Despite successful learning in the training environment, acquired skills are often not translated back to the job. Past research on training transfer has tended to measure the construct inconsistently and often disregarded its multi-faceted nature. In an effort to better investigate the determinants of successful transfer, the two temporal facets of training transfer, initiation and maintenance, were examined to evaluate their relationships with the trainee characteristics of goal orientation and self-efficacy. It was hypothesized that initiation mediates the relationship between goal orientation and maintenance, and that the relationship between performance goal orientation and initiation is moderated by self-efficacy. Participants were recruited from undergraduate psychology courses and trained on multiple-choice test-taking strategies. Results failed to support the main effect, moderation, or mediation hypotheses, although they support the contention that transfer is a multi-dimensional construct. The findings indicate that goal orientation and initiation may both best be conceived as predictors of transfer maintenance and interact to affect transfer behavior. The findings illustrate the value of examining individual difference variables in the prediction of training transfer. / Master of Science

The flow experience refers to a state characterized by complete involvement in a task. According to flow theory, the flow state is preceded by three antecedents, skill-task match, goals, and feedback. These antecedents lead to a flow state, which is exemplified by six components, merging of action and awareness, centering of attention, loss of self-consciousness, temporal distortion, sense of control, and autotelic nature. In a flow state, individuals persist on a task without regard or awareness of themselves or their surroundings. Currently, flow is a two-stage model in which the three antecedents lead to a flow state. Flow theory is severely limited as no mediating processes have been specified between flow antecedents and the flow state. The missing mediating processes in flow theory do not allow for empirically examining testable a priori predictions. Further, failure to specify a mediator brings into question the current flow antecedents and components. The aim of this study was to recast flow theory within a self-regulation framework to ameliorate these issues. I borrow from the self-regulation literature and propose that “feeling right” mediates the relationship between flow antecedents and components. Feeling right is a positive cognitive experience that arises from successful regulatory fit. I further posit that the antecedents of flow are the antecedents of feeling right, motivational orientation and goal pursuit strategies. Finally, I propose that the flow state only be characterized by four components, merging of action and awareness, centering of attention, loss of self-consciousness, and temporal distortion. Thus, in my revised model of flow, alignment between motivational orientation and goal pursuit will lead to feeling right, which will then lead to a flow state, characterized by the four aforementioned components. A secondary goal of this study was to examine the relationship between flow and task performance. I hypothesized that individuals in a state of regulatory fit would experience flow, operationalized by intense concentration, time distortion, and loss of self-consciousness. I further hypothesized that flow would mediate the relationship between regulatory fit and performance and that type of fit would influence performance quality or quantity. I utilized an experiment design to test this revised flow model in the context of a computer game. A path model was conducted to test these predictions. Results revealed that individuals in a state of regulatory fit exhibited greater time distortion and loss of self-consciousness. However, flow did not mediate the relationship between fit and performance. Based on these results, flow can successfully be applied to a self-regulatory framework. There is initial evidence that motivational orientation and goal pursuit, i.e., regulatory fit, are causal antecedents to a flow state. There was stronger evidence for the relationship between regulatory fit and flow when behavioral flow indicators were used. Future research should focus on identifying behavioral flow indicators and continue to explore the flow construct within a self-regulatory framework. / Ph. D. / Flow is a subjective experience that is characterized by deep immersion in the present moment. Flow theory was initially conceptualized to explain intrinsically motivated behavior, and since it’s conception in the 1960s, it has been applied to various domains, such as work, sports, and leisure activities. In this study, I critiqued flow theory and proposed a revised model of flow that applies self-regulation principles to help ameliorate the current issues regarding flow. The revised model was tested in the context of a computer game. Results revealed that in this context, regulatory fit is a causal precursor to flow. Further, flow did not lead to better task performance.

The effect of case based learning on 10th grade students&rsquo / academic achievement in the unit of human reproductive system and their perceived motivation (Intrinsic Goal Orientation, Extrinsic Goal Orientation and Task Value) was investigated in this study. The study was conducted during 2007-2008 spring semester in a private high school in Ankara, Turkey. A total of 80 (48 males and 32 females) tenth grade students from four biology classes of two teachers were involved in the study. One class of each individual teacher was assigned as control group and the other class of the same teacher was assigned as experimental group to sustain randomization. Two of the classes assigned as experimental group were instructed with case based learning, while two classes of the control group were received traditionally designed biology instruction. In the experimental group, two cases that are divided into several parts were assigned in an interrupted manner. Students learned the human reproductive system via cases in experimental group without any additional method. The cases include incomplete data and students were needed to search for and discuss to answer the questions posed in the cases and by themselves and to complete the data. When the students completed a part of the case, next part was distributed. While dealing with the dilemma presented in cases, students did independent study as well as group work. In the control group, instruction was based on teacher explanations and web based notes prepared by the biology department of the high school. Human Reproductive System Achievement Test, Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire were administered as pre-test and post-test to the students in both groups to measure the students&rsquo / academic achievement in the unit of human reproductive system / and their perceived motivation / specifically, task value, intrinsic goal orientation, and extrinsic goal orientation. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to investigate the effect of case based learning on the students&rsquo / academic achievement in the unit of human reproductive system and their perceived motivation. Results revealed that case based learning improved students&rsquo / academic achievement and task value.

Part I: Systematic Literature Review. Dysregulation of the motivational and incentive functions that underlie goal setting and goal pursuit is thought to be a key factor implicated in the aetiology of Major Depressive Disorder. Although research over the past two decades has shown that motivational and cognitive factors can play an important role in increasing negative affect and making individuals vulnerable to depression, much of this work has involved dysphoric and non-depressed samples and much less is known about their role in the maintenance of and recovery from clinical depression. The objective of the present study was therefore to identify and synthesize the evidence from studies that examined goals, goal pursuit and goal orientation in clinically depressed individuals. Only 9 studies meeting the inclusion criteria could be identified through systematic literature searches and were heterogeneous in design and quality. The results therefore do not allow strong conclusions to be drawn and need to be interpreted with caution. Bearing this caveat in mind, the findings did not support the idea that depressed individuals set fewer, less valued or more avoidant personal goals than non-depressed individual and suggested that problems were more likely to lie in the motivational and cognitive processes governing goal engagement and goal pursuit. Factors identified by the present studies likely to play a significant role in disrupting motivational processes and promoting maladaptive strategies of goal pursuit were perceived goal attainability, perceived lack of control, personal resources and skills required, type of goal focus, lack of goal specificity and goal engagement and disengagement processes. The results of two randomised clinical trials further suggested that therapies focusing on goal dysregulation in patients identified to lack adaptive strategies for goal pursuit and goal reengagement may be more effective than standard models. These findings identified promising areas for future research and highlight the importance of understanding individual profiles and subtypes of depression in order to target key areas of dysregulation and tailor treatment accordingly and in collaboration with the patient. The review highlighted the paucity of good quality studies involving samples of clinically depressed individuals and the need for more translational work focusing on clinically significant outcomes and developing reliable measures to assess day-to-day goal engagement and pursuit in depressed individuals. Abstract - Part II: Empirical paper. Goal orientation theory suggests that adopting a self-worth goal orientation (seeking self-validation and avoiding proof of worthlessness) may make individuals more vulnerable to depression, whereas pursuing learning goals (seeking personal growth and improving one's abilities) might represent a protective factor. This study examined whether adopting different goal orientations following negative performance feedback and unfavourable social comparison affected mood and performance on a subsequent performance task. Trait goal orientation was assessed in a sample of 86 U.K. university students who were allocated to three experimental groups receiving self-worth goal, learning goal and no instructions after receiving negative feedback on the first performance task. The findings provided some support for the original predictions of goal orientation theory (Dykman, 1998). Validation-seeking was associated with greater anticipatory anxiety following a negative event as well as reduced confidence when faced with a performance challenge. However, the results provided no substantial evidence to suggest that adopting a 'state' learning goal orientation vs. self-worth goal orientation mitigates the experience of negative affect or helplessness responses. Potential implications of the findings regarding the utility of the goal orientation construct as a predictor of depression vulnerability are discussed in the light of methodological limitations of the present study.

The concept of Goal Orientations (GOs), which was initially developed in the area of educational psychology, is becoming more and more popular in organisational psychology. Although research on GOs has come a long way since the 1970s there are still a number of conceptual and operational issues which have yet to be addressed. These include issues with the definition, dimensionality, stability and specificity of GOs. It is considered essential to address these concerns because they greatly influence the reliability, validity and accuracy of GO research. Consequently, one aim of this study was to examine the dimensionality, stability and specificity of GOs. It is believed that once enough evidence regarding these issues is gathered this could be used to develop a comprehensive definition of GOs. This study aims to contribute towards gathering such evidence. GOs have been examined both in terms of profiles as well as in terms of individual GO scales (non-profile perspective) in the past. This study uses both perspectives in order to attempt to provide as much information as possible regarding the issues being investigated. Another aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between GOs and performance, mental effort and self-efficacy. Further knowledge of these relationships is considered to be of benefit to organisations. So as to achieve these aims a longitudinal study, consisting of a survey and an experimental study, was carried out. The survey sample consisted of 641 participants whilst the experimental sample was made up of 73 participants. The participants were mainly Loughborough University students. However, there were also a number of employed and retired individuals participating in the study. Quantitative analysis was deemed to be the most appropriate method of analysis to achieve the aims of this study. Data analyses were carried out using SPSS and Latent Gold software packages. The results point towards GOs not being as general and stable as initially assumed. There is a strong possibility of GOs being domain-specific. Consistent with a number of past studies, the approach GOs were found to be more strongly related to self-efficacy, mental effort and performance on tasks than the avoidance GOs. Moreover, the relationships between GOs and these variables seem to be moderated by task characteristics. The profile analyses results revealed that a number of GO profiles obtained in this study were very similar to those obtained in other studies. A closer look at these common GO profiles indicated that some profiles were consistently more strongly related to self-efficacy, mental effort and performance than others. This study provides a foundation for future research studies to build on in order to better understand the nature of GOs and their relationships with self-efficacy, mental effort and performance.

<p>The salience, prevalence, and consequences of feedback students receive on their academic performance have led to widespread interest in assessment outcomes. Despite the frequency and high stakes of performance feedback, a clear picture of how it influences students' academic motivation has failed to emerge. The overarching goal of this dissertation study was to better understand the effect of performance feedback on secondary school students' academic motivation following a high-stakes assessment. In particular, this study had three main aims: (1) begin disentangling the influence of performance feedback from its valence on students' self-efficacy, goal orientations, and intrinsic motivation, (2) explore how the stage of an assessment event and performance feedback interact to influence these motivation constructs, and (3) determine whether the influence of performance feedback on academic motivation depends on the evaluation dimension of the classroom goal structure.</p><p> To investigate these topical questions, the current study implemented a cluster-randomized experimental design. One hundred sixty-one seventh through ninth grade students in 13 math or science classes from a single, all-female secondary school were randomly assigned by their class to one of the following four feedback conditions: (1) numeric grades, (2) evaluative comments, (3) numeric grades accompanied by evaluative comments, and (4) no feedback. Students' academic motivation was then measured on three occasions to capture its fluctuations during an assessment event: at baseline, immediately after teachers announced what form of feedback students would receive (i.e., anticipation stage), and immediately after students received their assigned form of feedback (i.e., receipt stage). </p><p> Results revealed a series of complex interactions between the stage of feedback (i.e., anticipation vs. receipt) and its form (i.e., grades, comments, grades plus comments, or no feedback). Notably, only students in the grades plus comments condition experienced a decline in self-efficacy from anticipation to receipt of this feedback. However, these students also reported an increase in their mastery goal orientation and intrinsic motivation upon the receipt of grades accompanied by comments. Students in the comments condition experienced a similar increase in intrinsic motivation. Finally, students in the no feedback and comments conditions also reported a greater performance-approach goal orientation when they received performance feedback (or lack thereof) compared to when they anticipated it. No evidence was found to support the hypothesis that students' perceptions of the evaluation dimension of their classroom goal structure moderated these interaction effects. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of these findings are discussed along with limitations and recommendations for future research.</p> / Dissertation

Academic cheating frequency, motivating factors for cheating, and student reasons for cheating have been studied extensively for decades, but nearly all of the research has been conducted with typically-developing students. To date, only one published study has examined cheating among students with learning disabilites, despite over 2 million students in American schools having been diagnosed with a learning disability. Students who engage in academic cheating, as well as students who have learning disabilities, are more likely to have low levels of self-efficacy, hold more performance goal orientations, and have higher levels of impulsivity. Therefore, in the present study, individuals with a learning disability were expected to cite significantly more reasons for cheating related to those three variables, as well as to endorse cheating as being acceptable in more academic situations. Learning disability status, cheating tolerance, and reasons for cheating were measured in 77 Amazon Mechnical Turk adult participants through self-report surveys. Results revealed no difference in cheating tolerance between individuals with learning disabilities and their typically-developing peers. Individuals with a learning disability cited significantly more reasons for cheating related to low self-efficacy and performance goal orientations compared to their typically-developing peers, but not for reasons related to impulsivity. Strengths, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

Goal Orientation (GO), the behavioral tendencies for the goals individuals will adopt in a variety of situations has been thoroughly utilized to understand feedback seeking behaviors. While previous and ongoing research has answered many questions within this area, there remains theoretical inconsistencies involving these relationships. For example, the relationship between prove performance goal orientation (PPGO) and feedback seeking has largely been inconsistent. There are also relationships yet to be tested such as how the GO dimensions are related to different sources of feedback within the workplace. Because of this, the purpose of the present research was to examine the relationships between the three GO dimensions and feedback seeking to different sources (supervisor and colleague). Additionally, the impact of impression management on the relationship between PPGO and feedback seeking behaviors, and the impact of feedback source credibility on the relationship between learning goal orientation (LGO) and feedback seeking behaviors was examined. Based on a sample of 291 working adults in southern California, results indicated that LGO and PPGO positively predicted feedback seeking to a supervisor and a colleague. Additionally, APGO (avoidance performance goal orientation) was unrelated to either feedback source in regression models containing LGO and PPGO, but bivariate correlations revealed a small positive relationship between APGO and a colleague. Impression management did not practically moderate the relationship between PPGO and feedback seeking to a supervisor and feedback source credibility did not impact the relationship between LGO and feedback seeking to a supervisor. This means that individuals with a LGO and PPGO have tendencies for seeking feedback from not just a supervisor, but also colleagues within the workplace, while APGO individuals may lean towards a colleague for feedback. For the two interactions, Impression management may not be an adequate measure for finding the inconsistencies between PPGO and feedback seeking. Finally, feedback source credibility does not seem a factor for LGO individuals in the feedback seeking process. Practical and theoretical implications are provided along with the limitations and suggestions for future research.

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 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.