Motivational profiles of medical students: Association with study effort, academic performance and exhaustion

Abstract

BackgroundStudents enter the medical study with internally generated motives like genuine interest (intrinsic motivation) and/or externally generated motives like parental pressure or desire for status or prestige (controlled motivation). According to Self-determination theory (SDT), students could differ in their study effort, academic performance and adjustment to the study depending on the endorsement of intrinsic motivation versus controlled motivation. The objectives of this study were to generate motivational profiles of medical students using combinations of high or low intrinsic and controlled motivation and test whether different motivational profiles are associated with different study outcomes.MethodsParticipating students (N = 844) from University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands, were classified to different subgroups through K-means cluster analysis using intrinsic and controlled motivation scores. Cluster membership was used as an independent variable to assess differences in study strategies, self-study hours, academic performance and exhaustion from study.ResultsFour clusters were obtained: High Intrinsic High Controlled (HIHC), Low Intrinsic High Controlled (LIHC), High Intrinsic Low Controlled (HILC), and Low Intrinsic Low Controlled (LILC). HIHC profile, including the students who are interest + status motivated, constituted 25.2% of the population (N = 213). HILC profile, including interest-motivated students, constituted 26.1% of the population (N = 220). LIHC profile, including status-motivated students, constituted 31.8% of the population (N = 268). LILC profile, including students who have a low-motivation and are neither interest nor status motivated, constituted 16.9% of the population (N = 143). Interest-motivated students (HILC) had significantly more deep study strategy (p < 0.001) and self-study hours (p < 0.05), higher GPAs (p < 0.001) and lower exhaustion (p < 0.001) than status-motivated (LIHC) and low-motivation (LILC) students.ConclusionsThe interest-motivated profile of medical students (HILC) is associated with good study hours, deep study strategy, good academic performance and low exhaustion from study. The interest + status motivated profile (HIHC) was also found to be associated with a good learning profile, except that students with this profile showed higher surface strategy. Low-motivation (LILC) and status-motivated profiles (LIHC) were associated with the least desirable learning behaviours.

Motivational Profiles of Medical Students of Nepalese Army Institute of Health Sciences

“…However, there was no significant difference between the genders in the controlled motivation group. This is in contrast to the study done by Kusurkar et al 10 where intrinsic motivation was found to be statistically not significant, while males had significantly more controlled motivation than the females. Study done among the Swiss medical students found that women plan their career more purposefully than men.…”

“…However it was quite different compared to low motivation (LILC) and status motivation (LIHC). This finding was similar with the study done by Vansteenkiste et al 20 along with Kusurkar et al 10 thus supporting the study findings from this study.…”

“…Similarly study done by Kursurkar et al in the Dutch students showed interest-motivated students (HILC) had significantly more deep study strategy (p<0.001), self-study hours (p<0.05) and higher GPAs (p<0.001). 10 In another study , Sorbal 19 reflected higher levels of autonomous motivation than controlled motivation. It showed that there is significant association of autonomous motivation with higher levels of meaning orientation, reflection in learning, academic achievement, cross-year peer-tutoring experience, and intention to continue with studies.…”

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Study Process Questionnaire in an Australian osteopathy student population

“…9 By way of example of evaluating teaching and assessment changes, Bevan et al 10 demonstrated that traditional lectures/examinations encouraged surface learning, whilst student-centered workshops/multiple examinations throughout a biochemistry subject encouraged deep learning. With regard to the health professions, there are numerous examples 3,[11][12][13][14][15][16] where the SPQ and it's more recent incarnation, the revised 2 factor version of the SPQ (R-SPQ-2F), 9 have been used. Interested readers are encouraged to explore the summary of learning approaches in Data were entered into Microsoft Excel.…”

It’s Not Just What You Know: The Non-Cognitive Attributes of Great Clinical Teachers

“…5 Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a useful framework with which to consider students' motivation. According to this framework, the motivation to learn is driven by 3 psychological needs: a sense of relatedness, a sense of autonomy, and a sense of competence.…”