Effects of achievement goals on perceptions of competence in conditions of unfavourable social comparisons: The mastery goal advantage effect

• Published in: British journal of educational psychology 2017-12, Vol.87 (4), p.630-646
• Main Authors: Kamarova, Sviatlana, Chatzisarantis, Nikos L. D., Hagger, Martin S., Lintunen, Taru, Hassandra, Mary, Papaioannou, Athanasios
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Academic Success; achievement goals; Achievement Need; Adolescent; Adult; Aversive; Comparative Analysis; Competence; Competition; Correlation; Educational Experiments; Educational psychology; equality in educational outcomes; Female; Goal Orientation; Goals; Happiness; Humans; Hypothesis Testing; Male; Mastery Learning; Middle Aged; Objectives; Perceptions; perceptions of competence; Prospective studies; Psychological Patterns; Rating Scales; Regression (Statistics); Self Efficacy; Social Cognition; social comparisons; Social Perception; Student Motivation; Students - psychology; Task Analysis; Task performance; Undergraduate Students; Universities; Well Being; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0007-0998; 2044-8279
• DOI: 10.1111/bjep.12168

Background Previous prospective studies have documented that mastery‐approach goals are adaptive because they facilitate less negative psychological responses to unfavourable social comparisons than performance‐approach goals. Aims This study aimed to confirm this so‐called ‘mastery goal advantage’ effect experimentally. Methods A 2 × 3 design was adopted where achievement goals (mastery vs. performance) and normative information (favourable vs. no‐normative information vs. unfavourable) were manipulated as between participant factors. Sample Participants were 201 undergraduates, 57 males and 144 females, ranging in age from 17 to 55 years (Mage = 22.53, SD = 6.51). Results Regression analyses pointed out that experimentally induced mastery‐approach goals facilitated higher levels of competence and happiness with task performance than experimentally induced performance‐approach goals in conditions of unfavourable social comparisons. In contrast, although performance‐approach goals yielded the highest levels of happiness with task performance in conditions of favourable social comparisons, this positive effect of performance‐approach goals did not extend to perceptions of competence. Conclusion Current findings broaden understanding of the adaptive nature of mastery‐approach goals and suggest that it is possible to modulate aversive responses to unfavourable social comparisons by focusing attention on mastery‐approach goals.