EXPECTANCY-VALUE THEORY, PERFORMANCE GOALS, AND INSTRUMENTALITY

“Edward, I think you should just come home with me.” – Peg

Blog Post #3

This week the class moved on to expectancy-value theory. At its most simple expectancy-value theory states that an individual's motivation can be summed by whether they feel capable of fulfilling a task and if they give importance to the task. Yet, an explanation of instrumentality is also required to understand Edward Scissorhands and his relation to the theory. This term signifies that people feel motivated to do things that will get them closer to their goals. While there are two types of instrumentality, I will focus on the one in which people feel the action is directly related to the procurement of the goal, given it is the only one we see in the actions of the film's main character.  The last definition is performance goals, and these are goals that are related to outcomes outside of oneself as opposed to mastery goals that just focus on internal skill building.

Now to connect the theoretical our scissor-handed protagonist. So as we previously discussed, Edward has two central goals in the film, the first, to earn the acceptance of the village people, and the second, to create a romantic connection with his love interest, Kim. Edward went about achieving the first goal by utilizing his scissor hands in a myriad of ways deemed useful by his new neighbors. Edward's expectancy of completing the task was very high, given the positive affirmations he received for his work and how his use of his hands was innate to him. He also put a high value on using his extremities, given that he felt an instrumental connection between sculpting, hairdressing, and grooming with the overall goal of becoming integrated into the community. These two aspects, combined with the low cost associated with using his hands, motivated Edward to continue his projects. One important note about this is that this is clearly a performance goal because Edward is not judging himself by whether his sculptures become better or if his communication skills strengthen but purely off on the reactions of other people and what would change in them.

For his second goal, it would be most useful to focus on how it changed over time and what he strove for.  At the beginning and through the middle of the film, his goal is to create a romantic connection, and to achieve this, he goes about it the same way he does his first. He uses his hands to do things he knows he is capable of because he believes it will cause positive reactions from those he wants to like him more. However, by the end of the film, when the town has turned on him and he finds himself back in his castle with a raging Jim and a defenseless Kim, it's clear they will not be able to be together. So, at this point, I feel his goal drastically shifts from creating a relationship with Kim to ensuring her safety. This is why he takes the drastic action of stabbing Jim in the stomach, ensuring he can never return to the town.