Cooperations

Cooperation 7: Motivational Psychology / Developmental Psychology

The collaboration between the projects on motivation psychology and developmental psychology focused on the limits of intentionality of individual goals and intentions in a cooperative group setting of elementary school children. The motivation and ability to self-regulate is an important condition for academic achievement and social behavior in the school context. From a developmental psychological point of view, positive relations between cooperative behavior and the acquisition of educational knowledge can be assumed. Successful cooperative behavior requires individual group members to have the motivation and ability to self-regulate in order to subordinate their individual goals and instead focus on group goals. Within motivation research, intentions (if–then plans) were assessed as effective strategies for self-regulation that support the maintenance of individual goal pursuit. Due to the high self-regulation demands associated with cooperative behavior within groups (e.g., coordination of individual goals), questions were raised as to what extent (a) goals are sufficient to translate intentions into successful behavior and (b) individual goals and intentions support cooperative behavior and group performance.

  We observed 160 elementary school students while they jointly working on a cooperative puzzle task in groups of four. Participants were randomized into the two intention groups (goal-plus-intention condition vs. goal condition). To assess cooperative behavior and individual task-orientation, students’ video-taped interactions within the groups were classified according to a newly developed coding scheme.

  Data analyses have shown that students in the implementation-intention condition showed better task performance than did students in the goal-condition. Furthermore, we have found positive relations between the individual self-efficacy beliefs of group members and their observed cooperative behavior. Thus, the present results have revealed that the achievement of collective goals can be limited by an individual group member’s lack of motivation or ability to self-regulate. However, our results also support the motivation psychological hypothesis that the limits of children’s intentionally regulated behavior in cooperative group contexts can successfully be extended by the children learning simple self-regulation strategies. From a developmental psychological point of view, the present results have theoretical and practical implications for promoting individuals’ motivation and ability to engage in self-regulation through training and the teaching of self-regulation strategies.