Motivational profiles of medical students: Association with study effort, academic performance and exhaustion
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 19 June 2013
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in BMC Medical Education
- Vol. 13 (1), 87-8
- https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-13-87
Abstract
Students enter the medical study with internally generated motives like genuine interest (intrinsic motivation) and/or externally generated motives like parental pressure or desire for status or prestige (controlled motivation). According to Self-determination theory (SDT), students could differ in their study effort, academic performance and adjustment to the study depending on the endorsement of intrinsic motivation versus controlled motivation. The objectives of this study were to generate motivational profiles of medical students using combinations of high or low intrinsic and controlled motivation and test whether different motivational profiles are associated with different study outcomes. Participating students (N = 844) from University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands, were classified to different subgroups through K-means cluster analysis using intrinsic and controlled motivation scores. Cluster membership was used as an independent variable to assess differences in study strategies, self-study hours, academic performance and exhaustion from study. Four clusters were obtained: High Intrinsic High Controlled (HIHC), Low Intrinsic High Controlled (LIHC), High Intrinsic Low Controlled (HILC), and Low Intrinsic Low Controlled (LILC). HIHC profile, including the students who are interest + status motivated, constituted 25.2% of the population (N = 213). HILC profile, including interest-motivated students, constituted 26.1% of the population (N = 220). LIHC profile, including status-motivated students, constituted 31.8% of the population (N = 268). LILC profile, including students who have a low-motivation and are neither interest nor status motivated, constituted 16.9% of the population (N = 143). Interest-motivated students (HILC) had significantly more deep study strategy (p < 0.001) and self-study hours (p < 0.05), higher GPAs (p < 0.001) and lower exhaustion (p < 0.001) than status-motivated (LIHC) and low-motivation (LILC) students. The interest-motivated profile of medical students (HILC) is associated with good study hours, deep study strategy, good academic performance and low exhaustion from study. The interest + status motivated profile (HIHC) was also found to be associated with a good learning profile, except that students with this profile showed higher surface strategy. Low-motivation (LILC) and status-motivated profiles (LIHC) were associated with the least desirable learning behaviours.This publication has 36 references indexed in Scilit:
- How motivation affects academic performance: a structural equation modelling analysisAdvances in Health Sciences Education, 2012
- Motivation as an independent and a dependent variable in medical education: A review of the literatureMedical Teacher, 2011
- Validity evidence for the measurement of the strength of motivation for medical schoolAdvances in Health Sciences Education, 2010
- Effects of age, gender and educational background on strength of motivation for medical schoolAdvances in Health Sciences Education, 2009
- What kind of motivation drives medical students' learning quests?Medical Education, 2004
- Graduate entry to medical school? Testing some assumptionsMedical Education, 2004
- Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being.American Psychologist, 2000
- Self-determination and persistence in a real-life setting: Toward a motivational model of high school dropout.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1997
- Influence of motivational and demographic factors on performance in the medical course: a prospective studyMedical Education, 1994
- On the Assessment of Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Amotivation in Education: Evidence on the Concurrent and Construct Validity of the Academic Motivation ScaleEducational and Psychological Measurement, 1993