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Makenna and Julia
Why Calvin Has These Motivational Patterns
We see throughout several strips and in different environments that Calvin has a performance goal mindset. We see that the reason for this differs from each strip and he's faced with several pressures that cause him to also feel pressure and fear of being a failure. He has these patterns because he isn't encouraged by his teacher, peers, or his father. In a few of the strips we see that Calvin's dad puts a lot of pressure on Calvin to do well but this only causes Calvin to create more performance avoidant goals and to perform more negatively because he's only focused on doing better than his classmates and he focuses on doing well on tests and assignments. This also causes him to dislike school and feel unmotivated to do well in school.
It should also be noted that Calvin is aware of his intelligence. This affects his desire to complete schoolwork because he sees it as unnecessary and beneath him.
The cause of Calvin's learning outside of school is based on his own curiosity toward something he finds interesting.
We also see that he is motivated by the grades as shown in "Calvin in the Classroom ", in the strip it shows that the teacher is "lowering his self-esteem" by saying that he should work harder to get better grades which then is shown in the "Calvin does Homework" strip where he says that he could possibly get a point for originality. Together, these strips show that Calvin is motivated and sets his self-esteem based on grades and whether he can get a good grade for doing more or for being original in this case.
In this strip from "Calvin in the Classroom," we see that the little girl who sits next to him is discussing their report cards. Calvin is depicted panicking about his grades. We can see that he doesn't like doing the work but feels stressed or anxious about getting bad grades. The little girl doesn't help this much by calling him a dummy and making him feel bad for not knowing that the report cards are grades and that he was being graded on his work.
This comic strip shows a more free-form sports game. This allows Calvin to express himself in any way he sees fit; this is an example of a mastery-goal approach. The driving force behind this motivational pattern is pure interest and excitement. Calvin doesn't have to worry about following the rules or going out of his way to impress anyone. Calvin and Hobbes have been friends for so long that they feel comfortable just being themselves. Mastery-goal fosters deeper engagement and positive affect, leading to increased interest and enthusiasm.
In this strip from "Calvin with Peers", Calvin is being bullied by his classmate, which could be a reason as to why he may not be motivated enough at school and it shows one of the reasons that he's made mostly performance goals instead of making mastery goals. He wants to do better than his peers and in this one he's being bullied for not doing well which can also contribute to his performance avoidance goal mindset.
In this scene from "Calvin Talks with Dad", we see that Calvin is getting yelled at for not doing well on a test, and he does an amnesia bit to try to get his dad off his back. This is an example of performance avoidance, where Calvin's lack of interest causes him to disregard studying. However, Calvin's dad introduces negative reinforcement, which doesn't seem to impact his son in the way he wants. All of this can feed into these motivational patterns of not wanting to do work or not liking school in general.
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