Do motivational changes differ between academic disciplines? Investigating the context in situated expectancy-value theory

Abstract Students’ expectancies for success and their subjective study values play a central role in academic motivation and achievement. Recent advances in research have highlighted the importance of contextual factors on individual motivation. In this regard, academic disciplines represent salient contexts that likely influence expectancies and values—but research on this topic has been lacking. To address this, we investigate how short-term changes in students’ expectancies and subjective study values differ between academic disciplines. We conduct two separate studies and analyse our data using multi-group latent change score models. In Study 1, we compared N = 403 students of disciplines with a broad, medium, and narrow vocational orientation. In Study 2, we investigated motivational changes of N = 444 students of disciplines within the humanities and social sciences. Findings demonstrate that expectancies, intrinsic values, utility values, and attainment values declined, whereas costs increased over the three months of our study. Although students’ initial motivation differed markedly across academic disciplines, motivational changes seem generalisable across academic disciplines. These results provide novel insights into both disciplinary differences and similarities in students’ motivation. On a practical level, findings outline common motivational problems across various disciplines. To effectively address these issues and foster students’ motivation, it seems most sensible and promising to target the motivational values (i.e. interest, vocational utility) that students lack.