Why Drive Theory Fail

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Amanda is a first year student who has failed all her courses for the first semester. The reasons as to why are unknown, these are my views as to the reasons why she has failed all her first year courses. In using Drive theories and Incentive value theories the possible reasons as to why and how she failed will be discovered.

The two theories/approaches both Drive theories and Incentive value theories both explain the reasons as to why people do things. The first Theory, Drive theory, is an internal based theory. A drive theory tells us the reason internally we need certain things. It is a need that drives us to satisfy our needs. These needs are psychological needs. When these needs are not satisfied it creates a tension, when the need is …show more content…

The second Theories is an Incentive value theories, this way of understanding the reasons of why we do certain things is based on external conditions. Instead of being pushed by a need it is pulled by desire. Incentives are things we are drawn to because of learnt behaviour (www.appsychology.com.Motivation/motivationintro.htm). We learn to associate things with rewards but at the same time we learn to associate things with punishment, for example if Amanda studied with friends she might have had fun but it might have not produced the results she might have hoped for if she had rather studied alone

Drive theory encompasses a large amount of theories which relate to internal attributions and Intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation according to Clinkenbeard (2012:624) is when a person is inclined to be interested, curious, and usually focussed on task. Gifted …show more content…

People who are extrinsically motivated are interested in the outcomes of learning (results, prizes, rewards, etc) more than the actual task itself (clinkenbeard 2012:624). The performance goal theory is an incentive theory is a focus on wanting to appear smarter compared with others, it is more ego oriented. External attributions for failure can be examples such as luck, the teacher not liking them, the test was unexpectedly hard these could be possible reason as to why Amanda failed her first semester. According to Merritt and Buboltz (2015:128) Socioeconomic status (SES) is likely to play a role in in the academic progression and success of students. According to Merritt and Buboltz (2015;128) the relationship between self-efficacy and academic performance denotes that individuals raised in homes of lower ses report lower levels of self efficacy alternatively reported a positive relationship between academic achievement and familial Socioeconomic status. Lower SES homes have the characteristics of being less organized and providing fewer learning opportunities. Merritt and Buboltz (2015) state that individuals who came from a higher SES background were likely to receive constant and consistent care-giving, psychosocial resources, and more favourable learning opportunities. The characteristics of the home environment, which is related to SES, will affect the

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