Agency, communion, and achievement motivation

Abstract

This study examined the relationship among (1) two aspects of college students' self-concept--the degree to which they reported an agentic or communion orientation, (2) two views of intelligence they might hold--entity and incremental, and (3) students' tendencies to report adopting attitudes and behaviors consistent with a mastery or learned-helpless orientation. Results from a survey of a sample of 306 Introductory Psychology students indicate that: (1) an incremental view of intelligence was associated with the adoption of mastery-oriented achievement attitudes and behaviors, while an entity view of intelligence was associated with the adoption of learned-helpless attitudes and behaviors; (2) both agentic and communion orientations were associated with a mastery orientation; (3) an agentic orientation was also associated with lower levels of learned-helpless attitudes and behaviors while a communion orientation was associated with higher levels of learned-helpless attitudes and behaviors; and (4) patterns in the correlation between agency and communion, on the one hand, and several indices of students' self-confidence in academic arenas, on the other, further supported this asymmetry in the role agency and communion orientations appear to play in determining college students' adjustment to academic challenges.