It is at some level chosen, initiated, pursued, and terminated (see, e.g., Kruglanski & Szumowska, 2020). It is at some level goal-directed no matter how trivial that goal may seem, such as shifting one’s position for a different proprioceptive or sensory experience.

However, not all motivated behavior is about overt actions. As we noted, motivated behavior is aimed at bringing us closer to a desired state. As such, our definition of behavior is broad—it can include changes in attention, perception, thoughts, and emotions, and it need not always involve overt actions. For example, imagine that we’re running late for work when our young child shatters a jar of jam all over the kitchen floor. Our initial response may be anger, but that conflicts with the goal of being a calm and supportive parent. In that context, we can bring ourselves closer to this desired state through “cognitive reappraisal” of the situation. Here, we can reappraise our child’s action as an attempt to be helpful or more grown-up by getting their own breakfast jam from the refrigerator. Research shows that such motivated efforts to regulate our emotions have a very wide scope indeed (Uusberg et al., 2019). For example, a recent large-scale study of more than 20,000 participants from 87 countries found evidence that people can effectively reduce negative