To confirm or to conform? Performance goals as a regulator of conflict with more-competent others.

Abstract

Despite the fact that most competence-relevant settings are socially relevant settings, the interpersonal effects of achievement goals have been understudied. This is all the more surprising in the case of performance goals, for which self-competence is assessed using an other-referenced standard. In the present research, performance goals are conceived as a social tool for regulating interpersonal behaviors with more-competent others. In the confrontation with a more- (vs. equally) competent disagreeing partner, performance-approach goals (focus on approaching normative competence) should be associated with more-dominant behavior (i.e., competitive conflict regulation), whereas performance-avoidance goals (focus on avoiding normative incompetence) should be associated with more-submissive behavior (i.e., protective conflict regulation). Four studies give support to these predictions with self-reported conflict regulation measures (Studies 1 and 3) and evaluation of models associated with self-confirmation and compliance (Study 2) and conflict regulation behaviors (Study 4). Theoretical contributions to both the literature on achievement goals and that on socio-cognitive conflict, as well as practical implications for the issue of competence asymmetry in educational settings, are discussed.