Expectancy Theory Predictions

This is a review of an article I got from Proquest entitled Within-Person Expectancy Theory Predictions of Accounting Students' Motivation to Achieve Academic Success.

The authors are
Harrell, Adrian, Caldwell, Charles, Doty, Edwin. It was taken from The Accounting Review Sarasota: Oct 1985. Vol. 60, Iss. 4, p. 724 (12 pp.)


ISSN / ISBN 00014826
Proquest Document ID 925409
url http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=925409&Fmt=2&clientId=47883&RQT=309&VName=PQD
Abstract

Evidence is presented to support the contention that the force model of expectancy theory (Vroom, 1964) offers a useful conceptual framework for understanding a student's motivation to strive for academic success. Previous studies on this issue have used the methodologically flawed across-persons approach. Here, the within-persons decision modeling approach of Stahl and Harrell (1981) is employed. A total of 77 undergraduate students majoring in accounting voluntarily took part in the study and completed a decision-making exercise. Several important results were obtained: 1. Force model predictions of student motivation are very accurate (R=.85). 2. Increases in the value of expectancy result in declining marginal increases in a student's motivation. 3. A student's motivation to strive for academic success is positively related to the student's actual academic performance. The results have implications for the grading and other policies of accounting educators who want to establish a learning environment that encourages high student motivation.

Review: The article also probes into the question of grading. In my case, this is the most important point in this article. Since I am interested in student motivation, expectancy theory is almost automatically included in my research. Now, the inner workings of the theory presupposes our understanding of the valences of the people we are working with. The reward system that follows from our motivation should be considered - that is, whether they value this or not.

I am reminded of my child's behavior in front of the computer. She plays this activity cd for pre-school, which I bought sometime ago. In that activity, everytime she accomplishes something, she "receives" a train ticket. Now, after four such "tickets", she gets to choose the train destination from a variety of places - ruler land (her favorite), the land of numbers, the land of colors....etc. Now, I recently noticed that everytime she gets a correct answer, she would make this sound midway between crying and exasperation. And I would always ask her, "What's the matter, you got it correct, didn't you?" Worse will happen when she finally receives four of those. I was a little disturbed (I always am, anyway) at this especially since at times, she would deliberately pull a mistake, so I paid attention at what she is doing - she plays on my other computer beside my own computer (she says - this so big for daddy, this small - for baby) . I observed that most of the times, when choosing between the "hiding places" of the mouse, she would choose the wrong one first - "I am hiding behind something that is green", and she would choose the blue one first" before she chooses the correct one. I realized that the reason why she's doing that is because she wants to lengthen her play time. She doesn't want the ticket. She doesn't want the train ride. She wants the enjoyment.

In our case in school, some students would rather just focus on the learning, rather than the grades and the evaluation (testing). But how do we know? We should be focused on the students, and really try to find out - uncover their valences. If we know how to motivate them, then our teaching will be more fun and less exasperating.

Now, in the article at bar, the authors found out that there exists a high correlation between student academic achievement and their motivation to strive for academic success. If a student is motivated to strive for academic success, more likely he/she will have a higher academic achievement - whether measured in grades or other means.