Achievement goal theorists have long argued that individuals’ goal orientations are situated and contextual and can thus be manipulated and shaped by their social learning context (Ames, 1992; Brophy, 2004; Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002; Pintrich, Conley, & Kempler, 2003). However, despite the proliferation of group-based learning in classrooms today and the assumption that cooperative learning promotes student mastery goal orientation for developing competence, “there has been a neglect of the research on motivational processes in group learning contexts within the field of achievement motivation” (Pintrich et al., 2003, p. 329). This dissertation used a mixed methods approach to investigate cooperative groups as subcontexts (Pintrich et al., 2003) within an undergraduate course that incorporates cooperative learning as an instructional tool. From this sample, I investigated whether and how student- and group-level factors were associated with the type of goal orientations that students adopt within and outside their group context by measuring students’ social academic goal orientations (Kim, Kim, & Svinicki, in press) for their cooperative group work and their achievement goal orientations for their general coursework. A total of 96 students agreed to allow their responses to all online course surveys to be used for research purposes. In addition, 2 of 8 groups in which all group members provided consent were selected to participate in individual interviews. In this embedded mixed methods design (Creswell & Clark, 2007), the quantitative data were the primary focus of analysis and the qualitative data were used to enrich and explain the quantitative findings. Multilevel modeling results indicated that both student- and group-level factors significantly and positively predicted students’ social academic goal orientations in their cooperative group work and students’ subsequent achievement goal orientations in their general course. Furthermore, the qualitative findings indicated that students tend to focus on extrinsic and mastery-oriented goals in addition to individual roles within their cooperative groups. The findings from this dissertation lend promising implications for future researchers and practitioners interested in understanding when and how cooperative group work enhances or hinders students’ achievement motivation. / text

According to the Canadian Community Health Survey, fifty-nine percent of Canadian women are not getting enough exercise to receive health benefits (Canadian Fitness & Lifestyle Institute, 2001). Engaging in regular exercise has been found to provide significant psychological and physical health benefits, such as reduced depression, anxiety, and increased well-being (Bouchard, Shephard, Stephens, Sutton, & Mcpherson, 1990; Georgia State University, 1997; National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 1999; Roth & Holmes, 1987). Therefore, increasing exercise participation contributes to enhancing the well-being of women. The purpose of this study was to examine how self-compassion would be related to self-determined motives to exercise and to outcomes in the exercise domain, and whether self-compassion would explain unique variance beyond self-esteem on those variables. There were two main hypotheses. First, that self-compassion would be positively related to identified, integrated, and intrinsic motives to exercise and to task goals; and negatively related to external and introjected motives to exercise, ego goals, social physique anxiety, and obligatory exercise. Second, it was hypothesized that self-compassion would predict unique variance over and above self-esteem with motivation, goal orientation, physique anxiety, and exercise behaviour. The participants were 252 adult female exercisers, ranging in age from 17 to 43 years, recruited from a small mid-western Canadian university. Participants completed an online survey including the Behavioural Regulations in Exercise Questionnaire (Wilson, Rodgers, Loitz, & Scime, 2006), Rosenbergs Self-Esteem Questionnaire (Rosenberg, 1965), the Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003b), the Goal Orientation in Exercise Measure (Petherick & Markland, 2005), the Social Physique Anxiety Scale (Martin, Rejeski, Leary, McAuley, & Bane, 1997), the Obligatory Exercise Questionnaire (Pasman & Thompson, 1998), and the Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire (Godin & Shepard, 1985). Correlational analyses revealed that self-compassion was positively related to intrinsic motivation (r = 0.19), and negatively related to external (r = -0.24) and introjected (r = -0.41) motivation, ego goals (r = -.20), social physique anxiety (r = -.57), and obligatory exercise behaviour (r = -.24). Hierarchical regression analyses showed that self-compassion contributed negative unique variance over and above self-esteem on introjected motivation (∆R2 = .035), ego goals (∆R2 = .028), social physique anxiety (∆R2 = .042), and obligatory exercise (∆R2 = .018). The present study provides evidence that self-compassion is related to motives to exercise and various outcomes of exercise. Further, this study extends the use of self-determination theory and supports that future research continue to explore the role of self-concept in motivation. Outcomes of well-being were found to be related to self-compassion, suggesting that perhaps self-compassion is a promising construct that may be used to foster long-term womens exercise motives.

According to the Canadian Community Health Survey, fifty-nine percent of Canadian women are not getting enough exercise to receive health benefits (Canadian Fitness & Lifestyle Institute, 2001). Engaging in regular exercise has been found to provide significant psychological and physical health benefits, such as reduced depression, anxiety, and increased well-being (Bouchard, Shephard, Stephens, Sutton, & Mcpherson, 1990; Georgia State University, 1997; National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 1999; Roth & Holmes, 1987). Therefore, increasing exercise participation contributes to enhancing the well-being of women. The purpose of this study was to examine how self-compassion would be related to self-determined motives to exercise and to outcomes in the exercise domain, and whether self-compassion would explain unique variance beyond self-esteem on those variables. There were two main hypotheses. First, that self-compassion would be positively related to identified, integrated, and intrinsic motives to exercise and to task goals; and negatively related to external and introjected motives to exercise, ego goals, social physique anxiety, and obligatory exercise. Second, it was hypothesized that self-compassion would predict unique variance over and above self-esteem with motivation, goal orientation, physique anxiety, and exercise behaviour. The participants were 252 adult female exercisers, ranging in age from 17 to 43 years, recruited from a small mid-western Canadian university. Participants completed an online survey including the Behavioural Regulations in Exercise Questionnaire (Wilson, Rodgers, Loitz, & Scime, 2006), Rosenbergs Self-Esteem Questionnaire (Rosenberg, 1965), the Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003b), the Goal Orientation in Exercise Measure (Petherick & Markland, 2005), the Social Physique Anxiety Scale (Martin, Rejeski, Leary, McAuley, & Bane, 1997), the Obligatory Exercise Questionnaire (Pasman & Thompson, 1998), and the Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire (Godin & Shepard, 1985). Correlational analyses revealed that self-compassion was positively related to intrinsic motivation (r = 0.19), and negatively related to external (r = -0.24) and introjected (r = -0.41) motivation, ego goals (r = -.20), social physique anxiety (r = -.57), and obligatory exercise behaviour (r = -.24). Hierarchical regression analyses showed that self-compassion contributed negative unique variance over and above self-esteem on introjected motivation (∆R2 = .035), ego goals (∆R2 = .028), social physique anxiety (∆R2 = .042), and obligatory exercise (∆R2 = .018). The present study provides evidence that self-compassion is related to motives to exercise and various outcomes of exercise. Further, this study extends the use of self-determination theory and supports that future research continue to explore the role of self-concept in motivation. Outcomes of well-being were found to be related to self-compassion, suggesting that perhaps self-compassion is a promising construct that may be used to foster long-term womens exercise motives.

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.

This study examined relationships between college students’ writing achievement goal orientations, writing self-regulation, and writing grades. The study was conducted in a postsecondary setting at a large public university in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Using multivariate quantitative techniques (confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling), survey and writing sample data were gathered to address the following research questions: Do college students’ writing achievement goals relate to their writing grades; do college students’ writing achievement goals relate to their writing self-regulation; and, does writing self-regulation partially mediate the relationship between writing achievement goals and writing grades in college writing classrooms? A convenience sample of 107 participants completed both the survey and writing prompt portions of the study. Findings showed that all three writing achievement goal orientations tested (mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance) were related to college students’ writing self-regulation. However, only writing performance-approach orientation was related to college students’ writing grades. Additionally, writing self-regualtion did not partially mediate the relationship between all three writing achievement goal orientations and writing grades as expected. Writing self-regulation did fully mediate the relationships between writing mastery and performance-avoidance goal orientations and writing grades, but failed to mediate the relationship between writing performance-approach goal orientation and writing grades. These findings contradict some of the prior literature on achievement goal orientations and self-regulation. However, these results help bridge a gap in the achievement goal orientation and self-regulation research, as prior studies have predominantly focused on PK-12 settings and domains other than writing (reading, mathematics, science, etc.). The findings from this study are limited by the size and nature of the sample, and the survey items used. Future studies should attempt to gather further insight into the goals college students set for their writing, how those goals impact their self-regulation behaviors, and ultimately their writing grades.

Sammanfattning Syftet med studien var att studera skillnader i vilka mål bordtennisspelare använder sig av beroende på målinriktning. I studien deltog 103 bordtennisspelare (60 män och 43 kvinnor) tävlandes i division ett till tre. Metoden som användes i studien var en kvantitativ undersökning och bestod av enkäterna Collegiate Goal Setting in Sport Questionnaire (Weinberg, Burton, Yukelson, Weigand, 1993) och Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (Duda & Nicholls, 1992; ref i Duda, 1998). Resultatet i studien visade flera signifikanta skillnader mellan bordtennisspelarna med högre resultatinriktning och bordtennisspelare med en lägre resultatinriktning när det gäller uppfattning om målsättning. Resultatet visade exempelvis att bordtennisspelarna med högre resultatinriktning oftare satte resultatmål och prestationsmål jämfört med bordtennisspelare med en lägre resultatinriktning. Vidare visade resultatet också att bordtennisspelarna med en lägre resultatinriktning anser att det är viktigare med gemenskap för att delta i än bordtennisspelare med en högre resultatinriktning. Resultatet diskuterats i relation till tidigare forskning. / Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in goal preferences of table tennis players, depending on goal orientation. The participants were 103 (60 male and 43 female) table tennis players competing in division one to three. The method used in the study was a quantitative study consisted of questionnaires Collegiate Goal Setting in Sport Questionnaire CGSSQ (Weinberg, Burton, Yukelson, Weigand, 1993) and Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire TEOSQ (Duda & Nicholls, 1992; ref in Duda, 1998). The results showed several significant results between table tennis players with a high ego orientation and table tennis players with a lower ego orientation in goal setting. For example the result showed that table tennis players with a high ego orientation used more often outcome goals and performance goals than table tennis players with a lower ego orientation. The result also showed that a table tennis player with a lower ego orientation means that it is more important with fellowship than tennis players with a high ego orientation. The results have been analyzed and discussed in relation to previous research.

In this study, the aim was to investigate the effects of the web-based internet search scaffolding tool (WISST) on the improvement of metacognitive skills of 7th grade students associated with their goal orientation. This study utilized a static-group pretest-posttest design. The first experiment group received web-based metacognitive scaffolding tool treatment / the second experiment group received teacher-based metacognitive scaffolding / and the control group had no scaffolding. The designed tool aimed to scaffold users throughout web searching by emphasizing certain metacognitive skills improvement. Three main instruments were used to gather data: metacognition inventory for Internet search (MIIS), patterns of adaptive learning scale (PALS), and achievement test. 76 7th grade elementary school students in Ankara, Turkey participated in this study. The data gathered from the participants were analyzed through quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods. The results of the study indicated that WISST tool helped students improve certain metacognitive skills including monitoring, planning, controlling, and strategy generation. Its unique effectiveness was on the improvement of controlling skills. Teacher scaffolding group was also successful in improvement of strategy generation skills. No effects of goal orientations on the improvement of metacognitive skills were found in the analyses. Within hierarchical regression models, only pre-MIIS scores significantly contributed to the model. Students having less improved metacognitive skills were found associated with less trials and less visits. Students having poor performance work grades were tended to copy-paste more, try less, and visit less. Task difficulty and task type was observed to influence the search patterns of students. Search patterns and reflections also indicated that scaffolded groups made positive difference in search patterns.

This study explored changes in goal orientations throughout the semester that might be influenced by self efficacy and a sense of classroom community in hybrid courses in which course management systems (CMS) were used. A hybrid course is distinguished from a traditional face-to-face classroom in that there is an extension of the class, and students interact online in addition to face-to-face. Data were gathered from 14 hybrid courses two times during a semester, once at the beginning of the semester and once again at the end, and were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the relationships among the variables. Overall, the results indicated that each goal orientation changed throughout the semester, dynamically interacted with one another, and had unique relationship with self efficacy and sense of classroom community. More specifically, first, a sense of classroom community acted as a significant antecedent of goal orientations and mediated the relationship between pre-mastery goal orientation and post-mastery goal orientation. Second, self efficacy, another antecedent of goal orientations, mediated the relationship between pre-performance avoidance goal orientation and post-performance avoidance goal orientation. Third, post-performance approach goal orientation was influenced by sense of classroom community but not by self efficacy whereas post-performance avoidance goal orientation was influenced by self efficacy but not by sense of classroom community. Fourth, the nature of performance approach goal orientation at the beginning of the semester seemed to change throughout the semester as students gain or lose their competence and develop sense of classroom community. The results also showed that the collaborative function of the course management system most significantly contributed to the sense of classroom community in hybrid courses among four categories of functions (information delivery, external links, course materials, and collaborative function). Lastly, the study suggests ways for instructional designers and college teachers to identify and design courses that promote motivation and a sense of classroom community using various CMS functions, thereby enhancing teachers’ teaching and student learning. / text

The primary goal of the current study is to develop a more advanced model of information-seeking behaviors. For achieving this goal, it paid attention to two social phenomena characterizing contemporary society: informationalization and globalization. First, focusing on these two influential phenomena, this study investigated how individual-level factors—information overload, information ambiguity, and goal orientations—affected information-seeking behaviors among employees in a multinational corporation. Next, in addition to these individual predictors of information-seeking behaviors, this study explored the effects of two team-level factors—team task interdependence and team tenure—on the relationships between the main predictors and information-seeking behaviors. Last, paying more attention to the multicultural context, this study investigated how these employees in a multinational corporation seek task and feedback information from two culturally different sources: American direct advisors and Korean expatriates. In order to more thoroughly investigate the roles of the cultural backgrounds of information sources, this study explored how American employees perceived the cultural backgrounds of the two culturally different sources and how such perceptions influenced those employees’ information-seeking behaviors. / text

The present investigation examined the role of cognitive interference in sport. In Study 1 an instrument to assess intrusive thoughts athletes experience during performance was developed (Thought Occurrence Questionnaire for Sport; TOQS). In the first part of the study, which involved modification of an instrument constructed in educational settings, three types of thoughts were identified. These were 'performance worries', 'situation irrelevant thoughts' and 'thoughts of escape'. In the second part of the study, which involved validation of the modified instrument, support for the psychometric properties of the TOQS was provided through tests of convergent, concurrent and discriminant validity. Study 2 examined situational antecedents of cognitive interference. Discrepancies between expected and actual performance was identified as the best predictor of cognitive interference athletes experience, whereas cognitive anxiety was found moderately related to cognitive interference. Finally, it was found that athletes experiencing their anxiety states as facilitative reported less cognitive interference than athletes experiencing their anxiety states as debilitative. Study 3 investigated possible effects cognitive interference has on aspects of sport performance based on athletes' perceptions. Participants reported cognitive interference to be detrimental to their concentration. Furthermore, it was revealed that different types of thoughts influence effort input in different ways. The relationship between 'performance worries' and subsequent effort depended on goal attainment expectancies. Athletes holding higher expectancies reported that their worries resulted in increased effort, whereas athletes holding lower expectancies reported their worries to result in decreased effort. 'Situation irrelevant thoughts' were reported not to have any effects on subsequent effort, while 'thoughts of escape' were associated with decreases in effort. Finally, Study 4 examined relationships between achievement goal orientations and cognitive interference. A negative relationship between task orientation and thoughts of escape was the only strong and consistent association that emerged. Goal profiles analysis revealed that, in contrast to athletes holding self-referenced goals, for those holding comparative goals outcome is an important determinant of withdrawal thoughts. The results of the present investigation are discussed in relation to findings in educational and sport settings, and a conceptual model regarding the role of cognitive interference in sport is proposed. Overall, cognitive interference is identified as a topic which requires further examination in the sport psychology domain.