Birgit Spinath

Heidelberg University · Institute of Psychology

Empirical evidence shows that achievement motivation is related to academic outcomeslike performance. In the last decades, research followed a more dynamic approach toexplain such connections and has shifted from using stable traits to investigatingmomentarily fluctuating states. Achievement motivation has been shown to 1) fluctuate atstate level a...

Previous studies employing cross-lagged panel models (CLPMs) found mixed results regarding reciprocal relations between competence beliefs and intrinsic motivation. CLPMs have been criticized for leading to erroneous causal inference in certain situations. We re- examined one dataset and additionally analyzed a second dataset regarding reciprocal r...

Achievement motivation is an important predictor for academic performance. For a better understanding of the mechanisms explaining this relation, it is necessary to shift from a trait to a state perspective to unravel underlying dynamic processes and take the influence of the situation into account. However, there were only few empirical attempts t...

This study compared university students’ motivational development and learning success during multiple regular and pandemic distance semesters. In general, a decline in expectancies and task values was expected during semesters. Based on situated expectancy-value theory, we exploratively examined how situative pandemic-related factors were related...

Zusammenfassung: Dieser psychologiehistorische Beitrag zeichnet die Entwicklung des Psychologiestudiums und dessen Vorläufer seit Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts nach, identifiziert die wesentlichen Entwicklungsschübe sowie deren Ursachen und betrachtet die Rolle der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Psychologie im Verlaufe dieses Prozesses. Analyseschwerpunk...

The present study examined to what extent teachers’ judgments of students’ aptitude and students’ perceived teachers’ judgments explain gender differences in the early development of students’ math self-concepts. A sample of N = 519 elementary school students was investigated at four measurement occasions from the end of third until the end of four...

Challenges for university students were high during distance education in lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Self-regulation and motivation became more important, but motivation was possibly challenged more. To investigate motivational differences and possible positive effects of evidence-based learning activities, we followed two cohorts of p...

In diesem Kapitel wird zunächst dargelegt, warum der Lernmotivation im Bildungskontext eine so große Bedeutung zukommt. Anschließend erfolgt eine Begriffsbestimmung und es werden verschiedene Arten der Lernmotivation vorgestellt. Das Kapitel endet mit einem Blick auf zentrale Forschungsergebnisse.

Extensive evidence clearly endorses the use of standardized reasoning ability tests and subject-specific knowledge tests as valid and useful tools for admission-restricted study programs. Yet, tests are still rarely applied for university admission in Germany. Instead, current admission practices are predominantly based on grade point average (GPA)...

Zusammenfassung Die Fähigkeit, mathematische Textaufgaben hinsichtlich ihrer schwierigkeitsgenerierenden Merkmale zu beurteilen, erweist sich als wichtiger Indikator der diagnostischen Kompetenz von Mathematiklehrkräften. Die diagnostische Kompetenz umfasst die kognitiven Prozesse der Wahrnehmung von potenziell schwierigkeitsgenerierenden Aufgabenm...

The present study analyzed experimentally the association between the experience of psychological stress and the physiological stress response of prospective teachers. The experienced stress was assessed by self-reported data. Cortisol concentrations via saliva samples reflected the physiological response. The results show no difference between the...

Background Teachers’ perception of psychology is of importance because they get in contact with psychology as a scientific discipline and should apply (educational) psychological findings. This requires a generally positive attitude toward corresponding findings, which should be fostered during teacher education. Objective The goal of this study w...

Die Stellungnahme ist frei zugänglich unter https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/10.1026/0033-3042/a000564

In higher education, students must manage their learning on their own. When students seize the opportunity to engage in specific evidence-based learning activities, this should contribute to their achievement beyond their individual learning prerequisites (i.e., prior knowledge and motivation) and their prior achievement. In turn, students with hig...

Zusammenfassung. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die wahrgenommene Erfüllung von Erwartungen von Lehramtsanwärterinnen und -anwärtern an den Vorbereitungsdienst. Basierend auf empirischen Befunden aus der Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie wird erwartet, dass nicht-erfüllte Erwartungen an den Vorbereitungsdienst mit einem Anstieg an emotionale...

Hochschullehrende haben zahlreiche Möglichkeiten, auf individueller, institutioneller und politischer Ebene Hochschule zu gestalten. Eine besondere Verpflichtung, diese Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten zu nutzen, besteht in denjenigen Disziplinen, die sich inhaltlich mit Themen des Lehrens und Lernens sowie der Veränderung organisationaler Prozesse befasse...

Psychological misconceptions can be a threat for reaching educational goals and should consequently be prevented. In this study, we analyzed different methods to combat psychological misconceptions: We contrasted a standard lecture with a refutation lecture, and tested the effects of a short intervention educating about cognitive biases and imparti...

Previous research has found a high prevalence of some (educational) psychological misconceptions (i.e., incorrect but often popular assumptions that contradict results from psychological research) among (pre-service) teachers. However, the number of topics that have been investigated is limited. Additionally, knowing the sources of misconceptions m...

Zusammenfassung In realen Unterrichtssituationen diagnostizieren Lehrkräfte aufgrund enormer Interaktionsdichten sowie hoch komplexer Unterrichtssituationen unter psychischer Anspannung wie Stress. Durch Stress können kognitive Kapazitäten gebunden werden, was Prozesse beim Diagnostizieren, wie die Wahrnehmung und die Interpretation von Aufgabensch...

This study aimed to examine associations between motivation, emotion, and task performance in simulated achievement situations. A group of sixth grade students (n = 190) completed an achievement task. Situational information on task value, success expectations, emotions, effort, task performance, and causal attributions was collected and informatio...

Endorsement of educational psychological misconceptions among preservice teachers can be a threat for reaching educational goals. Therefore, it is of societal interest whether preservice teachers hold educational psychological misconceptions and, if they do, whether these misconceptions can be reduced through confrontation with empirical evidence....

According to expectancy–value theory (EVT), there are 3 components of task values in math that positively predict changes in students’ math achievement: intrinsic, attainment, and utility values. An open question is whether the relations between values and grades differ depending on the value component that is considered. We investigated potentiall...

Zusammenfassung. Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht die Berufswahlmotivation sowie die pädagogischen Vorerfahrungen bei Studierenden verschiedener Lehramtsstudiengänge. Hierzu werden drei Fragestellungen untersucht: Erstens wird der Frage nachgegangen, ob sich die Dimensionalität der Berufswahlmotivation, erfasst über den FEMOLA-Fragebogen ( Pohlma...

This study focuses on preservice teachers’ self-efficacy and its development throughout the course of a school-internship. Based on previous findings, we expected that preservice teachers’ self-efficacy would increase during their internship. Moreover, we argued that this initial development of self-efficacy would be associated with the way the fir...

We investigated whether teachers’ judgments of students’ aptitude had reciprocal effects on students’ motivation and math grades. We expected that teachers’ judgments of students’ aptitude would predict students’ grades and motivation, and that teachers’ judgments would also be predicted by these two aspects. A sample of N = 519 elementary school s...

Achievement motivation is not a single construct but rather subsumes a variety of different constructs like ability self-concepts, task values, goals, and achievement motives. The few existing studies that investigated diverse motivational constructs as predictors of school students’ academic achievement above and beyond students’ cognitive abiliti...

Beschrieben wird ein Konzept für ein Seminar an der Universität Heidelberg, bei dem die Studierenden Interviews mit Expertinnen und Experten führen, die anschließend zu einem Buch zusammengeführt werden. Jedes Seminar bzw. Buch fokussiert einen anderen, anwendungsnahen Themenkreis der Psychologie. Die Studierenden suchen sich hierzu ein spezielles...

In line with the reciprocal internal/external frame of reference model (RI/E model), it is well-established that secondary school students generate domain-specific ability self-concepts by comparing their own performance in a domain socially (i.e., with others' performance in this domain) and dimensionally (i.e., with their own performance in other...

This meta-analysis summarizes 74 studies (N = 80,145) that simultaneously examined the predictive power of intelligence and motivation for school achievement. First, we found average correlations between intelligence (r = 0.44) and motivation (r = 0.27) with school achievement and between intelligence and motivation (r = 0.17). Moderator analyses s...

A growing body of studies has emphasized the need to consider method effects due to positively and negatively worded items for a better understanding of the factorial structure of psychological constructs. In particular, several researchers identified such method factors besides the content factor for various scales measuring Need for Cognition (NF...

Die Arbeitsgruppe Curriculum 4.0 beschäftigte sich mit der Frage, wie Curricula im digitalen Wandel verändert werden müssen, um Studierende auf die Anforderungen der digitalen Wissensgesellschaft vorzubereiten. Ziel der Arbeitsgruppe war es, fachübergreifende Elemente der Curriculumentwicklung herauszuarbeiten sowie Good-Practice-Ansätze aufzuzeige...

Von Laien wie Experten wird Motivation hohe Bedeutung für Lern- und Leistungsverhalten zugesprochen, denn sie ist diejenige psychische Kraft, die dem Verhalten Richtung, Intensität und Ausdauer gibt. Motivation ist dabei sowohl eine Voraussetzung für gelungene Bildungsprozesse als auch ein wichtiges Ergebnis von Bildung. Dabei ist Motivation ein ko...

The effects of offering and seizing optional learning opportunities rarely have been investigated. Thus, university instructors have no basis on which to decide whether offering optional learning opportunities to their students would be worth the effort and which students would seize and benefit from them. To target these questions, we designed a t...

Aufgrund hochschulpolitischer Entwicklungen der letzten Jahre besteht eine starke Nachfrage nach empirischen Befunden über gute Hochschullehre. Dieser Nachfrage stehen jedoch überraschend wenige gesicherte Befunde gegenüber. In diesem Beitrag soll erörtert werden, warum es so schwierig ist, solide Erkenntnisse über die Qualität von Hochschullehre z...

Psychologie ist ein äußerst beliebtes Studienfach. Während 2007 rund 30.000 Studierende dieses Fach belegten, waren es 2016 über 60.000 (Abele-Brehm 2017). Darüber hinaus übersteigt die Anzahl der Studieninteressierten die Anzahl der Studienplätze um ein Vielfaches – auf einen Studienplatz kommen rund 8,5 Bewerberinnen und Bewerber (vgl. Margraf 20...

Dieses Buch informiert lebhaft über die vielfältigen Berufsfelder der Pädagogischen Psychologie. Herzstück des Buches sind Berichte praktisch tätiger Psychologinnen und Psychologen im Bereich der Pädagogischen Psychologie. Die Praktiker/-innen ermöglichen einmalige Einblicke in den Inhalt ihrer Arbeit, notwendige Kompetenzen und die eigene Berufsb...

Background: Intelligence measures play a pivotal role in the diagnosis of mathematical learning disabilities (MLD). Probably as a result of math-related material in IQ tests, children with MLD often display reduced IQ scores. However, it remains unclear whether the effects of math remediation extend to IQ scores. Aims: The present study investig...

Research on teachers' judgment accuracy has focused on teacher judgments of single student charac- teristics. We analyzed differences in teachers' judgment accuracy concerning students with consistent and inconsistent cognitive and socio-emotional profiles (i.e., profiles of cognitive abilities, self-concept, motivation, and anxiety). Based on test...

Math competence beliefs and achievement are important outcomes of school-based learning. Previous studies yielded inconsistent results on whether skill development, self-enhancement, or reciprocal effects account for the interplay among them. A development-related change in the direction of their relation in the early school years might explain the...

. Gender differences in the numerical domain vary greatly according to the assessment method used. We suggest that strict time constraints, as employed on most numerical intelligence tests but not on mathematical competency tests, unduly increase the gender gap in measured numerical intelligence if the test focuses reasoning. Two studies were condu...

Zusammenfassung. Motivationale Defizite gelten als wichtige Ursache von problematischem Arbeitsverhalten und Minderleistung von Studierenden. Der vorliegende Beitrag beschreibt eine Konzeption von Motivation als Kompetenz, die zwischen motivationalen (MOKO), volitionalen (VOKO) und bewertenden (BEKO) Kompetenzen unterscheidet. Zu deren Diagnose wur...

Background: It is often argued that the negative development of intrinsic motivation in elementary school strongly depends on the presence of school grades because grades represent extrinsic consequences and achievement feedback that are supposed to influence intrinsically motivated behaviour. However, only a few studies have tested this hypothesi...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the associations between elementary school children's mathematical achievement and their conservation abilities, visuospatial skills, and numerosity processing speed. We also assessed differences in these abilities between children with different types of learning problems. In Study 1 ( N = 229), we i...

In der Hochschullehre stellen Vorlesungen eine besondere didaktische Herausforderung für Lehrende dar, wenn es um die Aktivierung der Teilnehmer geht. Es wird der Einsatz von schriftlichen Problemaufgaben als Aktivierungsstrategie im Rahmen einer Psychologie-Vorlesung vorgestellt. In der Abschlussklausur der Vorlesung wurde die Wirksamkeit der Stra...

When capacity constraints hinder university instructors' ability to give feedback, software tools might provide a remedy. We analyzed students' acceptance of automatic assessments and the development of learning-related characteristics such as motivation, achievement aspirations, and subjective learning. We randomly assigned university students to...

Earlier findings from studies showed that teachers perceive a decline in students' achievement motivation over generations (Cocodia et al., 2003; Howard, 2001). The aim of this study was to examine the actual basis of these teachers' perceptions with two comparative eich samples, which were recruited ten years apart (2002 N = 3 326 and 2012 N = 3 0...

The present study investigated achievement goals as mediating constructs linking students' distal motivational dispositions to their intrinsic motivation and academic achievement. We surveyed 288 high school students with a mean age of 17.7 years twice over the course of 1 year. At Time 1, students reported their implicit theory of intelligence, ho...

Writing essays and receiving feedback can be useful for fostering students’ learning and motivation. When faced with large class sizes, it is desirable to identify students who might particularly benefit from feedback. In this article, we tested the potential of Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) for identifying poor essays. A total of 14 teaching assi...

This study aimed to identify influencing factors that render students vulnerable to low intrinsic motivation. For this purpose, we investigated whether changes in students' ability self-concept after negative performance feedback affect their intrinsic motivation and whether this effect is moderated by achievement goals. In Experiment 1, 101 univer...

This study examined the role of motivation as a mediator of the relationship between parents' socio-economic status (SES) and children's standardized test achievement in math. We employed a one-year longitudinal approach using Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003 and a follow-up exam in 2004. The sample consisted of N = 6020 G...

Behavior genetics is the study of genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in behavior. Over the past decades, this rapidly evolving field of research has provided compelling evidence for substantial genetic contributions to all important domains of human behavior. Therefore, human development cannot be fully understood withou...

Abstract The aim of the current study is to specify scientific competencies in sociology and to discuss their usefulness for professional practice. To this end we introduce a theoretical model of scientific com- petencies in sociology. To identify building blocks of scientific competencies in sociology, we drew on the Structure of Intellect-model (...

Essays that are assigned as homework in large classes are prone to cheating via unauthorized collaboration. In this study, we compared the ability of a software tool based on Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) and student teaching assistants to detect plagiarism in a large group of students. To do so, we took two approaches: the first approach was in v...

Zusammenfassung. Vor dem Hintergrund der Selbstbestimmungstheorie untersuchten wir die reziproken Zusammenhange zwischen Intrinsischer Motivation (IM) und Deutschnoten bei Grundschulkindern unter zusatzlicher Berucksichtigung des domanenspezifischen Fahigkeitsselbstkonzepts (FSK). Dazu wurden das FSK, die IM und die Noten von N = 523 Grundschulkind...

This study examined the relative importance of different motivational constructs for the prediction of mathematical competence in adolescents and their incremental power beyond intelligence and prior achievement. We employed both a cross-sectional and a one-year longitudinal approach using data from PISA 2003 and 2004, a nation-wide representative...

Little is known about why people differ in their levels of academic motivation. This study explored the etiology of individual differences in enjoyment and self-perceived ability for several school subjects in nearly 13,000 twins aged 9–16 from 6 countries. The results showed a striking consistency across ages, school subjects, and cultures. Contra...

The aim of the present study was to introduce a general theoretical model of scientific competencies in higher education and to adapt it to three social sciences, namely psychology, sociology, and political science, by providing evidence from expert interviews and program regulations. Within our general model, we distinguished and specified four bu...

Durch die aktuelle Bildungsexpansion ist zu erwarten, dass die Heterogenität der Studierenden bezüglich studienrelevanter Merkmale zugenommen hat und noch weiter zunehmen wird. Dies stellt Hochschullehrende vor neue Herausforderungen, wenn sie möglichst vielen Studierenden zu möglichst hohem Lernerfolg und nachhaltiger Motivation für die Studieninh...

In diesem Kapitel wird zunächst dargelegt, warum der Lernmotivation im Bildungskontext eine so große Bedeutung zukommt. Anschließend erfolgt eine Begriffsbestimmung und verschiedene Arten der Lernmotivation werden vorgestellt. Das Kapitel endet mit einem Blick auf zentrale Forschungsergebnisse.