Boring but important
A self-transcendent purpose for learning fosters academic self-regulation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6203734 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David S Yeager (0000-0002-8522-9503, The University of Texas at Austin), Marlone D Henderson (0000-0002-7861-6003, The University of Texas at Austin), David Paunesku (0000-0002-2648-1290, Stanford University), Gary M Walton (0000-0002-6194-0472, Stanford University), Gregory M Walton, Sidney D''Mello, Sidney D'Mello, Sidney K D’Mello (0000-0003-0347-2807, University of Notre Dame), Brian Spitzer (0000-0001-9209-227X, New York University), Brian J Spitzer, Angela L Duckworth (0000-0002-2644-3729, University of Pennsylvania) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 107 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 559-580 |
| Publication date | 2014-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315 |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1037/a0037637 |
| PMID | 25222648 |
| OpenAlex | W1986461797 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 118 |
| References cited | 97 |
Many important learning tasks feel uninteresting and tedious to learners. This research proposed that promoting a prosocial, self-transcendent purpose could improve academic self-regulation on such tasks. This proposal was supported in 4 studies with over 2,000 adolescents and young adults. Study 1 documented a correlation between a self-transcendent purpose for learning and self-reported trait measures of academic self-regulation. Those with more of a purpose for learning also persisted longer on a boring task rather than giving in to a tempting alternative and, many months later, were less likely to drop out of college. Study 2 addressed causality. It showed that a brief, one-time psychological intervention promoting a self-transcendent purpose for learning could improve high school science and math grade point average (GPA) over several months. Studies 3 and 4 were short-term experiments that explored possible mechanisms. They showed that the self-transcendent purpose manipulation could increase deeper learning behavior on tedious test review materials (Study 3), and sustain self-regulation over the course of an increasingly boring task (Study 4). More self-oriented motives for learning--such as the desire to have an interesting or enjoyable career--did not, on their own, consistently produce these benefits (Studies 1 and 4)
Causality (physics) · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Independent study · Mathematics education · Prosocial behavior · Self-control · Self-regulated learning · Task (project management) · Teaching method · Trait · Education, Achievement, and Giftedness · Motivation and Self-Concept in Sports · Psychological and Temporal Perspectives Research · Psychology · Social Psychology
Authentic and hubristic pride
Growth in patience in Christian Moral Wisdom and contemporary positive psychology
Psychological affordances help explain where a self-transcendent purpose intervention improves performance
A prosocial value intervention in gateway STEM courses
Whether I like it or not, it’s important”
Cues of working together fuel intrinsic motivation
If they focus on giving us a chance in life we can actually do something in this world”
Young, purposed, and Black
The Role of Mothers' Communication in Promoting Motivation for Math and Science Course‐Taking in High School
Improving Student Outcomes in Higher Education
Goalsetting is Mindsetting
Upgrading Education with Technology
Motivation Science
Is Purpose Findable?
Wise interventions
Social and Emotional Learning Programs for Adolescents
Using design thinking to improve psychological interventions
Adaptive Motivation and Emotion in Education
Self-Control and Academic Achievement
Beyond utility value interventions
Nudging in education
Fostering Personal Meaning and Self-relevance
The Effects of a Female Role Model on Academic Performance and Persistence of Women in STEM Courses
The Need to Contribute During Adolescence
A Goal Congruity Model of Role Entry, Engagement, and Exit
Mind-Set Interventions Are a Scalable Treatment for Academic Underachievement
The Bright Side of Being Prosocial at Work, and the Dark Side, Too
Emotion Regulation in Achievement Situations
When Job Performance is All Relative
Children’s Contributions in Family Work
Children’s Contributions in Family Work
Unraveling motives
The Relationship between Meaning in Life and the Childhood Family Environment among Emerging Adults
Unveiling the veil
Toward an Interpersonal Theory of Academic Motivation
Purpose meets sustainability
When Do Supportive Teachers Motivate Students’ Science Pursuits? Examining the Role of Students’ Ecocentric Beliefs
The unique importance of motivation and mindsets for students’ learning behavior and achievement
Perceived economic benefits and costs of online learning
Meaning and motivation
The bright and dark side of autonomy
The purpose, adaptability, confidence, and engrossment model
Examining culturally diverse learners’ motivation and engagement processes as situated in the context of a complex task
Distinguishing between Grit, Persistence, and Perseverance for Learning Mathematics with Understanding
College for All and the Postsecondary Experiences of Rural First-Generation College Students
Regulatory Scope and Its Mental and Social Supports
STEM Linked-Course Communities Can Increase Student Success
Good Begets Good
How Do Late Adults Experience Meaning During the Covid-19 Lockdown? The Role of Intrinsic Goals
The effects of feedback valance and progress monitoring on goal striving
Components of engagement in saying-is-believing exercises
Personal values and college GPA
Healthcare students’ major selection motives and mental health
Motivational mindsets, mindset churn and academic performance
Conjunctive and additive group work reduce academic procrastination
Reappraisal as a means to self-transcendence
Strategies to combat misinformation
Identifying supportive student factors for mindset interventions
Investigating teacher influence on student engagement in high schools
Life purposes
Manifestations of purpose in life among Finnish student teachers
Multimodal Effort Profiles and Children's Performance
Impact of defining ikigai in developing future-ready university graduates with self-leadership skills
Motivating Business Students for Civic Education
Measure Learning Environments, Not Just Students, to Support Learning and Development
My Fair Lady? Inferring Organizational Trust From the Mere Presence of Women in Leadership Roles
Breaking self‐focused orientation in people who perceive economic scarcity
Effects of developmental relationships with teachers on middle‐school students’ motivation and performance
Context matters
Stress mindset predicts job turnover among preschool teachers
Social motivation and deep approaches to learning
Values-Alignment Messaging Boosts Adolescents’ Motivation to Control Social Media Use
Is procrastination among students lower in group work? Evidence from a registered field experiment
Too stressed to cope? A multiple mediation analysis of social bonds, sleep quality, and sleep disturbances in relation to prescription drug use among Chinese high school seniors
Finding Common Ground
Theoretical, Ethical, and Policy Considerations for Conducting Social–Psychological Interventions to Close Educational Achievement Gaps
From Precollege to Career
Metamotivational knowledge of construal level predicts academic performance
Adolescent self‐efficacy and orientation about the future
Adaptation and validation of the Claremont Purpose Scale to measure Chinese adolescents' purpose in life
Schoolwork With Purpose
Does Purpose Grow Here? Exploring 4-H as a Context for Cultivating Youth Purpose
The R and R of Purpose in College Students
Academic Year Changes in Student-Teacher Developmental Relationships and Their Linkage to Middle and High School Students’ Motivation
Supporting generous purpose in adolescence
True self-alienation positively predicts reports of mindwandering
The Development and Validation of the Practicing Faith Survey
Self-control and the reasons behind our goals
Closing achievement gaps with a utility-value intervention
Using wise interventions to motivate deliberate practice
Young individuals’ consideration of goal-self alignment and its relations to goal commitment and social concern
Intrapersonal curiosity
Purpose in life and academic performance
Making Learning Personally Meaningful
The sense of community for the Chinese nation promoting helping behavior among residents during Covid-19 pandemic
Reciprocal feedback between self‐concept and goal pursuit in daily life
Transcendent motivations and virtue development in adolescent marathon runners
Meaning matters
Efficacy of self-control and patience interventions in adolescents
On the conflation of purpose and meaning in life
Exploratory data analysis
The Handbook of Life-Span Development
Moral‐Character Education
Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences
The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance
Promoting Interest and Performance in High School Science Classes
The Influence of Experience and Deliberate Practice on the Development of Superior Expert Performance
Value From Regulatory Fit
Pathways for Positive Identity Construction at Work
Altruism and Prosocial Behavior
Relational Job Design and the Motivation to Make a Prosocial Difference
Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Goal Contents in Self-Determination Theory
Breaking the cycle of mistrust
Helping Parents to Motivate Adolescents in Mathematics and Science
Leading with Meaning
Interpersonal Sensemaking and the Meaning of Work
The New Science of Wise Psychological Interventions
The Generality of Working Memory Capacity
Enhancing interest and performance with a utility value intervention.
Peer Contagion of Aggression and Health Risk Behavior Among Adolescent Males
Rediscovering the Later Version of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
A Brief Social-Belonging Intervention Improves Academic and Health Outcomes of Minority Students
Crafting Normative Messages to Protect the Environment
Achievement motivation
Delay of Gratification in Children
Do I Matter? Construct validation of adolescents' perceived mattering to parents and friends
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivational Orientations in the Classroom
Out of Control
Personal Projects
Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness
In the Mind of the Actor
Financial Incentives and Student Achievement
Recursive Processes in Self-Affirmation
Task values, achievement goals, and interest
On Conceptualizing Self-Control as More Than the Effortful Inhibition of Impulses
Does intrinsic motivation fuel the prosocial fire? Motivational synergy in predicting persistence, performance, and productivity.
Motivational determinants of risk-taking behavior.
Construal-level theory of psychological distance.
Classrooms
Motivational Beliefs, Values, and Goals
Universals in the Content and Structure of Values
The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance.
Amazon's Mechanical Turk
Development and Validation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit–S)
False-Positive Psychology
Self-Perception Theory
A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety
Men and their work
Deliberate Practice Spells Success
A Motivational Perspective on Engagement and Disaffection
A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
Who Am I and What Am I Going to Do With My Life? Personal and Collective Identities as Motivators of Action
Moral Identity and Developmental Theory
Adolescent goal content and pursuit
Self‐Regulating Interest
Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being
The dynamics of self-regulation
The Martyrdom Effect
Discounting in judgments of delay and probability
Self-regulation and the income-achievement gap
A Grounded Theory of the Development of Noble Youth Purpose
How Supportive of Their Specific Purposes Do Youth Believe Their Family and Friends Are
The Role of Purposeful Work Goals in Promoting Meaning in Life and in Schoolwork During Adolescence
Being good by doing good
Reflection
Improving the academic performance of college freshmen
A 2 × 2 achievement goal framework
Motivating Learning, Performance, and Persistence
Self-control in action
Purpose as a form of identity capital for positive youth adjustment
Counteractive evaluation
The substitutability of external control and self-control
Mixed reasons, missed givings
Identity-Based Motivation
The power of self-persuasion
A variance explanation paradox
Unseen disadvantage
Personal strivings
Once a boring task always a boring task? Interest as a self-regulatory mechanism
Grit
A focus theory of normative conduct
Deflecting the trajectory and changing the narrative
Malleability in communal goals and beliefs influences attraction to stem careers
Cognitive and attentional mechanisms in delay of gratification
Counteractive self-control in overcoming temptation
The Development of Purpose During Adolescence
Closing the social class achievement gap for first-generation students in undergraduate biology
Reducing the Effects of Stereotype Threat on African American College Students by Shaping Theories of Intelligence
The Psychology of Change
Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement Across an Adolescent Transition
Social-Psychological Interventions in Education
The meaning in life questionnaire
Good People and Dirty Work
A Room with a Viewpoint
| Unique citing works | 118 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 9,83 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2026 (13) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 111 |