It is time for the final step of the research paper, which is the abstract. Also, all the citations used from the beginning needs to be in the reference page. If you see the “personal example” you will see how it looks all together. There is a file with the instructions.
Lab #8: And We’re Out: The Full Paper
Logistics:
Due Date: 5/14/2023 by 11:59 pm
Submission Type: Full Paper with: Abstract (New), Introduction,
Method, Results, and Discussion
Submission: Word or PDF Through Canvas
Format: Times New Roman, 12 font, Double Spaced
Welcome Back! This is it! You have created an amazing prospective
research paper worthy of a conference or journal article submission
(Need to get data though). Your final step is to add a general summary
of your data called an abstract and present the entirety of the paper with
more edits throughout.
Skill:
•
Gain the ability to read and write academically rigorous
research in social sciences.
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Be able to effectively detail the significance of realworld research
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Provide quality and credible information to real-world
scenarios. No more relying on headlines!
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Understand how to infer data from a real-world context
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Gain the ability to determine appropriate responses and
conclusions and apply them to everyday situations
Knowledge:
•
Understand how to format an academically rigorous
paper using theory
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Gain a greater understanding of how real data is
processed, written, and disseminated in larger settings (e.g.,
journalists, medical facilities, and academic institutions)
Here’s the Plan: State in Future Tense
•
Add a Cover Page
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In the Center add the title of your project, First
and Last Name, the Name of the School
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Let’s watch this video
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Create an Abstract (250-300 words)
•
Add Research Problem and Objective
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Briefly describe your methods
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Provide your prospective key results or arguments
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Make a general conclusion
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Can even state this is a trial that you aim to
implement in the future
•
Edit the Introduction Section and Highlight Edits Made
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Edit the Methods Section and Highlight Edits Made
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Edit the Results Section and Highlight Edits Made
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Edit the Discussion Section and Highlight Edits Made
How To Be Successful!
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instead!
Use active voice and do not use “I” statements use “we”
•
section
Feel free to look at other journal articles on the abstract
•
Feel free to send me a Google Doc of everything so I
can edit, comment, and praise writing before submission.
•
This skill is writing is super valuable and I want to
ensure all of you know how to execute when you handle real-world
research projects
•
Let me know throughout this lab if you have any
questions or concerns. Always happy to help
Christmas, Charity, and Communication: Testing the relative effects of holiday and non-holiday
programming on prosocial behavior
Essence L. Wilson
California State University, Northridge
Abstract
Holiday narratives, often containing altruistic messages, have blossomed into a billion-dollar-ayear television genre that is no longer limited to the Fall season or to exclusively Christian
storylines. While the impact of holiday themes and prosocial narratives have been studied
separately and each has been shown to promote prosocial behavior, their combined impact has
not been empirically examined. This study examines the potential effects of a holiday classic, A
Charlie Brown Christmas, on viewers’ prosocial behaviors. Two weeks before and after
Christmas, 409 participants will be randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions:
watch a clip of the holiday special, watch a clip of a non-holiday but prosocial Charlie Brown
special, or a control group who watched no narrative. Participants who will watch the Christmas
special will engage in greater prosocial behavior (e.g., donation and volunteering). Thus, this
study will provide empirical evidence that exposure to prosocial holiday narratives play may
play a particularly key role in generating goodwill. However, concerning holidays narrative
should also be tested.
Introduction
Increasing rather than waning in popularity over time, Christmas programming is
currently in high demand, with original Christmas-related content created and avidly consumed
by millions of viewers (Larson, 2019; Porter, 2019). Family entertainment channels Hallmark
and Lifetime, both of which provide an endless stream of holiday content during the holiday
season, amassed over 130 million viewers and generated over a billion dollars in revenue during
the 2019 Christmas season alone (Larson & Nussbaum, 2019; Porter, 2019). Indeed, the
popularity of holiday programming has led Hallmark to launch “Christmas in July” and run these
programs throughout the year.
Despite the prevalence and popularity of holiday-related narratives, relatively little is known
about the impact of holiday-themed content on audiences. For instance, are viewers using
holiday content as a mood manipulation to boost positive affect? Numerous viewers reportedly
attend to holiday content to elicit positive emotions, a salient component towards improving
narrative persuasion effectiveness (Murphy et al, 2013) and a notable contributor to greater
prosocial behaviors (Aknin et al., 2018; Khan & Carlisle, 2021) due to containing positive and
altruistic themes (Bindley, 2018). Furthermore, holiday narratives also exhibit greater prosocial
content (Cite), which may give greater access to prosocial thought. If the underlying
mechanism is positive emotion, is the holiday-themed content integral or optional?
To answer these questions, in December, we randomly assigned viewers to view one of two
prosocial programs — Charlie Brown Christmas Special or Charlie Brown’s All Stars (1966) -and measured not only their emotions but their intended and actual volunteer time and money
over the next two weeks. While both narratives feature the same characters and contain prosocial
messages of kindness and loyalty, the latter lacks any mention of Christmas. First, however, we
briefly review the relevant literature on the relationship between prosocial behavior and holiday
themes, narrative persuasion, and emotion.
H1: Viewers of the holiday-themed narrative will directly engage in more prosocial
intentions and behaviors than viewers who watch a similar non-holiday narrative.
Method
We will conduct an online experiment on Qualtrics and it will be approved for exemption by the
university’s Institutional Review Board (IRB). Participants (N = 409) will be asked to engage in
a longitudinal panel study (timed two weeks before Christmas and immediately after Christmas)
where they were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: watch a clip of the
key scenes of a holiday special (A Charlie Brown Christmas), watch a clip of a non-holiday
special (Charlie Brown’s All Stars) featuring the same characters both with prosocial messages,
or watch no narrative at all (control condition). Participants in the narrative conditions responded
to items about emotions evoked by the narrative, perceptions of the holiday season, past
prosocial actions, and their prosocial intentions for the remainder of the holiday season.
A second survey was distributed as a follow-up two weeks later, starting the day after Christmas.
Participants were asked to detail the extent to which they engaged in specific prosocial behaviors
and specifying the time and frequency of their volunteering as well as the amount of money they
had donated over the intervening two weeks of the holiday season since the pretest. The control
group, who did not watch any narrative still had to meet this study’s eligibility criteria,
participated only in the posttest survey under the guise of understanding their prosocial behavior
during the holiday season and to provide a neutral yardstick against which to measure the impact
of the two narrative conditions.
Participants
Participants (N = 409) were recruited and paid by Qualtrics Panel Services. Eligible participants
identified as female, were aged 21 to 45 years, celebrated Christmas, and all belonged to a
Christian denomination. We focused on females in this study not only to reduce within-group
variance, but because most holiday content viewers are young to middle-aged females (Hurley,
2019). To further reduce within-group variance, participants had to live in the United States, be
employed, have previously volunteered and donated to charity, and not have had a family or
friend die from COVID-19 within the previous 12 months. Whereas lack of employment and
past charitable actions decrease prospective prosocial behaviors (Gneezy et al., 2012), traumatic
events including familial deaths, could encourage charitable attitudes and actions (Olsen et al.,
2021). The follow-up posttest survey received a 71% attrition rate (n = 92) from the previous
pretest survey. There was no attrition loss for the control group.
Stimuli
Experimental Holiday Narrative. A Charlie Brown Christmas Special was chosen as the
experimental stimulus because it communicates the holiday messages of kindness and generosity
through a young child’s journey to seek out the true meaning of Christmas (Cavna, 2013). This
narrative was selected in accordance with Hall’s (2007) framework of television production, in
that the special’s lasting popularity and strong message of seasonal goodwill and is inscribed
with dominant, hegemonic codes pertaining to the holidays. A renowned classic, this special
continues to attract viewers each year as one of the most revisited holiday features that has rerun
annually for over half a century expanding its reach and influence (Lind, 2014; “A Charlie
Brown Christmas”, 2022). Based on the popular Peanuts comic strip created by Charles M.
Schultz, the program provides an enjoyable narrative with a “visual and linguistic environment
[…] rich in social content” and possesses central themes of altruism and social acceptance, seen
in the interactions between its socially awkward protagonist, Charlie Brown, and the other
Peanuts characters (Frank, Vul & Johnson, 2009).
Participants in the holiday narrative condition (n = 164) will be randomly assigned to watch an
edited 10-minute clip of the Christmas special. The clip consist of the last scene of the special, in
which Charlie Brown’s best friend Linus interrupts a play to explain the true meaning of
Christmas and ended with the whole Peanuts family decorating a feeble but beloved tree.
Experimental Non-Holiday Narrative. For the other narrative condition, participants (n = 156)
watched an edited 10-minute clip of the Peanuts special Charlie Brown’s All Stars. The clip
depicts Charlie Brown trying to obtain sponsorship for his baseball team’s uniforms and boost
their reputation after losing a game. The narrative centers around the tension between either
cutting loyal friends who are weak players from the team or focusing on winning to acquire new
uniforms. This narrative includes altruistic themes not associated with Christmas, in that Charlie
Brown tries to support his team through obtaining sponsorships and donations.
No Narrative Control. Control group participants (n = 89) will not watch a narrative clip but will
be asked the same questions about their prosocial behaviors during the holiday season in the
follow-up survey. This helps provide a baseline of prosocial behaviors during the holidays not
deliberately influenced by exposure to a prosocial narrative and thus establish a true control to
increase validity.
Measures
Prosocial behavior will fall into two categories: making donations and volunteering time. We
will measure participants’ past prosocial behavior and intention in the first survey and recent
behavior in the post-test survey. For donations, participants will be asked how likely they will
donate in the next 30 days on a scale of (1) Not at all likely to (10) Extremely likely (M = 7.16,
SD = 2.89), and estimate the amount of money they intended to donate in the next 30 days in the
first survey (M = 11.39, SD = 11.64); and report how much money they actually donated (M =
5.03, SD = 9.76) and frequency of donation behaviors (M = 2.35, SD = 1.48) in the second
survey two weeks later. Similarly, participants were asked how likely they were to volunteer (M
= 5.61, SD = 3.25) and how many hours they intended to volunteer over the holiday season (M =
5.61, SD = 3.25) in the first survey; and reported how many hours they volunteered two weeks
later (M = 20.79, SD = 19.72) and frequency of volunteering behaviors (M = 2.16, SD = 1.39) in
the post-test survey.
Results
All statistical analyses will be performed using SPSS Statistics 27. No missing data will likely be
found, with exception to attrition loss in the second survey. Observations for outlier and
response bias (i.e., repeatedly entering the same value over or middle fencing) were performed in
hopes of no atypical respondents being found or needed to be removed.
Descriptive Statistics
Will will perform a descriptive analysis on demographics regarding age, race, ethnicity,
religiosity, spirituality, religious orientation, parental status, and marital status. This will be done
to determine no between-group difference for demographics related to whether participants had
previously seen the narrative in terms of participants who completed the first survey but not the
second survey, remaining participants who completed both surveys, or the control group who did
not view any narrative.
Prosocial Intention and Behavior
Hypothesis 1 predicts that viewers who watched a holiday-themed narrative will directly engage
in more prosocial intentions and behaviors than viewers who watch a similar non-holiday
narrative. A comparison of means or t-tests will reveal a significant difference between a
donation and volunteer intention, where the holiday narrative will showcase greater intention.
For donation behaviors, a repeated measures ANOVA between the narrative condition is
expected to reveal a significant main effect of narrative on the frequency of donating and
interaction. To account for the control group, an ANOVA test was performed that revealed a
significant difference for the holiday invoking greater donation behavior.
For volunteer behaviors, repeated measures test between the two narrative conditions revealed a
main effect of narrative on the number of hours volunteered such that there will be a significant
increase of hours volunteered between of the holiday narratives following the first survey
holiday narrative (pretest; posttest) and non-holiday narrative (pretest; posttest. Relative to the
comparison group, participants in the narrative conditions will reveal significantly more hours
volunteered is the post-survey and an interaction. Post-hoc analysis using Tukey’s HSD criterion
indicated will reveal higher volunteer hours in the Christmas narrative group than the nonnarrative control group. There were also significant between-group differences in volunteer
frequency. Overall, our hypothesis will be supported by volunteer and donation behavior.
Regression analysis will show that positive emotions will significantly and positively predict
intent to donate and intent to volunteer. For donation behaviors, the analysis will also reveal
significant, positive associations between positive emotions and the amount donated and
frequency of donation behaviors. Participants’ self-reported level of positive emotion will also
significantly, and positively predict hours volunteered and frequency of volunteering (b = .119,
SE = .09). Regression analysis will also reveal that volunteer behaviors will positively and
significantly correlate with donation amount.
Discussion
Intrigued by the growing popularity of holiday-themed programming, this research attempted to
empirically answer the question of whether the presence or absence of a holiday theme in a
narrative encourages greater prosocial intention and behaviors such as volunteering and donating.
To empirically test this, two weeks before Christmas this study randomly assigned 409
participants to one of three experimental conditions: view a holiday classic (A Charlie Brown
Christmas), view a non-holiday but prosocial Charlie Brown special (Charlie Brown Allstars)
that featured the same Peanut characters, or a control group who watched no narrative but
nevertheless did report on their prosocial behaviors over Christmas holiday. While both
narratives feature the same characters and contain prosocial messages of kindness and loyalty,
the latter lacks any mention of Christmas.
Our results are predicted to suggest that holiday-themed narratives do increase prosocial
behavior. Compared to the nonnarrative control group, viewing either Charlie Brown Special
resulted in greater prosocial intent to volunteer and donate during the subsequent holidays and
greater volunteer and donation behaviors.
The predicted results underscore the crucial role holiday narratives play in prosocial behaviors.
The fact that both narratives significantly increased the frequency of donation behaviors and
hours volunteered since completing the first survey, as well as compared to the non-narrative
control, raises another possibility. Perhaps, participants will respond to the familiar Peanuts
brand that both narratives shared. A Charlie Brown Christmas Special is acknowledged as one of
the most popular and most-watched Christmas programs during the holiday season, indicating
that the title character and his friends are strongly associated with the holiday season (Collins,
2015). In other words, the special may lead to increased prosocial activity that can be indicated
by the audience’s lifelong association between Charlie Brown, Peanut’s brand, and goodness in
general.
While few studies have examined the cartoon’s direct influence on viewers, its narrative
structure has been examined by Cohn (2014), who found that Charlie Brown cartoon panels
possessed consistent and complementary tendencies that allowed readers to make sense of the
narrative sequence even when certain sections were deleted or restructured. Given that the use of
narrative can be a valuable tool in encouraging positive behaviors (i.e., health-related), it is likely
that the strong structure of both specials, also written by Peanuts creator Charles Schultz, could
contribute to a shift in respondents’ behavior (Murphy et al., 2013). This suggests that on top of
the seasonal appeal of A Charlie Brown Christmas, Peanut’s overall familiarity with audiences
and strong narrative structure may play a prominent role in engaging viewers.
Possible limitations
This research will take place during the height of the COVID pandemic which severely limits
volunteering opportunities which may account for the disconnect between volunteering intention
and behavior during that specific Christmas holiday. Additionally, understanding how holiday
narratives influence viewers’ attitudes and behaviors may require more research specifically
designed to measure the unique feelings invoked by the holidays (Clark, 2011).
One of the primary screening criteria for the study was that participants had to celebrate
Christmas and be a part of a Christian denomination. According to Pew Research (2017), the role
of religion in Christmas celebrations appears to be declining, yet still plays a prominent role.
Interestingly, A Charlie Brown Christmas is most notably indirectly discussing the birth of Jesus,
which is atypical compared to many Christmas specials that often abide by a model of secularity
(Lind, 2014). Although study participants identify as active Christians, the iconic religious aspect
of the special may have a unique impact on audience members.
As noted in the results section, attrition will be a significant concern, with only 29 percent of
participants completing the post-survey, which may have compromised external validity. The
combined circumstances related to celebrating a demanding holiday season during an ongoing
pandemic could contribute to poorer retention. Finally, an analysis of holiday narratives outside
of the Christmas season and using non-Charlie Brown-related holiday specials would further
clarify the overall impact of holiday-themed narratives on viewers’ behavior.
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DOES MOTIVATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT TRULY INFLUENCE INDIVIDUALS?
Lilit Abdulyan
Psych 321
May 7, 2023
Introduction
Having a highly motivated staff reduces turnover by 43% and absenteeism by 81%.
Motivation encompasses a variety of distinct notions such as task values and ability
self-concepts. Motivation is not, however, a singular idea in and of itself (Karari et al., 2022).
Most motivational constructs predict academic achievement beyond intelligence, and people’s
ability, self-concepts and task values are more potent in predicting their achievement than goals
and achievement motives, as shown by the scant research that examined these questions. The
purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that similar results would be achieved if
accomplishment criteria were evaluated at the same degree of granularity as the participants’
ability self-concepts, task values, objectives, and success reasons. According to motivation
theory, a person’s unsatisfied desires produce an inner tension that, in turn, compels that
individual to perform some kind of action (Karari et al., 2022). The effect of motivation can be
evaluated by asking participants how they felt about themselves and if they noticed a difference
in their work ethic after seeing or experiencing anything that may be considered demoralizing.
This can be done by asking participants how they felt about themselves and whether or not they
saw a difference in their work ethic. The topic is essential because it helps in determining
important factors that affect motivation.
DOES MOTIVATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT TRULY INFLUENCE INDIVIDUALS?
There is little primary emphasis on the dynamic relationship that exists between
self-determination theory and the many types of motivation. It is clear that all of the different
incentives proposed by the self-determination theory are associated with favorable outcomes for
employees (Ryan & Deci, 2020). The findings point to a relationship between the five
motivational clusters and three outcomes, namely job performance, the satisfaction of needs, and
assessments of the working environment. In the research on self-determination theory, there were
a total of five different motives investigated, and the autonomous motive received the highest
score. In the realm of organization, there is a knowledge gap about this subject from the
perspective of the research that has been done. Some of these patterns do not immediately
connect to what might be expected based on a priori theoretical predictions, and they are distinct
from the patterns that are seen in circumstances involving sports and education (Ryan & Deci,
2020). The idea of motivation focuses on the internal forces, or motives, that are at play inside an
individual. It has repercussions that are far-reaching for society as a whole, but it is of the utmost
importance to those working in management and business. The new research aim is to determine
whether the population is driven to do their jobs based on motivation and the greater outcomes
for their organization.
The participants will be divided into three groups: speech that is positive and
encouraging, speech that is negative and discouraging, and speech that is encouraging others.
The independent variable is the encouraging speeches that individuals have seen or heard,
whether at seminars, on internet platforms, or through personal encouragement (VandeVusse et
al., 2022). These individuals have control over the extent to which they are exposed to negative
and discouraging things from other people because they have seen or heard encouraging
speeches. The dependent variable in this study is gain-valued outcomes resulting from
DOES MOTIVATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT TRULY INFLUENCE INDIVIDUALS?
motivation. The dependent variable would be self-reporting, and I would inquire as to whether or
not they see increases in productivity, self-awareness, and other domains as a result of pursuing
their hobbies.
H1: motivated individuals are more committed to their goals and tasks than individuals
who have not been motivated
Method
The research design will be qualitative. As a result of using a qualitative research
methodology, it is possible to eliminate a number of potential confounding variables, which
makes it much simpler to determine whether or not the independent variable influences the
dependent variable (Bloomfield & Fisher, 2019). Interrogating participants with in-depth
questions about their daily lives will provide for the possibility of gaining a more comprehensive
understanding of a certain group. These inquiries will focus on the participants’ experiences.
While this could make it easier for us to obtain a more in-depth understanding of a community, it
does make it more challenging to derive clear conclusions from the research. We will also have
successful people give lectures and motivational speeches to participants, and have them set
difficult goals for themselves.
There will be a total of forty participants, hence the value of N will be forty. If we wish to
do research on motivation utilizing individuals as participants, we are needed to first get
clearance from the university’s Institutional Review Board (Meslec et al., 2020). This is a
prerequisite for conducting the study. Observation will serve as the basis for measuring the
variables that are reliant on it. The review and approval process centers on the participants as its
DOES MOTIVATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT TRULY INFLUENCE INDIVIDUALS?
major concern and objective, with the latter being to guarantee that the participants are not put in
any dangerous situations.
Participants
Interviews with participants ranging from forty to sixty persons, ages 20-35 years
Test questions on: 40- 60 participants
40 participants minimum.
Participants will be both male and female in the age ranges of 20-35. This particular age group
are one’s who are most active in the work field and education, and pursuing their passions in life.
Finding volunteers to participate in user research is often acknowledged as the most
challenging aspect of the process (Bloomfield & Fisher, 2019). Big research institutions
sometimes have specialized divisions called research operations that are tasked with handling the
administrative load of locating study participants and maintaining their records. Smaller research
teams have the option of either using an internal recruiting tool or contracting the assignment out
to a research firm.
The encouraging news is that we will discover a broad selection of resources that might aid
us in our attempts to recruit participants in the study. We can find pre-screened volunteers by
using free or paid user research recruitment platforms like User Interviews, posting ads on social
media like Craigslist, or hiring a research recruiting organization to do everything for you, but it
will cost us. Another option is to post ads on social media like Facebook.
There are various things that compel an individual to take action towards a goal is the
subject of motivation theory (Meslec et al., 2020). Everyone may learn a little bit from this, but it
DOES MOTIVATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT TRULY INFLUENCE INDIVIDUALS?
will be especially useful for those in management and business. This is because increasing output
leads to even more production, just as higher money leads to even greater production.
Stimuli
The first manipulated variable will be to have successful people give speeches and lectures
that can influence motivation. The people’s exposure to motivating discourse acts as the
independent variable, and this might take place in the form of seminars, online groups, or
one-on-one conversations (Meslec et al., 2020). Those who have attended motivational
presentations have improved their ability to control the amount of negativity and discouragement
they take in from the actions and words of others. The second is to have participants set difficult
and specific goals for themselves, and see how much their performance improves. The ten
self-reporting of participants will be assigned to manipulated variables, and we would query as to
whether or not they had, as a direct result of participating in their hobbies, experienced advances
in areas such as efficiency, self-understanding, and other areas.
A basic example of the utilization of a control group would be an experiment in which the
researcher investigates the question of whether or not motivation assists people in remaining
dedicated to the achievement of their goals. The unmotivated group that is made to experience
the same conditions as the experimental group is referred to as the negative control group.
In a scientific inquiry, the use of a control group is required in order to establish causality
by separating the effect of a dependent variable from that of an independent one (Noels et al.,
2019). In the treatment group, the independent variable is subjected to change, whereas in the
control group, it is maintained at the same level. After that, the results of these subgroups are
compared to one another.
DOES MOTIVATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT TRULY INFLUENCE INDIVIDUALS?
Measures
Motivation is impacted by independent factors such as socioeconomic backgrounds and
personalities. Self-report questionnaires are what will form the basis of the measurement. In the
field of therapeutic psychology, one of the most common types of evaluation employed is the
self-report questionnaire. It consists of a series of written questions that are designed to elicit a
narrative description of the individual who is being evaluated (Noels et al., 2019). We will
provide a high-level overview of the main features of self-report questionnaires, including their
advantages and disadvantages when used in clinical psychology, both in research and practice,
the critical steps required to develop self-report questionnaires, and a description of the reliability
and validity of self-report questionnaires. The advantages and disadvantages of using self-report
questionnaires in clinical psychology, both in research and practice, will be covered. In addition,
we will provide an overview of the procedure that may be followed in order to build self-report
surveys. Some examples of the questions that we may ask: “What are some of the things that you
find to be most helpful in maintaining your motivation at work?”, “Are the benefits you get for
achieving organizational goals a factor in your level of commitment?”, “Do you find that your
performance improves while you’re feeling motivated?”
Results
All analysis will be done using SPSS v29 Grad Pack. The analysis will focus on all collected
data, with limited chances of missing data except for those lost in the process of data collection.
The survey questions will be evaluated for incidents of leading questions, unflattering results,
and changes in context to eliminate response bias and outliers. That will help in ensuring that the
analyzed data are free of foreseeable atypical respondents and duplicities that can compromise
DOES MOTIVATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT TRULY INFLUENCE INDIVIDUALS?
the overall outcome of the data analysis process. In addition, obvious outliers will be eliminated
by assessing the average time the respondents took to answer the questions.
Descriptive Statistics
We will conduct a descriptive analysis of the participant’s demographics, including their age,
professional occupation, gender, and ethnic background. This analysis aims to discern the
differences these demographics may play in the behavior of the two groups in terms of the
effects of motivation on their performance. Motivation is impacted by independent factors such
as socioeconomic backgrounds and personalities. Since these demographics impact personality
and behavioral patterns, finding an average between the groups on gender, age, ethnicity, and
occupational ranks will be a key factor in differentiating the hit rate for motivation on the
outcomes of each group’s response.
Prosocial Intention and Behavior
This study was guided by the hypothesis that motivated individuals are more committed to their
goals and tasks than individuals who have not been motivated. To identify the difference in
commitment to goals and tasks between motivated and non-motivated individuals, the means
will be used. The expectation is that the analysis will point towards the positive impact
motivation has on individual productivity and performance in terms of devotion to achieving
goals and successfully completing tasks. For commitment to goals, repeated ANOVA will show
the difference in commitment levels between the control and treatment groups when the factor of
motivation is added to the equation.
Similar repeated tests will be used to assess the impacts of motivation on devotion to tasks. A
comparison of the t-tests is expected to demonstrate a positive relationship between motivation
DOES MOTIVATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT TRULY INFLUENCE INDIVIDUALS?
and task performance. While gender, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity may play a role in the
outcomes, the repeated ANOVA tests will help identify the in-group differences and the
implications each factor has on the findings. Regression analysis is anticipated to indicate that
motivations cause satisfaction of the individual need to be recognized and rewarded, and acts as
a driver for overall higher performance of motivated individuals in goal attainment and
commitment to task completion.
Discussion
As organizations constantly attempt to improve their employee’s performance as a means
of generating better productivity, it is worth noting the mediating role of motivation. Motivation
can be generated from internal factors or external ones. In the context of organizational couture
and how motivation impacts employee performance, external factors have a stronger influence
on behavior (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Drawing from these concepts, and the increased focus on
human management practices that better organizational overall performance, the current study
examined the impacts of employee motivation on their commitment to achieving their
professional responsibilities compared to those who are not. As such, the study was guided by
the hypothesis that motivated individuals are more committed to their goals and tasks than
individuals who have not been motivated.
The results from the ANOVA analysis indicated a positive correlation between
motivation and performance. The analysis established that as proposed in the hypothesis,
motivated individuals are more job-oriented, have a high job satisfaction rate, and their overall
commitment to delivering their professional responsibilities is higher than those who are not
motivated. The analysis also pointed out various mediating factors on the level of motivation.
For instance, the level of motivation was higher among females than males, while older workers
DOES MOTIVATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT TRULY INFLUENCE INDIVIDUALS?
had a stronger baseline to build their motivation. These results are consistent with the general
principles of motivation, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and the outcomes of a study by Ciobanu,
A., Androniceanu, A., & Lazaroiu, G. (2019).
While various studies have focused on the implications of motivation, little primary
emphasis is on the dynamic relationship that exists between self-determination theory and the
many types of motivation. With a focus on understanding the relationship between the five
motivational clusters and three outcomes, namely job performance, the satisfaction of needs, and
assessments of the working environment, the current study provides employers with a look into
the direct association between the outcomes of motivation on organizational performance. van
der Kolk et al. (2019) argued that in their search for the best ways to improve their human
resource management practices, firms could consider the use of motivating factors such as
rewards, promotions, performance-based reviews, and constructive feedback on employee
performance as a way of increasing the worker’s motivation. The overall impact of a strong and
proactive culture of motivation is an increase in job satisfaction, low turnover, high retention
rate, and sustainable organizational performance rate in the long term.
Possible Limitations
One of the limitations of the study emanates from the nature of data collection. Interviews and
self-reports have the flaw of subjectivity and lack of clarity in details. Participants are
predisposed to giving incorrect answers either to not be judged or simply to make the interviewer
happy (Queirós et al., 2017). Additionally, the use of self-reports based on subjective experience
from the expert speeches the participants were exposed to offers inconsistent baselines, possibly
distorting the overall study (Queirós et al., 2017). Another potential drawback of the current
study is that the interpretations were limited due to the large amount of data and the variability,
DOES MOTIVATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT TRULY INFLUENCE INDIVIDUALS?
which proved to be time-consuming. In future studies, a combination of both qualitative and
quantitative data collection and analysis approaches is recommended to achieve more reliable
and consistent conclusions from the study on motivation and its impacts on employee
performance.
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