Role Of Social Goals Research Articles

Academic help seeking from peers during adolescence: The role of social goals

This study examined longitudinal associations among social goals and academic help seeking among peers during early adolescence. Students self-reported social goals (dominance, intimacy, popularity), efficacy (academic, social), teacher support, and help seeking among peers (adaptive, expedient, avoidance of help seeking) across the sixth grade (N=345; 49% females, ages 11–12). Hierarchical regression analyses indicated social goals influenced subsequent expedient and adaptive help seeking (but not avoidance of help seeking) after controlling for efficacy, teacher support, and prior help seeking. There were gender differences in the mean-levels of constructs and the effect of goals. Popularity goals were positively related and intimacy goals were negatively related to expedient help seeking. For boys, dominance goals were negatively related to adaptive help seeking and positively related to expedient help seeking. For girls, intimacy goals were positively related to adaptive help seeking and dominance goals were negatively related to expedient help seeking. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Role of Social Goals in Bullies' and Victims' Social Information Processing in Response to Ambiguous and Overtly Hostile Provocation

AbstractUnderstanding what social goals are associated with bullying and victimization behaviours, even after allowing for biases in interpretation of and affective responses to social events, is critical for understanding the socio‐behavioural profile of bullies and victims. In the present study, 181 nine‐ to ten‐year‐olds' affective responses, attribution of intent, and social goals were assessed in the context of a series of ambiguous and overtly hostile provocation vignettes. Results showed that even after allowing for other social information processing biases, social goals were meaningfully associated with bullying and victimization scores. Bullying was inversely associated with relationship‐building goals, and positively associated with goals to be assertive over the provocateur when provocation was overtly hostile. Being victimized was associated with having submissive goals even when provocation was ambiguous and after accounting for attribution of hostile intent. Findings are discussed in light of theoretical and practical implications.

Studying for the sake of others: the role of social goals on academic engagement

Much of the research on achievement goal theory has focused on the roles of mastery and performance goals in academic engagement, thus the role of other goals such as social goals has mostly been neglected. The aim of this research was to investigate the effects of different kinds of social goals (affiliation, approval, concern, responsibility and status goals) on the different facets of academic engagement. A total of 1147 Filipino secondary school students answered questionnaires assessing their social goals, achievement goals and academic engagement. Hierarchical regression analyses were employed to investigate the effects of social goals on academic engagement after controlling the effects of mastery and performance goals. Results indicate that certain kinds of social goals are also important predictors of academic engagement. We recommend that researchers consider investigating social goals that might be more salient in cross-cultural settings instead of focusing exclusively on mastery and performance goals.

Social goals and the valuation of natural capital.

Valuation ultimately refers to the contribution of an item to meeting a specific goal or objective. Conventional economic valuation is based on the goal of allocative efficiency. But other social goals may be equally, if not more, important. For example, the goals of social fairness and ecological sustainability have been identified as being at least of the same level of importance as allocative efficiency. This paper looks at the role of social goals in determining the basis for valuation of natural capital and ecosystem services, and sketches the characteristics of a system of valuation that would give equal weight to all three of the major social goals mentioned above. It also places these goals within a more comprehensive conceptual model of the economy and its relationship to the ecological life support system in which it is embedded.

Motivation and Achievement in Early Adolescence

This study examines the multiple goals that students try to achieve at school and their relations to academic performance. In all, 423 sixth- and seventh-grade students reported efforts to achieve mastery, evaluation, and social responsibility goals. Causal belief systems were assessed by asking students to choose one of three reasons why they try to earn good grades. Pursuit of all three classroom goals was related significantly and positively to students' grades, although evaluation and social goals were stronger predictors of grades than were mastery goals. Causal belief systems were related significantly to both classroom grades and standardized test scores over time, and students who reported earning grades because learning is fun and exciting (mastery-oriented beliefs) earned the highest grades. The role of social goals in promoting academic achievement and the importance of making a distinction between goals and processes that regulate goal pursuit are discussed.