Moving to More Situated Ways of Linking Motivational Beliefs and Sustained Interests

• In Event: How Do Expectancies and Values Affect Interest Development?

Abstract

What are the links between situated, in-the-moment achievement-related, self-relevant beliefs and sustained motivated behavioral engagement in particular topics or activity sets, which might be labelled developed interests? There has been a proliferation of theories and related constructs/measures in the social-cognitive perspectives on motivated interest development. Our own work is grounded in the expectancy X value grand theory of motivated behavior (Eccles et al.,1983; Eccles & Wigfield, 2002; Wigfield & Cambria, 2010). We have identified one set of key social cognitive influences on people’s selection of, and then engagement in, skill-based, achievement-related tasks and activities focused on two fundamental questions (‘Can I do this?’ and ‘Do I want to do this?’). In most cases, we have measured these beliefs as if they were trait like even though we believe they can and do change over time. We have also primarily studied the association of these beliefs at one point in time with subsequent behavioral choices linked to rather stable aspects of behavioral and emotional engagement, even though we believe that these beliefs and behavioral patterns are reciprocally related to each other over time. Finally, we have primarily focused on variable centered and basic additive analytic techniques to model these associations. We believe it is time to for the field to move forward by using more person-centered and complex systems data-analytic techniques to identify how social cognitive beliefs interact with each other over time to motivate and sustain both interest and skill development. We will draw upon our recent factor and person-centered analytic work to both illustrate the problem and model some potential solutions.

In Study 1, for example, we found that well developed interests may be best assessed using a latent construct based simultaneously on several different measures of ability self-concepts, subjective task values and time currently being spent on the task, supporting the idea that well-developed interest is an emergent property of multiple beliefs and behaviors. In Study 2, using factor analyses, we found substantial overlap across theoretical perspectives in the factors that emerged, suggesting that even our notions of the key social cognitive constructs are in need to reexamination. Clearly before the field can work on the ways in which these latent constructs interact with each other at the individual level to influence behavior both at one point in time and over time, more rigorous psychometric work is needed to identify the similarities and differences across theories of motivation and interest.

Finally, drawing upon our own ongoing longitudinal studies (gathered over the last 40 years), we will show how even within Expectancy Value Theory, there are reliable and replicable person-level differences in the ways in which expectancy and subjective task value constructs aggregate to predict well developed interests, college majors and career choices over time, and then change as a person gets more involved with these behavioral sets. We will discuss how these findings illustrate the need for more person-centered and more complex types of analyses to move this area forward in productive ways.

Authors

• Jacquelynne S. Eccles, University of California - Irvine

• Allan L. Wigfield, University of Maryland - College Park