Goal complexes: Integrating achievement goals as standards and self-attributed motives as reasons underlying goal pursuit

The differential influence of Achievement Motivation on Subjective Well-being and the moderating role of Self-control

To investigate the association between achievement motivation and subjective well-being, as well as the moderating role of self-control and self-management on this relationship, 1017 Chinese college students were surveyed. The main results showed that: The interactive effect of motivation to approach success and self-control on subjective well-being was significant. Specifically, for individuals with high self-control ability, the positive effects of motivation to approach success on subjective well-being, life satisfaction and positive affect tended to be stronger, and meanwhile, the motivation to approach success negatively predicted negative affect. Furthermore, the interactive effect of motivation to avoid failure and self-control on subjective well-being was significant. Specifically, for individuals with high self-control ability, the negative effects of motivation to avoid failure on subjective well-being, life satisfaction and positive affect tended to be weaker, and meanwhile, the effect of motivation to avoid failure on negative affect was relatively weaker. Overall, our study indicated that improving self-control ability could maximize the positive effect of achievement motivation on subjective well-being. Moreover, motivating individuals with high self-control ability to pursue success and reducing motivation to avoid failure for individuals with low self-control ability could have a more positive influence on subjective well-being.

The 3 × 2 Achievement Goals in the Education, Sport, and Occupation Literatures: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis

Achievement goal theory has been a dominant motivation framework since the 1980s. The 3 × 2 achievement goal framework emerged in the literature in 2011. We aimed to conduct a systematic review with meta-analysis following the PRISMA guidelines of the 3 × 2 achievement goal research in education, sport, and occupation settings. We retrieved articles from searching EBSCOhost and Google Scholar platforms. Eligible articles contained the 3 × 2 achievement goal in education, sport, or occupation, were published in a peer-reviewed journal, and provided mean data or correlate data. We tested hypotheses concerned with (1) the overall pattern of achievement goal endorsement, (2) achievement goal differences by domain (education, sport) and compulsory nature of the domains or sub-domains, and (3) achievement goal relationships with correlates (e.g., learning strategies, motivations, performance). After screening, 56 articles met all inclusion criteria, providing 58 samples across education (n = 44), sport (n = 10), and occupation (n = 4) settings with 35,031 unique participants from 15 countries. Participants endorsed the task- and self-approach goals more than the counterpart avoidance goals, other-avoidance goals more than other-approach goals, and the intercorrelations and reliability coefficients were acceptable. Minimal impact results from examining within and across study bias statistics. Of importance, the domain (i.e., education, sport) and the compulsory nature of the domain or sub-domains (i.e., primary-secondary education, sport) moderated goal endorsement (group mixed-effects p < 0.05, g values medium to very large). These groupings also moderated the other goal differences. Concerning our correlates analyses, most meta-analyzed correlations among the achievement goals and correlates were small in meaningfulness with the largest correlations (0.30-0.42) between the approach goals merged and the task- and self-approach goals and facilitative learning strategies and desired motivations. In conclusion, the 3 × 2 achievement goals literature is diverse. Furthering the study and application of this model requires overcoming inherent limitations (i.e., consistent response scale sets), teasing out differences between the task- and self-goals, measuring performance outcomes, and cross-cultural collaborations.