Motivation Science Controversies and Insights

When, why, and how are people motivated? This is the essential question that motivation science has sought to address since the field's inception, and yet motivation scientists have offered many contrasting and even conflicting perspectives that have stalled key conversations in the research. This volume captures the nature of these critical debates, while also moving the field towards greater coherence by bringing differing perspectives from experts together in one volume. Posing 10 fundamental questions to 57 prominent motivation researchers around the globe, Motivation Science: Controversies and Insights covers topics such as the nature of motivation, cultural differences in motivational processes, evidence-based strategies to enhance motivation, and predictions for the future of the field.

Edited by three leaders in motivation science, this volume provides readers with a rare opportunity to see how different theorists and researchers recognize, evaluate, and prescribe solutions to the same motivation problem. By sharing current thinking and providing innovative insights into the important questions and controversies in the study of motivation, the book brings together cutting-edge theory and research that readers can use to generate fresh and effective applications and interventions.

Dr. Mimi Bong is a Professor of Educational Psychology and the Director of the Brain and Motivation Research Institute at Korea University. For the past 27 years, she has been studying the achievement motivation of children and adolescents, focusing on the role of self-efficacy beliefs, value perceptions, and achievement goals in student motivation and self-regulation. Bong is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Experimental Education and has served or currently serves on the editorial boards of numerous journals, including American Educational Research Journal, Child Development, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Educational Psychologist, Educational Psychology Review, Educational Researcher, Journal of Educational Psychology, and Learning and Instruction.

Dr. Johnmarshall Reeve is a Professor in the Institute for Psychology and Education at the Australian Catholic University in Sydney, Australia. His research focuses on all aspects of human motivation and emotion, but mostly on autonomy-supportive teaching, students' agentic engagement, and the neuroscience of intrinsic motivation. He has published 86 articles in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Educational Psychology and authored 4 books, including Understanding Motivation and Emotion and Supporting Students' Motivation.

Dr. Sung-il Kim is the Dean of the College of Education and the Graduate School of Education and a Professor of Educational Psychology at Korea University. His research focuses on interest, curiosity, neural bases of motivation, and modeling interest-based learning. He has served as the President of the Korean Educational Psychology Association, the Korean Society for Cognitive Science, and the Korean Mind, Brain, and Education Society, and the Director of the Brain and Motivation Research Institute. He is an Associate Editor of Frontiers in Psychology and serves on the editorial board of Motivation and Emotion.