Directed Motivational Currents and Language Education. Christine Muir
of motivation will dissipate prior to this. When the latter occurs, this can result from a discord between an individual’s final subgoal and their overall vision. For instance, this might occur if an individual realises that even with the completion of all their planned subgoals they would nevertheless remain a considerable distance from their final goal (good illustrations can be found in Henry et al., 2015 and Safdari & Maftoon, 2017). A DMC might similarly break down if the person experiencing it were to lose a set of resources or a support structure that they had been relying on. Depending on the nature of this loss, the dissonance originating from such realisations might either see motivational energy slowly ebb away (for example, if a favourite website suddenly becomes unavailable, requiring reliance on other resources) or it could cause an abrupt break (for example, as was the case for Tina after her anticipated move to Italy was cancelled, reported in Safdari & Maftoon, 2017). In either eventuality, this breakdown leads the structure and processes forming the DMC backbone to cease to function effectively (or, indeed, to cease to function at all).
In the final section of this chapter, I overview two key resultant outcomes, equally relevant to all types of DMC endings (i.e. it is the timescales over which they unfold that differ): the disappearance of the protective shield of visionary single-mindedness and the increasing perception of effort as a subjective experience.
The disappearance of the protective shield of visionary single-mindedness
Throughout a DMC, the final goal maintains a chronically accessible presence in the working self-concept. Once the goal is successfully achieved – or if anything occurs to weaken the overall functioning of the structure of a DMC, as in the examples offered above – the protective shield of visionary single-mindedness, which forms a strong protective layer around goal pursuit, becomes correspondingly weakened. As a consequence, the diminishing prominence of the final goal allows competing outlets for motivational energy to surface, concurrently allowing the surfeit of alternative activities that previously could have been pursued to once again become attractive.
This can be understood as occurring with the culmination of several underlying processes (Dörnyei et al., 2016). The first stems from a change in the structure of goal constellations. The diminishing prominence of a final goal brings with it a diminishing level of identity-relevance and self-concordance, so creating opportunities for other goals – previously viewed as unimportant – to gain new levels of significance. As other goals emerge as equally self-concordant and personally meaningful, they can take over prominence in an individual’s working self-concept. This therefore leads to the loss of the dominance of the ideal self in working cognition. Throughout a DMC, the chronic accessibility of the final vision gives it a remarkable ability to resist challenges from competing self-concepts and, in practical terms, this also insulates it from potentially detrimental self-knowledge. The decline in the phenomenological strength of the end vision diminishes this robustness to withstand challenge, and self-images from other domains become increasingly successful in dislodging the prominence of the DMC-related ideal self from its prominent position in the self-concept (see Henry (2015) for a more detailed discussion of the dynamic interrelationships between L2 self-images).
Outside the context of DMCs, goal-directed behaviour is guided by an information processing system which continually evaluates the relative costs and benefits of pursuing a particular course of action (constantly appraising the rewards that a particular goal-directed activity might deliver, and the amount of effort required for these rewards to materialise). In the context of research investigating self-improvement intentions, Hockey (2013: 134) describes this process as ‘where the thrill of anticipated outcomes meets the reality of time commitments, frustration and practice needs’. While a DMC is ongoing and its structure functioning effectively, these evaluation processes are suspended and the high level of self-concordance of the goal pushes this threshold up in excess of usual levels. As goals diminish in self-concordance, however, traditional evaluation processes again resume charge.
The last of these processes stems from the fact that the resolution of conflicts between competing goals becomes less effective. This means that the effectiveness of the triggering and re-triggering mechanisms underpinning DMCs begins to wane, resulting in increased time lags in the reaction of the – previously highly effective – conflict-resolution patterns triggered in response to challenges. Rather than the ideal self being automatically activated in working cognition, causing the flow of energy to continue virtually uninterrupted and attention to the task to be rapidly renewed so preserving well-being, what occurs instead is a heavy expenditure of energy, coupled with an encroaching feeling of tiredness, energy depletion and deteriorating mood.
Effort as a subjective experience
The culmination of the above processes results in the dissipation of the control mechanisms of the DMC’s salient structure, meaning that it ceases to function effectively (cf. Dörnyei et al., 2016). Rather than experiencing rapid, effortless progression towards a final goal, action once again requires self-regulated concentration and effort, tasks rapidly become energy-sapping and may even trigger feelings of frustration and guilt. Throughout this chapter, I have described how, when in a DMC, cognitive effort both feels different and generates different affective reactions. I have also highlighted that the expenditure of cognitive effort in conflict resolution processes, for example, actually serves to generate motivational energy and increase personal well-being and satisfaction. The uniqueness of DMCs in this respect is perhaps most acutely experienced when the current of energy begins to wane, and effort is once again felt as a subjective experience.
Research into subjective effort (Robinson & Morsella, 2014) suggests that in most circumstances it is both predictable and consequential: individuals tend to avoid tasks that require the investment of high levels of subjective effort. However, there stand several exceptions. As Robinson and Morsella explain: ‘There are conditions in which the degree of task difficulty is orthogonal to that of subjective effort, as in the experience of flow’ (Robinson & Morsella, 2014: 833). Applying equally to DMCs, this means that the completion of challenging tasks is accompanied by a perception of zero levels of effort. This is a function of the chronically accessible nature of a vision within DMCs and, as Robinson and Morsella describe, this ‘actively strengthens processes associated with task-relevant demands and actively suppresses task-irrelevant processes/information’ (2014: 833).
The literature conceptualises fatigue as a loss of energy, coupled with an inability to make productive use of mental resources. A unique line of research is, again, that completed by Hockey (1983, 2011, 2013), which posits that fatigue has an adaptive function in an individual’s control of actions and motivation, where it concerns the selection and control of goals. The practical upshot of this novel perspective on the phenomenology and effects of fatigue is that it is commitment to goals that are not highly desired – and so which as a consequence require high levels of effort to complete – that generates fatigue: intense cognitive endeavours invested into highly valued goals rarely lead to such negative affective reactions. Hockey suggests that instead of viewing fatigue as a barrier to the successful completion of tasks, it should be understood as a sensory state or emotional resource, able to make us ‘aware of the opportunity costs of current activities, and of the attraction of neglected needs and alternative goals’ (Hockey, 2013: 4). More specifically, by interrupting ongoing activity, fatigue ‘provokes a reappraisal of the benefits and costs of current goals, and allows alternatives to compete for access to motivational control’ (Hockey, 2013: 10).
In a DMC that dissipates gradually, fatigue (the affective signal marking increasing difficulty in goal maintenance), and an increasingly negative appraisal of the level of effort required to continue with goal oriented behaviour, build slowly; in a DMC that finishes with a surge of invested energy towards an end goal (such as an exam or a performance), experiences of fatigue may instead be felt as a sudden, overwhelming rush of exhaustion. While the onward propulsion of a DMC current of motivation can be considered to function as a consequence of an upwardly spiralling dynamic process, the slow ebbing away of motivational energy as it draws to a close takes the form of a downward spiral (cf. Hockey, 2013): goal maintenance requires greater effort, resulting in increasingly acute feelings of fatigue and the promotion of an increasingly