Virtually all psychologically important human motives and goals reduce to combinations of 16 universal life motives (see my book "The Normal Personality", Cambridge University Press). Everybody embraces these life motives, but individuals prioritize them differently. How an individual prioritizes the 16 life motives has implications for how the person behaves in many natural environments. Our work on life motives, for example, has identified six common motivational causes of poor grades in schools. Any individual student doing poorly in school may have one or more these six motives. Each motive has different implications for intervention.
Afraid of Failure. Nobody likes to fail, but most people can shrug off the experience and move on. A small percentage of students, however, experience failure as devastating. Since failure hurts less when they do not try, students who are devastated by failure tend to underachieve because they hold back effort. Parents and teachers should gently encourage them to improve effort and grades.
Incurious. Every educational philosopher since antiquity has said that human beings are born with a natural curiosity and capacity to enjoy learning. They are all wrong. The fact is that students vary enormously in how long they can sustain thought before they scream in frustration. Students who hate to think are naturally incurious with regard to book learning. As one middle school student asked, "Why can't they invent a pill I could take when I have to know something?" These students tend to be bored with intellectual activities, theories, and abstractions. Parents and teachers need to use extrinsic incentives with these students. Since deep thinking is not required in many careers, these students may achieve much more in life than they do in school.
Laid Back. Students vary significantly in how much they intrinsically value achievement. Those who highly value achievements are hard working, perhaps even destined to become workaholics. Those who devalue achievement tend to be laid back and interested in leisure. These students do poorly in school because they do not care about doing well. They will tend to underachieve in school and later in career. Parents and teachers need to set strict expectations and provide extrinsic incentives to motivate academic learning.
Disorganized. Students vary enormously in how much they value order. Some feel comfortable with a stable, predictable, orderly daily life. Others experience such order as confining and prefer to follow their nose. These students tend to be disorganized and inefficient. Some teachers mark them down for being sloppy. Parents and teachers should teach organizing skills to help these students.
Combative. Some students hate anger and shy away from conflict. Others are proud of their fighting spirit and tend to get into many fights, arguments, and quarrels. They may do poorly in schools because they are distracted by their battles. Parents and teachers need to help these students learn how to direct their fighting spirit into socially appropriate activities such as competitive business or perhaps sports.
Expedient. Many people are expedient. They see nothing wrong with breaking promises when new opportunities arise. These students may shirk duties such as homework when they think they can get away with it, or they may cheat on exams when they think the teacher isn't watching. Teachers mark these students down for being irresponsible. Parents and teachers need to set strict ethical limits with these students.
