Status, pride, and educational motivation: Understanding differences in attitudes to education from the perspective of evolutionary emotion theory

Abstract

The present study suggests that the theoretical framework of evolutionary psychology, in particular theories and models relating to social status and pride, can be used to further our understanding of educational motivation. Our assumption was that the desire for social recognition and high status is a universal human phenomenon. Based on this, we suggested that differences in educational motivation among high school students would be related to differences in the extent to which one sees academic achievements as a viable path to social status and source of pride. The present study examined this topic using a cross-sectional design in a sample of high school students. In general, the results provided support for the hypothesis that status and pride are reliably related to educational motivation in high school students, and that the theoretical framework employed could be used to understand differences in educational motivation related to both gender and level of parental education.