The Relationship Between Goal Orientation and Age Among Adolescents and Adults

According to C. S. Dweck (1986), students often approach an achievement situation in 1 of 2 ways: (a) from a learning orientation, which is characterized by a desire to acquire new skills and knowledge for the sake of learning; or (b) from a performance orientation, which is characterized by a desire to prove one's competence to others. In this investigation, the learning orientations of 199 college students ranging in age from 17 years to 59 years were assessed, because learning-oriented students tend to exhibit more adaptive achievement-oriented behaviors than their performance-oriented peers. It was found that older students were more likely to be learning oriented. If this is a replicable finding, it is possible that grouping students of varied ages together could support the development of a learning orientation in younger students.