Researchers’ achievement goals: Prevalence, structure, and associations with job burnout/engagement and professional learning

Abstract

Researchers' motivations are important for high-quality research and the productivity of the scientific system, but remain largely uninvestigated. Using three studies, we tested the usefulness of Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) for describing research motivations, investigated which goals researchers pursue, and examined their associations with job burnout/engagement and professional learning. Interviewing 20 researchers (Study 1), we found that most of their goals in the research context were classifiable as achievement goals. Apart from mastery and performance goals that are well-established in the AGT literature, they also mentioned relational and work-avoidance goals. Mastery goals comprised task and learning standards, performance goals comprised appearance and normative strivings. In Study 2, we used a standardized questionnaire to assess these goals in 824 researchers, along with burnout/engagement, professional learning time, and professional learning gains. Results confirmed the separability of all conceptualized goals, measurement invariance across academic status, and differential patterns of associations with burnout/engagement and professional learning. In Study 3, we analyzed these constructs in 471 researchers at two time points, six months apart. Results attested measurement invariance over time. Cross-lagged analyses documented similar associations as in Study 2. Learning approach and relational goals had positive effects on professional learning; appearance avoidance and workavoidance goals were negative predictors. In contrast, burnout was negatively predicted by normative avoidance goals. However, high initial burnout levels were associated with reduced task approach and learning approach, and stronger work-avoidance goals six months later. Taken together, the results highlight the usefulness of AGT for understanding researchers' motivations, and their relatedness with professional learning and well-being at work.

Teaching and research: Specificity and congruence of university faculty achievement goals

“…Different affective, cognitive, and behavioral consequences have been documented for preferences for different goals in diverse populations, such as students, athletes, and teachers (Hulleman et al, 2010;Payne, Youngcourt, & Beaubien, 2007). Lately, AGT has also successfully been used to describe the motivations of university scholars (Daumiller & Dresel, 2020;Daumiller, Dickhäuser, & Dresel, 2019;Daumiller, Figas, & Dresel, 2015;Daumiller, Grassinger, Dickhäuser, & Dresel, 2016;Janke & Dickhäuser, 2018;Janke, Rudert, & Daumiller, 2018). These research works documented that university scholars report pursuing different achievement goals that can empirically be considered as distinct from each other and that are differentially associated with aspects of their cognition and behavior (such as attitudes towards help-seeking, experience of positive affect, learning behaviors, and questionable research practices) as well as students' assessments of teaching quality and their learning outcomes.…”

“…These research works documented that university scholars report pursuing different achievement goals that can empirically be considered as distinct from each other and that are differentially associated with aspects of their cognition and behavior (such as attitudes towards help-seeking, experience of positive affect, learning behaviors, and questionable research practices) as well as students' assessments of teaching quality and their learning outcomes. In doing so, these investigations regarded achievement goals in the teaching domain (Daumiller et al, 2019;Daumiller et al, 2015;Daumiller et al, 2016), or the research domain (Daumiller & Dresel, 2020;, or the overall university work context without distinguishing between teaching and research (Janke & Dickhäuser, 2018).…”

“…While the needs and merits of this distinction and the classification of the above described goals is beyond the scope of the present investigation and can also be controversially discussed (e.g., Murayama, Elliot, & Friedman, 2012), they represent the breadth of aspects that can be well and meaningfully distinguished. Beside this, in interviews, all of these goal classes have been found to be reported by university scholars when asked about their personal goals for teaching, as well as their personal goals for research; while their differential relevance for scholars' cognition and behavior was also attested (summarized in Daumiller et al, 2019, andDresel, 2020). Taken together, this framework can therefore be regarded as very relevant for describing the motivations of university scholars and is especially important for research investigations such as the present work (to ensure a valid interpretation of its findings).…”

“…We used the questionnaire from Daumiller et al (2019) to assess the achievement goals for teaching and research. This questionnaire narrowly focuses on the core of the goals' definitions, which is why it can easily be transferred to the research context by changing the item stem and a few key words (e.g., "researcher" instead of "instructor"; see Daumiller & Dresel, 2020). This way, we had two scales that are symmetrical for the teaching and research domain.…”

Elite athletes’ achievement goals, burnout levels, psychosomatic stress symptoms, and coping strategies

“…To this end, studies have found motivational quality (such as achievement goals) to be an important factor for explaining these individual differences (e.g., Lemyre, Hall, & Roberts, 2008;Mäkikangas & Kinnunen, 2016). Specifically, the motivational systems spanned up by focusing on different achievement goals can be considered as resources or determinants of primary and secondary appraisals of stressors (Folkman, Lazarus, Dunkel-Schetter, DeLongis, & Gruen, 1986; see Daumiller & Dresel, 2020). As mastery approach goals are focused on competence development, athletes who strongly endorse such goals may view stressful and exhausting achievement situations as positive and controllable learning opportunities, leading to associations with decreased burnout levels, while the opposite can be expected for individuals who are worried about failure and perceive achievement situations as threatening (which is typically the case when pursuing strong avoidance goals).…”