Abstract
Although approach forms of achievement goals (mastery and performance goals) have been shown to predict academic achievement in college, recent research underscores that these associations are rather weak and not consistently observed. The present study tests students’ social class (in the present research, generational status) as a moderator of the relationships between both mastery-approach goals and performance-approach goals and final grade. One hundred students (45 first-generation students and 55 continuing-generation students, M age = 18.9, SD = 1.52) answered an achievement goal scale related to one of their classes at the beginning of the year. Their final grade for this class was obtained three months later. As expected, performance-approach goals positively predicted final grade only for upper-class students, while mastery-approach goals tend to do so for lower-class students, supporting the idea that different kinds of motivation could predict students’ achievement depending on their social class.
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Notes
A student’s social class refers to his or her family’s rank in the society. In the social class literature, various measures such as income, parental level of education, or occupation have been used to identify one’s social class. In the present paper, we will specifically focus on students’ parental level of education.
This research was part of a large study. Only the measures that are relevant for the present hypothesis are discussed here.
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Céline Darnon. Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitive, Université Clermont Auvergne, 34 Avenue Carnot, 63037 Clermont-Ferrand CEDEX, France. E-mail: celine.darnon@uca.fr Web site: http://lapsco.univ-bpclermont.fr/.
Current themes of research:
Social psychology of education. Achievement goals. Social class. Social inequalities.
Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:
Darnon, C., Dompnier, B., Delmas, F., Pulfrey, C., & Butera, F. (2009). Achievement goal promotion at university: social desirability and social utility of mastery and performance goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 119–134. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012824.
Darnon, C., Dompnier, B., Poortvliet, M. (2012). Achievement goals in educational contexts. A social psychology perspective. Social & Personality Psychology Compass, 6/10, 760–771. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2012.00457.x.
Dompnier B., Darnon C., Meier E., Brandner C., Smeding A., Butera F. (2015). Improving low achievers’ academic performance at university by changing the social value of mastery goals. American Educational Research Journal, 52(4), 720–749.
Darnon, C., Wiederkehr, V., Dompnier, B., & Martinot, D. (in press). “Where there is a will, there is a way”: Belief in School Meritocracy and the social-class achievement gap. British Journal of Social Psychology.
Wiederkehr, V., Bonnot, V., Krauth-Gruber, S., & Darnon, C. (2015). Belief in school meritocracy as a system-justifying tool for low status students. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1053. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01053.
Mickaël Jury. Laboratoire PSITEC - EA4072, ESPE Lille Nord de France and Université Lille Nord de France, 365 bis, rue Jules Guesde, 59650 Villeneuve d'Ascq, France. E-mail: mickael.jury@espe-lnf.fr; Web site: https://psitec.univ-lille3.fr/presentation/membres/membres-titulaires/jury-m/.
Current themes of research:
Performance-approach goals. Performance-avoidance goals. Social class. Generational status. Competition.
Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:
Jury, M., Darnon, C., Dompnier, B., & Butera, F. (2017). The social utility of performance-approach goals in a selective educational environment. Social Psychology of Education, 20, 215-235. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-016-9354-x.
Jury, M., Smeding, A., Court, M., & Darnon, C. (2015). When first-generation students succeed at university: on the link between social class, academic performance, and performance-avoidance goals. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 41, 25–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2014.11.001.
Elliot, A. J., Jury, M., & Murayama, K. (2017). Trait and Perceived Environmental Competitiveness in Achievement Situations. Journal of Personality. http://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12320.
Jury, M., Smeding, A., & Darnon, C. (2015). First-generation students’ underperformance at university: the impact of the function of selection. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 710. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00710.
Sommet, N., Quiamzade, A., Jury, M., & Mugny, G. (2015). The student-institution fit at university: interactive effects of academic competition and social class on achievement goals. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 769. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00769.
Cristina Aelenei. Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale, Université Paris Descartes, 71, avenue Edouard Vaillant, 92774 Boulogne-Billancourt Cedex, France. E-mail: maria-cristina.aelenei@parisdescartes.fr; Web site: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cristina_Aelenei.
Current themes of research:
Gender stereotypes. Values. School culture. Achievement. Social class. Community college.
Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:
Aelenei, C., Darnon, C., & Martinot, D. (2017). Boys, girls and the school cultural environment: Teachers' judgment and students' values. The Journal of Social Psychology 157 (5), 556-570. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2016.1243514.
Aelenei, C., Darnon, C., & Martinot, D. (2016). When school and family convey different cultural messages: the experience of Turkish minority group members in France. Psychologica Belgica, 56(2), 111–117. https://doi.org/10.5334/pb.283.
Aelenei, C., Lewis, N. A., Jr., & Oyserman, D. (2017). No pain no gain? Social demographic correlates and identity consequences of interpreting experienced difficulty as importance. Contemporary Educational Psychology 48, 43-55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2016.08.004.
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Darnon, C., Jury, M. & Aelenei, C. Who benefits from mastery-approach and performance-approach goals in college? Students’ social class as a moderator of the link between goals and grade. Eur J Psychol Educ 33, 713–726 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-017-0351-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-017-0351-z