Siggaoat, Paula Celesse, P. September 20, 201511353260 EDUPSY2

Topic: The effect of Goal Orientations to Positive and Negative Emotions

The presentation is all about the relation of goal orientation theory in relation to emotions and attributions. Achievement goal theory as defined in the presentation is the relevant aims of individuals to strive for in achievement settings and there are two types: mastery goals and performance goals. Mastery goals are goals focused on learning, not just to a certain point but also for improvement of the self, and attaining understanding while performance goals are goals that demonstrates competence and concern on how others will view or assess their capabilities. According to De Houwer and Hermans, the degree of relevance stimulus is the basis of emotional experiences of an individual. According to Thompson, attribution theory is used for explaining how people will give credit to their success and failures. In relation of achievement goal theory and attribution theory, learning performance goal orientations are associated with different implicit theories about personal attributes. An example given in the presentation was the intellectual and interpersonal skills. Achievement goals have been associated with different attributional patterns and could then be indirectly linked to affect through attributions. Goal theorists consider the possible relationship of goals and affect. The studies made are only on mastery goals and is two-dimensional (positive or negative) than on discrete. I have known that emotions greatly affect the students learning, but I did not know about the relation of it to goal orientations. Now, I see the connection between the two variables. When students are mastery goal oriented, it is positively significant on students overall positive affect while performance goal oriented students are either complementary or unrelated to both general positive affect and general negative affect. When people are mastery goal oriented they tend to have a more positive affect and attributions are to self, and when people are performance goal oriented it either complements or does not have an effect to both general positive affect and general negative affect. People who attribute their failure to external factors may be the ones who are performance goal oriented since they attribute their failures to other things than the self and those who attribute failure to self may be mastery oriented since they attribute their faults to self and they know that they can still change the failure. How can you instill mastery goal orientation to students? It really depends on their motivation on something. In order for them to become mastery oriented, I think teachers should have a different approach and adjust the way they teach for the students to have a better learning experience. As a future educational psychologist, I will see to it that I will be able to influence students to have a positive affect on learning because the effects of it will be beneficial in the students achievement goal orientations.