Students' social goals and outcomes.

Abstract

Social goals are cognitive representations of desired social outcomes that have an impact in academics. Social goals have been linked to motivation and performance in young students. However, the role of social goals in college student achievement needs to be addressed. An instrument was created to measure social goals of college students. Seven types of social goals were identified and correlated with the learning engagement outcomes of peer learning, help-seeking, and effort regulation. Some of the social goals had significant relationships with the outcomes.

Introduction

There are many reasons for students' behaviors and some reasons are socially oriented. The social aspects of academics (e.g., interacting with other students) can be a part of students' motivations. In motivation research, social goals are addressed to understand students' social behaviors. Social goals are cognitive representations of desired social outcomes that have an impact in academics (Urdan & Maehr, 1995). Social goals have only been addressed in limited populations (e.g., children and adolescents). Older populations (e.g., college students) should be studied (Urdan & Maehr). Unlike previous research, the present article examines social goal pursuit of college students.

Background on Social Goals

Multiple researchers have differing conceptualizations of social goals. Described here are multiple types of social goals studied and the outcomes to which they are linked. Each of the researchers addressed have focused only on children and adolescents. Although younger students are addressed in this literature, it serves as a basis and a framework for the present article. In younger populations, social goal pursuit accounts for some variation in academic achievement outcomes. Investigations of specific achievement correlates of social goal pursuit were revealed during the 1990's (e.g., Anderman & Anderman, 1999; Miller et al., 1996; Wentzel, 1996) and early this century (e.g., Dowson & McInerney, 2003).

The earliest work on social goals comes from Wentzel. Wentzel (1994) measured two dimensions of social goals: prosocial and social responsibility. Each of the dimensions was measured in two subparts: academic and peer. Academic prosocial goals involved sharing and helping peers with academic problems, whereas personal prosocial goals entailed sharing and helping peers with social problems. Typically, Wentzel uses peers' judgements of these behaviors. The academic side of the social responsibility dimension reflected following classroom rules, whereas the peer side meant keeping promises and commitments to peers. These dimensions of social goals reflected most of Wentzel's work on the construct (i.e., Wentzel, 1994, 1996, 2002, 2003). In her research, prosocial and social responsibility goal pursuit were moderately to highly correlated with each other and with several other variables such as students' effort (Wentzel, 1994, 1996). In addition, GPA had a moderate to strong positive relationship with prosocial and social responsibility goals in middle school students (Wentzel, 1997, 1998). These correlations help describe the predictive worth of prosocial and social responsibility goals as measured by Wentzel adolescent populations.

While Wentzel germinated the study of social goals in academics, additional researchers made meaningful contributions regarding the relationship between social goals and academic success. Miller et al. (1996) approached social goals differently than Wentzel. Their research with high school students included two social goals: trying to please others and trying to be socially responsible. After interpreting exploratory factor analytic findings, the researchers argued for and labeled two social goals: pleasing the teacher and pleasing the family. These variables were positively related to each other and had relationships with other variables. In Study l, pleasing the teacher was positively related to pleasing the family, self-regulated learning (i.e., controlling one's own learning by regulating effort, persisting, and using strategies), deep processing, and shallow processing. In addition, pleasing the family was positively correlated with shallow processing (Miller et al). In Study 2, pleasing the teacher was positively correlated with pleasing the family and with self-regulation, and pleasing the teacher added to the prediction of academic engagement through self-regulated learning (Miller). The outcome variables are all that differentiated study one from study two; the population was the same.

More recent work has expanded the dimensions of social goals addressed with adolescents. For example, Anderman and Anderman (1999) expanded the dimensions of social goals measured by assessing social responsibility, relationship, belonging, and status goals. The researchers found the former three goal types to be positive predictors of fifth graders' GPA, whereas social status goals were negatively correlated with the GPA for the same age group. In additional work to expand the dimensions of social goals, Dowson and McInerney (2003) presented the following: social affiliation goals, social approval goals, social responsibility goals, social status goals, and social concern. These goal types are similar to those of Anderman and Anderman (1999), and each reflects social responsibility, concern, or relationships, which are similar to Wentzel's (1996) prosocial and social responsibility goals.

No two researchers presented the same dimensions of social goals in their work. Yet, there was overlap among some of the dimensions studied by the researchers reviewed here. In some cases, the same types of goals were being studied, but were given different names. There exists a need to combine the current (those from Anderman & Anderman, 1999; Dowson & McInerney, 2003; Wentzel, 2002, 2003) ideas of social goals into a set of empirically supported dimensions as a new measure. The present research integrates the past dimensions of social goals into a single measure. Additionally, each of the aforementioned researchers links social goals with academic outcomes in young people. The present author correlates social goals with academic outcomes, but does so with a college population.

Social Goals and Learning Engagement

Social goals may play an important role in learning engagement. Patrick, Anderman, and Ryan (2002) posit that engagement in learning requires social goal pursuit on the part of the learner. A finding from Miller et al. (1996) supports this claim in that goals to please the teacher were positive predictors of self-regulation, while goals to please one's family were negative predictors of the construct. Included in the present article are the learning engagement constructs of help seeking, peer learning, and effort regulation. The learning engagement construct of help-seeking readily ties into learning with others. Help seeking is defined as seeking help from instructors or peers (Pintrich et al., 1993) and is a self-regulatory construct with social-cognitive aspects that have been demonstrated to be an important part of student learning. Ryan et al. (1997) present that help seeking by students is related to the pursuit of relationship goals. Yet, students who pursue status goals tend to avoid help-seeking. That is, those students who pursue status (rather than relationships) tend not to form supportive working relationships with fellow students. Overall, the pursuit of certain social goals, such as relationship goals, relates to help seeking amongst children and young adolescents. The construct of peer learning addresses learning with others. Pintrich et al. (1993) define peer learning as using a group or friends to learn. Peer learning has a demonstrated relationship with social goal pursuit in young people. Ryan et al. (1997) present that relationship goals influence learning when students must work cooperatively. Wentzel and Watkins (2002) also present that peer social support and belongingness enhance students' involvement in learning activities. The pursuit of social goals may result in learning with peers, an element of academic engagement.

In previous research, social goal pursuit was also correlated with academic effort. Middle-school students' effort is related to prosocial and social responsibility goal pursuit (Wentzel, 1997). Wentzel (1996) offered additional support when she found social goals predict effort in middle school level English classes. A measure of effort regulation (defined by Pintrich et al., 1993 as effort and persistence) will also be included in this study with college students.

Summary of Purpose

The relationships between learning engagement outcomes and social goals will be investigated, because previous research in younger populations has identified relationships between these constructs. This previous work needs to be expanded upon to integrate the social goals constructs, as well as identify additional learning outcomes associated with social goals. The present article integrates social goal constructs into a single measurement instrument that addresses the constructs from past research. In addition, an older population was studied. The following research questions were answered.

* What social goal types exist for college students?

* What is the internal consistency of the dimensions?

* What are the relationships between academic engagement (peer learning, help seeking, and effort regulation) and the dimensions of social goals?

Method

Participants The participants in this study consisted of undergraduate volunteers from a large Northeastern U.S. university (N = 571). Participants received a small amount of extra class credit for their participation (students were drawn from core courses in the School of Education). The sample was 78.6% female (n = 449) and 21.4% male (n = 122). The sample was 91.9% Caucasian (n = 525), 2.5% African-American (n = 14), 3.7% Asian (n = 21), and 1.6% Hispanic (n = 9). The sample consisted of 564 single people (98.8%), 4 married people (.7%), and 3 divorced people (.5%). One hundred fifty participants (26.3%) were first year students, 291 (51%) were sophomores, 78 (13.7%) were juniors, and 52 (9.1%) were seniors. The mean age of the participants was 19.75 (SD = 2.53).

Materials Materials used in this study included an informed consent form, a set of instructions, the Social Goals Questionnaire (SGQ) (the constructs measured by the SGQ include the goals of: social responsibility, attractiveness, power, intimacy and interpersonal play, receiving assistance, belonging, and giving), the Motivation Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) (Pintrich et al., 1993), and a demographic survey. The SGQ included 50 items scored on a 7 point Likert scale with the anchors 1 = not at all true of me, and 7 = completely true of me. The items were written by the author of this article and were based on social goals identified in past literature. The Learning Strategies Subscales of the MSLQ were used to measure the learning engagement outcomes. These subscales are: effort regulation, peer learning, and help seeking. There is confirmatory factor analytic evidence to support the structure of these subscales, as well as predictive validity evidence (see Pintrich et al., 1993). Reliability calculations for the scales are given in the Results section of this article.

Procedure Participants received a packet of materials that included an informed consent form, a set of instructions for completing the questionnaires, the questionnaires, and a demographic survey. Participants completed an informed consent form. After that, participants completed the questionnaires in the packets and returned them to the researcher.

Results

Factor Structure and Reliability In this study, analyses were conducted using SPSS version 10.0. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the 47 items was conducted, using parallel analysis to determine the number of factors to extract. Seven factors were extracted. The factor extraction procedure was principal axis factoring. Factors were rotated using promax rotation, which provides the simplest solution for correlated factors (Gorsuch, 1983). The seven factors accounted for 56.40% of the variance in the data. The process of interpreting and labeling the factors was completed. The items from each factor were aligned together. The content of the items was reviewed for patterns. The factors were labeled based on patterns in the item content.

Factor 1 consisted of items reflecting goals for social responsibility. Factor 1 items reflected concepts such as being ethical, fair, and just?. Examples of items include: 1) I consider it important to be ethical. 2) I want to promote justice. Overall, Social Responsibility goals are goals to be involved with others in a positive way and be a good group member. The reliability for this subscale was .88.

Factor 2 was the Attractiveness goals factor, with items reflecting a desire for social, sexual, and physical attractiveness. Examples of items include: 1) I want others to think I am attractive. 2) It is important to me to look good. Overall, goals to be Attractive reflect wants to be judged as attractive by others, be approved of by others, and be liked by others. The reliability for this subscale was. 87.

Factor 3 was the Power factor. Power goals entailed wanting a high position over others, in which influence and control are had. Examples of items include: 1) I would like to control others. 2) I want to decide for others. Overall, a goal for Power is a desire to gain power, status, and control over others. The reliability for this subscale was .82.

Factor 4 was the Intimacy and Interpersonal Play factor. Factor 4 reflected goals to rely on, get help from, and gain advice from others. Examples of items include: 1) I want to be playful. 2) I want to have erotic relationships. Overall, Intimacy and Interpersonal Play goals are goals to have close, personal, intimate, and fun relationships with others. The reliability for the subscale was. 84.

Factor 5 was the Receiving Assistance factor. Factor 5 goals reflected desires for sexual intimacy, fun, and play. Examples of items include: 1) When I have a difficulty, I want someone to help me through it. 2) I want encouragement from others. Overall, goals for Receiving Assistance are wants to gain support, help, and advice from others, as well as to rely on others. The reliability for this subscale was .82.

Factor 6 reflected goals for Belonging, such as being a part of a community or group and generally being involved with others. Examples of items include: 1) I want to be a member of a club. 2) I want to get involved with others. Overall, goals for Belonging entail wanting to work with others in groups. The reliability for this subscale was .85.

Last, Factor 7 reflected goals for Giving, for example giving advice. Examples of items include: t) I feel it is important to give advice. 2) It is important to me to give advice to others. Overall, goals for Giving reflect wanting to give advice to others, which includes validating, counseling, and helping others. The reliability of this subscale was .76.

Correlations All of the correlations (Pearson's r) reported here are statistically significant at the alpha = .05 level. Social responsibility goals were correlated with help-seeking (.20), peer-learning (.24), and effort (.20). Social attractiveness goals were correlated with help-seeking (.17), peer-learning (.15) and effort (.23). Intimacy goals correlated with help-seeking (.17) and peer-learning (.16). Receiving assistance goals were correlated with help-seeking (.21), peer-learning (.20) and effort (.29). Belonging goals were correlated with help-seeking (.24), peer-learning (.32) and effort (.18). Giving goals were correlated with help-seeking (.25), peer-learning (.36) and effort (.25). The only social goals without any significant correlation to the learning engagement constructs were power goals.

Conclusions

Seven internally consistent dimensions of social goals were identified. They are social responsibility, social attractiveness, power-seeking, intimacy and interpersonal play, receiving assistance, belonging, and giving advice. Each of the social goal types was correlated with academic engagement, except for power-seeking. The correlations between the other social goal types and the learning engagement constructs (effort regulation, help-seeking, and peer learning) were moderate and weak. While the correlations here are only moderate and weak, there are clearly relationships between social goal pursuit and academic engagement in college students. In particular, the dimensions of giving advice, receiving assistance, and belonging are good indicators of help-seeking, peer learning, and effort regulation. Interestingly, power goals are uncorrelated with academic engagement; therefore, power seekers may not perform well in school. In addition, the scale offered in this article has a clear factor structure with good reliability. Further links between social goals and academic outcomes, as well as other motivational constructs should be sought.

Future research should further examine the relationships between social goals and additional academic variables. Social goal pursuit may relate to academic engagement variables, such as effort or help seeking, but not directly to academic achievement (i.e., GPA). Furthermore, the prediction of outcomes outside of academics should also be incorporated into social goal research. Research to predict outcomes in social domains (i.e., social life satisfaction, success, or adjustment) should be conducted rather than using only academic outcomes. Based on the present research, there is some evidence to indicate than an understanding of social goals will be useful in understanding the engagement, learning, and motivation of college students.

References

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Daniel L. McCollum, University of Houston--Clear Lake, TX

Daniel L. McCollum, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Educational Foundations--Research, in the School of Education.