Performance-approach Goal Orientation Research Articles

The relationship between future orientation and academic anxiety: the mediating role of achievement goal orientation and sex difference

ABSTRACT Due to the prevalence of academic anxiety among primary school students and its long-term effect on the physical and mental health, researchers have carried out a lot of research on it. According to the control-value theory of achievement emotions, this cross-sectional study sought to explore the relationship between students’ future orientation and academic anxiety, to reveal the mediating effect of achievement goal orientations, and to test gender difference. A total of 5,330 students in grades 4–6 from 8 primary schools in China were included in the questionnaire-based investigation. The results showed that (1) girls’ academic anxiety, master-avoidance, and performance-avoidance goal orientations were significantly higher than those of boys, while performance-approach goal orientation was significantly lower than those of boys; (2) future orientation significantly positively predicted academic anxiety; (3) achievement goal orientation played a mediating role between future orientation and academic anxiety; and (4) there was a significant gender difference in this mediating effect. The four areas of achievement goal orientations have a complete mediating effect on academic anxiety for boys, but the master-approach and master-avoidance goal orientations play a partial mediating role between future orientation and academic anxiety for girls. This study contributes to deep understanding of academic anxiety among Chinese pupils, and implications for academic emotions research and educational practice.

How does goal orientation affect employees’ perception of abusive supervisors?

PurposeGoal orientation shapes employees’ approach to and interpretation of workplace aspects such as supervisors’ behavior. However, research has not fully examined the effect of goal orientation as an antecedent of abusive supervision. Drawing from victim precipitation theory, this study aims to fill this research gap by investigating how employees’ goal orientation influences their perception of abusive supervision.Design/methodology/approachTwo studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. In Study 1, 181 employees in 45 departments participated in the survey, and multilevel confirmatory factor analysis, two-level path model and polynomial regression were used. In Study 2, 108 working adults recruited from a professional online survey platform participated in a two-wave time-lagged survey. Confirmatory factor analysis, hierarchical linear regression and polynomial regression were used.FindingsThis study found that employees’ learning goal orientation was negatively related to their perception of abusive supervision. In contrast, performance-avoidance goal orientation was positively related to their perception of abusive supervision, whereas performance-approach goal orientation was unrelated to this perception. Moreover, employees’ perception of abusive supervision was greater when learning and performance-approach goal orientation alignment occurred at lower rather than higher levels, and when performance-avoidance and performance-approach goal orientation alignment occurred at higher rather than lower levels.Originality/valueThis research identified two novel victim traits as antecedents of abusive supervision – employees’ learning goal orientation and performance-avoidance goal orientation. Furthermore, adopting a multiple goal perspective, the authors examined the combined effects of goal orientation on employees’ perception of abusive supervision.

The Curvilinear Relationship Between Empowering Leadership and Team Performance: A Self-Regulatory Perspective

Although previous research demonstrated that empowering leadership has both positive and negative impacts on team consequences, our current knowledge of the processes by which and the conditions under which empowering leadership promotes or hinders team performance remains limited. Drawing on the too-much-of-a-good-thing (TMGT) effect and the team self-regulatory perspective, our findings, backed with a time-lagged and multi-source survey, suggested that empowering leadership has a curvilinear impact (i.e., inverted U-shaped) on team performance through team reflexivity, and this impact is contingent on team performance-approach goal orientation. We discuss the implications of our findings from both theoretical and practical perspectives.

Parental Psychological Control and Adolescent Academic Achievement: The Mediating Role of Achievement Goal Orientation.

This study examined the multiple mediating roles of achievement goal orientation between three parental psychological control (PPC) strategies and adolescents' academic achievement. The study sample consisted of 2613 Chinese middle school adolescents (52.6% boys) who were followed for one and a half years; they completed questionnaires on PPC (including love withdrawal, guilt induction, and authority assertion), achievement goal orientation (involving the mastery approach, the performance approach, and performance-avoidance goals), and academic achievement. We found that (1) the direct effects of the three strategies on academic performance differed, with love withdrawal directly and negatively predicting adolescents' academic achievement and guilt induction and authority assertion not being significant direct predictors. (2) The mediating role of achievement goal orientations differed across the psychological control strategies. Specifically, love withdrawal led to adolescents' academic achievement through their performance-approach goal orientation, performance-avoidance goal orientation, and mastery goal orientation. Moreover, guilt induction and authority assertion had impacts only on adolescents' performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal orientations. This study highlights the negative impact of love withdrawal on adolescents' internal motivation and academic achievement by warning parents not to use this strategy to influence their children's thoughts and feelings.

Achievement Goal Orientations of Iranian EFL Teachers in Postmethod Pedagogy Expertise

Purpose: The efficacy of postmethod pedagogy (PMP) in Iran remains undetermined despite the growing attention being paid to it. A multitude of factors may contribute to differing levels of motivation among teachers in effectively implementing postmethod principles. The Achievement Goal Theory (AGT), rooted in a socio-cognitive perspective, provides a framework for understanding the types of goals individuals tend to pursue in achievement situations. Hence, this study aims to investigate the goal orientations of experienced English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers who are practicing postmethod tenets. Methodology: The current study employed an applied qualitative approach to explore the goal orientations of 18 experienced EFL teachers from various language institutes in Kermanshah, Iran. Participants were selected in two phases: first, a postmethod questionnaire was administered to identify respondents familiar with Postmethod Pedagogy (PMP) principles. Next, a semi-structured interview was conducted to elicit their goal orientations while adopting PMP conditions. Field notes were also used to document the researcher’s reflections and opinions, facilitating data analysis. The researchers utilized a three-stage approach for data analysis, following the inductive data coding method of open, axial, and selective coding. Findings: After analyzing the interview transcripts, it became apparent that the implementation of postmethod pedagogy tenets in teachers' teaching practice was influenced by their achievement goal orientations. This included learning, relational, and performance-approach goal orientations. The findings revealed that expert teachers predominantly exhibited learning goal orientations. In contrast, performance-approach goal orientations were the least prevalent among these educators. Conclusion: Examining teachers’ goal orientations through the socio-cognitive lens of postmethod language teaching can benefit the growth and development of teacher training programs, curriculum planning, and policymakers.

A Rasch Analysis of Achievement Goal Orientation Scale in Language Education Context

Motivation plays a crucial role in determining students’ academic achievement. An important aspect of motivation is student achievement goals or Achievement Goal Orientation. The trichotomous model of Achievement Goal Orientation has been widely used: Mastery Goal Orientation, performance approach Goal Orientation, and Performance-Avoidance Goal Orientation. Educators must be familiar with the orientation students adopt, as it shapes their approach during teaching and learning. This paper examines the validity and reliability of Achievement Goal Orientation in a language education context. One hundred twenty-three secondary school students attended the survey, involving 55 (44.7%) males and 68 (55.3%) females. The instrument was adopted from Elliot and Church's Achievement Goal Orientation Questionnaire (1997) and was modified into the language domain. The initial version of the instrument consisted of 20 items, while the final version, after modification, consisted of 13 items. The Rasch Measurement Model was used to validate the instrument. All the psychometric properties confirmed the validity and reliability of the instrument. Rasch analysis revealed that the scale showed strong evidence of validity and reliability in the language education setting. It is suggested that language teachers and experts use the scale to improve language learners' performance. The findings of this study may be tested in other fields of study to get more robust validation results for further validation of the scale.

Fighting the War for Talent: Examining a Multi-level Model of Talent Inducement, Work Engagement, and Creativity in Teams

AbstractIntegrating the literature on talent management and teams, and drawing upon the signaling theory as the overarching framework, we investigated the moderated indirect effects of talent inducements on employee creativity via employee work engagement in teams. Empirical data from matched leader-members indicated that team talent inducement was positively related to member work engagement, which was then positively associated with team and member creativity. In addition, individual learning and performance-approach goal orientation positively moderated this indirect relationship, whereas individual performance-avoidance goal orientation negatively moderated this indirect relationship. Together, these results illuminate a cross-level influence process of team talent inducements on creativity and individual goal orientations as boundary conditions.

Teacher support and student engagement in mathematics: The chain mediating role of academic self-efficacy and achievement goal orientation

This explored how teacher support impacted student engagement in mathematics. A total of 632 students in Grades 7 to 9 from junior middle schools in China were participants (females = 54.27%, mean age = 13.97, SD = 0.88). They completed surveys on teacher support, academic self-efficacy, achievement goal orientation, and student engagement. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 20.0 and Amos 24.0. Results showed that academic self-efficacy mediated the relationship between perceived teacher support and student engagement. Mastery-approach and performance-approach goal orientation respectively mediated the relationship between perceived teacher support and student engagement in mathematics. Academic self-efficacy and mastery-approach had a chain mediation effect on the relationship between perceived teacher support and student engagement and academic self-efficacy. Performance-approach also had a chain mediation effect between the two. The chain mediation effect of academic self-efficacy and performance-approach was stronger than the single performance-approach effect. These findings shed light on the motivational processes through which students perceive the impact of teacher support on their engagement in mathematics.

Perceived parental involvement influences students' academic buoyancy and adaptability: the mediating roles of goal orientations.

Academic buoyancy and adaptability (i.e., student capacities to deal with difficulties and challenges in daily school lives and to make appropriate cognitive, behavioral as well as affective adjustments in interacting with new, uncertain, and/or changing situations, circumstances, and conditions) can help learners regulate and protect themselves in the failure-prone learning environment. This study examined how students' perceptions of parental academic involvement and their goal orientations were related to their academic buoyancy and adaptability in mathematics learning. We recruited a sample of 1,164 Chinese junior high school students. Using structural equation modeling, the results indicated that after controlling for family socioeconomic status and gender, perceived parental involvement was positively related to the students' academic buoyancy and adaptability. Furthermore, parental involvement was significantly associated with students' mastery and performance-approach goal orientations, which further partially mediated the relationship between parental involvement and academic buoyancy and adaptability. However, the mediating role of a performance-avoidance goal orientation in this relationship was not significant. Findings highlight the important roles that parenting practices and individual achievement motivation play in the development of academic buoyancy and adaptability in the Chinese context. Future research directions and implications are discussed.

Research on the Relationship Between the Achievement Goal Orientation and the Academic Help-seeking

This research employed the questionnaire method to investigate the relationship between achievement goal orientation and academic help-seeking among 477 college students. The results indicate that: (1) Students with mastery approach, mastery avoidance, and performance approach goal orientations are more likely to engage in instrumental help-seeking, while students with performance avoidance goal orientation tend to engage in executive and avoidant help-seeking; (2) There is a significant difference between male and female students in instrumental and avoidant help-seeking; (3) Help-seeking behavior is determined by multiple goal orientations.

The impact of adolescent achievement goal orientation on learning anxiety: The mediation effect of peer interaction.

Learning anxiety is one of the most critical emotional disturbances, which also has a high incidence rate in adolescents. Peer interaction is critical and unique for adolescents. Although previous studies have found that achievement goal orientation has an important role in the development of learning anxiety, its mechanism has not been clarified. This study surveyed 470 adolescents (191 middle school students and 279 high school students; 211 boys) and established a structural equation model to explore the mediating role of peer interaction in the influence of achievement goal orientation on learning anxiety. Results showed that (1) there were significant gender differences in mastery-avoidance goal orientation, peer interaction, and learning anxiety, and there were grade differences in performance-approach goal and performance-avoidance goal orientations; (2) mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, and performance-avoidance goal orientations directly predicted learning anxiety; and (3) social anxiety in peer interactions had a mediating effect on the influence of mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, and performance-avoidance goal orientations on learning anxiety. The findings extend theoretical considerations by teasing out the process of peer interaction affecting the relationship between achievement goal orientation and learning anxiety. Additionally, the results have practical implications for the effective use of peer interaction to reduce learning anxiety.

Innovative thinking skills and creative thinking dispositions in learning environments: Antecedents and consequences

The purpose of this study is to investigate the antecedents and consequences of creative and innovative thinking in educational environments. The research group of this study consists of 110 students continuing undergraduate education in Turkey. The data were collected using a personal information form and three scales. As a result of this study, extrinsic motivation is a direct antecedent variable for creative thinking dispositions and innovative thinking skills, learning and performance-approach goal orientation is an indirect antecedent variable. Innovation search and inquisitive and opportunity-oriented dimensions are determinants of engagement. Supporting creative thinking dispositions, and innovative thinking skills does not affect academic achievement. Examining the variables associated with creative and innovative thinking will shed light on learning processes from many aspects such as creativity, innovation, commitment, performance, product development, achievement, and motivation.

The effect of changes in negative feedback on task performance: the role of goal orientation and feedback utility

PurposeDrawing upon the feedback intervention theory, this study aims to focus on the concept of negative feedback change (increase or decrease) to analyze the dynamics of performance feedback and its relationships with goal orientation, feedback utility and task performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a two-wave survey by tracking 195 employees and their supervisors from two representative semiconductor-related equipment companies in China for one month.FindingsResults showed that learning goal orientation positively moderates, and performance-approach goal orientation negatively moderates the indirect relationship between negative feedback change and employees’ task performance through employees’ perceptions of feedback utility.Originality/valueThis study provides new directions for performance feedback research by treating negative feedback from a dynamic perspective and addressing the mediating and moderating mechanisms. Furthermore, the findings also remind managers to not only consider feedback actions at a single moment but also manage it as a series of actions in the ongoing stream of time.

고등학생의 학업적 자기효능감과 학습몰입 간의 관계에서 성취목표지향성의 매개효과

The purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating effects of achievement goal orientation on the relationship between academic self-efficacy and learning flow of high school students. For the purpose of this study, a questionnaire was conducted on 299 students of B high school located in Busan, and the data of 287 students were finally analyzed. Correlation analysis was performed to examine the relationship among academic self-efficacy, learning flow, and achievement goal orientation; regression analysis was performed to verify the mediating effects of achievement goal orientation. The conclusions from the results and discussions are as follows. First, there are significant correlations among academic self-efficacy, learning flow, and achievement goal orientation. Second, mastery approach goal orientation has a partial mediating effect between academic self-efficacy and learning flow. Third, performance approach goal orientation has a partial mediating effect between academic self-efficacy and learning flow. Based on these conclusions, it is necessary to present an educational direction for effective learning in the school field by considering the achievement goal-oriented type in order to promote the learning flow of high school students.

The relationship between success and failure causal attributions and achievement goal orientations

The aim of this study was to investigate whether four causal attributions for success and failure each (two internal and two external attributions) can be predicted by four types of achievement goal orientations, and whether achievement goal orientations are connected with the perception of a performance as a success (vs. a failure). We surveyed 690 high school students writing a school-leaving certificate paper over the course of one year. Of these, 565 students (65 % young women) considered their paper to be a success; 101 students (59 % young women) viewed it as a failure. A binominal logistic regression and two separate path models for the success and failure samples were conducted. The main findings showed that the odds of perceiving an outcome as a success were higher with mastery goals and performance-avoidance goals. Mastery goal and performance-approach goal orientation were positively related to internal success attributions. Mastery goal orientation was positively and performance-approach goal orientation was negatively connected with the failure attribution ‘popularity with the supervisor.’ Performance-avoidance goals were positively linked to external success attributions and negatively linked to the external failure attribution ‘luck.’ Work-avoidance goals predicted all types of success attributions but none of the failure attributions. The findings provide in-depth insights into attribution processes and highlight the importance of promoting a mastery goal orientation.

The impact of fear of losing out (FoLO) on college students' performance goal orientations and learning strategies in Singapore.

The current research investigated the influence of the Fear of Losing Out (FoLO) mindset on learning strategy via performance goal orientation and its interaction with social comparison amongst Singaporean college students. In Study 1, a positive relationship between FoLO and performance goal orientations (i.e., avoidance and approach) was found. Study 2 replicated this finding and further revealed a downstream effect of FoLO on surface learning via performance goal orientations. In addition, social comparison moderated the link between performance goal orientation and surface learning in the mediation model. Specifically, in downward social comparison conditions, FoLO facilitated high performance-avoidance goal orientation, which in turn led to higher surface learning. Comparatively, in upward social comparison conditions, FoLO incited high performance-approach goal orientation, which in turn led to lower surface learning. Taken together, the findings yield significant theoretical and practical implications of FoLO on college students’ goal orientations and learning outcomes.

Performance goal orientation and unethical pro-organizational behavior: a moderated mediation model

Existing unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) literature suggests that it includes two definitional components: committing to achieving beneficial consequences for the organization and violating standards of ethical behavior. Existing research examining individual differences’ effects on UPB has mainly focused on moral traits and largely ignored performance-related ones, such as performance goal orientation. To address this theoretical blind spot, drawing from the general risk-taking perspective, we investigated how and when performance goal orientations shape employee UPB. We first conducted a business simulation study (Study 1) with 86 undergraduate students and found that performance-approach goal orientation had a positive effect on UPB engagement. Next, we sampled 446 employees from 93 teams (Study 2). Results showed that the relationship between performance-approach goal orientation and UPB was mediated by risk taking. Furthermore, performance-avoidance goal orientation was negatively related to risk taking and subsequent UPB for individuals perceive lower levels of UPB injunctive norm induced by higher ethical leadership. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications, and offer several directions for future research.

The mediating effect of intrinsic motivation between goal orientation and job crafting

The purpose of this study is to determine whether intrinsic motivation acts as a psychological mechanism that induces members' job crafting behavior in the relationship between goal orientation and job crafting. To explore this, we collected data by surveying full-time workers aging 19 or older online and used 333 participants for the final analysis. The results showed that mastery goal orientation positively predicted intrinsic motivation, and performance-approach goal orientation positively predicted both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Also, performance-avoidance goal orientation statically predicted extrinsic motivation. In addition, intrinsic motivation had a positive effect on job crafting, and relationship between goal orientation and job crafting was mediated by intrinsic motivation. Besides, a competition model was set up to check whether there is a mediating effect of extrinsic motivation on job crafting and compared with the research model. As a result, the research model that mediates job crafting only with intrinsic motivation was found to be a suitable and simple model. The implications and limitations of this study and directions for future research are addressed in the final part.

Prospective teachers' professional achievement goal orientations, their self-efficacy beliefs, and perfectionism: A mediation analysis

The present study aims to investigate associations between prospective teachers’ professional achievement goal orientations, self-efficacy beliefs, and perfectionistic characteristics. The results revealed that different aspects of perfectionism, and professional self-efficacy belief predicted prospective teachers’ different professional goal orientations. Socially prescribed perfectionism positively and significantly predicted prospective teachers' professional self-efficacy beliefs. While doubt about actions positively predicted work-avoidance goal orientation, concern over mistakes positively predicted prospective teachers’ performance-avoidance goal orientation. Self-oriented perfectionism, self-worth contingencies, entitlement, and PTs' selfefficacy beliefs positively predicted their performance-approach goal orientation. Prospective teachers' professional self-efficacy beliefs fully mediated the relationship between doubt about actions and learning goal orientation and the relationship between socially prescribed perfectionism and performance-approach goal orientation.

’MPower Shows Me Who I Want to Be’: A Qualitative Study of a Youth Purpose Program

<p style="text-align: justify;">Studies have documented widespread academic disengagement in middle and high school students. This disengagement has been tied to a myriad of negative outcomes, including failure to graduate from high school and transition into college and meaningful vocations. Supporting adolescents in cultivating a sense of beyond-the-self purpose is one factor that may combat student disengagement. MPower is a program designed to cultivate beyond-the-self purpose in an effort to promote student engagement and completion of high school (Klein et al., 2019). In a recent quantitative study, MPower participants compared to controls demonstrated a higher GPA, BTS purpose, self-efficacy, and decreased performance approach and performance avoidance goal orientations. In the current qualitative descriptive study, 11th and 12th grade (N=25) students in the Northeastern region of the United States, described their experiences in the MPower program. Three themes associated with the transformative aspects of MPower emerged from focus group data: 1) practice in strategic goal planning, 2) engagement in mentoring relationships, and 3) increased social support within a community. Because fostering youth purpose engenders many promotive and protective factors, these findings hold important implications for implementing similar programs more widely.</p>