A reciprocal model of achievement goals and learning related emotions in the first year of undergraduate study

Abstract

The control-value theory of achievement emotions proposes a bidirectional relationship between learning-related emotions and achievement goals. Studies to date, however, have only provided evidence that achievement goals predict future learning-related emotions. In this study we examined the reciprocal relations between learning-related emotions and achievement goals in 434 undergraduate students in their first year of academic study. Data were collected in three waves: near the beginning of the first and second semesters of first year study and lastly near the beginning of the first semester of the second year. Reciprocal effects were found between mastery goals and both activity- and outcome-focused emotions, whereas reciprocal effects for performance goals were only shown with outcome focused emotions. These were not always present between both first and second, and between the second and third waves of measurement, which may be related to the first year undergraduate context. Our models also demonstrated stability in achievement goals and learning-related emotions between waves of measurement, which tended to be lower between the first and third points of data collection. These findings provide support for the relations between learning-related emotions and achievement goals proposed in control-value theory and that mastery goals are not solely related to activity-focused emotions.