Coaches and sports psychologists often say that it is the mind that controls the body, and that once a race begins, it is 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical training. Teaching young athletes to use mental strategies is a skill they will continue to use throughout their athletic career, and best of all, throughout their everyday lives, even…

Do students tend to set similar types of goals throughout the school year, or do their goal orientations shift over time? If students become more oriented toward mastery or performance over the course of the year, do they improve in their academic achievement, have a more positive affect toward class, and develop the cognitive propensities that…

To many who espouse feminist ideals or take a critical approach to gender relations, Holland and Eisenhart's (1990) observations of college women in the late 1970s and early 1980s are grim: At the two institutions that served as the field site for Holland and Eisenhart's study, "the peer culture established an ethos for women that emphasized…

This study tested the unidimensionality of the Tenacious Goal Pursuit (TGP) and Flexible Goal Adjustment (FGA) scales and examined the relationships of the factors measured in these scales with two criterion constructs (happiness and self-acceptance) and with age in a sample 292 adults (ranging from 50 to 90 years). Confirmatory factor analyses…

This article outlines the construction and validation of the Goal Orientation and Learning Strategies Survey (GOALS-S). This 84-item survey was designed to measure students' motivational goal orientations and their cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Results of first-order confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) supported the factorial validity of…

A recent special section of the "Journal of Marital and Family Therapy" (October, 2000) focusing on the mental health needs of gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals neglected to address the clinical needs of homosexual persons who desire to increase their heterosexual potential. This article attempts to correct this omission by outlining common…

This study focuses on interviews with six lesbian, gay or bisexual trainee teachers, and explores their experiences in relation to sexual orientation. Initial analysis reveals interesting perspectives on the lives of trainees in Higher Education, during school-based work and socially; it also provides a window onto the attitudes to sexuality…

Never has it been more important to nurture and support students pursuing a nursing education. Nursing shortage in the U.S. is a well-documented problem that is worsened by demographic factors such as the aging nursing workforce, the aging of the general population, and a declining number of young people in the workforce. The nursing profession…

Sex and sexual orientation related differences in processing of happy and sad facial emotions were examined using an experimental facial emotion recognition paradigm with a large sample (N=240). Analysis of covariance (controlling for age and IQ) revealed that women (irrespective of sexual orientation) had faster reaction times than men for…

Path analysis was used to test predictions of a model explaining the impact of students' perceptions of classroom structures (tasks, autonomy support and mastery and evaluation) on their self-efficacy, perceptions of the instrumentality of class work, and their achievement goals in a particular classroom setting. Additionally, the impact of…

The objective of the present studies was to evaluate the self-regulatory properties of strong "oughts" as they relate to the academic achievement of elementary school students. Across three studies with typical elementary school students and students with learning problems, results indicated that strong oughts: (a) were associated with avoidance…

Stereotype threat is a situational experience in which an individual feels vulnerable and pressured by the possibility of confirming or being judged by a stereotype. This threatening experience leads to performance decrements, even among highly skilled individuals. This article chronicles empirically tested mechanisms for how stereotype threat…

Education and assessment in Swedish schools have been affected by several reforms during the last two decades. The educational system has moved from centralization to decentralization and a goal-oriented approach has been introduced on all educational levels. This paper provides an historical overview of the Swedish educational system, educational…

Goal orientation research has developed two branches. One branch uses a two-factor dispositional model. The other branch uses a three-factor domain-specific model. The present multiwave study examines dispositional goal orientation constructs through both two and three-factor models using repeated-measure confirmatory factor analysis. Results…

The relationship between achievement goals and changes in students' self-efficacy, challenge avoidance, and intrinsic value in response to grades was examined in a short-term longitudinal study of 361 college students. Data were collected at the beginning of the semester and immediately after students received their grades on their first major…