Topic
Motivation research, explained
16 open-access motivation studies, each with a flashcard deck and a quiz.
- Measuring what makes social interactions enjoyable
Researchers developed and validated a 23-item questionnaire that measures six distinct types of social reward, showing that different people find different social experiences pleasurable.
- Can gaming keep physical balance exercises fun over time?
Adding game elements to balance and walking exercises increases enjoyment and helps prevent it from declining over time, but it does not directly improve movement speed or precision.
- What keeps people from sticking to exercise programs?
People who start exercising hoping to socialize are more likely to stick with it long-term, while those expecting immediate pleasure are more likely to quit.
- Is individual coaching better than group training?
Individual coaching is highly satisfying and superior for achieving personal goals, while group training is better for gaining knowledge, and self-coaching is largely ineffective on its own.
- How supportive coaches affect young athletes' well-being
When youth soccer coaches support their players' independence and choices, it boosts the players' psychological needs and enjoyment, which keeps their energy levels high even into the following season with a different coach.
- How Enjoying Exercise Keeps Teen Boys Active
Feeling good during moderate exercise encourages teen boys to stay active by boosting their internal motivation to work out.
- Does believing you can read well predict reading skill?
Children who were more confident in their reading ability were better at reading words aloud, even after accounting for their memory, vocabulary and sound-awareness skills, but their confidence did not predict how well they understood what they read.
- Do unconscious needs affect stress and extreme fatigue?
Unconscious needs for connection and achievement do not directly cause exhaustion, but they change how men seek social support and cope with specific life stressors.
- Does motivation drive workaholism, or the other way round?
Workers whose basic psychological needs were met became more intrinsically motivated over time, but workaholism and engagement shaped later motivation rather than being caused by it.
- How did remote learning during COVID-19 affect student motivation?
Emergency online learning decreased students' self-driven motivation and feelings of social connection, though overall energy levels remained surprisingly stable for experienced students.
- How do mindsets and goals shape maths motivation in lower-stream students?
Among lower-stream Singapore students, believing intelligence can grow went with aiming to master maths, which in turn went with more interest and higher test scores, while goals about avoiding failure went with worse outcomes.
- Does wanting to grow or to look competent change how you learn?
Aiming to improve yourself went with enjoying a task, while trying not to look incompetent went with both lower enjoyment and lower exam scores.
- Does believing you can get smarter improve maths grades?
Students' belief that intelligence can grow did not directly predict their later maths scores, but it was linked to scores indirectly through enjoying maths, owning their failures, feeling capable and feeling less anxious.
- Does a tolerant leader raise work engagement?
Among 435 public-health staff, leader tolerance predicted work engagement (β=0.377) both directly and via a POS → organizational-identification chain.
- Does exercise relate to college students’ academic engagement?
Among 1,596 non-PE students, exercise correlated modestly with academic engagement (r=0.207) and self-efficacy (r=0.218); self-efficacy strongly tracked engagement (r=0.811) and mediated ~85% of the exercise–engagement link.
- Does teacher support boost high-school English engagement?
Among 314 Chinese senior high school students, perceived English-teacher support predicted engagement both directly and through motivation, with a larger path via intrinsic than extrinsic motivation.