This booklet was devised to help Hispanic teenagers develop a life plan. It provides information for making decisions, and is written in both English and Spanish. Tips are provided for setting goals. A sentence-completion task helps the teenager focus on specific issues, and use concrete language when talking about the goals. Specific goals are…

Hope is defined as the process of thinking about one's goals, along with the motivation to move toward those goals and the ways to achieve them. After discussing other related concepts, the scale for measuring hope is introduced, and the role of hope in the counseling process is described. (Author/JPS)

This report compares two approaches to incentive motivation in 82 college juniors and seniors, average age 21 years. One method uses will as a motivator; the other method focuses on skill or effective strategy use for enhancing recall and understanding of a particular body of information. In the first approach, a semiweekly test or spotquiz was…

Three studies were conducted to determine if goal striving level was related to accurate self-knowledge. The purpose of the research was to determine if the tendency of high strivers to confront stressful stimuli extends to self-evaluation processes. Three experiments were designed to investigate whether high strivers differ from low strivers in…

This booklet synthesizes principles of motivation that have emerged from research examining the effect of motivational practices on school learning. It addresses achievement motivation, intrinsic motivation, goal orientation, and the effect of teacher practices on the promotion of motivational beliefs, motivation strategies, and willpower. It also…

This article presents a theoretically grounded model of motivation and self-regulation that places personally valued future goals at its core. We attempt to integrate two lines of theorizing and research that have been relatively independent of one another: the social-cognitive perspective on self-regulation (e.g., Bandura, A., 1986) and theories…

Self-regulation, the systematic effort to direct thoughts, feelings, and actions towards the attainment of one's goals, is receiving importance in the psychological and educational literatures. Goals are involved across the different phases of self-regulation, first as forethought, then in performance control, and finally in self-regulation. This…

Explores perfectionism in gifted students and argues that perfectionism needs to be appreciated as a two-edged sword that has the potential for propelling an individual toward unparalleled greatness or plummeting one into despair. Hints for coping with perfectionism in oneself and in gifted students are provided. (Author/CR)

Critical thinking has important implications for classic learning issues such as transfer of knowledge and application of problem-solving skills to novel situations. The goal of this study was to identify some of the important correlates of critical thinking, in terms of motivation, use of cognitive learning strategies, and classroom experiences.…

Two studies examined the potential of analysis of motivational content in private speech to sustain a Vygotskian hypothesis on the goal-forming process in achievement motivation. In the first study, 30 preschoolers and first-graders were observed 3 times during a school year while they worked in the classroom. The relative incidence of child…

Summarizes 35 years of empirical research on goal-setting theory, describing core findings of the theory, mechanisms by which goals operate, moderators of goal effects, the relation of goals and satisfaction, and the role of goals as mediators of incentives. Explains the external validity and practical significance of goal setting theory,…

Ponders the very different lives of two successful businessmen who were considered school failures at age 14. Attributes their success in life to their ability to control impulsivity and substitute thoughtful planning for immediate gratification. As three experiments demonstrate, success depends on challenging oneself and exerting positive control…

Tested on preschoolers a goal-confidence model for older children that predicts achievement behavior during failure. Found that individual differences in achievement goals emerge very early. Children appeared to have developed a mechanism for selecting learning opportunities prior to formal school experience. (AA)

The concept of student motivation is discussed, with applications for facilitating competence development in special and remedial education. Consideration is given to 4 prerequisites to competence development, historical obstacles to motivational interventions, motivational systems theory (MST), and 17 MST principles for motivating students. (SW)

Correlates of help-seeking by college students were examined in 3 studies involving a total of 1,539 students. Evidence from all three studies supports the view that help-seeking in college is an achievement-related, rather than a dependent, behavior. Active learners were more likely to seek help when needed. (SLD)