Gender Differences in Academic Motivation in University Students

This research study aims to investigate the gender differences in academic motivation among university students and how it affects their overall performance. The study analyzes responses from 100 undergraduates aged 20 or more using statistical tools and techniques. The findings suggest that gender is a significant influencing factor in motivation among university students, and motivation has a direct impact on their final grades. The study also highlights the need to consider other factors such as family background and teaching methods that may affect motivation.

To investigate gender differences in
academic motivation in university students

ABSTRACT
Motivation can be defined as a composition of various factors that influence students
towards study and encourage them to achieve set educational goals. Current research study
aimed to judge that whether there is a significant difference exist or not on the motivational
behaviour between male and female students and how it affects overall performance of the
students. All the responses gathered through 100 undergraduates aged 20 or more studying in 2nd
or 3rd year is studied through statistical tools and techniques. Cronbach alpha measures strongly
supported the internal reliability and consistency for the 7-Subscale under Academic Motivation
Scale (AMS). Gender is seen as a significantly influencing factor of all kind of motivation
among university students. Moreover, motivation has a direct significant impact over their final
grades or performance in their course. It is because; high motivation leads to drive performance
improvement whilst a motivation is a sign of poor performance. Despite this, motivation is also
affected by other factors like family background, method of teaching, ethnicity and others which
had not been studied.
Keywords: Academic Motivation Scale, undergraduates, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic
motivation, amotivation, academic performance

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER: 1 INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1
1.1 Background of the study........................................................................................................1
1.2 Rationale of the study............................................................................................................2
1.3 Research aims and objectives................................................................................................2
1.4 Research hypothesis...............................................................................................................3
1.5 Dissertation structure.............................................................................................................3
CHAPTER 2: METHODS...............................................................................................................4
2.1 Research philosophy..............................................................................................................4
2.2 Research approach.................................................................................................................4
2.3 Research design......................................................................................................................4
2.4 Data collection.......................................................................................................................5
2.5 Sampling method...................................................................................................................5
2.6 Sampling size.........................................................................................................................5
2.7 Procedure...............................................................................................................................6
2.8 Research instrument...............................................................................................................6
2.9 Material measures..................................................................................................................6
2.10 Data analysis........................................................................................................................7
2.11 Ethical implications..............................................................................................................7
CHAPTER: 4 RESULTS.................................................................................................................8
4.1 Reliability statistics................................................................................................................8
4.1.1 Intrinsic motivation (To know)...........................................................................................8
4.1.2 Intrinsic Motivation (Towards Accomplishment).............................................................10
4.1.3 Intrinsic Motivation (To experience stimulation).............................................................12
4.1.4 Extrinsic motivation (Identified regulation).....................................................................14
4.1.5 Extrinsic motivation (Introjectd regulation).....................................................................16
4.1.6 Extrinsic motivation (External regulation).......................................................................17
4.1.7 Amotivation......................................................................................................................18
4.2 Linearity...............................................................................................................................20
4.2.1 Intrinsic Motivation...........................................................................................................20
4.2.2 Extrinsic Motivation.........................................................................................................22
4.2.3 Amotivation......................................................................................................................23
4.3 Multiple regression..............................................................................................................24

4.3.1 Descriptive statistics.........................................................................................................24
4.3.2 ANOVA............................................................................................................................26
4.4 Histogram.............................................................................................................................29
4.5 Normal Probability curve.....................................................................................................30
4.6 Scatter plot...........................................................................................................................30
CHAPTER: 4 DISCUSSION........................................................................................................32
CHAPTER: 5 CONCLUSION......................................................................................................35
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................37

CHAPTER: 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Academic performance depicts both quality and quantity of skills, affirmative attitudes,
knowledge, techniques, behaviour, knowledge and behaviour along with the philosophy attained
by the students. Herein, their achievement is usually assessed on the basis of their marks and
grades acquired by the students in an educational cycle. After which, the analysed quality of the
grades and marks achieved by the students to get pass defines the academic performance level.
There exist many such factors, on whose basis, a good or poor academic performance is being
determined with a special context of secondary schools. These factors generally involve the
quality of the students who have been admitted in the school, along with the kind of academic
materials provided by the school. Also, the methods adopted by the teachers to educate the
children with the nature of management and school’s governing environment also matters to a
great extent. Although, there seems to encompass a new factor of differentiation of gender and
on whose basis, the students motivational level is getting affected in a negative way. This is
specified as the situation of gender differences in universities impacting the inspiration level of
secondary school students in a pessimistic way. It is on considering some previous researches
that have proven a widespread gender differences in universities that is in turn affecting the
academic performance of the institutes.
Motivation can be simply defined as a combination of various internal and external
factors that stimulates individuals’ desires and energy and foster them to make good efforts to
attain goals. In the learning environment, it can be defined as a composition of various factors
that influence students towards study and encourage them to achieve set educational goals. In
educational sector, it is really important for the academic institutions to put efforts so as to
motivate students towards study otherwise; lack of motivation has a direct adverse impact on the
student performance. It not only impacts the final result of the students but also affects the
popularity and image of the university. The importance of motivation in the field of education
can be evident with number of studies. For instance, Vallerand and Bissonnette (1992), clearly
presented that highly motivated student base is interested in investing more in academic courses
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and give their best efforts in achieving good grade. In contrast, lack of motivation fall student
performance as they are unlikely to devote time to study.
Academic motivational scale is considered to be an effective form that enables to an
effective form of method that is helpful enough for individuals to understand the rate of level
motivation that a person have. In order to perform any type of roles, it is requires to have certain
level of motivation so that the roles that has to be performed can carried out with their full
efficiency. There are some scales that are measured with the help of which individuals are
ranked. In this context, there are 5-point Likert scales from 0 to 7. Apart from this, it also
consists of five subscales assessing amotivation, external regulation, intrinsic motivation,
identified regulation and interjected regulation. Amotivation is represents nonregulated extreme
of continuum. Further, it is characterized by perception of individuals who have lack of purpose,
incompetence and control over events. In order to have completed any type of tasks it is required
to have proper time management so that all the activities are completed with speculated time
period. When a role is performed by a single person, then total time consumed will be high when
it is compared with same taken when performed by a group. In this context, students need to
have strong interaction with others so that they are able to perform their set of roles in effective
manner. Apart from this, the type of behaviour that is carried out by individuals also makes them
boosted up so that they can work in effective manner. Different people have diverse set of
perception. There will be people who face condition of stress due to the course that they have to
learn. Further, individuals can also face situation in which stress is due to assignments or
projects. It includes extrinsic motivation that falls under middle point mentioned continuum. It
includes constitutes like behaviour that is further divided into four subtypes of progressive
regulation, identified, interjected, external and integrated. Behaviour is enforced by others
depending upon the condition or situation that is faced. Further, it consists of providing
individuals with rewards and by avoiding punishments. Moreover, when talking about interjected
regulation, the type of behaviour that a person is mainly executed so that level of self esteem can
be improved. In addition to this, it is also done so that they are able to avoid anxiety and guilt. In
context, with identified regulations activities by extrinsic motives are selected by a person like
society values enrolling in superior studies. Lastly, it also covers intrinsic motivation which
occupies autonomous regulations pole in which pleasure of executing behaviours by making
choice of prevails.
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The total time that is taken by a person to make the students attain their goals and
objectives. It is require to make sure that all the aspects which are to be covered are properly
considered. Learning is determined to be important so that all people are involved and this
process is followed so that they are able to carry out the pressure of learning. Further, it is also
required to have orientation towards achievement. To develop the level of motivation, it is
possible when a person identifies the skills and capabilities that can be used. When this done,
then it requires to identify appropriate plan that and help in reaching out the desired goals. When
production of product is done based on satisfaction expression. By making use of Academic
motivational scale win which l provided knowledge regulation. In order words, it helps to
determining the guish relevant association with academic variables and motivation. This can be
understood with the help of an example. A student who shows greater self determination level is
able to reach higher level and aims at attaining the desired goals and objectives. In conditions
where the level of motivation is low and people face difficulties in considering the progress, then
created. The type of goals that are attained by individuals for their future differs but the main
focus of goals are required to be attained when they have a clear plan that can help to reach them.
When students are provided with rewards, then it helps to develop rate of competition. People
prefer to be different and in attaining the goals and this are possible when there are others who
prefer to reach out their goals. Level of motivation is required to be high these support the
students to put on their full efforts to complete the goals that has to be attained. With the help of
AMS, it helps people to determine the motivational level. As per the finding made steps can be
taken to make the areas improved. Apart from this, time to time monitoring is required to be
made for the performance level of students. When this is done, then it helps to identify where
they stand. All these aspect and growth can be attained when analysis made their performance
level also improves.
There are five main scales that are included in academic motivational scale. The scale
helps to make proper analysis so that all the students and problems that are faced. When findings
are made by using AMS, then there are tools that are used with the help of which analysis is
made. In this context, it includes tool like PASW statistic and AMOS. When the rate odf
motivation of students is low, then it causes serious issue for the student to put on their full
efforts in attaining the desired goals and objectives.
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Motivation may be of different types such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Former
relates to the person’s own interest, pleasure and a feel of enjoyment. In other words, inherent
tendency in a person to accept challenges so as to explore, to learn, to extend or to show their
capabilities is called intrinsic motivation. However, extrinsic motivation includes people
behaviour that is driven by the external rewards or stimuli like praise, grades and others.
However, amotivation is a state that shows lack of motivation in a person to engage in an event
or activities.
Narayanan, Rajasekaran and Iyyappan (2007), research study investigates the same issue
on engineering students and the findings evident that male engineering students have less
intrinsic motivation in comparison to the female who are likely to have high level of intrinsic
motivation. Similarly, other research studies like Hakan and Munire (2014) discovered that male
are likely to be high level of extrinsic motivation than females because they think analytically
and less sensitive than females. Contrasting it, Yau, Kan and Cheng (2011)) showed that gender
did not reflect any difference in the level of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
On a contrary note, Bugler, McGeown and Thompson (2015), investigated gender
differences in academic motivation & students behaviour in classroom between males and
females. Findings reported that girls have high level of academic motivation whereas boys show
poor classroom behaviour. Interestingly, boy’s motivation shows significant level of association
with the teacher’s reports for their classroom behaviour. Thus, cognitive aspects are better
predictor for boys whereas for firls, behavioural aspect was seen as a good predictor. A study by
Pirmohamed, Debowska and Boduszek (2017), reported that active learning strategies,
performance goals and self-efficiency significantly affects male’s performance whereas girls
only affected by Self-efficacy.
Considering the conflicting results and inconsistencies in the prior research studies, it is
decided to research to investigate the impact of gender on the intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation
on male and female. The study focuses on UK to judge that whether there is a significant
difference exist or not on the motivational behaviour between male and female students.
1.2 Rationale of the study
Motivation is a key factor for the students that encourage them to perform better and get
good marks. However, on the other side, lack of motivation leads to provide undesirable results
in the course in which students are studying. Although, there are number of studies conducted
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earlier but many of these was performed in the corporate area and very few number of studies
investigated motivation among university students. Besides this, many studies are performed
outside UK with a small sample size, thus it is the main gap and questioned the accuracy of the
final results. Due to insufficient size of sample and inconsistencies in the prior researches
encourages scholar to conduct investigation in the same area. Therefore, considering such gap, it
is decided to conduct an investigation on an adequate number of university students to judge the
difference in the intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation between male and females.
1.3 Research aims and objectives
The purpose of the paper is to examine that how academic motivation including both
intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation differs between male and females. The paper is based on the
following research objectives:
 To examine the level of academic motivation between male and female students
 To investigate the relationship between motivation and university success
1.4 Research hypothesis
μ0: There is no significant difference in the level of intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation between
males and female students.
μ1: There is significant difference in the level of intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation between
males and female students.
1.5 Dissertation structure
Introduction: Every thesis starts with the introduction chapter where researcher provides
a clear overview about the study and the key aims and objectives. The chapter enable reader to
get a clear idea about what the study will explore. It also provides brief theoretical grounding for
the investigation with logical deviation of aims, objectives and hypothesis derived from literature
gap.
Methods: This section of the study will make reader familiar with the designs,
participants, sample size and procedure of data collection and analysis. It includes research
approach, method of data collection, epistemological position, analytical method and ethical
implication. Each and every method will be well supported with the proper justification to give
reasons behind their selection.
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Results: This chapter is the main chapter which clearly interprets the statistical results
including descriptive as well as inferential statistics. The findings will be adequately evaluated
by the scholar in line with the research reviewed in the introduction.
Discussions: The results will critically examine thoroughly in this section with the help
of themes and graphical displays where seems appropriate. Moreover, current research outcome
will be well supported or argued with the other research findings to examine whether the results
derived are consistent with the historical researches or not.
Conclusion: Lastly, the dissertation summarizes comprehensively each and every chapter
and provides concluding remarks that had been investigated through analytical discussions.
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CHAPTER 2: METHODS
2.1 Research philosophy
Philosophy is also known as research paradigm that is concerned with the rigorous
establishing, regulating and enhancing the knowledge in the area of intellectual endeavour and
managerial research. It includes both ontology and epistemology, first presents nature of reality
whereas later denotes that how reality is going to capture. Positive paradigm believes in
objectivity disregards to the human interest. Thus, its ontology believes that reality is an external
component therefore; epistemology states that facts based on scientific investigation helps in
producing legitimate knowledge. Unlike this, interpretvitism philosophy based on social
constructivism and believes that reality is a socially constructed phenomenon (Taylor, Bogdan
and DeVault, 2015). Thus, its ontology is that scholar can determine reality through social
researches thus; new knowledge is obtained through an emergent approach. It is extremely useful
to explore motives, reasons and subjective human experiences.
Positivism research philosophy was used in the current area of investigation because
investigator used a controlled and a rigid structural framework to address the research issue. It
helps in maintain a clear distinguish between researcher’s own perception and judgements and
focuses on logical approaches. Reality and hidden facts about the academic motivation and its
impact on the success of the university has been explored through scientific investigation
applying statistical tools.
2.2 Research approach
Deductive research approaches are used in quantitative researches whereas inductive
reasoning is tested in the qualitative investigations (Lewis, 2015). In current study, deductive had
been used because it is based on hypothesis testing to judge that whether the academic
motivation level significantly differs or not between male and female. Moreover, research
examined that how it contributes towards university success. Its reasoning works on progressing
from generalized things towards a specific pattern.
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2.3 Research design
Design of the study is useful to integrate all the components of the study in a logical
manner and enable scholar to address the problem effectively. Thus, it can be seen as a blueprint
used for data measurement, collection & examination. In the chosen field of study, non-
experimental correlational survey design had been used which lacks manipulation of the
variables. Correlation design is a kind of non-experimental research wherein investigator had
measures the statistical relationship between academic motivation and university success
separately for both the males and females. Correlation study had been selected rather than
experiment because scholar believed that statistical relationship between both the variables is
casual. It helps to identify the presence or absence of relationship between chosen research
components (Anderson, Sweeney and Williams,2014). Moreover, as motivation is measurable on
a scale, thus, the method was easy to apply. However, the main issue is no cause and effect
relationship can be measured in correlational study.
2.4 Data collection
There are two ways of gathering required data set, primary versus secondary. Current
study employed primary method wherein university graduates studying in 2nd or 3rd year or aged
20 or more were surveyed via online questionnaire. The academic motivation level of the
students was assessed via Academic Motivational Scale (AMS). All the students had completed
the constructed questionnaire and provided their responses within typically a time period of 15
minutes. All the members who participated in the survey were volunteers and guaranteed
anonymity without any compensation. The best strength of the method employed is volunteers
authenticate the data accuracy for their submitted responses.
2.5 Sampling method
Sampling is a way todraw an adequate size of representative sample out of the universe.
Out of probabilistic and non-probabilistic sampling method, later had been used, particularly,
opportunity/convenience sampling adopted wherein research participants were chosen on the
basis of naturally occurring groups. It is a popular technique for the psychology students to take
out a truly random sample. In this, university studentwho fit the research criteria and were
available at the time when the study is carried out has been selected. However, the downside is it
8

may lead to biased selection as there might be a possibility that scholar choose people from their
own social or cultural group such as their friends, colleagues and others.
2.6 Sampling size
N = 100undergraduate students, 50 males and 50 females aged 20 years or more or
studying in 2nd or 3rd year had been selected to have a balanced sample which was not seen in the
prior studies as their sample distribution was unbalanced. It seems an adequate size of sample
with equal proportion of girls and boys that will helps to generalize the results to the entire group
(Khan, 2011). However, exclusion criteria of the sample include participants below the age of 20
years or are not the part o 2nd or 3rd year undergraduate course.
2.7 Procedure
Participants for the study recruited from the SONA participation pool, posters and
Facebook. In the published advertisement, the website link was given to offer an invitation to the
interested parties to join and take participation in the survey.
2.8 Research instrument
All the participants were invited to willingly participate in the survey on the online portal,
hence, online questionnaire was used. Students were asked to fill the responses in the
questionnaire via Qualtrics. In the participants’ information sheet, they all had been clearly
instructed with necessary guidelines to complete the survey and provide truthful answers. They
were clearly informed that all the responses will be kept anonymous, confidential, and stored
with unique identifier code for the purpose of confidentiality & privacy (Kuada, 2012). They
were also offered with the withdrawal right within 2 weeks. All the participants took part in the
study were thanked & debriefed.
2.9 Material measures
In this, Academic Motivational Scale (AMS) has been used that has three dimension,
intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation & amotivation. It is actually created in French & later,
translated into English. AMS is based on Self-Determination theory that clearly distinguishes
various type of motivation. It comprises total of 28 items with 7 subscale measures and identifies
3 kinds of intrinsic motivation (Accomplishment, knowledge & stimulation), 3 kinds of extrinsic
motivation (identified, introjected and external regulation) and amotivation as well. All the
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respondents were asked with several set of questions to evaluate their behaviour i.e. their college
attendance, discovering new things, to get prestigious job later, pleasure and others. All the
responses were gathered on a 7-point scale (1 seems does not correspond at all, 7 means
correspond exactly).
2.10 Data analysis
Analysis is a way to obtain meaningful information from the data obtained. Different
methods are employed to examine different data set, like qualitative dataset prefers thematic test,
in contrast, it does not seems fit for the quantitative data which usually uses mathematical,
statistical and financial tools (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault, 2015). In the current study, as
scholar had gathered data on a 7-point rating scale which is in numerical form, therefore, the
gathered data set were analyzed through SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) Version
20. In this regards, various test like descriptive as well as inferential statistical test were used.
More importantly, t-test, multiple regression and correlation coefficient model were applied for
all the 3 kinds of motivation, intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation (Kothari, 2013). As the study
thrust is to explore whether gender distinguishes the level of academic motivation or not,
therefore, gender or ethnicity were used as predictors whereas academic performance used as a
outcome component. Besides this, reliability was test using Cronbach’s alpha measures to
validate internal consistency, outcome precision and reliability (Lee and Peters, 2015).
2.11 Ethical implications
Informed consent has been gained from every student in the consent form before
participation into survey. Moreover, before a time period of 2-weeks, they were offered with the
right to draw back their decision, if they do not want to participate. Thus, it clearly validates the
ethical compliance during the research. Moreover, debriefing form was used to inform all the
participants that all the data will surely kept anonymous. Volunteers were informed that all the
hard copies will be destroyed at the end of the degree while it will be passed to research
supervisor for safeguarding and confidentiality purpose. None of the information has been
released to the unauthorized member and privacy had been maintained throughout the study.
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CHAPTER: 4 RESULTS
4.1 Reliability statistics
Reliability has been tested applying Cronbach’s alpha statistical measure in SPSS that is
helpful to judge the internal consistency among several set of components or groups for a given
subscale (Levine, Krehbiel and Berenson, 2013). It is used for all the 7 sub-scales used in the
Academic Motivation Scale.
4.1.1 Intrinsic motivation (To know)
11

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Interpretation: Intrinsic Motivation Subscale for knowledge (IMK), “Reliability
Statistics” table above reported α = 0.823>0.70 clearly presents high amount of internal
consistency and evident strong reliability about intrinsic motivation among university students.
“Inter-Item Correlation Matrix”shows moderate level of favourable association among all the
sub-components as the values lies in the mid of +0.25-+0.75. “Item Total Statistics” presets that
for each measure, Corrected-Item total correlation value is 0.714 0.620, 0.603 and 0.652 that is
above the threshold point of 0.30 therefore, none of the variable found requirement for reverses
scoring. All the questions seem important however, removal of any question would not bring any
improvement in the Cronbach’s alpha. Evidencing from the results, in all the cases, the value of
cronbach’s alpha after deletion of the item had scored value below 0.823.
4.1.2 Intrinsic Motivation (Towards Accomplishment)
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I n t e r p r e t
reliability score for the given subscale. In comparison to the other subscale, it has relatively law
14

reliability score. Every item of the scale is moderately related to the other components with
correlation coefficient between the ranges of 0.25 to 0.75 represented in the Inter-Item
Correlation Matrix. It shows that a feel of pleasures during study, satisfaction experienced to
accomplish difficult academic activities and personal satisfaction for academic excellent are all
interrelated to a moderate extent. Corrected Item-Total Correlation value for 4 items is 0.590,
0.652, 0.527 and 0.623 above the value of 0.30 (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault, 2015). All the
components of the IMA were found justifiable and were not problematic because if any of the
item is removed from the questionnaire than it leads to decrease Cronbach’s alpha value and
reduce reliability. As represented in the Item-Total Statistics, the measures are 0.739, 0.709,
0.773 and 0.723 below computed score of 0.788.
4.1.3 Intrinsic Motivation (To experience stimulation)
15

16

Interpretation: Intrinsic Motivation Stimulation (IMS) reported alpha score of
0.820>0.70 that is acceptable and indicate good inter-item consistency. Inter-item correlation
matrix had discovered moderate positive relationship, still, among all, for the intense feelings
when a student conveys their ideas to others and a feel of pleasure experienced when interesting
authors books are read shows highest correlation of 0.604 (Khan, 2011). Item-Total statistics
shows that no questions should be deleted; otherwise, Cronbach’s alpha value will come down&
questioned reliability.
4.1.4 Extrinsic motivation (Identified regulation)
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Extrinsic motivation for subscale identified regulation (EMID)’s reliability statistics
evident α = 0.845> 0.70. Although Inter-Item correlation for all the 4 components found positive
relationship, still, the highest correlation coefficient of 0.696 states that student likes to go
college because it helps them to enter in an interesting area of employment where they like to
work later. Thus, they believe that education is really important and good marks or performance
18

during the course will significantly contribute in their personal career goals to have a prestigious
job in the competitive market. Each EMID component is necessary and seems important and
deletion leads to decline the reliability score to 0.789, 0.791, 0.800 and 0.832.
4.1.5 Extrinsic motivation (Introjectd regulation)
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Similarly, Extrinisic Motivation Introjected (EMIN) α = 0.792 greater than the minimal
acceptance limit of 0.70. Correlation scored least coefficient of 0.387 between a tendency to
prove a capable student and an intelligence level while intelligent evident highest relation (r =
0.568) with the fact that by scoring a good grade, an individual is treated as an important person.
Table labelled as Item-Total Statistics scored represented that that all the questions are justifiable
and useful to validate reliability. It is because, their deletion would lead to decline the internal
consistency.
4.1.6 Extrinsic motivation (External regulation)
20

Reliability Statistics for EME favoured the acceptability of results consistency because,
the value of cronbach’s alpha is 0.794 that goes beyond the value of 0.70. There are two-items
who reported correlation (r = 0.587) greater than others, one is that education helps students to
get a more prestigious job later on, in turn, will enable students to enjoy a better life in later
years. Similarly, undergraduates believe that they could not find a good job opportunity with the
current qualification, hence, it motivates them towards study so as to have a good life standard in
later years.
4.1.7 Amotivation
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Amotivation (AM) subscale is found with the highest Cronbach’s alpha of 0.901>0.70
greater than the alpha statistics for all the other subscales. Moreover, unlike the other subscales
which just evident moderate association, inter-item correlation matrix for AM shown strong
22

association between several components. Evidencing it, undergraduates replied that they really
did not do why they attend university courses, in turn, they honestly believe that they are just
wasting their time at r = 0.841>0.75. Similarly, r= 0.730 near to 0.75 states that volunteers are
not motivated and do not know that what they are doing in the university and had no reason to go
to the academic institutions. Corrected Item-Total correlation value for all the components is
above 0.30 and Cronbach’s alpha is lower than the determined score of 0.901 under reliability
statistics.
4.2 Linearity
Linearity can be defined as a property or characteristics that present relationship between
two components through presenting the dataset graphically through a straight line (Jaggia and
et.al., 2016).
4.2.1 Intrinsic Motivation
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24

4.2.2 Extrinsic Motivation
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4.2.3 Amotivation
It is necessary that all the predictors must follow linear relationship with the outcome
variable. R squared value is measurement of goodness of fit that states that how closely the data
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lies on the line of best fit with less number of outlier. Amotivation subscale reported greatest
value of R2 to 0.196whereas EME subscale has lowest value of R2 of 0.004. It is because, EMS
subscale scatter plot clearly present number of outliers in the series that are spreaderfrom line of
best fit. The diagram clearly shows that students with lack of motivation lead to decline their
performance or vice-versa.
4.3 Multiple regression
Multiple regression models is a useful statistical technique to predict the outcome
variable taking into account two or more variables that are independent or predictor variables
(Freed, Bergquist and Jones, 2014). Here, the analysis is performed considering IMA, IMS,
EMID, EMIN, EME and AM as predictor variable while IMK has been excluded because of
multicollinearity as it was greater than 0.80. Due to overpowering, such variable has been
excluded from the study.
4.3.1 Descriptive statistics
Interpretation: As per the results, it is seen that extrinsic motivation reported greater
mean score in all the cases. As extrinsic motivation identified, introjected and external regulation
scored (M = 21.42, SD = 4.77), (M = 20.70, SD = 4.77) and (M = 20.82, SD = 4.866)
respectively. Among intrinsic motivation subscale, Intrinsic motivation towards accomplishment
attained greater mean value (M = 18.17, SD = 4.45) whereas with regards to extrinsic
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motivation, identified regulation had scored maximum (M = 21.42, SD = 4.77). However,
amotivation scored lowest mean of 12.40, SD = 6.37.
μ0: There is no significant impact of gender on the intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation scale
among university students.
μ1: There is significant impact of gender on the intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation scale among
university students.
According to the results, Pearson correlation coefficient measures for all the variables
shows value below 0.80 while IMK already removed because of multicollinearity as r >0.80.
IMA and EMID is found with greatest correlation of 0.646 that reflects that intrinsic motivation
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towards accomplishment is strongly linked to the EMID subscale. However, AM subscale is
negatively related to the IM and EM subscale. IMA subscale had relatively greater positive
correlation of 0.348 with overall percentages achieved during the course whereas amotivation
significantly contributes towards poor performance in the course as both are adversely related.
At 5% level of significance, gender had shown significant impact on all the 7-motivation
subscale including IMA, IMS, EMID, EMIN, EME and AM with sig value below 0.05
(Anderson, Sweeney and Williams, 2014).
4.3.2 ANOVA
μ0: There is no significant impact of intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation on the student
performance.
μ1: There is significant impact of intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation on the student performance.
In the model, AM, gender, IMS, IMA, EMID, EMIN and EME used as predictor
variables to determine the outcome variable. Model Summary Statistics had provided that R is
0.548 that means all the predictor variables follow fairly large relationship with the outcome
variable. R-square is 0.300 that determines that 30% of total variance in overall percentage of
students is explained. Durbin-Watson test is also used to judge the presence of autocorrelationin
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the regression model. D-W test value is 1.731 which lies between 0-2. The value is closer to 2
seems better and shows positive autocorrelation in linear regression model.
ANOVA table evident sig. value df (7), F=5.759, 0.000<0.05 which states that all the
predictor variables has a significant statistical impact on the overall percentage of the students in
the course in which they are currently studying.
As per Collinearity diagnostics, a problem of collinearity occurs when a component with
high value of condition index contributes high variance proportion above 0.5. Above table did
not found any such issue in the applied regression model.
Variation Inflation Factor (VIF) coefficient used to judge that how strongly the
independent factors correlate with the outcome variable. In the table labelled as Coefficient, it is
seen that sig value for all the component except only AM subscale is greater than 0.05 whereas
amotivation presented sig. value = 0.004<0.05 shows that significant statistical impact of AM on
the students’ performance. It is because; if students are not well motivated then they do not
devote their time to study and shows poor performance.
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VIF helps to check multicollinearity in the regression model and as per the results,
collinearity statistics evident tolerance above 0.1 (VIF<10) for all the components used.
Cook’s distance presents that to what extent, a person score influence the model of
regression, value>1 seems problematic. However, above results shows min and max value of
0.000 and 0.09<1 is found perfect. Mahalanobis distance maximum value is 22.025 below the
crit-value for the independent variables which seems ok.
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4.4 Histogram
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4.5 Normal Probability curve
4.6 Scatter plot
Above
histogram
visualize that
residuals are
normally
distributed with
zero value of
mean.
Likewise,
normal
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probability plot states that expectations about overall percentages locate on the diagonal line
which evident normal distribution of residuals. Besides this, scatter plot shows that all the
residuals are random which is fine.
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CHAPTER: 4 DISCUSSION
Scholar had examined reliability aspect of AMS for the academic students. It has been
measured for each subscale including IMK, IMA, IMS, EMID, EMIN, EME and AM. Each
factor reported standardized factor loading because the value of Cronbach’s alpha statistics is
>0.70. Thus, the findings revealed good reliability score and implies strong internal consistence,
since all the values goes beyond 0.70. Measurement for the subscale provided that Amotivation
scale had relatively higher internal consistency. It is a major strength of the study because high
level of internal consistency makes results acceptable and justifiable.
The results of statistical tests applied clearly evident that gender distinction has a
significant statistical impact on the motivation level of the university students. In other words,
the evidence sought that the level of intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation significant differs
between males and females, therefore, all the data results supported alternative hypothesis. The
findings are consistent with the results of Ghazvini and Khajehpour (2011),in which, it is
reported that in academic environment, cognitive-motivation functioning of girls and boys
significantly differ from each other. Females usually have a more adaptive attitude and desire to
learn new tasks and activities. Thus, motivation, time-management, self-testing strategies and
internal locus of control help females in getting good marks in the literatures. However, on the
other side, boyspossess greater concentration, creative ideas and information processing, in turn,
scored better marks in mathematics. The finding of the study revealed that girls are highly
concerned about their results than boys therefore use significant learning strategies to get good
marks.
Likewise, the results obtained byBugler, McGeown and Thompson (2015), strongly
evident that girls generally reported greater level of academic motivation whereas in case of
boys, cognitive aspects were seen as a significant predictor.In despite to this, a recent study of
Pirmohamed, Debowska and Boduszek (2017), on UK university among undergraduate students
studying in final year reported that Active Learning strategies, performance goals and self-
efficacy are the significant predictors that affects boy’s performance or achievement whereas
girls significantly affect by self-efficacy. It clearly means that intrinsic motivation among girls is
significantly greater than males. Hakan and Münire (2014)discovered academic motivation as a
35

key determinant to find out student’sachievements. The study targeted to examine
undergraduate’smotivation in relation to gender, grade difference and domain.
Orsini, Binnie, and Wilson (2016) favoured the same and shows that the results of the t-
test revealed significant statistical difference in the motivation level of dental undergraduates for
males and females. As per the findings, intrapersonal components including both gender and
personality traits strongly impact student motivation to actively participate in the academic
activities.
Finding of the ANOVA results strongly supported alternative hypothesis and shows that
EMID, EMIN, EME, IMA, IMS, AM significantly effects their performance. It is because, no-
doubt, motivated students always put their genuine efforts to discover and learn new things. They
devote more time to their study because they feel pleasure and experiences good achievement.
Under IMS, undergraduates feel motivated due to a sense of personal accomplishment, ability to
overcome academic difficulties, gain excellence, pleasure while reading various authors books
and getting knowledge in the interested subjects. However, under the extrinsic motivation, most
of the students feel motivated to have prestigious job outlook in future, to create unique image in
the university, succeed in the study and to show their intelligence. In our analysis, IMK has been
excluded due to presence of multicollinearity as it was greater than 0.80 seems problematic.
Devoting more time to the study, a feel of joy, an attitude to get better job, create brighter career
and other factors helps students in achieving a good percentage in their course of study.
However, amotivation subscale evident with negative relationship with the performance, which
strongly evident that lack of motivation and a negative perception towards academic courses
leads to decline students’ academic performance. These results were consistent with the findings
of Adam and et.al., (2015), which evident that student demographics like their gender, age as
well as citizenship had a direct impact over their overall performance. Considering gender as a
factor, the study supported that females performed comparatively better than males. Similarly,
Utvær and Haugan (2016), favoured the same and demonstrated significant statistical association
between the experience of the students through study to satisfy their varied needs and different
kinds of motivation. According to the findings, satisfaction reflects favourable relation with the
autonomous motivation and the same is negatively associated with the amotivation subscale.
Motivated students feel pleasures, take interest during their class, and have a learning attitude to
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gain knowledge about new things so as to develop bright career path and thereby get a good job
opportunity in the desired field.
Amotivation scale had reported highest reliability score and strongly evident that due to
lack of motivation, they feel that they are wasting their time and they don’t care about their
performance. Even students also feel that once, they had some reasons to go to the university
while now, they don’t know whether they must continue it or not.
The main weakness of the study is that due to the inefficient size of sample, ethnicity has
not been tested for each categorical variable, hence, questioned the depth of the investigation to
explore hidden patterns.
Apart from this, the main findings that are made enable to guide development of
exercises and workshops to develop and encourage confidence of students. Further, it is
important to provide contractive feedback to students through the year and this should include
positive and negative areas. When positive feedback is provided to students, then it helps to
increase SE, improves learning and performance level also gets boosted up.
By giving significant predictors for the academic achievement like these type of
programs should be develop for female and male who are undergraduate. For instance all the
students who have received lower level of AG motivation can get support by raise the level of
motivation with the help of communication and other achievements that are gained with the help
participation of course that adds value once they become graduate. In conditions when students
are provided with information related with the type of skills that are required so that they are able
to get their desired graduate job. Apart from this, students are provided with incentives, then
even then it enables to raise the level of motivation and making them focused on attaining their
performance goals. Another aspect that students face difficulty is for time management. For this
areas students can take support from personal tutors and this way they can develop their skills.
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CHAPTER: 5 CONCLUSION
The research investigation discovered that there is no-doubt, that gender has a significant
impact on the student’s motivation level in the academic environment. In the field of education,
gender had been found as a significant factor that predicts different kind of motivation including
intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and Amotivation. In the study, scholar had checked the
reliability of AMS instrument used for the data collection purpose and it is well supported by the
Cronbach’s alpha measures with value beyond the threshold of 0.70 for all the 7-AMS subscale.
Our research results are consistent with various prior research studies and look sex as a
significant predictor of motivation. Thus, alternative hypothesis had proven justifiable. Apart
from this, it is found that both the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation evident positive correlation
with the overall academic performance of the students. In contrast to this, amotivation subscale is
negatively related to the outcome variable, it is because, lack of motivation among students leads
to dissatisfaction, in turn, they do not want to study and are not interest in attending lectures and
do not engage in different academic activities. Such students are not aware with their study aim,
even, they did not know that whether they should continue their study or drop the same.
The results discovered that a sense of pleasure, joy, enjoyment, showing intelligence,
pleasure by getting diversified knowledge in the interested area of study had significantly
contributed towards intrinsic motivation. However, on the other side, many students also see
education as a major factor to create a shining career for future. They feel that now, the market is
too competitive and without having strong knowledge base developed through academic courses,
they would not be able to get a strong job opportunity. Thus, they desired to attend academic
courses with the main focus to have a prestigious job in future. Both the intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation leads to decline amotivation among undergraduates.
However, on the other side, as the study did not investigated ethnicity due to poor sample
size, therefore, it is better to recommend future scholars to take an adequate sample size and
consider the motivation among academic students in relation to ethnicity as well and check that
how well it leads to improve their overall marks or performance. Despite this, the study did not
focus on a particular area of education like mental, dental, finance and others. In addition to this,
there are number of factors or variables that affect student motivation which the study had not
covered such as their family background, methods of teaching used by the educators that develop
38

interest among students to enhance their performance and many others. Therefore, in thefuture, it
is better to suggest investigators to use such variables and carry out the study thoroughly.
39

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