In this paper we investigate whether and if so why different pathways to higher education (HE) have an effect on the development of the intention to study and its motivational factors of pupils from different social backgrounds. In Germany as well as in many other countries, non-traditional pathways--mostly vocational oriented schools, but also…

Previous research has indicated that academic entitlement can serve as a barrier between students and the benefits of a university education. As entitled students function as consumers and externalize responsibility for their learning outcomes, they risk lower grades and anti-intellectualism attitudes. This study explored how academic entitlement…

Expectancy Value Theory (EVT) is a prominent theory on student motivation. To add to the growing research in this area, we investigated students within a large, mandatory course outside of the STEM areas, to examine perceptions of success utilizing an EVT lens. The aim of our study was twofold. First, to examine students' open-ended responses…

The article attempts to answer the question why females prefer humanities/social studies, whereas males opt for technology/science. For this purpose, the study majors selected by 445 females and 431 males were linked by logit functions with: (1) parents' and (2) teachers' expectancies, (3) students' self-expectancies, (4) their self-concepts of…

Little is known about the effects of Ratemyprofessors.com teaching evaluations relative to university-administered teaching evaluations in students. Therefore, this study investigated differences in use and consideration of these evaluation sources. It also investigated the effects of evaluation source, evaluation valence (mostly positive or…

The aim of this study was to examine what sort of ability expectations university students have about the requirements of working life, and how the perception of these expectations relate to students' perceptions of their own employability. The participants comprised a sample of students (N = 1819) from two Finnish universities, representing…

The identification of determinants and correlates of academic entitlement is of particular interest for researchers and (academic) tutors alike. Whilst personality traits have been linked to academic entitlement in the past, the relative importance of familial influence remains unclear. Hence, to address this deficit, this study utilizes a sample…

The current study examined the relationship of academic entitlement with student attitudes (e.g., locus of control, motivation) and academic behavior. Participants were 272 (96 men, 176 women) undergraduate students enrolled in general psychology and recruited from a psychology research pool. In groups, participants individually completed a…

This study examined predictors of test anxiety in a sample of 2528 Norwegian upper-secondary and postsecondary students by means of structural equation modeling. Results showed that personal goals related to career and grades positively predicted test anxiety, whereas self-efficacy beliefs were a negative predictor of test anxiety. In turn,…

The worry or concern over confirming negative gender group stereotypes, called stereotype threat, is one explanation for women's worldwide underrepresentation in undergraduate science classes and majors. But how does stereotype threat translate into fewer women motivated for science? In this quantitative study with a sample from the US, we use…

Education is highly valued in Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) countries such as China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea but the expectations of parents, teachers and students themselves to excel academically can also be a source of intense stress for many students. The "Academic Expectations Stress Inventory" (AESI),…