Goal striving: the role of goal orientation and task goal framing

Past research has explored how individuals strive towards goals by exploring the underlying processes of motivation. Recent studies have identified the importance of understanding how individuals strive towards these goals in dynamic environments (i.e., over time). It is vital to understand how performance changes during a goal in order to devise strategies that can enhance and maintain high performance during tasks. In goal striving literature, studies have generally focused on the individual differences in trait goal orientation and looked at how this affects performance. A variable that is often overlooked is how the pre-determined framing of a task may interact with goal orientation on performance. The current research observed Trait goal orientation (mastery-approach vs. performance-avoidance) and manipulated task goal framing (approach vs. avoidance) to explore how they interact with each other to affect performance during a task. Sixty undergraduate students enrolled in a first year psychology course participated in the study. An Air Traffic Control conflict detection task was used. Performance was measured in terms of how well participants learnt to detect conflicts and non-conflicts during the task. Results in regression analyses indicated participants in the approach task goal framing performed at a higher rate when compared to the avoidance condition goal framing. Trait goal orientation did not reveal significant differences in performance. Interaction terms provided mixed results implying a complex relationship between trait goal orientation and task goal framing. Additionally, unexpected significant interactions provide theoretical development for trait goal orientation and task goal framing in achievement goal literature.