Influence of social cognitive and ethnic variables on academic goals of underrepresented students in science and engineering: A multiple-groups analysis.

In this study we investigated the academic interests and goals of 223 African American, Latino/a, Southeast Asian, and Native American undergraduate students in 2 groups: biological science (BIO) and engineering (ENG) majors. Using social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994), we examined the relationships of social cognitive variables (math/science academic self-efficacy, math/science outcome expectations)—as well as the influence of ethnic variables (ethnic identity, other-group orientation) and perceptions of campus climate—to students’ math/science interests and goal commitment to earn a BIO/ENG degree. Path analysis revealed that the hypothesized model provided good overall fit to the data, revealing significant relationships between outcome expectations and interests and between outcome expectations and goals. Paths from academic self-efficacy to BIO/ENG goals and from interests to BIO/ENG goals varied for students in engineering and the biological sciences. For both groups, other-group orientation was positively related to self-efficacy, and support was found for an efficacy-mediated relationship between perceived campus climate and goals. Theoretical and practical implications of the study’s findings are considered as well as future research directions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Malleability in communal goals and beliefs influences attraction to stem careers: Evidence for a goal congruity perspective.

The goal congruity perspective posits that 2 distinct social cognitions predict attraction to science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) fields. First, individuals may particularly value communal goals (e.g., working with or helping others), due to either chronic individual differences or the salience of these goals in particular contexts. Second, individuals hold beliefs about the activities that facilitate or impede these goals, or goal affordance stereotypes. Women's tendency to endorse communal goals more highly than do men, along with consensual stereotypes that STEM careers impede communal goals, intersect to produce disinterest in STEM careers. We provide evidence for the foundational predictions that gender differences emerge primarily on communal rather than agentic goals (Studies 1a and 3) and that goal affordance stereotypes reflect beliefs that STEM careers are relatively dissociated from communal goals (Studies 1b and 1c). Most critically, we provide causal evidence that activated communal goals decrease interest in STEM fields (Study 2) and that the potential for a STEM career to afford communal goals elicits greater positivity (Study 3). These studies thus provide a novel demonstration that understanding communal goals and goal affordance stereotypes can lend insight into attitudes toward STEM pursuits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dispositional optimism and engagement: The moderating influence of goal prioritization.

Research indicates that a positive relationship generally exists between dispositional optimism and goal engagement and attainment. The authors argue, however, that dispositional optimism may not always be associated with more active goal pursuit. Rather, they hypothesized that this relationship is moderated by how highly a goal is prioritized. For high-priority goals, they predicted that optimistic individuals would indeed increase goal engagement and would be more likely to attain their goal relative to individuals low in optimism. For low-priority goals, they anticipated that optimistic individuals would not display greater goal engagement or attainment. In 5 studies they assessed these predictions across a variety of domains, including friendship formation, exercise persistence, and scholastic achievement. Results supported their contention that goal priority acts as a moderator of the relationship between dispositional optimism and both goal engagement and goal attainment. Evidence of 1 mediator of this moderation effect—behavioral intentions—and of a limiting factor—the temporal ordering of goals—is also presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adjustment trajectories in college science programs: Perceptions of qualities of parents' and college teachers' relationships.

This longitudinal study had 2 goals. The 1st goal was to describe trajectories of academic and emotional adjustment in college science programs. The 2nd goal was to determine whether these trajectories differed as a function of students' self-reports of the quality of their relationships with parents and teachers. The sample consisted of 498 students recruited during their last year of high school. Assessment of adjustment continued until the end of the 2nd year of college. For a number of students, the authors observed a significant decline in both academic and emotional adjustment. Moreover, it was possible to identify an at-risk profile characterized by poor academic and emotional adjustment. In examining the students' perceptions of their family and school environments, the authors found that poorly and well-adjusted students differed from each other on the basis of parental but not teachers' relationship quality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Advancing Achievement Goal Theory: Using Goal Structures and Goal Orientations to Predict Students' Motivation, Cognition, and Achievement.

The objective of this study was to investigate how different components of achievement goal theory were related to each other and to students' motivation, cognitive engagement, and achievement in mathematics. Junior high school students (N=525) completed a self-report survey that assessed their perceived classroom goal structures; personal goal orientations: and a collection of outcomes that included persistence, procrastination, choice, their use of cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies, and mathematics grade. Results indicate that mastery structure and mastery orientation were related to adaptive outcomes in all areas. The patterns of relations for performance-approach goal structure, and for performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal orientations were less uniform across outcomes. Implications for achievement goal theory and future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation and cheating during early adolescence.

The relations of motivational variables to self-reported cheating behaviors and beliefs in science were examined in a sample of early adolescents. It was hypothesized that cheating and beliefs in the acceptability of cheating would be more likely when students perceived an emphasis on performance and extrinsic incentives rather than on mastery and improvement. Results indicated that students who reported cheating in science perceived their classrooms as being extrinsically focused and perceived their schools as being focused on performance and ability. Students who believed in the acceptability of cheating also reported personal extrinsic goals and a perceived emphasis on extrinsic factors in class. Students who reported cheating also worried about school. The reported use of deep cognitive strategies was related negatively and the use of self-handicapping strategies was related positively to cheating beliefs and behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An integrative cultural view of achievement motivation: Parental and classroom predictors of children's goal orientations when learning mathematics in Korea.

Our goal was to identify how students' perceptions of their parents shape the kind and degree of motivational goal orientations that they adopt in their mathematics classroom, broadening the application of achievement goal orientation theory and self-determination theory to students in Korea. Two groups of students participated, one from a middle school located in a large metropolitan area and the other from a small city high school. Multisample path analysis of data from both groups revealed that Korean students' different goal orientations were predicted by their perceptions of parental goals and motivating styles and by their perceptions of classroom goal structures, mediated by different types of self-regulated motivations. Particularly interesting was the finding that Korean students' degree of mastery goal adoption was associated mostly with identified regulation, not with intrinsic motivation, and predicted by their perceptions of their parents' motivating styles, both autonomy supportive and controlling, in addition to perceptions of parents' mastery goals. Perceptions of classroom goals were stronger predictors of students' own goals than were perceptions of parents' goals and motivating styles. We offer an integration of self-determination theory and achievement goal theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptions of classroom environment, achievement goals, and achievement outcomes.

Two studies examined the relationship between undergraduates' perceptions of their classroom environment, their adoption of achievement goals for the course, and their graded performance and intrinsic motivation. Results revealed a distinct antecedent profile for each goal in the trichotomous framework: Mastery goals were linked to the presence of lecture engagement and the absence of an evaluation focus and harsh evaluation, performance-approach goals were linked to the presence of evaluation focus, and performance-avoidance goals were linked to the presence of evaluation focus and harsh evaluation. When the perceived classroom environment and achievement goal variables were tested together as predictors of graded performance and intrinsic motivation, the results clearly demonstrated that the influence of the perceived classroom environment on these outcomes measures was indirect; the perceived classroom environment influenced achievement goal adoption, and achievement goal adoption, in turn, directly influenced graded performance and intrinsic motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-regulated learning and college students' regulation of motivation.

This study extends current models of self-regulated learning by addressing 3 research questions, including what strategies do students use to regulate their motivation? is the use of these strategies dependent on contextual factors? how is motivational regulation related to other aspects of self-regulated learning and achievement? Self-report data were collected from 115 college students by using an open-ended questionnaire and Likert-style survey. Findings provide evidence that students regulate their level of effort in academic tasks by using a variety of cognitive, volitional, and motivational strategies; that students' reported use of these strategies varied across the 3 motivational problems with which they were presented; and that different aspects of students' motivational regulation were related positively to their goal orientation, use of some cognitive strategies, and course grade. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Student engagement in high school classrooms from the perspective of flow theory.

We present a conceptualization of student engagement based on the culmination of concentration, interest, and enjoyment (i.e., flow). Using a longitudinal sample of 526 high school students across the U.S., we investigated how adolescents spent their time in high school and the conditions under which they reported being engaged. Participants experienced increased engagement when the perceived challenge of the task and their own skills were high and in balance, the instruction was relevant, and the learning environment was under their control. Participants were also more engaged in individual and group work versus listening to lectures, watching videos, or taking exams. Suggestions to increase engagement, such as focusing on learning activities that support students' autonomy and provide an appropriate level of challenge for students' skills, conclude the article. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Engaging students in learning activities: It is not autonomy support or structure but autonomy support and structure.

We investigated 2 engagement-fostering aspects of teachers' instructional styles—autonomy support and structure—and hypothesized that students' engagement would be highest when teachers provided high levels of both. Trained observers rated teachers' instructional styles and students' behavioral engagement in 133 public high school classrooms in the Midwest, and 1,584 students in Grades 9–11 reported their subjective engagement. Correlational and hierarchical linear modeling analyses showed 3 results: (a) Autonomy support and structure were positively correlated, (b) autonomy support and structure both predicted students' behavioral engagement, and (c) only autonomy support was a unique predictor of students' self-reported engagement. We discuss, first, how these findings help illuminate the relations between autonomy support and structure as 2 complementary, rather than antagonistic or curvilinear, engagement-fostering aspects of teachers' instructional styles and, second, the somewhat different results obtained for the behavioral versus self-report measures of students' classroom engagement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What to do? The effects of discrepancies, incentives, and time on dynamic goal prioritization.

This study examined factors that influence the dynamic pursuit of multiple goals over time. As hypothesized, goal-performance discrepancies were significantly related to subsequent time allocation. Greater distance from a given goal resulted in greater time subsequently allocated to that goal. In addition, the incentives offered for goal attainment determined the relative influence of discrepancies for each goal. When the incentives for each goal were equivalent, progress toward each goal exhibited equal influence, with greater time allocated to whichever goal was furthest from completion at the time. However, with an incentive available for only 1 of the 2 goals, time allocation was largely determined by progress toward the rewarded goal. Likewise, when incentives for each task differed in their approach-avoidance framing, progress toward the avoidance-framed goal was a stronger predictor of subsequent allocation than was progress toward the approach-framed goal. Finally, the influence of goal-performance discrepancies differed as a function of the time remaining for goal pursuit. The implications for future work on dynamic goal prioritization and the provision of performance incentives are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Styles of engagement with learning: Multidimensional assessment of their relationship with strategy use and school achievement.

Examined ways in which student beliefs and goals distinguish different styles of engagement with learning and how such styles are associated with both the strategies students report using when preparing for exams and school achievement. Cluster analysis was used to identify groups of students with similar patterns of beliefs about their own learning. Within a cohort of 137 female 11th-grade students, 6 styles of engagement were identified. Analysis of the influence of these styles on strategies adopted for exam preparation indicated differences in the strategies reported. Styles of engagement were also significantly related to school achievement. Findings are discussed in terms of insights achieved through adopting methods of analysis that preserve the multidimensional character of student engagement with learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Power to the people: Using learner control to improve trainee reactions and learning in web-based instructional environments.

This experimental study investigated the mechanisms by which learner control influences learning in an e-learning environment. The authors hypothesized that learner control would enhance learning indirectly through its effect on trainee reactions and learner engagement (in particular, off-task attention), such that learners who were more satisfied with the training and devoted more cognitive resources toward the instructional content versus off-task thoughts would possess greater posttraining knowledge. The study also examined the role of individual differences (training motivation and goal orientation) in the prediction of these 2 mediating variables. A sample of 274 undergraduates completed an e-learning program, either with or without interactive, learner control tools. Results suggest that both training satisfaction and off-task attention predicted subsequent learning. Learner control had a positive impact on training satisfaction but was not related to off-task attention. The individual difference variables had a differential impact on the mediating variables. In particular, performance orientation was linked to off-task attention, whereas mastery orientation was found to indirectly influence satisfaction via its direct effect on training motivation. Implications for the design and further study of e-learning are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental changes in personal goal orientation from young to late adulthood: From striving for gains to maintenance and prevention of losses.

Using a multimethod approach, the authors conducted 4 studies to test life span hypotheses about goal orientations across adulthood. Confirming expectations, in Studies 1 and 2 younger adults reported a primary growth orientation in their goals, whereas older adults reported a stronger orientation toward maintenance and loss prevention. Orientation toward prevention of loss correlated negatively with well-being in younger adults. In older adults, orientation toward maintenance was positively associated with well-being. Studies 3 and 4 extend findings of a self-reported shift in goal orientation to the level of behavioral choice involving cognitive and physical fitness goals. Studies 3 and 4 also examine the role of expected resource demands. The shift in goal orientation is discussed as an adaptive mechanism to manage changing opportunities and constraints across adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interplay between personal goals and classroom goal structures in predicting student outcomes: A multilevel analysis of person-context interactions.

This study examined cross-level interactions between personal goals and classroom goal structures, as well as their additive contributions to predicting math achievement, engagement, interest, effort withdrawal, and avoidance coping, using a sample of 3,943 Grade 5 students from 130 classrooms. Results of hierarchical linear modeling showed that classroom performance goal structures exacerbated (a) the negative association between personal performance-avoidance goals and engagement and (b) the positive relations of personal performance-avoidance goals to effort withdrawal and avoidance coping. Moreover, both classroom performance goal structures and personal performance-avoidance goals had maladaptive patterns of relations to outcomes at their respective levels of analysis, whereas classroom mastery goal structures and personal mastery goals showed adaptive relations. Our findings underscore the importance of a multilevel interactionist perspective in understanding achievement motivation and making recommendations for educational practices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The reciprocal effects of science on practice: Insights from the practice and science of goal setting.

The hypothesis of this paper is that the science and practice of psychology are interdependent. Science drives practice which drives science. The science and practice of 25 years of programmatic research on goal setting theory in industrial-organizational psychology (I/O) is used in support of this hypothesis. I/O research on goal setting includes findings that (1) high goals lead to higher performance; (2) there is a linear relationship between goal difficulty and performance; (3) variables such as feedback, participative decision making, and competition affect performance to the extent that they lead to the setting of and commitment to high goals; and (4) mediators of goal setting are motivational and cognitive, with other variables mediating the effects of goals on performance in I/O settings. Scientists, practitioners, and scientist–practitioners alike are encouraged to work in unison in order to advance psychology for all. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Students' help seeking during problem solving: Influences of personal and contextual achievement goals.

The author investigated how different types of achievement goals influence elementary school students' help seeking. Fourth and 5th graders were asked to solve math problems and were given the opportunity to request help from an adult. Goals were conceptualized on 2 nested dimensions: (a) locus of the goal (i.e., personal goals that students held at the beginning of the study vs. contextual goals that characterized the task situation) and (b) emphasis of the goal (i.e., the relative importance of learning vs. performance). Personal learning goals had a positive influence and personal performance goals had a negative influence on the frequency of confirmation requests and on actual problem solving. For students who had strong personal performance goals, a contextual learning goal resulted in more process-related help seeking than did a contextual performance goal. Both types of help seeking (i.e., confirmation and process-related requests) had a positive influence on problem solving. Interactions among goals are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The goals behind performance goals.

Despite decades of research on achievement goals, there is still relatively little known about differences among individuals in their conceptualizations of performance goals and reasons for pursuing them in academic settings. The purpose of the present investigation was to use participants' own words, rather than survey measures or experimental manipulations, to examine the variety of reasons students gave for pursuing performance goals. Fifty-three high school seniors with relatively high scores on a survey measure of performance-avoidance goals were interviewed. Analysis of the interviews revealed that students' reasons for pursuing performance goals could be divided into 4 categories: appearance-approach, appearance-avoidance, competition-approach, and competition-avoidance. Within each of these 4 categories, students mentioned a wide variety of purposes behind their goal pursuits such as wanting to please parents, to silence nay-saying peers, and to prove something to one's self. Implications for achievement goal theory and research methodology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)