Psychology B: Individual and Social Development

Abstract on The Mediating Role of Academic Motivation

The study highlights the association between study related (academic) motivation and the Big 5 personality Traits. There are two hypotheses (i.e., testable predictions) testing pertaining to the direction (positive/negative) of relationships between the Big Five personality traits and academic motivation. The hypothesis have focused on making a prediction about which personality traits would be connected to intrinsic motivation(academic). The other hypothesis have focused on making prediction about which personality traits would be related with extrinsic motivation(academic). Within this, the study also predicts which direction (negative or positive) the relationship will be. To test these hypotheses (and to answer the research question), the paper includes ten correlational analyses to see if there were any relationships between the variable combinations. The hypothesis is based on prior research question. There is a significant role of statistics in psychology. Correlational analyses were completed in this study to find the relationship between academic related motivation and selected personality domains. The result shows that there is a significant statistical positive association between intrinsic motivation and the traits- openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness. There is significant negative relationship between extrinsic motivation and the traits- conscientiousness and agreeableness. However, there is significant positive relationship between extrinsic motivation and neuroticism.

Table of Contents

Results.

Discussion.

References.

Results of The Mediating Role of Academic Motivation

To assess if there was a relationship between academic related motivation and selected personality domains, ten bivariate correlational analyses were completed.

Intrinsic Motivation and the Big 5 Personality Traits:

A significant positive and weak relationship between intrinsic motivation and openness to experience was found with r equal to 0.141 and p less than 0.001, representing 2% shared variance between the variables.

A significant positive and weak relationship between intrinsic motivation and conscientiousness was found with r equal to 0.271 and p equal to 0.041, representing 7% shared variance between the variables.

A significant positive and weak relationship between intrinsic motivation and extraversion was found, with r equal to 0.124 and p equal to .011, representing 2% shared variance between the variables.

A significant positive and weak relationship between intrinsic motivation and agreeableness was found, with r equal to 0.119 and p less than 0.001, representing 1% shared variance between the variables.

Extrinsic motivation and the Big 5 Personality Traits:

A significant negative and weak relationship between extrinsic motivation and conscientiousness was found, with r equal to -0.224 and p less than 0.001, representing 5% shared variance between the variables.

A significant negative and weak relationship between extrinsic motivation and agreeableness was found with r equal to -0.118 and p less than 0.001, representing 1% shared variance between the variables.

A significant positive and weak relationship between extrinsic motivation and neuroticism was found, with r equal to 0.147 and p less than 0.001 representing 2% shared variance between the variables.

No significant relationships were found between intrinsic motivation and neuroticism, extrinsic motivation and openness to experience and extrinsic motivation and extraversion.

Table 1.

Correlation Matrix Between Personality Traits and Academic Motivation (Intrinsic and Extrinsic)

Variable

2

3

4

5

6

7

1. Intrinsic motivation

.26

.14**

 0.27*

0.12*

0.12**

0.15

2. Extrinsic motivation

-.05

-0.22**

-0.13

-0.12**

0.15**

3. Openness to experience

0.33*

0.51*

0.42

-0.06

4. Conscientiousness

0.31

0.18**

-0.18

5. Extraversion

0.58

 0.51*

6. Agreeableness

       

0.18**

7. Neuroticism

           

N = 1444, * significant at p<.05, ** significant at p<.001

Discussion on The Mediating Role of Academic Motivation

In this study, there is a reason why statistics and psychology is used together. With the help of statistics the data can be organised and summarised in a well ordered manner. The researcher would find what the result of the study is and could communicate results in a standard way to others. Statistics help the analysts to answer the general questions and to determine the conclusions that are justified based on the results.

There are two hypotheses (i.e., testable predictions) testing pertaining to the direction (positive/negative) of relationships between the Big Five personality traits and academic motivation. The first hypothesis is using intrinsic motivation and the other is using extrinsic motivation. We have tested the hypotheses and the following interpretation could be made.

Pearson correlation coefficient tells us the direction and strength of relationship between two variables. The researcher runs the correlation test to understand the linear relationship between two variables. Firstly, the correlation result tells us the value of correlation coefficient which tells us the nature of relationship that exists between the two variables. If it is negative value, then the nature of the relationship is negative between the variables and if it is a positive value, then the nature of relationship is positive. Table 1 shows the correlation matrix. It is observed that intrinsic motivation has a positive relation with openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness. This means when one variable increases, the other also increases. However, there is a negative relationship between extrinsic motivation and traits- conscientiousness and agreeableness. This means if one variable increases the other variable decreases. The strength of the relationship (value of r) is weak because all the values of correlation coefficient are below 0.3.

Secondly, the p value tells whether the correlation coefficient is significant or not. P value tells whether the correlation coefficient is significant or not. If p value is more than 0.05, then we cannot say there is a statistical significant relationship between the two variables and then it is likely that the relationship occurred by chance. If p value is less than 0.05, then there is a significant statistical relationship between two variables and it is unlikely that the findings occurred by chance. P value tells whether the relationship is legit and if there exists a meaningful relationship between the two variables. The relationship is highly significant when the p value is less than 0.001. This is seen in the relationship between intrinsic motivation and the traits- openness to experience and agreeableness. This highly significant relationship is also observed in the relationship between extrinsic motivation and the traits- conscientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism.

Thirdly, the shared variance tells the percentage of overlap between the two variables. The study finds out how the one variable is associated with the other variable. The percentage in terms of relation, that is, one variable is associated with the other variable is shared variance. The highest percentage of 7% overlap is seen between intrinsic motivation and conscientiousness. This is followed by 5% association between extrinsic motivation and conscientiousness.

One of the limitation of the study is that the sample collected for the analysis is not large enough. If the sample is large, then the result could be generalised instead of being specific to a particular group of students. Also, the relationship between motivation and personality traits in the study is weak.

References for The Mediating Role of Academic Motivation

Ariani, D. (2017). Why am I burnout and engaged? The role of motivation and personality. Journal of Psychological and Educational Research (JPER)25(2), 61-89.

Klobas, J. E., McGill, T. J., Moghavvemi, S., & Paramanathan, T. (2018). Compulsive YouTube usage: A comparison of use motivation and personality effects. Computers in Human Behavior87, 129-139.

Moltafet, G. (2020). Direct and Indirect Effect of Personality Traits on Hope: The Mediating Role of Academic Motivation. International Journal of Behavioral Sciences13(4), 167-172.

Raza, S. A., & Shah, N. (2017). Influence of the Big Five personality traits on academic motivation among higher education students: Evidence from developing nation.

Schober, P., Boer, C., & Schwarte, L. A. (2018). Correlation coefficients: appropriate use and interpretation. Anesthesia & Analgesia126(5), 1763-1768.

Volk, M. I., & Savelieva, D. I. (2017). Interrelation of Flow Experience with Intrinsic Motivation and Personality Traits in Students. RUDN Journal of Psychology and Pedagogics14(4), 427-439.

Zeigler-Hill, V., & Hobbs, K. A. (2017). The darker aspects of motivation: Pathological personality traits and the fundamental social motives. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology36(2), 87-107.

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