Motivation Research institute

Mission Statement: To facilitate and support collaborations among faculty and students on the study of motivation.

Background: In the Spring of 2001, a small group of faculty and graduate students in the Assessment and Measurement PhD program started a weekly research group on student motivation. Over the years, our meetings have grown substantially in faculty and student involvement and have become a permanent fixture at the Center for Assessment and Research Studies. Any given semester, we will have a core group of faculty and students from the Assessment and Measurement PhD program, the Psychological Sciences Masters program, and from the Undergraduate Psychology program.

We are guided by the following objectives:

• To provide research training and research opportunities for faculty and students
• To advance the study of motivation theory
• To advance the use of statistical and measurement techniques in motivational research
• To evaluate existing measurement tools and develop new measurement tools related to the study of motivation
• To advance the application of motivation theory (e.g., to improve university learning environments, to improve assessment of student motivation and development)
• To communicate findings through multiple outlets (e.g., conference presentations, theory journals, measurement journals, university reports, higher education journals)

In the Spring of 2005, we formalized our group. Our goal was to build upon our above objectives and to add the following:

• To create a website summarizing on-going activities, publications/presentations, developed instruments
• To create a formal organization for current students to identify with, as well as for former students to remain affiliated with after leaving the program
• To create a formal organization to help solicit outside funding and research opportunities
• To create a formal organization to advertise resources/services to the outside community