Have you completed this questionnaire? If not, please do that first to learn more about your motivation and how goals influence your success.
“If you are motivated, you learn better and remember more of what you learned.” – Kou Murayama
Motivation influences performance, but takes different forms. Researchers have identified two primary types of goals for performing academic tasks like reading textbooks: learning goals and performance goals. Students concerned with gaining knowledge and developing competence have learning goals. In contrast, students concerned with gaining positive judgments and avoiding negative judgments of their competence have performance goals. Further research has more accurately identified two types of performance goals: approval goals to describe students concerned with gaining social approval and avoiding rejection, and advancement goals to describe students concerned with obtaining good grades and advancing their socio-economic status.
What’s your goal: learning, approval or advancement?
Your questionnaire responses will verify what goals best define your motivation. Here’s how the statements align with three different goals:
Learning Goal:
I study because I like knowing new things. (3)
I study because I feel good when I overcome stumbling blocks and failure. (5)
I study because I am pleased when I can solve a difficult problem. (7)
I study because I am very curious. (8)
I study because I like challenging difficult problems. (12)
I study because I enjoy discovering how much I have improved. (13)
I study because I like to use my head. (15)
I study because it’s interesting to solve problems. (19)
Approval Goal:
I study because I don’t want to be disliked by an instructor. (2)
I study because I want to get better grades than my classmates. (4)
I study because I want people to see how smart I am. (6)
I study because I don’t want my classmates to make fun of me. (10)
I study because I want to be praised by my instructors and family. (16)
I study because I want to be noticed by my friends. (18)
Advancement Goal:
I study because I want a good job in the future. (1)
I study because I want to attain status in the future. (9)
I study because I want to be proud of getting good grades. (11)
I study because I want to get good grades. (14)
I study because I don’t want to fail quizzes and tests. (17)
I study because I want to graduate and get licensed. (20)
(The numbers in parentheses correspond to the order of the statements.)
Match your questionnaire responses to the statements and add the numbers within each section. You’ll have 8 numbers to total for the learning goal statements, and 6 each for the approval and advancement goal statements. Next, find your average score for each goal by dividing your total for the learning goal statements by 8, and each of your totals for the approval and advancement goal statements by 6.
Any surprises? What’s your primary goal and what does it mean? Let’s continue this discussion in the next post.
An earlier version was published by Beauty Cast Network.