Personality and achievement motivation

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Personality and Individual Differences 44 (2008) 1454–1464 www.elsevier.com/locate/paid

Personality and achievement motivation: Relationship among Big Five domain and facet scales, achievement goals, and intelligence Tanja Bipp a,b,*, Ricarda Steinmayr c, Birgit Spinath c a

b

University of Dortmund, 44221 Dortmund, Germany Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands c University of Heidelberg, Hauptstr. 47–51, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

Received 7 August 2007; received in revised form 14 December 2007; accepted 3 January 2008

Abstract In the present study we examined the nomological network of achievement motivation and personality by inspecting the relationships between four goal orientations (learning, performance-approach, performance-avoidance, work avoidance), the Big Five personality traits, and intelligence. Within a sample of university students (N = 160), relations were examined on the facet level of the Big Five. Inspection of associations between personality facets and goal orientations provided a clearer picture about why goals and personality traits are related and some of the previous inconsistent results could be explained by opposing associations at this level of analysis. Intelligence and goal orientations shared no common variance. Findings are discussed with reference to a hypothesized approach and avoidance temperament and the nomological network integrating personality, motivation, and ability dimensions. Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Goal orientations; Personality; Intelligence; Achievement motivation; Nomological network; Big Five

*

Corresponding author. Address: Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Tel.: +31 40 2474407; fax: +31 40 2437161. E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Bipp). 0191-8869/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2008.01.001

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1. Introduction Within the last two decades, the construct of goal orientation has become one of the most frequently studied in the field of motivation. Based on the extensive research on achievement motivation in educational psychology (e.g., Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Elliot & Harackiewicz, 1996), the construct has spread out successfully into various applied settings. Goal orientation is thought to be involved in self-regulatory processes and, thus, constitutes an important social-cognitive component of behavior and personality. To understand the interplay of personality and goal orientation, it is important to investigate how goal orientations are linked to traits on various levels of abstraction. 1.1. Goal orientations Different researchers have found it useful to distinguish between two goal orientations when describing reasons why people engage in achievement tasks and learning (Dweck, 1986; Nicholls, 1984). People with a high learning goal orientation (LG) primarily want to gain knowledge and skills and thus increase their competence. People with a high performance goal orientation (PG) want to demonstrate high abilities or want to avoid demonstrating a lack of competence to others. Further research has lead to the partitioning of PG into approach and avoidance factors (Elliot & Harackiewicz, 1996): While performance-approach goals (P-ApG) focus the individual on demonstrating high competence, performance-avoidance goals (P-AvG) entail strategies that prevent the individual from showing a lack of competence. Although there have been suggestions to distinguish even more goal orientations (see Smith, Duda, Allen, & Hall, 2002), the so-called trichotomous goal framework is currently the most widely used in achievement motivation research. Furthermore, some researchers have included one component in their considerations that taps the opposite of high achievement motivation, namely work avoidance (W-AvG) (e.g., Harackiewicz, Barron, Carter, Lehto, & Elliot, 1997). People high in W-AvG are interested neither in competence enhancement nor in demonstrating high or low ability: They simply want to invest as little work as possible in a task. Although the term W-AvG suggests a predominant active avoidance behavior, individuals high in W-AvG act very passively and are not driven by worry or fear. 1.2. Relationship between goal orientations and personality With regard to trait-oriented personality theories, especially the Five Factor Model (see Digman, 1990) has inspired much research over the past decades. According to this model, five largely independent personality dimensions – neuroticism (N), extraversion (E), openness to experience (O), agreeableness (A), and conscientiousness (C) – constitute the basic structure of personality. Some previous studies have already investigated the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and goal orientations. Due to different theoretical and measurement models, studies are difficult to compare and lead to inconsistent results (e.g., Day, Radosevich, & Chasteen, 2003). A recent meta-analysis examining the nomological net of goal orientations (Payne, Youngcourt, & Beaubien, 2007) noticed that very few studies had used three-dimensional measures of goal orientation when investigating the relationship to personality. Most studies only distinguished LG and

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PG, and therefore, in cases where only PG were pitted against LG, Payne et al. coded the PG measure as P-ApG. This makes their results very difficult to interpret with respect to P-ApG and P-AvG. Nevertheless, the meta-analysis shows that LG are weakly to moderately positively associated with all of the Big Five, whereas P-AvG are weakly to moderately negatively related to them (N redefined as emotional stability). In addition to these results, it is worthwhile to take a look at the few studies that have explicitly examined the relationships between the trichotomous goal framework and the Big Five. The results of Zweig and Webster (2004) and Day et al. (2003) by and large supported a negative association of LG with N ( .09 < r < .13), and – in part – positive correlations for the remaining four factors (highest relationships found for C and O; r < .38). For P-ApG both studies supported a positive relationship to N (.15 < r < .32), and independence from E. Only within some measures were P-ApG related to O, C, or A. Whereas P-AvG correlated significantly with all five traits in the data presented by Zweig and Webster (2004) (r P |.15|), findings from Day et al. (2003) only provided clear support for the relations of N, E, and O to P-AvG. Although most of these studies investigated the relations on an exploratory empirical basis, Elliot and Thrash (2002) were the first to offer a testable theoretical basis for the linkage between personality and goal orientations. These authors followed a biological approach to E and N and postulate the existence of an approach and avoidance temperament. Based on a biologically determined sensitivity to positive (or negative) stimuli, these temperaments are ‘‘accompanied by perceptual vigilance for, affective reactivity to, and a behavioral predisposition toward such stimuli” (Elliot & Thrash, 2002; p. 805). On the basis of these assumptions, Elliot and Thrash hypothesized that personality dimensions associated with approach behavior (such as E) should be positively connected to LG and P-ApG. Likewise, personality dimensions associated with avoidance behavior (such as N) should be positively related to P-AvG. Moreover, the authors assumed attempts to override these main associations and expected P-ApG to be linked to avoidance temperament. Their own empirical findings (Elliot & Thrash, 2002) largely, but not fully, supported these assumptions, and it has to be noted that all identified associations were rather weak. Since an elaborated theoretical framework for integrating goal orientations and personality traits is desirable, we used Elliot and Thrash’s assumptions as a theoretical framework for our study. However, we took into account that results of previous studies showed only in part support for this theoretical basis (e.g., Day et al., 2003). Moreover, it is yet unresolved how the assumptions for E and N can be applied to the remaining Big Five factors. Beside overwhelming empirical evidence for a five factorial structure for describing individual differences, several approaches exist that outline specific facets for each global trait (Saucier & Goldberg, 2003). For example, Costa and McCrae (1995) hierarchical specification integrates six facets for each broad (domain) factor. To date, no studies exist that have investigated the relation between these Big Five sub-facets at a mid-level of abstraction and goal orientations. Since goal orientations are often investigated in order to explain learning and achievement, ability-related dimensions are also important for the specification of a nomological network. Most motivation theories imply the assumption that motivation should be largely independent from inter-individual differences in abilities (i.e., potentials for high performance) such as intelligence (e.g., Dweck & Leggett, 1988). The hypothesis that goal orientations are uncorrelated with intelligence was corroborated by Payne et al. (2007): All investigated goal orientations correlated close to zero with intelligence.

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1.3. Present study All in all, there is not much known about the relationships between goal orientations, personality, and intelligence. Only a few studies relied on a trichotomous goal framework or included work avoidance as a goal facet. We, therefore, extended the spectrum of goal orientations beyond LG, P-ApG, and P-AvG and integrated the tendency to avoid work (W-AvG). Furthermore, we took a new approach to explain the relations by investigating the nomological network of achievement motivation with lower order facets of the Big Five. The 30 hierarchical sub-facets of the NEO-PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992) allow for deriving precise hypotheses about the relation to goal orientations and should therefore yield clearer correlation patterns than the broad Big Five factors. 1.4. Hypotheses We expected many, though not all, of the personality facets to yield predictable relations to goal orientations. We assumed that some of the facets would be markedly higher correlated with achievement motivation than the Big Five or show opposing connections within a global factor. In the following, we outline the assumptions about associations between goal orientations and personality facets (cf. Table 1). Essential relations for the global Big Five traits were only postulated if a distinct correlational pattern to goal orientations of more than one facet was hypothesized. Relating the facets of N to achievement motivation, we expect them to be clearly linked to both performance goal orientations. High scores on the facet of Anxiety imply, for example, the prevention of failures, which should lead to a positive association with P-AvG. The same association pattern was hypothesized for the facets of Depression, Self-consciousness and Vulnerability: People who feel easily discouraged or are unconfident in social groups, easy to embarrass or not very selfreliant are supposed to avoid unfavorable judgments from other people (P-AvG). Based on the override tendency stated by Elliot and Thrash (2002), a concurrent association pattern can be postulated for P-ApG and these four sub-facets (Anxiety, Depression, Self-conscientiousness, and Vulnerability). Referring to research relating Angry hostility to hypercompetition (attitude to win at any cost, see Ross, Rausch, & Canada, 2003), it is possible to postulate a positive association to P-AvG and P-ApG. In contrast to a clear positive association of N with both performance goal orientations, none of the six facets of N were postulated to covary with LG or W-AvG. In addition, substantial relations for three of the subcomponents of E were anticipated. A positive affect and optimistic beliefs about the future have been shown to have a positive effect on learning behavior, implying for the facet of Positive emotions a positive association with LG (see also Van Yperen, 2006). Another relation supports the postulated positive connection of E to LG: People with high scores on Activity who report a lot of energy and find sedentary work unattractive, should be more oriented towards new things, i.e. LG. In addition, they should report lower levels on W-AvG, due to their need for stimulation. Whereas for P-ApG no essential relationships can be hypothesized, another facet was expected to correlate with goal orientations: People scoring low on Assertiveness can be described as weak, self-conscious or servile. Within competitive settings, this should lead to a predominant tendency to avoid demonstrating incompetence in front of others. Thus, Assertiveness should be negatively correlated with P-AvG.

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Table 1 Hypothesized relations between goal orientations, Big Five personality traits, and intelligence Goal Orientation Big Five Neuroticism Facets:

Extraversion Facets: Openness Facets

Agreeableness Facets:

Conscientiousness Facets:

Intelligence Note:

LG

P-ApG

P-AvG

W-AvG

0

+ Anxiety (+), angry hostility (+), depression (+), self-consciousness (+), vulnerability (+) 0

+ Anxiety (+), angry hostility (+), depression (+), self-consciousness (+), vulnerability (+)

0

Assertiveness ( )

Activity ( )

+ Activity (+), positive emotions (+) + Fantasy (+), aesthetics (+), feelings (+), actions (+), ideas (+), values (+) + Trust (+), altruism (+), compliance (+), tender-mindedness (+) + Competence (+), achievement striving (+)

0

0 Aesthetics (+), feelings (+), values ( )

0 Values ( )

0 Straightforwardness ( ), compliance ( ), modesty ( )

Straightforwardness ( )

Achievement striving (+)

0 Competence ( ), achievement striving (+)

0

0

Competence ( ), dutifulness ( ), achievement striving ( ), self-discipline ( ) 0

= negative correlation; + = positive correlation; 0 = no correlation.

Building on the relations of O with learning behavior and the overlap with intelligence (Ackerman & Heggestad, 1997), we anticipated positive correlations for all of the facets (Fantasy, Aesthetics, Feelings, Actions, Ideas, Values) with LG and consequently a positive correlation to O on the domain level. People who are imaginative, curious, can easily adjust to novelty, and are broadminded or independent in their judgments should prefer new situations or intellectual stimulation and therefore be eager to engage in situations offering learning opportunities. People who reason about authority and do not tend to conformity are not supposed to align their behavior with normative standards, hence negative associations to P-ApG and P-AvG can be inferred for Openness to Values. The sub-facets of Openness to Aesthetics and Feelings, in contrast, rather address the presentation of end results of a process and, thus, should be positively related to P-ApG. These opposing associations should result for O on the global level in no essential correlation to P-ApG. No connections were hypothesized for O and W-AvG on different levels of abstraction.

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Four anticipated correlations on the sub-facet level offer an explanation for a positive relation between A and LG. Especially Altruism and Compliance have been shown to be related to scores on personal development competition (Ross et al., 2003), describing people who look out for opportunities for personal growth, which correspond to LG. This connection should also be true for Trust and Tender-mindedness, two facets describing people who are eager to learn from others. Additionally, the interpersonal aspects of A imply relationships between certain facets and normoriented performance goals: The resemblance of the competition aspect in demonstrating one’s ability to others should manifest itself within negative relations of P-ApG with Straightforwardness, Compliance, and Modesty, implying a negative association of A to P-ApG. In contrast, no essential correlations were expected for P-AvG. People who are self-centered or calculating (Straightforwardness) are supposed to optimize their efforts within achievement situations, which should result in a negative correlation of this facet with W-AvG. C is supposed to be clearly negatively related to W-AvG, because this personality trait – in particular its lower order facets Achievement striving and Self-discipline – has been shown to correlate negatively with procrastination (e.g., Watson, 2001). Within achievement situations, people with low scores on Dutifulness are not expected to be very reliable or careful, which should also result in a lower W-AvG. Prominent Achievement striving is supposed to lead to high levels of LG, P-ApG, and P-AvG (Van Yperen, 2006). A second association strengthens the postulated positive relation of LG to C: People with high self-efficacy, who are confident in their own abilities, should be more open to increase their knowledge (Competence and LG). People on the other end of the Competence scale, who are thoughtless or imperceptive, are supposed to report lower scores on P-AvG or W-AvG. Again, opposing correlations were postulated on the sub-facet level, which on the global level should result in no essential covariation between C and P-AvG. Finally, we assumed that intelligence should not be associated with goal orientations. Several achievement motivation aspects have already been found to be uncorrelated to ability (e.g. Payne et al., 2007), and consequently we assumed that W-AvG should also be independent of intelligence.

2. Method 2.1. Participants and procedure The sample comprised 160 (115 female and 45 male) undergraduates from a German University. Students from different faculties were invited to take part in the study on a voluntary basis and received either course credit (36%) or a monetary incentive in return for their participation. Subjects were mostly prospective teachers or enrolled in an educational class (69% of the sample) and on average within their third academic year (M = 2.71, SD = 1.71). Their ages ranged from 19 to 30, with an arithmetic mean of 23.31 (SD = 2.51) years. The assessment battery included three inventories: Big Five and intelligence measures were administered within eight different group settings. On average 2–3 weeks later, students made their ratings on the goal orientation scales. The time interval between questionnaires was purposely extended to reduce common method bias.

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2.2. Measures CFT 3: Intelligence was assessed by Cattell’s Culture Fair Test 3 (CFT 3) (Weiß, 1971). The CFT is a widely used intelligence test which has proven its construct validity as a measure of general intelligence. Scores were obtained by summing the results of all four subtests (series, classification, matrices, and topologies), which were speed-administered to the participants. The test was used in its long version, which consists of two test parts. NEO-PI-R: In order to assess a broad range of personality traits, students responded to the German adaptation of the NEO Personality Inventory in its revised form (Ostendorf & Angleitner, 2004). Besides the Big Five, the questionnaire measures six sub-facets hierarchically structured under each domain. The 240 items are answered without time restriction on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from ‘‘strongly disagree” to ‘‘totally agree”. SELLMO-ST: Goal orientations were measured using the learning and achievement orientation assessment scale (Spinath, Stiensmeier-Pelster, Scho¨ne, & Dickha¨user, 2002) in its version for college students (‘‘In my studies it is important for me . . .”). Participants are asked to indicate on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from ‘‘totally disagree (1)” to ‘‘totally agree (5)”, whether they agree with 31 statements indicating four different goal orientations: learning (e.g., ‘‘. . . to learn as much as possible.”), performance-approach (e.g., ‘‘. . . to finish tests better than others.”), performance-avoidance (e.g., ‘‘. . . that others do not think I’m stupid.”), and work avoidance (e.g., ‘‘. . . to do as little work as possible.”). Raw scale scores are computed by summing the respective items. The test manual reports convincing values for test–retest stability, the factorial structure of the instrument, as well as convergent and discriminate validities.

3. Results Tables 2 and 3 present means, standard deviations, and reliabilities of all variables.1 Psychometric properties of the measures were mostly good within the sample, reaching values comparable to the ones reported in the corresponding manuals. For example, reliability estimates for the sub-scales of the NEO-PI-R varied within the sample between .42 and .87, with an average Cronbach’s alpha of .73. Only the facet of Openness to Values reached a low value of internal consistency, which is a result commonly found in other international translations of the questionnaire or samples including young participants (Ostendorf & Angleitner, 2004, p. 105). Table 2 provides correlations between the facets of the NEO-PI-R and goal orientations. Table 3 presents the relationships for the Big Five on the domain level, and for intelligence. Due to our theoretically derived hypothesis, the alpha level was set at .05. Highest support was found for the assumed relations of N with achievement goals: all six facets correlated positively with P-ApG and almost the same result pattern was observed for P-AvG (exception: Impulsiveness), which reached even higher correlations to those facets. On the domain level, N was positively related to both 1

No scale differences were found between participants regarding incentives, study program, or year of study. Age and gender were not related to goal orientation scores. Analysis, though, revealed two – not exceptional – differences regarding gender (t(158) > |2.7|, p < 1%): men scored higher than women on the intelligence measure and women reached higher values on N compared to men.

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Table 2 Means (M), standard deviations (SD), internal consistencies (a), and intercorrelations between NEO-PI-R facets and goal orientations M

SD

a

Neuroticism Anxiety Angry hostility Depression Self-consciousness Impulsiveness Vulnerability

17.07 15.03 14.20 16.52 18.26 13.41

5.80 4.87 5.98 5.32 4.20 4.77

.83 .75 .85 .78 .61 .79

Extraversion Warmth Gregariousness Assertiveness Activity Excitement-seeking Positive emotions

22.48 19.63 16.69 18.81 17.10 22.56

4.53 5.67 5.59 4.96 4.78 5.56

Openness to experience Fantasy Aesthetics Feelings Actions Ideas Values

21.86 21.75 23.10 17.66 20.57 20.05

Agreeableness Trust Straightforwardness Altruism Compliance Modesty Tender-mindedness Conscientiousness Competence Order Dutifulness Achievem. striving Self-discipline Deliberation

LG

P-ApG

P-AvG

W-AvG

.12 .11 .01 .07 .12 .08

.17 .19 .25 .18 .19 .20

.32 .26 .43 .51 .13 .34

.03 .04 .15 .19 .06 .12

.78 .83 .85 .77 .55 .86

.23 .10 .05 .23 .08 .25

.10 .11 .01 .02 .12 .05

.09 .08 .31 .14 .03 .12

.07 .05 .05 .28 .13 .01

5.20 5.29 3.92 4.33 5.21 3.35

.82 .78 .70 .70 .81 .42

.16 .25 .31 .31 .29 .17

.02 .14 .21 .02 .00 .19

.00 .09 .09 .02 .07 .10

.01 .04 .04 .08 .14 .07

18.29 17.89 22.69 15.73 16.51 20.48

4.77 4.57 3.55 4.25 4.17 3.59

.77 .71 .66 .65 .70 .64

.17 .12 .35 .06 .04 .34

.08 .20 .01 .03 .26 .12

.08 .04 .13 .09 .04 .05

.03 .23 .13 .01 .09 .11

21.30 18.64 21.73 20.17 17.48 17.01

3.57 4.64 3.86 4.57 5.77 4.17

.68 .68 .63 .72 .87 .68

.20 .03 .10 .30 .03 .08

.05 .16 .01 .13 .01 .07

.22 .10 .07 .04 .14 .04

.20 .13 .29 .31 .32 .02

Note: N = 160. Learning (LG), performance-approach (P-ApG), performance-avoidance (P-AvG), work avoidance (W-AvG). Correlations: r P |.16|, p < .05, r P |.20|, p < .01.

performance goal orientations. A weak positive correlation was found for Self-consciousness and W-AvG. Three facets of E (Warmth, Activity, and Positive emotions) correlated positively with LG, which resulted in a positive association on the global level. An inverse relation of E to PAvG was apparent, which was due to a significant correlation with the facet of Assertiveness.

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Table 3 Means (M), standard deviations (SD), internal consistencies (a), and intercorrelations among domain scales, intelligence, and goal orientations Descriptives M Intelligence Big Five Neuroticism (N) Extraversion (E) Openness (O) Agreeableness (A) Conscientiousness (C) Goal orientations Learning (LG) Perf.-Appr. (P-ApG) Perf.-Avoid. (P-AvG) Work Avoid. (W-AvG)

SD

Intercorrelations a

58.06

7.86

.67a

95.37 117.27 124.99 111.58 116.32

23.78 21.94 16.91 16.00 19.28

.92 .91 .86 .86 .90

34.77 22.33 17.84 15.69

2.97 4.31 6.20 4.74

.74 .82 .91 .87

N

E .08

P-ApG

P-AvG

.03

O .03

A .05

C .11

LG .00

.07

.01

W-AvG .12

.36

.07 .32

.08 .02 .27

.29 .19 .07 .07

.06 .22 .40 .26 .11

.25 .09 .06 .08 .06

.45 .18 .01 .02 .07

.13 .02 .10 .13 .30

.22

.03 .57

.32 .18 .40

Note: N = 160. Correlations: r P |.18|, p < .05, r P |.22|, p < .01. a Split-half reliability.

The negative relation of W-AvG with Activity also reached significance. All sub-facets of O were essentially related to LG, resulting in a positive correlation of LG to O on the domain level. The result pattern for the remaining goal orientations and O was less clear. Though Openness to Feelings was positively related to P-ApG, Openness to Values showed a negative correlation with this motivational aspect. For A, correlations of Trust, Altruism, and Tender-mindedness with LG offered explanations for a positive relation on the global level. Three additional correlations were found for two sub-facets of A: Straightforwardness and Modesty correlated negatively with PApG, whereas the first facet was also negatively related to W-AvG. Only one facet of C correlated negatively with P-AvG (Competence), and Order was positively related to P-ApG. When we related the sub-facets of C to LG, Competence and Achievement striving showed a positive correlation. These relations did not manifest themselves in a significant relation on the domain level. A clear association of C was only found for W-AvG, explained by essential correlations of Competence, Dutifulness, Achievement striving, and Self-discipline to this achievement motivation aspect. Intelligence stood in no essential relationship to goal orientations or psychometric personality (see Table 3).

4. Discussion The main aim of our study was to shed light on the nomological network linking achievement motivation to the Big Five personality traits and intelligence. Prior research was extended by taking into account four dimensions of goal orientations, the hierarchical Big Five facets, as well as intelligence.

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For the Big Five, only two of the postulated relations were not confirmed (A did not correlate with P-ApG, nor C with LG), and consistent with our assumptions all goal orientations were clearly independent from cognitive ability. Our hypotheses at the facet level were only largely supported: 35 of the 41 postulated correlations were evident within the sample (exceptions: no relations found between Openness to Aesthetics and P-ApG, Openness to Values and P-AvG, Compliance and LG or P-ApG, Achievement striving and P-ApG or P-AvG). One limitation of our study is, though, that some of the identified correlations were only weak (.16 6 r 6 .51), indicating a maximum of 26% of shared variance between personality traits and achievement motivation. Due to the total number of statistical tests performed, some of our findings might also be a result of an increased type I error rate. However, our results demonstrate that relating achievement goals solely to the Big Five factors does not generate a comprehensive picture of the nomological network. Aggregating information of different lower order constructs onto a global factor masks essential relations. For example, both positive and negative correlations were observed for different sub-facets of one factor (e.g., O and P-ApG) which offers an explanation for the associations found close to zero within other studies (e.g., Payne et al., 2007). The result pattern documents that a single connection is not always sufficient to result in an essential correlation for the corresponding Big Five factor and that not all facets show the same association pattern as the domain factors. Future research should concentrate on this level of abstraction, to clarify convergent and discriminant validities of goal orientations and to replicate the reported findings. Furthermore, identifying relationships for the subcomponents helps to close gaps within the nomological network surrounding goal orientations. Differential relations clarify, for example, the distinctions between achievement motivation aspects (e.g., facets of A or O are only related to P-ApG, but not to P-AvG). Moreover, future research should test whether the subcomponents bear an advantage in the prediction of proximal and distal consequences of different aspects of goal orientation (e.g., self-efficacy beliefs or school performance). Our data only partly support the assumptions of Elliot and Thrash (2002) concerning the existence of an avoidance and approach temperament. All hypothesized validities for P-ApG or P-AvG were corroborated for the domain and facet scales of N, confirming, for example, the postulated override effect. Three sub-facets clarify the positive correlation for E and LG, but this level of abstraction provides no explanation for an association between E and P-ApG. Additionally, the theoretical framework does not seem to be easily extended to the remaining Big Five factors. While all Big Five factors are thought to have a biological basis (Loehlin, 1992), it remains unclear how O, A, and C can be associated with neurological or psychophysiological functions. Thus, with respect to these traits, the avoidance and approach temperament put forward by Elliot and Thrash (2002) might not be the right theoretical frame to explain their underlying connection to approach or avoidance behavior. In addition, the aspect of work avoidance cannot be categorized into this dichotomy, but recent research has espoused the need for such a separation within learning goals (Elliot & McGregor, 2001).

References Ackerman, P. L., & Heggestad, E. D. (1997). Intelligence, personality, and interests: Evidence for overlapping traits. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 219–245.

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