Poster #14 - An Expectancy Value Cost Analysis of the Factors Impacting the Drive to Complete Grad School

• In Event: 31.094 - MTCC Poster Session Six
  In Poster Session: 31.094-6 - Relation of Beliefs, Goals, Emotions, and Educational Interventions to Academic Outcomes

Abstract

This multiphasic mixed-methods study distils the complex and dynamic motivational forces of completing a university graduate degree into an Expectancy-Value-Cost model. EVT identifies that the motivation to complete tasks like completing a graduate degree involves balancing the expectancies and the perceived values of the task against the perceived costs. Participants were pragmatic and tended to report their confidence being prefaced on past successes like success in classes, publications, and being accepted at conferences. Participants reported that the main perceived costs that they identified were pressure, and loss of valued alternatives. This study shows specific areas where program administrators could focus their energies for two goals building expectancies and value, while seeking and mitigating costs to promote graduate student completion.

Authors

• Eleftherios Kyprianos Soleas, Queen's University

• Nadia S. Arghash, Queen's University

• Anoushka Moucessian, Queen's University - Kingston

• Heather Coe-Nesbitt, Queen's University

• Rylan G Egan, Queen's University - Kingston