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The present research investigated the possibility to foster positive classroom climate, achievement emotions, and adaptive beliefs about errors by manipulating teachers’ error handling strategies. Through a pre-post experimental design, teachers’ error handling strategies were manipulated during a fictitious lesson in the primary school context. The experimenter, who was presented as an external teacher, carried out the lesson using positive and supportive error handling strategies (experimental condition) or neutral error handling strategies (control condition). The aim was to test differences in pupils’ perceived error climate, achievement-related emotions, and error beliefs comparing the two conditions. A total of 108 fifth-grade primary school pupils took part in the research. The main results revealed that dealing with pupils’ errors using a constructive and encouraging strategy that supports them in learning from their errors (positive error handling) increased, compared with a neutral error handling, their perception of being in a trustful and supportive learning climate. This study represents the first experimental attempt in which error-related teaching strategies have been directly manipulated to identify their causal impact on primary school pupils’ perceived error climate.

International audience; There is growing evidence in the literature of positive relationships between socio-emotional competencies and school performance. Several hypotheses have been used to explain how these variables may be related to school performance. In this paper, we explored the role of various school adjustment variables in the relationship between interpersonal socio-emotional competencies and school grades, using a weighted network approach. This network approach allowed us to analyze the structure of interrelations between each variable, pointing to both central and mediatory school and socio-emotional variables within the network. Self-reported data from around 3,400 French vocational high school students were examined. This data included a set of interpersonal socio-emotional competencies (cognitive and affective empathy, socio-emotional behaviors and collective orientation), school adjustment measures (adaptation to the institution, school anxiety, self-regulation at school, and self-perceived competence at school) as well as grades in mathematics and French language. The results showed that self-regulation at school weighted the most strongly on the whole network, and was the most important mediatory pathway. More specifically, self-regulation mediated the relationships between interpersonal socio-emotional competencies and school grades.

International audience; BackgroundA growing literature focuses on reasons behind achievement goal endorsement, and mastery-approach goals (MG) specifically, and how these reasons influence academic performance. Past research provides evidence that student-level social value-related reasons behind MG moderate the MG-performance link in adolescents and young adults. However, we ignore whether this moderation is best conceived of as a student-level effect (i.e., students’ social value-related reasons), a class-level effect (i.e., influence of class-dependent contextual social value), or both.AimsThis research aims at understanding the moderation of the MG-performance link by social value from a multilevel account, which is novel, as the student level has been the default level so far.SampleThe study was conducted on a sample of 436 primary school students, from 3rd to 6th grade.MethodsStudents completed a MG scale adapted to their French classes under different instructions: standard, social desirability (answer to be viewed as likeable by your teacher), social utility (answer to be viewed as successful by your teacher), along with a dictation to measure performance, and socio-demographic measures.ResultsResults show that the moderation effect of social utility on the MG-dictation performance link is observed at the student level, but that the moderation by social desirability is best accounted for by class-level differences.ConclusionsIt is important to consider a multilevel framework when examining reasons behind MG reports, including social value-related reasons, both for future research and teachers in the classroom.

There is evidence that democracies are under threat around the world while the quest for strong leaders is increasing. Although the causes of these developments are complex and multifaceted, here we focus on one factor: the extent to which citizens express materialist and post-materialist concerns. We explore whether objective higher levels of democracy are differentially associated with materialist and post-materialist concerns and, in turn, whether this is related to the wish for a strong leader. Testing this hypothesis across 27 countries (N = 5,741) demonstrated a direct negative effect of democracies’ development on the wish for a strong leader. Further, multi-level mediation analysis showed that the relation between the Democracy Index and the wish for a strong leader was mediated by materialist concerns. This pattern of results suggests that lower levels of democracy are associated with enhanced concerns about basic needs and this is linked to greater support for strong leaders., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Objective Scholars disagree on whether income inequality has incentive or disincentive effects. In the present research, we move beyond such debate and focus on the motivational processes that income inequality predicts. First, income inequality makes economic stratification salient, and therefore should promote perceived competitiveness. Second, competitiveness can be appraised as both a challenge and a threat, and therefore should promote both approach and avoidance motivation. Method In three studies (N = 2,543), U.S. residents from various ZIP codes reported the extent to which they perceived competitiveness in their town/city (Studies 1-3), as well as their economic achievement goals, achievement motives, and self-regulatory foci (Studies 2-3). Results Level of local income inequality was found to be a positive predictor—via increased perceived competitiveness—of other-approach economic goals, need for achievement, and promotion focus, as well as other-avoidance economic goals, fear of failure (specifically, the shame/embarrassment component), and prevention focus. Furthermore, actual and perceived income inequality were positively correlated. Conclusion The conceptual and empirical work herein is the first to show how the economic environment predicts individuals’ perceptions of competitiveness, influencing personal goals, motives, and orientations. It provides a more nuanced perspective on the implications of income inequality than perspectives currently available.

This research investigates a barrier faced by low-SES pupils who are on an upward social mobility trajectory: resistance to their high-achiever status. We hypothesize that, as they disconfirm the usual social-class academic disparities (i.e., high-SES on average outperform low-SES pupils), they threaten the status quo and induce restorative reactions that may hinder their chances of success. Experiment 1 showed that participants remembered less accurately information about pupils when low-SES pupils were presented as outperforming high-SES pupils than when the reverse was true. The errors appeared to be congruent with existing social hierarchies. In Experiment 2, preservice teachers assessed a test supposedly produced by a low- versus high-SES pupil who was presented as being either high or low achieving. The evaluation was harshest when the test was produced by a high-achieving low-SES pupil. These results suggest that people attempt to recreate the social-class academic hierarchy when it is challenged.

International audience; To understand the persistent social class achievement gap, researchers have investigated how educational settings affect lower versus higher socioeconomic status (SES) students’ performance. We move beyond the question of actual performance to study its assessment by evaluators. We hypothesized that even in the absence of performance differences, assessment’s function of selection (i.e., compare, rank, and track students) leads evaluators to create a SES achievement gap. In 2 experiments (N = 196; N = 259), participants had to assess a test supposedly produced by a high- or a low-SES student, and used assessment for selection (i.e., normative grading) or learning (i.e., formative comments). Results showed that evaluators using assessment for selection found more mistakes if the test was attributed to a low-rather than a high-SES student, a difference reduced in the assessment for learning condition. The third and fourth experiments (N = 374; N = 306) directly manipulated the function of assessment to investigate whether the production of the social class achievement gap was facilitated by the function of selection to a greater extent than the educational function. Results of Experiment 3 supported this hypothesis. The effect did not reach significance for Experiment 4, but an internal meta-analysis confirmed that assessment used for selection led evaluators to create a SES achievement gap more than assessment used for learning, thereby contributing to the reproduction of social inequalities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

A partner’s competence should logically favor cooperative learning. However, research in cooperative learning has shown that a partner’s competence may or may not activate a threatening social comparison and yields dual effects: It is beneficial when students work on complementary information while it is detrimental when students work on identical information. Two studies conducted at elementary school (study 1 with 24 fourth graders working on encyclopedic texts, and study 2 with 28 fifth graders working on argumentative texts) replicated that interaction: Information distribution (complementary vs. identical information) moderated the relationship between partner’s competence and pupils’ learning outcomes. The relation between partner’s competence and students’ performances was positive when working on complementary information, but negative when working on identical information. A third study confirmed that working on identical information led to a competitive social comparison whereas complementary information reinforced the pupils’ cooperation perception. Contributions to cooperative learning research are discussed in terms of the competitive comparisons that may arise during cooperative learning at elementary school.

International audience; According to the recent research, the educational system fulfills both an educational function (i.e., teaching and training students) and a selection function (i.e., determining students’ future position in the social hierarchy), particularly in higher education. It has been argued that in the university system the selection function provides a social utility value to performance-approach goals (i.e., the goal to demonstrate one’s own competences relative to others), which in turn increases the extent to which students endorse these goals. Two experiments investigated the influence of the salience of the selection function on performance-approach goals’ social value and endorsement. The results showed that the salience of the selection function increased both performance-approach goal endorsement (experiment 1 and 2) and performance-approach goals’ social utility (experiment 2). These goals’ social utility contributes to explaining the effect of the salience of the selection function on performance-approach goal endorsement. Limitations of the present experiments and practical implications are discussed.

Abstract. Performance-approach goals (i.e., the desire to outperform others) have been found to be positive predictors of test performance, but research has also revealed that they predict surface learning strategies. The present research investigates whether the high academic performance of students who strongly adopt performance-approach goals stems from test anticipation and preparation, which most educational settings render possible since examinations are often scheduled in advance. We set up a longitudinal design for an experiment conducted in high-school classrooms within the context of two science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, namely, physics and chemistry. First, we measured performance-approach goals. Then we asked students to take a test that had either been announced a week in advance (enabling strategic preparation) or not. The expected interaction between performance-approach goal endorsement and test anticipation was moderated by the students’ initial level: The interaction appeared only among low achievers for whom the pursuit of performance-approach goals predicted greater performance – but only when the test had been scheduled. Conversely, high achievers appeared to have adopted a regular and steady process of course content learning whatever their normative goal endorsement. This suggests that normative strivings differentially influence the study strategies of low and high achievers.

Social interdependence theory has provided a conceptual framework to understand cooperation and competition through a common mechanism: Social interdependence, i.e., the mechanism whereby the outcomes of individuals in a group are affected by the actions of the other group members. Positive social interdependence is the set of rules, norms, or practices that requires all group members to contribute to a common goal in order to fulfill individual goals. Negative social interdependence requires that some members fulfill their goals to the detriment of others’ goals. We review the research showing how social interdependence affects group members’ perceptions and behaviors, which in turn influence their learning outcomes. We focus on cooperation and the work that showed how cooperation requires positive goal interdependence, but also group members’ responsibility and accountability, interactions directed toward the promotion of the partners, the use of social skills, and critical reflection upon group processes. Then we turn to the literature on cooperative methods in education, and we provide evidence that they favor learning outcomes, psychological and social adjustment, and positive relationships, as compared to competitive and individualistic methods. However, cooperation is vulnerable to threatening social comparison, and we provide evidence that interactions among group members that focus on relative status instead of the task may reduce the beneficial effects of cooperation. Finally, we report an intervention study that illustrates how the implementation of cooperative methods requires training and promotion. Social Interdependence and the Promotion of Cooperative Learning.

We adopted an achievement goal complex framework (studying achievement goals and reasons connected to goals) to determine when and why performance goals predict exploitation of others’ knowledge. We hypothesized that: (i) when selective assessment is used (exams aiming to select a limited number of individuals), the link between performance goals and exploitation orientation is stronger; (ii) the reason why is that selective assessment fosters performance goals regulated by controlled reasons. Study 1 (N = 166) supported these hypotheses in a “real world” environment, comparing students enrolled in programs using non-selective versus selective assessment (but having a majority of common courses). Then, an experimental causal-chain-like design was used. In Study 2 (N = 187), presenting an intelligence test as selective (vs. [self-]evaluative) predicted controlled reasons connected to performance goals. In Study 3 (N = 192), inducing performance goals using controlling (vs. autonomy-supportive) language predicted exploitation orientation, indirectly impairing information-sharing behaviors. The results contribute to the understanding of both the structural antecedents and interpersonal consequences of achievement goal complexes.

International audience; Selection practices in education, such as tracking, may represent a structural obstacle that contributes to the social class achievement gap. We hypothesized that school’s function of selection leads evaluators to reproduce social inequalities in tracking decisions, even when performance is equal. In two studies, participants (students playing the role of teachers, N = 99, or preservice and in-service teachers, N = 70) decided which school track was suitable for a pupil whose socioeconomic status (SES) was manipulated. Although pupils’ achievement was identical, participants considered a lower track more suitable for lower SES than higher SES pupils, and the higher track more suitable for higher SES than lower SES pupils. A third study (N = 160) revealed that when the selection function of school was salient, rather than its educational function, the gap in tracking between social classes was larger. The selection function of tracking appears to encourage evaluators to artificially create social class inequalities.

“Sharing is caring” the old adage goes, with its implied message that both are morally desirable. But what if it’s test answers that students are sharing with their friends? Integrating values, cheating, and in-group bias theory, we hypothesize that adherence to group-loyalty benevolence values—considered as some of the most moral values—positively predicts the acceptance of collective cheating, that is students cheating together with in-group peers, when competition is salient. Operationalizing competition in three different ways we test this in four studies. In Study 1, adherence to benevolence values predicted positive attitudes toward collective but not individual cheating among students presented (vs. not) with a portrayal of society as competitive. Study 2 revealed that, within the competitive context of an end-of-year exam, adherence to benevolence values positively predicted moral disengagement toward collective cheating but negatively predicted individual cheating. Study 3 showed that valuing both being a dependable friend and attaining power and influence, predicted the acceptance of collective cheating. Finally, in Study 4, carried out with dyads of students, groups composed of students who knew each other cheated more than students composed of strangers. Furthermore, dyad adherence to power values positively predicted cheating behavior among dyads that knew (vs. did not know) each other. These results signal that group loyalty can, in certain conditions, lead to justifying and engaging in collective cheating, and that the motivational underpinnings may be the moral status of benevolence values. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)

Research on attitudinal ambivalence is flourishing, but no research has studied how others perceive its expression. We tested the hypothesis that the expression of attitudinal ambivalence could be positively valued if it signals careful consideration of an issue. More specifically, ambivalence should be judged higher on social utility (competence) but not on social desirability (warmth), compared to clear-cut attitudes. This should be the case for controversial (vs. consensual) issues, where ambivalence can signal some competence. The participants in four experiments indeed evaluated ambivalence higher on a measure of social utility, compared to clear-cut (pro-normative and counter-normative) attitudes, when the attitude objects were controversial; they judged pro-normative attitudes higher for both social utility and social desirability when the attitude objects were consensual. Attitudinal ambivalence can therefore be positively valued, as it is perceived as competence when the expression of criticism is socially accepted.

This paper argues that a fundamental antagonism between democracy and nondemocracy organises lay thinking on global issues. We review key findings of a long-standing experimental research programme that examined the "Democracy-as-value" hypothesis across a variety of political and social contexts. This hypothesis contends that democracy is an ideological belief system that provides value to democratic individuals, groups, and institutions and thereby grants legitimacy to their actions. Based on procedural justice theories and social representations theory, we contend that western lay perceivers associate democracy with procedural equality and individual autonomy, whereas nondemocracy is associated with ingroup hierarchy and conformity. We discuss how idealised representations of democracy justify global power arrangements and emphasise the paradoxical justification function of democratic values through which nondemocratic forms of social regulation based on physical force are legitimised with the very democratic norms that call for peaceful resolution of conflicts.

Information processing in groups has long been seen as a cooperative process. In contrast with this assumption, group members were rarely found to behave cooperatively: They withhold unshared information and stick to initial incorrect decisions. In the present article, we examined how group members' cooperative and competitive motives impact on group information processing and propose that information sharing and use in groups could be seen as strategic behavior. We reviewed the latest developments in the literature investigating different forms of strategic information processing and their underlying mechanisms. This review suggests that explicit cooperative goals are needed for effective group decision-making.

The association between certain foods and masculinity or femininity has been widely discussed in different disciplines. However, extant research has yet to clarify which are the critical dimensions lending these gender connotations to food and thus impacting on the willingness to eat it. We present a study on the role of food type, portion size, and dish presentation as potential factors constituting the gender-based stereotype about food, and their indirect or mediated effect on the intention of men and women to eat certain feminine/masculine stereotyped foods. We manipulated the three features cited above in a 2 (food type: Caprese vs. hamburger) × 2 (portion size: small vs. big) × 2 (presentation: elegant vs. rough) full factorial design. Results confirmed a model of moderated mediation: the Caprese salad, the small portion and the elegantly presented dish (in respect to the hamburger, the big portion and the roughly presented dish) tend to be considered “feminine food”, and thus women expressed a more pronounced intention to eat it than men. The implications of the findings for both theory and practice are discussed.

International audience; Relative deprivation (RD) is the judgment that one or one’s ingroup is worse off compared with some relevant standard coupled with feelings of dissatisfaction, anger, and resentment. RD predicts a wide range of outcomes, but it is unclear whether this relationship is moderated by national cultural differences. Therefore, in the first study, we used national assessments of individual-collectivism and power distance to code 303 effect sizes from 31 different countries with 200,578 participants. RD predicted outcomes ranging from life satisfaction to collective action more strongly within individualistic nations. A second survey of 6,112 undergraduate university students from 28 different countries confirmed the predictive value of RD. Again, the relationship between individual RD and different outcomes was stronger for students who lived in more individualistic countries. Group-based RD also predicted political trust more strongly for students who lived in countries marked by lower power distance. RD effects, although consistent predictors, are culturally bounded. In particular, RD is more likely to motivate reactions within individualistic countries that emphasize individual agency and achievement as a source of self-worth.

Collective nostalgia for the good old days of the country thrives across the world. However, little is known about the social psychological dynamics of this collective emotion across cultures. We predicted that collective nostalgia is triggered by collective angst as it helps people to restore a sense of in-group continuity via stronger in-group belonging and out-group rejection (in the form of opposition to immigrants). Based on a sample (N = 5,956) of individuals across 27 countries, the general pattern of results revealed that collective angst predicts collective nostalgia, which subsequently relates to stronger feelings of in-group continuity via in-group belonging (but not via out-group rejection). Collective nostalgia generally predicted opposition to immigrants, but this was subsequently not related to in-group continuity., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Confirmation is a widespread tendency to seek, use, interpret or remember information in such a way as to corroborate one’s hypothesis. We review various conceptions of confirmation and classify th...

What factors determine the willingness to inflict collective punishment upon a group for a misdeed committed by individual group members? This research investigates the effect of collective responsibility shared among group members and the moderating effect of the group's political organization (democratic vs. nondemocratic). Hypothesizing that moral accountability should be greater for democratic offender groups compared to nondemocratic groups, five experiments showed that the positive effect of collective responsibility on support for collective punishment (Experiment 1) was stronger for democratic groups than for nondemocratic groups (Experiments 2–5). A sixth experiment revealed that the moral and social value ascribed to democracy led to higher expectations towards democratic groups, resulting in negative perceptions of the democratic offender group and ultimately in increased collective punishment. The results are discussed in terms of defense strategies of democratic values.

Recent research has shown that, in a university context, mastery goals are highly valued and that students may endorse these goals either because they believe in their utility (i.e., social utility), in which case mastery goals are positively linked to achievement, or to create a positive image of themselves (i.e., social desirability), in which case mastery goals do not predict academic achievement. The present two experiments induced high versus neutral levels of mastery goals’ social utility and social desirability. Results confirmed that mastery goals predicted performance only when these goals were presented as socially useful but not presented as socially desirable, especially among low achievers, those who need mastery goals the most to succeed.

Previous research has shown that women eating small portions of food (vs. eating big portions) are perceived as more feminine, whereas men eating large portions are perceived as more masculine. The specific type of food items have also been shown to carry connotations for gender stereotyping. In addition, matching the co-eater's food quantity is also a means to ingratiate him or her. Thus, a potential motivational conflict between gender identity expression and ingratiation arises when people eat in opposite-sex dyads. Scholars have, thus far, focused their attention on one of these two dimensions at a time, and rarely in relation to the co-eaters' sex. The present study investigated, through a restaurant scenario, the way in which women and men, when asked to imagine having lunch in dyads, combine food choice and quantity regulation as a function of the co-eater's sex. Results showed that participants use the quantity dimension to communicate gender identity, and the food type dimension to ingratiate the co-eater's preferences by matching her/his presumed choice, following gender-based stereotypes about food. In opposite-sex dyads, dishes that incorporate the two dimensions were chosen above the expected frequency.

The significant number of financial and academic frauds hitting the headlines is paralleled by high rates of cheating in schools. Does adherence to the neoliberal values that underpin our economic and academic systems predict acceptance of cheating? Four studies revealed that adherence to neoliberal values of self-enhancement—power and achievement—predicts the motivation to gain social approval; this motivation, in turn, favors the adoption of context-specific competitive performance-approach goals, which predict the condoning of cheating. An experimental study showed that when participants were exposed to a source promoting the values of universalism and benevolence (self-transcendence values, the normative opposite of self-enhancement values), self-enhancement adherence ceased to predict the condoning of cheating. Most important, a classroom-based study addressed the core question of cheating behavior, revealing that adherence to self-enhancement values indeed predicted actual cheating behavior. These results point to the relevance of diagnosing societal values as social causes of cheating.

© 2017 Elsevier Inc. How are competitive goals transmitted over time? As most competence-relevant contexts (e.g., school) are hierarchy-relevant (e.g., teacher/students), supervisors’ performance-approach goals (desire to outperform others) should play a major role. We formulated a performance goals socialization hypothesis: The higher a supervisor's performance-approach goals, the stronger the effects of time on followers’ performance-approach and -avoidance (desire not to be outperformed by others) goals. Study 1, involving coaches and their soccer players, showed that indeed a performance goals socialization phenomenon exists. Study 2, involving thesis supervisors and their Ph.D. students, showed its consequences: performance goals socialization reduced subordinates’ motivation and well-being over time. Study 3, involving video game team leaders and their players, showed its enabling condition: the stronger the subordinates’ identification to their team, the more pronounced the performance goals socialization. Study 4, involving schoolteachers and their pupils, showed its directional moderator: the higher the subordinates’ perceived self-competence, the higher the change in performance-approach goals over time, and the lower that in performance-avoidance goals. It is then crucial to consider social hierarchy when studying goal formation. ispartof: Contemporary Educational Psychology vol:49 issue:49 pages:337-354 status: published

Research on achievement goal promotion at University has shown that performance-approach goals are perceived as a means to succeed at University (high social utility) but are not appreciated (low social desirability). We argue that such a paradox could explain why research has detected that performance-approach goals consistently predict academic grades. First-year psychology students answered a performance-approach goal scale with standard, social desirability and social utility instructions. Participants' grades were recorded at the end of the semester. Results showed that the relationship between performance-approach goals and grades was inhibited by the increase of these goals' social desirability and facilitated by the increase of their social utility, revealing that the predictive validity of performance-approach goals depends on social value.

The use of grades to motivate constitutes an unresolved theoretical controversy. In 2 experiments carried out with different age groups and academic tracks a standard grade condition was compared with a condition in which differential scoring engendered higher grades and with a no grade condition. The relative power of task performance and task autonomy to explain differences in subsequent intrinsic motivation (self report task interest and continuing motivation for the task) was assessed. Results show that compared with the standard grade condition both high grade and no grade conditions enhanced the 2 forms of subsequent intrinsic motivation. However although task performance explained higher levels of task interest in the high grade condition it failed to explain higher levels of continuing motivation for the task. Task autonomy conversely explained the higher levels of both task interest and continuing motivation for the task experienced in the nongraded condition. Results are discussed in the light of an integrative model that differentiates the mediational role of task performance and autonomy 2 traditional major explanations of the link between grades and intrinsic motivation. (Indirectly related)

In group decision-making, people take insufficient account of the information coming from others. We hypothesize that this can be explained by an ownership bias that would especially occur in competition, rather than in cooperation. In a two-phase decision-making situation, people reached an initial decision and then evaluated the value of their own information and the consistent and inconsistent information of others under different conditions of goal interdependence (cooperation or competition). Finally, then had to reach a final decision regarding a road accident. Results showed an ownership bias in information value which is stronger in competition than in cooperation. Moreover, decision quality was lower in competition than in cooperation, an effect mediated by the ownership bias, beyond the preference effect.Keywords: ownership bias, preference effect, information value, cooperation vs. competition, decision-making

Sociologists coined the term "anomie" to describe societies that are characterized by disintegration and deregulation. Extending beyond conceptualizations of anomie that conflate the measurements of anomie as 'a state of society' and as a 'state of mind', we disentangle these conceptualizations and develop an analysis and measure of this phenomenon focusing on anomie as a perception of the 'state of society'. We propose that anomie encompasses two dimensions: a perceived breakdown in social fabric (i.e. disintegration as lack of trust and erosion of moral standards) and a perceived breakdown in leadership (i.e. deregulation as lack of legitimacy and effectiveness of leadership). Across six studies we present evidence for the validity of the new measure, the Perception of Anomie Scale (PAS). Studies 1a and 1b provide evidence for the proposed factor structure and internal consistency of PAS. Studies 2a-c provide evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. Finally, assessing PAS in 28 countries, we show that PAS correlates with national indicators of societal functioning and that PAS predicts national identification and well-being (Studies 3a & 3b). The broader implications of the anomie construct for the study of group processes are discussed., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

International audience; Socio-cognitive conflict has been defined as a situation of confrontation with a disagreeing other. Previous research suggests that individuals can regulate conflict in a relational way, namely by focusing on social comparison between relative levels of competences. Relational conflict regulation has been described as yielding particularly negative effects on social interactions and learning, but has been understudied. The present research addresses the question of the origin of relational conflict regulation by introducing a fundamental distinction between two types of regulation, one based on the affirmation of one's own point of view and the invalidation of the other's (i.e., " competitive " regulation), the other corresponding to the protection of self-competence via compliance (i.e., " protective " regulation). Three studies show that these modes of relational conflict regulation result from the endorsement of distinct performance goals, respectively performance-approach goals (trying to outperform others) and performance-avoidance goals (avoiding performing more poorly than others). Theoretical implications for the literature on both conflict regulation and achievement goals are discussed.

Expertise assignment has been proposed to improve unshared information pooling in group decision making. The current research revises this view by hypothesizing that expertise assignment is beneficial when group members have cooperative goals, but is detrimental when group members have competitive goals. Three-person groups were confronted with a hidden-profile task. Members were either assigned experts or not and were instructed to either cooperate or compete with other members. The results confirmed that expertise decreased unshared information pooling and repetitions in competition, while the reverse was found in cooperation. This interaction effect was mediated by self–other difference in perceived competence. Thus, expertise favours or hinders information sharing in group decision making as a function of members’ cooperative or competitive goals.

Evaluation is an inescapable feature of academic life with regular grading and performance appraisals at school and at university. Although previous research has indicated that evaluation and grading in particular are likely to have a substantial impact on motivational processes little attention has been paid to the relationship between grading and approach versus avoidance achievement goals 2 fundamental concerns whenever evaluation is at stake. Three experiments carried out in professional schools revealed that expectation of a grade for a task compared with no grade consistently induced greater adoption of performance avoidance but not performance approach goals. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that expectation of a grade compared with no grade consistently induced greater adoption of performanceavoidance goals even when grading was accompanied by a formative comment. Furthermore Experiment 3 showed that reduced autonomous motivation measured after having completed a task for a grade versus no grade mediated the relationship between grading and adoption of performance avoidance goals in a subsequent task. Results are discussed in the light of achievement goal and self determination theory. (Indirectly related)

The present research investigates the moderating role of goal interdependence and dissent on individual preference confirmation in hidden-profile tasks. We propose that preference confirmation can be used strategically to deal with competition and dissent likely to arise in group decision making. In two studies, participants first received incomplete information about a car accident investigation, and then read a fictitious discussion with two other participants containing full information. The interaction with the fictitious participants was presented either as cooperative or competitive. We predicted and found preference confirmation to be higher in competition than cooperation, when initial preferences were dissenting (Studies 1 & 2), but to be higher in cooperation than in competition, when initial preferences were consensual (Study 2). Also, the increased versus decreased preference confirmation in competition with, respectively, dissent and no dissent were found to be predicted by self-enhancement strategies (Study 2). These findings contribute to a better understanding of the boundary conditions of preference confirmation in hidden profiles and shed a new light on the role of motivated information processing in these tasks.

This research investigates the possibility for men to promote feminist movements. In two experiments, we used the social influence technique of reassociation, known to reduce the rejection of feminists by blaming the target for forgetting that feminists have promoted women’s rights. An influence source, either same-gender (lower threat) or different-gender (higher threat), confronted participants with the reassociation technique and blamed them in a more versus less threatening manner. This procedure is known to induce positive attitude change when threat is lower. Results of two experiments showed that a less threatening ingroup source induced a more positive attitude change toward feminists when reassociation was less threatening than when it was more threatening, while a more threatening outgroup source achieved equally lower levels of attitude change in all conditions. In sum, the reassociation procedure can be used to ameliorate attitudes toward feminist movements, but within the framework of intragroup, not intergroup, social influence communications.

Régner, Escribe, and Dupeyrat (2007) recently demonstrated that not only performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals (respectively, the desire to outperform others and not to be outperformed by others) but also mastery goals (the desire to acquire knowledge) were related to social comparison orientation (SCO, the tendency to search for social comparison information). In the present article, the possibility of a link between mastery goals and social comparison that depends on the level of performance-approach goals-a possibility supported by a multiple-goal perspective-was tested by examining the interaction effect between mastery and performance-approach goals. This is an important endeavor, as educational settings are rarely free from performance-approach goals, even when mastery goals are promoted. In Study 1, we tested self-set achievement goals (mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals) as predictors of SCO; the interaction between mastery goals and performance-approach goals indicated that the higher the performance-approach goal endorsement, the stronger the link between mastery goals and SCO. In Study 2, we manipulated goal conditions; mastery goals predicted interest in social comparison in the performance-approach goal condition only. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of multiple-goal pursuit in academic settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)

Classroom research on achievement goals has revealed that performance-approach goals (goals to outperform others) positively predict exam performance whereas performance-avoidance goals (goals not to perform more poorly than others) negatively predict it. Because prior classroom research has primarily utilized multiple-choice exam performance, the first aim of the present study was to extend these findings to a different measure of exam performance (oral examination). The second aim of this research was to test the mediating role of perceived difficulty. Participants were 49 4th year psychology students of the University of Geneva. Participants answered a questionnaire assessing their level of performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal endorsement in one of their classes as well as the perceived difficulty of this class for themselves. Results indicated that performance-approach goals significantly and positively predicted exam grades. Performance-avoidance goals significantly and negatively predicted grades. Both of these relationships were mediated by the perceived difficulty of the class for oneself. Thus, the links previously observed between performance goals and exam performance were replicated on an oral exam. Perceived difficulty is discussed as a key dimension responsible for these findings.