Plain-language explanation.
Motivation psychology studies why people do what they do — what drives behaviour, sustains effort, and determines direction. Learning theory examines how behaviour and knowledge change through experience.
Core concepts and standard treatment.
Core motivation and learning covers behaviourist learning (classical conditioning — Pavlov — CS, US, CR, UR — extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalisation; operant conditioning — Skinner — reinforcement schedules — FR, VR, FI, VI — variable ratio most resistant to extinction; shaping; chaining; token economy; ABA), cognitive theories (Tolman — latent learning — cognitive maps; Bandura — observational learning — Bobo Doll — self-efficacy — four sources; ACT-R — Anderson; situated learning — Lave and Wenger — communities of practice; Bruner — discovery learning — spiral curriculum), and motivation theories (Maslow hierarchy; Herzberg two-factor; McClelland nAch; Deci and Ryan SDT — autonomy, competence, relatedness; intrinsic vs extrinsic — undermining effect; Vroom expectancy VIE; Locke and Latham goal setting — SMART; proximal and distal goals).
Deeper theory, debates and edge cases.
Advanced motivation covers self-regulation (Zimmerman three phases — forethought, performance, self-reflection; metacognition — Flavell; ego depletion — Baumeister — glucose model — replication controversy Hagger; implementation intentions — Gollwitzer if-then planning; temptation bundling — Milkman), achievement motivation (Dweck and Elliot 2x2 achievement goals; growth vs fixed mindset — modest effect sizes — Sisk meta-analysis; Weiner attribution — locus, stability, controllability — learned helplessness; stereotype threat — Steele and Aronson; reducing stereotype threat interventions), and applied learning science (spaced practice — Cepeda meta-analysis; retrieval practice — testing effect — Roediger and Karpicke; interleaving — Kornell and Bjork; elaborative interrogation; worked examples — expertise reversal effect; desirable difficulties — Bjork — conditions that feel harder but improve long-term retention).
How it is applied in practice.
At the educational psychologist and motivational coach level, practitioners contribute to Journal of Educational Psychology; design evidence-based programmes (EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit; Rosenshine's Principles; metacognition and self-regulation +7 months effect; Hattie Visible Learning — d>0.4 hinge point); lead motivational interviewing training (Miller and Rollnick — OARS — change talk vs sustain talk — ambivalence; NICE PH1 smoking and alcohol applications); advise on performance psychology (self-talk, imagery, pre-performance routines — BPS DSEP; choking under pressure — Beilock; GROW model — Whitmore); and contribute to behaviour change policy (COM-B — Michie; Behaviour Change Wheel; PHE EAST — BIT; TTM — Prochaska stages of change).