Expectancy Value Theory of Achievement Motivation

1 Contemporary Educational Psychology25,68 81 (2000) , available online at onExpectancy Value Theory of Achievement MotivationAllan WigfieldUniversity of MarylandandJacquelynne S. EcclesUniversity of MichiganWe discuss the Expectancy Value Theory of Motivation , focusing on an expec-tancy Value model developed and researched by Eccles, Wigfield, and their col-leagues. Definitions of crucial constructs in the model, including ability beliefs,expectancies for success, and the components of subjective task values, are pro-vided. These definitions are compared to those of related constructs, including self-efficacy, intrinsic and extrinsic Motivation , and interest. Research is revieweddealing with two issues: (1) change in children s and adolescents ability beliefs,expectancies for success, and subjective values, and (2) relations of children s andadolescents ability- Expectancy beliefs and subjective task values to their perfor-mance and choice of activities.

2 2000 Academic PressAchievement Motivation theorists attempt to explain people s choice ofachievement tasks, persistence on those tasks, vigor in carrying them out,and performance on them (Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998; Pintrich &Schunk, 1996). As discussed by Murphy and Alexander (this issue), thereare a variety of constructs posited by Motivation theorists to explain howmotivation influences choice, persistence, and performance. One long-stand-ing perspective on Motivation is Expectancy Value Theory . Theorists in thistradition argue that individuals choice, persistence, and performance can beexplained by their beliefs about how well they will do on the activity andthe extent to which they Value the activity (Atkinson, 1957; Eccles et al.)

3 ,1983; Wigfield, 1994; Wigfield & Eccles, 1992). In this article we discussthe nature of the Expectancy and Value constructs, how they develop, andPortions of this paper were presented at the 1998 meeting of the American EducationalResearch Association in a symposium entitled A Motivated Look at Motivation Terminol-ogy (Patricia Alexander, Organizer). The writing of this article was supported in part byGrant HD-17553 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human reprint requests to Dr. Allan Wigfield, Department of Human Development, Uni-versity of Maryland, College of Education, College Park, MD $ 2000 by Academic PressAll rights of reproduction in any form THEORY69 FIG.

4 , Wigfield, and colleagues Expectancy Value model of Achievement they relate to children s and adolescents performance and choice. Wefocus on the Expectancy Value model developed and assessed by Eccles,Wigfield, and their colleagues (Eccles, 1984; Eccles et al., 1983; Wigfield,1994; Wigfield & Eccles, 1992).Eccles et al. (1983) proposed an Expectancy Value model of achievementperformance and choice and studied it initially in the mathematics achieve-ment domain. The most recent statement of this model is presented in ; the overall model is presented to provide a sense of its scope. We focusin this article on a portion of the model; specifically, the constructs containedin the expectancies and subjective task values boxes, along with some of theconstructs in the box containing goals and self-schemata.

5 As can be seen inthe figure, expectancies and values are assumed to influence directly achieve-ment choices. They also influence performance, effort, and persistence. Ex-pectancies and values are assumed to be influenced by task-specific beliefssuch as ability beliefs, the perceived difficulty of different tasks, and individ-uals goals, self-schema, and affective memories. These social cognitive vari-ables, in turn, are influenced by individuals perceptions of their own previ-ous experiences and a variety of socialization influences (see Eccles et al.,1983, Eccles et al., 1998, and Wigfield & Eccles 1992 for discussion of theseinfluences).70 WIGFIELD AND ECCLESTABLE 1 Items Used to Assess Children s Ability Beliefs and Subjective Task ValuesAbility Beliefs Items1.

6 How good in math are you? (not at all goodvery good)2. If you were to list all the students in your class from the worst to the best in math,where would you put yourself ? (one of the worst one of the best)3. Some kids are better in one subject than in another. For example, you might be betterin math than in reading. Compared to most of your other school subjects, how goodare you in math? (a lot worse in math than in other subjectsa lot better in maththan in other subjects) Expectancy Items4. How well do you expect to do in math this year? (not at all well very well)5. How good would you be at learning something new in math? (not at all goodverygood)Usefulness, Importance, and Interest Items1. Some things that you learn in school help you do things better outside of class, thatis, they are useful.

7 For example, learning about plants might help you grow a general, how useful is what you learn in math? (not at all usefulvery useful)2. Compared to most of your other activities, how useful is what you learn in math?(not at all useful very useful)3. For me, being good in math is (not at all important very important)4. Compared to most of your other activities, how important is it for you to be good atmath? (not at all importantvery important)5. In general, I find working on math assignments (very boring very interesting [fun])6. How much do you like doing math? (not at allvery much)Defining the constructs in models of Motivation is an important goal ofthis special issue. Eccles et al. (1983) defined and measured expectanciesfor success as children s beliefs about how well they will do on upcomingtasks, either in the immediate or longer term future.

8 Ability beliefs are de-fined as the individual s perception of his or her current competence at agiven activity. Ability beliefs thus are distinguished conceptually from ex-pectancies for success, with ability beliefs focused on present ability andexpectancies focused on the future. However, empirically these constructsare highly related (see Eccles & Wigfield, 1995; Eccles et al., 1993; thisissue is discussed in more detail later). The items we use to measure theseconstructs appear in Table 1; items from the mathematics domain are usedas examples. As can be seen we primarily have measured these two beliefsat the domain-specific level, although we occasionally have asked about spe-cific activities within different definitions can be compared to those of related constructs in theliterature.

9 Bandura (1997) included expectancies in his discussion of self-efficacy. He distinguished between efficacy expectations, or the individual sbelief that he or she can accomplish a task, and outcome expectancies, orEXPECTANCY- Value THEORY71the belief that a given action will lead to a given outcome (see also Pajares,1996). He argued that Expectancy Value theorists historically have focusedon outcome expectations in their models, and stated further that efficacyexpectations are more predictive of performance and choice than are out-come expectations. We would not argue with his claim that efficacy expecta-tions are more strongly predictive of performance and choice. However, wewould argue that in our work we have measured individuals own expecta-tions for success, rather than their outcome expectations.

10 Thus our expec-tancy construct is more similar to Bandura s efficacy expectation constructthan it is to the outcome Expectancy about one s ability play a prominent role in different motivationtheories. A complete review of these theories is outside the scope of thisarticle (see Eccles et al., 1998 and Pintrich & Schunk, 1996, for reviews),but we briefly discuss definitions of the ability construct in various motiva-tion and self-concept theories. In his attribution Theory , Weiner (1985) pro-posed that individuals viewed ability as a relatively stable characteristic overwhich they had little control. He argued that attributions made to ability(and lack of ability) have important motivational consequences.