Achievement goals, failure attributions, and academic performance in nontraditional and traditional college students

This study assessed various components of Dweck's model of achievement motivation as applied to college students. Our major goals were to (a) examine both the separate and combined effects of learning and performance orientations on achievement, (b) clarify the role of performance orientation in academic achievement, and (c) extend analyses to include older, nontraditional students. We compared four goal orientation groups (high learning, high performance, mixed goals, and uncommitted) on a variety of measures related to Dweck's model: beliefs about the flexibility of intelligence, academic performance (GPA), failure attributions, and optimism. Beliefs about intelligence and optimism related to goal orientations, but not to grades. Both learning and performance orientations related positively to grades, but students with stronger performance orientations were more likely to use a negative explanatory style which was related to lower grades. Older, nontraditional students had a significantly higher learning orientation, lower performance orientation, and higher GPAs than traditional students. These two groups did not differ in their beliefs about intelligence, use of negative failure attributions, or general optimism (although optimism was positively correlated with age). Implications for both future research and possible academic intervention strategies are discussed.