Motivation, Achievement, and Situated Expectancy-Value Theory

Jacquelynne S. Eccles, PhD, is Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of California, Irvine, and the McKeachie–Pintrich Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Psychology and Education at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on achievement, motivation, personal and social identities, gender, and the influence of family and school on student motivation. Dr. Eccles is past president of Divisions 7 (Developmental Psychology) and 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women) of the American Psychological Association and of the Society for Research on Adolescence. An elected member of the National Academy of Education, she is the recipient of honors including five lifetime achievement awards and three honorary doctorates from Canadian and European universities.Allan Wigfield, PhD, is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the University of Maryland. He has held honorary or guest professorships at the University of Heidelberg and the University of Tübingen in Germany, as well as Korea University. Dr. Wigfield has conducted numerous studies of the development of motivation during childhood and adolescence and of interventions to improve motivation in STEM fields and in reading. Widely published, he is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science; an elected member of the National Academy of Education; and a recipient of numerous research awards.Sandra D. Simpkins, PhD, is Professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and Director of the UCI Center for Afterschool and Summer Excellence. A Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science, she conducts research on positive youth developmental processes, the influence of families and organized activities on youth development, and how these processes vary by social-position factors (such as ethnicity and gender). Dr. Simpkins’s current projects focus on how organized afterschool activities support youths' positive adjustment into adulthood and how families help support adolescents’ STEM motivation, activities, and choices.Fani Lauermann, PhD, is Professor of Empirical Educational Research and Educational Psychology at the University of Bonn, Germany, and affiliate faculty in the Department of Psychology. She is also an Associated Researcher at the Center for Research on Education and School Development at TU Dortmund University and a Research Affiliate with the Gender and Achievement Research Program at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Lauermann’s research examines the development of teacher and student motivation in context, with emphases on STEM and gateway mathematics, teachers’ professional responsibility and competence beliefs, instructional decision making, and teacher–student interactions.

“In this landmark contribution, Eccles, Wigfield, Simpkins, and Lauermann provide a compelling historical review of their influential theory, paired with a grand synthesis of recent theoretical advances and groundbreaking research in motivation. The book represents the culmination of decades of theory-driven research, while highlighting recent developments and charting future directions for the field. Robust scholarship is artfully combined with fascinating personal reflections that make this book both readable and inspiring for graduate students, scientists, and educators.â€--Judith M. Harackiewicz, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin–Madison“As a motivation researcher, this is the book I’ve been hoping for throughout my career. SEVT remains extraordinarily influential for explaining academic achievement and related behaviors, and the authors skillfully weave their personal stories into the theory’s decades-long development. What makes this volume especially strong is its rare combination of accessibility and rigor; it is readable for practicing educators while still offering the depth and scope that advanced undergraduate and graduate students will appreciate. Above all, the book clearly demonstrates SEVT’s broad relevance to research, practice, and policy impacting students, teachers, schools, families, and communities.â€--Eric M. Anderman, PhD, College of Education and Human Ecology, The Ohio State University“A tour de force. This book represents the most comprehensive and intellectually sophisticated treatment of SEVT to date. Eccles, Wigfield, Simpkins, and Lauermann not only synthesize an extraordinary body of research but also push the field forward by embedding motivation firmly within cultural, social, and developmental contexts. The result is a deeply integrative framework that reshapes how we understand achievement-related choices and engagement. This outstanding volume offers profound insights for anyone committed to understanding and improving learning and development.â€--Jens Möller, PhD, Institute for Psychology of Learning and Instruction, Kiel University, Germany-

• 1. The Journey Begins2. Our Stories3. Launching Eccles’ EEVT4. From Eccles’ Expectancy–Value Theory to Situated Expectancy–Value Theory: Why the Name Change?5. Culture Permeates Situated Expectancy–Value Theory6. Person Characteristics and the Development and Enactment of Expectancies, Subjective Task Values, and Activity Choices7. People’s Interpretations of Their Achievement Experiences and Affective Reactions8. Can I Do This? People’s Self-Concepts of Ability, Expectancies for Success, Goals, and Broader Self- and Task Beliefs9. Do I Want to Do This, and Why? Elaborating Our Key Constructs Underlying Subjective Task Values10. The Roles of People’s Expectancies and Subjective Task Values in Making and Enacting Their Achievement-Related Choices11. Family Influences on Youths’ Motivational Beliefs and Outcomes12. An SEVT Perspective on School and Out-of-School Learning Experiences13. Situated Expectancy–Value-Theory-Based Interventions: What We Know and Next Steps14. What Does the Future Hold for Situated Expectancy–Value Theory and the Authors of This Book?Glossary of AbbreviationsReferencesIndex