THE DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF SCALES ASSESSING STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT GOAL ORIENTATIONS

Achievement goal theory has emerged as a major new direction in motiva tional research. A distinction is made among conceptually different ac hievement goal orientations including the goal to develop ability (tas k goal orientation), the goal to demonstrate ability (ability-approach goal orientation), and the goal to avoid the demonstration of lack of ability (ability-avoid goal orientation). Scales assessing each of th ese goal orientations were developed over an eight year period by a gr oup of researchers at the University of Michigan. The results of studi es conducted with seven different samples of elementary and middle sch ool students are used to describe the internal consistency, stability, and construct validity of the scales. Com parisons of these scales wi th those developed by Nicholls and his colleagues provide evidence of convergent validity. Confirmatory factor analysis attests to the discr iminant validity of the scales. (C) 1998 Academic Press.