Achievement goal theory originally defined performance-approach goals as striving to demonstrate competence to outsiders by outperforming peers. The research, however, has operationalized the goals ...inconsistently, emphasizing the competence demonstration element in some cases and the peer comparison element in others. A meta-analysis by Hulleman et al. (2010) discovered that students' academic achievement was negatively predicted by performance-approach goals that focus on appearing talented, but positively predicted by performance-approach goals that focus on outperforming peers. The present meta-analysis extends that pattern to numerous other educational outcomes, such as competence perceptions and self-regulation. It does so while also removing a confound (i.e., the sample's mean age) that varies systematically along with the type of performance-approach goal measure employed in studies. Discussion explores when and why the 2 types of performance-approach goals are most likely to diverge versus converge. It also considers 2 potential directions that goal theory can take to incorporate the 2 performance-approach goals.
•Difficulty judgments of attainment and maintenance goals are monitored differently.•Current-end state discrepancy (vs. context) has more impact for attainment goals.•Context (vs. current-end state ...match) has more impact for maintenance goals.•Modest attainment goals, though harder, can appear easier than maintenance goals.•Differences in judged difficulty can influence consequential goal choices.
We argue that individuals monitor and evaluate attainment and maintenance goals differently. Attainment goals feature a salient current-end state discrepancy that is processed more than the corresponding match for maintenance goals. For maintenance goals, for which a salient discrepancy is absent, contextual influences on goal success/failure receive more processing than for attainment goals. Thus, objectively more difficult attainment goals may be judged as easier than maintenance goals, when they feature sufficiently small discrepancies, or when context information is unfavorable. Study 1 establishes this core effect. Study 2 shows that thought listings capturing the relative processing of the current-end state discrepancy (match) and context information mediate perceived goal difficulty. Study 3 shows that the favorability of context information moderates the effect. Study 4 establishes joint difficulty evaluations as a boundary condition. Studies 5 and 6 (and Appendix B) show that such goal difficulty judgments affect consequential goal choices in real-world financial, workplace, and shopping situations.
The increasing frequency and extent of government policy changes in many countries and industries has exposed an important theoretical gap about how such changes influence organizational goal ...setting. This paper extends the behavioral theory of the firm to account for changes in government policy on goal dimensions (i.e., what goals are adopted) and goal aspirations (i.e., the target levels adopted). We advance propositions regarding the specification of goal dimensions and add a new factor into the aspiration adaptation model to account for anticipatory (i.e., forward-looking) responses on the part of firms to government policy changes.
Personal goals are ubiquitous in everyday life, with people typically pursuing multiple personal goals at any given time. This article provides a review and synthesis of the vast and varied research ...on personal goals. A growing body of research shows that goals are best conceptualized as a distinct unit of analysis, with extensive within-person variations in both goal characteristics and attainment. In this article, the authors review existing literature on personal goals, examining the process of goal pursuit from start to finish, including goal setting, goal pursuit and self-regulation, and the outcomes associated with attainment and/or failure. They also address the many aspects of personal goal pursuit that are still poorly understood, highlighting directions for future research.
Les objectifs personnels sont omniprésents dans notre vie quotidienne et les gens ont tendance à en poursuivre plusieurs à tout moment. Le présent article propose un examen et une synthèse des vastes et divers travaux de recherche effectués sur les objectifs personnels. Un nombre croissant de recherches montre que les objectifs personnels sont mieux conceptualisés comme unité d'analyse distincte, du fait des énormes variations individuelles tant au niveau des caractéristiques des objectifs que de l'atteinte. Dans le présent article, les auteurs passent en revue la littérature actuelle sur les objectifs personnels, en examinant le processus de la poursuite d'objectifs du début à la fin, dont la fixation d'objectifs, la poursuite d'objectifs et l'auto-régulation ainsi que les résultats associés à l'accomplissement et (ou) à l'échec. On y aborde également les nombreux aspects de la poursuite d'objectifs personnels, qui sont encore très peu compris, en proposant quelques pistes de recherche future.
Mastery-approach (MAP) goals, focusing on developing competence and acquiring task mastery, are posited to be the most optimal, beneficial type of achievement goal for academic and life outcomes. ...Although there is meta-analytic evidence supporting this finding, such evidence does not allow us to conclude that the extant MAP goal findings generalize across cultures. Meta-analyses have often suffered from overrepresentation of Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) samples; reliance on bivariate correlations; and lack the ability to directly control individual-level background variables. To address these limitations, this study used nationally representative data from 77 countries/regions (N = 595,444 adolescents) to examine the relations of MAP goals to four antecedents (workmastery, competitiveness, fear of failure, fixed mindset) and 16 consequences (task-specific motivational, achievement-related, and well-being outcomes), and tested the cross-cultural generalizability of these relations. Results showed that MAP goals were: (a) grounded primarily in positive but not negative achievement motives/beliefs; (b) most strongly predictive of well-being outcomes, followed by adaptive motivation; (c) positively but consistently weakly associated with achievement-related outcomes, particularly for academic performance (β = .069); (d) negatively and weakly associated with maladaptive outcomes; and (e) uniquely predictive of various consequences, controlling for the antecedents and covariates. Further, the MAP goal predictions were generalizable across countries/regions for 13 of 16 consequences. While directions of effect sizes were slightly mixed for academic performance, perceived reading, and PISA test difficulty, the effect sizes were consistently small for most countries/regions. This generalizability points to quite strong cross-cultural support for the observed patterns.
•The study expands the goal complex canon with new reasons for goal pursuit.•A new measure of goal complexes was validated.•A performance goal’s effects depended on why it is pursued.•Social reasons ...for goal pursuit were healthier than often assumed.•Findings were consistent across samples from the USA and Thailand.
Achievement goal theory has evolved since introduced about 40 years ago. One of its newer variants is the goal complex model. It assumes that each achievement goal (i.e., performance or mastery) can be pursued for many reasons and, more provocatively, that the goal’s effects depend partly on why it is pursued. Clearly, the first task for this area is to identify likely goal pursuit reasons, develop and validate a measure of reasons, and chart the influence of those reasons. Progress remains limited, however. Nearly all studies have considered only a small set of reasons suggested predominantly by self-determination theory, overlooking several other plausible reasons. Nor is there an established measure of goal pursuit reasons. To overcome those limitations, the current study validated and tested a new goal complex measure that includes several additional goal pursuit reasons, both personal (e.g., pride) and social (e.g., to make close others proud, or to help or serve others) in nature. Two culturally distinct samples of university students – one from the USA (n = 400), the other from Thailand (n = 404) – completed the measure with performance goals in mind and then reported a diverse array of educational outcomes. Their results converge for the most part. In each sample, the new measure proved to have good structural validity and psychometric properties. Several goal complexes, including the new social ones, showed unique and often desirable relationships with outcomes, too. The findings raise several research directions and implications for achievement goal theory.
Past studies that explored the antecedents of achievement goals have mostly focused on the role of personal characteristics and parental/teacher influences. However, the role of one’s classmates has ...not been given much attention. Drawing on the concept of goal contagion, the present study aimed to examine whether classmates’ achievement goals influence one’s achievement goals. We recruited 848 secondary school students nested within 30 classes and asked them to answer relevant questionnaires at Time 1 and Time 2. Multilevel analysis was used to examine whether classmates’ achievement goals at Time 1 predicted one’s achievement goals at Time 2 thereby demonstrating achievement goal contagion. To rule out alternative explanations, we controlled for baseline achievement goals at Time 1, social desirability bias, and other relevant demographic factors. Results indicated that mastery-approach, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals were contagious, but mastery-avoidance goals were not. Our study highlights the importance of understanding achievement goal contagion among classmates.
Cancer pain is multidimensional and management should be individualized to patient goals. The current standard for pain goal assessment is the personal pain goal (PPG), a numeric rating for tolerable ...pain intensity. However, the PPG may not accurately capture a personally meaningful goal for tailoring pain management.
Identify how pain goals are used in cancer pain management and types of goals researched.
CINAHL, PsychInfo, and PubMed databases and manual searching were used to locate research or scholarship about cancer pain goals. Authors reviewed titles, abstracts and full text to agree on the final sample.
Sixteen articles met inclusion criteria. Study designs included: quality improvement project (1), concept analysis (1), qualitative methods (5), quantitative methods (8), and mixed methods (1). Findings included: goal setting as a key attribute of pain management; achieving personal goals as the outcome of pain management work; qualitative themes discussed personal goals related to pain management; developing a patient pain management resource including a SMART goal; using motivational interviewing to set functional pain goals; PPG assessment was feasible; and achieving PPG equated to having controlled pain when compared to the clinically important difference measure used in research (≥30%). Quantitative studies reported on PPGs only.
Currently, assessments for cancer pain goals do not include function, activities, moods, medication effects, or safety that patients wish to achieve as a pain management outcome. Development and testing of multidimensional patient pain goals assessments is warranted so that goals can be consistently assessed, documented, and personally meaningful.
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