Achievement Goals: A Social Influence Cycle.

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.

When School and Family Convey Different Cultural Messages: The Experience of Turkish Minority Group Members in France.

The present studies aim to compare the cultural values promoted by the French educational system and the Turkish families living in France to their youngsters. Because of their collectivist background Turkish immigrants may convey less individualistic values to their children compared to French parents and teachers. However, Turkish students may become more individualistic as they are socialized in the school system. In study 1 (N = 119), French school teachers, French parents, and Turkish-origin parents had to resolve six dilemmas by choosing either an individualistic or a collectivistic response-option. As expected, French teachers emphasized individualism more than Turkish parents, but not more than French parents. In Study 2 (N = 159), similar dilemmas were presented to French and Turkish-origin pupils. In elementary school, Turkish children were less individualistic than French-born children, but this gap was reduced in high school.

Assessing does not mean threatening: the purpose of assessment as a key determinant of girls' and boys' performance in a science class.

BACKGROUND: Is it possible to reach performance equality between boys and girls in a science class? Given the stereotypes targeting their groups in scientific domains, diagnostic contexts generally lower girls' performance and non-diagnostic contexts may harm boys' performance. AIM: The present study tested the effectiveness of a mastery-oriented assessment, allowing both boys and girls to perform at an optimal level in a science class. SAMPLE: Participants were 120 boys and 72 girls (all high-school students). METHODS: Participants attended a science lesson while expecting a performance-oriented assessment (i.e., an assessment designed to compare and select students), a mastery-oriented assessment (i.e., an assessment designed to help students in their learning), or no assessment of this lesson. RESULTS: In the mastery-oriented assessment condition, both boys and girls performed at a similarly high level, whereas the performance-oriented assessment condition reduced girls' performance and the no-assessment condition reduced boys' performance. CONCLUSIONS: One way to increase girls' performance on a science test without harming boys' performance is to present assessment as a tool for improving mastery rather than as a tool for comparing performances.

What causes social class disparities in education? The role of the mismatches between academic contexts and working-class socialization contexts and how the effects of these mismatches are explained.

Within psychology, the underachievement of students from working-class backgrounds has often been explained as a product of individual characteristics such as a lack of intelligence or motivation. Here, we propose an integrated model illustrating how educational contexts contribute to social class disparities in education over and beyond individual characteristics. According to this new Social Class-Academic Contexts Mismatch model, social class disparities in education are due to several mismatches between the experiences that students from working-class backgrounds bring with them to the classroom and those valued in academic contexts-specifically, mismatches between (a) academic contexts' culture of independence and the working-class orientation to interdependence, (b) academic contexts' culture of competition and the working-class orientation toward cooperation, (c) the knowledge valued in academic contexts and the knowledge developed through working-class socialization, and (d) the social identities valued in academic contexts and the negatively stereotyped social identities of students from working-class backgrounds. Because of these mismatches, students from working-class backgrounds are likely to experience discomfort and difficulty in the classroom. We further propose that, when attempting to make sense of these first-order effects, students and teachers rely on inherent characteristics (e.g., ability, motivation) more often than warranted; conversely, they overlook extrinsic, contextual factors. In turn, this explanatory bias toward inherent features leads (a) students from working-class backgrounds to experience self-threat and (b) their teachers to treat them unfairly. These second-order effects magnify social class disparities in education. This integrated model has the potential to reshape research and discourse on social class and education. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Self-enhancement values and academic achievement: An interaction with students' parental level of education and gender?

BACKGROUND: We investigated the link between the endorsement of self-enhancement values (e.g., ambition, influence, authority and social power) and school achievement (i.e., grades). AIM: Adopting an intersectional framework, we argued that the link may be qualified by both students' gender and their parents' education level. We hypothesized that depending on students' different experiences in the school system as a function of their gender and their parents' level of educational attainment, the endorsement of self-enhancement values might be either beneficial or detrimental to their academic achievement. SAMPLES: We conducted two studies: a pilot study (N = 191) and a preregistered main study (N = 652). METHOD: High-school students reported their endorsement of self-enhancement values, their gender and their parents' education level. The school administration provided students' grade average. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: In the pilot study, we found an interaction effect between the endorsement of self-enhancement values, gender and parental level of education on grades: For male students, the endorsement of self-enhancement values was associated with lower grades when their parents had a lower education level, but there was no such association for male students whose parents had a higher education level. No such effect was found for female students. With an improved methodology, the main study found an interaction effect between the endorsement of self-enhancement values and gender on grades. Independent of parental education level, the endorsement of self-enhancement values had a positive effect on grades among male students. No effect of self-enhancement values on grades was found among female students.

Belief in School Meritocracy and the Legitimization of Social and Income Inequality.

Educational institutions are imbued with an institutional meritocratic discourse: only merit counts for academic success. In this article, we study whether this institutional belief has an impact beyond its primary function of encouraging students to study. We propose that belief in school meritocracy has broader societal impact by legitimizing the social class hierarchy it produces and encouraging the maintenance of inequalities. The results of four studies (one correlational study, Ntotal = 198; one experiment, Ntotal = 198; and two international data surveys, Ntotal = 88,421 in 40+countries) indicate that belief in school meritocracy reduces the perceived unfairness of social class inequality in society, support for affirmative action policies at university and support for policies aimed at reducing income inequality. Together, these studies show that the belief that schools are meritocratic carries consequences beyond the school context as it is associated with attitudes that maintain social class and economic inequality.

Economic insecurity and compliance with the COVID-19 restrictions.

The present research investigates economic insecurity as one potential determinant of citizens' compliance with restrictive policies implemented to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Two pre-registered studies (N Study 1 = 305; N Study 2 = 175) were conducted in France during the second and the third wave of the pandemic to test correlational (Study 1) and causal (Study 2) links between economic insecurity, perceived constraints, and transgressions (self-reported, Study 1; intended, Study 2). We hypothesized that the effect of economic insecurity is particularly strong for restrictions involving social affiliations (e.g., not meeting with friends and families). Results indicated that economic insecurity indeed increases perceived constraints and the tendency to transgress but for all types of restrictions (involving social affiliation or not). We propose that economic insecurity poses a threat to individuals' self-agency, which triggers psychological reactance to any form of restrictions on individual freedom.

A multilevel account of social value-related reasons behind mastery goals.

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.

Dealing with a Crisis: Does Covid-19 Promote Traditional Gender Roles?

The Covid-19 crisis has many characteristics susceptible to emphasize gendered prescriptions. In the present research, we argue that the Covid-19 crisis should promote citizenship behaviors (CB) consistent with gender stereotypes. Two pre-registered experiments were conducted during lockdown in France (Study 1) and United Kingdom (Study 2). We manipulated the salience of the Covid-19 crisis using a fake newspaper article and showed that women were more likely than men to engage in CB of altruism and sacrifice. Meta-analysis results of the two studies confirmed that these gender differences were larger when the Covid-19 crisis was highly salient (vs. control condition). For women, more than for men, engaging in altruistic behaviors and making sacrifice for the greater good are perceived as the behaviors to endorse to cope with the Covid-19 crisis.

A Two-Sided Lockdown? Social Class Variations in the Implementation of Homeschooling During the COVID-19 Lockdown.

The COVID-19 pandemic deeply affected how schools and families functioned through most of 2020. In particular, school closures meant parents took on a more central role in their children's learning. This study analyzed social class variations in the quantity and quality of homeschooling during the lockdown. Through an online questionnaire, 360 parents reported (1) their digital equipment and use, (2) the perceptions of their ability to homeschool their children, (3) how they handled homeschooling and (4) the extent to which they supported other activities considered more or less "profitable" from an educational point of view (e.g., reading, watching television). A social position index was used as a proxy of social class. The results indicated that all parents were highly involved in setting up homeschooling and that the lower the parents' social position, the more they spent time homeschooling their children. However, in line with the digital divide literature, the lower the parents' social position, the lower the digital equipment and the less the parents felt capable of homeschooling. Finally, the higher the social position of the families, the more children spent time doing activities considered to be "educationally profitable," and the less they spent time doing "unprofitable activities." Thus, even if all parents were highly involved in homeschooling, higher social position parents were better equipped both materially and psychologically to face the challenge of homeschooling. The long-term impact of these processes on the perpetuation of social class inequalities are discussed.

Why lockdown and distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to increase the social class achievement gap.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced teachers and parents to quickly adapt to a new educational context: distance learning. Teachers developed online academic material while parents taught the exercises and lessons provided by teachers to their children at home. Considering that the use of digital tools in education has dramatically increased during this crisis, and it is set to continue, there is a pressing need to understand the impact of distance learning. Taking a multidisciplinary view, we argue that by making the learning process rely more than ever on families, rather than on teachers, and by getting students to work predominantly via digital resources, school closures exacerbate social class academic disparities. To address this burning issue, we propose an agenda for future research and outline recommendations to help parents, teachers and policymakers to limit the impact of the lockdown on social-class-based academic inequality.

Socio-Emotional Competencies and School Performance in Adolescence: What Role for School Adjustment?

There is growing evidence in the literature of positive relationships between socio-emotional competencies and school performance. Several hypotheses have been used to explain how these variables may be related to school performance. In this paper, we explored the role of various school adjustment variables in the relationship between interpersonal socio-emotional competencies and school grades, using a weighted network approach. This network approach allowed us to analyze the structure of interrelations between each variable, pointing to both central and mediatory school and socio-emotional variables within the network. Self-reported data from around 3,400 French vocational high school students were examined. This data included a set of interpersonal socio-emotional competencies (cognitive and affective empathy, socio-emotional behaviors and collective orientation), school adjustment measures (adaptation to the institution, school anxiety, self-regulation at school, and self-perceived competence at school) as well as grades in mathematics and French language. The results showed that self-regulation at school weighted the most strongly on the whole network, and was the most important mediatory pathway. More specifically, self-regulation mediated the relationships between interpersonal socio-emotional competencies and school grades.

Facing the risk of upward mobility: Performance-avoidance goals and social class among high-school students.

Recent research has shown that lower social class students are more likely to endorse performance-avoidance goals (i.e., the fear of performing poorly) than higher-class students, particularly in situations of success. The purpose of the present research is, first, to test the upward mobility process as a moderator of the link between social class and performance-avoidance goal endorsement. The second aim is to document the further impact of this process on academic performance. Two hundred and fifteen high school students (M age = 17.40, SD = 0.69) participated in the experiment. Half of them were randomly assigned to a "mobility salience" condition where they completed a mobility perception scale; while the other half completed a neutral scale. Then, they answered performance-avoidance goal items and solved mathematics, physics and life and earth sciences exercises. Results indicated that the salience of the mobility process increased the effect of social class on both performance-avoidance goal endorsement and mathematic performance. In addition, performance-avoidance goals appeared to be a mediator of the interaction effect between social class and the salience of the mobility process on mathematics performance. No such findings were obtained for physics and life and earth sciences. Taken together, these results support the idea that the prospect of experiencing mobility may be one of the mechanisms behind the difficulties encountered by lower-class students in an academic context.

When an academic culture based on self-enhancement values undermines female students' sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and academic choices.

Although overall women are better represented in higher education than men, women's psychological experience in various academic contexts is qualified by a decreased sense of belonging and academic self-efficacy, including in fields where they are not targeted by a negative stereotype. To clarify this phenomenon, we develop the hypothesis of a mismatch between female students' values and the values associated with success in the increasingly selective realm of higher education. We argue that, whatever the fields of study, these values are self-enhancement values (competitiveness, self-affirmation, dominance). Three studies showed that when success was depicted in terms of self-enhancement values, women - but not men - expressed a lower sense of belonging, had lower self-efficacy and were less likely to pursue a given academic opportunity both in STEM and non-STEM fields of study. These effects did not appear in an academic context depicting success as being rooted in self-transcendence values (helpfulness, cooperation, benevolence).

Faking the desire to learn: a clarification of the link between mastery goals and academic achievement.

Research on achievement goals has demonstrated that mastery goals positively impact achievement-related outcomes, but paradoxically hold an inconsistent relation with academic achievement. We hypothesized that this relationship depends on the reason why students endorse mastery goals--namely, to garner teachers' appreciation (social desirability) or to succeed at university (social utility). First-year psychology students completed a mastery-goal scale in a standard format, with social-desirability instructions and social-utility instructions. Participants' grades on academic exams were recorded later in the semester. Results indicated that students' perceptions of both social desirability and social utility related to mastery goals moderated the relationship between the endorsement of mastery goals and final grades. This relationship was reduced by the increase of perceived social desirability of mastery goals, and strengthened by the increase of perceived social utility of these goals.

Achievement goal promotion at university: social desirability and social utility of mastery and performance goals.

The present research examines the ambivalence of achievement goal promotion at university, and more specifically in the psychology curriculum. On the one hand, psychology teachers explicitly encourage mastery but not performance (neither approach nor avoidance) goals. On the other hand, the selection process encourages the endorsement of not only mastery but also performance-approach goals. In fact, it would seem that both performance-approach and mastery goals are valued in a university context. Two pilot studies verified the above assumptions. Subsequently, Experiments 1, 2, and 3 showed that each of these goals corresponds to different aspects of social value. Indeed, high endorsement of mastery goals was associated with being judged as both likable (social desirability) and likely to succeed (social utility). High endorsement of performance-approach goals enhanced social utility judgments but reduced perceived likability. Performance-avoidance goals only enhanced perceived likability. The discussion focuses on the 2 functions of university, namely education (apparent in the official discourse of teachers) and selection (apparent in the university structure), and on the perceived value of achievement goals.

The coordination of problem solving strategies: when low competence sources exert more influence on task processing than high competence sources.

Previous research has shown that low competence sources, compared to highly competent sources, can exert influence in aptitudes tasks in as much as they induce people to focus on the task and to solve it more deeply. Two experiments aimed at testing the coordination between self and source's problem solving strategies as a main explanation of such a difference in influence. The influence of a low versus high competence source has been examined in an anagram task that allows for distinguishing between three response strategies, including one that corresponds to the coordination between the source's strategy and participants' own strategy. In Study 1 the strategy suggested by the source was either relevant and useful or irrelevant and useless for solving the task. Results indicated that participants used the coordination strategy in a larger extend when they had been confronted to a low competence rather than a highly competent source but only when the source displayed a strategy that was useful to solve the task. In Study 2 the source's strategy was always relevant and useful, but a decentring procedure was introduced for half of the participants. This procedure induced participants to consider other points of view than their own. Results replicated the difference observed in Study 1 when no decentring was introduced. The difference however disappeared when decentring was induced, because of an increase of the high competence source's influence. These results highlight coordination of strategies as one mechanism underlying influence from low competence sources.

Doing better (or worse) than one's parents: Social status, mobility, and performance-avoidance goals.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown that, when succeeding in higher education, first-generation (FG) students endorse more performance-avoidance goals (i.e., the fear of performing poorly) than continuing-generation (CG) students. AIMS: In this study, individual mobility is examined as a predictor of performance-avoidance goal endorsement. It is argued that FG students endorse more these goals than CG students because in higher education, the former (but not the latter) experience upward mobility. In addition, CG can also be at risk of endorsing these goals when they are confronted with downward mobility. SAMPLE(S): Two studies were conducted with psychology students (N = 143 in Study 1; N = 176 in Study 2). METHODS: In Study 1, FG and CG students' perceived upward mobility was measured. In Study 2, FG and CG students were provided with a feedback that suggested either upward or downward mobility. In both studies, participants reported their level of performance-avoidance goal endorsement. RESULTS: Results from Study 1 supported an indirect effect of status on performance-avoidance goals via a higher perception of upward mobility. Results from Study 2 supported that psychology students who face mobility (i.e., FG students who received better feedback than their usual level of performance, CG students who received worse feedback than their usual level of performance) increased their performance-avoidance goals the most. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, the results of these studies support that one's actual social position and, even more, the social position one is about to reach are reliable predictors of performance-avoidance goals.

'Where there is a will, there is a way': Belief in school meritocracy and the social-class 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.

Performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals: when uncertainty makes a difference.

Performance-avoidance goals (the desire to avoid performing more poorly than others do) have been shown to have consistently deleterious effects on performance but the effects of performance-approach goals (trying to outperform others) are more complex. Two studies examine uncertainty as a moderator of the effect of performance-approach goals on performance. Experiment 1 shows that manipulated performance-approach goals lead to better performance than do performance-avoidance goals in the absence of uncertainty about performance but when participants learn that a coactor disagreed with them about problem solutions, creating uncertainty, performance-approach goals do not differ from performance-avoidance goals in their effect on performance. Experiment 2 shows that uncertainty also moderates the effects of self-set performance-approach goals. Moreover, the same dynamic occurs with another kind of uncertainty: negative competence feedback.