Short-term and long-term consequences of achievement goals: Predicting interest and performance over time

Why do some students excel in their college classes and develop interest in an academic discipline? The authors examined both the short-term and long-term consequences of students ' achievement goals in an introductory psychology course. Mastery goals positively predicted subsequent interest in the course, but not course grades. Performance goals positively predicted grades, but not interest. Three semesters later, the authors obtained measures of continued interest in the discipline and long-term performance. Mastery goals predicted subsequent enrollment in psychology courses, whereas performance goals predicted long-term academic performance. These positive and complementary effects of mastery and performance goals on different measures of academic success are consistent with a multiple-goals perspective in which both goals can have beneficial consequences in college education. College students often pursue multiple goals in their classes. Some goals may be fairly general and concern students ' reasons for taking a class, whereas other goals are more specific to what students hope to accomplish in the course--to learn as much as they can about the subject or to obtain a high grade. These latter types of goals have been labeled achievement goals (Ames, 1992