The role of motivation and academic emotions in university studies : The short- and long-term effects on situational experiences and academic achievement

This dissertation examined how different motivational and emotional aspects of studying (i.e., students’ beliefs, expectancies, interests, values and academic emotions) contribute to university students’ academic engagement and achievement and how they are related to students’ daily situational experiences during the first years at university. The first overall aim of the dissertation was to identify university students’ motivational-emotional profiles, representing the more general dispositions in studying. The second aim was to examine how the student profiles and other general motivational dispositions are related to students’ contextual and situational experiences. Finally, the third aim was to investigate the consequences of both general student dispositions and situational academic emotions for shortand long-term educational outcomes. This dissertation consists of five original studies, which investigated students’ experiences and achievement on different contextual and temporal levels of specificity. Study I examined whether situational academic emotions predict shortterm study success. Studies II and III investigated students’ motivational-emotional profiles that were based on their overall study-related beliefs and expectancies, the perceived meaning of studying and their emotional experiences. These studies further examined how the student profiles differed, in Study II, in terms of course-specific experiences, self-study time and study success and, in Study III, in terms of long-term academic achievement. Studies IV and V focused on students’ daily situational experiences. Study IV investigated how autonomous and controlled motivation was related to daily educational goals and further to situational academic emotions during the same day. Study V examined the shortand long-term effects of the first-year study engagement on the daily experiences of task-specific value and emotions. Both questionnaire data and intensive longitudinal experience sampling data as well as achievement data from the student register were used. Variableand person-oriented analytical approaches as well as intra-individual statistical methods were used to construct a more comprehensive understanding of the complex nature of university students’ engagement and achievement. Utilizing a person-oriented approach, distinct groups of students with different motivational-emotional profiles were found with clear differences in contextual experiences and shortand long-term achievement (Study II: committed, dysfunctional, unstressed; Study III: engaged, disengaged, undecided, alienated). Dysfunctional and disengaged students expressed the most negative experiences and performed the most poorly, whereas engaged and committed students had the most favourable outcomes. Undecided and unstressed students displayed less engagement but had no serious problems in studying and they improved their performance after the first academic year. Despite the motivational and emotional problems, alienated students performed relatively well. A variable-oriented analytical approach further revealed that students’ situational academic emotions were related to study success in a lecture course. Finally, studies using an intra-individual approach showed that daily autonomous and controlled goal motivation was related to students’ situational academic emotions and that first-year study engagement was related to daily situational experiences both shortand long-term. In conclusion, the present dissertation indicates that even highly selected university students show various motivational-emotional patterns of engagement already at the beginning of their studies. These dispositions are related not only to students’ immediate, everyday experiences and study success but also their longterm academic achievement. The findings demonstrate the importance of investigating university students’ experiences and achievement on various contextual and temporal levels of specificity.