28 Mar Self-Enhancing Motivations

Assignment: Self-Enhancing Motivations

Personality traits affect motivation in that traits determine the different values that people place on incentives. People differ in personality traits and this helps to understand why they are motivated by different incentives and goals. The development of a self-concept depends on gaining knowledge about oneself and one’s traits. Motivation regarding self-knowledge involves self-enhancement, which refers to the desire to learn positive things about the self. For example, a person would like to learn that she is good, moral, attractive, pleasant, and capable (Deckers, 2010). Cross-cultural researchers have explored the ways in which self and identity are determined by cultural values and beliefs. In the study that you read about, the researchers examined to what extent self-perceptions of personal strengths and weaknesses may be influenced by cultural emphasis on either self-enhancement or self-criticism. Based on the pattern of the results, the degree to which self-enhancing tendencies are cross-culturally widespread can be understood. The concepts of self-enhancing and self-critical tendencies can also be applied to understanding how personality traits affect motivation and how this varies across cultures.

To prepare for this assignment:

• Review Chapter 9 in your textbook and pay particular attention to the section on how personality traits affect motivation.

• Review pages 382-383 in your text covering the personality trait “grit”.

• View the TED Talk (2013) Angela Lee Duckworth: Grit: The power of passion and perseverance.

• Review the article by Steinmayr, R., Weidinger, A. F., & Wigfield, A. (2018). Does students’ grit predict their school achievement above and beyond their personality, motivation, and engagement?

• Search the Walden library for another research article on grit and academic achievement.

• Take a brief Grit assessment at : https://angeladuckworth.com/grit-scale/

The assignment (1–2 pages):

• Briefly summarize the personality trait of grit; support with the textbook and the TED Talk.

• Describe how  Steinmayr, R., Weidinger, A. F., & Wigfield, A. (2018) explain the relationship between grit and school achievement.

• Summarize what you learned from the article you found on grit and academic achievement.

• Briefly summarize your results on the Grit assessment: What do these results suggest about your grit? Do you think the results accurately reflect how “gritty” you are? Explain your answer and share an example of when you displayed the level of grit found in your assessment.

• Given what you now know about grit and academic achievement, share how you can use this knowledge to help you achieve your academic goals.

• Support your Application Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation.