Motivational interviewing, a directive, patient-centred counselling approach focused on exploring and resolving ambivalence, has emerged as an effective therapeutic approach within the addictions field. However, the effectiveness of motivational interviewing in weight-loss interventions is unclear. Electronic databases were systematically searched for randomized controlled trials evaluating beh...

Health concerns are common reasons for wanting to quit smoking among smokers with mental illnesses. Motivational interventions have used feedback from a carbon monoxide monitor to increase awareness of health concerns, but this device is not commonly available. Whether brief motivational interventions can be effective without this feedback is unknown. Using a randomized controlled trial, this s...

The authors developed and meta-analytically examined hypotheses designed to test and extend work design theory by integrating motivational, social, and work context characteristics. Results from a summary of 259 studies and 219,625 participants showed that 14 work characteristics explained, on average, 43% of the variance in the 19 worker attitudes and behaviors examined. For example, motivatio...

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationships among perceived motivational climate, individuals' goal orientations, and dispositional flow, with attention to possible gender differences. A sample of 413 young athletes, ages 12 to 16 years, completed the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire-2 (PMCSQ-2) and Perception of Success Questionnaire (POSQ), as well ...

The aim of this study was to analyze the degree of prediction to which the goal orientation adopted by the student and the motivational climate created by the teacher as perceived by students in physical education classes, have on the students' self-determined behaviors. The sample included 846 high school students from the Murcia region (Spain) aged 12-19 years old. The Spanish versions of the...

There are a number of important issues raised by Murphy and Alexander in the lead article of this issue. In this response, four general issues are discussed in light of current research and achievement goal theory. The four issues include: (1) the general definition and theoretical clarity of motivational constructs, (2) the accessibility and consciousness of motivational beliefs, (3) the inter...

Little work has been done to understand the motivational impact of specific game elements and how they combine to form student motivational styles in educational gamification. In this exploratory study we evaluate the level of motivation reported for a variety of game elements by 184 students. Using this data we generated a principle components analysis to identify the underlying factor structu...