Value Component Effects on Character Motivation

  1. Explain how your character's motivation aligns with the value component.
  2. Describe the value(s) that drive your Character's motivation.
  3. Explain how the value(s) played into the motivation of your Character. 

For example, how did your Character's values change over time and how did these influence his/her goal striving over time? 


In the Handmaid’s Tale series, June Osbourne’s motivation is ever changing, based on the evolution of her values and priorities. Within the Expectancy-Value model, a person’s expectancy (belief in skills, expectation of success, responsibility, self-efficacy) and values (goals, reasons, incentives, personal values, intrinsic & extrinsic goals) combine to predict an individual’s level of motivation. My character’s motivation aligns with the value component in this example in that the value she places on motherhood and her responsibility to protect her daughter are at the driving force behind her actions. 


While the protection of her child is one of the stronger value components inspiring her motivation, June Osborne also has darker values stemming from her immense hatred for the individuals responsible for breaking her family apart. The character’s values that inspire her actions are, the responsibilities of motherhood, her belief that she is responsible for the women around her who are also in similar situations, her desire to get revenge on the people who are the cause of the changes in her life, and her knowledge that her own escape is not enough if her daughter and friends are still captive.


These values play into June’s motivation in that she feels a strong sense of duty, as if she owes her daughter, her husband, her friends and country every ounce of action. As her expectancy in her ability to achieve her goals changes, so do her values and motivation. Originally she was only focused on getting her family back together and away from danger. After multiple plot twists, her seeing that her daughter has been indoctrinated and doesn’t remember her life before capture, her trauma bond relationship with a guardian, her values shift from protection to vengeance. This shift influenced her goals in that she no longer saw herself as the protector of only her child, but the women and children around her. She took on political responsibility even when it meant risking her life, so that other mothers would not continue to experience what she was going through.


In closing, values play a vital role in motivation in that they provide the why for what we chose to do. Without a strong why, the likelihood of productive action diminishes significantly. It has been interesting to study June Osbourne's motivational processes in that when her values and expectancy wax and wane, so does her value. When her why is no more, she goes through a period of inaction and depression. The renewal of that why sparked immediate action, demonstrating the accuracy of the expectancy value model of motivation.


Comments

  1. Jeannine TurnerOctober 15, 2023 at 1:29 PM

    I think you did a nice job of summarizing June's values for her family, how those values shifted with changing goals.

    ReplyDelete

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