Atkinson's starting point
Atkinson (1957) explained achievement behavior as the product of the motive to succeed, the expected probability of success and the incentive value of success. Easy tasks offer a high chance of success but little pride, while difficult tasks offer great pride but a low chance of success. He therefore predicted that people high in achievement motivation prefer tasks of intermediate difficulty. Around the same time, Fishbein (1963) explained attitudes as the sum of beliefs about an object multiplied by evaluations of those beliefs, a basis for the theory of planned behavior, and Vroom (1964) used similar logic in an expectancy theory of workers' effort.
Eccles and Wigfield's modern model
Eccles and colleagues (1983) built a new model to explain why students choose particular subjects and persist in studying them. Expectancy for success is the belief about how well one can do a task, similar to self-efficacy. Task value has four components: attainment value, the importance of doing well for one's identity; intrinsic value, the enjoyment of the task itself; utility value, its usefulness for future goals; and cost, what must be given up in time, effort or anxiety. Wigfield and Eccles (2000) showed that as children grow older, their expectancies and values become more clearly differentiated by subject and generally decline.
Applications and extensions
The theory has been widely used to explain students' course choices, especially why girls are less likely to pursue mathematics and science, because it emphasizes how social factors such as parents' and teachers' expectations and gender stereotypes shape students' expectancies and values. Eccles and Wigfield (2002) compared it with other motivation theories such as self-determination theory and goal theory. Recently Eccles and Wigfield (2020) renamed it situated expectancy-value theory, emphasizing that expectancies and values form moment to moment within specific situations and cultures. Debates continue over whether expectancies and values combine multiplicatively or additively and whether cost should be treated separately.
FAQ
- What is expectancy-value theory in simple terms?
- People choose and work hard at tasks when they both expect to do well and think the task is worth doing; if either is low, motivation weakens.
- What are Eccles's four task values?
- Attainment value, the importance of doing well; intrinsic value, the enjoyment of the task itself; utility value, its usefulness for future goals; and cost, what it takes in time, effort or anxiety.
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26
References
- Atkinson, J. W. (1957). Motivational determinants of risk-taking behavior. Psychological Review, 64(6), 359–372. Atkinson's classic expectancy-value model of achievement motivation.
- Fishbein, M. (1963). An investigation of the relationships between beliefs about an object and the attitude toward that object. Human Relations, 16(3), 233–239. The expectancy-value model of attitudes.
- Vroom, V. H. (1964). Work and Motivation. New York: Wiley. Expectancy theory of work motivation.
- Eccles, J. S., Adler, T. F., Futterman, R., Goff, S. B., Kaczala, C. M., Meece, J. L., & Midgley, C. (1983). Expectancies, values, and academic behaviors. In J. T. Spence (Ed.), Achievement and Achievement Motives (pp. 75–146). San Francisco: W. H. Freeman. The foundational Eccles model with four task values.
- Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. S. (2000). Expectancy–value theory of achievement motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 68–81. Development of expectancies and values in childhood.
- Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2002). Motivational beliefs, values, and goals. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 109–132. A review placing expectancy-value theory among motivation theories.
- Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2020). From expectancy-value theory to situated expectancy-value theory: A developmental, social cognitive, and sociocultural perspective on motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101859. The update to situated expectancy-value theory.