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64 CHAPTER 3why they are in college. Some of my students who are raising fami-
lies or who have returned to college after some absence appear to have
more specific goals than do some students who come directly from
high school. How would you explain this difference?
Think about a musician, athlete, or businessperson who wants to
excel in his or her area of expertise but has no specific goals to direct
his or her behavior. It is very difficult to be motivated without per-
sonal goals. It is important to set goals in different life areas because
such goals serve to motivate behavior. Goals enhance performance in
five major ways (Locke & Latham, 1990):- Effort: The goals you set for yourself influence what you attend to
and how hard you try to maximize your performance. The more
difficult the goal, the harder you are likely to work to attain it. - Duration or persistence: When you work on a task without a
goal, you are likely to allow your attention to drift, become
more easily interrupted, and even stop working without com-
pleting the task. When you have a goal in mind, you have a
more clearly defined point in the performance that defines when
it is time to quit or withdraw from the task (i.e., when the goal
is attained). - Direction of attention: Goals direct your performance toward
the task at hand and away from unrelated or irrelevant tasks. - Strategic planning: To accomplish a goal, you need to develop
an action plan or strategy. Goal setting encourages strategic
planning, because the presence of a goal encourages you to
decide how to proceed. - Reference point: When you identify where it is you are headed
(i.e., have a goal) and receive feedback on where you are, you
can evaluate your performance and determine what further
actions need to be taken (if any). In fact, it is your satisfaction
or dissatisfaction with this evaluation that may have the great-
est impact on your motivation.
Have you identified some goals you would like to attain this term
or year? If so, do you have goals in any of the following areas: aca-
demic, social, occupational, or personal? How has your success or
failure in attaining previous goals influenced your motivation in dif-
ferent areas of your life?What Is My Goal Orientation? Educators have determined that students
have different reasons or purposes for achieving in different courses.
Dweck and Leggett (1988) believe that the achievement goals students
pursue “create the framework within which they interpret and react
to events” (p. 256). They have identified two types of achievement