Browsing by Author "Lammela, Ellinoora"

Objectives. The aim of this article-form Master’s thesis was to find out whether goal orientations are related personality traits and whether these connections change with age. Goal orientation theory refers to an individual's way of reacting to situations that require ambition, such as schoolwork. It divides people into goal orientation profiles according to whether it is typical for them to aim for learning, achievement (either absolute, such as grades, or to do better than others) or to avoid a task, for example, out of fear of failure. The term personality is used to describe a person's way of being and reacting to the world around them. It is thought to be part of an individual's innermost essence, which distinguishes them from others. In this research, personality traits are measured using the Big Five questionnaire. The Big Five theory divides personality in five traits, extraversion, neurotism, agreeableness, consciousness, and openness to experience. Methods. The data in this study a part of the Mind The Gap and Bridging The Gap research projects. The data consists of a total of 2,769 subjects and was collected by a collective on professors from the University of Helsinki, University of Turku, and University of Jyväskylä annually in the space of 8 years. In order to limit the material, 3 sections of the data were included in this study, which were named and analyzed separately: 6th grade, 9th grade and high school. The research is an exploratory factor analysis. Based on the theory, 10 factors were formed from the data and the factor correlations between the factors were analyzed. Results and conclusions. Based on this research, it seems that goal orientations and personality traits are connected. All goal orientations had statistically significant, at least moderate in strength, connections with at least one personality trait. Each personality trait correlates with at least one goal orientation at least moderately and statistically significantly. The strongest positive factor correlations were found between achievement-avoidance orientation and neuroticism, and the strongest negative associations between avoidance orientation and conscientiousness. It seems that the direction of the connections doesn’t change between the different age groups. Previous studies on the subject support the results obtained in this study. However, more longitudinal research on the subject is needed.