Exam 4 motivation

why do mastery goals not lead to better academic performance? (idkkk lots of info im gonna put it all may shorten later)

"students who continually pursue a mastery goal do not perform better in the class than students who shun the mastery goal." - Performance-achievement goal motivation has a focus on learning *only what will result in earning a good grade.* The question that students with a performance-achievement goal motivation focus often ask is, *"Will this be on the exam?"* performance-approachers adopt a strategy well suited to earning high grades on multiple choice exams. - Mastery goal motivation results in increased interest and deep learning strategies such as reading the recommended readings and thinking about new course material relates to previously learned concepts. Deep learning strategies may not be helpful for making good grades on more general and broad multiple choice exams.

Friedrich Harbart

(a German philosopher) is credited with advocating for a scientific study of human behavior (psychology) in 1824. He stated that *human desire is directed toward a goal.*

Edward Woodworth

*find in the book*

Subgoals

- Subgoals are sometimes called proximal goals. Final goals are sometimes called distal goals. - Incentives that help a person reach their final goal are subgoals. Having subgoals helps motivation to complete the final goal. The advantages of subgoals: 1. They provide more immediate motivation than the distant goal. 2. They provide feedback about progress toward the final goal. 3. Feedback about progress toward subgoals gives information about the strategies being used. 4. Achieving subgoals increases self-efficacy which improves effort and persistence.

Framing

- This is how we think about a goal. - Do we think of the goal as the opportunity to provide a gain or for avoiding a loss? - The way a goal is framed is paired with the probability of achieving it and leads to a person's decision whether to pursue the goal. - In some cases, expected utility predicts that people would choose options in equal numbers, that the options have equal utility, but this does not seem to hold true. - This seems to be because of the way people frame things. People seem more interest in a nearly sure chance of some gain that an equally valuable, but smaller chance at a larger gain. - The opposite holds true for losses. People seem to be more willing to risk larger losses in the hope of avoiding a loss altogether. - Ignore the information about when there is very little chance of success.

Performance-avoidance goals versus Performance-approach goals

-Performance-avoidance goals are consistently linked to only the negative effects of performance goals. -Performance-approach goals are consistently linked to only anxiety among the negative effects of performance goals. -"Performance-approach goals reliably predict high achievement in the classroom."

The Roots of the Word Goal

-The term goal (Ziel) arose first in German (Ziel) about 800AD. By 1300AD, the English language also had a term (gol, gole, or goale) with the same meaning. -In both languages, the terms carried the meaning of boundary or end point. -In both languages, goal or ziel came to mean something striven for that directs action

Positive outcomes for mastery goals:

-interest in course material -greater effort toward understanding course material -use of "deep" learning strategies like making connections to other concepts -better self-regulation -persisting at working on course material -seeking help when confused

Why do Performance-approach goals predict achievement? (too much info)

-performance goals improve performance and are linked with positive study behaviors. • Success on mastery goals is based on subjective, self-referential standards. • Success on performance-approach goals is based on normative, objective standards. • Mastery goals are easier to achieve and they are perceived as easier to achieve than performance-approach goals. • Difficult-specific goals tend to result in greater effort and achievement than easy and vague goals. • Performance-approach goals are more difficult and specific than mastery goals. • When goals are difficult to reach, they may result in increased performance pressure and effort. This pressure can result in anxiety that derails effort toward goal pursuit. • Researchers used the word game Boggle to test their theory that performance-approach goals would lead to better performance than mastery goals. They asked one group to find more words than a previous group of subjects (performance-mastery goal condition) and another group to gain mastery over word finding strategies (mastery goal condition). • They found that performance-approach goal pursuit was associated with feeling more pressure, better performance, higher perceived goal difficulty, and reduced interest relative to mastery goal pursuit. • The authors believe that, as a general rule, performance-approach goal pursuit is perceived as more difficult, but there may be situations where this is not true. • Information about the ability of other participants may play a role in perceived difficulty of performance-approach goals. • Characteristics of a task may mediate the perceived difficulty of mastery goals (learning to play a 12 string guitar may be perceived as very difficult).

Negative effects associated with performance goal pursuit:

-they are more likely to rely on "surface" learning strategies -they are more likely to experience anxiety -they are more likely to cheat -they are less likely to seek help when confused -they are more likely to be self-handicapping

The problems caused by the having a diversity of opinions about the definition of goal:

1. *Hindering research.* Not clearly defining what constitutes the core aspects of the construct of goal makes it difficult to for researchers to work together to explore the concept. 2. *Hindering application*. Using current definitions, it can be unclear what is a goal and what is not a goal. If too narrowly defined, the concept of goal may be fragmented into smaller ideas causing a missed opportunity to use a power united concept. If too vaguely defined, the concept loses its predictive power. 3. *Hindering connection clarity*. Not have a clear definition of goal obscures the nature of how goals relate to other motivational concepts. Conflicting definitions of goal make it difficult to determine what other concepts are important to motivated behavior and how these concepts are related. 4. *Hindered collaboration across disciplines.* Researchers cannot work across disciplines to understand goals if they do not agree on what constitutes a goal.

relationship between incentives and goals.

1. Goals are portrayed as larger and more important in scope than incentives. 2. Goals are usually more complex than incentives and involve both positive and negative features to be approached and avoided. 3. Goals must be evaluated before being selected. This is a cognitive function. 4. Goals are usually one-time events that will not be repeated. (a little shaky). 5. Incentives can serve to assist toward the achievement of a goal. 6. It is possible to have more than one goal.

five common features in definitions of goal:

1. It focused on an object 2. It is used to guide or direct behavior 3. It is focused on the future 4. It is internally represented 5. It is something that the organism is committed to approach or avoid

Prospect Theory, especially what happens at very high or very low probability.

1. weight loss more than gain. 2. prefer small gains that are very likely over larger gains that are less likely. 3. risks at very low probabilities are weighted more heavily than the probabilities would indicate. 4. very low or very high probabilities are considered certainties. - When probabilities are very low or very high, people appear to consider the probabilities of no consequence. As a result, choice is based on the actual utility of the gain or the actual utility of the loss. In other words, people consider the event to be a certainty to be achieved or to fail.

The definition of goal the chapter authors created:

A goal is a cognitive representation of a future object that the organism is committed to approach or avoid.

Authors of chapter 15:

Andrew J. Elliot and James W. Fryer

How do mastery and performance goals relate to achievement outcomes?

Comparing Mastery Goals to only Performance-Approach Goals has led to the finding that Mastery Goals predict interest, but not achievement and Performance-Approach Goals predict achievement, but not interest in course material. -idk if this is the whole correct answer

James Mill

Fellow philosophers James Mill, Hermann Lotze, and Alexander Bain included ideas about how goals could direct action in their works. They were more interested in *human thought processes than in studying the link between goals and behavior.*

Alfred Adler

Goals give meaning to life, outside of our conscious awareness. People strive to overcome inferiority by moving to dominance, perfection, or completeness. *a person would not know what to do with himself were he not oriented toward some goal. We cannot think, feel, or act without the perception of some goal."* People have an *ultimate goal (fictional final goal)*, which gives stability to the personality.

Kurt Lewin

Identified, but did not define, many different types of goals. He viewed goals as both objects that had a valence (an innate goodness or badness that attracted or repelled a person) or a specific target or achievement a person strived toward.

University of Leipzig importance?

In 1879 Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychological laboratory at the University of Leipzig *marking the beginning of experimental psychology.*

James Watt

James Watt and Narziss Ash examined goal directed behavior. They studied *how people went about to achieve goals provided by other people (following instructions).* *Watt identified a four step process people go through while following instructions:* 1. preparation for presentation of stimulus 2. presentation of the stimulus 3. working on the response 4. the response He believed the conscious thought took place primarily during the first step and was similar to goal creation.

temporal discounting

Know that goals, as well as incentives, are affected by temporal discounting. Know that temporal discounting affects losses (avoidance) more steeply than gains (approach).

Mastery Goal Hypothesis:

Mastery goals are superior to performance goals in producing motivation and improving performance.

Edward Tolman

People continue their behavior until a goal is reached. He termed the object or situation toward which a person (or animal) strived to achieve or avoid the *Goal Object.*

Two types of achievement goals:

Performance goals and mastery goals

goal commitment

Public announcement of goals increases goal commitment. (when a person publicly announces their goal

Expected Utility

This theory combines the value or utility of a goal and our belief about how probable it is to achieve. Expected Utility = Utility X subjective probability

Performance-Avoidance Goals

a desire to avoid the pain associated with being outperformed by others

Performance-Approach Goals:

a desire to feel the pride that results from outperforming others

Wilhelm Wundt

founded the first psychological laboratory at the University of Leipzig marking the beginning of experimental psychology. Wundt asked subject to use introspection to access their thoughts. He had an interest in *human consciousness.* (1879) Wundt observed that mental preparation had an impact on the way people responded to a stimulus. This meant that *thought mediated the stimulus-response reaction.*

Aristotle

is credited with creating the first goal concept. He believed that, *"behavior is always purposeful, and imagined end-states are viewed as having an important influence on human action.*

Performance goals:

make comparisons against other people. Success is determined by performance weighed against normative standards. Goal success is not personally rewarded, reward comes from outside sources. (Gotta PERFORM better than anyone else)

What type of goal is best for a classroom setting?

mastery goals have been promoted as better for classroom learning than performance goals. *Most research into performance and mastery goals has been conducted in educational settings.*

William McDougall

wrote about how human beings are moved to purposeful behavior by *self-created goals.* he viewed *instincts as guiding all action and goals as serving instincts.*

Mastery Goals:

you make internal comparisons. Success is determined by reaching a self-created standard not by comparison against other people. Goal success is intrinsically rewarded(comes from within yourself). (I'm the Master)

the three difficulties to overcome when pursuing a goal

• 1. Forgetting the goal (the longer the time between setting the goal and getting to work on it, the more likely this becomes). • 2. Not seizing the opportunity (the primary problem here is not noticing the opportunity to act. 3. Reconsidering the goal (When the time comes to act, the person may wonder if the goal is worth the effort. People reconsider long-term goals when there is a short-term benefit available. In other words, the tradeoff between the long-term benefits of losing weight might be outweighed by the short-term benefit of the stack of brownies on the table.)

University of Wurzburg?????

• Building on the work of Wundt, an experimental psychology laboratory was created at the University of Wurzburg. James Watt and Narziss Ash were early psychologists who examined goal directed behavior. They studied how people set about to achieve goals provided by other people (following instructions). *idk the answer to this, idk why this university is considered important*

all of the findings about goal directed behavior

• It is characterized by striving until the goal is reached. • Goal-directedness results in being energized in situations where movement toward the goal is possible • If goal pursuit in one direction is blocked, goal pursuit continues in a new direction. • Goal pursuit can be conscious or non-conscious. • Goal pursuit is flexible whether conscious or non-conscious

implementation intentions

• Know that implementation intentions become automatic habits that require no effort to enact. • Understand that implementation intentions have utility for use in suppression of habitual responses (understand what this means). • Know that implementation intentions can be flexibly applied.

What ideas support the Mastery Goal Hypothesis? (3)

• People facing a difficult challenge with a performance goal should be *more likely to give up* than those facing a difficult challenge with a mastery goal. • People who choose performance goals are more likely to believe ability is innate. They should be more likely to believe they *cannot overcome failures.* • People who choose *mastery goals* are more likely to believe that *ability can be gained through practice* and therefore more likely to persist at tasks through difficulty.