Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Publication Date

Summer 7-31-2021

Abstract

This study examined goal orientation in Doctor of Pharmacy Students and its relationship with regulation of motivation and academic achievement. Research questions included: 1) Do student cohorts (first-year, second-year, and third-year students) differ in their initial goal orientation? Do students’ goal orientation vary across time (from fall to spring)? 2) How does change in goal orientation impact changes in regulation of motivation? 3) How does change in goal orientation impact changes in academic achievement? 4) Which factor, regulation of motivation or academic achievement, has the strongest relationship with goal orientation?

178 participants completed survey instruments in the fall and spring semester. The instruments included a goal orientation instrument (Achievement Goal Questionnaire – Revised; AGQ-R) and regulation of motivation instrument (Motivational Regulation Strategies; MRS). Academic achievement was GPA from each semester. Differences between cohorts were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and ANCOVA analysis techniques. The first-year cohort differed significantly from the third-year cohort in mastery-approach goal orientation. The mastery-approach goal orientation mean was higher in the first-year cohort than the third-year cohort. There were no significant differences between fall and spring results for each cohort.

Autoregressive models investigated the relationship between goal orientation and regulation of motivation and goal orientation and academic achievement. Several significant relationships existed between goal orientation and motivational regulation strategies. Performance-avoid goal orientation lacked any significant relationships with regulation of motivation. Interest lacked significant relationships with any goal orientations. Performance-approach and performance-avoid goal orientations exhibited significant relationships with GPA. Hierarchical models compared the relationships of academic achievement and regulation of motivation to goal orientation. Regulation of motivation contributed the most unique variance to goal orientation. Interpretation of results included understanding of alignment with previous studies as well as the impact for educational use.

Keywords

goal orientation, regulation of motivation, academic achievement, motivation

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Educational Psychology

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Individual, Family, and Community Education

First Committee Member (Chair)

Martin H Jones

Second Committee Member

Terri Flowerday

Third Committee Member

Donald Godwin

Fourth Committee Member

M Lee Van Horn

Download

Share

COinS