For many years researchers in social and educational psychology have struggled with an intriguing effect: The desire to learn (i.e., mastery-approach goals), although logically related to learning, does not consistently predict students’ academic performance. A stream of research has proposed an explanation to this mystery by showing that mastery-approach goals are highly socially desirable at University and that some students could use their mastery-approach goal endorsement as a self-presentation strategy: The higher the students’ knowledge of these goals’ social desirability, the lower the relationship between mastery-approach goals and academic performance. This effect has been consistently replicated, but so far the processes governing its manifestation remained uncovered. Across three studies (Ns = 99, 94, and 130), this research examined whether the predictive power of mastery-approach goals on academic performance depends on their underlying motivation (“genuine” vs. strategic self-presentational). Using self-report, experimental manipulation, and behavioral tracking, it showed that mastery-approach goals predicted performance only when they were not perceived as socially desirable. This effect was mediated by behavioral effort (Study 2) and topic-related interest (Study 3). These findings suggest that “genuine” mastery-approach goals are linked to academic performance, providing new insights into the motivational quality of goal pursuit.

Self-reported personality inventories are known to be sensitive to Socially Desirable Responding: individuals may try to convey a good image of themselves through their answers. In each situation, they may seek to distinguish personality dimensions highly important to claim to possess (i.e., necessities) from optional ones (i.e., luxuries). This research aims to investigate this necessity/luxury distinction in what is socially desirable in specific situations. Three studies were conducted in which participants answered a personality inventory using a budgeting task (Li et al., 2002) aiming at being appreciated by others. A pilot study (N = 66) showed this task's relevance in disentangling necessities-luxuries in self-presentation. Study 1 (N = 126) showed that 1) Conscientiousness was perceived as necessary in a duty situation (i.e., work relationship with a superior) compared to a sociality situation (i.e., informal relationships with friends), 2) Extraversion-Agreeableness were perceived as necessities in a sociality compared to a duty situation. Study 2 replicated these findings using a different material with a larger sample (N = 465). Overall, findings indicate that self-presentation strategies could be highly determined by situational perceptions, helping to identify the most effective strategies and the dimensions most likely to be faked in given contexts.

Over the past fifty years, extensive research has examined the influence of causal attributions on cognitions, emotions, and behaviours in educational contexts. However, these studies often relied on inferences about dimensional properties of attributions, and not on students' perceptions of them. This study innovates by directly assessing these perceptions to identify students' attributional profiles. 410 French elementary students were randomly assigned to a success or a failure condition and reported their perceptions of their attribution on the locus of causality, stability, and controllability dimensions. Latent profiles analyses (LPA) identified three attributional profiles for both students in the failure condition ('Hopeless', 'Negligent' and 'Unsure'), and the success condition ('Competent', 'Industrious', and 'Dependent'). LPA also revealed associations between certain profiles and cognitive, emotional and behavioural outcomes, highlighting the relevance of combining direct assessment of causal dimensions and LPA when studying attributions for success and failure and their consequences.

Achievement goals have been defined as the purpose of competence-relevant behavior. In this respect they connect one of the basic human needs, i.e., competence, to one of society's core values, i.e., achievement. We propose to look at achievement goals through the lens of social influence. We review both the influence that cultural, structural, and contextual factors have on achievement goal endorsement and the influence that endorsing achievement goals allows people to have within their social space. The review allows us to propose a circular model of the influence on and of achievement goals: The culture, social structures, and contexts that are typical of a certain society shape the specific environments in which individuals develop their achievement goals, which in turn has an influence on the expression and circulation of these achievement goals into society, in a social influence cycle.

BACKGROUND:A growing literature focuses on reasons behind achievement goal endorsement, and mastery-approach goals (MG) specifically, and how these reasons influence academic performance. Past research provides evidence that student-level social value-related reasons behind MG moderate the MG-performance link in adolescents and young adults. However, we ignore whether this moderation is best conceived of as a student-level effect (i.e., students' social value-related reasons), a class-level effect (i.e., influence of class-dependent contextual social value), or both.AIMS:This research aims at understanding the moderation of the MG-performance link by social value from a multilevel account, which is novel, as the student level has been the default level so far.SAMPLE:The study was conducted on a sample of 436 primary school students, from 3rd to 6th grade.METHODS:Students completed a MG scale adapted to their French classes under different instructions: standard, social desirability (answer to be viewed as likeable by your teacher), social utility (answer to be viewed as successful by your teacher), along with a dictation to measure performance, and socio-demographic measures.RESULTS:Results show that the moderation effect of social utility on the MG-dictation performance link is observed at the student level, but that the moderation by social desirability is best accounted for by class-level differences.CONCLUSIONS:It is important to consider a multilevel framework when examining reasons behind MG reports, including social value-related reasons, both for future research and teachers in the classroom.

A large body of research has documented Weiner's theory as it applies to achievement contexts, highlighting the role of the causal dimensions (locus of causality, stability, and controllability) as antecedents of specific emotional, cognitive, and behavioral reactions. The aim of this article is to address important, and as yet unanswered questions, by focusing on the relationship between these causal dimensions and their cognitive and behavioral consequences, and by meta-analyzing research using the direct-rating method to measure the causal dimensions identified by Weiner (1985, 2005). 43 studies using direct-rating measures of causal dimensions, reporting 57 correlation matrices involving 15,213 participants were included in this meta-analysis. Using meta-analytic structural equation modeling, the fit of the cognition-expectancy-action sequence of Weiner's model, its structural parameters and between-sample variations were examined. Our model fitted the data well, and the structural parameters showed that the causal dimensions influenced behavioral adjustment and performance through psychological consequences. The results also revealed large effect size heterogeneity across studies, explained by several moderators such as event valence. To conclude, the results support the cognition-expectancy- action sequence proposed by Weiner's attributional theory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

In this chapter, the authors delineate how competition circulates through education. First, the authors show how competitive ideologies, values, and norms are transmitted from society to educational institutions, in particular ideologies and values such as meritocracy, the belief in a fair free market, and neoliberalism, as well as norms such as productivism and employability. Second, the authors review the competitive structures and climates within educational institutions that shape students’ values, goals, and behaviors, in particular structures such as normative assessment, tracking, and numerus clausus, as well as climates such as classroom climate, goal structures, and error climate. Third, the authors report research that documents the impact of students’ competitive values, goals, and behaviors on educational outcomes, from learning and achievement to social relations. Finally, the authors conclude by reflecting on how such a socialization of students may impact society in a feedback loop, either in terms of maintenance of the status quo or in terms of social change.

In educational contexts, interpersonal attributional theory (Weiner, 2019 ) posits that teachers’ beliefs about the causes underlying their students’ academic performance vary along the causal dimensions of locus of causality, stability, personal controllability, and others’ controllability. Based on this framework, this study aimed at identifying teachers’ attribution profiles based on their perceptions about the causes of their students’ achievements. Two hundred eighty-nine experienced and novice French primary school teachers reported their causal beliefs about a student’s success or failure at a reading test, as well as their emotional and behavioral reactions to their student’s outcome. The data were analyzed using latent profile analyses, which identified five teachers’ attribution profiles that varied on the four causal dimensions. The results showed that profile memberships were greatly determined by the student’s outcome valence: three teachers’ attribution profiles were especially related to failure and two additional profiles to success. Profile memberships were associated with various cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions in line with the interpersonal attributional theory of motivation. The powerless profile — high external and uncontrollable attributions — indicated the lowest level of helping behavior. The conscientious profile — high internal and controllable attributions — indicated the highest levels of pride and student’s responsibility. Overall, these results partially support Weiner’s interpersonal attributional theory of motivation using a person-centered approach.

Consistently in achievement goal research, pursuing performance-avoidance goals has been associated with a decrease in achievement. Less is known to what extent this effect depends on the reasons underlying these goals' endorsement. The present research uses a social value approach to assess how do performance-avoidance goals' effects on achievement depend on the reasons anchored in social utility (goal endorsed in order to succeed) and in social desirability (goal endorsed in order to please one's teachers). Based on five correlational samples meta-analyzed in Study 1, results showed that perceiving performance-avoidance goals as socially useful increased the negative effect of these goals on achievement. This moderating effect was replicated experimentally in Study 2. These findings support the relevance of studying achievement goal complexes and illustrate that performance-avoidance goals may lead to deleterious consequences even when endorsed for seemingly good reasons.

Consistently across meta-analyses, performance-approach goal endorsement predicts achievement positively and performance-avoidance goal predicts it negatively. However, achievement goal research has not fully examined whether these effects depend on individuals' regulatory focus. In this article we present small-scale meta-analyses conducted on six studies (Ntotal = 749) demonstrating a fit effect between performance goals (approach and avoidance) and situational regulatory focus (promotion and prevention). Specifically, we show that performance-approach goals exert a more positive impact on achievement when pursued along with promotion rather than prevention focus. We also show that performance-avoidance goals exert a less detrimental effect on achievement when pursued along with prevention rather than promotion focus. We discuss some theoretical implications of these findings for achievement goal theory and make an emphasis on its possible contextual and cultural dependence.

Deux études ont analysé la structure factorielle d’une Echelle de Mesure des Attributions Causales pour Enfants (EMAC-E) adaptée de la Revised Causal Dimension Scale (McAuley, Duncan, & Russell, 1992). Cette échelle comprend quatre sous-échelles correspondant aux dimensions de causalité : lieu de causalité, stabilité, contrôle personnel et par autrui. Dans l’étude 1, 120 élèves français ont complété l’échelle après avoir été informés de leur résultat à un test de lecture. Conformément à nos attentes, les résultats montrent que les réponses des élèves s’organisent en quatre facteurs. Dans l’étude 2, la structure de l’échelle a été re-testée auprès de 310 élèves. Les résultats des analyses confirmatoires indiquent que le modèle à quatre facteurs présente un ajustement aux données très satisfaisant. Des résultats additionnels montrent l’invariance métrique entre les conditions échec et réussite. En conclusion, l’EMAC-E dispose d’une fiabilité interne satisfaisante pour étudier les attributions causales des jeunes élèves.

Socially desirable responding (SDR) affects the validity of self-reported measures in high stake situations. Notwithstanding the wealth of research devoted to this phenomenon, its operationalization is still under debate. We propose a novel approach that considers SDR as the consequence of a latent personality construct - social clear-sightedness - that corresponds to the individuals' ability to identify social expectations in a social context. Within this framework, SDR is conceived as the context-dependent manifestation of the dispositional latent construct of social clear-sightedness. Two studies were conducted to test the proposed model through a structural modelling approach. Results indicate that SDR is a context-dependent phenomenon, whose probability of occurrence increases with increasing assessment's stakes, but conditionally to individuals' level of social clear-sightedness

Past research shows that when forming an impression of an interdependent person, perceivers are motivated to look for information relevant to their goals and interests. The present experiments examined what happens after this information-seeking stage and showed that the relevance of the target's attributes for one's goals and interests drives warmth impressions. Using both a scenario (Experiment 1) and realistic methodologies (Experiment 3), we showed that when the perceiver had to collaborate with a target, the more competent the target, the more perceivers anticipated success and the more the target came across as warm. By contrast, in a competition setting, the competence of the target negatively affected prospects of success and impressions of warmth. Experiment 2 further showed that the target's competence drove warmth impressions only when perceivers attached a great value to the success of the task, suggesting that these inferences have a motivational underpinning.

Two studies tested the factorial structure of a French scale for children (EMAC-E) adapted from the Revised Causal Dimension Scale (McAuley, Duncan, & Russell, 1992). This new scale includes four subscales corresponding to the causal dimensions of locus of causality, stability, personal control and control by others. In study 1, 120 French primary school students completed the scale after having imagined a positive or negative result in a reading test. The results revealed that the students' responses corresponded to the four factors. In study 2, the scale's structure was re-tested on a sample of 310 students. The confirmatory analyses' results indicated that the four-factor model has a very satisfactory fit to the data. Additional results showed metric invariance of the scale in failure and success conditions. In conclusion, the EMAC-E is a reliable scale, which is useful for the study of the causal attributions of young students.

Meritocratic ideology can promote system justification and the perpetuation of inequalities. The present research tests whether priming merit in the school context enhances the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on school achievement. French fifth graders read a text priming either school merit or a neutral content, reported their French and mathematics self-efficacy as well as their belief in school meritocracy (BSM), and then took French and mathematics tests. Compared to the neutral condition, the merit prime condition increased the SES achievement gap. Self-efficacy and BSM were tested as two potential mediators of the effect. The results support a mediated moderation model in which belief in school meritocracy is the mechanism through which the merit prime increased the SES achievement gap.

Meritocratic ideology can promote system justification and the perpetuation of inequalities. The present research tests whether priming merit in the school context enhances the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on school achievement. French fifth graders read a text priming either school merit or a neutral content, reported their French and mathematics self-efficacy as well as their belief in school meritocracy (BSM), and then took French and mathematics tests. Compared to the neutral condition, the merit prime condition increased the SES achievement gap. Self-efficacy and BSM were tested as two potential mediators of the effect. The results support a mediated moderation model in which belief in school meritocracy is the mechanism through which the merit prime increased the SES achievement gap.

The extent to which response distortion – such as social desirability responding (SDR) – is present in self–report measures is an issue of concern and debate in personality research, as it may seriously impact such measures' psychometric indices. The present research aimed at using the social value framework to shed new light on SDR in self–report personality tests. Two studies tested the moderating role of individual differences in perceived social desirability of the Openness to Experience dimension for test–retest reliability and predictive validity of a typical Openness measure. Results support the hypothesized moderating role of perceived social desirability for improving test–retest reliability, providing the testing condition guarantees full anonymity (Study 1), and for predictive validity (Study 2). Findings are discussed with regards to SDR in personality research and the social value framework.