A butterfly catastrophe model of motivation in organizations: academic performance
Article Abstract:
This monograph advances and tests a model proposing that changes in performance levels, rates of absenteeism, and turnover are best described by a nonlinear interactive process that is controlled by the subject's abilities, intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors, and organizational climate variables. In an application to academic performance, changes in grade point average from high school to college were observed for 272 freshmen at a midwestern technical university. Operationalized control variables were American College Test scores plus others selected from the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory. Squared multiple correlation coefficients for the nonlinear (polynomial with ordinary least squares regression) hypothesis ranged from .35 to .70 for various data treatments, which were larger than values obtained for conventional linear hypotheses (.02 to .09). It is argued that (a) the theory subsumes most known motivational effects and ideas and that (b) its predictive superiority in appropriate situations warrants further motivation research of its type, plus explorations of other applications of catastrophe theory in applied psychology. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Applied Psychology
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0021-9010
Year: 1987
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Effect of behavioral modeling on intrinsic motivation and script-related recognition
Article Abstract:
This study was undertaken in order to examine the effects of behavior modeling (intrinsically vs. extrinsicaLly motivated model) and a symbolic rehearsal intervention (presence vs. absence) on intrinsic motivation, task satisfaction, and script-related recognition. A 2 X 2 factorial design was used with 80 male undergraduates as subjects. As predicted, the motivational orientation of the model affected behavioral measures of intrinsic motivation and script-related recognition. It did not affect self-report measures of interest or task satisfaction. Contrary to expectations, the symbolic rehearsal intervention had no effect on these variables. Regression analysis revealed that the intrinsic script-recognition measures explained incremental variance in intrinsic motivation beyond measures of locus of causality and perceived self-competence, suggesting that a script-processing model may add to existing theory. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Applied Psychology
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0021-9010
Year: 1988
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Determinants of academic recognition: the case of the Journal of Applied Psychology
Article Abstract:
The authors explore determinants of academic recognition, reasoning that social scientists' advancement and career success may rest on the recognition recieved for scholarly work. Articles in the Journal of Applied Psychology are classifed by the number and type of their research plots. Research plots, like plots in English literature, represent the basic skeleton of an article, the barebones scientific contribution an article claims to make (e.g., new independent variable explaining variance in an existing dependent variable). The type of research plot an article explores is related in this study to the subsequent recognition an article receives. In contrast, neither number of research plots nor popularity of the subject matter covered in an article independently affected the level of subsequent recognition. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Applied Psychology
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0021-9010
Year: 1993
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