Investigating the Impact of an Intervention to Promote Mastery Goal Orientation
Department
Psychological Science
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2021
Abstract
Background: Encouraging students to adopt a mastery goal orientation can help increase learning and motivation. However, the effect of mastery goal orientation interventions specifically in upper-division online elective psychology courses has not been studied. Objective: The purpose of this replication study was to examine the effects of a mastery goal intervention on fear of failure, mastery and performance-approach goals, self-efficacy, and academic performance over time. Method: Fifty-eight students enrolled in an online upper-division educational psychology course were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group. The experimental group engaged in activities that steered them toward a mastery goal orientation, while the control group completed a stress management activity. Outcomes were measured four times during the study. Results: Contrary to our predictions, there were no significant differences between conditions on any of the outcomes. Conclusion: Although a mastery adoption intervention has been shown to be effective in prior studies, the current intervention had no impact on students in an upper-level online psychology course. Teaching Implications: Considering that a mastery goal orientation is consistently linked to adaptive academic outcomes, potentially impactful ways to apply the intervention are discussed.
Journal Title
Teaching of Psychology
Journal ISSN
00986283
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1177/00986283211026278