Achievement goals and achievement emotions: Preliminary longitudinal data on university students

Purpose. An increasing body of work emphasizes the role of motivation and affect for academic performance, but there is little research documenting longitudinal stability of such constructs. Therefore, our aim was to explore changes in achievement goals and achievement emotions and their relationships in undergraduates. Methodology. Participants were 37 Italian university students who completed a 96-item questionnaire measuring goals and emotions in two settings, learning exam-relevant material and taking exams, during their first (T1) and third (T2) year. Achievement goals referred to 6 constructs (task-approach, task-avoidance, self-approach, self-avoidance, other-approach, other-avoidance goals), while achievement emotions related to ten emotions (enjoyment, pride, hope, relief, relaxation, anxiety, anger, shame, boredom, hopelessness). Results. We carried out paired sample t-tests and path-analyses. For learning exam-relevant material, task and self-goals scores increased at T2; for taking exams, task and self-approach goals increased. For learning exam-relevant material, the scores increased for all emotions except for enjoyment, shame, and hopelessness; for taking exams, the scores increased also for enjoyment and hopelessness. Path-analyses revealed the predictive role of T1 goals and emotions on T2 emotions. Limitations. Our findings may suffer from limitations related to the nature of self-report data. Research/Practical Implications. These results could give hints for planning interventions focused on motivational and emotional dimensions, considering the malleability of such constructs. Originality/Value. Our data helped to experimentally investigate achievement goals as conceptualized by the 3 X 2 model (Elliot, Murayama, & Pekrun, 2011) and achievement emotions as conceptualized by the control-value theory (Pekrun, 2006), controlling for individual differences.