Effects of goals and perceived probabilities of goal attainment on self-assessment

Abstract

This study examined effects of explicitness of achievement goals and perceived probabilities of goal attainment on self assessment. Subjects were 251 undergraduate students. They were first asked, as measure of explicitness of goals, if they hope to acquire good capability in scientific research, and second how they perceived their probabilities of goal attainment. Self-assessment behavior was measured by task choice and task preference for four tasks which differ in diagnosticity. The main results were as follows. (a) The most diagnostic task was chosen more often by the subjects who both had an explicit goal and perceived the probability of goal attainment high, and those who didn't have an explicit goal and perceived the probability low. (b) On task preference, the effects of goal explicitness and perceived probability were not found. These results suggest that self-assessment be done for future self-enhancement.