GI $
UNDERSTANDING MOTIVATION 77Wouldn’t it be nice if all students were influenced in the same man-
ner? Unfortunately, students react differently to change. Prochaska
and Prochaska (1999) suggested four reasons why individuals have
difficulty changing their behavior: they can’t, they don’t want to, they
don’t know what to change, or they do not know how to change. If
you would like to change but have difficulties, think about how these
reasons might apply to you. I’ll discuss each of these reasons to help
you analyze your own behavior by using the motivational topics I
discussed in the chapter. You might want to review self-efficacy, attri-
bution and self-worth theory, and goal orientation and task value
before you read this final section.I Can’t Change
Prochaska and Prochaska (1999) pointed out that people can’t
change aspects of themselves that are not conscious. Studies in psy-
chology (e.g., Bargh & Chartrand, 1999; Wegner & Wheatley, 1999)
indicate that some behavior is so automated (i.e., nonconscious, unin-
tentional) that we have difficulty being aware when we engage in them
and explaining how we do certain things. Try explaining how you bowl
or how you hit a baseball or how you learn certain material for an
exam. It is not as easy as you think. Without realizing it, you proba-
bly have automated your study habits through their repeated use dur-
ing the 12 years of schooling prior to college. Changing such automated
behaviors requires considerable commitment, effort, and time, leading
some students to conclude that they lack the willpower and inner
strength, and therefore cannot change. For example, when I teach a sys-
tem of note taking in chapter 9, some students report that they can’t
learn the new system because their old methods, though ineffective, are
automated to the point where they function in a nonconscious way.
What makes matters worse is that when students are under pressure,
such as preparing for an important midterm exam, they often resort to
their existing automated skills even when they know that these skills
are not as useful or effective as the new skills they have learned or prac-
ticed. In summary, expect changing your academic behavior to not be
an easy process, but know that you can change if you are willing to
put in the effort and time to practice a new skill. Remember that you
didn’t become good at playing basketball, the piano, chess, or whatever
interests you in just a few sessions of effortless practice.
Another factor to consider when you believe that you can’t change
is your level of self-efficacy (or self-confidence) regarding a specific
task. Remember that researchers have found that your level of self-
efficacy can predict behaviors, such as choosing to engage in tasks
and persisting at them in the face of difficulty (Bandura, 1982). There-
fore, if you hold a low sense of efficacy for a particular task such as