An Examination of Goal Orientation Profiles Using Cluster Analysis and Their Relationships With Dispositional Characteristics and Motivational Response Patterns

Goal orientation is a multidimensional construct widely examined by social, organizational, educational, and sports psychology researchers. However, despite theoretical perspectives indicating that individuals can adopt or manifest more than one goal orientation simultaneously, researchers traditionally examine relationships between the goal orientation dimensions and outcome variables of interest independently. In contrast, this study was designed to examine whether individuals can be sorted into meaningful goal orientation profiles based on their scores on measures of learning, performance–approach, and performance–avoidance goal orientation, and the relationships between the resulting profiles and various dispositional and motivational variables. Our results indicated that a 4-profile solution best fit our data and that the 4 profiles differed uniquely across our dependent variables.