The Social Psychology of Motivation

The Social Psychology of Motivation is a collection of classic and contemporary readings that explore the social and cognitive underpinnings of the psychology of motivation. Organized in a highly readable format, author commentaries accompany each unit and article, providing historical and contextual analyses throughout.

Looking at human motivation from a social psychology perspective invites exploration of issues such as why some people respond to success by lowering their level of aspiration while others raise it; why some people go out of their way to identify with stigmatized minority groups; and why people become more patriotic after thinking about their death.

With helpful pedagogy including discussion questions for each article and a thorough collection of further readings, this unique text brings together empirical research and theoretical reviews with fresh Canadian commentary. This text is aimed at single-term upper-level undergraduate courses in the social psychology of motivation. This course is most likely to be offered out of psychology departments but may also be found in management or organizational behaviour departments of business schools, education schools, physical education departments, and clinical/professional psychology programs. Professionals and practitioners in such fields as education, personnel, psychotherapy, addictions, physical education, law, and public health may benefit from insights into human motivation provided by these primary-source materials.