Eccles and Wigfield’s theory of expected value: what is it and what does it propose?

Summary of Eccles and Wigfield's theory of expected value, based on the ideas of J.W. Atkinson. Atkinson.

Can our beliefs about our own competencies influence the final outcome? Motivation and the beliefs we have about our abilities are very important factors to be taken into account in the educational field, since they condition performance and influence subsequent success or failure.

The model that supports this is the expected value theory of Eccles and Wigfielda proposal that has contributed to change the way in which teaching is carried out, being aware that what the student thinks about his own capacity can make him achieve or not master the subject, regardless of whether he really has learning problems or not.

Next we will try to see more in depth this model, what are its main hypotheses, its components and how important it is in the field of education.

What is Eccles and Wigfield's expected value theory?

Eccles and Wigfield's expected value theory, also called expectancy value theory, is a model that has been widely applied in the field of education, implying that it is not only the student's own ability and the study time he or she invests that influences his or her academic success or failure. The idea behind this model is, basically, that there are both expectations and values or beliefs that influence the student's academic success or failure. there are both expectations and values or beliefs that affect our subsequent behavior, i.e., academic performance.that is, academic performance.

The antecedents of this theory can be found in John William Atkinson, who in the 1950s and 1960s put forward the ideas that would be the precursors to the theory presented by Eccles and Wigfield.

Atkinson knew that achievement motivation, i.e., how motivated the individual was to achieve the goal that the environment or he himself had set, influenced performance itself, regardless of how good or bad he was or was not.Atkinson knew that achievement motivation, i.e., how well or poorly the individual was objectively doing the tasks that led to that achievement.

In the 1980s, Jacquelynne Eccles applied this idea to the field of education, considering as "achievement" any aspect of academic life that the school curriculum considered necessary to be learned. His expected value theory, formulated in collaboration with Allan Wigfield, argues that student achievement and choices related to final performance are determined by two main factors: expectations of success and subjective task values.

When we speak of "expectations" we refer to the individual's confidence in his or her own ability to be successful in performing a given task and to achieve the goal after doing it. and achieve the objective after doing it. As for the "subjective values of the task" we refer to the personal value that the person attributes to that task, i.e., whether he/she considers it important, useful or pleasant or, on the contrary, considers it a waste of time, of no importance in his/her academic life or very heavy and boring.

According to Eccles and Wigfield's research, expectations and values interact with each other to predict important results in the individual's behavior, especially in aspects such as commitment, continued interest or persistence, and academic performance. Depending on how good he or she considers him or herself to be and how motivated he or she is to do the tasks, the person will be more or less committed, will perform better or will want to do the task voluntarily.

It has also been seen that other factors can influence a person's motivation and performance when performing an academic task. Among these we can find demographic characteristics (e.g., different socioeconomic status), stereotypes (e.g., men good at math, women good at language), previous experiences (e.g., men good at math, women good at language), and the person's motivation and performance (e.g., men good at math, women good at language). e.g., I failed the first math midterm so the rest will not go better) and perceptions of others' beliefs and behaviors.

Expectations

Going further into expectations, we can define them as the specific beliefs that people have regarding whether they will succeed in doing and completing certain tasks that they will do in the future, both immediately and in the long term. In other words, are beliefs about how well or how poorly a task will be done in the future, and these beliefs influence how well or how poorly a task will be done in the future.These beliefs influence their decision making and associated behaviors.

For example, let's imagine a high school student who thinks he is not good at taking multiple-choice tests. He knows that next week he has one of these tests and thinks he will not do well, even though he has not yet passed. As he thinks he is going to do badly on the day of the exam, he performs poorly, makes more mistakes and does not read all the questions well, so he gets a bad grade. The bad grade is not because he did not study, but simply because he convinced himself that he was going to do poorly on the test, which is what happened.

Expectations about future success or failure are closely related to two concepts related to the individual's own way of seeing oneself: self-concept and self-efficacy.

On the one hand, self-concept, related to Eccles and Wigfield's expected value theory, involves the beliefs one has about one's own self-concept and self-efficacy. the beliefs one has about one's own abilities in relation to certain goals, in this case educational ones.in this case, educational goals. In the previous example, the person has a self-concept of being bad at test-type exams, so when it is his turn to answer one of them, as he underestimates his real ability, he performs worse.

Self-efficacy is similar to self-concept but with certain nuances. This idea involves one's beliefs about one's own abilities and competencies but in terms of performance rather than in terms of one's own way of being. That is, it does not think in terms of "I am bad at ..." but rather "my abilities at ... are bad", being more subject-specific.

For example, we may be high school students who are convinced that our abilities in mathematics are very bad but very good in natural science. So, in mathematics we expect to do very poorly, we don't have much hope of passing and we are not motivated to do our homework or study for the next exam. In biology, on the other hand, we do believe that we will pass and we are motivated to study. Our concept of self-efficacy in mathematics is bad and in biology it is good.

Subjective values of the task

According to Eccles and Wigfield, subjective task value can be understood as an individual's motivation with respect to a given task, regardless of whether he or she has high or low expectations of doing well.. It is no secret that in education students have favorite subjects, which makes them study more or understand the concepts of some subjects better and find it more difficult to understand others. A subject that fascinates us, seems fundamental to our lives and we consider easy will motivate us much more than one that we think is a real bore.

The subjective values of the task, as the name suggests, are arbitrary, different from person to person, are arbitrary, differing from person to person.. It is clear that there are tasks in the educational environment that can arouse different interest and involvement among students (e.g., solving mathematical problems vs. playing dodgeball in physical education), however, as we mentioned in the previous paragraph, each person attributes a different subjective value to the task. These values would answer the question "Do I want to do this activity and why?"

We can identify the following types of subjective values of the task.

1. Achievement value

The personal importance to our identity of getting this achievement satisfied.. That is to say, if we consider it something fundamental for our own way of being or it is simply something else that we have to achieve because it is in the academic curriculum.

For example, if we consider ourselves people with musical culture, regardless of what we want to do when we grow up, we will be very interested in what is explained to us in the subject of music, such as the great composers, musical trends, musical notation, score reading...

2. Intrinsic value

How interesting the task is to us, regardless of its importance for our lives.. Whether doing the task is something we enjoy or whether we see it as a kind of punishment.

For example, playing dodgeball is an activity whose intrinsic value is greater than solving mathematical problems.

3. Utility value

If we consider that doing this task, regardless of whether we like it or whether it is important for our self-concept to do it well, it is important for our academic lives and professional future.is something important for our academic lives and professional future.

For example, if when we grow up we want to study a career in science, we will have to learn mathematics, biology, physics and chemistry in high school. Regardless of whether we like these subjects, we will have to learn their contents very well so that access to our favorite science career is guaranteed.

4. Cost

It is the loss of time, high demands of effort, loss of more interesting and enjoyable alternatives or negative psychological experiencessuch as stress, associated with doing this task.

For example, when we are doing homework we cannot do other things like playing video games, meeting friends, watching TV...

Applications and findings related to this theory

This model and the research associated with it has made it possible to see how expectations vary across school years and subjects within the same year.. In fact, from the beginning of primary school there are differences in motivation depending on the subject asked about. From the age of 11, more or less coinciding with the fifth year of primary school, the types of value also vary, in the sense that one can be motivated because the subjects are interesting for the students or they can be motivated because they consider them very important in their professional future.

What is certain is that motivation, whatever the type of value and how good it is considered in the performance of the subjects, decreases with the passage of time, especially in adolescence.especially in adolescence. Adolescents are having lower expectations about their own academic performance, although they do not necessarily have to be fatal, but it certainly causes them to have lower grades. The causes of this are very varied, ranging from a general loss of interest in studies to not seeing what relationship it has with what they want to dedicate themselves to.

The ideas put forward in Eccles and Wigfield's expected value theory have been used in intervention programs that strive to change students' motivational beliefs. Students' beliefs influence their academic performance as we have discussed throughout the article.. If they are more pessimistic, regardless of their actual competencies, they will have lower grades. For this reason, based on this model, we have tried to change these expectations and beliefs so that they will be more motivated to study and have a better vision of their abilities.

Referencias bibliográficas:

• Eccles, J. y Wigfield, A. (2000). Expectancy–Value Theory of Achievement Motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology 25, 68–81.