Goal Orientation Test: An Objective Behavioral Test

• Published in: Psychological reports Vol. 123; no. 4; pp. 1425 - 1451
• Main Authors: Romero, Miriam, Hernández, José Manuel, Juola, James F., Casadevante, Cristina, Santacreu, José
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.08.2020
• Subjects: Achievement; Adult; Behavior Rating Scale; Female; Goals; Humans; Learning; Male; Middle Aged; Motivation; Psychometrics; Reproducibility of Results; Students; Surveys and Questionnaires; Young Adult; tests/questionnaires; Personality theory; goal motivation; achievement goals; Self-Determination Theory
• ISSN: 0033-2941; 1558-691X; 1558-691X
• DOI: 10.1177/0033294119845847

The aim of the present research is to assess goal orientation (mastery and performance) by developing an objective behavioral test. We elaborated the Mastery Performance-Goal Orientation Test, a task that allows assessment of goal orientation along a single dimension. We studied its reliability and validity by conducting two studies. In Study 1 (N = 293 adults), the distribution of scores along the goal orientation variable showed wide variability and high internal consistency. The mastery-oriented participants demonstrated higher levels of category learning, whereas the performance-oriented participants responded in a less discriminative way but achieved higher scores. In Study 2 (N = 41 undergraduate students), the mastery-oriented participants achieved higher scores on a learning task than the performance-oriented subjects. The results also showed that the test had the potential to predict subsequent learning. We conclude that it might be a useful instrument to assess goal orientation.