The effects of competition on achievement motivation in Chinese classrooms.

BACKGROUND: Laboratory studies have consistently found that competition induces performance goals and affects learning motivation. However, the ecological validity of these results is yet to be established. There is a need for investigation of whether the results hold in both the classroom context and non-Western culture. AIM: The study investigated the effects of competition on learning motivation among Chinese students in an authentic classroom setting. SAMPLE: The participants were 52 students of grade 7 from two Hong Kong secondary schools. METHOD: They were randomly assigned to either competitive or non-competitive conditions in a 2-hour Chinese typewriting course. RESULTS: Students in the competitive condition performed better in easy tasks than their counterparts in the non-competitive condition. However, they were more performance-oriented and more likely to sacrifice learning opportunities for better performance. They were also prone to have worse self-evaluation after failure. Although there were no statistically significant differences between the two conditions in task enjoyment and achievement attribution, the direction of the differences was consistently unfavourable to students in the competitive condition. CONCLUSION: The findings were consistent with the predictions of goal theory. Competitiveness induces performance goals and worse self-evaluation after failure among Chinese students in a classroom setting, as was found with Western students in a laboratory setting.

Development of a consumer constructed scale to evaluate mental health service provision.

OBJECTIVE: Most mental health outcome and satisfaction measures have been developed by academic researchers or service providers. Consumers have been limited to the role of participant or advisor. The validity and reliability of these satisfaction measures have been challenged. This paper reports the development of a consumer satisfaction questionnaire in which consumers work as collaborative researchers to increase its face validity and relevance. METHOD: Eleven themes from a previous participatory study were used by consumer researchers and university-based researchers to generate questionnaire items, with four items reflecting each theme. The internal consistency and factor structure were examined in public and non-government mental health service centres based on data of 202 mental health consumers. RESULTS: Principal Components Analysis with oblique rotation yielded a two-factor structure: Empowerment and Dehumanization. The two factors together explained 36.7% of the total variance. The scale demonstrated high internal consistency, with Cronbach's alpha for the total scale at 0.92, and for the two factors at 0.92 and 0.80. CONCLUSIONS: The questionnaire was developed in accordance with an evaluation framework of consumer directed evaluation of mental health services. The final questionnaire consists of 26 items. It has satisfactory internal consistency and appeared to be useful with inpatients and outpatients. Further research will be performed to establish its test-retest reliability and criterion validity.