Elsevier

Learning and Instruction

Volume 41, February 2016, Pages 115-125
Learning and Instruction

Intraindividual relations between achievement goals and discrete achievement emotions: An experience sampling approach

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2015.10.007Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Theories in the behavioral sciences commonly focus on intraindividual functioning.

  • However, empirical studies have typically focused on interindividual variation.

  • We analyzed both intra- and interindividual relations between achievement goals and emotions.

  • The intraindividual relations were similar to the interindividual relations.

  • Both intra- and interindividual relations were consistent with theoretical expectations.

Abstract

Theories on the link between achievement goals and achievement emotions focus on their within-person functional relationship (i.e., intraindividual relations). However, empirical studies have failed to analyze these intraindividual relations and have instead examined between-person covariation of the two constructs (i.e., interindividual relations). Aiming to better connect theory and empirical research, the present study (N = 120 10th grade students) analyzed intraindividual relations by assessing students' state goals and emotions using experience sampling (N = 1409 assessments within persons). In order to replicate previous findings on interindividual relations, students' trait goals and emotions were assessed using self-report questionnaires. Despite being statistically independent, both types of relations were consistent with theoretical expectations, as shown by multi-level modeling: Mastery goals were positive predictors of enjoyment and negative predictors of boredom and anger; performance-approach goals were positive predictors of pride; and performance-avoidance goals were positive predictors of anxiety and shame. Reasons for the convergence of intra- and interindividual findings, directions for future research, and implications for educational practice are discussed.

Introduction

Achievement emotions have attracted increasing attention during the last 20 years due to cumulative empirical evidence showing that they can exert profound effects on students' learning and academic agency. Achievement emotions shape students' learning behavior, influence their academic attainment, guide their decisions to persist or drop out of academic programs, and represent core elements of their psychological well-being (Pekrun & Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2014). Given our current knowledge on the relevance of achievement emotions, it is important to examine their antecedents. Knowledge on the origins of achievement emotions is needed for the development of classroom practices and intervention programs that foster adaptive achievement emotions and reduce maladaptive emotions. Among the potentially relevant proximal antecedents of achievement emotions, students' achievement goals are likely of pivotal importance (Huang, 2011, Linnenbrink-Garcia and Barger, 2014, Pekrun et al., 2006). Learning environments, as distal antecedents of students' achievement emotions, could be designed in such a way that they positively influence students' achievement goals, thus also fostering their emotions.

Several theoretical models have been proffered to explain the link between achievement goals and emotions (e.g., Linnenbrink and Pintrich, 2002, Pekrun et al., 2006, Pekrun et al., 2009), and numerous empirical studies have been conducted to test these models. However, while these theoretical models refer to within-person functioning (i.e., intraindividual relations), the available empirical evidence is nearly exclusively based on the analysis of between-person covariation of the two constructs (i.e., interindividual relations). Consequently, the existing empirical findings do not provide direct evidence on the validity of the theories.

Generally, most psychological theories focus on intraindividual psychological functioning, and the same holds true for educational theories of student learning. However, despite this within-person focus, empirical studies typically have examined interindividual (i.e., between-person) relations between variables. Voelkle, Brose, Schmiedek, and Lindenberger (2014) estimated that about 90% of empirical research in psychology is based on the analysis of between-person variation. However, it is not possible to infer intraindividual relations from findings on relations based on interindividual data (and vice versa), as both types of relations refer to different distributions of variables, namely to distributions within persons (intraindividual approach) versus between persons (interindividual approach; Molenaar, 2004, Molenaar and Campbell, 2009). As noted by Schmitz and Skinner (1993, p. 1010), “These two correlations [i.e., interindividual vs. intraindividual correlations] are statistically independent, and their direction and magnitude can vary widely” (see also Schmitz, 1987, Voelkle et al., 2014). A classic example illustrating the independence of inter- and intraindividual relations was provided by Schmitz and Skinner (1993): The positive interindividual correlation between sleep duration and frequency of migraine headaches seemingly implies that sleeping late can lead to headaches (or vice versa). Such a conclusion would be misleading, however, because these two variables are correlated negatively within individuals, implying that headaches occur in combination with shorter duration of sleep.

The present study had two primary aims. First, we sought to replicate previous findings on the interindividual relations between three commonly endorsed achievement goals (mastery, performance-approach, performance-avoidance) and six discrete achievement emotions (enjoyment, pride, anxiety, shame, anger, boredom). To evaluate interindividual relations, we used self-report scales to assess students' relatively enduring, trait-like (henceforth “trait”) achievement goals and emotions. Second, and most importantly, we sought to move beyond the traditional interindividual perspective by analyzing the intraindividual relations of these variables. To do so, we assessed students' state achievement goals and achievement emotions employing the experience sampling method (Hektner, Schmidt, & Csikszentmihalyi, 2007) with multiple assessments within each student.

Achievement goals are defined as “competence-based aims used to guide behavior” (Elliot, Murayama, & Pekrun, 2011, p. 632). Two basic types of achievement goals are mastery goals, which refer to attaining mastery standards and developing competence, and performance goals, which refer to attaining normative standards (i.e., performance relative to others; Linnenbrink-Garcia & Barger, 2014), often to demonstrate competence. Further, in the trichotomous achievement goal framework (Elliot & Harackiewicz, 1996), two types of performance goals have been differentiated, namely performance-approach goals, which refer to outperforming others, and performance-avoidance goals, which refer to not performing poorly relative to others. In the present research, we adopt this trichotomous goal framework, because the goals addressed in this framework are the most frequently endorsed by high school students (Elliot and McGregor, 2001, Pekrun et al., 2006, Pekrun et al., 2009).

Achievement emotions can be defined as emotions regarding achievement activities or achievement outcomes (Pekrun, 2006). In addition to this object focus (activity vs. outcome), achievement emotions can be grouped according to their valence (positive vs. negative). Taking both object focus and valence into account renders a 2 × 2 taxonomy (Pekrun et al., 2006) grouping these emotions as follows: (a) activity/positive (e.g., enjoyment), (b) activity/negative (e.g., boredom, anger), (c) outcome/positive (e.g., hope, pride), and (d) outcome/negative (e.g., anxiety, hopelessness, shame).

Pekrun et al., 2006, Pekrun et al., 2009 developed a theoretical model that links the goals from the trichotomous achievement goal framework (i.e., mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance; Elliot & Harackiewicz, 1996) to various discrete achievement emotions. The authors grounded their work in Pekrun's (2006) control-value theory which posits that the perceived controllability and the subjective value of achievement activities and outcomes function as proximal antecedents of achievement emotions. Mastery goals are proposed to focus attention on the controllability and positive value of achievement activities, thus fostering positive activity emotions (e.g., enjoyment) and reducing negative activity emotions (e.g., boredom and anger). Performance-approach goals are proposed to focus attention on attaining success outcomes, the controllability of these outcomes, and their positive value, implying that they should promote positive outcome emotions (e.g., pride). Performance-avoidance goals focus attention on possible failure outcomes, the uncontrollability of these outcomes, and their negative value, implying that they promote negative outcome emotions (e.g., anxiety and shame).

Based on empirical reviews by Huang (2011) and Linnenbrink-Garcia and Barger (2014), and an additional search of the literature using the PsycINFO and ERIC databases, we found that there are at least 94 studies on the relations between achievement goals and affect or emotions (77 studies were reported by Huang, 2011, 9 additional studies by Linnenbrink-Garcia and Barger (2014), and 8 additional studies were identified in our search). Overall, the findings support the predictions from Pekrun, 2006, Pekrun et al., 2009) model. Specifically, multiple studies have found that mastery goals relate positively to students' enjoyment (e.g., Daniels et al., 2008, Daniels et al., 2009, King et al., 2012, Shih, 2008) and that performance-avoidance goals relate positively to students' anxiety (e.g., Bong, 2009, Duchesne and Ratelle, 2010, Putwain and Symes, 2012, Shih, 2005, Sideridis, 2008). Both of these links are well documented, and the findings are largely consistent across studies (Huang, 2011). For emotions other than enjoyment and anxiety, the empirical evidence for relations with achievement goals is scarce, but also largely supports the expected relations. For example, Daniels et al., 2008, Daniels et al., 2009 found that mastery goals were negatively related to boredom and anger, King et al. (2012) found performance-approach goals to be positively related to hope and pride, and Pekrun et al., 2006, Pekrun et al., 2009 reported positive relations of performance-avoidance goals with hopelessness and shame.

All of the available studies, however, have examined the interindividual relations (i.e., between-person covariation) of achievement goals and emotions, with only two exceptions. Schantz and Conroy (2009) investigated the intraindividual relations between goals from the 2 × 2 achievement goal framework and affect (happy vs. unhappy) during a round of golf (18 holes) in collegiate golfers. Goals and affect were assessed immediately before teeing off on every hole. Results showed that golfers reported higher levels of happiness at the beginning of holes if they had low performance-approach goals or low mastery-avoidance goals during the round (means over round) or endorsed lower-than-usual mastery-avoidance goals for that hole. Rebar and Conroy (2013) investigated the impact of experimentally manipulated state achievement goals from the 2 × 2 framework on undergraduate students' experiences of pride and shame following experimentally manipulated competence feedback. The assessment was embedded in a 24-round game of Tetris. Situation-specific achievement goals moderated the effects of feedback (competence, incompetence, no feedback) on pride and shame. In line with Pekrun, 2006, Pekrun et al., 2009) theoretical propositions, performance-approach goals enhanced pride responses to competence feedback, but did not have an impact on shame responses to incompetence feedback. By contrast, performance-avoidance goals enhanced shame responses to incompetence feedback, but did not have an impact on pride responses to competence feedback. Mastery goals had no impact on pride and shame responses to competence-based feedback.

In sum, while there are a number of findings on interindividual relations between achievement goals and achievement emotions that are in line with Pekrun, 2006, Pekrun et al., 2009) theoretical proposition; the scarce empirical evidence on intraindividual relations between achievement goals and emotions is restricted to a few emotions (happiness, pride, and shame). Furthermore, neither of the two existing studies on intraindividual relations examined the goal-emotion link in a classroom setting.

We aimed to examine the relations between students' achievement goals and achievement emotions by analyzing both interindividual (i.e., between-person) and intraindividual (i.e., within-person) covariation in a classroom setting. Regarding interindividual relations, we expected to confirm the propositions by Pekrun et al. (2006; see Fig. 1 for an overview) and to replicate the findings from previous studies: (1) mastery goals positively predict enjoyment and negatively predict boredom and anger, (2) performance-approach goals positively predict pride, and (3) performance-avoidance goals positively predict anxiety and shame. With regard to intraindividual relations, we aimed to investigate whether these theoretical propositions hold for intraindividual functioning. This is a critically important issue, given that the Pekrun et al., 2006, Pekrun et al., 2009 model, as well as other theories on the achievement goal-emotion link (e.g., Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002), address the relations between achievement goals and emotions in terms of intraindividual psychological functioning (see Linnenbrink-Garcia & Barger, 2014).

For the interindividual analysis, paper-and-pencil questionnaires were used to assess students' trait achievement goals and emotions related to four major subject domains (mathematics, German, English, and French). For the intraindividual analysis, the experience sampling method (ESM; Csikszentmihalyi and Larson, 1987, Hektner et al., 2007) was used to assess goals and emotions multiple times within each student in regular classroom settings in the same subject domains. To make sure that our results were not mere epiphenomena of other variables, we controlled for students' sex, age, academic achievement, and the respective subject domain in all analyses.

Section snippets

Sample and procedure

The sample consisted of N = 120 Swiss 10th grade students (37% female; mean age = 15.61 years, SD = 0.59). Participants were randomly selected from 35 classrooms (two to four students from each classroom) from seven upper-track schools (Gymnasium) in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland. There were, on average, 19.8 students (56% female) in each classroom, and the student composition of classrooms was the same across the four subject domains considered in our study (mathematics, German,

Preliminary analysis

Table 1 provides the means and standard deviations for the study variables. For state achievement goals and emotions, the values are based on person-aggregated scores. For all variables, the values are reported separately for the domains of mathematics, German, English and French.

Table 2 shows variance components and intra-class correlations (ICCs) for the state assessment. The two-level models reflect the structure of assessments nested within persons. The ICCs for achievement goals and

Discussion

This research examined whether theoretical propositions on the relations between achievement goals and achievement emotions, as outlined by Pekrun et al., 2006, Pekrun et al., 2009), are supported when adopting an intraindividual empirical approach. Although findings of previous studies were largely in line with these propositions (for reviews see Huang, 2011, Linnenbrink-Garcia and Barger, 2014), they were based on interindividual analyses and failed to examine the intraindividual relations of

Conclusion

The present study is the first investigation examining the link between students' achievement goals and their achievement emotions using a combined interindividual and intraindividual analysis. Based on an assessment of students' trait and state achievement goals and emotions in a real-life classroom context, the findings confirm that achievement goals and emotions are closely related. More specifically, they support propositions of Pekrun et al., 2006, Pekrun et al., 2009 model in showing that

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) to the first author (100014_131713/1) and supported by a Research Chair grant awarded to Reinhard Pekrun from the University of Munich (VII.1-H172.10).

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