Measuring Readiness and Success at a Higher Education Institution

This study investigated readiness as a correlate of academic success among beginning university students. A total of 829 first-time entering students from a large business sciences faculty were participants (males = 319, females = 510, mean age = 19, SD = 0.50 years). They completed the Academic Readiness Questionnaire (Lemmens, 2010) during the first-year orientation week. Data on academic success, consisting of subject marks and credits were collected in 2009 after a results verification process. Data were analysed with three separate multiple regression analyses. The first analysis consisted of the overall student sample, the second and third consisted of the black and the white students separated from the overall student sample. The main findings reveal that high school marks, the number of subjects in first year (credits registered), goal orientation, race, learning-efficacy, gender and the geographical area of high school have a direct relationship with academic success. The variables that predict academic success for black students are high school marks, credits registered, and parental education. The variables that predict academic success for white students are high school marks, goal orientation, credits registered, learning-efficacy, gender, and parental education.     

Hope,goals, and pathways: Further validating the hope scale with observer ratings

ABSTRACT

Objective: For the past two decades, hope theory has been an important framework for conceptualizing goal pursuits. Surprisingly there has been little effort to test the underlying suppositions of hope theory or to further validate the Hope Scale.

Method: In Study 1, participants (N = 162, M_age = 19, 61% female) completed the Hope Scale and nominated goals they would like to accomplish in the next few months. Goals were coded on several dimensions. In Study 2, participants (N = 118, M_age = 19, 59% female) completed the Hope Scale, measures of optimism and self-efficacy, and generated workable pathways for achieving standardized goals.

Results: Hope scores predicted setting objectively important, prosocial, long-term, and challenging goals. Hope (but not optimism or self-efficacy) was associated with generating more pathways for standardized goals.

Conclusions: The results of these studies generally support the tenets of hope theory and provide further validation for the Hope Scale. As expected, people with higher hope were more likely than their lower-hope counterparts to engage in what has been considered successful goal-setting behavior. Hope is associated with important goal-relevant behaviors and efforts to increase hopeful thought may be important in helping individuals to move toward important life outcomes.     

Constitutive and instrumental goal orientations and their relations with eudaimonic and hedonic well-being

This study investigated an Aristotelian model of eudaimonic and hedonic well-being that distinguishes between goal orientations in which the means and ends are separable (instrumental) and in which the means and ends are inherently related (constitutive). Eudaimonic well-being was expected to be related to constitutive goal orientation and hedonic well-being was expected to be related to both constitutive and instrumental goal orientation. Personal identification with activities was expected to mediate the relationship between constitutive goal orientation and eudaimonic well-being. Personal enjoyment was expected to mediate the relationship between instrumental goal orientation and hedonic well-being. Factor analysis supported the independence of constitutive and instrumental goal orientation measures. As predicted, SEM results suggested that there were independent pathways to eudaimonic and hedonic well-being, with strong mediation in both pathways. Results were consistent with Aristotle's [Aristotle (1999). The Nicomachean ethics (M. Ostwald, Trans.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.] concept of eudaimonia and contribute to the growing literature exploring the contrast between eudaimonic and hedonic well-being.     

Validation of Hayamizu and Weiner's Achievement Goal Questionnaire among Uruguayan university students

Abstract

The aim of this study is to confirm the factor structure of a self-report measure of achievement goal tendencies (Hayamizu & Weiner, 1991) described in previous research, and examine the reliability and validity of scores in a sample of Uruguayan university students. A theoretical three-factor model is proposed (learning, performance and outcome goals), as well as one-factor models for each goal. Confirmatory factor analyses show that all models are identified, and solutions are conceptually correct. Our results suggest that outcome goals could be split into two correlated sub-dimensions related to achievement time (short and long term goals). Concurrent and predicted validity were established through significant correlations with perceived ability and academic achievement respectively. Conceptualisation of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Maternal Socialization Goals,Parenting Styles,and Social-Emotional Adjustment Among Chinese and European American Young Adults: Testing a Mediation Model

The authors compared the associations among perceived maternal socialization goals (self-development, filial piety, and collectivism), perceived maternal parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, and training), and the social-emotional adjustment (self-esteem, academic self-efficacy, and depression) between Chinese and European American young adults. The mediation processes in which socialization goals relate to young adults’ adjustment outcomes through parenting styles were examined. Results showed that European American participants perceived higher maternal self-development socialization goals, whereas Chinese participants perceived higher maternal collectivism socialization goals as well as more authoritarian parenting. Cross-cultural similarities were found in the associations between perceived maternal authoritative parenting and socioemotional adjustment (e.g., higher self-esteem and higher academic self-efficacy) across the two cultural groups. However, perceived maternal authoritarian and training parenting styles were found only to be related to Chinese participants’ adjustment (e.g., higher academic self-efficacy and lower depression). The mediation analyses showed that authoritative parenting significantly mediated the positive associations between the self-development and collectivism goal and socioemotional adjustment for both cultural groups. Additionally, training parenting significantly mediated the positive association between the filial piety goal and young adults’ academic self-efficacy for the Chinese group only. Findings of this study highlight the importance of examining parental socialization goals in cross-cultural parenting research.     

Weight maintenance: Self-regulatory factors underpinning success and failure

Objectives: To investigate the differences in the contributing factors involved in weight maintenance success and failure.

Design: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with both successful and unsuccessful weight maintainers. Eighteen participants were recruited (16 women), nine of who had lost 10% of their body weight and maintained this weight for a minimum of 12?months (Maintainers), and nine individuals who met the above criteria for weight loss but had subsequently regained their weight (Regainers). A thematic analysis was employed to compare the differences between the two groups.

Results and conclusions: Two main themes highlighted the differences between the two groups, these were: goal regulation and self-control. Within these overarching themes, successful weight maintenance was related to the following subthemes: long-term, realistic goal setting, consistent use of routines and self-monitoring, avoiding deprivation and effective coping skills. Unsuccessful maintenance was related to short-term unrealistic goal setting, inconsistent routines and self-monitoring, experiencing deprivation and poor coping skills. These factors are explained in terms of the interrelationships that they have on one another and their subsequent impact on weight maintenance success or failure.     

The role of goal adjustment in symptoms of depression,anxiety and fatigue in cancer patients receiving psychosocial care: A longitudinal study

Objective: This study examined whether cancer patients reported increases in their goal adjustment capacities while receiving psychosocial care and whether these increases were related to changes in symptoms of depression, anxiety and fatigue. Goal adjustment was conceptualised as two independent capacities: goal disengagement (i.e. disengage from unattainable goals) and goal reengagement (i.e. reengage into new goals).

Design: This naturalistic, longitudinal study focused on 241 cancer patients receiving psychosocial care at one of the seven psycho-oncology institutions in the Netherlands. Data was collected before the start of psychosocial care (T1) and nine months thereafter (T2). Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the research questions.

Main Outcome Measures: Goal adjustment, symptoms of depression, anxiety and fatigue.

Results: At group level, patients reported small increases in goal disengagement (d = .22) but no significant change in goal reengagement (d = .09). At an individual level, 34% of cancer patients reported an increase in goal disengagement and 30% reported an increase in goal reengagement. Increases in goal reengagement were significantly associated with decreases in both depressive and anxiety symptoms, but not to changes in fatigue.

Conclusion: Findings indicate that particularly improvements in goal reengagement are beneficial for cancer patients’ psychological functioning.     

Goal pursuit in young adulthood: The role of personality and motivation in goal appraisal trajectories across 6 years

The aim of this longitudinal study was to examine changes in the appraisals of personal goals during young adulthood, and to investigate personality and motivation as predictors of goal appraisals. Israeli young adults (N = 284, 46% female) were assessed four times during ages 23–29 and reported on their goal appraisals (goal investment, goal momentum and goal stress), personality (efficacy and self-criticism) and motivation (autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, amotivation). The results showed mean stability for goal investment and momentum, whereas goal stress declined. Efficacy predicted higher goal investment and momentum 6 years later, while self-criticism accounted for individual differences in goal stress. Autonomous motivation predicted higher goal investment and momentum, while amotivation related to higher goal stress.     

Getting what you want: Power increases the accessibility of active goals

Power facilitates goal-directed behavior. Two studies, using different types of goals, examined the cognitive mechanisms that underlie this tendency. Participants, primed with power or powerlessness, performed lexical decision tasks that assessed the relative facilitation of goal-relevant constructs during goal striving and after goal attainment. Results showed that during goal striving powerful participants manifested an increased facilitation of goal-relevant constructs compared to other constructs, and this facilitation decreased immediately after goal completion. In contrast, their powerless counterparts showed less facilitation of goal constructs during goal striving and maintained goal accessibility after completion. These results are consistent with the effects of power on goal-directed behavior found in past research.     

Awareness of the saccade goal in oculomotor selection: Your eyes go before you know

The aim of the present study was to investigate how saccadic selection relates to people’s awareness of the saliency and identity of a saccade goal. Observers were instructed to make an eye movement to either the most salient line segment (Experiment 1) or the only right-tilted element (Experiment 2) in a visual search display. The display was masked contingent on the first eye movement and after each trial observers indicated whether or not they had correctly selected the target. Whereas people’s awareness concerning the saliency of the saccade goal was generally low, their awareness concerning the identity was high. Observers’ awareness of the saccade goal was not related to saccadic performance. Whereas saccadic selection consistently varied as a function of saccade latency, people’s awareness concerning the saliency or identity of the saccade goal did not. The results suggest that saccadic selection is primarily driven by subconscious processes.