| This study compares affective and motivational components of academic life for traditional and nontraditional doctoral psychology students. Traditional students are defined as those aged 21 to 34 years of age and nontraditional students are defined as those 35 years and older. A total of 382 doctoral psychology students were assessed on measures of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to learn, interest, positive affect, subjective age, and resiliency. This study is a replication and extension of the work of Bye, Pushkar & Conway (2007). Results indicated that there were significant differences between the two age groups in both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to learn. In addition, there were true differences for positive affect and interest between T and NT students. Multiple regression analyses showed that age and intrinsic motivation to learn interacted to produce positive affect; however, the strongest predictor of positive affect was interest, followed by intrinsic motivation. Age did not make a significant contribution to the prediction of positive affect. The important areas which researchers can continue to explore are interest development in its role in motivational orientation regardless of age. |
