In the study of motivation, demotivation is the weakening or loss of an existing motivation to act as a result of specific negative influences. The concept has been elaborated chiefly in educational research and applied linguistics ; Zoltán Dörnyei and Ema Ushioda define it as the effect of "specific external forces that reduce or diminish the motivational basis" of a behavioural intention or an ongoing action. The term also can be found in business and management writing, with loose or absent definitions, and in clinical psychology, where it designates much more severe disorders of diminished motivation, including the amotivational syndrome and avolition.