This series is designed to reflect current research and theory concerned with motivation and achievement in work, school and play. Each volume focuses on a particular issue or theme and the series has a special goal of bringing the best in social science to bear on socially significant problems. The focus of this volume is on emerging trends. The areas covered include self-efficacy research, social motivation, motivation and health and motivation in physical activity.

The chapters in this volume address how different contexts and environments can facilitate or constrain the motivation of individuals. Motivational theory has tended to focus on internal psychological processes, but the chapters in this volume remind us that contextual factors are also very important contributors to motivation and achievement. The chapters address the role of context in educational settings including both classroom and school analyses, family contexts, work settings, personal and social contexts, as well as cross-cultural analyses of motivation in non-Western contexts.

For nearly two decades, this series has reflected and chronicled the interests, insights, findings and concerns of motivational researchers. This volume is unique in that it grew out of a conference honoring a major contributor to the motivational literature, Carol Midgley. Yet, it too reflects the richness and variety that exists across motivation research today. While the authors tend to work within a goal theory perspective, they reflect concerns with the range of questions that interest motivation researchers more broadly. True to the tradition established by Carol Midgley, the chapters...

Considerable evidence indicates that religion is a motivational force in the lives of most of the world's population, and recent social and political events have placed religion center stage. Motivation is considered an essential component of any adequate answer to the question, Why religion? That question concerned early psychologists, such as Freud and James, but was relatively neglected with the ascendancy of behaviorism. It has since regained momentum as an important area of research and scholarship. In spite of the fact that motivational principles are implicit in many analytical...

Suitable for motivation researchers, this volume presents social-psychological approaches to the study of motivation and achievement, and chapters that cover a broad range of topics, from the influence of peers to the influence of color, on motivation and achievement.

Presents social-psychological approaches to the study of motivation and achievement. This work covers a range of topics, from the influence of peers to the influence of color, on motivation and achievement. It is suitable for motivation researchers.