Question

Case Study – Psychology and Motivation

Read the following case study and answer the questions that follow:-

Jennifer was diagnosed with dyslexia at the end of her first year of studying for a psychology degree. It has an impact on her ability to read journal articles and other text, do statistics, read, and take down numbers from slides. Despite these difficulties she’s just started a PhD in psychology, having obtained an excellent undergraduate degree through extremely hard work and determination: “Little did they know that I worked up until 3-4 in the morning on many occasions, as it would sometimes take me ages to read through some of the journals I was using”. However, additional understanding and support from academic and support staff could have made the process much less stressful.

She found that, while some lecturers wanted to do everything for her when she revealed that she had dyslexia, others thought it meant she was unable to do statistics or needed a great deal of extra support. However, in many cases all that was required was something relatively minor – for example, to have information on a handout so that she wouldn’t be required to take down material from a slide. Unfortunately, with some academic staff this requirement just didn’t seem to sink in, meaning that Jennifer would have to keep repeating her request, which was quite embarrassing in front of the rest of the class.

Although she passed the statistics module, Jennifer had great difficulty with the subject area. “The only way I got through it was by going back to basics in terms of having to work out equations by hand – it was the only way I was going to grasp the concepts, and I had to pay for extra tuition as the amount of time allotted for statistics wasn’t enough,” she explains. Whilst her department made some attempt to assist all students with statistical difficulties, putting on extra statistics classes for students with dyslexia, the person who took these was not very approachable and appeared to just run through the same notes used in lectures, thereby undercutting what potentially could have been a useful support mechanism.

Alternative examination arrangements have been made for Jennifer, such as extra time, and a separate room. However, recently the disability unit has not been so helpful, with one staff member commenting that she couldn’t see why Jennifer would want a top-up assessment, given that she had managed to get a first in her undergraduate degree.

There was also a breakdown of communication between the disability unit and lecturing staff, with one lecturer not knowing that alternative examination arrangements had been made for Jennifer and other disabled students in her class. Rather than waiting for the students to return to the lecture hall after their in-class assessment, he started the second part of the lecture and publicly reprimanded Jennifer for being late, which caused her much embarrassment.

Jennifer states: “It did surprise me that there were a few psychology lecturers who didn’t seem to have any understanding of dyslexia. Thankfully the majority of the department had an understanding, but those few who are not can make things very difficult for someone like myself”.

Questions

1.      Utilizing the model of motivation explain the process that Jennifer went through in the case study.

2.      What category of motives drove Jennifer in the case study?

3.      Explain Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs and state what need(s) Jennifer sought to meet in accordance with the basic needs pyramid.

4.      Was Jennifer extrinsically or extrinsically motivated based on the case study? Give three reasons based on the case study.

5.      What challenges did Jennifer face, that sought to challenge her motivation?

Answer 1

1. I think we can explain jennifer motivation with the Herzberg's Two Factor Theory of Motivation. According to his model, he mentioned about two factors that are hygiene and motivation. Hygiene factors include the work and organizational environment. These factors do no lead to higher levels of motivation but without them, there is dissatisfaction. The second component in his theory motivation involves what people actually do on the job and should be engineered into the works jennifer do in order to develop intrinsic motivation with the workforce. these factors result from internal instrincts in jennifer, yeilding motivation rather than movement.

2. Category of motivation might includes Achievement, Recognition, Interest and Responsibility.

3. Maslows hierarchy of needs include physiological, safety, love and belonging, Esteem and Self Actualization. In the case of Jennifer she should meet the basic needs and including the need of esteem for her better performance and acheiving her abilities.

4. Jennifer's motivation in study and performance must have influenced extrintic factors. Becuase here she mentioned that some of her teachers and collegues are well supportive for her most of the time. but in some instances she has difficulty with peoples lack of understanding and as a result she felt embarassed to perform.

5. Here challange in the sense she encountered with her own learning disability (Dyslexia), Work environment and People approach, subjects difficulty level.