On the social nature of competence evaluations: Do task-involved individuals compare themselves to others?

Abstract

This thesis is focused on re-examining the link between mastery goals and social comparisons in accordance to the original achievement goals theory (Nichols, 1989). For the first time, a statistical model and manipulation procedures captured the specific effect of an achievement goal profile featuring high mastery and low performance goal endorsements. It has been soundly demonstrated that students who adopt a ‘pure’ mastery approach goal profile disregard favourable comparisons, but remain sensitive to unfavourable ones.