Measuring cost: The forgotten component of expectancy-value theory

By J. Flake, K. Barron, Chris S. Hulleman, Betsy McCoach, Megan E. Welsh. 2015

514 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Although the Expectancy-Value Model offers one of the most influential models for understanding motivation, one component of this model, cost, has been largely ignored in empirical research. Fortunately, recent research is emerging on cost, but no clear consensus has emerged for operationalizing and measuring it. To address this shortcoming, we outline a comprehensive scale development process that builds and extends on prior work. We conducted a literature review of theory and existing measurement, a qualitative study with students, a content alignment with experts, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and a correlational study. In the literature and across our studies, we found that cost was salient to students, separate from expectancy and value components, contained multiple dimensions, and related to student outcomes. This work led to proposing a new, 19 item cost scale with four dimensions: task effort cost, outside effort cost, loss of valued alternatives cost, and emotional cost. In addition, to extend existing cost measures, careful attention was taken to operationalize the cost dimensions such that the scale could be easily used with a wide variety of students in various contexts. Directions for future research and the implications for the study of motivation are discussed.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7b5d0e7d26cd4b659bb1f0767abfe0c1df761970

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In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Gender by racial/ethnic intersectionality in the patterns of Adolescents’ math motivation and their math achievement and engagement (2021, background): “Future studies could also incorporate motivational beliefs theorized to deter individuals from a domain, such as cost (Flake et al., 2015; Rosenzweig et al., 2019).”
A Practical Measure of Student Motivation (2015, methodology): “Other formative data contributing to the EVC Scale development were gleaned from qualitative research on cost (Flake, 2012), and by coding and comparing open-ended responses with Likert-type scale item responses.”
Probing the Unique Contributions of Self-Concept, Task Values, and Their Interactions Using Multiple Value Facets and Multiple Academic Outcomes (2016, result): “This finding is in line with more recent empirical work on cost, which suggests that cost is better conceived of as a moderator variable for the relations between expectancy and achievement-related behaviors, compared to other value components (Barron & Hulleman, 2015; Flake et al., 2015).”
Motivation in transition: Development and roles of expectancy, task values, and costs in early college engineering. (2019, background): “Given that perceived costs are typically negatively related to expectancies and values (e.g., Conley, 2012; Flake et al., 2015; Trautwein et al., 2012), one may speculate that perceived costs increase over time.”
Student Motivation: Current Theories, Constructs, and Interventions Within an Expectancy-Value Framework (2016, background): “When student have too many other demands on their time or do not know how to effectively manage their time, they are more likely to experience high cost (Barron & Hulleman, 2015 ; Flake et al., 2015 ).”
More useful or not so bad? Examining the effects of utility value and cost reduction interventions in college physics. (2020, methodology): “Researchers and theorists who have studied perceived cost (e.g., Flake et al., 2015; Gaspard et al., 2015; Perez et al., 2014; Wigfield et al., 2017) generally agree that students perceive different types of cost, which represent different types of negative aspects of task engagement.”