Department publishes study in the journal "Motivation and Emotion" with national research team

Increasing motivational cost developments in the sense of situated expectancy-value theory are closely related to lower examination performance. However, previous research has often only recorded these costs one-dimensionally, with too few measurement points, in long-term studies or limited to individual subject areas, such as in STEM subjects. In the present study, motivational costs were examined in a differentiated manner and their individual development trajectories were analyzed over the course of individual courses in a semester. Four cost components in university courses were examined: Task effort, external effort, opportunity costs and emotional costs. Demographic characteristics and the students' subsequent examination behavior were also included in the analyses. The study is based on longitudinal data from 374 students, specifically student teachers of special education and students on the bachelor's degree program in rehabilitation education, who were surveyed at three points in time within a course of a semester. Growth mixture models were used to identify different course types: three classes for task effort costs, two for external effort costs, four for opportunity costs and four for emotional costs. The results also show systematic correlations between the identified progression classes and characteristics such as migration background, employment, gender and examination performance. Overall, the findings provide important starting points for the further development of teaching and curricula as well as for targeted support services for student groups.

Wild, S., Kunina-Habenicht, O., & von Keyserlingk, L. (2026, online first). Development of Different Motivational Cost Component Classes in University Courses - Group Specific Trajectories and later Examination Behavior. Motivation and Emotion. https://doi. org/10.1007/s11031-026-10193-x