Performance-avoidance Goal Orientation Research Articles

Goal Orientation and Safety Climate

The study developed and tested a cross-level model for predicting individual differences in nurses’ safety compliance, integrating individual-level differences in goal orientation, unit-level safety climate, and their cross-level interactions. Three hundred nurses from 76 units completed validated questionnaires on goal orientation and safety climate; data on safety compliance were obtained through structured observations on nurses administering medications. Results showed that learning goal orientation and avoid performance goal orientation were significantly and positively associated with safety compliance. Cross-level interactions existed between an individual’s goal orientation and safety climate and his or her safety compliance: A learning goal orientation was positively related to safety compliance only when safety climate was high, thereby exhibiting an enhancing mechanism. By comparison, an individual’s prove performance goal orientation was positively related to safety compliance only when safety climate was low, thereby exhibiting a compensating mechanism. These findings carry important insights for research on person-in-situation models.

The effects of achievement goal orientations and safety climate on safe and unsafe behavior

The purpose of this study is to test the effect of achievement goal orientations and safety climate on safe and unsafe behaviors. Safe behaviors were measured by observances and automatic safe behaviors, and unsafe behaviors by violations and mistakes. Three fifty employees from corporations were participated in this research. Both mastery approach goal and performance approach goal orientations have significant positive relations with the safe behaviors and negative relations with the unsafe behaviors, but both mastery avoidance goal and performance avoidance goal orientations have significant negative relations with the safe behaviors and positive relations with the unsafe behaviors. This results suggest to confirm the multiple goal perspective of the achievement goal orientation argued both mastery goal and performance goal orientations have relations with adaptive and maladaptive behaviors. Safety climates measured by five factors, management values, safety practice, safety training, safety communication, and supervisor leadership, were significant positive relations with safe behaviors and negative relations with unsafe behaviors. Specially safety climates have significantly stronger correlations with unintentional behaviors(automatic safe behavior and mistake) than intentional behaviors(observance and violation). The relative contributions of individual variables and organizational variables to safe and unsafe behaviors were discussed.

The effects of achievement goal orientations and safety climate on safe and unsafe behavior

The purpose of this study is to test the effect of achievement goal orientations and safety climate on safe and unsafe behaviors. Safe behaviors were measured by observances and automatic safe behaviors, and unsafe behaviors by violations and mistakes. Three fifty employees from corporations were participated in this research. Both mastery approach goal and performance approach goal orientations have significant positive relations with the safe behaviors and negative relations with the unsafe behaviors, but both mastery avoidance goal and performance avoidance goal orientations have significant negative relations with the safe behaviors and positive relations with the unsafe behaviors. This results suggest to confirm the multiple goal perspective of the achievement goal orientation argued both mastery goal and performance goal orientations have relations with adaptive and maladaptive behaviors. Safety climates measured by five factors, management values, safety practice, safety training, safety communication, and supervisor leadership, were significant positive relations with safe behaviors and negative relations with unsafe behaviors. Specially safety climates have significantly stronger correlations with unintentional behaviors(automatic safe behavior and mistake) than intentional behaviors(observance and violation). The relative contributions of individual variables and organizational variables to safe and unsafe behaviors were discussed.

Measuring Achievement Goal Orientations of Pharmacy Students

To measure the achievement goal orientations of pharmacy students attending a 3-year (accelerated) doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program. A 16-item survey based on the Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ) was administered to first-year (P1) and second-year (P2) pharmacy students at the Appalachian College of Pharmacy (ACP). Students were instructed to indicate to what degree each statement was true for them using a 7-point Likert scale (1=not true of me, 7=very true of me). One hundred twenty of the 155 students (77%) completed the survey. Most students had mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, performance-approach, and/or performance-avoidance goal orientations; few had work-avoidance goal orientations. Second-year students and male students had higher work-avoidance mean scores than did P1 students and female students (p<0.05). Pharmacy students were mastery- and performance-oriented learners, and most did not have work-avoidance goal orientations. Male students and P2 students had higher work-avoidance than did female students and P1 students, respectively. More longitudinal studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Insight Into Error Hiding: Exploration of Nursing Students’ Achievement Goal Orientations

An estimated 50% of medication errors go unreported, and error hiding is costly to hospitals and patients. This study explored one issue that may facilitate error hiding. Descriptive statistics were used to examine nursing students' achievement goal orientations in a high-fidelity simulation course. Results indicated that although this sample of nursing students held high mastery goal orientations, they also held moderate levels of performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal orientations. These goal orientations indicate that this sample is at high risk for error hiding, which places the benefits that are typically gleaned from a strong mastery orientation at risk. Understanding variables, such as goal orientation, that can be addressed in nursing education to reduce error hiding is an area of research that needs to be further explored. This article discusses the study results and evidence-based instructional practices for this sample's achievement goal orientation profile.

Metas académicas, estrategias de aprendizaje y rendimiento académico en educación secundaria

In this paper we analyze the relationships between learning goals, performance goals, and other motives like giving social approval, obtaining external rewards or avoiding punishment and academic achievement. A total of 447 obligatory secondary education students participated in this study. The results suggest a positive link between elaboration strategies and scores on Social Sciences and Mathematics; while performance in English Language or Natural Sciences could depend more heavily on basic strategies such as selection. On the other hand, planning can relate positively to academic performance in Social Sciences, Spanish Language or Mathematics and monitoring can be a useful resource in the areas of Spanish Language or Natural Sciences. In general, results suggested that high learning goals and the desire to obtain a decent job in the future are associated with the best academic achievement in most of subjects. On the other hand, high ego-oriented goals, both performance-approach goal orientation and performance-avoidance goal orientation, and high desire to avoid punishment, are associated with low academic achievement.

The roles of perceived parental expectation and criticism in adolescents’ multidimensional perfectionism and achievement goals

Perfectionism consists of personal predispositions and attitudes toward performance. Although there is some disagreement in the field regarding how to best define and measure perfectionism, most studies have supported a distinction between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism. The current study examines a model in which students’ perceptions of parents’ standards and criticism are proposed as antecedents of multidimensional perfectionism, which in turn are hypothesised to be associated with types of academic achievement goal orientations. The sample consisted of 256 high school students who completed questionnaires assessing adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism, perceptions of their parents and personal achievement goals. Structural equation modelling supported the hypotheses suggesting that high parental standards are positively associated with the adaptive perfectionist characteristic of self-organised perception, which in turn are associated with a mastery goal orientation. Parental criticism predicted the maladaptive perfectionist characteristic of concern over mistakes, which in turn was found associated with a performance-avoidance goal orientation.

Why supervisors should promote feedback-seeking behaviour in medical residency

Background: Individual disposition of goal orientation and situational factors of the working context, both generate and modulate motives to seek feedback.Aim: We looked for correlations between feedback-seeking and individual goal orientation, motives or concerns of feedback-seeking, working context of medical residents. We focussed on how promotion of feedback-seeking by supervisors and educational environment influenced motives and behaviours of feedback-seeking in residents.Methods: Web-based administration of a Likert-type composite questionnaire to residents of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Switzerland and mini-interviews.Results: Fifty-six (45%) of 125 residents completed the questionnaire. After multiple regression analysis promotion of feedback-seeking through supervisors remained the sole predictor correlating with feedback-seeking through inquiry (R2 = 16) and the motive of self-improvement (R2 = 0.30). This predictor was also associated with reduced concerns of ego-protection (R2 = 0.14) and impression-defence (R2 = 0.18). Performance-avoid goal orientation was associated with concerns of impression-defence (R2 = 0.36) and ego-protection (R2 = 0.48). Women had significantly more concerns of ego-protection, residents with more than three years of experience more concerns of impression-defence. Disillusion that PG-training would ever improve, seemed the main reason to refuse participationConclusions: Promotion of feedback-seeking through supervisors combined with delivery of high quality feedback may guide residents towards seeking feedback for professional self-improvement.

Preadolescent perceptions of challenging and difficult course activities and their motivational distinctions

The present research sought to determine if primary school students differentiate between classes that are challenging and those that are difficult, and how these distinctions relate to their motivation and achievement. Results indicated that there are three types of challenges/difficulties. Challenging classes are those that are demanding of the students but within their ability, are important and are tied to interests; students in these classes are more likely to adopt mastery goal orientations. Purely difficult classes are not valued, require a lot of effort, but are threatening to students’ efficacy. Classes that are difficult compared to others are those that are more demanding for the student than other students or other classes. These classes are not valued and are also seen as a threat to efficacy. Both purely difficult and difficult compared to others classes were negatively related to achievement, and students in these classes are more likely to adopt performance avoidance goal orientations.

Stability or change? Effects of training length and time lag on achievement goal orientations and transfer of training

Over the past 30 years, numerous studies have examined the differential influences of achievement goal orientations on transfer of training, with heterogeneous results. The present study used meta-analytic methods (k=17 with 38 effect sizes, N=2917) to correct the true score population correlation estimate between achievement goal orientations and transfer of training for sampling error and error of measurement. For this purpose, goal orientations were conceptualized in the following three dimensions: mastery goal orientation (ρ=0.40), performance-approach goal orientation (ρ=0.02), and performance-avoidance goal orientation (ρ=−0.12). A second aim was to examine stability and change by testing the effects of training length and time lag on these population correlation estimates. A weighted least squares multiple regression indicated no statistically significant effects; a nested effect of training length and time lag was also nonsignificant for all three goal orientations. These findings suggest stability in the achievement goal orientation–transfer of training relationships. Practical implications for job-related training programs and avenues for future research are discussed.

When big brother is watching: Goal orientation shapes reactions to electronic monitoring during online training.

Web-based training is frequently used by organizations as a convenient and low-cost way to teach employees new knowledge and skills. As web-based training is typically unproctored, employees may be held accountable to the organization by computer software that monitors their behaviors. The current study examines how the introduction of electronic performance monitoring may provoke negative emotional reactions and decrease learning among certain types of e-learners. Through motivated action theory and trait activation theory, we examine the role of performance goal orientation when e-learners are exposed to asynchronous and synchronous monitoring. We show that some e-learners are more susceptible than others to evaluation apprehension when they perceive their activities are being monitored electronically. Specifically, e-learners higher in avoid performance goal orientation exhibited increased evaluation apprehension if they believed asynchronous monitoring was present, and they showed decreased skill attainment as a result. E-learners higher on prove performance goal orientation showed greater evaluation apprehension if they believed real-time monitoring was occurring, resulting in decreased skill attainment.

State-level goal orientations as mediators of the relationship between time pressure and performance: A longitudinal study.

Goal orientations-the degree to which individuals are concerned with developing new skills, demonstrating already developed skills, and avoiding appearing foolish or incompetent-have been repeatedly shown to be important individual difference variables for performance across a range of contexts. In the current study, we identified perceptions of time pressure as a predictor of state goal orientations. Specifically, we posited that developing new skills may be conceived of as somewhat of a luxury-that is, mastery-oriented behaviors-are more likely to emerge when one is not under time pressure. On the other hand, when perceptions of time pressure increase, we expected individuals to be less willing to invest in development and instead to adopt more avoidant goals. Support for these predictions was found in a sample of undergraduate statistics students who were followed over the course of a 15-week academic semester. Specifically, perceptions of time pressure were negatively related to state mastery goal orientation and positively related to state performance-avoid goal orientation. Also, state goal orientations mediated the relationship between time pressure and performance. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our results for motivational theory as well as how organizations can use the current results to mitigate the potentially detrimental effects of time pressure on performance.

The Strength of the Relation Between Performance-Approach and Performance-Avoidance Goal Orientations: Theoretical, Methodological, and Instructional Implications

In current research on achievement goal theory, most researchers differentiate between performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal orientations. Evidence from prior research and from several previously published data sets is used to highlight that the correlation is often rather large, with a number of studies reporting correlations above .50. The large magnitude of this correlation raises questions and warrants further investigation. The size of the correlation also varies substantially across studies; thus, several potential moderators were considered. Minimal evidence for moderation was found, with little variability in relations as a function of fear of failure, culture, and specificity of the goal assessment. There was some evidence of variability in the correlation based on age, perceived competence, and assessment instrument. The article concludes by highlighting theoretical, methodological, and instructional questions that arise as a result of the large correlation and making recommendations and guidance for research, instructional practice, and theory advancement.

To master or perform? Exploring relations between achievement goals and conceptual change learning

Research is needed to explore conceptual change in relation to achievement goal orientations and depth of processing. To address this need, we examined relations between achievement goals, use of deep versus shallow processing strategies, and conceptual change learning using a think-aloud protocol. Seventy-three undergraduate students were assessed on their prior knowledge and misconceptions about Newtonian mechanics, and then reported their achievement goals and participated in think-aloud protocols while reading Newtonian physics texts. A mastery-approach goal orientation positively predicted deep processing strategies, shallow processing strategies, and conceptual change. In contrast, a performance-approach goal orientation did not predict either of the processing strategies, but negatively predicted conceptual change. A performance-avoidance goal orientation negatively predicted deep processing strategies and conceptual change. Moreover, deep and shallow processing strategies positively predicted conceptual change as well as recall. Finally, both deep and shallow processing strategies mediated relations between mastery-approach goals and conceptual change. Results provide some support for Dole and Sinatra's (1998) Cognitive Reconstruction of Knowledge Model of conceptual change but also challenge specific facets with regard to the role of depth of processing in conceptual change.

Shaping achievement goal orientations in a mastery-structured environment and concomitant changes in related contingencies of self-worth

Across three time-points spanning 9 months, changes in achievement goal orientations and contingencies of self-worth were assessed as a function of participating in a mastery-structured academic program for high-ability adolescents (N = 126). Endorsement of mastery goal orientations increased during the program and remained high even after students returned to their home learning environments. In contrast, performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal orientations decreased during the summer program, but returned to previous levels when assessed 6 months later. Latent growth curve models assessed the covariation of performance goal orientations and two contingencies of self-worth (outperforming others and others’ approval) hypothesized to represent elements of performance goal orientations. Changes in the contingency of self-worth based on outperforming others positively covaried with observed changes in both performance goal orientations; however, changes in self-worth contingent on others’ approval did not. Results are discussed in terms of mastery-structured environments’ potential to alter achievement goal orientations via their underlying psychological processes. Implications for achievement goal theory and the design of achievement-oriented environments are discussed.

Interaction Among Self-Efficacy, Goal Orientation, and Unrealistic Goal-Setting on Videogame-Based Training Performance

This study sought to investigate what happens to trainee performance when an individual sets an unrealistically difficult performance goal early in training, which results in a large goal-performance discrepancy. Data from 185 trainees participating in a videogame-based training environment demonstrated that a single large discrepancy negatively impacts immediate subsequent training performance. Moreover, performance avoid goal orientation and self-efficacy were found to jointly moderate the impact of the discrepancy for both trainees' immediate subsequent performance and their rate of performance improvement across the training program. These findings highlight the importance of realistic goal-setting and trainee self-efficacy for optimizing videogame-based training success.

The role of goal orientations for adolescent mathematics achievement

This study examines the association between personal goal orientations and mathematics achievement within the trichotomous goal framework. Participants comprised approximately 2000 seventh and eighth grade White, Hispanic, and Vietnamese students in a low-income urban school district in California. Regression analysis with classroom fixed effects minimized biases arising from non-random assignment of teachers and students to schools and classrooms. While all three achievement goal orientations were correlated with mathematics achievement, only a mastery goal orientation consistently predicted achievement when a full set of prior achievement and demographic controls were included. Performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal orientations did not predict achievement in the full model.

How Does Bureaucracy Impact Individual Creativity? A Cross-Level Investigation of Team Contextual Influences on Goal Orientation–Creativity Relationships

Offering important counterpoint to work identifying team influences stimulating creative expression of individual differences in goal orientation, we develop cross-level theory establishing that team bureaucratic practices (centralization and formalization) constrain creative expression. Speaking to the tension between bureaucracy and creativity, findings indicate that this influence is not only negative and that effects of centralization and formalization differ. Surveying 330 employees in 95 teams at the Taiwan Customs Bureau, we found that learning and performance avoid goal orientations had, respectively, stronger positive and weaker negative relationships with creativity under low centralization. A performance- prove orientation was positively related to creativity under low formalization.

Achievement goals as mediators of the relationship between competence beliefs and test anxiety

Previous work suggests that the expectation of failure is related to higher test anxiety and achievement goals grounded in a fear of failure. To test the hypothesis, based on the work of Elliot and Pekrun (2007), that the relationship between perceived competence and test anxiety is mediated by achievement goal orientations. Self-report data were collected from 275 students in post-compulsory education following courses in A Level Psychology. Competence beliefs were inversely related to the worry and tension components of test anxiety, both directly and indirectly through a performance-avoidance goal orientation. A mastery-avoidance goal orientation offered an indirect route from competence beliefs to worry only. These findings provide partial support for Elliot and Pekrun's (2007) model. Although significant mediating effects were found for mastery-avoidance and performance-avoidance goals, they were small and there may be other mechanisms to account for the relations between competence beliefs and test anxiety.

A Validation Study of Goal Orientations and Self-Efficacy Scales

The aim of the current study was to investigate the validity and reliability of goal orientation and self-efficacy scales. The scales were administered to 264 university students (154 from engineering departments, 110 from business administration). Two samples were used. In the first sample, the original factor model was tested with confirmatory factor analysis. In the second sample, the Turkish versions of the scales were factor analyzed. Principal components analysis resulted in three components for the Goal Orientation scale: Learning goal orientation, Performance-prove goal orientation, and Performance-avoid goal orientation. The Self-efficacy scale had one factor as expected. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were satisfactory. The results did not fully support the use of current Turkish versions of the scales. Results of the studies are discussed along with the strengths and limitations of the study and suggestions for further development of the scales.