Catastrophe Concepts in Student Motivation

Abstract

The problem posed by student study-related motivation is addressed. Students do not always appear to conform to a pattern of behaviour which might serve their own best interests, and in order to categorise the predominant overt patterns, a tentative typology of student adjustive behaviour in relation to study is attempted. The basis of the typology is 'delay'. Appropriate aspects of the relevant educational and psychological literature are reviewed in seeking to relate the categories of the typology to a theoretical model, and a pilot study indicates the probable value of certain psychological theories, notably consistency theory, approach-avoidance motivation, and stress or anxiety, in gaining an initial purchase on the nature of study-related schemas developed by students. The apparent congruity between significant adjustive behavioural features of the sample and certain features of the 'cusp' model from catastrophe theory leads to the adoption of the latter as the appropriate source for a unifying model: the main characteristics being hysteresis (delay), bimodality in delay tendency, and sudden behavioural transitions. The design and employment of an instrument concerned with measuring delay tendency and bimodality in the sample is described, and those characteristics are confirmed empirically in the sample in a manner indicating congruity with the catastrophe model. Factor analysis suggests a system of underlying motives, while sudden behavioural transitions are confirmed by means of a ‘tracking diary'. Evidence of stress in the form of self-reported anxiety in the sample is examined, and an illustration is afforded of the relatively aversive nature of academic motivation among delay-avoidant students as compared with the delay-prone. The report concludes with a brief consideration of the implications of the research findings for improved 'tuning' in both course design and academic counselling at the tertiary level