Motivation of the Unemployed

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Motivation of the Unemployed
An Application of The Theory of Reasoned Action
and Perceived Self-efficacy

• Marko Radovan
• Slovenian Institute for Adult Education

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Contents of presentation

• Theory of reasoned action (TRA) as a model of
  understanding PAE
• Results of the study using TRA

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Participation in adult education

• CRUCIAL QUESTION
• How to motivate adults who do not participate in
  AE? Adults with low level of qualification,
  women, older, low social-economic status,
  handicapped, minorities,MISSING!
• SEVERAL MODELS DEVELOPED
• Miller (1967), Boshier (1973), Rubenson (1977),
  Cross (1981), Cookson (1986)
• Most often a combination of psychological and
  sociological variables (interactive models)
• Main deficiencies very extensive (many variables
  some are hard to measure) ? absence of
  empirical validation ? no comparison,
  improvement,

WHAT IS NEEDED IS A SIMPLE AND FEASIBLE, BUT
VALID MODEL OF PAE!
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Theory of Reasoned Action
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Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen Fishbein,
1975, 1980)

• Fishbeins (1967) work on the psychological
  processes through which attitudes might cause
  behavior and analysis of weak attitude-behavior
  relations
• La Piere (1934) Attitudes to Chinese Will you
  accept members of the Chinese race as guests in
  your establishment? ? Inconsistency between
  attitude and behavior
• Wicker (1969) - Review of attitude-behavior
  relationship ? Low attitude-behavior
  relationship (mean r .15)
• Psychometric inadequacies (1 item measure)
• Principle of aggregation ? LaPieres poor
  prediction of behavior used a general measure of
  attitude to try to predict a specific action
  rather than a general action.

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Principle of Correspondence/Compatibility

• Each attitude and behavior has four elements of
• Action
• Target
• Context
• Time

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Principle of Correspondence/Compatibility

• Each attitude and behavior has four elements of
• Action Learning
• Target Education
• Context School
• Time Next month
• Attitude-behavior relations will be stronger when
  both
• are measured at the same level of specificity

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Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen Fishbein,
1975, 1980)

• Problems arise from lack of clarity of which
  aspects are most important in definition of
  attitude and how should be measured
• Must distinguish between
• Attitude
• Beliefs
• Behaviour

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Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen Fishbein,
1975, 1980)

• Attitude
• Main feature is its evaluative (or affective)
  nature
• Measurement should be bipolar in relation to
  affect
• Beliefs
• The information a person has about an object
• Measurement should be dimensional in relation to
  subjective strength of belief
• Behaviour
• The observable acts that are studied in their own
  right
• Measurement of behaviour should not be taken to
  infer attitude

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Theory of Reasoned ActionATTITUDES

• Persons positive or negative evaluation of
  performing a behavior
• Behavioral beliefs about the consequences of
  performing the behavior (outcome expectancies)
• Evaluation of outcomes appraisal (importance) of
  the consequences

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Theory of Reasoned ActionSUBJECTIVE NORM

• Persons perception of the social pressures to
  perform or not perform a behavior.
• Normative beliefs about whether specific
  individuals or groups think one should perform
  the behavior.
• Motivation to comply with these people.

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Intention ? Behavior

• Intentions are assumed to capture motivation to
  act
• Attitude to an object is related to persons
  intention to perform a variety of behaviors with
  respect to the object
• When dealing with volitional behavior, people can
  be expected to do what they intend to do
• Shorter time interval between intention/behavior,
  greater predictability
• Specificity of action, greater predictability
• Principle of correspondence and compatibility

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Theoretical background of our research
Behavioral beliefs
Attitudes toward behavior
Outcome evaluations
Behavioral intention
Behavior
Normative beliefs
Subjective norm
Motivation to comply
THEORY OF REASONED ACTION Ajzen in Fishbein (1975)
5th ERDI Expert Seminar (21st-23rd January, 2005,
Bonn, Germany
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From Theory of Reasoned Action to Theory of
Planned Behavior

• Part of behavior can be explained by
  non-motivational factors as availability or
  requisite resources/skills
• Control factors
• External factors situational, environmental
  factors
• Internal factors information, skills, and
  abilities

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Theory of Planned Behavior

• To improve the predictive power of the Theory of
  Reasoned Action Ajzen added a third construct to
  the original theory
• Perceived behavioral control
• It reflects the fundamental difference between
  the theory of reasoned action and the theory of
  planned behavior

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Theory of Planned Behavior

• Perceived ease or difficulty in performing a
  behavior
• Extent that non-volitional factors interfere with
  ones attempt to perform a behavior
• Intentions reflect willingness to try, perceived
  control reflects perceived realistic
  constraints
• Perceived control refers to the perceived ease or
  difficulty of performing the behavior
• If perceived control actual control, then
  perceived control more accurate predictor of
  behavior

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Theory of Planned Behavior Ajzen (1985)
Attitude
Intention
Behavior
Subjective Norm
Perceived Behavioral Control
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TRA as a model of understanding and predicting PAE

• Great predictive value for many behaviors
• Model is only as good as the identification of
  all or most of the outcomes that are salient to
  the target population and identification of
  important referents
• Attitudes generally stronger predictor
• Model useful in predicting one behavior over
  variety of alternatives.
• Assumes behavior is under volitional control

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Our research
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Theoretical background of our research
SIAE

• EXPECTANCY-VALUE THEORY
• Vroom (1964) Howard () Rubenson (1978)
• Individuals motivation is influenced by person's
  belief that engagement in activity will result in
  a desired goal (expectancy component) and the
  value a person assigns to the potential results
  related to that activity (value component).
• THEORY OF REASONED ACTION
• Ajzen Fishbein (1975, 1980) Grotelueschen
  Caulley (1977)
• Individuals motivation is influenced by 1.)
  attitudes toward behavior and 2.) references
  groups
• SELF-EFFICACY THEORY
• Bandura (1986, 1997)
• Individuals motivation is influenced by
  confidence in their ability to organize and
  execute a given course of action to solve a
  problem or accomplish a task.

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Self-Efficacy BeliefsBandura (1986, 1997)

• Self-Efficacy
• Peoples judgments of their capabilities to
  organize execute courses of action required to
  attain designated types of performances (e.g. I
  can get 100 points on this exam.)

• It influences

Choice of activity
Choice of situation
Effort and persistence

• More specific situational view of perceived
  competence in terms of including behavioral
  actions or cognitive skills necessary for
  performance
• Used in reference to some type of goal

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Theoretical model of motivation of the unemployed
SIAE
Attitudes
Educational intentions Educational aspirations
Motivational orientation
Subjective norms
Self-efficacy
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Main goals of research

• To establish the appropriateness of the modified
  model of Theory of Reasoned Action for predicting
  motivation
• Understanding the characteristics of the
  motivation of unemployed

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Measures

• Attitude
• With education my work will be more independent/
  Being independent at work is important for me.
• Subjective Norm
• My teacher think that I should/should not
  continue education after finishing this
  schooling./It is import for me what teacher
  thinks
• Self-Efficacy
• How competent do you feel at learning difficult
  materials?
• Intention
• I intend to continue education after finishing
  this schooling
• Aspiration
• In the future I would like to accomplish
  secondary level of education
• Expectation
• I think that in the future I will have a job
  with secondary school ed.

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Sample

• Programme 5.000 (now 10.000) that since 1998
  facilitate unemployed people to acquire publicly
  accredited education.
• The programme is primarily intended for the
  following
• unemployed people without vocational or
  professional qualifications, especially young
  people under the age of 26
• people over 40 who have not completed their
  vocational or professional training
• unemployed people with vocational or professional
  qualifications who are unable to acquire
  employment in their profession
• Main objectives of the programme
• to increase the employability of unemployed
  people
• to raise education and qualifications levels
• to reduce the structural occupational
  discrepancies.

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Sample Main characteristics

• Degree of education
• primary school ? 32
• 1-2 year voc. school ? 21
• 3-year second. school ? 46
• other ? 2
• Educational programs
• Business secretary ? 26
• Catering ? 16
• Economist /commercialist ? 14
• Gardener ? 10
• Tradesman ? 7
• Other ? 27

n 326

• Gender
• men ? 27
• women ? 73
• Age
• lt 25 ? 42
• 2530 ? 25
• 3135 ? 17
• 3650 ? 16
• (Mean age28 years)

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Descriptive Statistics

• __________________________________________________
  ___________
• Items Alpha Mean SD
  Min/Max
• __________________________________________________
  ___________
• Intention 1 - 0.04
  2.53 -3/3
• Aspiration 1 - 0.36
  0.71 1/4
• Expectation 1 - 2.92
  0.07 1/4
• Attitude 18 0.83 15.00
  2.84 4.8/20
• Subjective Norm 8 0.83 1.99
  4.67 - 12/12
• Self-Efficacy 12 0.82 3.55
  0.57 2.1/5
• __________________________________________________
  ___________

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Most Important Beliefs

• Behavioral beliefs ()
• Independent at work
• Chance for promotion
• Interesting job
• Satisfaction at work
• Behavioral beliefs (-)
• Free time
• Influence in society
• Monetary benefits

• Outcome evaluations ()
• Interesting job
• Safe future
• Independent at work
• Satisfaction at work
• Outcome evaluations (-)
• Influence in society
• Free time
• Monetary benefits

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Most Important Reference Groups

• Normative beliefs
• Friends
• Spouse, partner
• Teacher
• Counselor at school
• Mother
• Brother/sister
• Father
• Counselor at the job-centre

• Motivation to comply
• Counselor at the job-centre
• Spouse, partner
• Mother
• Counselor at school
• Teachers
• Father
• Friends
• Brother/sister

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Self-Efficacy

• Self-efficacy
• Confidence in success at schooling
• Successful problem-solving
• Persistence at problem-solving
• Self-efficacy
• Difficult to concentrate for learning
• Hard to memorize new materials
• Learning of difficult content

()
(-)
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Correlations

• __________________________________________________
  ____
• Intention Asp.
  Exp.
• __________________________________________________
  ____
• Intention
• Aspiration .25
• Expectation .42
  .61
• Attitude .13 .06 .16
• Subjective Norm .60 .16
  .21
• Self-Efficacy .11 .28
  .27
• __________________________________________________
  ____
• p lt .05, p lt .01, p lt .001

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Regression Analysis Results

• _________________________________________________
• Intention
• _________________________________________________
• Attitude .04
• Subjective Norm .59
• Self-Efficacy .08
• _________________________________________________
• adj. R2 .53
• p lt .05 p lt .01 p .001

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Regression Analysis Results

• _________________________________________________
• Intention Exp.
• _________________________________________________
• Attitude .04 .15
• Subjective Norm .59 .17
  
• Self-Efficacy .08
  .27
• _________________________________________________
• adj. R2 .53
  .14
• p lt .05 p lt .01 p .001

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Regression Analysis Results

• _________________________________________________
• Intention Exp. Asp.
• _________________________________________________
• Attitude .04 .15 .06
• Subjective Norm .59 .17
  .09
• Self-Efficacy .08
  .27 .32
• _________________________________________________
• adj. R2 .53
  .14 .10
• p lt .05 p lt .01 p .001

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Differences In Attitudes Between More And Less
Motivated (Combined Measure)

• Outcome evaluation
• Possibilities for training
• (p lt .05)
• Independent at work
• (p lt .10)
• Creative at work (p lt .10)

• Behavioral beliefs
• Possibilities for training (p lt .001)
• Personality development (p lt .05)
• Job selection (p lt .05)
• Better understanding (p lt .05)
• Safe future (p lt .05)
• Promotion (p lt .10)
• Influence on decision-making
• (p lt .10)

More motivated students rate all items higher
than less motivated students.
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Differences In Subjective Norms Between More And
Less Motivated

• Normative beliefs
• Father (p lt .001)
• Mother (p lt .001)
• Brother/sister (p lt .001)
• Friends (p lt .001)
• Spouse/partner (p lt .001)
• Teachers at school (p lt .001)
• Counselor at school (p lt .001)
• Counselor at the job-centre (p lt .001)

• Motivation to comply
• Counselor at the job-centre
• (p lt .10)

More motivated students rate all items higher
than less motivated students. This referent is
more important for less motivated.
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Differences In Self-efficacy Beliefs Between More
And Less Motivated

• Self-efficacy beliefs
• Learning for an exam (p lt .005)
• Organization of time of learning (p lt .05)
• Solving difficult problems (p lt .005)
• Learning new materials/content (p lt .05)
• Memorizing learning content (p lt .005)

Only items with statistically significant
differences are presented
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Demographic differences in motivation
Motivation
Higher education of parents gt Lower education of
parents (p lt .05)
Attitude
Subj. norm
young gt old (p .035) Higher education of
parents gt Lower education of parents (p lt .05)
Self-Efficacy
women gt men (p .073) Higher education of
parents gt Lower education of parents (p lt .05)
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Conclusions and Limitations of the Study

• The validity of the TRA model was confirmed
• It was hard to include behavior in the
  theoretical model
• Age of participants influenced results (attitudes
  vs. subjective norm)
• Self-efficacy would be more important factor if
  the study would be conducted before the start of
  the education
• Self-efficacy scale needs more validation
• Model should tested with other populations

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Thank you...