Motivational profile: Understanding academic performance as a criterion of cost, expectancy for success and task value

• Main Author: De La Paz, Gail G.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2019
• Subjects: Prediction of scholastic success; Academic achievement; Educational Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/1430; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2482&context=etd_doctoral
• Institution: De La Salle University

The current study determined how task effort cost, emotion cost, loss of valued alternatives, outside effort cost, social cost, economic cost and sunk cost along with expectancy for success and task value created a criterion-related profile associated with higher academic performance. A sequential explanatory mixed-method study, it utilized the survey method for the quantitative phase and multiple case studies for the qualitative phase. From a total of 226 survey participants, nine were selected for the case studies. Findings revealed three significant criterion-related factors, namely expectancy for success, task value and sunk cost. Relationships for the first two confirmed hypothesized direction while the last one illustrated an inverse connection. Case studies illustrate real-life examples of the quantitative findings. Results are discussed in light of the expectancy-value-cost theory and existing studies. The study has implications on the nuances of the construct of cost, on pedagogic relevance, and on school and counseling psychology.