1. Attribution Theory: Attribution Theory focuses on achievement outcomes such as ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck with three causal dimensions: locus of control, stability (the having self-assurance to complete a task), and controllability. This theory is motivated by achievement and its relationship to external and internal dimensions, leaning more towards intrapersonal control and how it affects external goals. 

2. Mindset Theory: the ability to have a malleable (shown as resilience) or strict mindset (which can be exhibited as learned helplessness) when it comes to completing a certain goal as it relates to effort and ability. Resilience is defined as “good outcomes despite serious threats to adaptation or development” (Masten, 2001, p. 228). On the other side of the coin is learned helplessness, which is a disconnect of one's ability and their motivation to complete a certain task. Resilience is using the difficulty of a task as motivation, while learned helplessness is the lack of motivation through a negative and often untrue perception of skill and ability. 

3. Modern Expectancy Value Theory: characterized by that the higher the expectation of success for a certain task, the more value is placed on said task. It "links achievement performance, persistence, and choice most directly to individuals’ expectancy-related and task-value beliefs." This can manifest into four different components: attainment value, intrinsic value, utility value, and cost. Attainment Values focuses on the personal importance of doing a task well and how the completion of the task relates to one’s actual or ideal self-schema (identity.)  Intrinsic Values are the enjoyment an individual gets through performing the task or the intrinsic motivation given from the task. Utility values mean that a person is motivated because completing the task will benefit their future goals. Finally, cost is the mental and emotional factors sacrificed to complete a certain task. 

Cause of Main Motivational Patterns: 

• Attribution Theory: 

If we attribute success or failure to internal locus, we are the originators of what happens rather than pawns controlled by outside forces. We use attribution because attribution of success to internal locus (ability, effort) results in increased self esteem. Attribution of failure to internal locus results in shame (lack of ability) or guilt (lack of effort). 

• Mindset Theory: 

Mindset theory focuses on the ability to have a malleable or strict mindset when it comes to completing a certain goal as it relates to effort and ability. Often students are motivated based on the mindsets they hold as well as the ways in which their teacher interacts with them. The wrong kind of praise can create self-defeating behavior whereas the right kind can motivate students to learn. Praise is intricately connected to how students view their intelligence. Some students believe that their intellectual ability is a fixed trait. Students with this fixed mind-set become concerned with how smart they are, seeking tasks that will prove their intelligence and avoiding ones that might not (Dweck, 2007). Other students believe that their intellectual ability is something they can develop through effort and education. The fixed and growth mindsets create two different psychological worlds. In the fixed mind-set, students care first and foremost about how they'll be judged: smart or not smart. Repeatedly, students with this mind-set reject opportunities to learn if they might make mistakes (Hong, Chiu, Dweck, Lin, &r Wan, 1999; Mueller & Dweck, 1998). When they do make mistakes, rather than correct them, they try to hide them (Nussbaum & Dweck, 2007). They are also afraid of effort because effort makes them feel dumb. They believe that if you have the ability, you shouldn't need effort. Overall, the cause of students mindset relates to the praise they receive as well as the concern they have to appear unintelligent. 

-Learned Helplessness: 

The term learned helplessness refers to the learning or perception of independence between one's behaviors and the presentation and/or withdrawal of aversive events. Learned helplessness occurs when a person does not perform the response required to succeed, even if they are motivated to do so or are fully capable of doing so. Children most likely to give up in the face of failure when compared to students that are less likely to give up in the face of failure (a) took less personal responsibility for the successes and failures they met with and (b) to the extent that they did take responsibility, tended to attribute the outcomes of their behavior to their ability to complete a task rather than to the effort they put into the task (Dweck, 2007). Overall, the more helpless a child feels they will place significantly less emphasis on the amount of effort exerted as a determinant of success and failure than students that are less likely to give up in the face of failure. This implies that since helpless children see themselves as less instrumental in determining outcomes, they would be less likely to view adverse circumstances as surmountable.

• Modern Expectancy Value Theory: 

Expectancies and values are assumed to directly influence performance, persistence, and task choice. They also are assumed to be influenced by task-specific beliefs such as perceptions of competence, perceptions of the difficulty of different tasks, and individuals’ goals and self-schema. These social cognitive variables, in turn, are caused by individuals’ perceptions of other peoples’ attitudes and expectations for them, by their affective memories, and by their own interpretations of their previous achievement outcomes (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002). 

• • Attainment Values: Attainment value is the personal importance of doing well on a task. 

  • Intrinsic Values: Intrinsic value is the enjoyment the individual gets from performing the activity or the subjective interest the individual has in the subject. 

  • Utility Values: Utility value is determined by how well a task relates to current and future goals. 

(Eccles & Wigdfield, 2002).