Prisons within the United States contain a large population of inmates with low levels of education. Contributing factors of a successful release from prison have included participation in educational services during incarceration as recidivism rates increase without receiving additional skill sets afforded to inmates. The self-system model of motivational development outlines the relationship between individual factors and outcomes through three components of context, engagement of self, and motivation. A causal-comparative design was utilized within quantitative methodology to find differences in motivational factors between two groups of 105 adult male inmates divided by those serving 0-5 years and those serving more than 5 years. Participants were enrolled in educational programming and given the Prison Education Participation Scale to answer on a 5-point Likert scale as to what degree the survey item influenced individual reasoning for participation in educational programming. While there was no significant difference in means between the two groups surveyed, the results revealed similar outcomes through the order of factors in both groups with Personal Control being the highest mean followed by Cognitive Interest; Self-Preservation; Self-Assertion; then Outside Contact. Implications of research reveal the need to understand oneself and the benefits of participating in educational services during incarceration. Future research may further current research by testing other variables found within the prison population to include surveying those inmates not currently enrolled in educational programming. Participants were limited to adult male inmates incarcerated in Arizona. Incorporating other states, countries, age groups, or genders may also reveal different outcomes. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]