NEW FINDING

Very good news for you, my dearest friends and followers,

A new study by Stanford psychologist Paul O'Keefe suggests that the culture of our learning and working environments can have long-term effects on our goals and motivation.

Think about the ideal student. He or she focuses on learning, not grades; improvement, not appearances; competency, not competition. This person wants to understand and grow, not just prove how smart he or she is.

So how is t...hat mindset – which tends to lead to high levels of engagement and performance, resiliency in the face of failure and a thirst for knowledge – fostered and maintained?


A new study by Stanford psychologist Paul O'Keefe, Adar Ben-Eliyahu of the University of Pittsburgh and Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia of Duke University suggests that the way we design our working and learning environments can change people's motivation for achieving important tasks.


The study says being in an environment that emphasizes learning for learning's sake will dampen concerns about outperforming others and enhance intrinsic motivation even after one returns to a culture that places more value on demonstrating skills than developing them.

"The study suggests that, once this goal orientation has been fostered and reinforced, the adaptive patterns of motivation endure," said O'Keefe, a postdoctoral fellow. "It suggests that this goal orientation can survive in a variety of different climates."

Goal orientation is the term psychologists use to explain the mindset applied to achievement-related activities.

People tend to adopt goal orientations depending on the situation or environment, but there can also be some stability in these orientations – simply the way one naturally approaches work and learning.

Generally, there are two types of goal orientations people adopt: mastery and performance.
 
To read more, please click the link below:-
 
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-psychologist-goals-environment.html