Motivation And Agency

What place does motivation have in the lives of intelligent agents? Mele's answer is sensitive to the concerns of philosophers of mind and moral philosophers and informed by empirical work. He offers a distinctive, comprehensive, attractive view of human agency. This book stands boldly at the intersection of philosophy of mind, moral philosophy, and metaphysics.

Can we rely on the altruism of professionals or the public service ethos to deliver good quality health and education services? And how should patients, parents, and pupils behave - as grateful recipients or active consumers? This book provides new answers to these questions - a milestone in the analysis and development of public policy, from one of the leading thinkers in the field. It provides a new perspective on policy design, emphasising the importance of analysing the motivation of professionals and others who work within the public sector, and both their and public service beneficiaries' capacity for agency or independent action. It argues that the conventional assumption that public sector professionals are public-spirited altruists or 'knights' is misplaced; but so is the alternative that they are all, in David Hume's terminology, 'knaves' or self-interested egoists. We also must not assume that individual citizens are passive recipients of public services (pawns); but nor can they be untrammelled sovereigns with unrestricted choices over services and resources (queens). Instead, policies must be designed so as to give the proper balance of motivation and agency. The book illustrates how this can be done by detailed empirical examination of recent policies in health services, education, social security and taxation. It puts forwards proposals for policy reform, several of which either originated with the author or with which he has been closely associated: universal capital or 'demogrants', discriminating vouchers, matching grants for pensions and for long-term care, and hypothecated taxes.

What is motivation, and what is its place in the lives of intelligent agents? This is Mele's guiding question. His search for an answer is sensitive to the theoretical concerns of philosophers of mind and action and moral philosophers, and is informed by empirical work in psychology.

This volume provides a precise and comprehensive description of human motivation. Drawing on psychology, education and management, Ford integrates classic and contemporary motivation theory into a unified framework - Motivational Systems Theory - from which he derives 17 principles for motivating people. The book provides concrete examples throughout and includes a chapter on practical applications such as: promoting social responsibility in young people; increasing motivation for learning and school achievement; increasing work productivity and job satisfaction; and helping people lead emotionally healthy lives.

This resource provides an action plan for understanding what a student knows and how to build from it. It shows teachers how to integrate formative assessment, student metacognition, and motivational strategies to make goal setting an integral instructional strategy. It weaves research and case studies with practical strategies to demonstrate how goal setting, with clear learning intentions and scaffolded teacher support, can lead to high learning growth and student agency.

"Through the use of qualitative research methods, the authors explore the complex, contingent and dynamic nature of motivation, identity and autonomy --- both for language learners and teachers --- in many different parts of the world. Importantly, they also look for relationships among the three constructs. This is precisely the integrative approach that should be encouraged as we seek to understand the lived experience of individuals."---Diane Larsen-Freeman, University of Michigan, USA --

This third edition provides translations of all chapters of the most recent fifth German edition of Motivation and Action, including several entirely new chapters. It provides comprehensive coverage of the history of motivation, and introduces up-to-date theories and new research findings. Early sections provide a broad introduction to, and deep understanding of, the field of motivation psychology, mapping out different perspectives and research traditions. Subsequent chapters examine major themes of human motivation, including achievement, affiliation, and power motivation as well as the fundamentals of motivation psychology, such as motivated and goal oriented behaviors, implicit and explicit motives, and the regulation of development. In addition, the book discusses the roles of motivation in three practical fields: school and college, the workplace, and sports. Topics featured in this text include: Social Relationships and its effects on sexual or intimacy motivation. Conscious and unconscious motivators of behavior. Drives and incentives in the fields of achievement, intimacy, sociability and power. How the biochemistry and structures of our brain shapes motivated behavior. How to engage in intentional goal-directed behavior. The potential and limits of motivation and self-direction in shaping our lives. Motivation and Action, Third Edition, is a must-have resource for undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers in the fields of motivation psychology, cognitive psychology, and social psychology, as well as personality psychology and agency. About the Editor: Jutta Heckhausen is the daughter of Heinz Heckhausen, who published "Motivation and Action” as a monograph in 1980 and who died in 1988 just before the 2nd edition came out. Dr. Heckhausen received her Ph.D. in 1985 from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow with a dissertation about early mother-child interaction, and did her Habilitation in 1996 at the Free University of Berlin with a monograph about developmental regulation in adulthood. Dr. Heckhausen worked for many years at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, conducting research about the role of motivation in lifespan development. She is currently a professor of psychology at the University of California, Irvine.

In what ways do individuals influence the course of their lives? How do people construct a unique life path within the opportunities and constraints afforded by their world? This volume examines how agency in the life course can be conceptualized and investigates the specific ways in which personal characteristics and contextual variables play a role in shaping individual lives. The contributors offer differing perspectives on agency, how its expression changes over a lifetime, and how it is constrained, channeled, or altered by cultural and social institutions. Each chapter focuses on one aspect of individual agency that can have a cumulative influence on an individual's life. Following an overview of the subject by Lisa J. Crockett, Jochen BrandtstÜdter and Klaus Rothermund provide a life-span model of agency focused on "intentional self-development" and goal accommodation. Ellen Skinner and Kathleen Edge discuss the development of coping, a potential underpinning of agency. In a concluding essay, Michael J. Shanahan and Glen H. Elder Jr. examine agency within a life-course framework, showing that the impact of individual agency on people's lives depends on the opportunities and constraints present during a particular historical era.