Research

Optimal motivation, which includes both performance at a competent level and the experience of task interest occurs when many factors come together. Professor Durik's research rests on the assumption that the only way to really understand optimal motivation is to consider the myriad of factors that must align in order for it to emerge.

She has focused on how social/situational, personal, and developmental factors directly and interactively affect optimal motivation in complex ways. She and her colleagues (Britt, Rouet, and Durik, 2018) have outlined a model for conceptualizing how individuals engage in tasks that attempts to bridge the gap between the external context and the internal task goals that individuals value in a given situation. The theorized mechanism that links the environment and internal valued goals are individuals' mental representations of the context (their perceptions of resources, self-competence, skills, barriers, etc.), and their representations of the task itself (what the task affords, requires and constrains).

According to the model, these mental representations directly impact the goals that individuals adopt and the values with which they are imbued. This model helps to explain why interventions designed to test the effects of interventions on task motivation have complex effects between the person and the environment.

Varied effects of interventions

When I began work on task interest I had assumed (incorrectly) that the effects of task features proposed to facilitate interest (e.g., novelty, surprise, meaningfulness) would have positive effects on task interest in general. However, the patterns of effects were more complex (see review in Durik, Hulleman, and Harackiewicz, 2015). Rather than there being a one-to-one correspondence between experimentally manipulated task features and interest in the task, the effect was interactive (Durik and Harackiewicz, 2007; Durik, Shechter, Noh, Rozek, and Harackiewicz, 2015; Matarazzo, Durik and Delaney, 2010). The superficial features of tasks tended to raise interest only for those who were otherwise unmotivated, and the deeper, value-based interventions that we tested tended to raise interest only for those who were already motivated. Similarly, these effects also varied by culture (Shechter, Durik, Miyamoto, and Harackiewicz, 2011), suggesting that the individual's representation of the context mattered, because individuals’ evaluations of their experience and of the tasks varied.

Consistent correlations over time

In contrast, the correlational evidence that I have accumulated examining goals and interest across time revealed more direct associations (see review by Durik, Lindeman, and Coley, 2017). Specifically, those who entered a given task situation with pre-existing interest in the task, set goals to learn, perceived value in both the situation and in what they were doing, and performed well (Harackiewicz, Durik, Barron, Linnenbrink-Garcia, and Tauer, 2008). Similarly, college students who began college with a learning and mastery focus had a more deliberate path toward course taking, possibly because their learning goals were guiding them toward their area of interest (Durik, Lovejoy, and Johnson, 2009).

Similar patterns emerge when perceived task values are examined in relation to task engagement and interest (Lindeman and Durik, in press). Children as young as fourth grade who recognized the value of reading were more likely to engage in literacy-related activities in high school (e.g., reading for fun, taking elective language arts courses; Durik, Vida, and Eccles, 2006). Moreover, we showed similar relationships among values and task engagement in other types of activities over a shorter period of time (Hulleman, Durik, Schweigert, and Harackiewicz, 2008).

The effects that have emerged with regard to correlational research largely relies on individuals’ perceptions of themselves and their behaviors over time. This pattern of consistency may be a consequence of the relatively stable and coherent representation of tasks and domains that individuals develop and carry with them over time.

Variables that shape representations of tasks

It is helpful to apply the notion of task representations to the varied effects of interventions in order to better understand how individuals encounter tasks, and either internalize, eschew, or simply fail to notice their affordances.

For example, self-perceptions of competence as well as knowledge, skills, and abilities emerged as critical factors in predicting how individuals interpret and experience tasks. Not surprisingly, the abilities that individuals bring to tasks were positively related to their performance (Britt, Kopp, Durik, Blaum, and Hastings, 2016), and their willingness to take on challenge (Durik and Matarazzo, 2009). In line with this, when tasks are presented as being useful, individuals who perceive themselves to be more competent are more likely to be challenged and excited by the potential utility, but not those who feel less competent (Durik et al., 2015). This prompted researchers to consider other ways of encouraging perceived utility in tasks. One approach that has been found to help people with lower competence expectations was to prompt them to develop their own reasons for why a task would be useful (see review by Durik, et al., 2015). Then again, this approach also has its limits: younger adolescents may be too young to reap the benefits of this intervention (Durik, Schwartz, Schmidt, and Shumow, 2018), and educators may show reverse effects if they ask for too many examples of how a task could be useful (Lindeman and Durik, in press).

All of these variations can be interpreted in the model outlined in our recent book (Britt et al., 2018). Specifically, the task context can be represented in many ways, which may have direct implications on what people find interesting and how they perform. A final area of research that makes this explicit is research showing that social categories, such as gender, play a role in individuals’ goals and value for achievement tasks. My research on gender and achievement choices and experiences is a small part of this large corpus of research in this area (e.g., Lindeman, Durik, and Dooley, in press; Watt, Eccles, and Durik, 2006; Watt, Shapka, Morris, Durik, Keating, and Eccles, 2012).

amanda durik

Contact

Amanda Durik
Department of Psychology
Psychology/Computer Science Building 414
815-753-7069
adurik@niu.edu
Curriculum Vitae