2.
0 Their Link with Psychological Theories
Psychological theories are system of ideas that describe certain characteristic of human
behaviours, thoughts and emotions. Psychologist create these theories to predict future human
behaviours or events that may occur if certain behaviour exist. Five major perspective in
psychology includes cognitive, humanistic, behavioural, biological and psychodynamic.
According to our project title which is ‘Analysis of Learning Motivation and Burnout of
Malaysian and Chinese College Students Majoring in Sports in an Educational Psychology
Perspective’, below are their link with psychological theories:
Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) is a Russian psychologist and a teacher who develop a
theory called ‘Cognitive Development Theory’. In accordance with his theory, Vygotsky idea
stated that society play an importance role toward a child’s intellectual development. He also
emphasize the influence of society on the cognitive development of a child. In the early stage,
children ability of thinking depends on the biological factor, but during development stage their
thinking ability might get affected by the social environment. It helps children to culturally
adapt to the new situations when needed. On the other hand, Vygotsky wrote in ‘Thought and
Language’ that human mental activity is the result of social learning.
This theory of Vygotsky related to the issue that we are concentrate on. By referring to
the issue, mostly both student from University of Malaya and Zhengzhou University, China
majoring in sport having problem of learning burnout which cause by lack of learning
motivation. The learning motivation of students can be stimulated, and their learning burnout
in the learning process can be reduce by the involvement of society. As a student, they easily
get affected by their classmate. When students find that their classmates have a great chance of
completing the learning task, they will think that the task is less difficult. Hence, this situation
encourage and increase their confidence and their ability to perform the learning task and they
are willing to invest energy and effort to ensure they complete the task also (Jung et al., 2019).
However, if their classmates repeatedly fail to complete the learning task, it will increase
student’s psychological pressure and they will continuously think that they are more likely to
fail.
Teacher’s role in this situation also applicable to the students in order to encourage their
learning motivation. Teacher should use various method of teaching to continuously enrich the
teaching content, enhance the charm of the teaching process, and enable students to participate
in learning actively. Vygotsky said that cooperative learning can help to enhance student
attention during learning process. Teachers can use this method in their classes by forming
group among students who is expert in study with the one who is less expert together in a team.
Through this idea of Vygotsky, student will be sharing ideas during group discussion and this
activity allow students who are more skilled to help their team member who are not yet
mastered certain topics. For the university, they can solve this issue by helping students to
overcome learning burnout emotions through personal consultation and special mental health
education. In particular, encouragement from all parties make individual more focused and
concentrate on the learning goals.
Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is develop by Swiss developmental
psychologist namely Jean Piaget (1896-1980). Four stages of cognitive development in
Piaget’s theory includes Sensorimotor Stage (0 to 2 years age), Preoperational Stage (2 to 6
years of age), Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 11 years age) and Formal Operational Stage
(adolescene through adulthood) (Wood et al., 2006). Regarding this issue that we are
concentrate on, it involve students with fourth stage which is Formal Operational Stage.
In relation with Piaget’s theory, the individual at this age able to think abstractly and
understand the form structure of mathematical problem. Another characteristics during this age
is they have ability to reason a contrary to fact. In a meantime, this is the stage where they have
the highest level of thinking ability and they are capable of going beyond the concrete evidence.
The learner’s thoughts can be fostered by placing learner in a situation where they have to solve
problems (Lefa, 2014).
The characteristics mentioned above related to the attitude of student who are having
learning burnout due to lack of learning motivation. From the issue we are concentrate on, it
says that when students are learning uninterested knowledge under a compulsory condition,
the lack of positive motivation will make students feel bored with the behaviour of learning
and when it is happen, the phenomenon of learning burnout appears. This situation connected
to the Piaget’s theory that the teacher should pay attention to the student thought’s process
where the teachers should understand the process used by the student until they arrive at the
result or final product of an answer. In a nutshell, it means that the teachers require to use
various learning methods in the teaching process and plan interesting classroom activities to
stimulate the interest of students in learning, thereby enhancing their subjective initiative.
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
Lawrence Kohlberg (1927 – 1987) is an American psychologist and an educator known
for his theory of moral development. Kohlberg’s theory of moral cognitive development is
temporarily the most influential theory in moral development psychology in the west and is
still applied into practice and effectively proven by moral theorists and educators all over the
world (Zhang et al., 2017).
In stage 4 of Kohlberg’s theory which is Maintaining Social Order, Kohlberg stated that
this stage is the phase where the social order is maintained. At this stage of moral development,
people tend to consider society as a whole when making judgement.
Then, this issue related to the Kohlberg theory because many students majoring in
sports do not highly recognize their major and doubt whether their major can be recognized
and needed by society. Therefore, society should encourage sports talents, affirm the value of
sports talents, establish a fair and reasonable employment mechanism, and change the
mentality of students majoring in sports that they are confused about the future. In the
meantime, students should also correctly understand the current environment, maintain a sense
of urgency when faced with employment pressure, and keep making breakthroughs in keeping
with the trend of the times.
In conclusion, society plays an important roles toward student motivation in learning
because student at this age easily influenced by the surroundings.
Maslow’s Theory of Humanistic
Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychologist who was best known for
creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling
innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization. He stressed the importance
of focusing on the positive qualities in people, as opposed to treating them as a "bag of
symptoms (Hoffman, 1989).
In considering the quality of life, Abraham Maslow (1943) developed a positive theory
of human motivation that emphasized motivation. Maslow suggested that human motivation is
influenced by human needs, which are often in sequence and must be fulfilled before moving
on the next need. Within his theory, Maslow articulated basic needs, psychological needs, and
self-fulfilment needs for human. Basic needs focusing on the psychological and safety needs
of human. Upon fulfilling these basic needs, human advance to fulfilling their psychological
needs. Psychological needs include gaining love, belonging and acquiring self-esteem.
Assuming that basic and psychological needs are fulfilled, humans may achieve the final need
of self-actualization (Bermea, 2022).
Maslow’s theory related to the article when it said that intrinsic motivation is the driving
force for pursuing the pure pleasure of activities, while some activities in physical education
may not be interesting. When people are interested in something or activities, they will present
a positive state and show some kind of attraction. They connect their positive emotions and
take the initiative to engage in these activities to continuously explore the nature of these
activities and improve their knowledge literacy. Therefore, if students majoring in sports are
forced to repetitively practice sports daily rather than driven by their motivation, they will not
integrate their goals or ideals during this process, and their internal motivation will eventually
be worn away. Psychological research shows that learning motivation is not a single
psychological activity. The generation of student learning activities is also driven by a dynamic
system formed by various psychological factors
References
Jung, E., Hwang, W., Kim, S., Sin, H., Zhang, Y., & Zhao, Z. (2019). Relationships among
helicopter parenting, self-efficacy, and academic outcome in American and South Korean
college students. Journal of Family Issues, 40(18), 2849-2870.
Malerstein, A. J., & Ahern, M. M. (1979). Piaget’s stages of cognitive development and adult
character structure. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 33(1), 107-118.
Zhang, Q., & Zhao, H. (2017). An analytical overview of Kohlberg’s theory of moral
development in college moral education in mainland China. Open Journal of Social
Sciences, 5(8), 151-160.
Zhang, Q., & Zhao, H. (2017). An analytical overview of Kohlberg’s theory of moral
development in college moral education in mainland China. Open Journal of Social
Sciences, 5(8), 151-160.
Barmea, G. O. (2022). Humanistic Advising: Applying Humanistic Theory to the Practice of
Academic Advising. NACADA Review, 3(1), 3-20.
Lefa, B. (2014). The Piaget Theory of Cognitive Development: An Educational Implications.
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