Rational and irrational beliefs in academic motivation of medical students

The article explored the role of rational and irrational beliefs in the academic motivation of medical students. The critical review of publications addressing this problem revealed psychocognitive and verbal patterns of behaviour typical of rationality/irrationality. Furthermore, the current scales for assessing irrational beliefs were analyzed. The authors suggested their own model adjusted to the academic context of a medical university. A detailed analysis of different types and subtypes of motivation found in the learning process of higher school students was performed. The following types were recognised: amotivation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Their significant differences were also revealed. At the next stage we developed and conducted a web-based survey among 130 students of Volgograd State Medical University to evaluate the share of rational and irrational beliefs in their interim assessment motivation, namely, their views of the role of revision for exams in achieving the learning results, the importance of the achieved results, their impact on their social adaptability and the academic ambience comfort. The quantitative analysis of the obtained findings has demonstrated the presence of both rational and irrational beliefs in the students’ academic motivation. However, rational beliefs prevailed pertaining to some aspects, which implied higher academic motivation to acquire professional competence. On the contrary, the presence of irrational beliefs indicated low or inadequate motivation, which may ultimately result in insufficient qualifications and burnout of future medical specialists. These data have highlighted the need for timely diagnosis and correction of irrational beliefs common to medical students in the process of learning.