The Union College Psychology Department Speaker Series and Honors Colloquium welcome
Gregory Arief Liem, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology and Child and Human Development at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
for a public lecture entitled
A Sociocultural View of Student Motivation: Self, Agency, and the Meaning of Academic Engagement
Thursday, April 16, 2026
12:45 - 1:50 PM • Karp 105
Lunch and refreshments will be provided.
Understanding student motivation requires revisiting how students construe the self. Mainstream theories of achievement motivation—including self-efficacy, achievement goal theory, attribution theory, expectancy–value theory, and self-determination theory—have largely been developed within an independent-self framework. Within this worldview, motivation is assumed to originate from within the individual and to be enacted through personal choice, internal control, and self-initiated behavior—an assumption aligned with the independent-self perspective. However, across many cultural contexts and social settings, students do not experience themselves primarily as autonomous agents, but rather as individuals embedded within networks of relationships. An interdependent-self perspective offers a complementary way of understanding motivation—one that conceptualizes it as socially embedded, culturally organized, and contextually contingent. From this vantage point, students’ efforts are shaped by role responsibilities, relational obligations, and shared goals. This presentation introduces a cultural and contextual model of student motivation that integrates both independent and interdependent pathways. Rather than treating cultures as fixed or dichotomous, this framework highlights cultural fluidity, situational variation, and the diverse forms of agency students enact across contexts. By bringing independent and interdependent perspectives into dialogue, the presentation advances a more culturally inclusive account of student motivation—one that better reflects the lived experiences of learners across societies. Implications for motivational theory, educational practice, and cross-cultural research will be discussed.