The leader in the field, this text covers a wide range of theories - conditioning, social-cognitive, information processing, and social constructivism - and provides a thorough grounding in the psychology of motivation. Coverage demonstrates - through the author's lucid prose - how different concepts relate to one another; provides dozens of proven examples; and, emphasizes meaningful learning that makes the fundamentals of these theories as well as their application to education understandable to students with little or no prior coursework in psychology.