Incollection,
5 Interest and human development during adolescence: An educational-psychological approach
Motivational Psychology of Human Development, volume 131 of Advances in Psychology, North-Holland, (2000)
DOI: 10.1016/S0166-4115(00)80008-4
Abstract
Publisher Summary This chapter presents the theoretical and empirical approaches within the field of educational–psychological research. It outlines the person–object conception of interest (POI). The chapter discusses theoretical considerations and empirical results about the complex interrelations between dispositional interests of a person and his or her personality development during adolescence. Two aspects are taken into account for determining the interrelations: (1) the role of interests in preparing and realizing decisions about educational and professional careers and (2) the question of how the development of interests can be described and explained. An interest-oriented person–object relationship represents a content-specific motivational disposition. Thus, at the first level of analysis, interest is interpreted as a motivational process or state and at the second level as some kind of trait. From a development theory perspective, both analysis levels are important. While at the first level, processes are primarily studied that are responsible for the dynamics of the developmental course, the “crystallized” results or effect of the developmentally relevant processes and events are studied at the second level.
