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By analyzing the open-ended reasons for studying generated by 3 different groups of Korean middle school students, we aimed to provide partial answers to current issues in achievement goal research that are difficult to resolve solely with the use of survey ratings. We categorized student responses using the achievement goal frameworks of Midgley et al. (2000), Elliot and McGregor (2001), and Grant and Dweck (2003), as well as the social–academic goal framework of Dowson and McInerney (2003). The responses gained from interviews with the students (Study 2) supported our categorization. Grant and Dweck’s normative (Study 1) and outcome goals (Study 2) and Midgley et al.’s performance-approach goals (Study 3) appeared most frequently when competence-oriented responses were considered, while Dowson and McInerney’s social status goals were the most common for noncompetence responses. Grant and Dweck’s framework as a whole accounted for the largest proportion of competence-oriented responses. However, when present-oriented achievement goals were analyzed independently, Midgley et al.’s mastery goals (Grant and Dweck’s learning goals) accounted for the overwhelming majority of student responses. Grant and Dweck’s ability validation goals were also especially prominent among students subjected to ability grouping (Study 3), demonstrating the effect of the immediate learning environment on the types of achievement goals that students pursue. Elliot and McGregor’s mastery-avoidance goals were rare regardless of whether all achievement goals or only those in the immediate classroom context were examined. A majority of students also pursued only a single goal from within Elliot and McGregor’s 2 × 2 framework.

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We aimed to differentiate the neural responses to cooperative and competitive contexts, which are the two of the most important social contexts in human society. Healthy male college students were asked to complete a Tetris-like task requiring mental rotation skills under individual, cooperative, and competitive contexts in an fMRI scanner. While the participants completed the task, pictures of others experiencing pain evoking emotional empathy randomly appeared to capture contextual effects on empathic neural responses. Behavioral results indicated that, in the presence of cooperation, participants solved the tasks more accurately and quickly than what they did when in the presence of competition. The fMRI results revealed activations in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) related to executive functions and theory of mind when participants performed the task under both cooperative and competitive contexts, whereas no activation of such areas was observed in the individual context. Cooperation condition exhibited stronger neural responses in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and dmPFC than competition condition. Competition condition, however, showed marginal neural responses in the cerebellum and anterior insular cortex (AIC). The two social contexts involved stronger empathic neural responses to other’s pain than the individual context, but no substantial differences between cooperation and competition were present. Regions of interest analyses revealed that individual’s trait empathy modulated the neural activity in the state empathy network, the AIC, and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) depending on the social context. These results suggest that cooperation improves task performance and activates neural responses associated with reward and mentalizing. Furthermore, the interaction between trait- and state-empathy was explored by correlation analyses between individual’s trait empathy score and changing empathic brain activations along with the exposure to the cooperative and competitive social contexts.

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