Influência do capital psicológico na motivação para aprendizagem e aquisição de conhecimentos

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the influence of psychological capital on the motivation for learning and acquisition of knowledge of students of an Accounting Sciences course. The methodology used to conduct the study was a descriptive research, through a survey with 235 students from the Accounting Sciences course of a higher education institution, and a quantitative data approach. The data were collected through a questionnaire application, which was printed out and applied to students personally in the classrooms. The collected data were tabulated in Google forms and after obtaining the spreadsheet, the data were imported to SPSS® and AMOS® software for statistical treatment. To achieve the objectives of this study, a theoretical model of analysis was created, containing three hypotheses, which deal with the influence of psychological capital on the motivation for learning (H1) and on the acquisition of knowledge (H2) and the mediating effects of motivation for learning in this relation (H3). The results reveal that psychological capital positively influences the motivation for learning. Likewise, it exerts a direct and significant influence on the acquisition of knowledge. These evidences show that when students develop their psychological capital, their learning behavior is boosted. In the same way, the evidences show that in these conditions student’s capacity for acquiring new knowledge is elevated. The motivation for learning also had a positive influence on the acquisition of knowledge, which indicates that it acts as a mediator of the relationship between psychological capital and knowledge acquisition. This mediation occurs complementarily, in which the effects of psychological capital are direct and indirect in knowledge acquisition. These results allow us to conclude that students with higher psychological capital are more motivated to learn and tend to present higher levels of acquired knowledge in the course of Accounting Sciences.