Browsing by Subject "motivation"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    The 2007 Tucker Center Research Report: Developing Physically Active Girls: An Evidence-based Multidisciplinary Approach
    (Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, 2007) Kane, Mary Jo; LaVoi, Nicole; Wiese-Bjornstal, Diane; Duncan, Margaret; Nichols, Jeanne; Pettee, Kelley; Ainsworth, Barbara
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    Employee Motives for Engaging in Environmentally Sustainable Behaviors: A Multi-Study Analysis
    (2015-08) Klein, Rachael
    This research examines motives for environmentally sustainable (or “green”) employee behavior. Although individuals’ motives for pro-environmental behavior were previously explored in non-workplace domains, systematic attempts to identify the barriers and motives of employee green behavior are lacking. Thus, the aim of this research is to understand and assess why employees engage in green behavior, build a nomological network around these motive constructs, and explore the implications for how employee green behavior can be best supported given different motivations. These overarching research questions were addressed through a series of studies. First, in Study 1, a taxonomy of motives of and barriers to employee green behaviors was developed through an analysis of critical incident interviews with U.S. employees and then replicated in the U.S. and cross-culturally with a European sample. Sixteen motives and barriers were identified. In Study 2, sex differences in pro-environmental behaviors and its determinants were examined. The meta-analysis included environmental motivation (social responsibility, self-efficacy, expectancy, social norms, lack of knowledge), motivationally-relevant variables (environmental values, concern, commitment, behavioral intentions), environmental attitudes, and informational variables (environmental awareness, environmental knowledge) as well as pro-environmental behaviors (general, avoiding harm, conserving, influencing others, responsible product choices, and taking initiative). Generalizable sex differences were observed, with women more likely to report higher levels of specific environmental concern, greater motivation stemming from social norms, self-efficacy, and social responsibility, and more behaviors aimed at avoiding environmental harm. Men were more likely to have higher levels of environmental knowledge, however this effect seems to be diminishing over time. In the third study, the taxonomy of motives and barriers was used to develop an Environmental Sustainability Motives Scale to assess motives for green behavior performance and omission, as well as ungreen commission and avoidance. Exploratory factor analyses revealed four similarly interpretable factors across these behavioral quadrants: Prosocial, Enabling Capabilities, Extrinsic, and Image motive factors. Examinations of the nomological network of these factors showed differing relationships with how factors related to the Big Five personality factors and facets, sex, and green behavior across behavioral quadrants. The findings in this dissertation highlight the benefits of identifying and being able to measure the motivational determinants and barriers of employee green behavior in promoting environmental sustainability in organizations.
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    Language Use Patterns in a Spanish Immersion Algebra Class: Opportunities, Uptake, and Individual Learner Variables
    (2021-05) Truman, Lauren
    This study examines the language use patterns of students in a math class that is part of a Spanish-English two-way, secondary continuation program. Audio recordings from five class periods were analyzed in order to quantify the opportunities provided for minority language by the teacher, as well as student uptake of those opportunities. This is the first known study to quantify both opportunities and uptake. Additionally, the language use patterns of four focal students were explored. These four students represent the three most common linguistic profiles of DLI students: Spanish home language, English home language, and new-to-the-country. Finally, evidence of motivation and willingness to communicate were described in partial explanation of the language patterns of these four students. Findings indicate that students were given few opportunities for sustained minority language use and student uptake patterns generally reflected this. Additionally, the DLI students in this study tended to use more English than Spanish in the classroom, while the newcomer student spoke almost exclusively in Spanish. Motivation and willingness to communicate were shown to play a significant role in students’ language use patterns. Findings support the need for modifications to the L2 Motivational Self System (L2 MSS) when analyzing the motivation of balanced bilinguals. Pedagogical implications of the study point to a need for activities and interventions that provide increased opportunities for sustained minority language use. Increasing the opportunities for sustained minority language use and sustained uptake of these opportunities are crucial steps in helping secondary DLI programs maintain fidelity to the DLI model and to helping students achieve high levels of bilingualism and biliteracy.
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    Leadership Styles and Physical Environments that Support and Advance Creativity and Innovation in the Workplace
    (2014-12) Kober, Erin
    In order to support the shift from the service economy to the experience economy, organizations must innovate. To create an innovative environment, organizations must motivate, lead and create a space that supports individuals based on organizational goals and the function of work. This customized approach to leadership and office design will encourage collaboration among employees and increase innovation.
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    The Obstacles to Remote Learning for Undergraduate, Graduate, and Professional Students
    (SERU Consortium, University of California - Berkeley and University of Minnesota., 2020-07) Soria, Krista M.; Chirikov, Igor; Jones-White, Daniel
    The vast majority of students at research universities—96% of undergraduate students and 88% of graduate students—experienced at least one obstacle in their transition to remote learning, according to the recent Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium survey of 22,519 undergraduate students and 7,690 graduate and professional students at five public research universities. The biggest obstacle among undergraduate, graduate, and professional students was the lack of motivation for remote learning during the pandemic. Other common obstacles included lack of interaction with other students, inability to learn effectively in an online format, and distracting home environments or lack of access to appropriate study spaces. The obstacles vary by students’ social class background and major/program.
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    Time allocation and meta-cognition: A computational approach towards the organization of motivation
    (2019-01) Mussack, Dominic
    How do people allocate time and effort across tasks? This dissertation takes a computational psychology perspective, and puts forward the theory that motivation solves the meta-cognitive problem of allocating resources to different tasks by computing task priority. Motivation research has previously distinguished between two dissociable components of motivation: directing and energizing. These two components refer to different resources that must be allocated: time and effort. We explore the way humans allocate effort by taking advantage of simple decision making tasks and manipulating either task or background information. We develop a novel method that allows researchers to integrate an array of biometrics that capture how decision processes are modulated. We then extend work from optimal foraging theory to account for human tasks in order to analyze how humans allocate time. We derive various results that match time use behavior across domains. Finally, we apply the structural implications of this theory to make predictions in large scale time use data sets. Humans must often schedule mutually exclusive goals to fulfill mutually exclusive needs, which requires us to allocate time across tasks via a priority computation. Re-framing motivation from a resource allocation perspective, and highlighting the unique problem of time allocation, has implications across human decision making behavior, and we demonstrate its relevance in multiple domains.
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    Volunteer Motivation and Committement at a Sport-Tourism Event
    (Sport Management Graduate Program, 2006) Bang, Hyejin; Eaton, Lois
    The sport-tourism sector rely heavily on volunteer resources to deal with the large number of individuals necessary for organizing and producing sport, tourism, and recreation services. The study contributes the identification of the predictable motivation factors, such as "Interpersonal Contacts", "Career Orientation", "Love of Sport", and "Extrinsic Rewards" of volunteer commitment to the organization.