Beyond Cognition: Experts’ Views on Affective-Motivational Research Dispositions in the Social Sciences

Research competence (RC) as a key ability of students in the social sciences has thus far been conceptualized as consisting primarily of cognitive dispositions. However, owing to its highly complex and demanding nature, competence in conducting research might require additional affective and motivational dispositions. To address this deficiency in the literature, first, we conducted a qualitative interview study with academic experts (N = 16) in which we asked them to identify challenging research situations and the affective-motivational research dispositions needed to cope with them. We employed a subsequent online rating (N = 27) to evaluate the situations and dispositions that had been identified. The resulting affective-motivational facet of RC encompasses six challenging situations that are often encountered and nine dispositions that are necessary to successfully conduct research in the social sciences and may be used to both inform and evaluate research-based learning. The interview-based approach may serve as an exemplary procedure to postulate affective-motivational facets of competence models.