The Relationship Between Self-Efficacy and Goal Achievement Among College Students

Research has shown that a positive relationship exists between academic self-efficacy and grade prediction among college students (Choi, 2005). When students were asked questions about their perceived self-efficacy, they recorded higher results when the questions were more specific (about their academics) than when they were asked more global self-efficacy questions. Overall, researchers have found that students with a higher self-perception reached higher academic performance (Choi 2005). The present study will examine the relationship between self-efficacy and achievement goal orientation among college students, looking at majors, gender, GPA, and year in school. Participants will be recruited by soliciting students from classrooms and social network cites including Facebook and email. Achievement self-efficacy in college refers to the idea that students’ believe that they have control over their individual grade. Self-efficacy for the present study will be measured using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich et al., 1993). Achievement goals will be measured using the Achievement Goal Questionnaire (Elliot & Church, 1997), which breaks achievement into three areas: mastery, performance approach, and performance-avoidance. Finally, there will be a group of demographic questions including year in school, major, and GPA. It is hypothesized that participants who have higher levels of goal orientation will also score high on the self-efficacy scale. Furthermore, freshman and senior year students will have an overall lower level of self-efficacy and achievement goals than sophomores and juniors. Finally, health science majors (nursing, occupational therapy, etc.) will score high on goal orientation but score lower on self-efficacy in relation to other majors. Data collection for this research will take place in February 2016.