[xmca] Culture, Self, and Motivation and Maehr

[Gregory Allan Thompson <gathomps@uchicago.edu>]

To Mike's point about the semio-logical as co-constitutive of
the praxiological, I would add "and of the psycho-logical". 

Tony, Thanks for the tip on the book. Just checked it out from
the library (will decide whether or not to place the phone
call(!?) to order it).

I agree with your concerns of the psychological over the
semiological, but I think Maehr's ideas offer an opening
(albeit a very small one) into a semiological and
praxiological re-thinking of motivation. In particular, he
points the way to "meaning" as essential for understanding
motivation:

"Meaning is the critical determinant of motivation. Whether or
not persons will invest themselves in a particular activity
depends on what the activity means to them. Persons, it may be
assumed, characteristically bring a certain package of
meanings with them into a situation, which determines their
behavior in the particular situation at hand. There are also
features of any given situation that affect the meanings that
may arise there for the person. It is these meanings that
determine personal investment." (Maehr, 1984, p. 123).  

Okay, so if we look past the pre-determination of the subject
(who "brings a certain package of meanings with them into a
situation") and the determinative language ("which DETERMINES
their behavior"), then we can get to a point of agreement -
"there are features of any given situation that affect the
meanings that may arise there for the person". 

There is, of course, one other minor trouble, namely, that his
meaning of "meaning" is different from our meaning of
"meaning". And I think that this is where psychologists bump
up against a wall precisely because they are so bound by
ontologies and methodologies of individualism in which the
origo of human behavior is always located in the psyche.
Without saying too much, I think we are also back to a trouble
of language ideologies.

Too bad there aren't more psychologists trained as semioticians!

I'd be interested in hearing other thoughts about why folks in
education (like Gee) are so quick to adopt a cognitivistic and
psychologistic approach to human behavior. 

(and I would add that I was surprised to see the same thing in
Sociology - where I would have thought that people would, by
training, be immune to the psychologistic approach, but where,
as it turns out, many people seem to be buying psychologistic
solutions hook, line, and sinker).

-greg


>Message: 8
>Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:44:32 -0800
>From: mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>
>Subject: Re: [xmca] FW: Special Price $20 per copy of
Culture, Self,
>	and, 	Motivation Essays in Honor of Martin L. Maehr
>To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>Message-ID:
>	<30364f991001261144k1462e4d4y54d9a76b46ac0877@mail.gmail.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
>I agree re chat and would include the semio-logical as
co-constituitive of
>the praxiological, Tony.
>
>On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 11:21 AM, Tony Whitson
<twhitson@udel.edu> wrote:
>
>> I just ordered the book below for the $20 (telephone-only)
promotional
>> price.
>>
>> A search for books related to Martin L. Maehr led me to
Motivation and
>> Action edited by Jutta and Heinz Heckhausen.
>>
>> This work presents itself as a comprehensive work on
motivation and action.
>> But from the table of contents, it looks like "motivation"
is being
>> conceptualized as an entirely psychological matter, albeit
influenced by
>> social, cultural, and situational factors.
>>
>> I am bothered that in education things like motivation are
reduced to the
>> psychological.
>>
>> As a semiotician, I see many things being treated as
psycho-logical when
>> they are more fundamentally semio-logical; i.e., they are
determined not by
>> the logos of the human psyche, but by the logos of
semiosis. (It surprises
>> me how a linguist like Jim Gee is so ready to explain
things as matters of
>> cognitive psychology, when they are more fundamentally
determined by
>> principles of linguistic semi-ology).
>>
>>
>>
>> As for "Motivation and Action," it seems to me that CHAT
clearly recognizes
>> motivation as a matter of the logos of action and activity, or
>> "praxio-logical," and not reducible to the psycho-logical
(unless
>> "psychology" is stretched so wide as to include, say,
Geisteswissenschaften
>> or les sciences humaines, in which case it seems to me that
such
>> "psychology" would have to abandon the claims that it
presumes as a special
>> discipline).
>>
>>
>>
>> What do you think?
>>
>>
>>
>> From: IAP - Information Age Publishing, Inc.
[mailto:iap@infoagepub.com]
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 11:25 AM
>> To: twhitson@UDel.Edu
>> Subject: Special Price $20 per copy of Culture, Self, and,
Motivation
>> Essays
>> in Honor of Martin L. Maehr
>>
>>
>>
>> Information Age Publishing Inc, is pleased to announce a
Special Sale of
>> $20.00 per book including shipping (within the US, $25.00
rest of the
>> world)
>> on the following book.
>>
>> Call today while supplies last 1-866-754-9125:
>>
>> Culture, Self, and, Motivation
>> Essays in Honor of Martin L. Maehr
>>
>> Edited by Avi Kaplan, Ben Gurion University of the Negev
>> Stuart A. Karabenick, University of Michigan
>> Elisabeth De Groot, University of Michigan
>>
>> The authors of the chapters in this volume-past and present
collaborators
>> of
>> Marty Maehr, and a few of his former graduate students
along the years-are
>> motivational researchers who conduct research using diverse
methods and
>> perspectives, and in different parts of the world. All,
however, see their
>> intellectual roots in Marty's theoretical and empirical
work. The chapters
>> in this book are divided into two sections: Motivation and
Self and Culture
>> and Motivation. Clearly, the distinctions between these two
sections are
>> very blurry, as they are in Marty's work. And yet, when the
authors were
>> asked to contribute their chapters, the research questions
they addressed
>> seemed to have formed two foci, with perso! nal motivation and
>> socio-cultural processes alternating as the core versus the
background in
>> the two sections.
>>
>> TABLE OF CONTENTS:
>> Introduction: Culture, Self, and Motivation. The
Contribution of Martin L.
>> Maehr to the Fields of Achievement Motivation and
Educational Psychology,
>> Avi Kaplan, Stuart A. Karabenick, and Elisabeth DeGroot.
Martin L. Maehr:
>> Brief Bio. PART I: MOTIVATION AND SELF. Continuing
Motivation Revisited,
>> Eric M. Anderman and Jennifer A. Weber. Applying Personal
Investment Theory
>> to Better Understand Student Development, Larry A.
Braskamp. Motivation in
>> Sport and Physical Activity: An Achievement Goal
Interpretation, Glyn C.
>> Roberts, Frank Abrahamsen, and P. Nicolas Lemyre.
Meaning-Making and
>> Motivation: A Dynamic Model, Avi Kaplan, Hanoch Flum, and
Keren Kemelman.
>> Achievement Goals in the Context of the Hierarchical Model of
>> Approach-Avoidance Achievement Motivation, Ron Friedman,
Arlen C. Moller,
>> James W. Fryer, Ista Zahn, Wilbert ! Law, Ryan D. Acuff,
Daniela Niesta,
>> Kou
>> Murayama, Angelika M. Meier, Beate Jelstad, and Andrew J.
Elliot. Marty
>> Maehr's Contributions to Research in Pasteur's Quadrant:
The Mathematics
>> and
>> Science Partnership-Motivation Assessment Program, Stuart
A. Karabenick,
>> Bridget V. Dever, Juliane Blazevski, AnneMarie M. Conley,
Jeanne M.
>> Friedel,
>> Melissa C. Gilbert, and Lauren E. Musu. PART II: CULTURE
AND MOTIVATION.
>> School Culture Matters for Teachers' and Students'
Achievement Goals,
>> Lennia
>> Matos, Willy Lens, and Maarten Vansteenkiste. A Model of
Culture and
>> Achievement Behavior, Farideh Salili. Achievement Motivation in
>> Cross-Cultural Context: Application of Personal Investment
Theory in
>> Educational Settings, Dennis M. McInerney and Gregory Arief
D. Liem. The
>> Cultural Situatedness of Motivation, Julianne C. Turner and
Helen Patrick.
>> The Contributions of Martin L. Maehr to the Study of
Cultural Influences on
>> Achievement Motivation, Tim Urdan. Vita: Marti! n L. Maehr.
Author Index.
>> Subject Index.
>>
>> Order Online at http://infoagepub.com/index.php?id=9
>> <http://infoagepub.com/index.php?id=9&p=p49dc02431a944>
&p=p49dc02431a944
>> Paperback: 978-1-60752-107-5
>> Web Price: $31.99 (Reg. $39.99)
>>
>> Hardcover: 978-1-60752-108-2
>> Web Price: $59.19 (Reg. $73.99)
>>
>>
>> Cordially,
>> George F. Johnson
>> Information Age Publishing, Inc.
>> http://www.infoagepub.com
>> Skype: george.f.johnson
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
-------------------------------------------------------------------
>> This e-mail was sent to twhitson@udel.edu because you are
subscribed to at
>> least one of our mailing lists. If at any time you would
like to remove
>> yourself from our mailing list, please feel free to do so
by visiting:
>> http://infoage.server280.com/public/unsubscribe.php?g=67
>> <
>>
http://infoage.server280.com/public/unsubscribe.php?g=67&addr=twhitson@udel
>> .edu> &addr=twhitson@udel.edu
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> xmca mailing list
>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>
>
>
>------------------------------
---------------------------------------
Greg Thompson
Ph.D. Candidate
The Department of Comparative Human Development
The University of Chicago
_______________________________________________
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca