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Can Social Goals Enrich Our Understanding Of Students' Motivational Goals?, Ronnel B. King, Dennis M. Mcinerney Ph.D., David A. Watkins Ph.D.

Ronnel B King

Achievement goal theory has emerged as a dominant paradigm for understanding student motivation. However, its focus on mastery and performance goals as central constructs has led to a neglect of the role of social goals in motivating students. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different kinds of social goals (social affiliation and social concern goals) on various types of educational outcomes. Results indicate that even after controlling for the effects of the oft-examined mastery and performance goals, social goals were still able to predict additional variance in the outcomes of interest. Social concern goals …