Canadian Psychiatric Association - CPD Dialogue Motivation, change and why learners choose specific learning activities Reprinted with permission from The Continuing Mental Health Education Newsletter, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, 1999. For example, a psychiatrist perceives that his ability to treat depression is out of date. His decision to engage in a particular CE activity will depend on the perceived value of the programme and whether it will be personally satisfying. If any of these elements is missing, it is less likely the psychiatrist will choose a specific CE event on depression. Using discrepancy theory, the authors first describe what internal cognitive factors motivate individuals to learn.
Discrepancy theory explains how learners determine that a change is required in their behaviour.
For example, a psychiatrist may realize there is a discrepancy between her knowledge of the current acute management of a schizophrenic patient after reading recent clinical practice guidelines. She may then become motivated to learn because this discrepancy generates low level anxiety. Individuals may be internally driven to change their behaviour because of perceived discrepancies in their competence, related to observable standards. In order for health professional learners to identify discrepancies between standards and their present behaviour, CE planners need to consider assessing these discrepancies before implementing their CE programmes. For instance, assessing a psychiatrist s competence in managing schizophrenia against a standard, before a CE intervention and providing feedback to a learner before the intervention, may increase the motivation of learners to narrow the gap or the discrepancy between their current competency and an ideal competency.