Week 12-13 Article 2

Question 1

What is a “self-transcendent purpose for learning”?

Answer 1

It is a goal motivated both by self-benefit and by having an impact on or connection to the world beyond oneself.

Question 2

How does a self-transcendent purpose improve academic self-regulation?

Answer 2

By fostering greater meaning in schoolwork, promoting persistence on tedious tasks, and supporting long-term goals

Question 3

What were the main findings of Study 1?

Answer 3

A self-transcendent purpose for learning correlated with better academic self-regulation.
Students persisted longer on boring tasks and were less likely to drop out of college.

Question 4

What did Study 2 demonstrate?

Answer 4

A brief, one-time intervention promoting a self-transcendent purpose improved science and math GPA over several months.

Question 5

What mechanisms did Studies 3 and 4 explore?

Answer 5

Study 3: Increased deeper learning behavior on tedious test review materials.
Study 4: Sustained self-regulation during increasingly boring tasks.

Question 6

How do self-oriented motives differ from self-transcendent motives?

Answer 6

Self-oriented motives: Focus on personal benefits, such as career fulfillment.
Self-transcendent motives: Focus on helping others, contributing to society, or serving a cause.

Question 7

What benefits were unique to combining self-oriented and self-transcendent motives?

Answer 7

Combining both types of motives (a “purpose for learning”) produced greater persistence and deeper learning benefits than self-oriented motives alone.

Question 8

What did qualitative interviews reveal about students’ motives?

Answer 8

Most students paired self-transcendent motives with self-oriented motives, rather than relying solely on self-transcendent motives.

Question 9

What role does self-regulation play in learning?

Answer 9

It involves managing attention, emotion, and behavior to achieve long-term learning goals, even during tedious or unpleasant tasks.

Question 10

How is a purpose for learning related to STEM education?

Answer 10

A purpose for learning can help students persist in STEM subjects, which are often perceived as tedious but essential for future job opportunities.

Question 11

What is the relationship between purpose and personal meaning in learning?

Answer 11

A purpose for learning can promote the view that a task is personally meaningful by creating a sense of responsibility and importance for one’s actions.

Question 12

What example did Viktor Frankl give about the importance of purpose in extreme conditions?

Answer 12

Frankl described how a self-transcendent purpose, such as responsibility toward others or unfinished work, helped concentration camp survivors persist through appalling circumstances.

Question 13

How does focusing on prosocial motives impact “dirty” or low-status jobs?

Answer 13

Workers in these jobs find their tasks more meaningful and perform them more effectively when they focus on their benefits to others or society at large.

Question 14

What was the finding of Yeager et al. (2012) regarding students’ purposes for learning?

Answer 14

Students with self-transcendent purposes and intrinsic motives rated schoolwork as more meaningful than those with only extrinsic motives.

Question 15

What effect does a self-transcendent motive have on aversive tasks?

Answer 15

It makes aversive tasks more bearable by reducing the correlation between negative feelings during a task and decreased motivation to complete it.

Question 16

What hypothesis was tested in the present research on purpose and tedious learning tasks?

Answer 16

A self-transcendent purpose for learning would promote persistence even on tedious tasks that have uncertain future benefits.

Question 17

What was the goal of Study 1 in the research?

Answer 17

To examine the relationship between self-transcendent purposes, self-regulation, and persistence in academic settings.

Question 18

What was the aim of Study 2 in the research?

Answer 18

To test if a self-transcendent purpose for learning can causally improve academic outcomes, such as grades in math and science.

Question 19

What did Studies 3 and 4 investigate in the research?

Answer 19

Behavioral effects of self-transcendent purposes, including deeper learning from immediate tasks (Study 3) and self-regulation in a direct choice between boring tasks and distractions (Study 4).

Question 20

How does providing intrinsic versus extrinsic motives affect learning persistence?

Answer 20

Intrinsic motives lead to greater task persistence and deeper information processing compared to extrinsic motives.

Question 21

What role does task relevance play in improving performance, according to past studies?

Answer 21

Asking students to connect learning tasks to their daily lives and future goals enhances task utility and course performance.

Question 22

What was the purpose of Study 1?

Answer 22

To investigate whether a self-transcendent purpose correlates with self-discipline and predicts college persistence in low-SES high school seniors.

Question 23

What were the three types of motives measured?

Answer 23

Self-transcendent motives (Purpose for learning): Learning to contribute to the world.
Intrinsic self-oriented motives: Expanding knowledge and becoming an independent thinker.
Extrinsic self-oriented motives: Getting a good job, leaving parents’ house, earning money, and having fun.

Question 24

What were the hypotheses of Study 1?

Answer 24

Self-transcendent motives would correlate with self-discipline.
These motives would predict college persistence, even when controlling for self-oriented motives.

Question 25

What operationalization was used to assess whether a task is seen as personally meaningful?

Answer 25

Participants rated schoolwork on a scale from a concrete, lower-level statement (e.g., “Filling out bubbles on the SAT”) to a more goal-directed, personally meaningful statement (e.g., “Taking steps toward a college degree”). Higher values indicated greater personal meaning.

Question 26

What is the Grit Scale and how is it used?

Answer 26

The Grit Scale (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009) assesses self-regulation through items like “I finish whatever I begin” and “I never give up.” Responses on a 5-point scale are averaged, with higher scores indicating more grit (α = .78).

Question 27

What does the Self-Control Scale measure and how is it scored?

Answer 27

The Self-Control Scale measures self-control during academic work with items like “I pay attention and resist distractions.” Responses on a 5-point scale are averaged, with higher scores indicating greater academic self-control (α = .71).

Question 28

What is the “diligence task” and what does it assess?

Answer 28

The “diligence task” involves choosing between completing boring math problems or engaging in time-wasting media. It assesses academic self-regulation by tracking the number of math problems solved.

Question 29

What were the results from the diligence task?

Answer 29

The number of math problems completed positively predicted college persistence, while time spent on distractions negatively predicted persistence.

Question 30

What was the outcome of the study regarding self-transcendent motives?

Answer 30

Self-transcendent motives for going to college were found to predict the tendency to view academic tasks as more meaningful and greater academic self-regulation.

Question 31

What did the zero-order correlations reveal about self-transcendent motives?

Answer 31

Students with a self-transcendent purpose for learning scored higher on measures of meaningfulness of schoolwork, grit, academic self-control, and the number of boring math problems solved.

Question 32

How did self-oriented intrinsic motives compare to self-transcendent

Answer 32

Self-oriented intrinsic motives were weaker predictors of academic self-regulation and did not significantly predict the number of math problems solved.

Question 33

What did the study conclude about the importance of a self-transcendent purpose?

Answer 33

The study concluded that a self-transcendent purpose for learning is an important predictor of academic self-regulation and college persistence, especially for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Question 34

What was the goal of Study 2?

Answer 34

tudy 2 aimed to test whether an intervention promoting a self-transcendent purpose for learning could improve academic performance over time, particularly GPA in STEM courses.

Question 35

Did the purpose intervention improve STEM GPAs?

Answer 35

Yes, the purpose intervention led to a significant increase in STEM GPAs (t(337) = 3.20, p = .001, d = 0.11).

Question 36

What was the impact of the purpose intervention on low-achieving students?

Answer 36

The intervention had a greater effect on lower-performing students (GPA below 3.0), who showed a significant benefit from the purpose intervention (t(338) = -2.92, p = .004).

Question 37

What was the main focus of Study 3?

Answer 37

Study 3 investigated how a self-transcendent purpose for learning influenced students’ behavior during a tedious exam review task, specifically measuring time spent on each review question to assess deeper learning.

Question 38

What was the hypothesis of Study 3?

Answer 38

The hypothesis was that a self-transcendent purpose intervention would increase students’ attempts to seriously engage with the material, measured by the time spent on each review question.

Question 39

What was the primary dependent measure in Study 3?

Answer 39

The primary measure was the time spent on each review question, with the aim of assessing deeper learning behaviors.

Question 40

What were the results of Study 3 regarding time spent on review questions?

Answer 40

Students in the self-transcendent purpose intervention spent significantly more time on each question (about twice as long) compared to the control group, indicating deeper engagement.

Question 41

What was the main goal of Study 4?

Answer 41

To examine if a self-transcendent purpose can promote academic self-regulation in situations requiring self-control, such as working on math problems while being tempted by distractions.

Question 42

What is the “diligence task” used in the study?

Answer 42

It simulates a situation where students must complete math problems while being tempted by distractions, such as entertaining media on the Internet.

Question 43

What statistical result was observed in the “purpose for learning” condition compared to the control condition?

Answer 43

The purpose condition completed 36% more math problems in Block 2 than the control condition, and the difference was statistically significant.

Question 44

What conclusion did the study draw about self-transcendent vs. self-oriented motives?

Answer 44

The study concluded that a self-transcendent purpose for learning was more effective at sustaining self-regulation than self-oriented motives, particularly when the task became most boring.

Question 45

How did a self-transcendent purpose affect students’ performance on tasks in Study 3 and 4?

Answer 45

In Study 3, a self-transcendent purpose doubled the time spent on tedious exam review questions. In Study 4, it increased the number of boring math problems students solved by 35%, even when they had the option to entertain themselves online.

Question 46

What is the broader implication of this research?

Answer 46

The research suggests that fostering a self-transcendent purpose could help individuals persist in foundational skill-building tasks in various settings, beyond just academic tasks.

Question 47

How does this research differ from past studies on student motivation?

Answer 47

Unlike past studies that focused on the belief that academic struggle signifies incompetence or a lack of belonging, this research shows that a self-transcendent purpose can lead to increased persistence, even among disengaged students.

Question 48

What is a potential explanation for the lasting impact of the intervention?

Answer 48

The lasting impact may stem from the creation of a “virtuous cycle,” where small adjustments in motivation lead to continued self-control and deeper learning, which accumulate over time and affect broader outcomes.

Question 49

What is one limitation of the research discussed in the study?

Answer 49

The research did not investigate participants’ strategies for self-regulation, such as how they make uninteresting tasks more appealing or suppress the urge to quit.

Question 50

How might self-transcendent purposes impact learning versus performance?

Answer 50

While self-transcendent purposes may help in skill-building and learning, they may hinder performance in high-stakes situations due to increased anxiety.

Question 51

What is a key caveat about the self-transcendent purpose intervention?

Answer 51

The self-transcendent purpose intervention is not a universal solution and is most effective in settings where individuals feel that academic tasks are meaningless and disconnected from their life goals.

Question 52

What is the role of self-transcendent purposes in education according to the study?

Answer 52

Self-transcendent purposes can promote self-regulation in situations where making the coursework more interesting is not feasible, helping students engage with academic tasks in a meaningful way.