Motivation
and Performance in Context: The Influence of Goal Orientations
and Instructional Setting on Situational Appraisals and Task Performance
M. Niemivirta |
The
purpose of this study was to examine how students with different
goal orientation patterns perform in a complex problem solving task
under different instructional conditions. Ninth-grade students (N
143) performed a complex problem solving task after receiving either
task-involving or ego-involving instructions. It was assumed that
students emphasizing performance and avoidance goals (or both) would
produce less positive situational appraisals than students emphasizing
learning goals, and that these differences would be greater in the
ego-involving condition. Consistent with the assumptions, higher
levels of interest and self-efficacy were associated with the task-involving
condition, while more self-handicaps were claimed in the ego-involving
condition. Also as expected, the detrimental consequences of the
ego-involving condition were most accentuated for performance-oriented
students. In general, the results support the idea of multiple goals
and multiple pathways. That is, students with different goal orientation
patterns experienced task situations differently - even with no differences
in their performance - and the degree and quality of these differences
varied as a function of the instructional condition. Key words: goal orientation, situational motivation, person-centered approach, instructional context |