Local dominance effects on self-evaluations and intrinsic motivation

Previous research indicates that local comparisons with one or a few people in the immediate environment have a stronger influence on self-evaluations than general comparisons with larger samples. Two studies examined whether this local dominance effect extends to intrinsic motivation. Study 1 suggests that local comparisons have a stronger effect on both self-evaluations and task enjoyment than general comparisons. Study 2 suggests that local comparisons have a stronger effect on intrinsic motivation than general comparisons and that local comparisons have a significant indirect effect on persistence via intrinsic motivation. Altogether, the present findings are among the first to demonstrate the contribution of local social comparisons to intrinsic motivation. We highlight the implications of these findings for social comparison theories.     

Competitively Contingent Rewards and Intrinsic Motivation: Can Losers Remain Motivated?

We explored the effects on intrinsic motivation and ego-involved persistence of winning versus losing a competitively contingent reward and, for losers, the additional effects of receiving either positive performance feedback or performance-contingent rewards. Winners were more intrinsically motivated than losers. Losers given an explicit normative standard who received positive feedback for meeting the standard were more intrinsically motivated than losers who did not receive the additional standard and feedback. Losers who received a performance-contingent reward for reaching the same explicit standard displayed less intrinsic motivation behaviorally assessed than did losers who got positive feedback, but the two groups did not differ on self-reported enjoyment. Effects on enjoyment were mediated by perceived competence, but effects on free-choice behavior were not. People who lost the competition showed more ego-involved persistence than people who won or did not compete.     

Instrumental Values – Strong and Weak

What does it mean that an object has instrumental value? While some writers seem to think it means that the object bears a value, and that instrumental value accordingly is a kind of value, other writers seem to think that the object is not a value bearer but is only what is conducive to something of value. Contrary to what is the general view among philosophers of value, I argue that if instrumental value is a kind of value, then it is a kind of extrinsic final value.     

La motivation et son ancrage utilitaire/désirable dans l’évaluation

Motivation has an important place among the personal characteristics that professional assessors take in account. A first study shows that different professionals do not choose the same criteria to assess motivation and also shows that normative factors affect their judgement. Then a series of studies focuses on the valorization of intrinsic motivation and on the anchoring in utility / desirability of this attribution of value. It appears that, compared with extrinsically motivated applicants, intrinsically motivated applicants are rather described by judges with desirable traits than with utility traits. This result is found as well with professionals and non professional respondents. So it seems that the valorization of intrinsic motivation would be more anchored in desirability than in utility, which is a difference with the norm of internality that is clearly anchored in utility.     

Intrinsic reading motivation of Chinese preschoolers and its relationships with home literacy

The relationship between intrinsic motivation and home literacy of preschoolers was explored. One hundred and seventy-seven preschool children (3.8 to 6.6 years old) in Mainland China and one of the parents who primarily took care of each child participated in the study. Six indicators were considered as a measure of home literacy. Results showed that after controlling for parents' education level and children's age, three home literacy indicators-parental model of reading behaviour, number of books, and years of character teaching-could explain children's intrinsic reading motivation. Contrary to previous Western studies, Chinese children's freedom of book choice was not related to their intrinsic reading motivation. Results are discussed in the context of culture differences.     

金融危机背景下家庭社会地位对大三学生择业动机的影响：社会支配倾向的中介作用

以504名来自5所高校三年级大学本科生为被试,采用问卷法收集数据,探讨了家庭社会地位对大学生择业动机的影响。结果表明：（1）家庭社会地位对大学生内部择业动机具有显著的预测作用,家庭社会地位越高,内部择业动机越强;（2）社会支配倾向对家庭社会地位与内部择业动机之间的关系起中介作用,家庭社会地位通过社会支配倾向对内部择业动机产生间接影响;（3）未发现家庭社会地位、社会支配倾向与外部择业动机之间的显著相关。     

Can the West Save the East? Intrinsic Value and the Foundation of Chinese Environmental Ethics

Intrinsic value in nature is a key concept in professional environmental ethics literature in the West. Western scholars such as Holmes Rolston III and Paul Taylor argue that the philosophical foundation of environmental ethics should be based on the concept of intrinsic value in nature. Influenced by this concept, some influential Chinese environmental ethics scholars such as Yu Mouchang and Lu Feng argue that the foundation of environmental ethics in China should be based on the concept of intrinsic value in nature. This paper holds that the metaphysical, epistemological and ethical meaning of intrinsic value in nature is the legacy of Western philosophical traditions, which is in conflict with the Chinese philosophical traditions. Meanwile, the paper argues that the Daoist conception of living in harmony with nature can become the foundation for Chinese environmental ethics. The Daoist conception of living in harmony with nature is based on aesthetic appreciation of nature and people’s participation in the beauty of nature.     

企业员工工作动机的结构研究

本研究利用问卷调查的方法 ,探讨了我国企业员工工作动机的结构及其特征 ,结果发现我国企业员工的工作动机可以概括为追求胜任取向、外在报酬取向、他人评价取向、自我决定取向与良好关系取向五个因素。所得到的五因素模型较内部动机、外部动机两维模型更加具体、全面地反映了工作动机的内容。企业员工工作动机的取向与性别、受教育水平等因素有关。研究得到了《企业员工工作动机取向量表》 ,该量表共 38个项目 ,具有较好的信度与效度。     

The Influence of Positive Affect on Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: Facilitating Enjoyment of Play,Responsible Work Behavior,and Self-Control

Two experiments demonstrated that positive affect fosters intrinsic motivation, as reflected by choice of activity in a free-choice situation and by rated amount of enjoyment of a novel and challenging task, but also promotes responsible work behavior in a situation where the work needs to be done. Where there was work that needed to be done, people in the positive-affect condition reduced their time on the enjoyable task, successfully completed the work task, but also spent time on the more enjoyable task. These results indicate that positive affect does foster intrinsic motivation, and enjoyment and performance of enjoyable tasks, but not at the cost of responsible work behavior on an uninteresting task that needs to be done. Implications for the relationship between positive affect and such aspects of self-regulation as forward-looking thinking and self-control are discussed.

Index for Volume 24

In this article, the development of the increasingly differentiated control of the joints necessary to transform the spontaneous leg movements of early infancy into adaptive and functional actions is described. The hypothesis—that increasing joint control requires the capability for disassociation of joint action, the active modulation of joint stiffness, and a transition from proximal to distal control of the joints—is proposed. Kinematic and kinetic analyses of the vertical kicks of infants 2 weeks, 3 months, and 7 months of age (as well as a comparative group of adults) indicated increasing joint independence as well as phase-dependent and joint-dependent control modifications. The kicks of the younger infants were dominated by a proximal control strategy and minimal adjustments of the limb energetics during the flexion and extension phases of the kick. By 7 months of age, much larger modulations of the kick phases were observed as well as increasing evidence of distal control. These results revealed kinematic and kinetic patterns of emerging limb control between 2 weeks and 7 months of age.