Expectancy Beliefs Theory

Main Motivational Patterns

Expectancy theory looked at students ability to succeed based on different beliefs they develop about their ability due to their experiences. Do they possess a good sense of self efficacy or develop learned helplessness? Where do these even began?

Background

Seligman's Dogs

In a experiment done by Steven F. Maier and Martin Seligman, a group of dogs were condtioned to believe they would receive a inescapable shock when they heard a specific tone. Later in the experiement, this group and a group of dogs that had not been classically trained in this way were put in a box that had a electrical floor on one side and a regular one on the other. The group that had not been trained learned after each round of receiving the shock to progressively get better at avoiding it, i.e, going to the non electric floor side. The group that got the inescapable shock believed there was no way to escape it and each round would not try to escape to the shockless floor but lay on the electric floor and wimper. They developed learned helplessness and did not try to to find a way out due to repeated shocks prior. This could easily translate into learning.

When an organism has gone through trauma/setback/failure, they are less likely to not have the motivation/grit/ability to overcome/work through those experiences as they reappear.

Learned helplessness is when a student will stop trying to avoid a adverse outcome based on their past experiences. They have learned that there is no reason to try becuase they think the results will always be the same.

Overview

Mindset Theory

Fixed- Intellectual ability is set at birth. Ability is not able to be further devopled.

Leads to a student potentially giving up too early on in the process of something becuase if they are not amazing at the task or subject at the start they dont see themselves improving.

Growth- Intelligence and abilities can be developed through effort and learning.

Leads to a student understanding that there needs to be a willingness to experience failure and setback and use that to improve. This students will embrace challenges and view them as oppurtunities to grow.

(https://learningandexperienceblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/dweck07.pdf )

Why this matters?

Based on a student's mindset they will attribute their success and faliures to certain causes (Attribution theory) and they will be more likely to develop a specific sense of Self-Efficacy. Seen in chart above!

Attribution Theory

This theory looks at the different reasons people give for success or failure. This is broken down in 3 causal dimensions. Locus, whether its internal or external. Controllability, whether success or failure is due to something within ones control, controlable, or whether the sucess of failure is due to something beyond ones control, uncontrolable. Lastly, stability, which looks at whether the cause of success or failure could easily change, unstable, or if its not likely to change anytime soon, stable (Graham, S., & Taylor, A. Z. (2022). The power of asking why?: Attribution retraining programs for the classroom teacher. Theory Into Practice, 61(1), 5-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2021.1932160 ).

Attribution Theory in Action:

A student fails their spelling test.

Response 1 (Internal, uncontrolable, stable)

I fail becuase I am just bad at spelling.

Internal because its within themselves, uncontrolable becuase they believe they have no power or influence over being bad at spelling, and stable becuase "I am just bad" is implying a fixed state, likely not changing anytime soon.

Response 2 (External, uncontrolable, unstable)

The teacher put words on the test that were way harder than our vocab list, thats why I failed.

External becuase outside of person they are attributing this to their teacher, uncontrolable becuase they didnt have a say of what words were put on the test and unstable becuase the words on the test change week to week, this is a one time event.

Response 3 (Internal, controlable, unstable)

I did not set up enough time to study this week and thats why I didnt get the score I wanted.

Internal becuase its within the person, controlable they are responsible for the amount of time they set aside to study, and unstable becuase they can alter the amount of time they set moving foward.

Self-Efficacy

The personal belief one has in their ability to succeed. This describes one's confidence and influnces everything froms goals to learning. Its more specific than general confidence, it looks more into ones belief in their capacity in a specific area. Its their expectation for success in the future.

High self-efficacy means students will be more willing to push themselves and be more able to create deeper meaning and have higher acquisition when it comes to learning.
- - EX: A student gets a D on a exam, they decide to look over their answered, tweak their study habits making a mental note to allow for more time studying, and works to get a better grade on the next test.
Low self-efficacy within students looks like lower level goals set/achievement, avoidance when it comes to learning tasks, and overall not finding joy in learning due to lack in self belief when it comes to success.
- - EX: A student starts on a diffcult math problem, after 5 minutes of just rereading it they shut their computer and say, ''I cant do this." instead of trying to write it out or seek out help.

(https://sites.google.com/view/calvinproject/project-details?authuser=0 )

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