Sustaining motivation and academic goals: The role of academic delay of gratification

Abstract

This study examined college students' academic delay of gratification; that is, their preference for an immediately available option (e.g., go to a favorite concert the day before a test even though the student is not well-prepared) or a delayed alternative (e.g., stay home studying to get later a good grade in the course). Academic delay of gratification, its motivational determinants (i.e., importance, utility, interest, perceived cost of success, and social expectancy), and students' use of motivation regulation strategies were examined among students identified on the basis of their task-goal orientation, performance-approach-goal orientation, and performance-avoidance-goal orientation using a hierarchical cluster analysis ( N = 102). The results supported the notion that academic delay of gratification and its motivational determinants differed as a function of goal orientation. Students in Cluster 1, the high task-goal oriented learners, are high in delay of gratification and have high motivation. Students in Cluster 2, labeled combined high task-high-performance approach, considered the delay of gratification's alternatives as important and useful while perceiving the nondelay alternatives as highly interested and socially beneficial. Students in Cluster 3 were low in all of the three goal orientations and reported low preference for delay of gratification. Academic delay of gratification was discussed in view of the macro-analytic model of Mischel's cognitive—affective personality system.