CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN MOTIVATION TO LEARN (Kulturalis kulonbsegek a tanulasi motivacioban)

• Authors: Gordon-Gyori Janos
• Languages of publication: HU

Abstracts

EN

As it was proven by a number of researches, learning motivations are cultural constructs. This article is reviewing some of the special cultural differences between the Euro-American and East-Asian culture in this field. East-Asian students have a less consistent self-concept and lower self-esteem than their Western peers have; however - despite the expectations based on Western constructs of motivation theory - their achievement is not influenced by these factors negatively. This fact shows that learning achievement and the previous factors are relatively independent in case of East-Asian students. In their achievement attribution East-Asian students tend to put a stronger stress on the importance of effort than on the importance of abilities; ability is rather a flexible entity according to their opinion. Furthermore, they connect their explanations on their achievement to their social context; their explanations are less individualistic then their Western peers' explanations. In case of East-Asian students, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are less separable than in case of the Euro-American students. Multiple goal theory has a better explanatory value in East-Asian students' case compared to the Western students. Without overcoming the traditional dichotomy of the Western notion of intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, it is impossible to describe East-Asian students' motivational patterns. Also, social loafing as a typical response to group situations in the classroom is less evident among East-Asian students. All these examples prove that traditional Western approach to learning motivation is not sufficient to explain the East-Asian students' pattern in learning motivation, so it is seriously important to change on the ethnocentricism of the traditional Western approach in this field in time of globalization.

Keywords

EN

ATTRIBUTION; CULTURAL DIFFERENCES; INTRINSIC/EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION; MOTIVATION; MULTIPLE GOAL THEORY; SELF-CONCEPT; SOCIAL LOAFING

Discipline

• PSYCHOLOGY: PSYCHOLOGY

• Publisher: Hungarian Association for Psychology
• Journal: Magyar Pszichologiai Szemle (Hungarian Psychological Review)
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 64
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 293-228
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Gordon-Gyori Janos

• Janos Gordon-Gyori, no address given, contact the journal editor

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

10HUAAAA07417