Principals’ achievement motives and implicit theories predict principals’ desired achievement goals for their students

Abstract

The present research investigated principals’ achievement motives and implicit theories of intelligence as predictors of their desired achievement goals for their students. The research was highly powered and conducted in the understudied cultural context of Saudi Arabia. Data were collected from 326 principals (175 female and 151 male) in single-sex elementary, middle, and high schools in the study. Results indicated that the need for achievement positively predicted all four achievement goals, whereas fear of failure positively predicted the two avoidance goals, mastery-avoidance, and performance avoidance. Incremental theory positively predicted the two approach goals, mastery-approach and performance-approach, as did entity theory; decremental theory negatively predicted mastery-approach goals. The findings were robust across principal and school characteristics. This research is novel regarding the study of principal achievement motivation and desired achievement goals for others and extends and enriches our understanding of achievement motivation.