Sustaining motivation and academic goals: The role of academic delay of gratification

This study examined college students' academic delay of gratification; that is, their preference for an immediately available option (e.g., go to a fa vorite concert the day before a test even though the student is not well-pr epared) or a delayed alternative (e.g., stay home studying to get later a g ood grade in the course). Academic delay of gratification, its motivational determinants (i.e., importance, utility, interest, perceived cost of succe ss, and social expectancy), and students' use of motivation regulation stra tegies were examined among students identified on the basis of their task-g oal orientation, performance-approach-goal orientation, and performance-avo idance-goal orientation using a hierarchical cluster analysis (N = 102). Th e results supported the notion that academic delay of gratification and its motivational determinants differed as a function of goal orientation. Stud ents in Cluster 1, the high task-goal oriented learners, are high in delay of gratification and have high motivation. Students in Cluster 2, labeled c ombined high task-high-performance approach, considered the delay of gratif ication's alternatives as important and useful while perceiving the nondela y alternatives as highly interested and socially beneficial. Students in Cl uster 3 were low in all of the three goal orientations and reported low pre ference for delay of gratification. Academic delay of gratification was dis cussed in view of the macro-analytic model of Mischel's cognitive-affective personality system.