Can achievement goal theory provide a useful motivational perspective for explaining psychosocial attributes of medical students?

BMC Medical Education

Research Article

Nir Madjar¹  Talma Kushnir²  Yaacov G Bachner² 

[1] Department of Education, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel;Department of Sociology of Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel;

关键词: Medical Student;    Goal Orientation;    Performance Goal;    Test Anxiety;    Mastery Goal;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6920-12-4

 received in 2011-09-08, accepted in 2012-01-12,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundPsychosocial competence and frustration tolerance are important characteristics of skilled medical professionals. In the present study we explored the usefulness of applying a comprehensive motivational theory (Goal orientations), for this purpose. According to goal orientation theory, learning motivation is defined as the general goals students pursue during learning (either mastery goals - gaining new knowledge; or performance goals - gaining a positive evaluation of competence or avoiding negative evaluation). Perceived psychosocial abilities are a desirable outcome, and low frustration tolerance (LFT), is a negative feature of student behavior. The hypothesis was that the mastery goal would be positively associated with psychosocial abilities while performance goals would be positively associated with LFT.Methods143 first-year medical students completed at the end of an annual doctor-patient communication course a structured questionnaire that included measures of learning goal orientations (assessed by Pattern of Adaptive Learning Scale - PALS), psychosocial abilities (assessed by Psychological Medicine Inventory- student version -PMI-S) and Low Frustration Tolerance (LFT).ResultsAll study variables were found reliable (Cronbach's α ranged from .66 to .90) and normally distributed. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed significant associations supporting the hypotheses. The mastery goal orientation was positively associated with perceived psychosocial abilities (PMI-S) (β = .16, p < .05) and negatively associated with low frustration tolerance (β = -.22, p < .05) while performance goal orientation was significantly associated with low frustration tolerance (β = .36, p < .001).ConclusionsThe results suggest that the goal orientations theory may be a useful theoretical framework for understanding and facilitating learning motivation among medical students. Limitations and suggestions for practice within medical education context are discussed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Madjar et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012