Mental health issues impact a significant portion of the population worldwide, and result in the acquisition of therapy. Despite its efficaciousness, individuals experience several barriers in...Show moreMental health issues impact a significant portion of the population worldwide, and result in the acquisition of therapy. Despite its efficaciousness, individuals experience several barriers in entering therapy. External factors such as financial constraints or availability can impact internal factors such as one’s motivation or self-stigma. Previous literature has established that motivation influences treatment entry and therapeutic outcomes, and that self-stigma impacts such motivation. It is also established that self-stigma may impact self-disclosure during therapy; however, the manner in which motivation, self-stigma, and self-disclosure interact cohesively is unknown. Therefore, the present study investigated the following research question: How does self-stigma in seeking help and motivation to join therapy impact an individual’s self-disclosure during therapy? It was hypothesised that high levels of self-stigma would lead to low levels of self-disclosure during therapy, mediated by motivation. It was further hypothesised that this relationship would correlate with the unsolved issues after therapy. A custom-made questionnaire was utilised, consisting of pre-existing scales. An ANOVA, mediation analysis, and MRA all yielded non-significant results. The effect of the proposed relationship on therapeutic outcomes could not be investigated. Thus, two other relationships were investigated, yet both yielded non-significant results. The direct effect of self-stigma on self-disclosure was significant. The non-significant results may be attributed to confounding variables, or the study’s limitations. This study encourages future research into the relationship between variables influencing the therapeutic process and its outcomes given the prevalence of mental health issues.Show less
A nudge is a subtle change in a choice environment that steers one’s behaviour in a particular desired direction. Acceptability of nudges – whether the lay public approves of them – is important...Show moreA nudge is a subtle change in a choice environment that steers one’s behaviour in a particular desired direction. Acceptability of nudges – whether the lay public approves of them – is important for their effectiveness, which is why we aimed to gain more insight into two determinants of nudge acceptability. More specifically, we conducted an online experiment to investigate the role of individual motivation, transparency, and their possible interaction effect on the acceptability of nudges. Doing this, we examined the acceptability of a hypothetical vegetarian default option using three conditions with either no transparency, transparency about the presence of the nudge, or transparency about the purpose of the nudge. Autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and amotivation were measured. As a secondary aim, we examined compliance with the nudge for choosing a vegetarian lunch. Overall, the average acceptability score was 78.12%, indicating that a majority of the participants highly approved of the nudge. In addition, 82.40% of the sample indicated to stick with the vegetarian option, showing high effectiveness of the default as well. Our study revealed that autonomous motivation (β = .52, p < .001) and controlled motivation (β = .23, p = .001) were positively associated with nudge acceptability. We did not find a significant relationship between acceptability and transparency. However, our analyses showed a possible interaction effect between controlled motivation and transparency on acceptability; the association between controlled motivation and acceptability may only be significant for nudges that are transparent about their purpose. Building on previous findings the current study showed that motivation is associated with acceptability for behaviour showing a wide variation in motivation, namely meat consumption. Moreover, we contributed to the ethical discussion on the transparency of nudges, and we were the first to find a possible interaction effect between controlled motivation and transparency. Future research on individual motivation and transparency should provide more insight into ways to further improve the acceptability and effectiveness of nudges.Show less
In 2021 bleek dat maar liefst zestien procent van de werknemers in Nederland kampt met burn-out klachten. Dit gaat samen met een hogere mate van verzuim en daarmee hoge kosten. Daarnaast bleek dat...Show moreIn 2021 bleek dat maar liefst zestien procent van de werknemers in Nederland kampt met burn-out klachten. Dit gaat samen met een hogere mate van verzuim en daarmee hoge kosten. Daarnaast bleek dat vrouwen vaker kampen met burn-out klachten. Vele onderzoeken bevestigen de positieve resultaten van sport en beweging op het voorkomen en verminderen van burn-out klachten. Echter is het door onder andere vermoeidheid bij een burn-out, lastig om sportieve activiteiten te initiëren. Door deze fysieke inactiviteit blijft juist deze vermoeidheid in stand. Dit onderzoek bekijkt of mensen die kampen met een burn-out gemotiveerd kunnen worden door playful sport design in te zetten. Deze manier van sport benadert training op een speelse manier door proactief plezierige en competitieve elementen toe te voegen. Door middel van een dagboekstudie is data verzameld van N = 118 respondenten, verdeeld over vier weken. De vragen gingen in op de mate van burn-out, de mate van ervaren PSD en in hoeverre de respondent uitkijkt naar een volgende training als indicator voor sportmotivatie. Er bleek een significant positief verband tussen de mate waarin iemand PSD toepast in een training, en de mate waarin iemand uitkijkt naar een volgende sportsessie. Hoe speelser iemand sport, hoe meer diegene uitkijkt naar een de sportsessies in de komende week. Daarnaast bleek deze relatie significant sterker voor mensen met een hoge mate van burn-out klachten dan voor mensen met een lage mate van burn-out klachten. Burn-out blijkt dus een modererend effect te hebben op dit verband, mits er gecorrigeerd is voor geslacht en leeftijd. Mensen die een hoge mate van burn-out klachten ervaren, hebben dus mogelijk meer baat bij sporten op een speelse en competitieve manier. Echter moeten de resultaten met voorzichtigheid worden geïnterpreteerd doordat de steekproef klein is, en er gebruik is gemaakt van zelfrapportages. Hoewel er meer onderzoek nodig is naar dit verband in de praktijk suggereren deze resultaten dat er mogelijk veel te behalen valt op het gebied van sportmotivatie door playful sport design bij mensen die kampen met burn-out symptomen.Show less
Adolescence is a period of many changes, a shift in focus appears from parents to peers. A greater focus on peer relationships can bring many insecurities. Therefore, adolescence is a period of...Show moreAdolescence is a period of many changes, a shift in focus appears from parents to peers. A greater focus on peer relationships can bring many insecurities. Therefore, adolescence is a period of heightened risk for the development of mental health problems. Using economic behavioural games, the social behaviour of others can be predicted by recognising the underlying motivations of others. The underlying motivations researched in this study are greediness and risk aversion. The aim of the study was to learn if social anxiety traits influenced the prediction of the social behaviour of others. It was investigated if a higher level of social anxiety influenced the accuracy of the predictions, based on greedy and risk averse motivations, of participants. In addition, the effects of age and motivation may influence the accuracy of the predictions of participants. No significant results were found during the study. Since the study is conducted with a small sample size, this may have affected the statistical power. Also, participants were not specifically recruited for the requirement of social anxiety. However, the results suggested a relation between age and the number of accurate predictions. Furthermore, the results suggested a relation between the level of social anxiety and motivation. These results should be further investigated in future research. To conclude, this study contributes to a better understanding of social anxiety. The ability of being able to predict when individuals are prosocial or not may prevent the onset of mental health disorders.Show less
The current research investigated gardening motivations, the difference between the desired and actual garden and their effect on gardening behaviour and intentions for residents of Leiden. It was...Show moreThe current research investigated gardening motivations, the difference between the desired and actual garden and their effect on gardening behaviour and intentions for residents of Leiden. It was hypothesised that a high motivation to garden, a strong wish to have a greener garden and their interaction had a positive effect on past greening behaviour and current greening intentions. Furthermore, it was expected that social, ecological and personal/practical gardening motivations would differ in their influence on current greening intentions and past greening behaviour. Results indicate that current greening intentions are significantly predicted by the motivation to garden, the garden wishes and their interaction. Explaining past greening behaviour was judged difficult due to a non-normal distribution of past greening behaviour scores. When investigating the three gardening motivation types, results indicated that an ecological motivation to garden significantly explained current greening intentions, but not past greening behaviour.Show less
This thesis analyses the relationship between leadership and citizens’ motivation during processes of co-production. In particular, this research tries to test whether the transformational...Show moreThis thesis analyses the relationship between leadership and citizens’ motivation during processes of co-production. In particular, this research tries to test whether the transformational leadership of professionals have an influence on the motivation of citizens to stay engaged in processes of co-production. Each dimension of this particular style of leadership is analysed and is applied to the motivation of citizens in the context of co-production. This research aims to explain whether there exists a relationship between the transformative leadership style and a continued engaged motivation of citizens during processes of co-production.Show less
This thesis set out to identify how motivation as a factor in second language acquisition influences the proficiency in signaling the fortis/lenis contrast by vowel length. Although earlier...Show moreThis thesis set out to identify how motivation as a factor in second language acquisition influences the proficiency in signaling the fortis/lenis contrast by vowel length. Although earlier research on the influence of motivation on (oral) second language proficiency has already been performed, the connection between motivation and vowel length in particular has not yet been made and is therefore innovative. In a phonetic study, vowel durations in the speech of 10 Dutch students of English Language & Culture were acoustically measured. Thereafter, the same participants expressed their motivation for learning English as a second language in a motivation questionnaire. Results showed that, generally, speakers cued the contrast by vowel length, as they all produced longer durations for pre-lenis than pre-fortis vowels. However, variations in proficiency could be observed, with some participants realising a greater contrast than others. The results also showed that the speakers were motivated to learn English for different reasons, some of them being more or equally integratively and/or instrumentally motivated. Finally, no obvious relationships were found between proficiency in the implementation of the contrast by vowel length and the two types of motivation. Further research could possibly expose possible evident connections, and therefore proves fruitful.Show less
The aim of this study was to find out whether the belief that anger reinforces your ideology can motivate you to feel anger. To investigate this, we conducted an online study where participants...Show moreThe aim of this study was to find out whether the belief that anger reinforces your ideology can motivate you to feel anger. To investigate this, we conducted an online study where participants read an article on how anger can strengthen the ideological convictions of leftists or rightists and were then asked to rank eight headlines in the order that they would want to read the corresponding articles. Six of these headlines were designed to indicate that their corresponding articles would induce either anger, fear or hope, while two of them were neutral in content. The participants’ preference for the headlines was intended to measure their motivation to experience the emotion that the headline was correlated with. The main hypothesis was that participants reading about how anger reinforces their ideology would want to engage with anger-inducing content more than participants in the other conditions. Unfortunately, the results were non-significant and the hypothesis was rejected. The participants were not more motivated to choose anger-inducing headlines after reading about how anger reinforces their ideology. Descriptively, the fear-related headlines were the most preferred out of all headlines. This can be due to a multitude of factors, the most important being the coronavirus pandemic, which could have influenced the preference for fear.Show less
With the challenges of global warming and the loss of biodiversity worsening, scientists are calling for unprecedented, multi-level societal change in the next several decades, especially in...Show moreWith the challenges of global warming and the loss of biodiversity worsening, scientists are calling for unprecedented, multi-level societal change in the next several decades, especially in affluent societies. Such change is required in order to abate the worst possible consequences of societal collapse and human extinction in the coming centuries. If such change is ever to happen, a comprehensive understanding of why people would be willing to bear the costs of change in order to ensure the fate of future generations is required. Many philosophers have provided moral arguments to answer this question. In this thesis I examine the work of Samuel Scheffler who addresses this issue from a different angle, questioning whether and in what ways future generations matter to us. Scheffler argues that compelling reasons for wanting to ensure that humanity continues to thrive in the remote future are implicit in many of the things that matter to people today. I discuss various challenges to Scheffler’s work and argue that, besides minor amendments, his core claims are viable. Indeed, the survival and flourishing of humanity into the remote future matter to us in its own right and because it is a condition for our ability to live a value-laden life. Moreover, it enables us to answer our conservative desire to preserve and sustain the things that we value beyond our own lifespan. Consequently, I stress the importance of incorporating these reasons into communication strategies aimed at enhancing public support for environmental policies, as these reasons have strong motivational power.Show less
This thesis seeks to explore the relation between psychological coping mechanisms and moral responsibility. It argues that there are three essential conditions guiding this relation: in order to be...Show moreThis thesis seeks to explore the relation between psychological coping mechanisms and moral responsibility. It argues that there are three essential conditions guiding this relation: in order to be morally responsible individuals must (1) be aware of a moral demand, (2) be aware of the morally relevant state of affairs, and (3) must to some degree have the physical and motivational ability to act upon this awareness. In specific, the view that motivational ability is an important factor in thinking about moral responsibility is defended in this thesis. Only by taking motivational ability into account, can we think about morality in a way that is both sufficiently realistic, while also satisfactorily idealistic.Show less
This thesis analyses the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and aimed to investigate how these types of motivation are related to bilingual education. The distinction between...Show moreThis thesis analyses the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and aimed to investigate how these types of motivation are related to bilingual education. The distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation was based on Ryan and Deci’s theory on Self-Determination (2000a). Data for this research were collected by conducting 16 interviews with students from a school in the Netherlands that offered the option of a bilingual track. Of these 16 subjects, half followed the bilingual track on their school, while the other half did not. It was hypothesized that the students who followed the bilingual track were more intrinsically motivated than the students who did not. After analysing the interviews, and coding their answers, this hypothesis appeared to be correct.Show less
Recent years have marked the beginning of a new era for businesses to engage customers with their brand and products, using the internet as the primary mediator. Social media has proved to play a...Show moreRecent years have marked the beginning of a new era for businesses to engage customers with their brand and products, using the internet as the primary mediator. Social media has proved to play a pivotal role in providing new ways of customer engagement and encouraging customer’s buying behavior, of which a concept known as “gamification” has grown out to become a global phenomenon. In this thesis I will provide an answer to the question of how the concept of gamification has developed within the Japanese market and for what purposes it is used in contemporary Japan, in both commercial and non-commercial contexts. I will demonstrate how gamification can be used as a mechanism to urge on a user’s intrinsic motivation, by utilizing extrinsically motivating game elements such as rewards. Implementing gamification in a company’s business strategy can be an effective way to engage customers, which then has the potential of establishing new, or strengthening existing relationships. This will be demonstrated based on a variety of examples within the Japanese context, including convenience-store chain Seven-Eleven Japan and Japanese idol group AKB48.Show less
Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
open access
In Vergil’s Aeneid, Aeneas finds himself in a situation in which he is being led by his fatum while being leader of the Trojans. It is up to him to on the one hand motivate the other Trojans to...Show moreIn Vergil’s Aeneid, Aeneas finds himself in a situation in which he is being led by his fatum while being leader of the Trojans. It is up to him to on the one hand motivate the other Trojans to follow his lead and to on the other hand motivate himself to follow the demands his fatum makes of him. Aeneas finds himself in three situations regarding his fatum: situations in which (1) he is openly forced by his fatum to behave a certain way and he has no choice but to submit, (2) gods and ghosts advise him on which path to follow, but he has some room to decide for himself how to react, and (3) he is free to choose his actions with little to no interference from his fatum. In the first kind of situation, Aeneas proves his worth as a leader by trying to take the time to set some form of hierarchy, to put the situation into his own perspective, and to thank the gods before taking action as required by his fatum. The second kind of situation allows Aeneas to really think about the consequences of all possibilities of action and to deliberate with others before acting. The final kind of situation truly shows Aeneas’ pius personality as a leader of the Trojans. Without force from his fatum, he want the others to know he is one of them and the honor of his father and his homeland weights heaviest when facing his own moral dilemmas.Show less
This study investigated whether gender and motivation influence the academic achievement of schoolchildren between the ages of 7 and 12. School achievement was measured using the the “Centraal...Show moreThis study investigated whether gender and motivation influence the academic achievement of schoolchildren between the ages of 7 and 12. School achievement was measured using the the “Centraal Instituut voor ToetsOntwikkeling” (CITO) test for technical reading, spelling and math. Motivation was measured using the “Prestatie Motivatie Test voor Kinderen” (PMT-K). It is a general assumption that girls perform better than boys when it comes to language skills. Boys on the other hand do better in math. This study focused on these differences with an independent t-test. It was also examined with a multiple regression if motivation influenced these differences in school achievement. It was expected that motivation and gender influenced academic achievement. Boys should be better in math and girls in spelling and comprehensive reading. Boys and girls should be evenly motivated. The results showed that boys scored significantly higher on math skills than girls. Surprisingly, no significant differences were found for reading and spelling. Furthermore, no significant differences were found for achievement motivation. However, girls scored higher on the subscales negative social anxiety and social desirability and boys scored higher on positive social anxiety. Social desirability and achievement motivation were significant predictors of spelling and math. This research showed that there is a small difference in achievement between boys and girls and motivation and gender partially influenced these school achievements. This study offers further incentive to investigate gender differences in the school environment.Show less
