The Motivational Utility of Knowledge: Examining Fundamental Needs in the Context of Houselessness Knowledge

Autor/inn/en	Watanabe, Micah; McNamara, Danielle S.
Titel	The Motivational Utility of Knowledge: Examining Fundamental Needs in the Context of Houselessness Knowledge
Quelle	3 (2023) 4, S.642-661 (21 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Watanabe, Micah) ORCID (McNamara, Danielle S.) Weitere Informationen
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Schlagwörter	Homeless People; Individual Needs; Knowledge Level; Prior Learning; Vocabulary; Adults; Measures (Individuals) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Homeless person; Homeless persons; Obdachloser; Wissensbasis; Vorkenntnisse; Wortschatz; Messdaten
Abstract	Past research on knowledge has differentiated between dimensions (e.g., amount, accuracy, specificity, coherence) of knowledge. This paper introduces a novel dimension of knowledge, the Motivational Utility of Knowledge (MUK), that is based on fundamental human needs (e.g., physical safety, affiliation, actualization, reproduction). Adults in the United States (N = 190) were recruited from an online survey platform and paid for participation. Participants read a set of four texts arguing different views of houselessness and were administered a comprehension test after each text. Participants were asked about their conceptions of houselessness before and after reading. Finally, they were given the MUK scale, a demographics questionnaire, including questions about their personal experience with houselessness, and were administered a general prior knowledge test and a vocabulary knowledge test. We examined MUK, the factor structure of the scale and the relationship between MUK and other measures of knowledge. The analyses showed that the subscales of MUK loaded onto a single factor--an overall value of houselessness knowledge. In addition, we found that MUK was correlated with conceptions of houselessness and comprehension of texts on houselessness, indicating that the scale was valid. Overall, the findings demonstrate that MUK is an important dimension of knowledge to consider in learning tasks. (As Provided).
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01