Role of Perceived Cost in Students' Academic Motivation and Achievement

• In Event: Extending the Expectancy-Value Model: Definitions and Functions of Cost in Students' Choice, Engagement, and Performance

Abstract

Theoretical framework

In the learning context, cost has most frequently been discussed under the expectancy-value framework (Eccles et al., 1983). The expectancy-value model is one of the most influential frameworks that have been used to investigate students’ academic-related choice and achievement. The model differentiates among positively valenced intrinsic (or interest), attainment, and utility value and negatively valenced cost of engaging in a task. Cost can be conceptualized as the negative aspects of task engagement, including negative appraisals of the effort required to complete the task (effort cost), forgone opportunities of engaging in other valued tasks (opportunity cost), ego threats associated with potential failure (ego cost), and negative affective perceptions associated with task engagement (emotional cost). Compared to the three positive task values that have been extensively investigated, the role of cost in the learning context has scarcely been explored.

Objectives

The objectives of this research were three-fold. The first was to clarify the structure of perceived cost. The second objective was to test the relationship between perceived cost and task value. Finally, the unique role of perceived cost in students’ academic motivation and achievement was examined.

Methods

Surveys assessing perceived cost, task value, and other motivation constructs were administered to a total of 848 adolescent students in two independent studies. Six-hundred and thirty-seven students (294 eighth graders and 343 eleventh graders) participated in Study 1 and 211 eight graders participated in Study 2 (data were collected in three time points across a half of the semester). All study variables demonstrated good reliability (s ≥ .78).

Results

We found that cost is a construct that stands independently of task value. Students also differentiated between four types of cost. Contrary to task value, which is closely related to the “bright” side of academic functioning, perceived cost was closely related to its “dark” side. In particular, ego cost and emotional cost emerged as the two strongest predictors of maladaptive academic functioning, including test anxiety, disorganization, procrastination, and negative classroom affect. Moreover, ego cost was found to relate closely to performance-avoidance goals, which subsequently led to disengagement in the classroom as well as avoidance intentions. Emotional cost directly related to avoidance intentions. Effort cost also related to maladaptive academic functioning such as test anxiety and disorganization. Furthermore, effort cost directly and negatively predicted academic achievement. Opportunity cost, on the other hand, proved less powerful when examined alongside the other three types of cost.

Significance

Findings of the present study nicely complement and extend the expectancy-value framework by demonstrating that perceived cost is independent of task value and can effectively predict students’ maladaptive academic functioning even in the presence of expectancy and task value constructs. To fully capture the pattern underlying students’ academic behavior, we suggest that the expectancy-value model be revised by specifying cost as a major motivational component that interacts with both expectancy and task value.

Authors

• Yi Jiang, Korea University

• Sung-Il Kim, Korea University

• Mimi Bong, Korea University