Goals: An approach to motivation and achievement.

This study tested a framework in which goals are proposed to be central determinants of achievement patterns. Learning goals, in which individuals seek to increase their competence, were predicted to promote challenge-seeking and a mastery-oriented response to failure regardless of perceived ability. Performance goals, in which individuals seek to gain favorable judgments of their competence or avoid negative judgments, were predicted to produce challenge-avoidance and learned helplessness when perceived ability was low and to promote certain forms of risk-avoidance even when perceived ability was high. Manipulations of relative goal value (learning vs. performance) and perceived ability (high vs. low) resulted in the predicted differences on measures of task choice, performance during difficulty, and spontaneous verbalizations during difficulty. Particularly striking was the way in which the performance goal-low perceived ability condition produced the same pattern of strategy deterioration, failure attribution, and negative affect found in naturally occurring learned helplessness. Implications for theories of motivation and achievement are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations among children's social goals, implicit personality theories, and responses to social failure.

Two studies examined children's thought patterns in relation to their responses to social challenge. In Study 1, 4th and 5th graders tried out for a pen pal club under either a performance goal (stressing the evaluative nature of the tryout) or a learning goal (emphasizing the potential learning opportunities). In their behavior and attributions following rejection, children who were focused on a performance goal reacted with more helplessness, whereas children given a learning goal displayed a more mastery-oriented response. Study 2 found that in response to hypothetical socially challenging situations, 4th, 5th, and 6th graders who believed personality was nonmalleable (entity theorists) vs. malleable (incremental theorists) were more likely to endorse performance goals. Together, these studies indicate that children's goals in social situations are associated with their responses to social failure and are predicted by their implicit theories about their personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance.

Praise for ability is commonly considered to have beneficial effects on motivation. Contrary to this popular belief, six studies demonstrated that praise for intelligence had more negative consequences for students' achievement motivation than praise for effort. Fifth graders praised for intelligence were found to care more about performance goals relative to learning goals than children praised for effort. After failure, they also displayed less task persistence, less task enjoyment, more low-ability attributions, and worse task performance than children praised for effort. Finally, children praised for intelligence described it as a fixed trait more than children praised for hard work, who believed it to be subject to improvement. These findings have important implications for how achievement is best encouraged, as well as for more theoretical issues, such as the potential cost of performance goals and the socialization of contingent self-worth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mothers' beliefs about the role of ability and effort in school learning.

Over 500 mothers of children in kindergarten through fifth grade were surveyed. Mothers' preferences for mastery versus performance-based achievement goals were differentiated in terms of the priority mothers gave to the demonstration of effort versus high performance as desired student outcomes. The findings showed that mothers' views about the nature of learning in schools can be differentiated according to their achievement goal emphasis. Mastery and performance goals involved different beliefs about how learning occurs, how it is fostered, how it is evidenced, and how it should be evaluated. The findings suggest that children of mothers with different achievement goals may be encouraged to pursue different types of achievement activities, may be evaluated on different aspects of their behavior, and may experience different types of expectations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Process analyses of the behavior of very young children in delay tasks.

Conducted 2 studies to examine the behavior of young children in tasks demanding self-control. In Study 1, 27 2-yr-olds were observed in 1 task. Behavior during the task was described using a 10-category coding system, and proportion scores derived from the 10-category coding system were correlated with total time in the task. Results show that 5 of the 10 correlations were significant. Behaviors bringing the goals into attention were negatively correlated with total delay time, whereas behaviors taking the goal out of attention tended to be positively associated with delay. In Study 2, 82 children (aged 24–36 mo) were observed in 3 delay tasks. The behavioral strategy studied was directing attention away from the goal object during delay periods. Significant effects were found for age and task type. When the sample was divided into shorter vs longer waiters, it was found that the longer waiters looked away from the goal for a larger proportion of the time. It is suggested that young children use implicit strategies for controlling their behavior in the face of a social demand. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal analysis of achievement goals: From affective antecedents to emotional effects and achievement outcomes.

Affect and emotions are frequently seen as outcomes of mastery and performance goals, but affective experiences may also predict goal adoption. In a predictive study (N = 669 first-year college students), the authors used structural equation modeling to estimate relationships from 2 initial affective experiences to mastery and performance-approach goals, from goals to discrete emotions, and from discrete emotions to final grades in a university course while controlling for prior achievement. Representing initial affective experiences, hopefulness positively predicted mastery and performance goals, whereas helplessness negatively predicted mastery goals. Mastery goals positively predicted enjoyment, which in turn positively predicted achievement, and negatively predicted boredom, which in turn negatively predicted achievement. Anxiety was negatively predicted by mastery goals, positively predicted by performance goals, and exerted a negative predictive influence on achievement. The findings suggest that predictive relationships between goals and achievement are mediated by students’ emotions. Results are discussed with regard to the importance of affect and emotions for achievement goal theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Within-grade changes in Korean girls' motivation and perceptions of the learning environment across domains and achievement levels.

This study tested whether students' motivation and perceptions of the learning environment changed significantly within the school year. Korean high school girls' (N = 375) perceptions of the performance goal structures in the environment increased significantly throughout the school year. The girls' personal achievement goals and task value demonstrated few significant within-grade changes, but their self-efficacy fluctuated significantly around examinations. Motivational beliefs were more stable than were perceptions of the environment. Nevertheless, the modified perceptions of the learning environment explained changes in motivation, justifying continued efforts to create a motivationally adaptive environment. Construct relations were consistent across different academic contexts. There was no evidence that low-achieving girls responded more negatively to the classroom performance goals than did their better-achieving peers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning mathematics from procedural instruction: Externally imposed goals influence what is learned.

Do externally imposed achievement goals influence what children learn from procedural instruction? Third- and 4th-grade children's goals were manipulated toward either learning or performance. All children were then taught a procedure for solving mathematical equivalence problems (e.g., a?+?b?+?c?=?a?+?_). Children who were given learning goals were initially more likely to gain conceptual knowledge from the procedural lesson than were children who were given performance goals. After a 2-week period, however, children who were given performance goals exhibited the same conceptual gains as children who were given learning goals. Both initially and after the 2-week period, children who were given either goal were more likely to extend their knowledge beyond the taught procedure than were children who were not given goals. External sources such as teachers and parents may have the potential to foster children's learning by shaping children's goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Type A behavior, achievement striving, and a dysfunctional self-evaluation system.

We conducted two experiments to examine the relations among characteristics of how Type A individuals strive for achievement, including goal achievement, self-evaluation, and psychological distress. We evaluated these relations as subjects performed two sequential general information tests. Experiment 1 indicated that achievement striving associated with the Type A behavior pattern is characterized by a tendency to set personal goals in excess of performance and is associated with a low probability of achieving goals. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that the achievement strategy Type A individuals adopted was associated with low self-evaluation of their actual performance. Furthermore, a pre- and postexperiment self-report questionnaire of psychological state suggested that failure to achieve personal goals was related to increased psychological distress. The results of our study suggest that unrealistically high performance standards and failure to achieve personal goals may be a mechanism that triggers the negative psychological states and performance dissatisfaction associated with the Type A behavior pattern. Our study also supports theoretical conceptualizations that excessive achievement striving can act as a potential motivational mechanism. (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)     

Effect of age, skill, and performance feedback on children's judgments of confidence.

We examined children's judgments of confidence following performance on a cognitive task as a function of the children's age and skill and the presence or absence of feedback regarding performance. Second and third graders (n?=?75) and fifth and sixth graders (n?=?79) estimated the numerosity of large numbers of dots, made ratings of confidence concerning their answers, and were assessed on a timed task of counting in multiples. For older children, regardless of skill level, feedback was associated with "calibration," that is, a positive relation between estimation accuracy and confidence. For younger children, on the other hand, feedback was associated with such a relation only if the children were relatively skillful on the counting task. Results suggest that domain-specific knowledge, in conjunction with objective feedback following task performance, may help young children compensate for developmental factors that typically are associated with an unrealistically high degree of confidence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of chronic achievement motivation and achievement primes on the activation of achievement and fun goals.

This research examined the hypothesis that situational achievement cues can elicit achievement or fun goals depending on chronic differences in achievement motivation. In 4 studies, chronic differences in achievement motivation were measured, and achievement-denoting words were used to influence behavior. The effects of these variables were assessed on self-report inventories, task performance, task resumption following an interruption, and the pursuit of means relevant to achieving or having fun. Findings indicated that achievement priming (vs. control priming) activated a goal to achieve and inhibited a goal to have fun in individuals with chronically high-achievement motivation but activated a goal to have fun and inhibited a goal to achieve in individuals with chronically low-achievement motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivational processes affecting learning.

Describes how motivational processes influence a child's acquisition, transfer, and use of knowledge and skills. Recent research within the social-cognitive framework illustrates adaptive and maladaptive motivational patterns, and a research-based model of motivational processes is presented that shows how the particular performance or learning goals children pursue on cognitive tasks shape their reactions to success and failure and influence the quality of their cognitive performance. Implications for practice and the design of interventions to change maladaptive motivational processes are outlined. It is suggested that motivational patterns may contribute to gender differences in mathematics achievement and that empirically based interventions may prevent current achievement discrepancies and provide a basis for more effective socialization. (79 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory and Goal Setting: The Response of Older and Younger Adults to Positive and Objective Feedback.

Earlier research suggested that goal setting for memory does not have the same advantages for older adults as for younger adults. Using ideal goal-setting conditions with individualized goals, the authors compared goals plus positive feedback, goals plus objective feedback, and control. Performance increased over trials and was higher for both goal conditions than for control. The positive feedback condition showed the highest goal commitment and motivation. Older adults showed strong performance gains and more motivation and goal commitment than the young. The results showed that older adults can benefit from goal setting under optimal learning and feedback conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of behavioural outcome goals, learning goals, and urging people to do their best on an individual's teamwork behaviour in a group problem-solving task.

States that research has shown that learning goals are superior to outcome goals on complex tasks. The effectiveness of behavioral outcome goals (set using behavioral observation scales), learning goals, and urging people to do their best was examined in the context of a training program designed to improve an individual's teamwork behavior in a group problem-solving task. 50 participants (mean age 25.3 yrs) who set behavioral or learning goals had higher self-efficacy relative to those urged to "do their best". Self-efficacy correlated positively with teamwork behavior and goal commitment. Behavioral goals were superior to learning goals and being urged to "do your best" in bringing about teamwork behavior. These findings suggest that behavioral outcome goals may mitigate the need for learning goals on complex tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Students' reports of motivation and negative affect: A theoretical and empirical analysis.

The authors investigated the self-reported relationships among 5th- and 6th-grade students' achievement goals in mathematics, their negative affect about making mistakes, and their self-regulatory beliefs and behaviors. Cluster analysis revealed 4 motivational-affective patterns. Two groups were characterized by positive motivational-affective patterns and 2 suggested more problematic patterns related to different goal patterns, negative affect, and less positive self-regulatory behaviors and beliefs. Path analyses showed that negative affect after failure mediated performance goals and self-regulatory beliefs and behaviors. The authors propose a theory of achievement goals and affect that explains why students differ in their ability to tolerate error during learning. They also discuss practical and theoretical implications of the role of negative affect in achievement motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related differences in achievement goal differentiation.

Validity of the 2 × 2 achievement goal framework for school-aged children and adolescents was examined, using self-report responses from 1,196 Korean elementary and middle school students. Confirmatory factor analysis models hypothesizing 4 distinct achievement goal factors demonstrated the best fit in all age groups. Nevertheless, achievement goals of these young students were strongly correlated with each other, regardless of the goal definition or valence. The correlation became increasingly weaker with the increasing age of the respondents. Students in Grades 1–4 endorsed a mastery-approach goal most strongly, but those in Grades 5–9 endorsed a performance-approach goal. Performance-avoidance and mastery-avoidance goals received significantly lower average ratings than did the 2 approach goals in all age groups. Whereas both mastery-approach and performance-approach goals correlated positively with self-efficacy, strategy use, and performance in math, only the performance-approach goal correlated positively with anxiety. Anxiety also correlated positively with the 2 avoidance goals. A performance-avoidance goal further demonstrated positive correlation with help-seeking avoidance, whereas a mastery-avoidance goal did so with strategy use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's attributions for success and failure: Effects of age and attentional focus.

This study was an assessment of how children's achievement attributions were influenced by their age, attentional focus, gender, and success or failure experience. Older and younger elementary school children performed a memory task under either self-focusing or task-focusing instructions. After performance, half of the children in each condition were given success feedback and the other half failure feedback. Attributions for performance were then obtained. In the success condition, children judged effort to be the most important cause of their performance, whereas children in the failure condition attributed their performance mostly to the difficulty of the task and their inability to remember the story. Older children in the self-focus condition attributed success more to internal causes than did older children in the task-focus condition. Younger children attributed both success and failure more to luck than did older children. Few sex differences in attributions were obtained. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expectancy?×?value effects: Regulatory focus as determinant of magnitude and direction.

The authors propose that a promotion focus involves construal of achievement goals as aspirations whose attainment brings accomplishment. Commitment to these accomplishment goals is characterized by attempts to attain the highest expected utility. In contrast, a prevention focus involves construal of achievement goals as responsibilities whose attainment brings security. Commitment to these security goals is characterized by doing what is necessary. The different nature of commitment to accomplishment goals versus security goals is predicted to influence the interactive effect of goal expectancy and goal value on goal commitment, as evident in both task performance and decision making. Four studies found that the classic positive interactive effect of expectancy and value on goal commitment increases with a promotion focus and decreases with a prevention focus. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A developmental study of learned helplessness.

Examined susceptibility to learned helplessness among 20 children from each of kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 3, and Grade 5 classes by exposing groups of Ss to either repeated failure or repeated success on hidden figures problems. Helplessness was measured by Ss' persistence in looking for hidden figures and their capacity to find them following repeated success or failure. It was hypothesized that younger Ss would be less susceptible to helplessness than older ones, due to age-related differences in causal attributions for success and failure. Results confirm the hypothesis in that failure, relative to success, had significantly less influence on the level of helplessness in younger Ss' behavior. It is suggested that the development of attributional capabilities during the preschool and early elementary school years has important ramifications for cognitive theories of motivation. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)