Achievement Goals, Task Performance, and Interest: Why Perceived Goal Difficulty Matters

Abstract

In field studies, mastery goals, which focus on developing skill, often predict task interest but not actual performance. Performance-approach goals, which focus on outperforming others, instead often predict strong performance but not interest. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that these distinct goal effects trace to goal difficulty perceptions. In each study, participants assigned to a performance-approach goal perceived their goal to be harder, and therefore felt more performance pressure, than those assigned to a mastery goal. Among participants low in dispositional achievement orientation, this experience translated into lower task interest when pursuing the performance-approach goal. However, participants in both studies also performed the activity better when pursuing this goal instead of a standard mastery goal, although this was not mediated by self-reported goal difficulty perceptions. Finally, further demonstrating the role of goal difficulty, a mastery goal manipulated to appear more difficult than a standard mastery goal produced effects matching the performance-approach goal.

Performance-approach goal effects on achievement under low versus high challenge conditions

“…Participants instead reported high levels of each in every condition. Similarly, although the PAP goal aroused performance pressure, as in past work (Senko & Harackiewicz, 2005), this was equally true in both task challenge conditions and therefore does not explain why participants with this goal performed better on the challenging task than the simple task.…”

Perfectionism and motivation of adolescents in academic contexts.

“…By testing complex interrelationships between perfectionism, motivation, and major achievement-related outcomes, we were also hoping that the results might shed light on the nature of not only perfectionism but also a performance-approach goal. Cur rently, a performance-approach goal is associated with mixed effects but the reasons behind its positive and negative effects have not been clearly understood (Senko & Harackiewicz, 2005). The way with which each perfectionism dimension predisposes stu dents to adopt a particular achievement goal in academic settings could allow us to generate inferences regarding one such mecha nism.…”

Achievement goals and life satisfaction: the mediating role of perception of successful agency and the moderating role of emotion reappraisal

“…Our findings help fill this gap by showing that achievement goals are positively correlated with life satisfaction. The previous literature provides indirect and mixed evidence for this relationship (Lee et al, 2003;Senko & Harackiewicz, 2005). We reconcile these differences by empirically testing this relationship, thereby adding to the literature investigating the consequences of achievement goals (e.g., Harackiewicz et al, 2000;Cury et al, 2002;Lee et al, 2003;Flanagan et al, 2015).…”

“…On the one hand, individuals with high achievement goals can be substantially motivated by mental energy in the face of challenge (Grant & Dweck, 2003). On the other hand, these people also need to make a concerted effort in the stressful and laborious process of pursuing their goals (Senko & Harackiewicz, 2005).…”