學齡前兒童之成就目標設定與其氣質組型

Preschoolers’ Achievement Goal Settings and Temperament Patterns

過去研究礙於研究派典之缺失，不易凸顯學齡前兒童目標設定之個別差異。本研究修改Atkinson 與Litwin（1960）的套圈圈派典，探討具不同目標設定的學齡前兒童之氣質組型的個別差異。參 與者為138 位兒童（4 歲8 個月至7 歲）。每位兒童皆個別進行十次套圈圈遊戲，而每次皆可自 行選擇其投擲難度。本研究依據兒童在套圈圈過程中的目標設定傾向而將其分至目標設定過低、 適中或過高組。以母親所填寫之兒童行為量表（Children’s Behavior Questionnaire， CBQ）設定騰 動性/外向性、負向情感、主動控制與害怕等四個氣質指標，並依此進行非階層式群聚分析，將所 有兒童的氣質組型分為三個群聚。卡方百分比同質性考驗顯示，不同目標設定組別之兒童分布在 此三個群聚的人數百分比具顯著差異。有持平的騰動性/外向性氣質傾向、但具較高害怕、較高負 向情感氣質傾向與較高主動控制傾向的氣質組型是目標設定適中組分布比例最高的群聚。本研究 顯示了以組型而非個別氣質向度探討成就動機個別差異之優勢。

Prior research has indicated that setting easy， intermediate， or difficult challenge goals may reflect the individual differences of achievement motivation. Individual differences in goal setting have also been found to relate with personality traits. The current study adopted Atkinson and Litwin’s (1960) ring toss paradigm to investigate the manifestation of individual differences of preschoolers’ goal-setting behaviors in their temperament patterns. One hundred and thirty-eight preschoolers (age range = 4 yr. 8 mo. to 7 yr. 0 mo.) participated individually in a ten-trial ring toss game. Children freely decided how far from the target they wanted to toss for each trial. Information of the goal setting and the success/failure of each trial were simultaneously made available to the preschoolers to help them make the goal setting decision for the future trials. After the game， they were then categorized into one of the three goal-setting styles of “Low Challenging，” “Moderately Challenging，” and “Unrealistic Challenging，” according to whether they often decided to toss from a distance nearer than， close to， or farther away from their current best tossing performance， respectively. Mothers filled up the Chinese version of Children’s Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ)， from which four motivation-related temperament indices of “surgency/extraversion”， “negative affectivity”， “effortful control” and “fear” were derived. A non-hierarchical cluster analysis was implemented on the four indices resulting in three patterns profiling preschoolers’ motivation-related temperament. Chi-square tests indicated that the proportion of children of different goal-setting styles distributed in the three temperament patterns differently. Specifically， preschoolers in the “Moderately Challenging” group were characterized by average levels of surgency/extraversion and above-average levels of fear， negative affectivity， and effortful control， suggesting potential compensatory mechanisms behind different temperament indices in regulating young children’s achievement motivation. This study highlighted the advantages of using temperament patterns rather than single temperament dimensions or factors to understand the individual differences of children’s goal setting behaviors.