Infatuation with Constructs and Losing Sight of the Motivational Phenomenon

Abstract Explaining motivational phenomena involves explaining why a person chooses one particular action over another, persists or quits the action, engages in that action in a particular way and with a particular level of intensity, and the proximal and distal consequences of that action. To do this, much of motivation science focuses on defining constructs, numerically and statistically measuring them, and investigating their unique correlates. These efforts offer precision, but they also produce a literature that is detached from authentic motivational phenomena. Motivational researchers’ infatuation with constructs and with aggregate linear statistical analyses has led to losing sight of the nature of the authentic motivational phenomena that comprise the numerous and overlapping factors and processes that are intertwined in ways that are contextual, complex, dynamic, and not fully predictable. Addressing this foundational limitation has ontological, epistemological, methodological, practical, and even moral implications.