Factors Affecting College Students’ Motivation
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of requirements for the College of Arts and Sciences Major in Psychology By Imelda Tolentino Josan Alejandra Valle Charize Faith Laciste Mirriam Calimlim

Arellano University-Pasig September, 2013

Chapter I
Introduction
Studying is said to be the primary key to achieve academic excellence, but what factors really driven students to study? Others might say that fears motivate students while others might claim that you should give them tough classes and they will pull through. Some teaching faculty would say that students are motivated because of their personal goals in life. Yes, you could ask everyone but they would just answer in different opinions. The disagreement about the sources of student motivation makes the question of academic motivation sound a great deal like that of workplace motivation. Management theory abounds with contradictory theories about what makes employees work. Maslow (1968) argued that needs drive behaviour, and that workplace (and, presumably, academic) motivation is determined by the level of the needs hierarchy at which the individual is operating. McClelland (1966) claimed instead that motivation is driven by an innate need to achieve, and Herzberg (1959)

proposed that the content of the jobs themselves was the source of the elusive employee motivation. The purpose of this research was to align explanations for student motivation with classical workplace motivation theories. Are students driven by needs, confirming Maslow’s (1968) theory? Are they instead motivated by innate needs to achieve, aligning with McClelland’s work? Or are they, perhaps, motivated to study only when the content of their courses inspires them, as seems to be suggested by Herzberg (1959)? Once college faculty are aware of the sources of students’ motivation, they