Flaviu-Adrian Hodis

To map the complex associations of key antecedents of motivation, this research examined configurations (i.e., profiles) of basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration (of autonomy, competence, and relatedness) in two independent samples of undergraduate students attending universities from two locations in the Pacific region—New Zealand ( N = 385) and Hawaiʻi, USA ( N = 386). Latent profile analyses identified seven profiles in each sample. Of these profiles, in both samples, a high satisfaction and low frustration profile captured the most adaptive pattern of need satisfaction and frustration dimensions and was associated with high/very high levels of eagerness, resilience, and friendship quality factors. In contrast, a low satisfaction and high frustration profile exhibited the most maladaptive combination of need satisfaction and frustration dimensions and had the lowest levels of eagerness and resilience and lower levels of friendship quality than most other profiles. In addition, a profile having low/below average satisfaction and above average/high frustration generally had the poorest friendship quality. These findings provide new and valuable insights into the complex associations of basic psychological needs and into how interrelationships among need satisfaction and frustration dimensions underpin individual differences in eagerness, resilience, and friendship quality. Moreover, they have important educational implications, which are explored in the paper.

Conscientiousness has consistent and robust associations with a large set of key student outcomes. Thus, to understand the extent to which conscientiousness could be leveraged to support students’ learning, achievement, and well-being, it is important to ascertain whether conscientiousness could be strengthened by means of interventions. To narrow this important knowledge gap, this research synthesizes the findings of recent studies on the efficacy of interventions designed to increase conscientiousness. To this end, we conducted a systematic review of several online databases to identify relevant articles published after the last major review of personality change interventions (in 2017). The search yielded 11 articles that met our inclusion criteria. These studies used one of three types of interventions: digital coaching, in-person coaching, and behavior activation. Nine of the interventions we reviewed significantly increased conscientiousness at either the trait, facet, or state level. Our review identified several gaps in conscientiousness intervention literature, such as the lack of knowledge about mediating and moderating factors of intervention effects and the relative paucity of studies assessing the maintenance of intervention effects. The article discusses the significance of these findings and, building upon them, delineates important directions for future research and intervention.

Being an effective learner is an important pillar supporting success in higher education and beyond. This research aimed to uncover the extent to which undergraduate students use a set of commonly researched learning strategies, as well as to understand how learning strategy usage relates to key self-regulation factors proposed in influential models of self-regulated learning. Undergraduate students from New Zealand (N = 140) were recruited through course management systems, social media, and campus posters. Data were analysed using correlation and multiple regression. Results show that students reported using more learning strategies that are relatively effective than learning strategies that are somewhat less effective. In addition, effort regulation and student engagement were the most consistent predictors of both learning strategy use and self-reported academic achievement. Building on these findings, this research provides important new insights into the associations between learning strategy usage and pivotal factors that support effective self-regulated learning and academic achievement. As we highlight in the article, these insights have key implications for advancing theory and research on self-regulated learning.

Research findings indicate that two types of goals, which focus on the lowest (highest) levels of achievement possible in a learning setting, are strong predictors of how well students attain in school. Unfortunately, little is known about how these two goals, termed minimal boundary goals (MBG) and maximal levels of aspiration (MLA) relate to psychological constructs that are theorized to be antecedents of goals. To fill this knowledge gap, this research collected data from 463 secondary-school students and tested a model linking these goals to achievement motives and theory of intelligence. Results revealed that not believing that intelligence is fixed and devoting effort to studying was associated with a strong endorsement of MLA. At the same time, making low/no efforts to study, being afraid of failure, and believing that intelligence is fixed were strong predictors of MBG. These findings advance current knowledge and have important implications for teaching and learning.

This article introduces the special issue titled “Advances in Quantitative Research Methods to Further Research in Education and Educational Psychology.” It starts by framing the context for the contributions to the special issue by highlighting some important signposts that marked the development of analytic methods facilitating inferences on change and change processes. Next it underlines how the analytic methods that are the focus of the articles could help expand further the array of questions that researchers in education and educational psychology are able to tackle. The article concludes by providing brief overviews of the main aspects discussed in each of the 8 contributions included in this special issue.