- P-ISSN1738-3110
- E-ISSN2093-7717
- SCOPUS, ESCI
ISSN : 1738-3110
The Relationship of Individual Trait Factors and Goal Mechanisms with Goal Attainability
Choi, Ji-Eun
Abstract
Purpose - Goal setting is effective in any domain in which an individual or group has some control over the outcomes. It applies not only to work tasks but also to sports and health, and in various other settings. Its success depends on considering the mediators and moderators determining its efficacy and applicability. This study investigates the individual factors influencing academic goal attainability. Unlike previous studies, we focused on the effect of the relationships between individual traits (passion, tenacity, self-control) and specific motivation (vision, self-efficacy, implementation intentions) with academic goal attainability, rather than the effects of the relationship between commitment and the goal shielding mechanism with goal attainability. Research design, data, and methodology - Data collected through questionnaires were analyzed by the SPSS program. A total of 293 school students, who participated in the TOEIC program, participated in the survey. Slightly more than half were female (male: n=145 vs. female: n=148). We verified nine hypotheses through various statistical methods (reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation model for the hypothesis test, bootstrapping test for the mediation test). Results - Data was analyzed in three phases. The first phase involved measurement analysis (i.e., item purification and factor structure confirmation), involving the scales of the three variables of individual traits, three mechanism variables, and goal attainability. The second phase involved estimating the proposed structural relationships among the key constructs (see Figure 1), using the results to test H1 to H9. The final phase involved examining the mediating effects of the three variables (vision, implementation intention, and self-efficacy). The research model shows that the independent variable passion has a significant result with both the mediators-vision and self-efficacy. Further, vision and self-efficacy significantly affect goal attainability. The second variable, self-control, shows a significant effect when mediated by implementation intentions, but the direct relationship between implementation intension and goal attainability shows an insignificant result. However, when further mediated by self-efficacy, it showed a significant effect between self-efficacy and goal attainability. Similarly, the third variable, tenacity, shows an insignificant result when mediated by vision. In contrast, the mediator self-efficacy shows a positive effect between tenacity and goal attainability. Conclusions - This study shows how these individual traits, when mediated with the appropriate motivational factors, resulted significantly in the attainability of academic goals. We may identify several theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, we developed a step further in the research into consumer goals and related studies. Future research could examine the effects of different learning goal types and their combinations with performance goals (e.g., learning goals first, then performance goals), different types of goal framing (approach success vs. avoid failure), the relation between goals and cognition (which, by implication, entails all of cognitive psychology), goal hierarchies, and macro goal studies with organizations of different sizes. More studies on the relationship between conscious and subconscious goals would also be valuable.
- keywords
- Goal setting, Passion, Tenacity, Self-control, Implementation intentions, Vision, Self-efficacy, Goal Attainability
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