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A cross-sectional study of social goals and the relation to attributions and sociometric status
Abstract
This study draws together two theories regarding social goals in an effort to understand the relationship between goals and social success. Dweck and Leggitt (1988) proposed that people tend to be oriented toward one of two classes of goals in social situations: mastery goals or performance goals. Mastery goals are associated with persistence in the face of frustration and attributions which foster a sense of control over present and future success. Performance goals are associated with lack of persistence and attributions that lead to a sense of loss of control over present and future success. Other theorists (Klinger, 1977; Parkhurst & Asher, 1985) have proposed that a thorough understanding of a person's goals must include knowledge about the person's concerns. This study sought to explore the components and implications of these theories. First, factor analyses were performed to determine if factors representing the mastery and performance goal orientations could be found among 5th, 8th, and 11th grade students. Second, the strength of relationships among goals, attributions, concerns, and behavior was assessed. Third, 5th and 8th graders were assigned to sociometric categories and differences were assessed in goals, attributions, and concerns among the status groups. Finally, discriminant analysis was used to determine the predictive power of the goals, attributions, and concerns variables in determining sociometric status. Several results were contrary to expectations. The factor structure underlying social goals was more complex than expected. Items addressing the two classes of goals formed separate orthogonal factors, rather than representing two poles of a single continuum as would be implied by their theoretical association with opposing beliefs about the malleability of personality. Items addressing self-agency formed an additional factor, rather than joining the mastery factor. Large differences among status groups on these variables were not found. Critique of the sociometric technique suggests reasons for this counterintuitive finding. Patterns of association among social goals, attributions, concerns, and behavior were largely as expected.
Subject Area
Developmental psychology|Academic guidance counseling
Recommended Citation
Roedel, Teresa DeBacker, "A cross-sectional study of social goals and the relation to attributions and sociometric status" (1993). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9314434.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9314434