Researching state shame with the Experiential Shame Scale.

Although debilitating effects of experiencing shame are posited in several theories of emotion and motivation, little research has been conducted on individuals' "in-the-moment" feelings of shame (i.e., state shame). However, researching state shame is challenging because individuals may deny or underreport their feelings of shame, tend to self-isolate when they feel shame, and may be unwilling or unable to express themselves when feeling shame. The Experiential Shame Scale (ESS), an "opaque" measure of physical, emotional, and social markers of shame experiences, was developed to address the difficulties of assessing state shame. Evidence obtained in three studies of individuals' emotional reactions following personally important exam feedback suggests that students' ESS ratings were uniquely related to feelings of state shame and not to state guilt. Findings also reveal that state shame is specifically related to feelings of shock and not surprise. As intended, findings suggested that the ESS has low face validity and is not related to social desirability.

Goal orientation, goal difficulty, and incentive values of academic goals.

We examined relationships among goal attributes (difficulty and affective value) and goal types (mastery, performance, intrinsic, and extrinsic). Goal attributes of positive affect value and relative salience of positive value were higher for intrinsic goals, mastery goals, and more difficult goals, qualified by an interaction between difficulty and type of goal. Intrinsic goals were more affectively positive than extrinsic goals and mastery goals were more positive than performance goals, but these differences vanished if goals were also perceived as difficult. Results were consistent with goal-orientation theories and suggest the usefulness of integrating incentive-attribute concepts with goal-orientation theories.

Motivation when optimism declines: data on temporal dynamics.

To contribute to a description of motivation variables across time, the authors examined temporal changes in these variables as the time to pursue a test-taking goal approached. In three samples, expected performance, grade-level standards, and perceived adequacy of effort decreased as the test time approached, but other indices of motivation did not always decrease. Data indicated that (a) there is a strong relationship between expectancies and implicit goal setting, (b) students may sometimes change goal levels and definitions of success to maintain their desire for chosen goals despite declining expectations, (c) effects of event proximity on goal-achievement expectations may be based on overestimating the adequacy of future effort, and (d) the degree to which expectancy and value predict motivation appears to vary with exam proximity. Results revealed a temporal complexity in motivation variables and in the relationships among them.