Estudo dos fatores motivacionais e orientação de vida de universitários

Abstract

Objective: investigate the level of academic motivation and the life orientation of college students. Method: the subjects were 119 college students of the Physical Education course from an university of the state of Paraná, being 77 (64,7%) of the full-time course and 42 (35,3%) of the evening course, 67 (56,3%) of the first year and 53 (43,7%) of the last year. The instruments used were the Academic Motivation Scale and the Life Orientation Test. For data analysis, it was used the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Cronbach's alpha and Mann-Whitney test (p<0,05). Results: the students had moderate levels of motivation in the introjected, identified, integrated and intrinsic regulations; the full-time students had higher external regulation for the social aspects to the detriment of the evening academics (p=0,000); the academics who chose bachelor's degree are more externally regulated (social) rather than undergraduate students (p=0,000); last year students were more unmotivated (p=0,008) compared to students who have recently entered to the university; the first-year students were more intrinsically motivated (p=0,038) and less pessimistic (p=0,048); optimistic academics showed greater identification (identified regulation) with the academic life over the pessimists. Closing remarks: that extrinsic motivation for social conduct prevailed in the academic of bachelor's program and at the beginning of the course, students are more intrinsically motivated; the optimistic students were more identified (identified regulation) with the academic life.