Materialism and Achievement Motivation: How Chinese Primary School Children, Secondary School Teenagers, and University Students are Similar

Abstract

Drawing samples from primary school children, secondary school teenagers, and university students, my colleagues and I (Ku, Dittmar & Banerjee, J Educ Psychol 104, 74–86, 2012; J Personality Soc Psychol, 106, 803–821, 2014; Ku and Zaroff, Achievement motivation at times of difficulties: the longitudinal effects of intrinsic and extrinsic life goal on Chinese university students’ learning. Manuscript under review for publication, 2014) argue that a materialist orientation in learners lowers mastery-oriented learning motivation, fosters performance-oriented achievement goals, and leads to poorer learning outcomes. We first use cross-sectional studies to show that materialism is linked directly to lower exam performance, and that this link is mediated by lower mastery and heightened performance goals. With longitudinal evidence we further demonstrate that initial materialism predicts worse exam grades, suggesting a detrimental long-term effect on school performance. We then prime school children with a momentary orientation toward materialism, and show that such an orientation leads children to adopt performance goals, choose a performance-oriented learning task, and give up on the task more quickly. These findings illustrate that materialism works its negative effects on school performance by undermining intrinsic mastery-oriented learning and shifting learners’ attention from competence development to competence demonstration. All the converging evidences suggest values that are deeply embedded in our contemporary, and increasingly global consumer society – such as overt preoccupation with consumption, the belief that wealth and financial success are the most important goals to pursue, and the view that social power and status rest on wealth and possessions – are important considerations for a research paradigm that examines factors that facilitate youths’ intrinsic learning and enhance learning outcomes.