The interplay between achievement goals and specific target goals in determining performance Presenter: Che-Yu Lin Advisor: Min-Puu Chen Date: 02/23/2009 Roney, C.J., & O’Connor, M.C. (2008). The interplay between achievement goals and specific target goals in determining performance. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(2), 482–489. 1

Introduction(1/4) The specific goals or target goals : - a specific grade in a university course - a precise number of sales to be made in a month The purpose goals : - focused on the reasons underlying one’s striving, such as the goal of demonstrating that one has high ability as a student, or the goal of growing as a person. The ‘‘purpose goals’’ come from the three-factor model of achievement goals. - performance-approach goals - performance-avoid goals - mastery goals 2

Introduction(2/4) Performance-approach goals : - reflect concern over how others see our competence, and that this concern may either emphasize demonstrating high ability. Performance-avoid goals : - avoiding demonstrating low ability Mastery goals : - reflect a desire to grow and develop one competence—and thus involve an emphasis on the challenge of mastering tasks. 3

Introduction(3/4) The goal-setting theory : - specific goals are more motivating, and result in higher performance, than less specific goals. - this is especially true when the specific goal is challenging, but attainable. - more difficult or challenging specific goals have consistently been found to predict better performance in both experimental and correlational research. 4

Introduction(4/4) Research done to date has demonstrated that negative framing of a goal predicts poorer performance. The specific target goals are more proximal or immediate in determining performance than are the somewhat more general achievement goals. The specific target goals will mediate the relations between achievement goals and exam performance. 5

Methods(1/3) The participants were 139 undergraduate students enrolled in an Introductory Psychology course. The participants completed self-report measures of achievement goals, specific target goals, and anxiety- related emotions. 6

Methods(2/3) 7 Mastery, performance-approach, and performance- avoid goals were assessed using Elliot and Church (1997) achievement goal questionnaire. Goal difficulty, expectancy, and framing were assessed using an academic goal questionnaire (Roney & Lehman, in press). Four positive emotions : relaxed, satisfied, proud, happy. Four negative emotions : anxious, sad, disappointed, ashamed. Achievement goals Specific target goals

Methods(3/3) How they felt about their performance in their Introductory Psychology course by rating the extent to which they experienced eleven anxiety related emotions (e.g., nervous, tense) using a 5-point likert scale. The primary performance measure was based on participants’ grades on the next midterm exam in Introductory Psychology after the questionnaire session. 8 Anxiety-related emotions Exam performance

Results(1/6) 9

Results(2/6) 10

Results(3/6) 11 The mediated path was tested for significance using Sobel’s test. Performance-approach goals were found to significantly predict goal difficulty (b =.35, p <.001). Goal difficulty was found to significantly predict exam grades independent of performance approach goals (b =.55, p <.001). Performance-approach goals did not predict exam performance independent of goal difficulty (b =.03, ns).

Results(4/6) 12 Mastery goals significantly predicted goal difficulty (b =.33, p <.001). Goal difficulty significantly predicted exam performance independent of mastery goals (b =.55, p <.001). Mastery goals did not significantly predict exam performance independent of goal difficulty (b =.03, ns).

Results(5/6) Performance-avoid goals significantly predicted negative goal framing (b =.45, p <.001). Negative framing was a significant predictor of performance independent of performance-avoid goals (b =.25, p <.05). Performance-avoid goals no longer significantly predicted exam performance (b =.13, ns). 13

Results(6/6) Negative framing was a significant predictor of anxiety- related emotions (b =.49, p <.001). Anxiety was a significant predictor of performance independent of negative framing (b =.55, p <.001). Negative framing was no longer a significant predictor of performance (b =.06, ns). 14

Discussion(1/2) The specific target goals are more proximal than broader achievement goals, and variables associated with these more immediate goals mediate the latter’s relation to performance. Goal difficulty mediated the positive association between both performance-approach goals and mastery goals with performance. Negative framing mediated the negative association between performance-avoid goals and performance. 15

Discussion(2/2) Relatively less research has been done to date examining the nature of negative framing, and how it affects performance. The present results suggest that it may be constructive to try to work with the specific target goals that individuals are working toward in specific contexts. 16