The title of this study refers to three different dimensions of goal orientation (GO), which is defined as the stable motivated pattern of cognition and action that results from the continued pursuit of mastery-approach, performance-approach, or performance-avoid goals in different situations over time. Individuals who are primarily motivated through high learning or mastery goals ("masters"), through high performance goals ("showoffs"), and by a high desire to find easy work or avoid failing their set performance goals ("slackers") will all interact on teams with varying degrees of goal completion. These differences in the likeness of GO of team members has implications for how they interact with team members, how individuals learn, and how the team performs. This study addresses this lack of attention by more explicitly examining how likeness on GO, a motivational trait associated with how individuals react to situations where they must achieve goals, can influence the degree to which individuals can effectively work with their fellow team members. In addition, this study also investigates how GO homogeneity at the team level influences team-level learning and performance. This study shows that at the individual level, GO congruence influences learning outcomes, contributions to the team, cooperative behaviors, and that this effect is mediated through metacognition and attraction to team members. This study also shows that psychological safety serves as the mechanism at the team level through which GO homogeneity influences team level performance and team-level learning behaviors.

The purpose of the study was to identify the effects of the influence of cooperating teachers on how student teachers prioritize particular goals of education. This was accomplished by administering a predetermined list of eighteen educational goals to a group of student teachers prior and subsequent to their quarter-long student teaching experience, and to their respective cooperating teachers during their student teaching quarter. The list enabled the teacher groups to rank the goals in order of priority. In this way the cooperating teachers' goal rankings were compared to both the student teachers' pre and post student teaching goal rankings. Twenty-three student teachers and their respective cooperating teachers in secondary and special education served as subjects. The Phi Delta Kappa Goal Setting Instrument was used as the goals list in the study. The questions explored were: 1) are there differences between the relative importance as signed to selected educational goals by student teachers prior to the student teaching experience and the relative importance assigned to the same goals by the cooperating teachers; 2) are there differences in the relative importance assigned to selected educational goals by student teachers before their student teaching experience as compared to their assigned rankings after their student teaching experience; and 3) is there a relationship between any changes in the relative importance assigned by the student teachers prior and subsequent to the student teaching experience and the relative importance assigned by the cooperating teachers. To test the hypotheses under investigation, eighteen one-way analyses of variance with repeated measures were computed. Significant F ratios were found for two of the eighteen goals; the remaining F ratios were not statistically significant. The results suggest some tentative support for student teachers' goal prioritizations of two goals changing after the student teaching experience. Some tentative support was also suggested on these two goals for the student teachers' goal prioritizations changing after the student teaching experience to become more similar to the cooperating teacher' s goal prioritizations. However, the lack of significant change in sixteen of the eighteen goals more strongly suggested that the influence of a) the experience of the student teaching activity and b) the cooperating teachers' own goals prioritization biases upon the student teachers did not markedly affect student teacher goal prioritization behavior. The possibilities that the teacher groups had initial general agreement on goal priorities, that the goals may represent stable educational values, and that instrumentation concerns may have affected the results were then discussed.

Special education teachers sometimes experience problems with knowing how to construct and write transition goals that meet Indicator 13 requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This project examined the effects of teacher training in Indicator 13 requirements on the quality of transition goals. Participants included 17 special education teachers from one school district located in a western state. Target behaviors where increasing each participants’ post-test goal quality scores from individualized transition plans (ITP) written after they demonstrated knowledge about requirements through a post-instruction goal quality writing probe. Procedures involved (a) a pre examination of participants’ transition goals that were written for students prior to the training, (b) an instructional session on what needs to be included to meet Indicator 13 goal requirements, (c) a writing probe on a hypothetical student after the training to make sure the participants can write a goal statement, and (d) a post examination of participants’ transition goals written after the training. The researcher noted that participants’ demonstrated adequate goal-writing on the writing probe (6.88 out of 7.00) and that data collector ratings of goal quality scores increased from 2.82 to 6.53 mean ratings on a zero-to-seven point scale. These results could have implications in terms of participants’ transition goals becoming consistent with Indicator 13 requirements.

The present study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of two methods of goal specification in Assertion Training groups as assessed by two self-report measures, the Goal Attainment Scaling process and the Assertion Inventory. An Assertion Training group method having specific behavioral steps for approaching individualized goals was represented as the Therapist-Directed Assertion Training group. The second Assertion Training group was a Self-Directed group that allowed subjects to independently set and approach their own goals without the assistance of therapists in setting goals. Subjects were selected from among individuals who volunteered for the Assertion Training group in response to solicitation in general psychology classes, newspaper articles and circulars. Of the 76 subjects who filled out registration materials, 63 remained in the study, with 21 each assigned to the two treatment groups, and to a Waiting List Control group. While the Waiting List Control group participated in pre- and post-screening only, the Treatment groups underwent four weeks of group assertion training. The Self-Directed group was essentially encouraged to seek personally relevant goals, whereas the Therapist-Directed group members, with the help of a therapist, set up long- and short-range goals, which were monitored weekly by use of the Behavior Monitoring Progress Record. The level of assertion as assessed by the dependent measures appeared to be significantly enhanced by providing the Therapist-Directed group treatment or to a lesser extent by using the Self-Directed group method. The rationale for the study as well as the analysis of differences between groups are presented. Implications of the limitations and results of the present study are related to recommendations for future studies.

This study focuses on relationships. Specifically, it measures the relationship between the administration of a large public university in the southeastern United States, USF, and its primary internal public the faculty. The purpose of this study is to measure the quality and type of relationship between an organization and it public, as perceived by the public. This study seeks to replicate and extend previous relational research by examining how the variables of trust, commitment, control mutuality, and satisfaction are related to the quality of relationships in organizations. In addition, the type of relationshipcommunal or exchangethat the faculty has with the university, is examined. This thesis also posits an additional indicator of relationship quality goal compatibility. Therefore the following hypotheses are proposed: H1: Trust, commitment, satisfaction and control mutuality are indicators of relationship quality between and organization and its publics. H2: Goal compatibility is an indicator of relationship quality between an organization and its publics. Explicitly, this study seeks to explore the following: RQ1: How do faculty employees at a large, Research I university perceive their relationship with the administration in terms of trust, commitment, satisfaction, control mutuality, and goal compatibility, with regards to the issue of salary, and what type of relationship—communal or exchange—does the organization and its public have? The significance of this study lies in its ability to contribute to public relations theory and practice. This research will enrich our understanding of the importance of building strong relationships between organizations and their publics. This study will also build on previous public relations studies of relationship measurement in order to further public relations theory development. From an applied perspective, this research may serve to inform the organization about the quality of its relationship with one of its most important strategic publics. According to the data analyses, in terms of trust, commitment, satisfaction, control mutuality, and goal compatibility, the faculty perceives their relationship to be low quality. In addition, the faculty perceives to have an exchange relationship with the administration.

Obesity in America has grown widespread over the past decade and is a significant social issue that affects many families. Identifying interventions that are not only effective in the natural environment but are easy to implement are ideal for helping individuals engage in more fitness related activities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the NikeTM FuelBand for increasing physical activity in 3 adults. Additionally, a goal setting procedure was used to test if it enhanced the effects of the NikeTM FuelBand. Three measures were collected as part of the study, NikeTM Fuel, daily steps, and caloric expenditure. The NikeTM FuelBand was found to be effective at increasing all participants NikeTM Fuel score, daily steps, and caloric expenditure daily average from baseline to intervention phase. The goal setting procedure was found to be effective at increasing NikeTM Fuel point score, daily steps, and caloric expenditure daily average scores for two of three participants.

Many people in the United States do not engage in the recommended levels of physical activity. Self-management strategies, including self-monitoring and goal setting, are among the interventions that have been used to increase physical activity in adults. Visual feedback has also been incorporated into interventions to increase physical activity. Minimal research has focused on increasing swimming behavior. The current study investigated the effectiveness of self-management strategies to increase swimming activity in adults. An automated recording device (watch) was used to collect data on participants’ swimming behavior. The effect of self-monitoring in the form of a self-graphing intervention to increase swimming activity was evaluated. If self-graphing alone was not effective, goal setting was added to the intervention. Three participants showed an increase in swimming activity when self-graphing was implemented. Two participants showed little or no change in activity across all phases. This study did not include any reinforcement contingencies for engaging in an increase in swimming activity. Future research directions are discussed.

Researchers have successfully increased physical activity with self-monitoring, goal setting, and feedback. Goal attainment is a crucial part of what makes goal setting successful; however, it is often unreported in the literature or implied that goals were not reached consistently. A potential way to achieve this consistency is to create an action plan, or a detailed account of exactly how and when the individual will engage in the desired physical activity to reach his or her goal. This study evaluated whether making a detailed action plan would allow individuals to reach their physical activity goals more consistently than when using goal setting and self-monitoring alone. Action planning increased goal attainment for all participants but only resulted in increased physical activity for 2 of 3 participants. Future research should replicate this study to validate these findings and further explore methods for improving the success of goal setting as an intervention.

<p>Following study is about motivation from a student perspective. Based on the prescribed literature and published research, the concept and field of motivation have been illuminated. The purpose of the study was to examine how students in ninth grade perceived their educational motivation and what kind importance they considered it had for their performance in school. The study is also supposed to base upon the result; clarify the differences if any between schools. In an attempt to get a clear image of this a quantitative method in the form of surveys was made on two schools in the Stockholm region. One of the schools had a really good merit value, and the other had a rather poor merit- value. By choosing a quantitative method a relatively large number of students where able to participate and equally large quantity of statistics have been presented. The result point at motivation in the participating students in both schools can increase and decrease through different factors. These factors, observed in this study, are directly linked to the school and includes among other things the significant of having an influence on the education and inner factors as being able to achieve a certain degree and of external factors as the school environment.</p> / <p>Studien handlar om studiemotivation utifrån ett elevperspektiv. Med utgångspunkt i utgiven litteratur och publicerad forskning har begreppet och området motivation belysts.</p><p>Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur elever i årskurs 9 uppfattar sin studiemotivation och vilken betydelse de anser att den har för deras skolprestation. Även skillnader i resultatet mellan de två skolorna belyses.</p><p>Till detta har en kvantitativ undersökningsmetod i form av enkäter genomförts på två grundskolor i Stockholms län. Genom valet av en kvantitativ metod kunde ett relativt stort antal elever delta och statistik presenteras.</p><p>Resultatet pekar på att studiemotivationen hos eleverna på de undersökta skolorna kan både öka och minska genom olika faktorer. De olika faktorer som uppmärksammats i denna studie är direkt kopplade till skolan och innefattar bl.a. vikten av att få påverka undervisningen, inre faktorer som t ex att uppnå visst betyg eller yttre faktorer som t ex skolmiljön.</p>

<p>Background and purpose: Aspects such as the character of the organization and the composition of the work force have an impact on the company’s choice of how to reward and evaluate the employee. In large companies with employees from different professions and at different levels problems connected with the evaluation and the compensation of the employee may arise. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how this type of companies evaluate and reward the employees. Further we will look into the problems that may arise connected to the evaluation and the compensation of the employee. </p><p>Results: In the process of evaluation the greatest difference between the employees from different professions and operations can be found in the goals that are set and the measures that measure the fulfilment of the goals. In regard to the evaluation of employees at different levels the greatest differencecan be found in the character of the measures. When rewarding employees companies tend to have a homogeneous policy for employees from all operations and professions. The difference is greater between employees at different levels. As the number of operations and levels of the company increases it gets harder to set goals that are relevant to each operation and individual as an increasing number of aspects related to these operations must be considered. In addition it is difficult to design rewards which are cost efficient and valued by all employees. These difficulties arise as individuals’ preferences are affected by their working environment and as different preferences are created in different operations and at different levels.</p>