Directed Motivational Currents and Language Education. Christine Muir
is a strand of research in motivational psychology that has become increasingly active in recent years (see, for example, Aarts & Custers, 2012; Bargh & Chartrand, 1999; Bargh et al., 2001; Custers & Aarts, 2007; Fitzsimons & Bargh, 2004; Papies & Aarts, 2010). While the term is something of an oxymoron – for how can something be unconscious yet self-regulated – it nevertheless effectively communicates the recognition that human behaviour is influenced by processes not solely under volitional control (for an overview of nonconscious motivation in SLA see Al-Hoorie, 2019). Non-conscious self-regulation functions to enable people to automatically prepare for goal-directed action while blocking out potential interference from temptations. Two primary processes have emerged as possible sources for these seemingly ‘spontaneous’ reactions. The first of these is linked to the chronic accessibility of an individual’s goals/visions within their working self-concept, and the emergence from this of certain automatic perceptual biases which influence how they interact with their environment. The second process suggests that, when repeatedly activated, goals become associated with performance situations and, as a result, behaviours in these situations become automatised (see previous section on continual re-triggering).
Nonconscious self-regulation concerns not only the automatic activation of goal-relevant action but, concurrently, affords individuals an increased ability to ignore distractions and to resume goal pursuit after disruptions (Bargh et al., 2001; Fitzsimons & Bargh, 2003; Shah et al., 2002). These findings are able to explain the protective shield of visionary single-mindedness (Dörnyei et al., 2016) experienced by individuals throughout DMCs, within which levels of commitment to a certain goal/ vision become so high as to become pervasive and the resulting behaviours habitualised, effectively ruling out competing opportunities for action. Fitzsimons and Bargh (2003) refer to this as ‘chronic motivation’, an eloquent term highly apt in describing the protective layer formed around goal pursuit and the all-encompassing nature of a DMC surge.
Subgoals and perceptions of progress
The important role of progress checks is reflected in a point underemphasised in Csikszentmihalyi’s description of the flow experience and across the flow literature more broadly. As Csikszentmihalyi recollects: ‘as I watched and photographed painters at their easels, one of the things that struck me most vividly was the almost trancelike state they entered when the work was going well’ (1975/2000: xiv; emphasis added). Even within flow – a process fuelled entirely by an intrinsic enjoyment of the activity at hand – positive evaluations of progress and a feeling that it is productive are key to maintaining this heightened state (Kimiecik & Stein, 1992). For example, in the context of flow experiences described by elite figure skaters, lack of audience response was reported as a factor perceived as instrumental in preventing or even disrupting flow experiences (Jackson, 1992).
From a DMC perspective, this means that positive appraisals of the velocity of goal pursuit (how quickly someone is progressing towards achieving their goal; Carver & Scheier, 1990) are critical to supporting its continuation. Measures calculated solely through personal perceptions are inherently subjective and so regular proximal subgoals (introduced earlier in the chapter) become indispensable for maintaining a clear sense of progress: they offer standards from which personal perceptions can be measured, mark progress and offer both immediate feedback and future incentives.
Affirmative feedback
Also known as progress feedback, affirmative feedback is a type of discrepancy feedback that focuses on highlighting differences between an individual’s initial and current levels of performance, i.e. by highlighting what an individual has already achieved (Voerman et al., 2012). In the context of DMCs, affirmative feedback plays a particularly important role by highlighting and contributing to positive student perceptions of progress and is another key cog in the structure of a DMC. Affirmative feedback can manifest itself in varied forms throughout a DMC. For example, Henry et al. describe how not only was feedback and explicit validations of progress from ‘experts’ (such as language teachers) important, but that participants actively sought out further, ‘more ecologically valid’ (Henry et al., 2015: 339) forms of feedback on the same pieces of work from L2 speaking friends. A participant in Sak’s study described the importance they ascribed to homework in this regard:
I know it may sound odd, but I feel happy when we are assigned homework because I understand how much I have learned when I complete homework assignments. If I see that I am able to complete tasks, and I am able to give correct answers, I feel happy. I talk to myself and say that ‘Yes, I am doing well.’ (Sak, 2019: 163)
Certain nonverbal cues can also be perceived as providing affirmative feedback, as described by Asan, who experienced an L2 English DMC soon after graduating as a social worker in Iraqi Kurdistan:
I would see the effect of this when I was talking to others in English and I could see in their eyes that they saw a change in me – a change in my skills for the better. … I would see these things in the eyes of people around me on a daily basis, these occasions were very happy moments. They would make me super happy. (Dörnyei et al., 2016: 93).
(4) Positive Emotional Loading
A core characteristic of DMCs is the positive emotional tenor experienced in relation to all aspects of a DMC pathway. Manifested as a seemingly irrational sense of joy, satisfaction and well-being, individuals experience a unique feeling of contentedness and fulfilment, of connectedness between activity and identity. This is often experienced both emotionally and physically, as a feeling ‘in the pit of your stomach’ or in the way in which an individual interacts and represents themselves to the world around them (see, for example, ‘Bina’ in Henry et al., 2015).
So far in this book, I have already touched on three areas able to contribute to our understanding of the positive emotional loading of DMCs, each with different theoretical roots. Firstly, ideas of possible selves from social psychology can help account for how, in a DMC, an individual’s ideal self becomes highly accessible and frequently activated. Goal theories in motivational psychology have foregrounded the relevance of self-concordant goals, and I have also highlighted key links between DMCs and flow in positive psychology (albeit with the unique ‘high’ characteristic of each emanating from starkly differing sources). Drawing again from positive psychology, in the following I review the concept of eudaimonic well-being as conceptualised by Waterman (1993, 2008), with particular reference to two core features: dedicated effort in the pursuit of excellence and authenticity (Huta & Waterman, 2013).
Eudaimonia
The concept of eudaimonic well-being (Huta & Ryan, 2010; Huta & Waterman, 2013; Ryan & Deci, 2001; Waterman, 1993, 2008) originated with Aristotle and is now widely used in positive psychology to refer to a deep and often enduring sense of personal contentment, specifically linked to the experience of actualising one’s potential and the realisation of personal fulfilment (as contrasted to hedonia, a more transitory, euphoric ‘in-the-moment’ experience of happiness). Eudaimonia involves experiences and feelings of ‘rightness’ and a ‘centeredness’ in one’s actions (Waterman, 2008) and a sense of ‘being where one wants to be, doing what one wants to do’ (Norton, 1976: 216): it is experienced as a feeling of being intensely alive and entirely fulfilled.
The majority of research carried out into eudaimonia within positive psychology has been through the conceptualisation of it at the trait level (Huta & Waterman, 2013) – such as that by Deci and Ryan (Deci & Ryan, 2006; Ryan et al., 2008; Ryan et al., 2013), Ryff (Ryff, 1989; Ryff & Singer, 2008) and Seligman (Seligman, 2002) – and focus has generally centred on its experience in relation to a ‘manner’ or ‘way’ of living. Although such research undoubtedly touches on the feelings of deep inner joy experienced within DMCs, the definition of DMCs as a structured stream of energy, facilitating specific goal-directed behaviour, aligns them more closely with research conducted into eudaimonia at the state level.
State level eudaimonia has been most thoroughly explored through Alan Waterman’s eudaimonic identity theory (Waterman, 1993). The central tenet is that feelings