Developmental Trends: Motivation at Different Ages

Diversity:

• Temperament and culture influence children’s willingness to explore and experiment with their physical environment.
• Attachment security influences children’s willingness to explore.
• Children with disabilities may show less interest in exploration than their nondisabled peers.

Implications:

• Create a predictable, affectionate environment in which children feel comfortable exploring and trying new things.
• Provide new and unusual objects that pique children’s curiosity.
• Identify objects and events that can capture the interest of children with disabilities.

Early Childhood (2–6)

What You Might Observe:

• Preference for small, immediate rewards over larger, delayed ones
• Overconfidence about one’s ability to perform new tasks
• Rapidly changing, situation-dependent interests
• Focus on obtaining the approval of adults more than that of peers
• Focus on mastery (rather than performance) goals
• Little understanding of the likely causes of successes and failures

Diversity:

• Differences in desire for social interaction are evident as early as age 3 or 4.
• Children who begin school without basic knowledge of colors, shapes, letters, or numbers may see obvious differences between their own abilities and those of peers, setting the stage for poor self-efficacy in certain academic domains.
• Learned helplessness occasionally appears as early as age 4 or 5, especially after a history of failure.

Implications:

• Praise (or in some other way reinforce) desired behaviors as soon as they occur.
• Provide a wide variety of potentially interesting toys, puzzles, storybooks, props for dramatic play, and other equipment.
• Provide the guidance and support children need in order to experience success more often than failure.

Middle Childhood (6–10)

What You Might Observe:

• Increasing ability to delay gratification
• Increasing awareness of how one’s performance compares with that of peers; more realistic assessment of abilities
• Increasing prevalence of performance goals
• Increasing distinction between effort and ability as possible causes of success and failure; tendency to attribute successes to hard work

Diversity:

• As a result of low self-efficacy, children with a history of learning problems have less intrinsic motivation to learn academic subject matter.
• Girls who are gifted may be reluctant to do their best because of concerns about appearing unfeminine or surpassing peers.
• Children of color and children with disabilities are more likely to develop learned helplessness about their ability to achieve academic success.

Implications:

• Communicate that with appropriate effort and support, all children can master basic knowledge and skills in academic subject matter.
• Focus children’s attention on the progress they are making, rather than on how their performance compares to that of their peers.
• Stress the importance of learning for the intrinsic pleasure it brings; downplay the importance of grades and other external evaluations.

Early Adolescence (10–14)

What You Might Observe:

• Declining sense of competence, often accompanying the transition to middle school or junior high
• Increasing interest in social activities; increasing concern about gaining approval of peers
• Decline in intrinsic motivation to learn school subject matter; increasing focus on performance goals
• Increasing belief that skill is the result of stable factors (e.g., inherited ability) rather than effort and practice
• Increasing motivation to learn and achieve in stereotypically gender-appropriate domains

Diversity:

• Girls have a stronger desire to interact frequently with peers.
• Some adolescents, girls especially, believe that demonstrating high achievement can interfere with popularity.
• Adolescents from some ethnic groups (e.g., those from many Asian cultures) continue to place high value on adult approval.
• On average, adolescents from lower socioeconomic backgrounds show less interest in academic achievement than those from middle and upper socioeconomic backgrounds.
• Some individuals develop a general sense of learned helplessness about achieving academic success.

Implications:

• Evaluate adolescents on the basis of how well they are achieving instructional objectives, not on how well their performance compares with that of their classmates.
• Assign cooperative group projects that allow adolescents to socialize, display their unique talents, and contribute to the success of the group.
• When youngsters exhibit a pattern of failure, provide the support they need to begin achieving consistent success.

Late Adolescence (14–18)

What You Might Observe:

• Ability to postpone immediate pleasures in order to gain long-term rewards
• Increasing stability of interests and priorities
• Increasing focus on the utilitarian value of activities
• Tendency to attribute successes and failures more to ability than to effort
• Some tentative decisions about career paths

Diversity:

• Girls work harder on school assignments, and are also more likely to graduate, than boys.
• Adolescents from Asian cultures often attribute their successes and failures to effort rather than ability.
• Many teens have career aspirations that are stereotypically gender-appropriate.
• Adolescents from low socioeconomic groups have lower academic aspirations and are at greater risk for dropping out of school.

Implications:

• Point out the relevance of various academic content domains for adolescents’ long-term goals.
• Design assignments in which adolescents apply academic content to real-world adult tasks and problems.
• Allow teens to pursue personal interests within the context of particular academic domains.