Does wanting to grow or to look competent change how you learn?
Aiming to improve yourself went with enjoying a task, while trying not to look incompetent went with both lower enjoyment and lower exam scores.
Source
The 2 × 2 Standpoints Model of Achievement Goals
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cross-sectional — Three correlational studies: CFA of a new goal questionnaire (Study 1), goals vs intrinsic motivation (Study 2), goals measured days before a course exam vs exam score (Study 3)
- N
- Separate samples: 244 MTurk workers (Study 1), 405 MTurk workers (Study 2), 336 psychology students (Study 3).
- Population
- US/Canadian online adults (Studies 1-2) and US undergraduate psychology students (Study 3)
- Outcome
- Factor structure of the goal measure; self-reported intrinsic motivation; final exam score
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
What they did
The authors proposed that achievement goals differ on two dimensions: developing competence versus demonstrating it, and approaching success versus avoiding failure, giving four goals. They wrote a 12-item questionnaire and checked its structure in one online sample, related the goals to intrinsic motivation in a second online sample, and measured students' goals 6 days before a psychology final exam to predict their scores in a third sample.
What they found
The four-factor model fit the data better than any simpler alternative. Development-approach and development-avoidance goals positively predicted intrinsic motivation and demonstration-avoidance goals predicted it negatively, with the goals together explaining about 10.9% of the variance. For the exam, demonstration-approach goals predicted higher and demonstration-avoidance goals lower scores (about 8.0% of variance explained), and these results held after controlling for social desirability or SAT scores.
The limits
What it doesn't show
All three studies are correlational with no manipulation, so they cannot show that adopting a goal causes more motivation or better grades. Studies 1 and 2 relied on self-report from MTurk workers, and Study 3 used one course's exam that mostly required rote memorisation, which the authors say may not suit development goals. The effects are modest, and the demonstration items do not specify to whom competence is being shown.
Key terms
- Achievement goal
- The competence-related aim a person pursues in an achievement setting, such as a test or task.
- Development vs demonstration
- Whether a goal is about growing one's own competence or about showing competence to others.
- Approach vs avoidance
- Whether a goal is framed as reaching success or as avoiding failure or incompetence.
- Intrinsic motivation
- Engaging in an activity because it is interesting or enjoyable in itself.
- Confirmatory factor analysis
- A statistical test of whether questionnaire items group into the factors a theory predicts.
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Quiz yourself
Which goal had a negative link with both motivation and exam scores?
Common questions
Which goal looked worst for students?
Demonstration-avoidance goals, trying not to look incompetent, which predicted both lower intrinsic motivation and lower exam scores.
Did aiming to improve yourself raise exam scores?
Not in this study; development-approach goals predicted enjoyment but not exam performance, possibly because the exam rewarded short-term memorisation.
Should teachers encourage students to show off their ability?
The authors do not recommend it, despite demonstration-approach goals predicting higher scores, because such goals may carry costs not measured here.
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